Parents arrested as cops make chilling discovery in backyard fire pit after dad bragged about killing and burning two children they kept hidden from world
By MELISSA KOENIG, US REPORTER
An Indiana couple has been arrested after cops made a gruesome discovery in their backyard fire pit.
Officers began investigating Steven Valle, 31, and Samantha Sebella, 25, on September 20, when Valle allegedly confessed to friends about killing two undocumented children and burning their bodies in their backyard fire pit in Wheatfield, Fox 32 reports.
The children did not have any documentation like a birth certificate or a Social Security Number, and therefore never existed in government records.
But when deputies with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the Wheatfield house where Valle and Sebella used to live, they found ‘partial bone fragments’ that a specialist in Indianapolis was able to determine were human, according to Law & Crime.
The couple were then taken into custody on Thursday and were charged with murder, neglect of a dependent causing death, abuse of a corpse, obstruction of justice and failure to report a dead body.
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Samantha Sebella, 25, and Steven Valle, 31, were taken into custody on Thursday for allegedly killing their children and burning their bodies
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Authorities say the couple initially denied any knowledge of children being burned in their backyard fire pit when deputies found them at a hotel in Newton County on September 20.
They admitted they had one child, whom they did not have a birth certificate for because the birth happened at home and the child was not documented, according to court documents obtained by Fox 59.
The couple also allegedly told deputies they never had a miscarriage or a stillbirth, and law enforcement conducted a records check with the Jasper County Health Department and determined that there wasn’t any documentation that indicated Sebella had ever given birth.
But police still took their cellphones, from which they were reportedly able to uncover numerous messages that indicated Valle killed and burned multiple children.
‘You killed my kids cause you are a f*****, you never loved me,’ one message read, according to court documents.
‘YOU KILLED OUR BABIES, I HAVE THERE (sic) DNA IN MY BODY FOREVER,’ another message between Sebella and Valle read.
A third undocumented child was then taken from their custody, law enforcement said.
Then, on September 30, the sheriff’s office, Indiana State Police and the Jasper County Coroner’s Office, along with two cadaver dogs, descended on the Wheatfield home where they used to live. Valle and Sabella had reportedly been evicted from the property earlier this year.
The dogs flagged a fire pit and a pile of ashes near the garage, prompting investigators to excavate part of the backyard with shovels, and uncovering the bone fragments, according to Fox 59.
By October 3, court documents show, Valle admitted that Sebella had given birth to a boy in 2018.
He told officers Sebella gave birth to the child while he was out, and claimed that when he returned home, he found Sebella passed out and the child was lying between her legs.
The child was not awake or breathing, Valle said, claiming he cleaned the newborn up, placed him in a blanket and put him in a box.
Valle allegedly went on to say he buried the child in his backyard after three days because he ‘knew the child wouldn’t be coming back to life.’
The suspect proceeded o tell officers that Sebella got pregnant a second time, and prematurely gave birth to a child in a bathtub while he was at work.
He said the child was dead and wrapped in a blanket when he got home, and buried the child in the backyard near the first, according to court documents.
Police also say Valle told them the children had been buried for about three to five years before he dug them up and burned them in the firepit.
He allegedly added he saved some of the ashes to make a necklace.
As the investigation continued, officers learned that Valle and Sebella had been physically violent with each other, and determined that Sebella did not take any actions to protect her two deceased children, her living child or herself from the violence.
Police also said she made no effort to notify authorities of the kids’ deaths, burials or burnings.
Valle and Sebella are now serving time at the Jasper County Detention Center, where they remain without bond.
‘Spears of fire’: Witnesses describe use of makeshift flamethrower in Colorado attack
Mon, June 2, 2025 at 11:21 PM GMT+7
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Survivors of a fiery attack that injured eight people at a Boulder, Colo., rally honoring Israeli hostages held in Gaza say that the man responsible used a makeshift flamethrower and multiple Molotov cocktails.View comments
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Department of Homeland Security changes story of Maryland ICE shooting after local police release contradicting details
Karina Tsui, CNN
Tue, January 13, 2026 at 1:04 PM GMT+7
3 min read
The Department of Homeland Security has altered its account of an immigration enforcement-related shooting in a Baltimore suburb on Christmas Eve after details in its initial statement were contradicted by local police.
On December 24, DHS issued a statement saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers “defensively fired” at a van occupied by two undocumented immigrants during an enforcement operation in Glen Burnie, Maryland, after the driver rammed ICE vehicles while trying to flee and “then drove his van directly at ICE officers, attempting to run them over.”
The driver was shot and wounded, and the passenger was injured when the van crashed seconds later, according to the original statement from DHS.
The department now says the injured man was not in the van but “was a passenger in one of the ICE vehicles that was rammed,” according to a new statement to CNN from DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
The changed account comes as DHS faces increased scrutiny over the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent last week – and more broadly over the veracity of the information the department puts forward regarding federal officers’ actions while carrying out President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.
The new detail in the Maryland ICE shooting was first announced Thursday by the Anne Arundel County Police Department, which is investigating the incident.
“To clarify preliminary information released publicly on the shooting involving ICE agents in Glen Burnie, Maryland, on December 24, 2025: one ICE detainee who was injured during the incident was already in custody in an ICE vehicle, and the other individual injured was struck by gunfire while operating a separate vehicle,” the police department said.
Anne Arundel County police said their investigation into the incident is ongoing and emphasized that its officers do not enforce immigration law or conduct ICE operations.
The ICE officers were conducting “a targeted immigration enforcement operation” in Glen Burnie when they confronted the van, McLaughlin said.
The two undocumented migrants were identified as Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, a Portuguese man who was driving the van, and Salvadoran national Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, the man authorities now say was in an ICE vehicle.
Officers approached the van and asked Sousa-Martins to turn off the engine, but he refused and attempted to leave the scene, ramming ICE vehicles, and “then (driving) his van directly at ICE officers,” McLaughlin said.
“Fearing for their lives and public safety, officers defensively fired their service weapons, striking the driver,” she said.
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Sousa-Martins then wrecked his car between two buildings, McLaughlin said, although photos posted by DHS on X on the day of the incident show a white van crashed into a tree. DHS has not responded to CNN’s request for clarification on that detail.
Officers immediately gave medical care to the two men and took them to the hospital, McLaughlin said, stating no ICE agents were injured.
Sousa-Martins is currently being held at a detention center in Bowling Green, Virginia, according to ICE detainee records. Serrano-Esquivel was “treated for whiplash at the hospital” on the day of the incident and “is now in ICE custody,” the DHS said Monday.
The December incident is one in a series of violent encounters involving federal officers since Trump ramped up immigration enforcement during his second term.
Last week’s fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good – a 37-year-old mother of three who was in her car when she was shot – has drawn outcry and massive protests both in Minneapolis and across the country. A day after Good was killed, a Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot and injured two people, who authorities said were associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
As with the Maryland incident, DHS officials allege both Good and the driver in Portland “weaponized” their vehicles and targeted law enforcement.
CNN’s Taylor Romine contributed to this report.
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Waitress ‘who accidentally started Swiss bar fire’ was killed in blaze
Kieran Kelly
Tue, January 13, 2026 at 9:53 PM GMT+7
3 min read
A waitress who carried the sparklers that allegedly started the fatal Swiss bar fire was among those who died in the blaze, it has emerged.
Cyane Panine was one of 40 people who died in the New Year’s Eve tragedy. She has been identified as the woman seen in images wearing a crash helmet and carrying sparklers moments before the accidental blaze erupted, 20 Minuten reported.
Footage from the night showed a young woman sitting on one of her colleague’s shoulders, brandishing two champagne bottles with sparklers attached. The ceiling then caught fire.
The owners of Le Constellation in Crans-Montana revealed last week how they viewed Ms Panine as a “stepdaughter” and said she suffocated “in a pile of bodies behind a locked door”.
The owners, Jacques and Jessica Moretti, were able to identify the 24-year-old during photos taken during the blaze, according to local media.
They said Ms Panine’s last moments alive reflected the nature of the tragedy.
Ms Moretti had asked her employee to “get the atmosphere going” at the bar, located in an Alpine ski resort, in the early hours of Jan 1, according to her interview with Swiss investigators.
Waitresses put sparklers in champagne bottles, with some lifted up onto the shoulders of waiters, who then paraded their colleagues around the room.
The pyrotechnics lit the soundproofing foam in the ceiling, sparking the blaze which killed dozens and injured 116 others.
Mr Moretti, 49, said he broke open the door to the basement from the outside, where he found Ms Panine dying, surrounded by a “pile of bodies”.
On Friday, he told the Valais public prosecutor’s office he only realised that the bar’s “service door” was “locked from the inside and on a latch” after the blaze.
Mr Moretti is in custody, while his wife was bailed with an electronic tag. They are awaiting a possible trial on a number of charges including manslaughter and causing bodily harm by negligence.
He said that Ms Panine was the girlfriend of a close family friend, who he and his wife “raised as if he were my own”.
Mr Moretti added: “I went out onto the patio [behind the bar] All the windows were open.
“There were a lot of people there. I tried to get inside but it was impossible. There was far too much smoke.”
Speaking about how the bar’s “service door” was shut, he said: “We forced it open – it finally gave way in a few seconds. When the door opened, several people were lying on the floor, unconscious.
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“My stepdaughter Cyane was one of them. We pulled them all outside and put them in the recovery position.”
Mr Moretti said he and Ms Panine’s boyfriend “tried to resuscitate her for more than an hour in the street near the bar, until the emergency services told us it was too late”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, a lawyer for Ms Panine’s family, Sophie Haenni, declined to confirm that she was the staff member in the crash helmet.
“Based on the current state of the case, I cannot confirm that. The investigation will prove it,” she said.
