True Crime
Mark Anthony Ortiz was brought back from Florida to face charges after remains were found at a Burke County home.
Queen City News and WCCB reported that Mark Anthony Ortiz, 27, was arrested in Naples, Florida, on June 18, 2026, and extradited to North Carolina on Oct. 8. The charges grow out of a July 12, 2022, search at a home on Curleys Fish Camp Road, where investigators say they found what is believed to be human remains during the search for Anthony Jaworsky, last seen in July 2021. WCCB reported he is held on bonds totaling $751,000.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
A concealment-of-death charge is an accusation. It is not a homicide conviction, and it is not an identification of the remains. Burke and Catawba investigators say the remains were found at the home where Ortiz lived. Prosecutors have not said, in the accounts used here, that a murder count has been filed.
Queen City News, citing the Burke County Sheriff's Office, reported that Anthony Jaworsky was last seen by his family in the Conover area on July 13, 2021, and was reported missing about a week later. On July 12, 2022, Burke County, the State Bureau of Investigation, and Catawba County investigators searched a home on Curleys Fish Camp Road. Officials said the search found what is believed to be human remains. That day, Burke County obtained a warrant for Ortiz, who lived at the home, for felony concealment of death. Catawba County obtained a felony obstruction-of-justice warrant, and a grand jury indicted him on that charge on Feb. 20, 2024.
Queen City News reported that a search involving local, state, and federal investigators ended with Ortiz's arrest in Naples on June 18, 2026, with help from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Collier County Sheriff's Office. He was extradited on Oct. 8. WCCB reported he is charged with felony concealment of death in Burke County and with felony obstruction of justice in Catawba County, and that secured bonds total $751,000. The Catawba County jail roster listed him as booked Oct. 8 on obstruction counts and a count of destroying a body or remains to conceal an unnatural death. Queen City News reported that prosecutors are reviewing whether more charges should be filed.
An extradition gets a defendant in front of the court that issued the warrants. It does not identify remains, and it does not add a murder count that has not been charged. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Shop
Checkout is on Shopify. A few from the rack:
More on the desk
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Amarillo police booked Allen Plumlee on aggravated kidnapping and a third-or-more DWI after a Sunday night crash.
An aggravated-kidnapping booking is an accusation. It is not a conviction. The arrest report says a woman told officers she drove because she feared for her life. That statement is the state's account of the ride. It has not been tested in court.
Read the take
Reporting noted by NewsChannel 10, Potter County Jail, and Amarillo Police Department.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
A Bettendorf credit union employee is charged with taking $28,326.28 from customer accounts, most of them belonging to people who had died.
A theft filing built from account records is an accusation. It is not a finding that every dollar in the complaint moved the way police describe. KWQC reported that one account lost $21,279.51 and that the total across seven accounts was $28,326.28, six of them belonging to people who had died. Those figures are what the charging papers claim.
Read the take
Reporting noted by KWQC, Bettendorf Police Department, and Scott County Sheriff's Office.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Arnaudville police arrested St. Martin Parish Republican official Chad Hardy on a theft charge.
A theft arrest of an elected party official is an accusation. It is not a conviction, and it is not a finding about how long the charges ran. Police have not said, in the accounts used here, how much money is at issue. The parish party's statement said it would wait on the court.
Read the take
Reporting noted by KLFY, KPLC, The Advocate, and Arnaudville Police Department.