Human remains found inside burning vehicle at Prince George’s County park | FOX 5 AT 4AM

Good morning, I'm Jacqueline Matter. It is 4 a.m. on this Friday, November 6th. Thanks for starting your morning with us right here on Fox 5 and streaming on Fox Local. Here's what's happening today. Overnight rain showers, even some rumbles of thunder across the D.C. region. Will the wet weather continue into the weekend? Caesar's here with your forecast this morning. Plus, breaking overnight hours after a Trump-appointed panel gives the green light for his proposed arch, a judge quickly says, not so fast. And the D.C. Democratic Party electing an interim at-large council member to replace Robert White, the breaking developments happening overnight. Good morning. Thanks for joining us here on this Friday at 4 a.m. Glad to have you here with us. And boy, Cesar, I know you told us the rain was coming. I thought I was prepared and then I walked out the door and at that point I was already running late so I didn't even bother to go back and get an umbrella. I was like, it is what it is. I'm just going to be soaked by the rain today. Jacqueline, I unfortunately got caught in that same situation as I was starting to drive into work. I was like, you know what? Uh, today is going to be a garage day because I was like, I didn't grab the umbrella. Luckily I have the coat, but you know what? Hey, you're doing better than me. It's funny. So unfortunately, yes, we did have some of those, uh, early showers still going through parts of our area, even at times pretty heavy. So certainly. No joke to drive through. Of course, if you are still in the northern section of the I-95 corridor, we still see most of that passing through. But the good part is it's mostly early showers that we're going to be dealing with as they continue to slide to the east with that cold front. With that as well, we're going to start to get some cooling air as well. So we say goodbye to the 70s here for a bit. We're going to talk about just how cool we get this weekend. We can end. When's the next time potentially we may see rain? We may not. I'll have those answers here coming up in just a few moments. Jacqueline? All right, Cesar, we'll talk to you then. In the meantime, we begin this morning with some breaking news. A federal judge ordering a 14-day pause on construction of President Trump's triumphal arch. The late-night ruling blocks the president from breaking ground on that controversial memorial. It comes hours after yesterday's approval by the National Capital Planning Commission. The 250-foot-tall structure is planned to be built on Memorial Circle between between the Lincoln Memorial and the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. Melanie Olmick will have more on this latest ruling coming up ahead at 4.30. A Fox 5 News alert for you this morning as well. The D.C. Democratic Party has officially appointed Jamal Holtz as interim at-large council member. Party officials calling for Holtz to be sworn in immediately to fill the vacancy left behind by Robert White. Holtz is a fourth-generation Washingtonian and president of the D.C. Young Democrats with a long track record working in city government and community advocacy. Under the Home Rule Charter, He would serve in a temporary capacity until a special election takes place next year. Another Fox 5 News alert. In Colorado this morning, a police officer has been killed overnight in the Denver suburb. At least three other officers and one civilian were injured there. Authorities pursuing the suspect of a hit and run. Police say that the man allegedly opened fire at officers before they returned fire, killing him. The condition of the injured officers is unclear at this hour. Developing closer to home, human remains found inside of a burned-out car in Prince George's County. Officers from Maryland National Capital Park Police and Prince George's County Police made that discovery last night at Whitfield Chapel Neighborhood Park. Authorities now investigating the circumstances that led up to that car fire. Happening today, a man arrested in a 30-year-old cold case will make his initial court appearance. Joseph Lynch is charged in the 1993 disappearance of 10-year-old Junior Berdinski. When the case was first being investigated, police discovered a local child sex ring in Junior's neighborhood. Several adults were charged, including Lynch, but detectives were never able to connect Lynch to Junior's disappearance. However, earlier this year, detectives learned of a new victim, now a 46-year-old man. He told police that when he was 13, he and Junior were both abused by Lynch. The man also admitted to killing Junior during a session of forced abuse at Lynch's hand. Junior's body has never been found. It is unlikely that the man who admitted to killing Junior will face any charges. A high school basketball coach behind bars accused of sexually assaulting one of the players. Prince William County Police arresting 47-year-old Demetrius Felder on Wednesday. He's the head coach at the girls basketball team at Garfield High School and a teacher's assistant at Beville Middle School. Investigators say Felder allegedly assaulted a 15-year-old student off campus at least twice since June as he was transporting her in his car. We were notified of the incident on October 20th when the victim made a disclosure to a staff member at the school. At that point, our detectives got involved. Felder is currently being held without bond. Meantime, Garfield High School says Felder has been placed on administrative leave. Now to a Fox 5 exclusive this morning. An innocent bystander shot at a Target store in D.C. speaking out as new surveillance video of the suspect has been released. Back on September 24th, Rodney Lide was in the Target store on New York Avenue Northeast. D.C. police say the suspect, shown in new surveillance video, fired shots after being confronted by security over stolen items. That is when that gunfire hit Rodney Lide. Lide has been in a hospital bed now for more than 40 days. Well, I've been dealing with a lot of anxiety and thoughts of, you know, recovery and things. And it's kind of rough, you know, just trying to get back on my feet. Rodney Lide now scheduled to be released from the hospital today. Police are offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment of that suspect. All right, let's get you outside. First look out the door this morning as we take a look out towards DC. And as you can see, a little bit of that, I guess I don't know the proper word for it. It's not maybe it's fog, but kind of that haze. But it looks like some of that's from that rain that's coming down. So yeah, so it's a little bit of the fog still going on with that. It's maybe it's again, it's a good mist fog as well as also probably low cloud cover because we are looking from an angle. So as it starts to get a little lower. With a lot of that moisture, cooler air, starting to get some development down there. But, hey, right now, one thing is we're not necessarily dealing with too much in the way of cooler air, right? So, slightly cool, though. All Most of us still sitting well in towards those mid to upper 60s. You can even see a few low 60s over towards right, parts like Lovettsville and Leesburg. But check this out. The further south you go, the warmer it is, right? Leonardtown and Montrose, look at that. here 70 degrees this morning so still feeling very comfortable out there for those that do not like the cold right it's still pretty mild we but we do have to hold on to the umbrella at least go. throughout the morning hours because we do continue to see this cold front producing some rain showers here and at times some heavy rain as well like I was mentioning driving into work one of those stronger cells were making their way in of course. Creating more of that wet weather. But yes, we have that cold front finally sliding through here with this one system. We're going to talk about what that means exactly for us as we head into the weekend and just how cool the temperatures are getting here in just a couple of minutes. Jacqueline. All right, Cesar, thank you. Let's take a look at the roads right now. There is a crash to tell you about right now on 95 heading northbound in the Stafford region this morning. This is closed due to a multi-vehicle crash before Virginia 610. All the traffic there is being diverted onto eastbound Virginia 630 Courthouse Road, then going to northbound US 1. So follow that detour there. It'll then help you rejoin to 95 heading northbound. Traffic there sitting in delays from Centerport Parkway. So if you are headed through that area on 95 northbound, you are seeing about 40 minutes for some backups in that region. You might want to try to find an alternate route if you can. If not, they will help you move along to rejoin at 95 past that accident. At some point, did you start to cut the body of Monte Casa? Yes. And what do you remember about that? Just make a smaller size so that it fit on the can. Some shocking moments in the Naresh Bhatt murder trial in Prince William County. Yesterday, the Manassas Park man admitted to dismembering his wife's body. But Bhatt claimed that Monte Casa died by suicide. It was his second day on the stand. He told jurors gruesome details, testifying that he did the cutting in the bathtub. Ready? Yes. You're a liar. Yes. You lied. How are you feeling that night after you'd gotten Nima home and you were able to put her to sleep? All the whole universe, bad thing is in my head. I don't know how to describe, but like. I never ever feel that before. I don't think anybody feel that in their life. So it, it, I. Hard to say, I don't know, like what I was feeling, it's completely like out of normal. To the couple's now three-year-old daughter about what happened, telling the child that her mother did not do a good thing. The trial will continue on Monday. New charges for four of the six suspects that are accused of setting a massive fire at a Fairfax County training facility in Lorton. Investigators have now charged two of them with arson-related felonies and two others with misdemeanors. The suspects are accused of using a road flare to start the fire in June, then throwing a propane tank into the fire to intensify it. The fire caused a million dollars worth of damages. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen telling Fox 5 that he's exploring a run for president in 2028. Van Hollen says that he is not looking to become the next Senate Majority Leader. Newly elected Senator Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan is calling for him to lead Senate Democrats instead of Chuck Schumer. Van Hollen also did not commit to supporting Schumer. Last night on Jim Locke's Final Five, Chief Washington Correspondent at Midas Touch, Scott McFarlane, reacted to the idea. I think it's important that the Senate Democratic Caucus have a full and open debate before we select the next leader, whoever that may be. I don't think it should be automatic, and I think we need to have a plan, and we need to make it clear that we're gonna be united behind a common plan. Chris Van Hollen is gonna become more powerful. All the local Democrats, Virginia and Maryland, are going to become more powerful. They become chairmen. They have gavels. They have the ability to do the force of legislation to make things happen locally. So he's got some good time coming ahead. So do the other Maryland and Virginia Democrats. Senate Democrats will hold leadership elections next month before the new Congress convenes in January. And speaking of elections, another flip and pick up for Democrats in Virginia. Shannon Taylor has won the Commonwealth's first congressional district just west of Richmond. She beat longtime Republican Representative Rob Wittman. And in the fifth district, Republican Congressman John McGuire projected to hold on to his seat, defeating Democrat Tom Perriello by nearly 8,000 votes. Still to come this morning, the president of Paraguay resigns and is now under criminal investigation after the collapse of a major digital bank and the design officially approved for the sphere coming to the National Harbor. A closer look at the plans for that entertainment venue.