♪ >> now at 11:00 o'clock, a luxury lifestyle funded by fraud. tonight investigators say this courthouse employee cashed in on her position buying high end items on the taxpayer's dime. good evening i'm chris may. jessica is off tonight. she work fort delaware county da's office and tonight she finds herself on the wrong side of the law. "eyewitness news" reporter diana rocco is live in media delaware county, with what the da called a case of be trail funded by the tack pairs. diana? >> reporter: chris tonight mary lynch was immediately terminated from her job here at

da's office. investigators are still not sure exactly how much money she stole. they say it was in excess of $100,000 or how long this has been going on. accused of stealing more than $100,000 in cash from the delaware county da's office, 48-year-old mary lynch a 29 year employee who work at the courthouse was allegedly taking drug money submitted as evidence by police departments and fundingfunding a lavish lifestyle. >> this is a case of be trail. this is a case where you have a trusted employee, a person that you relied on day in and day out who thumbed their nose in your face lynch was in charge of accounting for the cash. she allegedly forge documents and a judge's signature to hide discrepancies. >> keeping cash herself. she was taking cash out of the office. we believe she was keeping cash at her residence. >> reporter: da says lynch admitted to spending $62,000 on concert tickets and charged more than $80,000 on an american

express card in the office's name. there was no answer at her door but investigators say a search of her home thursday turned up 62,000 in cash. and tickets to the up coming bob dylan and taylor swift concerts. >> she told me she went to several concerts. >> reporter: neighbors say she recent hal work done on her house. >> new siding and some other stuff to the house but that was about it. >> reporter: employees in the da' office became suspicious two months ago after an audit focusing on money seized by upper darby police found more than $50,000 missing. over the fast four years. when confronted, authorities say lynch confessed. and lynch is now out on $100,000 unsecured bail tonight. the da says they're still looking into how much money was taken. but all of it will be reimbursed and they are now looking at changing their accounting practices. we're live in media, delaware county torque night i'm diana rocco cbs3 "eyewitness news". >> diana quiet bit of money there. thank you very much. new at 11:00 o'clock tonight the colwyn manager paula brown

emerged from her office after spending nearly 24 hours in protest. >> it is a mess. >> you still feel like you have a job, though. >> i have a duty. i have a duty to protect the residents of colwyn. >> the colwyn board voteed to fire brown last night. but she believes that termination is improper. whatever the case the council meeting we saw last night descended into chaos. >> $500 cash withdrawals. so -- the money was -- >> are you accusing me of taking that money. >> you were the treasurer. >> you were the treasurer. >> brown claims if she leaves evidence showing council members using taxpayer money for their own expenses could be lost. brown does say that she's handed over evidence to authorities who are investigating the borough's finances. developing story now at 11:00 o'clock. we know a four-year-old boy has been rush to the hospital after being hit by a philadelphia police cruiser in the mayfair

section tonight. chopper three was over the 6300 block of leonard street. it's not clear how this at this point but police do tell "eyewitness news" at the boy's injuries are not life threatening. vicious beating is caught on tape at an olney gas station. to night police need your help. they want to you see it so you can help them make some arrests. six people piled out of a mini van and swarmed a man standing outside a convenience store. after knocking him to the ground they rained down blows with a hammer and a piece of wood. one even sprayed mace while others kicked the man repeatedly in the head. overed severe head injuries season fighting for his life in critical condition. police have arrested two suspects but they're looking for more. they're especially interested in the woman in the dark sweater and jeans who had the hammer. the young man in the dark hoodie and what appears to be a young woman in a blue sweater and ripped jeans they both symptom on the victim's head. police believe the woman who led the attack thought the victim had hit her 10-year-old son.

but investigators say there's no evidence that happened. call northwest detectives if you can help. in san bernardino california 10 sheriffs deputees on paid leave after they were seen kick and punching a suspect. that suspect had led police on a 2.5 hour chase on stolen horse. this video was shot by the tv station knbc in los angeles. it shows that once the suspect was down with his hands behind his back, deputees hit him at least 50 times over two minutes. today the county sheriff said the video has quote disturbed and troubled him. >> it appears to be excessive to me based on what i saw in the video. >> this is the suspect's booking photo. he is frances pusak he has a lengthy rap sheet that more thans more than a decade. >> two family members visited the jailed south carolina police officer michael slager. his mother and pregnant wife saw him for the first time since he was charged with the murder of

walter scott. scott's family meanwhile held awake for their loved one in downtown charleston tonight. his funeral is set for tomorrow. deadly tornadoes ripped through illinois last night. two people confirmed dead nearly a dozen more have been injured. take a look at this video from fairdale ill nor northwest of chicago. you can tell there's not much left of that town. people who called faredale home are picking through debris tonight trying to salvage whatever they can. >> i got out and the first thing i saw was -- there was a semi that was flipped over over here and the buildings pretty much gone. >> we do know that two women killed were friends. both were in their 60s. one of them was found today in her shower where she had taken cover. she was holding her purse. new at 11:00 o'clock it took six decades but a hero's remains are finally back home where they

belong. it's all thanks to some persistence and a little help from science. our david spunt has this emotional story from bucks county. >> it's a long journey. long journey home i gas you call it. >> reporter: for almost 65 years this picture and a few old letters are all the higgins family had to tell the story of a man they never knew. their uncle army corporal bob higgins died as prisoner of war sometime between 1951 and 1954. now he's back in philadelphia for the first time in six decades. >> i'm thinking this is like a movie. like it's not real. >> reporter: maggie kelly is higgins niece and joined her brother will and sister marsh to welcome their uncle home at a special ceremony. according to army records the 20-year-old from fishtown became a prisoner of war in february february 1951. during the honk song massacre. 726 soldiers died. >> i can believe that they found him to be honest with you report

roar another family member gave a dna sample to the army to see if the remains at a military facility in hawaii matched corporal higgins. they'd been in hawaii for 25 years but were never identified. last november, the higgins family solved their mystery. >> i feel great. i really do. i feel like at peace now. >> reporter: the army officially declared higgins dead on december 31st 1953. his mother and two older brothers a marine and a naval officer died before ever finding out what really happened to corporal higgins. >> i feel close to him just because we've been talking about him so much. i wish that i did get to know him. >> reporter: now almost 65 years later his family will hold a special funeral service here at the washington crossing national cemetery in newtown to say goodbye and thank you to a 20-year-old who jumped at the chance out of high school to serve his country. >> to know that he's not in a ditch somewhere for eternity that's what i think about all

the time. >> reporter: chris i checked with the department of defense records. this report right here 179 pages, 7,856 people unaccounted for. that is just in the korean war. a lot of experts are trying to use d inform a to reunite these people with their loved ones. >> absolutely. idea of leaving no man behind is certainly alive and well. >> exactly. >> david spunt, thank you very much. >> good to see you. military is recognizing the victims including the 13 who died in the fort hood shooting rampage. dozens of purple hearts and defense of freedom medals given today to soldiers, civilians and the families of those who were killed. the ceremony took place at fort hood where the deadly shooting happened back in 2009. nadal hassan was convicted in 2013. he's been sentenceed to death nor attack. well tonight president obama briefly shook hands with cuban leader castro at the summit of the americas in panama city. this comes as expectations grow for a sit down meeting between

those two leaders. it is also possible the president will use this summit to announce that the u.s. will remove cuba from its list of state sponsors of terror. he started that process last december when he announced a thaw in relations between washington and havana. shocking news from radnor high school where seven cases of whooping cough have been confirmed since march 20th. letter to parents the district said sick of the students involved were vaccinateed. the pennsylvania department of public health recommend that is all students at radnor be observed for symptoms and they report any symptoms to their pediatricians immediately. well, we did dodge the worst of the spring storms today and the sun will make return for the weekend. that's the best news. meteorologist kate bilo is tracking some very welcome changes. kate? >> that's right, chris. it has been gray gloomy and chilly i was week were you the gray and the gloom kind of saved us from these strong thunderstorms. they moved by to the south where temperatures rose into the 70s and now moving offshore. clear skies to come big

improvements for the weekend. i'll tell you about that forecast an warmup next week coming up in just a bit. chris. >> all right, kate the sneeze see itchy eyes spring allergy season has arrived with a vengeance. we'll tell you why doctors say this year will be especially hard on allergy sufferers. >> plus a local park and playground are vandalized now community is dead manning answers for crime they say keeps happening. >> and there was nothing high speed about this chase. the unusual thing this driver did in the middle of the

and just like that the snow is gone. and parkas become jackets. and sweaters go down for a long nap. and off you go. and your backyard gets a whole lot bigger. and you're running... and climbing... and your gear gets lighter and trimmer, and fitter and smarter. and now every frozen second spent willing this day to come is just a warm fading memory. ♪

>> back with the neon green prius taxi that led los angeles police on a two-hour chase. quite a strange scene today. the man driving the stolen car was armed. he could be seen several times waving to on lookers. even pulling up to them at times and talking. good news that chase eventually came to a peaceful end. three people are now under arrest for attack on two teenaged sisters in a trenton park. we told you about this last night. the violence was caught on camera. you can see the sisters being punched and kicked. they're hair being pulled. well now trenton employees say they've arrested two girls ages

15 and 13 and a 12-year-old boy. they do say more arrests in that attack are possible. northeast philadelphia park has become the target of vandal vandals. residents shared these picture of the damage from overnight with "eyewitness news". those vandals dumped trash and spray painted graffiti all over roosevelt play ground. they even took mulch that an after school program was supposed to use to help kids learn how to garden. neighbors say the vandalism at this park has been a recurring problem. hillary clinton will officially announce her candidacy for the white house this weekend. cbs news confirming that clinton will make that announcement on sunday with video posted to social media. polls show she's the front runner to within the democratic nomination. a day after that, florida republican senator mark company rubio expected to announce his own presidential campaign. rubio will deliver a speech on monday in his home base of miami flor.

he would bypass second term in the senate in order to run for the white house. well now to the race for philadelphia mayor. the democratic candidates attended another forum tonight this one for young voters. the candidates collaborated with millennials on solutions to moving the city forward. the topic of their discussion tonight was economic growth. and the attendees had a chance to question the candidates directly. you can see the candidates talk about the issues that face philadelphia on the moving philadelphia forward forum that was moderated by our own ukee washington. that airs tomorrow night at 11:35 right here on cbs3. if you can't catch that airing, check it out sunday morning at 11:00 on the cw philly. melissa murray bail system philadelphia's only republican candidate for mayor even caught up with her this week. she's 36 years old a nay tough of absecon. she calls society hill home after work aig round the world. she comes from a family of public school teachers and wants to improve pub look education

but she says that pouring money into schools is not the answer. she says government continually asks more from taxpayers without transparency and without results results. >> i think we need to leverage data to see what programs are working and what programs are not. and if programs aren't working we shouldn't be spending money to fund them any more. >> she does have uphill battle. registered democrats out number republicans eight to one in the city. spring allergy season in full bloom and this year allergy sufferers are really going to feel it. our health reporter stephanie stahl shows us what's happening now and what we should expect. report. >> itchy eyes, runny nose, dry throat, life just becomes miserable report roar that's what happened to tony every allergy season. worse yet, his wife loved the outdoors. >> she loves to go to parks. she loves mick 96. but i would would be so miserable report roar this time of year was also miserable for this woman. >> because of the tree pollens

and it's usually a real terrible season for moore. >> reporter: allergists have seen a deaf increase in patients calling in seeking relieve and he expects it to get really bad very soon. >> wet winter arc lot of pollen pent up there we're looking at a future pollen tsunami over the next couple of weeks. as soon as we see a couple warm days we get a pollen burst and people sensitive to tree pollen that's in the air now. >> there's climate change. global warming led to pollen season starting earlier and lasting longer. riseing carbon dioxide levels made a difference in the way plants grow. >> telling certain plants to produce three to four times more pollen and the pollen is super charged and stickier a lot of people having eye symptoms driving them crazy. >> allergists say the best relief comes from allergy shots a little inconvenient but they train your immune system to tolerate pollen dust and other allergens usually without the need for lot of medications. the shots have completely changed allergy season for these

two. >> so far i'm doing good. i'm jogging in the park. >> i am doing a lot better many i can breathe. >> experts say the key to surviving allergy season is to get ahead of the symptoms and start taking medications before the pollen counts take off. i'm stephanie stahl cbs3 "eyewitness news". meteorologist kate bilo is here and allergies or not it will be a great week topped get out and enjoy. >> beautiful weekend chris. this is the time of year allergies really start to ramp on a day like tomorrow that's when we'll see pollen counts rise because we have a lot of wind to talk about. breezy day and that kind of blows all that pollen around with that being said beautiful spring weekend one we deserve after a string of gray days. let's take look outside still gray right now as we look live at the ben franklin bridge from campbell's field and well you know today didn't turn out to be as warm as we had anticipated. but the good news is, the cool air, the clouds, that really decreased the risk for severe thunderstorm all we got tonight were a few spring kills maybe a

few storms down the shore and that is about it. let's take a look at storm scan3 scan3. you can see we just miff it. these storm actually did turn severe for a time over portions of eastern virginia and into maryland. i want to zoom in and you can see just how closely we were if the warm air had made it further to the north these storms would have been ours but they weren't. phillies were fine with their game everyone asking about the game at citizens bank park the storm didn't impact that. we did hear from one of our weather watchers margo in buena vista township a friend in cape may courthouse heard a rumble of thunder and saw lightning. you can see how close those storms got to southern tip of cape may county. rest of the region looking fine and now we'll be clearing but why didn't it warm up to the 70 today's? well, the clouds just held on all day long. we didn't get the sun out to warm things up. our warm front stalled many you can see it's warmer to the south even now than it is in our area and it was very late shift in the wind we needed that south wind to pick up. it really didn't. we stayed in the east wind most of the day. a brief period of southerly winds and now in the wake of the

front winds are coming in out of the north and west that's how you can see the change has already occurred and we are going to see temperatures continue to drop through tonight and that northwest wind will be with us through the day tomorrow tomorrow. we're talking about a cold front passage tonight. temperatures will be warmer than for most of the week. we started the week on perfect note. tuesday was gray, still warm. 44 degrees wednesday. 43 thursday. hopefully this this is the last time we're stuck in the low 40s this year but of course spring is iffy you can't promise today. today 56 degrees. tomorrow even in the wake of the cold front we'll be back in the 60s. we get this front out of here pressure gradient causing a gusty wind from the north and west. it's not the windy yesterday day last saturday was worse if you remember that. sunday less wind with high pressure overhead. sunny and nice and back to the 70's on monday. it's going to feel great. the next thee days perfect spring weather overnight gradual clearing seasonably cool, 48 degrees. for your saturday, mostly sunny and breezy let's break it down if you have baseball games i

know we start tee ball tomorrow in my household if you're out in the morning 52 degrees you may need a light jack if you'll be out and about in the afternoon temperatures in the 60s again a little breeze. maybe a wind gust to 20 or 25 miles an hour and not windy but just a little breezy will make our 64 feel more like the 50s at time. sunday less win sunshine a beautiful day. monday looks great as well watch for few showers to cross the area tuesday and we're back to sunshine by wednesday. stay there. we've got more coming when w

>> what is going on in south philadelphia. a little bit of scheme. >> phillies taking on the nationals. very good team. tonight the attendant the lowest in the history of citizens bank park. you know what everyone missed a great game. the play of the game belonged to

a vendor grady sizemore with a foul ball off the club level check this guy out. he manages to hold on to the beer and make the one hasn'ted grab at the same time and gives it to a fan. a great guy. vendors are wonderful down at the bank. phillies below this game wide open. caesar hernandez with the bases loaded single to right. the phillies take a two-one lead. the phillies go up three-one winning this game four-one. vinnie la cavalier rule out for tomorrow's season finale did he not return for the third period of last night's game. it could have been a concussion followed two fights with keegan low making his nhl debut in front of his father kevin low the president of hockey operations for the oilers. flyers gm hextall questions lowes intentions. >> i didn't believe it was his first game and he was trying to do anything he can in the heat battle you don't necessarily even though who it is.

he cross check him and he was on the ice. maybe he saw his numbers but things happen in the heat of battle. you respect him for coming in and having two fights in his first game. obviously not a fun thing to do. >> team holding light practice in voorhees this afternoon. final workout of the season. the final game tomorrow afternoon at home against ottawa ottawa. the story ugh is it a this weekend isn't who can win who can catch up to jordan spieth. spieth with a record breaking round today here on the eighth hole unbelievable to shot to set up birdie. he shot 66 to finish 36 holes at free under par which is augusta record. he'll be pretty tough to beat. if someone can beat him or at least catch up to him it could be dustin johnson. johnson became the first player in masters history to make three eagles if one round. he's tied for third in seven under par. you can catch the masters on cbs3 all weekend long. the when the union take the pitch tomorrow it will be a

dream come true for john mccarthy born and raised right here in philadelphia. 22-year-old will man the net for the union with hundreds of family and friends cheering him on. he was a star at north cam lick high school and lasalle university. >> i've been saying it all season long. ever since i sign. it's a dream come true but it doesn't -- it hasn't really sunk in yet. when i come walking out the tunnel it will really hit me. i'll get the chills and be ready to go. >> can you imagine going from sand to starting goalkeeper. >> an absolute dream. first of many for him. >> lesley, thank you very much. we'll be rig

♪ new at 11:00 o'clock tonight a local high school junior would not let a flight delay get in the way of her trip to the prom. haley mcdevitt and her classmates turned their plane into a bit of a flying salon. they did haley's make up and hair and when they landed they put finishing touches on in the airport bathroom. the mount joseph academy students on their way back to philadelphia from a school drip to spain. but they got delayed and that's what led to all of the airplane work after a whirlwind night we're happy to report haley was beautiful and her date jonathan took her along to the big dance a great time was had by all. hope they enjoyed it. we'll be right back

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"eyewitness news" returns tomorrow morning at 5:00 with nicole brewer and meteorologist carol erickson. we thank you for watching "eyewitness news" here at 11:00. for levels kate and everyone here i'm chris may. remember we're always on at cbsphilly.com. stay tuned now for masters highlights followed by the late show with david letterman. have a great night everyone and a great weekend. we'll see you on monday. ♪

jim: there could be a new day dawning at august national. a new name is on the precipice of superstar do. jordan spieth at 21 has had two brilliant performances. and has shattered records for the first two rounds of the 2015 masters. it's day two at augusta. from the augusta national golf club in augusta georgia c