Now that the allegations against balloon-chasing Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden, who publicly noted the Heene family was under the scrutiny of child-welfare investigators, has been roundly rejected, the focus has turned back on the parents, who allegedly collaborated in the grand hoax last month that grabbed the world’s attention for one wild and dramatic day.

Richard and Mayumi Heene are prepared to plead guilty tomorrow to charges stemming from the alleged publicity stunt (via CNN).

Richard Heene will plead guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, according to a statement from defense attorney David Lane (via the Fort Collins Coloradoan). Mayumi Heene will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor. Both parents are stipulated to receive probation, rather than time in jail.

Lane points out that Mayumi is a citizen of Japan, and a conviction would result in her deportation: “It is supremely ironic that law enforcement has expressed such grave concern on the welfare of the children, but it was ultimately the threat of taking the children’s mother from the family and deporting her to Japan which fueled this deal.”

More than five decades ago, investigators found the body of a naked and beaten woman along the banks of Boulder Creek, near the falls eight miles west of Boulder. Although she didn’t have a name, authorities never forgot “Jane Doe,” working the case as they were able. Breaks came, leading to an exhumation and DNA testing.

Now, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle, who praises the work of investigators, including Detective Steve Ainsworth, confirms the body, found on April 8, 1954, is that of Dorothy Gay Howard. She was 18 when she was reported missing from Phoenix, Arizona, just weeks before her death, writes the Daily Camera.

Investigators say they are on track to determine what happened during Dorothy’s last hours. One theory, based thus far on circumstantial evidence, is that serial killer Harvey Glatman, who was executed in California in 1959 for the murders of three women, killed Dorothy, known as “Dot” by her family.

An effort is underway to raise funds for a new headstone for Dorothy, who is buried in a Boulder graveyard (via 9News).

As the New York Daily News points out, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden has been mum on the specific charges Richard Heene and his wife, Mayumi, will face as a result of the “balloon boy” incident that grabbed headlines around the world one week ago and has been spawning jokes ever since.

Alderden has said he believes the incident was a hoax and publicity stunt, but it’s now becoming clear that Richard Heene, known for his flashes of anger on ABC’s “Wife Swap,” has a history of criminal incidents that appear related to his fiery temper.

In 1984, Heene was sentenced to three years of probation in California following his conviction for an assault with a firearm, according to records reviewed by 9News.

And the Daily News notes that Heene spent time in jail in 1997 for vandalism, vehicle tampering, and disturbing the peace in Los Angeles.

If you were holding your breath for more than two hours last Thursday as a silver balloon allegedly containing six-year-old stowaway Falcon Heene traveled high in the sky, consider yourself duped.

That is, if Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden is correct in his assessment that the entire odyssey was planned by Falcon’s father, Richard Heene, a Fort Collins storm chaser whose family twice starred on the ABC reality show “Wife Swap.”

Alderden (pictured) says the Heenes were seeking to get publicity for an unnamed reality show: “Clearly we were manipulated by the family, and the media was manipulated by the family” (via the Fort Collins Coloradoan). “These people are actors. Needless to say, they put on a very good show for us, and we bought it.”

Falcon’s comment about “doing it for the show” on “Larry King Live” first tipped off Alderden. Besides, the sheriff says, the balloon was incapable of carrying the boy, and there is evidence the family conspired with others to pull off the hoax—allegations that spawned as many stories around the globe as the initial story, including this report from BBC.

Expressing concern over Richard Heene’s “volcanic” temper and the safety of his family, Alderden tells the Los Angeles Times that Heene, who has a high school education but no college degree, “may be nutty, but he’s not a professor.” (more…)

Najibullah Zazi, the airport shuttle driver from Aurora accused of plotting a terrorist bombing in New York, had contacts that “went nearly to the top” of the al-Qaida network—all the way to a confidant of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, according to unnamed “intelligence officials” cited by The Associated Press.

An Egyptian, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, reportedly one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to reach out to Zazi for reasons officials cannot state, but they seem to indicate that al-Qaida’s leaders were intensely interested in Zazi, who is linked to what authorities call the most serious terrorist threat in the United States since the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Charles S. Faddis, a retired CIA official, says al-Qaida may have simply wanted to encourage Zazi or perhaps was “attempting to determine to what extent he represented an opportunity to do something inside the United States.”

Zazi’s defense attorney, Arthur Folsom, tells 9News Zazi never knowingly met with al-Qaida members. (more…)