RECAP: The most viewed KNWA/FOX24 stories of 2023

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A wide variety of stories made headlines in Northwest Arkansas in 2023, from missing people and crimes to lawsuits and the return of the local favorite restaurant. Here is a look back at some of Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley’s other biggest stories in 2023.

On January 23, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a man who had been missing since 1987, according to family members. The says that Enoch Pennington was last contacted in Bentonville on May 21, 1987, and was entered into the database on December 29, 2022. Pennington would currently be 60 years old.

One day after Mauricio Torres was found guilty of the 2015 murder of his son, the parties returned to the courtroom to begin the sentencing phase of the trial. Three witnesses in this story spoke about the physical and sexual abuse from Torres, Bailey Perrin, Maurice Torres and Ericka Torres. To read what the witnesses spoke about in detail, click the link above.

Canoo’s plans to build electric vehicles in Northwest Arkansas hit a roadblock as thirteen employees were laid off. When KNWA/FOX24 visited the facility where Canoo was supposed to be, a different company was found. Canoo was subleasing part of its plant but the lot where the Canoo was expected to be sat empty in March.

Tontitown police responded to a viral video posted on social media where a man was forcefully arrested at his home in Tontitown. Jeremy Sherland was arrested for piercing his son’s ears. A news release from TTPD states Sherland violated the Arkansas law of “performing body art on a person under 16 years of age, regardless of parental consent” which is a Class D felony.

No charges were filed and Sherland was released from jail on a $1,500 bond. A man arrested outside of Fayetteville Creative School was found with a gun in his backpack and claimed he was performing a “religious ritual” in April. Samuel Gray Lindsey, 23, was arrested on charges of obstructing governmental operations, loitering and carrying a weapon on April 13 just outside of the school, which serves students that are preschool or kindergarten age.

Lindsey was detained after his description matched that of a misdemeanor warrant out of West Fork. After refusing to identify himself, he was placed under arrest. 11 members of a drug trafficking organization have been sentenced to a combined 184 years in federal prison back in June.

“Beginning in approximately September of 2020, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) initiated an investigation into a drug trafficking organization operating out of the Fayetteville Division responsible for distributing methamphetamine,” a release from the U. S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Arkansas said.

The most jail time one of the members received was 400 months. A 165-pound paddlefish was found at Beaver Lake earlier this year with photos of it being shared by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Fisheries Division on Facebook in July. The fish was weighed on unofficial hanging scales and came in at 165 pounds and measured 75 inches from its beak to its tail.

The fish is not an official state record however because it was not caught with a rod and reel but AGFC called it “still a fish of a lifetime”. Dave and Jenny Marrs, a Northwest Arkansas couple with a home renovation show, were sued by an unhappy customer earlier this year. The couple that filed the suit, Matthew and Sarah McGrath, claim that they entered into a contract with the defendants, which was later breached.

The filing dated Feb. 7 says that the defendant agreed to perform upgrades to McGrath’s property before the plaintiffs’ purchase and executed an addendum to the contract on June 16, 2022, reflecting the additional work. A 19-year-old Gentry man was sentenced to over 100 years in prison for the 2021 murder of a girl.

Francis Ochoa, who was 17 at the time of the killings, was sentenced to 36,524 days in prison on Sept. 15. It was announced in October that would be coming back in 2025 under new ownership.

A family-led company, Catalyst Capital, will be operating the relaunch of the Northwest Arkansas classic under their ownership located along North 48th Street at the Elm Springs Road exit west of Interstate 49. Skeletal remains found on Nov. 16 were identified as Brandon Barron, a man who had been missing since 2020.

Barron went missing after police say he was removed from the Fayetteville Salvation Army for violating curfew. KNWA’s Crystal Martinez covered Barron’s disappearance in a 2022 Missing in Arkansas report. You can read more about Barron and his disappearance by following .

Students living in the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house on the University of Arkansas campus were forced to leave their house at the end of the fall semester and could not return until at least 2025. A letter sent to the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter president from the University Office of Student Accountability said it received a report from an anonymous source alleging that on April 6, 2023, Pi Kappa Alpha hosted an initiation ritual at the fraternity’s house located on Arkansas Avenue. The video showed “members hitting initiates with a wooden paddle while onlookers observed, yelled and videoed the interaction.

”.