Illinois

Adventurer Fossett is declared dead

CHICAGO — Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, five months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane.

The self-made business tycoon, who in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif. He was 63.

At the request of his wife, Peggy V. Fossett, a judge declared Fossett legally dead in Cook County Circuit Court as a step toward resolving the legal status of his estate, said her attorney, Michael LoVallo.

Nevada

Police won't guess at identity of body

RENO — Dozens of police officers searched for evidence in a field where the body of a woman was found Friday but declined to speculate whether it was that of Brianna Denison, a 19-year-old college student missing since she was abducted nearly a month ago.

A worker found the body about noon in a brush-covered field on the city's south side near a light industrial area, Reno police spokesman Steve Frady said.

"There has been a lot of speculation, a lot of rumor about a possible connection with the disappearance of Brianna Denison. At this point we have no information to link that case with this one," Frady said.

Denison was abducted Jan. 20 by a serial rapist linked by DNA to a string of attacks near the University of Nevada, Reno campus.

Denison, a student at Santa Barbara City College who was visiting her hometown over winter break, was last seen sleeping on a couch at a friend's off-campus rental house.

Florida

Experiments placed on space station

CAPE CANAVERAL — Two spacewalking astronauts hung science experiments on the outside of the space station's new lab Friday and packed up a broken gyroscope for next week's shuttle ride home.

It was the third and final spacewalk for Atlantis' astronauts, who arived at the international space station nearly a week ago.

Rex Walheim and Stanley Love attached a package of sun-gazing instruments to the European Columbus lab as well as a box containing eight experiments to detect micrometeorite strikes and measure space radiation, among other things.

As they hooked up the solar experiments, French astronaut Leopold Eyharts informed them that the linked shuttle-station was just about to pass over Europe.

Ohio

Ex-police officer guilty of killing lover

CANTON — The toddler's words to investigators were chilling: "Mommy's crying. Mommy broke the table. Mommy's in the rug," and, later, "Daddy's mad."

The statements by the 2 1/2-year-old son of former police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. and his pregnant lover, Jessie Davis, were investigators' first clues that Cutts may have had something to do with her disappearance.

A jury decided Friday that he did. Cutts was convicted of killing Davis and her unborn fetus, a verdict that could land him a death sentence. Cutts sat with his hands on his lap and held his head erect without emotion as the verdicts were read.

Davis' mother found the couple's son, Blake, home alone on June 14 and called police. Bedroom furniture was toppled, and there was a pool of bleach on her floor.

—From wire reports