California man charged with interstate threats against judge linked to teen's death

Federal prosecutors have charged Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce with interstate transmission of a threatening communication after he allegedly posted a string of violent threats to Judge Ashlee Cole via the account “yaeyae962.” The messages warned of a bomb package, promised “blood everywhere,” and threatened to strangle Cole’s children. Investigators linked the anonymous account to Dumarce by matching IP addresses, email data, date of birth, phone number and residential information.

Cole, a judge in Jackson County, is the stepmother of a friend of the deceased teenager Nolan Wells. Dumarce could receive a maximum five-year sentence if found guilty. In response to the ongoing investigation into Wells’s mysterious death, Dr. Benjamin Hudson, whose son Warren Hudson was Wells’s best friend, announced a $50,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest.