OKLAHOMA CITY

Suspect in beheading to face murder charge

A man who was shot after authorities say he beheaded one woman and attacked another at an Oklahoma food processing plant from which he had just been fired has regained consciousness and was interviewed by detectives Saturday.

Alton Nolen, 30, remains hospitalized in stable condition after Thursday’s attack at the Vaughan Foods plant in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said. He said that Nolen will be charged Monday with first-degree murder and assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

Lewis said Nolen was fired right before the attack, and that he then drove from the building that houses the human resources department to the main distribution center.

Once inside, he attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford with a knife in the center’s administrative office area, eventually severing her head, according to police. Nolen then repeatedly stabbed 43-year-old Traci Johnson before Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer, shot him, police said.

Johnson was treated and released Saturday from the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, said Varina Shellman, clinical coordinator.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

Search for student continues; suspect held without bond

With a suspect in the abduction of an 18-year-old woman back in the state, a search and rescue team worked with canine units Saturday trying to find the University of Virginia sophomore who vanished more than two weeks ago.

Hannah Graham was reported missing Sept. 14, the day after the northern Virginia woman was captured by surveillance videos as she walked unaccompanied in Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. Police have identified Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., a hospital worker, as the last person to be seen with Graham early on the morning of Sept. 13.

Matthew was returned from Texas late Friday after he was found on a beach near Galveston. He is being held without bond at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail.

COLUMBUS, Ohio

Crowd-funded potato salad maker throws public party

An Ohio man who raised $55,000 in a joking crowdfunding appeal to pay for his first attempt at making potato salad threw a huge public party Saturday that promised “peace, love and potato salad.”

Zack Brown’s charity-minded PotatoStock 2014 was held in downtown Columbus and featured bands, food trucks, beer vendors and, yes, plenty of potato salad.

– From news service reports