Bell, Calif., audit results shared at hearing

BELL, Calif. (AP) — California residents of the scandal-plagued city of Bell can hear the latest on state audits of their town at a Monday night meeting.

The state controller’s office will present the most recent investigative findings at a state Assembly committee hearing in the Los Angeles suburb.

The controller’s office has been investigating since word broke earlier this year that some Bell officials were making enormous salaries to govern a city of about 40,000.

City Manager Robert Rizzo had an annual compensation package of about $1.5 million a year in pay and benefits. Rizzo and seven other current and former officials have been charged with misusing $5.5 million in public funds.

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Calif. mother IDs missing daughter’s bracelet

FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) — The mother of a Southern California woman who vanished almost 10 years ago says a bracelet found on recently unearthed remains belonged to her daughter.

Nancy Ekelund of Fullerton told The Associated Press on Saturday that she had met with a coroner’s investigator and instantly recognized the gold-link bracelet she had given her daughter as a present when she was 10.

Authorities believe the remains uncovered this week are those of Lynsie Ekelund, a 20-year old Fullerton College student who disappeared in 2001.

Authorities say Christopher McAmis recently confessed to strangling her and burying her in Santa Clarita, about 50 miles away .

Ekelund says officials are expected to formally confirm the identity of the body next week.