Victims of a nationwide fraud orchestrated from the Berkshires in 2020 will get their money back, following guilty pleas by three men linked to the scheme.

A federal investigation was underway Thursday near the banks of the Housatonic River in Sheffield as police work what appears to be an elaborate crime scene, but authorities are currently withholding the nature of the probe.

A lawyer for a defendant in the Pittsfield State Forest killing of Reymon Delacruz-Batista has asked a judge to toss his client's murder case. 

In a ruling sharply critical of the Berkshire District Attorney's office, a judge this week dismissed an involuntary manslaughter case brought against Adams foster parents. "This is not the standard of conduct the court expects from the Commonwealth in grand jury proceedings," Judge John Agostini wrote.

Debra Milesi, of Adams, has been sentenced to up to five years in prison for striking and killing Jerome Berard, also of Adams, while she was driving drunk in September 2018.

The Pittsfield Police Department is investigating the death of a man whose body was found Monday in the Housatonic River near Berkshire Peak Apartments on West Street. Pittsfield Police identified the man as Michael Annecharico, 57, of Pittsfield.

A man was killed on King Street in Pittsfield late Tuesday in what authorities are viewing as an "apparent" homicide, the Berkshire District Attorney's Office said. 

On Friday, Trever Field and Michael Taylor were arraigned on motor vehicle homicide charges in the October 2019 crash that killed Anthony Emard, a 61-year-old father of three.