'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
There's something fishy going on in the competitive fishing world.
The would-be winners of almost $29,000 at an Ohio fishing tournament were disqualified on Friday, after it was discovered their fish were stuffed with lead weights and fish fillets.
Jason Fischer, director of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament, told CNN he was immediately suspicious when one team's fish weighed almost twice what he expected they would at the Cleveland championship weigh-in.
The walleye in the bucket looked like they should each weigh around four pounds, but the total weight indicated they would have to be at least seven pounds each, he said.
"I thought, there's just no way," he said. "I could also hear the crowd grumbling, like 'no way, there's no way.' "
"I physically felt the fish, I could feel hard objects inside the fish," he said.
The moment when Fischer discovered the alleged cheating was documented in several now-viral videos posted on social media, showing Fischer, surrounded by competitors, slice open the fish with a knife and pull out what he said was a lead ball. Jacob Runyan, one member of the two-person team who allegedly cheated, stood by silently watching in one video Fischer shared with CNN.
"We got weights in fish," Fischer shouted. The crowd lobbed insults at Runyan.
"You just lost everything," one person is heard saying to the angler. The video also shows Fischer telling Runyan to leave and telling the crowd not to touch him.
Runyan and his teammate, Chase Cominsky, were set to win a $28,760 prize, Fischer told CNN. The prize money at each tournament he hosts comes from the entry fee each angler pays to compete.
Fischer hosts around eight tournaments over the course of the year, drawing competitors from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, he said. Competitors face off to see who can achieve the highest total weight for a bucket of five walleyes caught in Lake Erie.
Neither Runyan nor Cominsky responded to CNN's request for comment.
Fischer said tournament officials are in touch with local authorities.
Stephanie O'Grady, media and outreach specialist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, told CNN the department collected evidence Friday and is preparing a report for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office.
"As this is an open investigation, we have no further comment at this time," she wrote in an email to CNN.
Fischer was "absolutely disgusted" when he discovered the alleged cheating, he said. "This is a family atmosphere," he said. "We all take pride in this sport."
"Everyone sacrifices so much" to stage and compete in tournaments, he said.
Orchestrating the large event takes precious time away from his family, he added. "For someone to essentially cheat them out of not only money but family time, I can't believe that they would."
Fischer said he knew Runyan and Cominsky from other tournaments, noting they won several tournaments previously.
But he said they won't be competing at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament again anytime soon.
"They would never be able to fish at mine," he said.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.