Before the shooting, Susan Lorincz had often complained about AJ’s children, who would play in an open field near her apartment.
She would call them derogatory names and racial slurs, but things came to a head on June 2, 2023, after AJ went to Lorincz’s apartment to confront her following a reported incident involving one of her sons.
When AJ knocked and shouted for Lorincz to open the door, Lorincz fired a single shot through the locked door and it killed the 35-year-old mother. Lorincz claimed it was in self-defence, but she was eventually charged with manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
To this day, AJ’s death has had a harrowing impact on her children – Isaac, Israel, Afrika and Titus – and their lives.
Israel was standing next to his mother when she was shot and he was just nine years old at the time.
Isaac, her eldest son, also witnessed the shooting and called 911, running to a neighbour’s house to get help.
Heartbreakingly, Israel and Isaac have both admitted to feeling responsible for their mother’s death.
On the one-year anniversary of her death, AJ’s children recited a poem at a memorial service.
Ever since, the children have been raised by their grandmother, Pamela Dias.
Dias revealed the impact AJ’s death has had on the children, saying Isaac has been in trauma therapy, according to People.com.
She was also researching counselling for Israel, while sharing how Titus, who was just a toddler when his mother died, was “confused, irritable and inconsolable” in the weeks after.
She told CNN in October 2025: “It’s been very hard for the children – they were very young when they lost their mother, and it’s something no child should have to endure.
“At the same time, they’ve shown strength and resilience that continues to amaze me.
“I can see the values my daughter instilled in them – her kindness, her love, her faith – and that means they carry a piece of her wherever they go.”
Dias has since co-founded a non-profit organisation in honour of her daughter called the Standing in the Gap Fund, which aims to support families impacted by gun and racial violence and to fight for legislative change.
Debbie Slater, the mother of Jay Slater, who went missing in Tenerife in 2024, is heard speaking to UK police the day after her son went missing in a new Channel 4 documentary
Jay Slater’s mum says her “legs turned to jelly” and she called police to report him missing
In a new Channel 4 documentary, viewers will hear Debbie Duncan speak to the UK police the day after Jay went missing on holiday. “He has been located miles and miles away from where he is staying, up a bloody mountain,” she tells UK police after calling 999.
She then tells police how Jay spoke to his friend Lucy Law but only had 1% battery so the conversation was short-lived and speaks of her concern and not knowing the two lads he went off with.
Jay, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, went missing in Tenerife in June 2024 after attending a music festival.
Jay Slater’s mother speaks in the upcoming Channel 4 documentary (Image: Supplied)
The Disappearance of Jay Slater airs on Channel 4 next weekend (Image: Channel 4)
CCTV footage showed him in nightclubs but he then got into a car with two men he had met on the holiday and was driven to an Airbnb in the remote village of Masca, about 22 miles (36km) away from where he was staying.
It is thought he then tried to get back to where he was staying and got into difficulty.
On a separate second call to Spanish police, his friend Lucy tells them: “My friend he’s met some people, and they’ve drove him up into the mountains. I don’t know why and he’s left the house,
“And I don’t know if something happened, and I was telling him, you need to go back to your friends and tell them to drive you back down. And he said ‘No, I can’t. I can’t’. But I don’t know why that was.”
The Disappearance of Jay Slater airs on Channel 4 next Sunday night and has never-before-seen CCTV footage, previously unheard audio, the discovery of unsent messages, and access to the Slater family as they search for answers about what happened to Jay.
After the calls to police a huge search was launched before Jay’s body was found in a remote area near the village of Masca on 15 July.
Debbie paid tribute to her late son at an inquest into his death in July
Within hours of Jay ‘s disappearance in the summer of 2024, mass online interest set conspiracy theories flying, causing a social media storm led by true-crime keyboard detectives.
The case became the focus of global attention, with over 30 million videos online speculating about Jay’s whereabouts.
At an inquest into Jay’s death in July, the late teenager’s mother told how her son’s death had “touched the hearts of the nation”. Debbie gave a tribute to the 19-year-old, whose death from head injuries was ruled an accident, following a two-day hearing at Preston Coroner’s Court.
Coroner Dr James Adeley ruled Jay, who had taken a number of drugs, had fallen in a dangerous ravine, suffering un-survivable head injuries while try to walk back to his holiday let across mountainous terrain in Tenerife, in July last year.
Debbie, accompanied by the teenager’s father, Warren Slater, wept as she told the court her son was “full of fun and was always a joy to be around” with many friends.
He was close to completing his apprenticeship as a bricklayer, was learning to drive and had been “counting down the days” to his first holiday with friends abroad.
“Not in a million years did we predict what was to unfold,” she said. “He had a large circle of good friends who have been left devastated at his tragic death. Our lives will never be the same without Jay in it.”
Her son’s disappearance prompted huge media coverage and sparked a multitude of conspiracy theories on social media.
Debbie added: “He may of just been a story for the past 13 months, a story full of untruths. He did touch the hearts of the nation and that overwhelms us. We ask you to please now let Jay rest in eternal peace.”
*The Disappearance of Jay Slater airs on Channel 4 on Sunday September 28 at 9pm.
A 14-year-old survivor of the horrifying Southport stabbings has read out her victim statement in a chilling Channel 4 documentary on based on the devastating event
23:41, 24 Jul 2025Updated 23:42, 24 Jul 2025
Southport teen’s harrowing five-word message to murderer in victim statement(Image: PA)
Channel 4 viewers were left with tears streaming down their faces after the chilling and poignant victim statement from a survivor of the Southport stabbings was aired in the new documentary titled One Day In Southport.
One Day in Southport delivered a harrowing account of the July 29, 2024, tragedy that unfolded during a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at Southport’s Hart Space. Seventeen-year-old Axel Rudakubana stormed the venue, stabbing three girls, Bebe King (6), Elsie Dot Stancombe (7), and Alice da Silva Aguiar (9), to death and injuring ten others, most of them children.
Rudakubana was arrested immediately and later admitted guilt before he received a life sentence with a minimum term of 52 years. The film centres on one teenage survivor’s experience, blending first-hand accounts from victims, witnesses, and locals to explore how the violence, conspiracy, and extremism made an already devastating incident even more so in the aftermath.
Rudakubana moments before he stabbed the three young girls to death(Image: PA)
In the days that followed, baseless rumours falsely naming the attacker as a Muslim asylum seeker spread rapidly across social media. Fueled by the misinformation, riots erupted in multiple towns and cities across the UK as immigrants were left fearing for their lives.
Middlesbrough saw one of the worst incidents on August 4, when a planned protest exploded into chaos. Over 1,000 people descended on the area, smashing windows, torching cars, and attacking homes. The documentary resonated deeply with viewers, many describing it online as “devastating,” “urgent,” and “impossible to forget.” When
One particularly heartbreaking scene saw the focus survivor of the attack read aloud her victim statement after she addressed Rudakubana in court after the harrowing stabbings. In an incredibly powerful statement, the 14-year-old survivor wrote: “We think you’re a coward.”
The brave young girl went said: “Physically I’ve healed but my scars remain as a reminder of what you did to me, to us all. My sister and I are lucky we got to come home. Your actions mean that Alice, Bebe and Elsie didn’t.
The teen survivor shared her powerful victim statement(Image: Channel 4/One Day In Southport)
“No sane person could do that, it’s sickening what you did, going in there knowing you’re going into a room full of defenceless children. Give me a reason for what you did. Arming yourself with a weapon and stabbing children. I hope you spend the rest of your life knowing that we think you’re a coward.”
Earlier in the documentary, the teenager broke down in tears after she blamed herself for not being able to save the three little girls – one of whom was her little sister’s best friend.
The teenage survivor, only identified by her eyes, told the story from her memory as she detailed how she was stabbed both in the arm and in the back.
“I felt like I was dying,” the survivor shared in the heartbreaking admission. She then broke down after confessing that she blames herself for not being able to save the girls – despite having been stabbed herself.
The three children were stabbed to death(Image: PA)
“I regret it every day that I wasn’t able to save her. That I wasn’t able to get her out,” she sobbed. Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, after watching the chilling stories of the victims unfold, viewers shared their heartbreak. “This poor girl has to live with this trauma for the rest of her life. It’s so sad that she blames herself even in the slightest. Absolutely devastating.”
“What a brave young lady. Her parents and her sister should be so proud of her. What an incredible victim statement,” someone else wrote.
“I am truly sick to my stomach watching this. How did this happen to such innocent little babies? Bawling my eyes out and thinking of their poor families,” another viewer shared. Another echoed: “God, this is such a hard watch, but so important too.”
Another Channel 4 viewer typed: “Those poor little girls must have been terrified. To think they had their whole lives ahead of them. Such a powerful documentary. Fair play to Channel 4.”
When Alijah Arenas opened his eyes, minutes after his Tesla Cybertruck struck a tree one morning this past April, the five-star Chatsworth High hoops phenom wasn’t sure where he was or how he’d gotten there. His initial, disoriented thought was that he’d woken up at home. But as he regained consciousness, Arena felt the seat belt wrapped tightly around his waist. He noticed the Life360 app on his phone, beeping. Outside the car, he could hear crackling sounds, like a campfire.
Then he felt the heat like a sauna cranked to its highest setting. The passenger side of the dashboard, Arenas could see, was already engulfed in flames. Smoke was filling the car’s front cabin. He could no longer see out of the windows.
Arenas reached for his iPhone, intent on using his digital key to escape, only to find the Tesla app had locked him out. Panic started to set in.
“I tried to open the door,” Arenas said, “and the door isn’t opening.”
A crumbled Telsa Cybertruck rests adjacent to a tree following a crash involving top USC basketball recruit Alijah Arenas.
(Handout)
He tore off his seat belt and moved to the back seat, away from the smoke, scanning the car desperately for an exit strategy. His heart was pounding. The heat was becoming unbearable. Then, he passed out.
No more than 10 minutes earlier — and less than two miles up Corbin Avenue — Arenas had just wrapped up a predawn workout at the DSTRKT, a gym in Chatsworth, where he’d been working his way up to 10,000 shots that week.
One of the top hoops prospects in Southern California, Arenas was weeks away from graduating from Chatsworth High after three years with the intention of joining USC a year early in 2025. He was doing everything he could to prepare for that extraordinary leap.
Alijah Arenas describes for the first time publicly how the steering wheel of his Tesla Cybertruck locked up and led to his fiery April wreck in Reseda.
He was on his way home from the gym, driving south on Corbin as he had so many times before, when Arenas noticed that the Cybertruck — which is registered to his father, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas — was acting strangely. The car wasn’t reading that he left the gym. The keypad kept flickering on and off.
After stopping at one red light, he tried to switch lanes, only to notice that “the wheel wasn’t moving as easily as it should.” Drifting into the right lane, he realized that he “can’t get back to the left.”
“So then a car is coming towards me, and I think that I’ll just pull over,” he said. “So I speed up to pull over to the right in a neighborhood because there are cars parked on the street I’m on to the right. But when I’m speeding up to turn, I can’t stop. The wheel wasn’t responding to me — as if I wasn’t in the car.”
The Cybertruck careened instead into a fire hydrant, then a tree, before bursting into flames.
Minutes felt like hours as he tried to escape the smoldering car. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Arenas did whatever he could to stay alert. He bit his lip as hard as he could and clenched his nails into his skin. He doused himself with water from a water bottle to cool his body down. He tried to make as much noise as possible, yelling and banging on the glass. But the flames were getting hotter, the smoke getting thicker.
“I’m panicking,” Arenas said. “I was fighting time.”
He set out to break a window, knowing Cybertruck windows are meant to be “unbreakable.” When his hands ached from punching the glass, he started using his feet. Then he passed out again.
USC freshman Alijah Arenas, who survived a Cybertruck crash earlier this year, talks with reporters on Tuesday.
(Ryan Kartje / Los Angeles Times)
When he woke up, “I realized my whole right side had caught on fire,” he said.
But as he tore off his clothes and doused himself in water again, he heard a thud outside the car window. Sirens wailed in the distance. Just keep going, he told himself.
He kicked at the driver’s-side window with everything he had. Eventually, he spotted a crack. He kept kicking, drifting briefly out of consciousness, before the window fell away and hands began pulling him from the vehicle by his legs.
The next thing he remembers feeling was a cold rush, as if he’d jumped in a freezing river. A video of the crash scene obtained by TMZ shows Arenas lying face down in the street in a few inches of water, while the broken hydrant continues to spray into the air, after a group of good Samaritans had come to his rescue.
In all, Arenas spent at least 10 minutes in the burning car before people who happened to hear the accident eventually helped pull him to safety. It’s not lost on him how lucky he was.
“There are amazing people in this world that are willing to help and risk their own bodies for you,” Arenas said. “For me, it was like, I don’t ever want to think about me ever again.”
Alijah Arenas, of Chatsworth High, drives to the basket.
(Nick Koza)
The next hours and days are still hazy for Arenas, who was whisked away to a nearby hospital, then another. He was put into a medically induced coma, a common approach for dealing with extreme smoke inhalation.
When he finally awoke, Arenas still couldn’t speak. But right away, panic set in. He wondered if his car had hit another, or if anyone else had been hurt.
Months later, he still can’t bring himself to place any blame elsewhere for what happened. Even though there are no indications that Arenas was at fault for his steering wheel locking up.
“Honestly, I take full responsibility,” Arenas said. “Whether it was me, another car, a malfunction. I don’t really want to put anyone else in this situation — whoever made the car, anything. I want to take full responsibility for what I do. If I would’ve hurt somebody, that would have really taken a toll on me.”
Arenas spent six days in the hospital after the accident but suffered no major long-term injuries. In the weeks that followed, he took walks through his family’s neighborhood to regain his strength. Along the way, neighbors showered him with flowers and well wishes. Last month, the family welcomed the men who saved Arenas into their home to share their gratitude.
He’s still working his way toward joining USC for its summer hoops practices, with some preliminary classwork still remaining before his transition is complete. But after officially enrolling at USC last week, Arenas stood on the practice court sideline on Tuesday morning, high-fiving teammates and calling out assignments, looking every bit the part of a five-star freshman who’s ready to step in from Day One.
“His perspective is really unique,” USC coach Eric Musselman said. “Even before the accident, when you talk to Alijah, it’s a unique thought process on how he views life and views the game of basketball and how he views his teammates.”
But there’s no mistaking, in Arenas’ mind, how fortunate he is to have survived — and how many things had to go right for that to be the case. He’s convinced he was spared to help someone else in the same way he was helped.
“It taught me a lot,” Arenas said. “I’m very lucky — and not even just to be here. Just in general, in life.”
