Hey, good evening. We start tonight with that breaking news out of the Middle East. The leader of Hamas and the man behind the October seventh attacks has been killed by Israel. The significant move sending reverberations throughout the region and leading to new questions about what it means for the war in Gaza. We want to warn you this next image is very disturbing. This is Yaya Sinwar, who topped Israel's most wanted list. He was killed during a firefight with IDF troops. The military releasing this photo as soldiers discovered his body. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing, Today, the mastermind of this day of sheer evil is no more. While this is not the end of the war in Gaza, it's the beginning of the end. Israel took to the streets. Israelis took to the streets to celebrate. Residents could be heard cheering and applauding, waving Israeli flags as the military confirmed Sinuar's death. President Biden was on his way to Berlin when the news broke. He released this statement, reading in part, To my Israeli friends, this is no doubt a day of relief and reminiscence. Similar to the scenes witnessed throughout the United States after President Obama ordered the raid to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another October seventh. Who is Yaya Sinwaar? One of Hamas's most influential leaders going back decades. Here's what we know. Sinwaar was born in a Gaza refugee camp in the 1960s. In 1988, he He was sentenced to life in prison in Israel, accused of murdering two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians. In 2011, he was released in a prisoner exchange and became involved with Hamas. In August of this year, Sinwaar was appointed Hamas political chief following the assassination of Ismail Honouye, which was carried out in Iran. Seemar is also believed to be responsible for the decision to take hostages back into Gaza. Tonight, the families of those still being held captive are left wondering what this means for their loved ones, many hoping opens the opportunity for a hostage deal. Nbc news correspondent, Erin McLauchland, starts us off tonight in Tel Aviv with the latest.

Tonight, new drone video shows the moment just before Israel says the leader of Hamas, the architect of the October seventh terror attack, was killed. In the footage released by the Israeli military, the IDF says Yaya Sinuar can be seen with his hand blown off, his face covered, throwing a stick in defiance. Nbc news has not confirmed the video show Sinuar. Today, Today, the images of Sinuar's body lying in rubble, surrounded by Israeli troops, sent shockwaves through the region.

Today, the mastermind of this day of sheer evil is no more.

According to an Israeli official, overnight, there was a fierce battle in Southern Gaza. Israeli troops initially had no idea Sinuar was at the location. His body discovered today and later identified using DNA tests and dental records. President Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Air Force One.

The hole, and that was the reason for his action.

And further that, now is the time to move on. Yaya Sinwar spent 23 years inside an Israeli prison for killing fellow Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. He was released in 2011. One of more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, Netanyahu, exchanged for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped and held in Gaza for five years. It was an exchange that would later inform Sinwar's decision to take 250 Israeli hostages to Gaza on October seventh. Many of them have since died. 101 remain, including 84-year-old Odeid Lishetz, kidnapped from Kibbutz, near Oz. His daughter-in-law says she's terrified Seymour's death could spell even more misery for the hostages. I believe there is no way to get the hostages back now. I hope that my intuition is a mistake.

Erin McGlachlin joins Top Story tonight from Tel Aviv. So Erin, to your last point there in report. Do we know what this means for Hamas and a potential ceasefire deal? You always think about the families of those hostages and the hostages themselves, because any time there's a major military operation, you got to think this makes the ceasefire deal move further apart.

Tom, it's unclear. I've been speaking to experts here in Israel, and they say that Seymour's brother is likely next in line and caution that he is just as hard-line and brutal a leader as Seymour.

The images of the killing have been shot out through the world. They're playing here in different publications in the United States. Are they being played out in Israel as well?

Yeah, they are, Tom. They're splashed across all the TV screens, all the newspapers. This is nationwide story. You're getting this mixed reaction from Israeli satisfaction. In their minds, the sinuar has finally been brought to justice. Anguish at the thought of all of the death and destruction he leaves in his wake. And the anxiety in terms of what could come next in this war.

Okay, Erin McGlackland for us. Erin, we thank you for that, for more on the killing and the response throughout the region. I'm joined tonight live by NBC News Chief International Correspondent, Keir Simmons. Keir, you've been at the forefront of our hoarding on some of these hostage negotiations. Where does this put things now with the killing of not only the killing of Yaya Sinwa, but the images of his death being broadcast all over the world?

Well, let's just start with the hostages, Tom. We don't know where they are, quite frankly. Yaya Sinwa was, we thought, hiding in tunnels. He was found moving between buildings. He was said to be using the hostages as a protection, but the Israelis say that no hostages were killed killed when he was killed, no hostages were there. You remember Tom, two weeks ago, we had an exclusive interview with a Hamas official on Top Story, and I asked that official at the time about the hostages. He said that they were dispersed, that they didn't have a hold of them, if you'd like, many of them inside of Gaza. But you asked me the question at the time, Can we believe him? Well, maybe we don't, but it just raises more questions, doesn't it? Then you have, tonight, the Biden administration trying to describe this as a turning point, trying to say, let's get back to negotiations. Let's try and move towards peace and the release of the hostages, while you have Prime Minister Netanyahu talking about wanting the hostages to be released, but at the same time, talking about continuing the fighting, continuing the conflict, continuing Israel's push against those that it considers its enemies and its adversaries.

And the question is whether that push by Israel Israel makes it more difficult, or as many Israelis would say, certainly Prime Minister Netanyahu, easier to get to the hostage at some stage.

And then, Kyrie, I do want to ask you as well the reaction, right? Again, because the images, they are so graphic. Israel wanted to show the world they have killed this man. There is no chance he is still alive. Also, maybe send a message, of course, to the Israelis as well, a message of revenge, if you will. How is the region at large taking this, and how does shake up the war?

Well, Tom, I'm in the Gulf. I'm in the Arab world. It's frankly, silence from governments here. I think that actually speaks volumes about how they will be assessing this and trying to assess this from the Arab street and certainly from Palestinians. We are hearing from those who are saying we can plan to continue fighting. On the other hand, even inside Gaza, we're hearing from Palestinians saying they're pleased that Yaya Asimwa has been killed because of the pain that he put Palestinians through after October seventh. So there is a mixed message. Frankly, there are not many in this region who will shed a tear for Yaya Simwa, but they will be worried about the future. And then Iran, not far from here, Iranian television describing Yaya Simwa as a martyr. Iran, of course, is behind so much of this. How will Iran respond? The simple truth is, Tom, right now, so soon after Yaya Simwa was killed, I don't We think we know what happens next.

Keir Simmons with us. Keir, we always appreciate your analysis and your reporting. For more on the latest in the sprint to the White House, I want to bring in our panel tonight here on Top Story. Megan Hayes, she's a former White House Director of Message Planning and Special Assistant to President Biden and Caroline Levet, National Press Secretary for Donald Trump's 2024 presidential race. Thank you both for being here tonight. Megan, I'm going to start with you. That Fox interview with Brett Baer, seven million viewers. The network says it was the most watched interview of the 2024 election season. Do you think the interview helped the campaign in any way?

Look, I think that those types of interviews, you go in, you do it. I think that people give her credit for going in there and having an honest conversation and a conversation back and forth with Brett Baer. I think that those types of interviews are not going to get people who are their core base of Fox viewers to vote for Kamala Harris. But I do think that these independent voters that do watch Fox, that see her out there and see her making an effort to reach them where they get their news from, I think that does mean something.

Former President Trump made a pitch to voters in a town hall on Univision. He tried to appeal on the issue of the economy, but also did not back off from the false claims about the Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield. Then you had that town hall, wild where it was just a dance party Party. Does it frustrate you that we're 19 days out before election day and these things are still happening?

Absolutely not. Look, I know that many in the media like to talk about President Trump's events in a negative way when they're not even there. I was at these events and I can tell you the rally or the town hall in Pennsylvania, you're referring to where President Trump played music. He did that because unfortunately, two people in the crowd passed out due to heat, and he was respectful and mindful of that. His supporters loved it. It turned into a really fun night. Then when it comes to the Univision town hall, he took questions directly from Latino-Americans focused on inflation that has robbed them of their paychecks every week because of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden's economic policies. He took questions about the border crisis that Kamala Kamala Harris has overseen that Latino Americans, particularly, are concerned with because they came here the right way legally. President Trump supports that. He does not support illegal immigration. That's why more than 60% of Latino voters actually support his plan for mass deportations. To rebut what Megan said previously about the Fox News interview with Kamala Harris, it was a train wreck. She couldn't answer a single question because she doesn't have answers.

Her entire campaign is built on lies about Donald Trump. She's not offering solutions to the very real policy challenges that the American people are facing in their lives every single day.

So, Megan, I'll let you jump back in and respond to that.

Yeah, I mean, I think that she did what she needed to do in those interviews when she's out there every day. I think that if people really felt that way, that Donald Trump would be leading in the polls, and they're not. They're a neck and neck. So I do think that there is some difference of opinion there. But I do think that they are doing what they need to be doing. The last 18 days or so of this campaign, they're reaching voters where they are. And the vice president is out there talking to voters who will be impacted by these policies that Trump wants to enact with the $4,000 more a month or more a year, sorry, on some of his policies for his economic plan. I think that's just a difference of opinion, but we'll find out in 18 days.

Yeah, Megan, vice President Harris used that Fox interview that we just saw on Garrett's report to say that she's going to separate herself, that her presidency will be different from President Biden. Do you think that that's going to hold with voters?

I do. I think she's laid out a bunch of policies already. I don't think she needs to take that moment right then and there to continue to lay out the policies. I think she was saying that she's a younger version of leadership. She wants to be a new leadership here. She has laid out policies for different things, for health care, for lowering costs, for affordable housing. So I just... But, Megan, it was clearly a moment, and it was on Fox News, right?

And we can't discount that moment because she was crystal clear on that. Whether it's true or not, we don't know unless she's elected. But clearly, there was a strategy to say that on Fox News and to say that in such a high-profile interview.

I mean, I think that she missed the opportunity on The View, and I think she was taking the opportunity on Fox, and that was the next interview that she had the moment to do that and was ask that question. I don't necessarily think it was Fox. I think that was the next time she was asked a question. Caroline, you got Vice President Harris going on Fox doing news, doing town halls, doing all types of interviews.

You guys were just attacking everyone on the Democratic side for her not doing interviews, for not doing town halls. She seems to be doing that. Is she now outperforming former President Trump when it comes to media interviews?

Absolutely not. In fact, I have the numbers, and President Trump has done nearly double the amount of interviews that Kamala Harris has done throughout the entirety of this campaign.

I agree with that. No, no, no. Caroline, I totally agree with that. But in this last sprint these last three weeks. Is she turning it up, though, on the phone, the President?

Absolutely not. President Trump is running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail. In fact, he sat down for three very exciting interviews this morning in New York. He's speaking at the Smith dinner tonight, which is an invitation Kamala Harris declined. He also engaged in an interview with Bloomberg this week at the Chicago Economic Club, which was a huge hit, and Kamala Harris declined that invitation as well. President Trump does not back down even in the face of hostile media. He's also been doing more alternative media this election cycle, major podcasts that are reaching different types of voters. And that's why he is cutting into Kamala Harris's polling numbers with Democrat demographics. You look at Union workers, Black voters, Hispanic Dominic voters, young people. Kamala Harris is lagging behind where Joe Biden was in 2020, where Hillary Clinton was in 2016. And today in 2024, Donald Trump is polling better than he ever has. And it's because people don't view Kamala Harris as the change agent in this race because she's the incumbent vice president, and 70% of the country believes we're moving in the wrong direction with our economy, with our broken border, with the war that has erupted all over this world.

None of this was happening under President Trump. That's why he is leading, and he will continue to to barnstorm the country over the next 18 days on the road every day.

Caroline, it seems like you have the case completely made for a Donald Trump presidency. Why do you think he couldn't deliver that in another debate against Kamala Harris before election day? Why do you think he stopped debating?

Well, President Trump initially committed to three debates with Kamala Harris, one on Fox News as well, but she declined that invitation. So ultimately, they met on the ABC debate stage, which was one of the worst moderated debates in history, may I humbly add. He was fact-checked wrongly many times. Kamala Harris was not fact-checked once, even though she lied repeatedly on the stage. President Trump is meeting voters directly where they are in their communities. Tomorrow, he'll be in Michigan. This weekend, he will be in Pennsylvania. Again, he'll be on the campaign trail every single day. Clearly, the strategy is working because if you look at the real clear politics average right now, President Trump is ahead on the Electoral College map. Again, he is picking up historic margins with demographics that Kamala Kamala Harris needs to win. How do you know Kamala Harris is on defense? She shifted resources from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which is a key battleground state, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That should be a stronghold for the Democrat Party. Kamala is playing defense there because President Trump is meeting those voters and explaining his policies and offering real solutions to fix the problems Kamala has created in their lives.

She is definitely traveling to Wisconsin, though. Caroline does bring a good point, Megan. There has been some reporting about Democrats concerned in Philadelphia about the Harris campaign. Is there a path? I know, logically, there is a path, but how tough is it for the Harris campaign if they don't win Pennsylvania?

Look, I think the map becomes increasingly more difficult, and I think that's why you've seen the map expand for her. I think she has raising over a billion dollars. She has the resources. They have an amazing organizing operation that's out in the field that's been out in these battleground states for months now, doing knocking on doors and meeting voters. I think it becomes increasingly more difficult for either side to lose Pennsylvania. But I I think that there is a path for her, and I think it's through North Carolina and Georgia, which she is doing increasingly better in the polling every single day.

I always ask Democrats this, right? Do you think the polling is under... Are they underpolling Trump voters? And does that mean this race is even closer than it is? Could Trump have the advantage?

I am a person who works for Joe Biden, so it doesn't live or die by the polls, or we would have never made it out of Iowa. So I tend to not listen to the polls with any real regard there. But I don't know if they're I'm not really under polling Trump voters specifically, but I do know that she is closing the gap on a lot of the issues like the economy and immigration, how she's dealing with those different issues on the campaign trail. I do think that this is a campaign of inches, so this is going to be every vote matters. That's why you see for crisscrossing all the battleground states and out doing all these interviews.

Megan and Caroline, we thank you both for being here on Top Story tonight. Now to an NBC news exclusive interview today with the acting director of the Secret Service, responding to a highly critical report about the agency after the July by assassination attempt on former President Trump. That report finding deep flaws in the Secret Service. Here's Kelly O'Donnell.

The high-risk mission of the Secret Service. Under new scrutiny, fallout over failures that led up to the attack on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Today, the independent review panel of law enforcement experts from both parties issued a 52-page report that finds deep flaws at the Secret Service and calls the agency, bureaucratic, complacent, and static. Acting Director Ronald Rho responding in an exclusive interview.

We have not been sitting back waiting for reports like this to come out.

Following the horrific events of July 13th, we've already started to make not only operational changes, but policy changes.

They are recommending a leadership change. Are you prepared for that?

Well, what I'm focused on right now is making sure that I'm advocating for the men and women of the Secret Service that are out there doing the mission.

This busy campaign campaign season remains a high threat environment with demands to secure so many prominent figures out on the trail. Agents and resources are stretched thin. Do you have a morale problem?

We are asking them to do extraordinary things right now.

I worry that my workforce is certainly demoralized by some of the things that are said about them.

The Trump campaign has repeatedly requested more resources.

He is receiving the highest level of secret service protection that is commensured with the protection provided to the President of the United States.

Is he satisfied based on your interactions with him?

I've had conversations with the former President.

He's very happy with his detail. He's actually publicly stated that.

The agency says it is adding more technology, expanding training on drones, acknowledging they didn't work at Butler. Even robotic dogs that can detect body heat of unseen perpetrators and moving target dummies simulate attacks. But the director says their training center needs more.

The challenge that we have here is we don't have a realistic training environment for the most famous address in the world.

Agents have traveled to Tyler Perry's studio replica of the White House for training. Roe insists they need their own to meet the real-world security demands.

Kelly O'Donnell joins us tonight from Washington. Kelly, the Secret Service has told journalists that the number of people asked to to be protected by white houses has grown from the Obama years, the Trump years, even the Biden years. Can they cap that to make sure the principals get the protection they deserve?

Well, it's a decision that ultimately is made by the sitting President and based on threats and threat levels. Right now, it's more than 40 individuals who are protected by the Secret Service, and that is a large number. Sometimes it depends on factors like how many family members there are. For example, if Donald Trump were to win and be protected as a sitting president again, his five children, his many grandchildren would all be protected if he directed that. So it is a big number, and that's one of the reasons why the Secret Service says they need more resources, they need more training, and they need to change a lot of how they do things to be as effective as possible in an environment where there are so many threats.

Now, to an update on the case we've been following closely, Nicholas Rossi, once an international fugitive who now faces multiple rape charges in Utah. Admitting for the first time he used aliases to evade custody for years. Repeatedly, lying to the media about that, including on MBC's Dateland. Our Ellison Barber, picks up the story from there.

For more than three years, this man swore he was the wildly unlucky victim in a case of mistaken identity.

I am not Nicholas Alan Ferdin, and I do not know how to make this clear.

He promised he was Arthur Knight, an Irish or often, whose health was failing. I do not prefer to be called Arthur Knight. I am Arthur Knight. Unfairly thrust into the middle of an international manhunt. Oh, Eka. No. Police in the United States and the United Kingdom, said this man was undoubtedly Nicholas Rossi, the international fugitive wanted on a rape charge in Utah under that name, but also known as Nicholas Oliverdian in Rhode Island. A man who investigators say faked his own death, fled the country, and created a new life in an attempt to avoid prosecution. I don't have any doubt that it's not me. But in a Utah courtroom today, a stunning admission.

Mr. Knight, can you also tell us other names that you've gone by previously?

Previously, I went by...

I was born with the name Nicholas Albertian in 1996.

I would have that surname changed by my stepfather when it became Rossi, and I reverted it using it, Alaverdi in 2008.

He still maintains his innocence, but Arthur Knight now says he is Nicholas Ressi and Nicolas Rasi and Nicolas Alaverdi.

I also felt a duty to honor my Romanian heritage.

Authorities initially identified him as someone other than Arthur Knight after he was hospitalized for COVID-19 in Scotland. Hospital workers has reportedly noticed his distinctive tattoos included in an Interpol arrest warrant and contacted local police. But Arthur or Nicholas claimed those tattoos did not prove anything. Instead, he told a judge someone tattooed him while he was in a coma at that hospital in an effort, he said, to frame him. He fought his extradition at every turn. To be accused of rape, it could happen to anyone. Doubling and tripling down on his claims of mistaken identity, perhaps most famously in an interview with Dateland's Andrea Canning. People say that's an act.

Let me try to stand up.

Let me try to stand up.

Exactly. It was an odd moment, one that even surprised the veteran journalist.

That was probably the weirdest moment I've ever had in an interview, where he just suddenly is showing me how unstable he is and how sick he is, and he's falling. And then And his wife is saying, That's a low blow that I'm even questioning it. And he's supposedly on oxygen. It was just bizarre.

In November of 2022, a Scottish court ruled there was overwhelming evidence that the man arrested in the Glasgow Hospital was the fugitive US authorities were searching for.

That Mr..

Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi.

And that's how we got here. Previously, I went by.

I was born with the name Nicholas Alvardian.

Nicholas Alvardian, or Nicholas Rossi, or Arthur Knight, back on US soil answering to rape charges in two Utah counties. After a second woman came forward when the case made international headlines. His identity is confirmed. His British accent is seemingly gone. But the pain of his alleged actions is far from resolved.

I think the fact that now he's facing the music is just a big deal for these women and anyone who says they've been conned by Nicolas Alvarezian. Ellice Barber joins us now. Ellice, this is such a strange story. The guy was clearly a master of disguise. What else did he say about changing his name, his looks, and all these aliases.

During this hearing, and it's a pre-child hearing that was related to bail, he was denied bail, by the way, in this case, but he told the court that he did it in part because he was receiving threats related to some advocacy work he'd done in Rhode Island years before. When he was asked to name the people who were allegedly threatening them, he said he wouldn't identify them, but claimed there were two people who could substantiate those claims. One of the people he mentioned has already told a local Providence, Rhode Island paper, This is not true. We reached out to the other person who was named by him, and they said, For now, they're not going to be commenting.

All right, Ellison Barber, so many chapters of this story. We thank you for that. When we come back, the legal battle brewing over AI in the classroom. The parents, Suina High School, after their son was punished for using Artificial technology intelligence to create an outline for a school project. How that school is responding tonight. Back now with Top Story's news feed, and we begin with an update. A father and son have been indicted on murder charges for the deadly shooting at Appalachee High School in Georgia last month. The 14-year-old suspected shooter faces 55 counts, including four counts of felony murder. His father was accused of giving his son access to the AR-style rifle used in that attack. Both will be arrained on November 21st. Two students and two teachers were killed in the September shooting. Nine others were hurt. The urgent search tonight continues for two Navy pilots in Washington State following the crash of their fighter jet. Officials say that EA-18 Grouiller jet carrying two crew members went down during a routine training exercise Tuesday. The wreckage of the $67 million aircraft has been found on a mountainside east of Mount Renier. Search and rescue efforts underway with both airmen still missing.

And a heroine rescue caught on camera in Seattle, Washington last week. D dramatic body cam video shows officers trying to reason with a man on a ledge above railroad tracks when he suddenly slips. He falls nearly 25 feet below. Officers rush across the tracks, pulling him to safety just seconds before you saw that a high-speed train barrels through. The man was taken to the hospital with multiple injuries and remains in critical condition. And Disney Parks rolling out a new line skipping program, but it comes with a hefty price tag. The Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be the only one that allows holders to skip the line without pre-booking arrival times. It also promises shorter wait times. The passes launch this month at both domestic parks. According to park websites, passes will only be available in very limited quantities, and it's going to cost you. The pass will from $129 to $449 per day per person. That's expensive. That's in addition, of course, to your regular admission ticket. Okay, turning now to a dispute over AI. Parents of a high school senior say their son's college search has been turned upside down after he was punished for using AI to help him do research and an outline for an assignment.

Mbc Steven Romo has the details. In the critical months leading up to his college search-He's A really bright student, all honors, all AP classes. One high school student outside of Boston, slapped with a major punishment for using AI to help with research on an AP US history project, according to a lawsuit filed by his parents.

It's not like he went in and said, Here, write my paper.

They were getting notes and doing an outline.

His mother is an author herself.

His father, a math teacher. The student receiving a D on the overall assignment, getting detention and initially prevented from joining the National Honor Society, according to the suit. Imagine a young man with his whole life head of him, a very good student, perfect score in his ACT, and you're sitting there finishing your applications, and you have to decide whether to click yes or no And the question is, have you been disciplined? Right now, to be forthright on that application, he would have to say yes. That student had set his sights on top tier schools like Stanford.

Was your client He told it all before that that he could not use AI.

The defendants say that because this particular student received a fairly generic slide deck of PowerPoint slides in his English class, that somehow put him on He noticed that he'd be subject to this significant and serious academic consequence.

That's not sufficient. That's not a policy.

The suit says the school's handbook had no AI policy at the time.

His punishment for this situation has been extreme and ongoing, and it is now interfering with his applications to colleges. Hinkamp Public Schools telling NBC Boston, To respect the privacy of the student involved and due to ongoing litigation, HPS is unable to provide further details at this time. The stakes of the suit and that senior's future, potentially, precedent setting. It's one of the first of its kind to challenge school discipline over the academic use of AI.

Clear is kind, and when it comes AI, it's evolving so rapidly that the clearer school can be with their expectations, the better.

Experts say teachers can help by discussing those expectations early and frequently.

They might be doing that at the beginning of a class or at the beginning of assignment, but they're finding that the more that they could set those expectations, obviously, the better it is for everyone, both the school and the student.

For now, though, the student's mom just trying to clear her son's name.

He's a smart kid. He's got good character, and this was one mistake, and it wasn't even a rule in the handbook that he broke. It was somebody's opinion on what should be used.

Steven Romo joins us now in studio. So, Steven, I guess the big question is, will this incident hurt him from going to the school of his choice. It sounds like, according to his parents and the suit, he's got a good resume. He's done a lot, but is this going to hold him back? Yeah, those ACT scores, a varsity ball player, all those things really working in his favor.

That's the big fear, though.

That's why I think this lawsuit was filed to begin with.

He really wants to get into Stanford.

Those deadlines for those applications coming up in just a couple of weeks now, it's not clear exactly how that will pan out.

But we do know that some of those schools are now looking, including Stanford, at adding AI policy into their own procedure so that they can prevent this from happening in that situation as well, Tom. All right, Steven Roma. I feel like we're always doing a lot of AI stories. It's getting more and more, right? Okay, thank you for that. Coming up, Deadly Detour, a record number of migrant bodies found in a stretch of desert along the US Southern border. Our David Noriega rides along with officials there to try and find out what's causing the deadly uptick and how authorities are trying to stop it. Stay with us. We are back now with an in-depth report from our Southern border. A small patch of desert in New Mexico, just outside of El Paso, Texas, has become one of the most dangerous stretches of the Southern border, with the number of migrant deaths more than 10 times what they were just five years ago. This past summer, one of the hottest on record in New Mexico, more than 150 bodies were recovered, many of them within the site of homes and subdivisions. In a deadly detour, the latest from our NBC News Digital Docs team, correspondent David Noriega spends time with medical investigators in New Mexico to learn why so many are dying so close to safety.

And a warning, some of the details in this report are disturbing.

The heat speeds up the decomposition process. Often, they're so sunburned, they're blackened. Heet is destroyed.

So this is my office. Body bags. These are all extras. Infant death supplies in here as well.

After 31 years recovering dead bodies for New Mexico's office of the medical investigator, it's only in the last two summers that Laura May-Williams has had to visit the borderlands nearly every day.

It's not uncommon for me to come down for one body that's been found, and then Border Patrol finds another one or maybe even two additional ones in different locations.

So several bodies a day?

Yeah, correct.

In the New Mexico desert, just west of El Paso, the number of people who die after crossing the US-Mexical border has gone from a handful a year to 116 last year to more than 120 this year so far. The vast majority die from the heat. Many are in their 20s and 30s. One night, in what turned out to be the world's hottest June on record, a passerby found the body of a young woman named Odilia López Vázquez of Tacaná, San Marcos, Guatemala.

Okay, is this person breathing? No, se ve.

Are you willing to try CPR?

No, aquí ya no se mueve. Ya le estuvimos hablando y no se mueve. The officers, they saw drag marks into the desert. Unfortunately, she wasn't found in time to get help, but she was found.

Odilia had crossed the border once before, four months prior. She turned herself in to border patrol to request asylum, but was denied and deported. We spoke with her mother in Guatemala. So Odilia tried again, this time hiring a smuggler to get into the US undetected. On June 13th, the smuggler guided her and a group into the desert. Temperatures that day reached 109 degrees. Odilia's smuggler later told her family that while they were walking, she asked to stop and rest. He said he left her behind with the intention of going back for her, but that when he returned, she was gone. He sent her family this picture of Odilia in the place where he'd left her, and a screenshot of his messages to her, unreturned. Odilia was found that night near a roadway. According to the medical investigator's report, she had been dragged about 700 feet. She did not have her phone. The only belongings she had were cash, a piece of paper with US phone numbers, and a hair tie. Odilia's cause of death was hyperthermia due to heat exposure. She was 20 years old. Over text, Odilia's sister questioned the smuggler about his story.

So the place where she was found is, according to the coordinates, just east of this little dirt road here. Okay, we should be coming right up on it. Oh, my God. It's literally within sight of this subdivision of these houses. It's like a couple of dozen suburban houses. It would probably take me maybe three minutes to walk from here to there. And she didn't. She couldn't make it. So the question is, why? Why all of a sudden, from one year to the next, did the number of people dying right outside of a major city on the border skyrocket? And there's only one consistent explanation. First responders, elected officials, various officials here in El Paso believe that the thing that contributed to the sudden rise in the number of deaths is Operation Lone Star. Starting in 2021, Texas placed concertina wire and deployed National Guard troops and state police to the urban areas where most migrants attempt illegal crossing. In El Paso, this pushed people just west of the city over the state line into New Mexico. It's a small patch of land close to exerbs and highways. But in summer, it's hot and dry enough to claim lives by the hundreds.

In a statement, the Texas governor's office blamed the deaths on the federal government and said Operation Lone Star helps redirect migrants to legal crossing points.

There are times that my feet are burning, even with my thick sole boot and another layer in there. So if you just have a thin shoe on, your feet are burning. So right now, I don't know if you can see that it's 134.8. In the summer, especially, it's incredibly hot out here.

So you can imagine in those extreme conditions, even if you're well-hydrated and well-fed, it's going to wear on the body.

Bodies recovered in the desert are moved to Albuquerque, to the office of the Chief Medical Investigator.

We have 16 autopsy tables total. Some days we have more decedents than we have autopsy tables.

Are many of these deaths preventable, in your view?

The answer, in my opinion, is yes. They could have called for help for this person. They could have provided nourishment. Instead, they took their one method of communication where they could have called for help and left them to die. So why is this not a homicide?

I don't know the politics, and I don't care.

That's not my business. This is their journey to make their life better is what I have to believe. I always hope they didn't suffer, even though this is not an easy death. So I know they did.

And we thank David Noriega and the NBC News Digital Docs team for that story. We'll be right back. We thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamis in New York. Stay right there. Go, Yankee.kees. More news on the way. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media.