Investigative Unit

Four years after an Oakland priest seemingly vanished after being accused of sexually abusing two minors, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has new answers on what happened to Fr. Alexander Castillo, in addition to a never-before published letter where the priest professes his innocence and blames another clergy member for his suspension.

The family of the first victim who died after Atria Senior Living staff accidentally served caustic cleaning chemical to dementia residents filed a lawsuit against the company Thursday.

The allegations come at a time when Catholic dioceses across California are being hit with a wave of new child sex abuse lawsuits enabled by a recent state law.

Authorities are investigating the death of a 35-year-old man who twice told police and fire crews he couldn’t breathe as he was being held, face-down, after being handcuffed for several minutes, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned.

The engineer responsible for the troubled fix of the Millennium Tower acknowledged Thursday that the building is continuing to tilt about 3 inches a year since work began.

A new push in U.S. Senate for legislation to stop deportation of immigrant veterans for minor crimes.

The designer of the troubled fix for the sinking and tilting Millennium Tower recently briefed city officials about an especially unpleasant potential byproduct of the building’s settlement – sewer backups, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned.

A PG&E arborist has acknowledged the tree that fell onto a powerline and is suspected of starting the Dixie Fire, showed signs of rot – a finding that came as no surprise to one expert tracking the worsening epidemic of fungal disease in the densely-forested, drought-ravaged Sierra.

Untraceable, homemade firearms commonly known as “ghost guns” are turning up at potential crime scenes by the tens-of-thousands and have become popular weapons of choice among terrorists and violent extremists, according to leaked report from federal law enforcement officials.

For nearly a decade California has been in the grips of a housing crisis, however, despite the urgent need for affordable housing, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit found hundreds of vacant lots and empty sites meant to provide affordable housing to thousands of Bay Area residents, currently being used for nothing.

Since the start of the pandemic, many architects have received a steady stream of requests from clients wanting to rebuild or renovate their current office spaces in order to safely lure back weary employees and customers.

Many people are having their groceries delivered these days, and you might be using the Instacart app to get them. The service or delivery fee may seem like a small price to pay for the convenience but the I-Team has learned Instacart might be costing you more than you realize. Consumer investigator Randy Mac reports Feb. 10, 2021.

Sonoma County officials filed a $100 million negligence lawsuit Tuesday against PG&E, seeking costs for fighting the wildfire and rebuilding lands and infrastructure destroyed in the Kincade fire last year.

A woman entangled in a messy homeowner-renter dispute with a San Mateo family agrees to an interview with The Investigative Unit after being accused of taking advantage of the pandemic and the legal system to live rent-free.

After a San Mateo family’s year-long battle with a woman renting a room in their house, the family said Tuesday their nightmare is nearly over.

The Investigative Unit examines how a local pandemic shut-down order forced a San Mateo family out of their own home, they say.

The San Francisco firefighter who fell to his death on Wednesday was knocked over by a water blast from a supply valve he “inadvertently” opened during a training drill, according to the department’s preliminary report obtained by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.

A civil lawsuit filed Monday alleges a “whites only” color barrier at one of San Francisco Fire Department’s most coveted assignments – staffing the city’s fleet of fireboats.  Lawrence Thomas has worked as a maritime engineer in the Bay Area for two decades, but it took him four years to get hired as a part-time reserve engineer in charge...

NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit spoke to more than 15 people who were locked up or working at San Quentin during one of the state’s worse coronavirus outbreaks.

State regulators say they’ve received a flood of safety complaints from workers claiming their employers are not doing enough to protect against COVID-19.