(WWJ) -- Another year has come and gone, but it certainly wasn’t without its fair share of eye-catching headlines in Metro Detroit.
From the surge of tornados across Michigan in August, to deadly love triangles, to the local reaction to the Israeli-Hamas war and beyond, here's what captured the attention of WWJ’s audience each month in 2023:
A young girl who was reported missing from the Port Huron area in January was reunited with her mother after police in Ohio came to her rescue.
4-year-old Lillianna Nardini was reported as an endangered missing child. Ohio state troopers later found her in the backseat of a car driven by her father Erik Nardini, and later tweeted a video of the traffic stop and recovery.
After police arrested Nardini, body camera footage showed a trooper pulling Lillianna from the backseat, saying “come on, sweetie, you’re okay.”
February: 20-year-old woman found asleep in car along I-75 admits to doing shots, is arrested
Back in February, an underage drinker was found asleep behind the wheel of a car along a Metro Detroit freeway, and faced a pair of misdemeanor charges.
The 20-year-old Genesee County woman was arrested after Troy police responded to a call about a black sedan pulled over on the left shoulder of northbound I-75 at Crooks Road.
According to the police report, the young woman told officers that she'd had two shots of alcohol the night before, and that she'd pulled over on the shoulder to sleep when she got tired while driving home.
In March, a state lawmaker introduced a push to bring back cash payments at all high school sporting events.
Sen. Joe Bellino of Monroe County said he got the idea a couple years ago when he tried to go to his local high school’s playoff football game, but just brought cash to the gate and was turned away because he didn’t purchase a digital ticket online.
Senate Bill 99 would amend the revised school code to require any public school that “charges a fee for admission to an interscholastic athletic activity event offered by the public school at its high school… to ensure that cash is an acceptable form of payment for the fee.”
The Michigan state Senate in April voted to repeal a law making it a crime for unmarried couples to live together, which carried a penalty of up to a year in prison for violators.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Stephanie Chang of Detroit, amended the Michigan Penal Code to delete a provision that prohibits a man and woman, who are not married to each other, from "lewdly and lasciviously associating and cohabitating together."
It passed in the Senate by a vote of 29-9, with all nine “no” votes coming from Republicans. In July, the legislation was officially signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
It was a deadly start to the Memorial Day weekend in May as state police responded to a violent single-vehicle crash that left one man dead under an I-94 overpass in Detroit.
Michigan State Police said troopers were called out to the scene on eastbound I-94 at Tarnow Street on the evening of May 26, where they found a heavily damaged, white vehicle “completely smashed” and tucked up under the overpass.
The driver, a 23-year-old Detroit man, had been ejected from the vehicle, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
One woman died and another was taken into custody following a June dispute stemming from a love triangle in St. Clair County.
The 44-year-old victim and another 44-year-old woman, identified as Raquelle Casillas, had reportedly been fighting on-and-off for days over a shared relationship with the man, and their arguing had turned physical — and then deadly.
The Almont woman sustained severe head trauma during the altercation, and was taken to McLaren Hospital in Lapeer, where she later died from her injuries.
In July, a 12-year-old girl was charged in a gruesome acid attack on an 11-year-old girl that was carried out at a Detroit park.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the young girl was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm as well as felonious assault over the July 9 incident at a playground attached to Vernor Elementary School in Detroit.
The victim sustained second and third degree burns on her back that required a four day stay in the burn unit at Children’s Hospital.
August: 7 tornadoes confirmed, 1 of them deadly, after powerful storms strike Michigan
Seven tornadoes hit Michigan's Lower Peninsula during a storm in late August, including four in Wayne County and one in Ingham County, which flipped over 13 semi-trucks along I-96, and damaged a slew of other vehicles.
There were five deaths reported across Michigan as a result of the storms, including the fatality in the incident on I-96.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer later declared a state of emergency for Wayne and Monroe counties to help with response and recovery efforts to flooding and damage caused by the severe storms and heavy rain.
The Oakland County Health Department said in September that one person tested positive for hepatitis A after an exposure at Pine Knob Music Theatre.
Leaders urged anyone who visited Pine Knob’s Ivy Lounge between Saturday, Aug. 26, and Friday, Sept. 8. to get vaccinated against hepatitis A.
Oakland County Medical Director Dr. Russell Faust says thousands of people were potentially exposed to hep A at the venue, and vaccination advisory included concerts for Jason Aldean, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foreigner, Rob Zombie, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Representative Rashida Tlaib D-Detroit in October began calling on the Biden Administration to do more to save civilian lives in Gaza in response to the war in Israel.
“I am calling for the immediate de-escalation and ceasefire to save countless civilian lives, no matter their faith or ethnicity,” Tlaib said in a statement released Oct. 13.
Tlaib also said that many people in the U.S. with family members in Gaza feel Secretary of State Antony Blinken “is not making their safety a priority” and that the Biden Administration is not protecting civilian and American lives in Gaza. The Israel–Hamas war is ongoing.
November: DNR warns against eating any wildlife hunted from this Northern Michigan region
As hunting season got underway in November, the Michigan Departments of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Natural Resources (MDNR) issued a reminder for hunters that catch any animals within three miles of Clark’s Marsh in Oscoda Township in Iosco County not to put them on their dinner plate.
The Do Not Eat advisory went into effect due to various per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) contamination, including perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), which may have entered animals' liver and muscle tissue.
Clark's Marsh sits on the grounds of the decommissioned Wurtsmith Air Force Base.
Three women are facing charges for allegedly running prostitution and human trafficking ring in Metro Detroit.
On Dec. 13, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Enforcement Team (SET) executed a series of nine search warrants across six Metro Detroit cities in three counties, leading to one woman’s arrest.
It was all part of a yearlong investigation that officials say revealed “online sexual advertisements posted for specific establishments with female workers being encouraged to solicit sexual acts to customers.”