For a young person, talent can be an amazing gift. When the sky is the limit on a person’s potential, they need only put in the necessary hard work to accomplish something truly amazing with their life. 

But for every story of amazing success, there are probably twice as many of people squandering their abilities.

It’s always tragic when talent goes to waste but in the case of one young man, the difference between where he could have gone and where he ended up would be staggering…

Promising Future

Siale was a young man who seemed to have the potential for a great career ahead of him. Growing up in Utah, the one thing that set him apart from the vast majority of his peers was his Tongan heritage.

Proud Heritage

The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian archipelago made up of 169 small islands inhabited by just over 100,000 people. If there’s one thing Tongans are known for, it’s being large and athletic. For such a small population, they produce a large number of professional rugby and football players…

Great Potential

And if you were to look at Siale in high school, he fits that mold quite well. From the time he started to play football for East High School, the big kid displayed plenty of athletic ability. But it wasn’t just his athletic ability that made him an asset to his team, according to his coach.

Great Guy

Head Coach Aaron Whitehead remembered Saile as being as coachable as he was likeable. “He was a great kid. When he played for us he worked hard to become a better football player and he obeyed our team rules. He was a great member of that team,” he said…

To The Top

As a senior in 2005, Siale received honorable mention on the All-Region 6 football team as a noseguard when the East High team made it all the way to the state semifinals before being defeated. With the appropriate hard work and dedication, it’s possible that Siale could have made his way into the NFL someday.

Off The FIeld

But even during his high school years, he seemed to have chosen a different path off the field. Beginning at least as early as the age of 14, Siale got involved with some unsavory characters known as the Tongan Crip Gang or TCG…

Brutal Robbery

On the night of December 30th, 2002, Siale Angilau went with another TCG member to a 7-Eleven in the Liberty Park area of Salt Lake City. Once there, he and the other gangster robbed the store, using nothing but brute force to do so. Then several hours later, they did it again at another 7-Eleven

Just Getting Started

“He started out his career by robbing stores and he assaulted me, punching me in the face at the time he did that robbery. And that was just the beginning of his career,” said Sandra Keyser, one of the 7-Eleven’s clerks at the first store. “He wasn’t going to change. He just got worse,” she added…

Full Time Criminal

Though he wasn’t caught for the robberies at the time, it seemed as though Sandra’s words were correct. After Siale graduated from high school, he no longer had football to focus on and turned his attention fully to crime.

Long List

Just one year out of high school, state and federal prosecutors would charge Siale with a slew of crimes after an investigation into TCG. Among them were a number of convenience stores and fast food restaurant robberies all across the Salt Lake Valley. During one of those robberies, a 7-Eleven clerk was shot and critically injured…

Behind Bars

There was also an incident in 2007 where Siale was charged in connection with the shooting of 2 deputy US marshals. He was able to avoid an attempted murder charge by pleading guilty to obstruction of justice and failure to stop at the command of an officer.

Likable Guy

Despite his long rap sheet, there still seemed to be some remnants of the likable guy his coach saw in him back when he was playing football. “It seems to me the guy wasn’t a bad guy to deal with,” said James Valdez, the attorney who represented him in the 2007 case. “I’ve had clients I wouldn’t want to be in the same room with, but it seems to me like he wasn’t one of them.”…

New Charges

While he was serving time for the 2007 case, he and 16 fellow TCG members were indicted in 2010 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as the RICO act. RICO allows prosecutors to ask for extended criminal penalties for crimes if they’re performed as part of ongoing gang or criminal organization activity.

Last Up

One by one, prosecutors were bringing each of the 17 men to trial for charges including racketeering, robbery, carjacking, assault on a federal officer, and weapons violations. The last to go to trial, Siale’s case, seemed like a foregone conclusion. But no one predicted what would happen in the courtroom…

Beyond Anger

As the trial progressed to the witness stage, one of the people called by the prosecution to testify against Siale was one of his former TCG associates, apparently as part of some plea deal for reduced charges. The idea that his “brother” would testify against him enraged Siale.

Moment Of Madness

As his testimony began, Siale — who was not wearing shackles — calmly rose from his seat, causing a moment of confusion in the courtroom. Then, in a split second, he grabbed his lawyer’s pen and rushed toward the witness stand…

Still An Athlete

Displaying some of the athleticism that made him a standout in high school football, Siale leapt over the divider of the witness stand with his right arm cocked overhead, ready to stab at the man on the witness stand.

Shots Fired

Momentarily frozen in shock, the witness gathered his senses in time to back away from Siale and avoid the blow, despite his being shackled. That’s when a US marshal drew his gun and fired 4 shots, all of which hit Siale Angilau. With the courtroom in chaos, some people ducked for cover while other law enforcement agents rushed toward the downed defendant…

All Over

Thankfully, no one else was harmed in the fracas. Siale was still alive as he was rushed to a nearby hospital but would later die of his wounds. Even before he died, the judge in the case had declared a mistrial. Now, Siale Angilau’s guilt or innocence was purely academic.

Tragic End

Perhaps none of this would have happened if Siale had been shackled in the courtroom, though his lawyer argued against it, saying it would unfairly bias the jury against him. Angilau’s family believed that the shooting was unnecessary as the defendant had already moved out of the way by the time the shots were fired but the unidentified US marshal was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Judge Declares Mistrial Following Explosive Courtroom Scene In Case Of Athlete-Turned-Gangster is an article from: LifeDaily

When children become teenagers it can be a difficult and treacherous road to navigate. All those new hormones and delusions of premature adulthood; there’s no denying that teen years are a minefield, even for the most supportive of parents.

When Ebby got a new part-time job at Foot Locker, her family and friends couldn’t have been prouder. But when hope turned into despair, no one knew what the future would hold. She was rapidly going off the tracks but they were determined to keep her on the straight and narrow…

Little Rock Life

Ebby was a kid much like any other. She was a good student for the most part, and a sweet little girl who got along well with everyone and was always very polite. Life in Little Rock was good for Ebby and her folks were lucky enough to be comfortable, wanting for nothing.

Solid Childhood

By all accounts, Ebby had a solid and supportive upbringing. She was popular with both friends and family and could always be relied upon to help anyone out in almost any situation. As childhood years turned into teen years, Ebby was much like any girl her age, but a little different…

Growing Up

Perhaps it was the hormones or perhaps it was the change of school, but for whatever reason Ebby was going off the tracks. No longer was she the sweet and patient Ebby that everyone once knew and loved. She was changing, and at such a rapid pace, it was hard for her family to keep up.

New Interests

Ebby was into this then into that, as she searched for some peace and happiness in external things. From the music she was listening to the clothes she was now wearing; where would little Ebby end up? Her parents were concerned and they didn’t know what to do…

Wanting To Move

Before long things were becoming unbearable at home for Ebby and her parents. At one point, Ebby spoke about wanting to live by herself, and as a prelude to that, she went to stay with her best friend Danielle, sometimes for weeks at a time. Sure, her parents were upset but at least they knew their daughter would be safe with Danielle who was a responsible and mature type of person.

Working Hard

Despite what was going on with Ebby, she was a hard worker and was thrilled when she got a job at Footlocker. She was making money, had new friends and was living her life. However, her folks were concerned about Ebby’s choice of friends, especially her new boyfriend…

Losing Her

According to Ebby’s mother and stepfather, it was that job at Footlocker which was the start of them losing the Ebby they knew and loved. “That’s the dangerous part of raising kids. She had new friends, new behaviors. You’re sending her to the lions’ den.” Michael, Ebby’s stepfather said.

Bad Boyfriend

Laurie and Michael’s main concern was Ebby’s latest boyfriend. She had had a few in as many months but this guy was the worst of the bunch in their opinion. As a result of this boyfriend, Ebby decided to switch schools again and things with her were worse than before. But she was lucky to have a close friend to help her…

Good Friend

Danielle had been Ebby’s friend for years and she wasn’t about to turn her back on her now just because she was going through some personal changes. When the arguments with her parents got too much, Ebby would go to Danielle’s house to sleep, “I think she kind of thought of our house as kind of a safe place,” Danielle said.

Strong Warning

Ebby was warned in no uncertain terms by her friend Danielle, “I was like, ‘Ebby, that’s not safe, don’t do that. Ebby, that’s not a good position, don’t put yourself in that,’ but then kind of that week, I quit putting such a huge emphasis on it.” adding, “Just when I thought that she had it down, you know, she didn’t,” Danielle said.

Off School

In the following weeks Ebby had been truant from school and her parents had received numerous phone calls from Central High admin. However, they decided not to even confront their daughter about it, not wanting to alienate her further while wanting her to have her independence.

Living With Bro

Ebby couldn’t take the arguments at home with her parents anymore, she was at the end of her tether. With the latest screaming matches surrounding her new nose piercing, Ebby went to live with her brother. She preferred it to living at home but it didn’t change the fact that she had issues and they were ongoing…

One Morning

It was the end of October and Ebby was at her brother’s house. She awoke that morning and went to visit her grandmother in west Little Rock, and she was also supposed to meet her stepfather there too. However, by the time Michael arrived Ebby was missing, and no one knew where she was.

Last Call

That fateful evening in October would be the last time anyone would hear from Ebby. She called her brother that night and chatted with him for four minutes. He reported that she had sounded disoriented and confused on the phone and even though she said she was lost, she wouldn’t reveal to her brother who she was with…

Car Found

When Ebby’s car, a silver 2003 Volkswagen Passat, was found filled with her belongings, including her cellphone and contact lenses, everyone began to fear the worst. Ebby had vanished, as if into thin air without a trace. It was time for her parents to reach out.

Total Mystery

No one had a clue what had happened to Ebby and it was out of character for her to go missing suddenly like this. Her mother turned to Facebook to see if she could gain some momentum there but to no avail. Another two and a half years would pass before Ebby was found…

Gruesome Discovery

A bad smell had been reported, coming from the drains in Chalamont Park near to where Ebby was staying. When The Little Rock Police Department (LRPD) confirmed that human remains had been found, everyone feared the worst but hoped it wasn’t Ebby.

Fears Confirmed

Everyone’s worst fears were confirmed when police reported that it was Ebby down there in the drains beneath the park, Detective Tommy Hudson told reporters, “We used robots with video cameras that we are able to send in the drains, eventually started from the top of the drain where her car was found and we hit obstructions 70 feet down.”

Paying Respects

Ebby’s memorial, located just meters from where her car was found, is a popular one which many people visit regularly to pay their respects to Ebby and her family. “I come down here every once in awhile to just pray. I said a few prayers and I have a lucky dollar coin that I put down there,” says Emily Hester, a friend of the family.

Celebrating Ebby

As well as the memorial, there are many other ways in which people are remembering Ebby. For one, a ‘Celebration’ of her life was held at Christ Community Church, at Warrior Hall on May 26th. More than one hundred people showed up for the event which gave strength and hope to the Steppach family for the future.

Remains Found In Park Drain Finally Attributed To Missing Little Rock Teen is an article from: LifeDaily

As more stories about people living double lives are brought to light, it becomes apparent that these people are never who we thought they’d be. They’re people who look like coworkers, neighbors, and who are as warm and sweet as a close family member or friend.

Simply put: they’re not people who we’d ever think would commit murder. But in the case of the following story, a deacon and family man from Minnesota was fooling everyone. Here we explain how forensic specialists, detectives, and prosecutors untangled his web of lies…

Featured photo credit: www.scoopnest.com

College Sweethearts

Stephen and Amy Allwine were college sweethearts. They’d been married for 20 years and they had an 8-year-old adopted son who was the center of their world. Amy, 44, was passionate about her dog training business, Active Dog Sports Training LLC, which she ran out of a barn on their property. Her husband Stephen, 44, was an IT professional in the insurance industry and he also worked from home.

Religious Church-Going Family Man

They were leaders in their church in Minnesota, with Stephen being a deacon and church elder. They even made videos of dance moves consistent with their faith, with limited touching. To the outside world, the couple seemed like they were more than happily married. But on November 13, 2016, Stephen arrived home with his son to find his wife dead on the ground. He said in his chilling 911 call…

Unemotional Call To 911

“I think my wife shot herself, there’s blood all over.” The heart-wrenching call came in a few weeks before Thanksgiving. When police arrived at the home that evening, they found Amy in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to her head and a 9mm handgun to her body. Allwine told police Amy wasn’t feeling well when she woke up that morning. He said he spent the morning working in his basement office.

The Alibi

After lunch, Stephen called his father-in-law to take the couple’s son, so he could take Amy to the doctor. But then Amy started feeling better. So around 5 p.m., Allwine picked up his son from his in-laws, got gas and when they returned home, his son walked into the house first and saw his mother lying on the floor…

Son’s Curious Comment

In the background of the 911 call, you could hear the boy ask a startling question to his father, “Are you going to remarry?” To which, Allwine responded, “I don’t know bud.” Allwine’s response to the bizarre question with a chuckle made the call all the more eery. 

911 Call

Then when the 911 dispatcher asked Allwine if his wife still has the weapon, his response was, “I don’t know, we just got home.” The dispatcher then asked, “Did she shoot herself?” to which Allwine responded, “I don’t know. I just saw her and her blood.” So after he concluded his wife shot herself, he said he didn’t see a gun. Something just didn’t make sense. But, there were other clues that made detectives suspicious…

It Appeared To Be A Crime Scene

The gun was found near the left side of Amy’s body, but she was right-handed. It also appeared Amy’s body had been moved. There was blood splatter in the hallway and ultraviolet light showed bloody footprints. Someone had tried to clean up what detectives considered a crime scene.

Cheating Husband

When Allwine met with police a few days later for an interview, his demeanor seemed flat, showing little emotion. Prosecutors felt it was “creepy.” But in the interview with police, Allwine made a surprising confession. He revealed that months earlier, he had an affair with a woman he met on the cheater’s site, AshleyMadison.com. Detectives then learned of two other women that Allwine had affairs with…

The Dark Web

For detectives, nothing about this case was what it appeared to be. Amy’s death wasn’t a suicide, nor a crime of passion, it was a cold and calculated killing, months in the making. Five months earlier in June 2016, the FBI had contacted the Allwines and Cottage Grove Police. They told the family that they received information that a murder for hire inquiry had been located on the Dark Web, which is a part of the internet that is untraceable.

Hiring A Hitman

Then, they informed the family that Amy Allwine was the “intended target.” The website was called BesaMafia and claimed to be run by Albanian gangsters, contracting with hitmen around the world. Someone had recently hacked the site and posted their private emails for the world to see. This included an email from someone in Minnesota, with the name, Dogdaygod…

Bitcoin

The message read, “I am looking to hire you for a hit, but what is the recommended way to convert cash to bitcoin anonymously.” Dogdaygod continued, “This bitch has torn my family apart by sleeping with my husband (who then left me), and is stealing clients from my business.” Over the next two months, there were dozens of emails, as Dogdaygod sent $13,000 in anonymous Bitcoin to BesaMafia.

Web Of Lies

The user asked them to kill Amy while she traveled out of town to Illinois, making it look like an accident. However, that fell through, but there was another plan to kill Amy at home during Spring Break when her husband and son were away. Dogdaygod writes, “How much would it be to kill her at home, and then burn the house so that they cannot tell if anything was stolen or not?” But that falls through too. It was the level of detail that stood out to detectives as this person knew Amy’s every move. They wondered if Amy could have been having an affair as well? Did she have secrets just like her husband?

BesaMafia Was A Scam

It turns out that BesaMafia was a big scam. After the website was exposed for stealing money from people and then giving every reason under the sun why a hitman never showed up to do their job, they left a note on their website. “Besa Mafia has closed for business. After 6 months of scamming criminals for their bitcoins and stealing over 100 BTC, the site has closed. No one was ever beaten up or killed.”

Solving The Jigsaw Puzzle

The website itself may have been fake, but the threat to Amy was very real. The FBI told the Allwine’s about the threat in June 2016 and 5 months later, Amy was dead. During the investigation, FBI investigators interviewed Amy’s friends, but it was unclear if her husband was ever considered a suspect. In the FBI’s defense, they didn’t have probable cause to seize equipment from the home until after Amy’s death…

Finding The Untraceable Evidence

The $13,000 that Dogdaygod sent to BesaMafia is virtually untraceable unless you know the unique 34 character code, known as a Bitcoin wallet. It was discovered that Allwine had written down a Bitcoin code on his iPhone. Seconds later, that exact address was sent to BesaMafia. But the lucky break didn’t come until months later when that deleted note was backed up on Allwine’s laptop when he connected it with his iPhone.

Drugging His Wife

It appeared that Allwine got a little lazy with his online accounts and he continued using the username Dogdaygod. Dogdaygod was also hanging out on Reddit, asking questions about scopolamine, an anti-nausea drug that in high enough doses acts as a truth serum, making someone almost completely incapacitated. The medical examiner found 40x the recommended dose in Amy’s body, which is likely why she was so sick that morning and so easy to kill. Allwine, being an IT guy, thought he had all his bases covered, but he clearly didn’t…

Charges

In January 2017, Stephen Allwine was arrested and charged with first-degree premeditated murder. Still, many of the Allwine’s friends from church still didn’t believe that Stephen, a man of God, was a cold-blooded killer. Even though Allwine was charged with murder, many church-goers continued to support him, unwilling to believe that he could be a killer. During the two-week trial, they were present every day, learning about his three extramarital affairs.

All Signs Pointed In One Direction

According to investigators, Allwine was never passionate about his innocence and he never once said anything like, “I didn’t do this. You need to find out who did it.” Many would identify Allwine as a “functional psychopath.” For prosecutors, the case was a jigsaw puzzle they pieced together for the jury. While Allwine never took the stand, it took the jury only 8 hours to reach their decision, that Stephen Allwine was guilty on all counts. At sentencing weeks later, Allwine finally spoke saying…

Psychopath

“No one ever talked bad about our relationship…I never went to sleep, and I never woke up without kissing her, the grief of losing her is tremendous.” He continued, “I’ve never asked for anything, except to work for God.” Then, in a letter to the judge, Amy’s parents called Stephen, “A selfish person,” and said, “forgiveness will take time.”

A Complete Facade

To this day, many believe that Amy never had a clue that the person who was trying to kill her wasn’t a rival in the dog business, but instead her husband sleeping beside her for 20 years. Allwine didn’t want to be married anymore and it’s believed that he didn’t want to lose face in his church and divorce was not condoned. Murder was literally a better option for him than divorce. Allwine plans to minister his fellow inmates and he will have plenty of time, as he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Salacious Murder Exposed When FBI Agents Reveal Church-Going Family Man’s Double Life is an article from: LifeDaily

It takes a certain type of person to live out in the wilderness, especially in this day and age. Think about it; who would prefer scrounging for your next meal, enduring the elements, and hiking to and fro exhaustedly for days on end when they can just as easily go to McDonald’s, watch Netflix, and take a cab to work?

This is the story of one man whose decision to hike into the wilderness turned out to be the best decision of his life, and the encounters he made one summer that proved to him that this was true…

The Heart of the Wild

Those who know Donnie would describe him as many things. He’s passionate, respectful, resourceful, intelligent, and athletic, but perhaps more than all that, he’s driven: driven by nature. Ever since he’d been old enough to walk, he’s let his passion for adventure lead him to place where civilized folk rarely dare to traverse.

Who is Donnie?

Donnie is what most would consider the premier example of an explorer, biologist, hunter, conservationist, and sportsman: all wrapped up into one. He’s a man who is inspired by nature and inspires others to be the same. Sometimes though, as he makes his way through the wild world, Donnie has encountered things most could only dream about…

Research in Alaska

Donnie had been in Alaska from May through September of that year. He was doing what he always did, living off the land whilst also completing some valuable research on Alaskan wildlife. He was there to see the salmon spawn and understand the ecological significance of the monumental event.

Fishing at Night

There were several men and women who were with him at the campsite, which was essentially a bunch of loose wooden planks set atop a patch of mud in order to minimize human interaction. Donnie himself stayed in a two-person pup tent for the better part of five months. It was an uneventful experience for the most part, though thrilling and invigorating. Until the evening he decided to do some night fishing by himself…

Bear Country

Donnie Vincent had been fly fishing for grayling one night when he got an eerie feeling. The hairs on the back of his head stood up on end, and he didn’t know why. It felt almost as if someone was watching him from the bushes. For a moment, he worried. He was in bear country after all, and those animals are not easy to dissuade from attacking if they’re in a killing mood.

Lupine Face

His eyes were only just adjusting to the dim light of the evening, but he continued to look intently at the bushes, trying to discern a shape amidst the shadows. Suddenly, a long, lupine face came into focus. A she wolf, a big one, was staring back at him from the alder bushes. Not wanting he turned and tried to go back to fishing…

Emerging

The wolf emerged from the bushes and loped over to the sandbar where Don was standing. She sat down about 3 feet behind him and looked over at the water. If at any point he turned to look at her, her eyes would narrow and she’d growl. He tried talking calmly to her, saying things like, “Hey Mama, just doing some fishing…nothing to worry about.” But of course, wolves are not known for their skillful small talk.

Padding Away

Nevertheless, if he wasn’t looking at her though, he noticed she’d be checking him out. The she-wolf sniffed at the air and examined him carefully. Donnie continued fishing as if nothing was wrong and she soon walked off, leaving him alone once more. He thought this was the last he’d seen of the she wolf, but he was very wrong…

Howls in the Distance

The next day, as he began his evening clean-up at the tent, he heard a low howl in the distance. Despite his reservations about doing so, he howled back. Before he knew it, the wolf was back in the camp, standing down by the river and looking up at his tent. She stared at him, so he growled sweetly back at her and the two made eye contact.

The Night Visitor

Donnie was certain that she might attack, but instead, she settled down on all fours and just stared right back at him, before getting up and padding away. That night, he awoke to the sound of heavy breathing right outside his tent. A deep howl echoed from the shadow and he grabbed up his shotgun. He peeked out the side of the tent flap to see the alpha male wolf sitting there…

Pack Trap

The wolf left without incident that night but as the days wore on, the alpha and the female began following him to the cook tent or down to the genetics research tent. They would parallel Don through the camp, following him, but he wasn’t sure if they were eyeing him up to ambush him when he emerged again, or if they were just curious.

Hunting

That being said, they still behaved in the same way that wolves did, especially when it came to hunting. One day, as Donnie was tracking a rather large bull moose, the wolves began to follow him. They would come around him and his hunting partner, standing about 10 yards away from them and communicating with one another in small growls and yips. But what were they hunting, the moose or the men?

At his Heels

Eventually, Donnie realized that these wolves weren’t the type to just hunt him and his colleagues. They were wary of course and curious, and part of them surely thought of the researchers as food, but they ignored that. Instead, they decided to follow Donnie around and do as he did. They would even hike after him, following him 50-60 miles until he made his way back to camp. The wolves followed him everywhere, just like domesticated dogs.

Opportunity

The reason the wolves had been there, also turned out to be part of why Donnie was there as well. They too wanted to be there when the salmon spawned. Only, their part was to collect all the dead fish that happened to lose their way and end up stranded on the shore. They were all in the right place at the right time, but they were still wolves after all…

Throwing Fish

Donnie continued his work, taking data and samples from the spawning salmon. Every so often, when he’d find a fresh dead one, he would toss the dead fish over to his newfound canine companions. It became something of a symbiotic relationship and the wolves seemed more interested in being his companion for that summer, rather than hunt him.

Symbiotic Relationship

This sort of symbiotic relationship may well have been the way that ancient wolves and prehistoric man developed the relationship we have with man’s best friend today. It was an amazing experience for Donnie Vincent, who had spent his adult life communing with nature. Unfortunately, not all his fellow researchers felt that way…

Killer Wolves

Many of the other researchers were not as happy about the wolves’ perpetual presence at their campsite. They viewed the animals as a constant threat and were all too willing to shoot them if the opportunity presented itself. Donnie wasn’t about to let that happen, and he already had a way to convince them to hold back.

Long-Held Beliefs

Some of those men also happened to be Native Americans, whose cultural history speaks of the spirits of their ancestors being reincarnated into animals. He explained to them that since the wolves’ behavior was unlike that of any other wolves they’d ever encountered, it may well be that these wolves held the souls of their ancestors…

Superstition

The men, fearing the religious implications, decided to stay their hand. Superstitious as this tactic may have been, it worked and the men soon came to accept the presence of the wolves in their camp, just as the wolves had accepted the presence of the men in their territory.

The Summer of Wolves

Donnie Vincent ended up spending a whole summer with the pack and though it wasn’t his only remarkable experience in the field, it most definitely made the top three. For a man whose been to track Bengal Tigers and hunting elk in the Canadian wilds, that is definitely saying something.

Wilderness Researcher Makes Startling Connection In Alaska That Reaffirms His Faith In Nature is an article from: LifeDaily

We often forget where we started, how an adventure begins. Who were the first pioneers to reach and touch the unforgettable unknowns of the world and the universe? Sadly we often find faults with our explorers and heroes who have so many untold stories, so many skeletons, and so many tragedies.

This is a story about one of the least known astronauts in the history of space travel and the legacy that his sacrifice would ultimately create…

Featured photo credit: www.indianexpress.com

So Young

He was only 6 years old when his face was full of more fear than most people could have ever imagined. Being thrown into the unknown, into something he couldn’t possibly have hoped to have understood. He felt the uncertainty of the world. The uncertainty of his survival, and his ignorance to the situation didn’t offer him any bliss.

Stars and Stripes

He fell from the highest reaches of the sky after being placed up there by us. His name was Ham. One of the first astronauts to carry the US flag into a sub-orbital flight after being trained at NASA facilities to help pave the way for humans to start traveling among the stars. Why was he so afraid if he was trained? Did something go wrong?

Post War Adventure

Back in the 1950’s after the war, the US and Russia were the only two nations that still had an ample supply of resources at their disposal. Russia, due to its vast size, and the United States partially due to its late entry into the war, had money to burn and once the world was divided up they turned that energy into competing with each other to see who was better.

For Freedom

The contest for who was better wasn’t one that was going to be solved by guns and the lives of men. No; this time around the contest looked toward the stars and who would be the first to conquer the great unknown. Man has always looked toward the stars with infinite fascination and wonder. These were the heavens, and we were going to have them.

Life Forms

In every point of human history, references can be found in stories and in debates on what is up there. Are they the gods, are there other life forms out there. They were our maps, our legends, our ancestors. But until now, it hadn’t been us and that was about to change.

Space Race

In 1957 the Soviet Union, which at the time was much larger than modern-day Russia, struck the first blow in regards to the space race. The Soviet Union launched what was known as Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite into space that would go on to orbit the earth until the early days of 1958 when it would burn up on reentry.

Upping The Ante

Before the United States could even respond, the USSR upped the ante and launched Sputnik 2. The first spacecraft to be sent into orbit that contained a living creature. At the time, the USSR had an abundance of stray dogs that roamed the streets of Moscow and one of their scientists selected one for their mission.

Dog in Space

Laika was successfully sent into space and her sacrifice was seen as proof that a human could be launched into orbit and survive. Regrettably, at the time, the USSR had yet to develop the methodology to recover a spacecraft from orbit, and Laika was sent into space on a one-way mission.

From Africa

Not to be outdone, the United States had a plan to counter this so they took steps to create their own astronaut team and from the heat of Africa, our explorer Ham, was purchased by the United States Air Force. The intention: to change the world and not only survive the launch into space, but also to return home safely.

His fee was bananas

Ham was originally known as Subject 65, and he was part of an elite team of space chimps who were trained by NASA to perform simple tasks in zero gravity and see if man could survive the launch, reentry, and everything in between while doing work and for the advancement of science in space.

Correct Sequence

Ham and his fellow astronauts were taught a simple sequence of levers that need to be pulled while they would be in orbit in the capsule. Any time the correct sequence was pulled they would get a small reward of banana pellets, and for each mistake, he would receive a shock. Eventually, he and his classmates would all learn the sequence.

These are the Voyages

Ham was chosen to represent the United States as the first hominid in space due to what the scientists noted was his high energy and good humor overall. He would be our ambassador to the stars. To boldly go where only two other man-made objects and a dog have gone before!

Monkey Suit

Fitted with a spacesuit and covered with sensors so that computers on the ground could monitor his vitals, Ham was ready for his inaugural spaceflight. Loaded into the capsule, Ham was secured into his seat, and with the powerful mercury 2 rocket behind him, he was propelled into orbit and making history. But why then would he be so afraid if this is what he had trained for?

Speed Of Sound

During his flight, the vibrations of breaking through Earth’s gravity forced parts of his spacecraft to come undone. His cabin began to lose pressure and the oxygen content began to drop dangerously low. Thankfully, his spacesuit protected him from the crushing forces on his body which would have been worse than any rollercoaster.

Simple Tasks

As he regained his composure, Ham began to perform the simple tasks laid out by the researchers of pulling the levers in the order he had been trained to do. But during takeoff there had been an electrical malfunction. Every correct sequence gave him a shock. He never received any treats, just pain on his 16-minute long flight.

Bolt Out

Things only got worse for Ham, during reentry in which he was subjected to the same powerful forces that had been on his takeoff, so was his ship, and this time a bolt fell out creating a hole. When Ham splashed down in the water, 60 miles from the nearest boat, he began to sink. Had the boat arrived any later, he would have drowned. Ham was retired from the space program after his first flight, and sent to live in a sanctuary for his remaining days.

Honoring Ham

Regrettably, the initial response to the passing of Ham in recognition of his service was to have him unceremoniously stuffed and his skin placed on display. Thankfully that idea was quickly shot down due to outcry as noted in a letter on display in the Smithsonian summing up the feelings of the public. “By treating his body like that of a stupid beast, people will continue thinking of apes as stupid beasts, and not the intelligent, almost human animals they really are.”

Commemoration Plaques

Eventually, in a credit to their service both Ham and Lakia were eventually given honorary plaques and statues to commemorate what they helped accomplish. Lakia was given a statue in Moscow, and Ham was cremated after his death. A memorial plaque was erected at the International Space Hall of Fame, and his bones were given to the national museum of health and medicine.

Animal Rights

Today new animal rights laws prevent most tests from being done on animals for any scientific purpose. Within the last few months the United States has begun to retire its national research chimp supply and has sent them off to retirement communities around the country where they can live out their days together in peace.

Forgive Us

We accept that we have made mistakes and are trying to fix them one step at a time in the scientific community. What we can only hope for now is that our nearest evolutionary cousins forgive us and don’t revolt to start a new society where people are the subjects and are made to into slaves; just like in the famous movie.

Russian Astronaut Goes From Humble Beginnings To Forgotten Hero is an article from: LifeDaily

Children go missing in the United States every day. Sometimes, if they’re very lucky, they’re found quickly, having merely wandered off without realizing. Other times though, these children are not so lucky.

A child was missing and though it hadn’t been for very long, her family was no less concerned than they would have been otherwise. When they finally found her, broken and lying in the street, it would open them up to a world of theories and leave them with a thousand questions…

Austin Family

Paul and Nancy were a happy couple with two beautiful children. Both Chris and Katherine were young still and like most young children in those days, spent most of their time playing outside. They lived in a place called Elder Circle, a small neighborhood not far from Austin, Texas. It was a quiet, safe place to raise children: or so they thought.

Well-Rounded

Even at age six, Katherine was not about to let the grass grow beneath her feet. She took ballet lessons, swimming lessons, and was learning to play soccer. She enjoyed drawing and in her spare time, would build little homes for the bugs she found whilst digging in the garden.  She was the apple of her parent’s eyes…

Daily Errands

It was a hot August day when the ordeal first began. At the start, it had been like any other day. Nancy was getting the kids ready to run some errands and Paul was already off to work. Katherine and Chris were not looking forward to spending the day being run around in the car with their mom, but being six and 9 respectively, they had no choice. On the 7th of August, 1996, Katherine, her mother, Nancy, and her brother, Chris, 9, had been running errands.

Birthday

They went to the math tutor, got some Subway for lunch, and finally managed to pick up a set of golf clubs for Paul. It was his birthday that day and the kids were excited to see him open this rather large gift when they were all finally home after dinner. Unfortunately, Paul would never get to appreciate the clubs…

Postal Boxes

The gift secured, the family headed home. On their way back to the house, Nancy pulled the car up to the postal boxes at the front of the community to pick up the mail. It was at the top of the road, and thankfully not far from their home, because the kids were starting to get really fidgety in the back seat by this point.

Bored and Walking

Katherine was bored from sitting in the car all day and wanted to stretch her legs, so she asked her mother if she could get out and walk back to their house. Being that the Korzilius household was only a few homes down from the mailbox, Nancy figured it would be ok. After all, she’d walked around the small neighborhood many times before…

No Sign

Part of their agreement was that Katherine would take the shorter route to the family home while Nancy and Chris would drive the longer route around Elder Circle. It was a way of showing trust, of letting Katherine know that her mom trusted her to know where she was going. When she didn’t show up back at the house, however, Nancy’s heart sank.

Face-Down

Nancy sent Chris to search for her first. He came back sometime later empty-handed and soon Nancy had to get involved. They got into the car and drove around until they found her six houses away, in the opposite direction of where she was supposed to have walked. Katherine was lying face down on the asphalt and was unconscious. Nancy could tell that something was very wrong…

The Hospital

Nancy ran to her daughter and checked for vital signs. She was breathing, but only just barely. She drove Katherine the 25 minutes down the road to the Seton Medical Center, making sure to go as fast as she possibly could. It was clear from the bump on her head that Katherine had suffered a head injury, but she had no idea how bad it really was.

Passing Away

The six-year-old’s skull had been fractured, and there was bruising all over her. She lay in the hospital bed, clinging to life but remaining completely unconscious the whole time. Sadly, Katherine Korzilius would never regain consciousness. She passed away at the hospital seven hours later. But what had happened to her in the few minutes between the mailboxes and the walk home?

Hit-and-Run

Right from the start, everyone just assumed that Katherine had simply been the victim of an unfortunate hit-and-run. Her family tried to make sense of it all. If she was hit by a car, why was she found in that part of Elder Circle? Their uncertainty was justified once the autopsy results came in.

Cuts and Bruises

It was determined that Katherine’s death was not the result of a hit-and-run accident, although there were some injuries consistent with that. She had indeed suffered a fatal head injury, but also had abrasions on her left shoulder, the small of her back, her right hip, and both knees. The medical examiner’s report only served to deepen the mystery…

Theories

The medical examiner’s theory was that she hadn’t been hit by a vehicle but had possibly either jumped, fallen, or was thrown from the car. This led the investigators to come up with a rather absurd theory about what had happened the day Katherine died, and it involved not a stranger’s car, but her own mother’s…

Hang On a Minute…

The theory proposed by investigators was that Katherine had changed her mind and instead of walking towards the house, had tried to hold on to the back of her mother’s car. Unable to keep hold of even a slow-moving car, Katherine had fallen off and rolled onto the road at Elder Circle. Of course, Paul and Nancy didn’t believe this for a second…

Disbelief

They were so convinced that the investigators’ theory was off-base that they even hired private investigator Barbara O’Brian to look into things. O’Brian noted that since it was a hot August day, it would have been difficult for the six-year-old to hold onto the car at all. Also, Katherine was a smart kid, she wouldn’t have just attempted such a foolish thing.

Specific Things

The private eye tried to look at it from all angles, but she couldn’t see how it could have happened. If she’d held onto any of the handles, the back door would have opened. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Katherine had a broken thumb in a splint on her left hand. She couldn’t have held anything, and surely her mother would have seen her in the mirror…

Things to Remember

Another thing that Nancy recalled about the day she found her daughter’s body was that it didn’t appear as though she’d fallen from anything. Katherine looked as though she had been “laid out” for her to find. Her hair had been purposely smoothed down, her shirt and shorts were straight and still on her, even her sandals were still on. It appeared like something else was at work here.

Abducted

A K-9 unit was eventually called in to pick up Katherine’s scent, which it did in an abandoned lot about 30 yards from the mailboxes. It was Nancy’s theory that her daughter was abducted at that site, and that when she fought back, the abductor murdered her. The scent was lost after the lot, which only raised more questions…

Tribute

At the time of his daughter’s untimely death, Paul Korzilius had been the tour manager for famous rock band Bon Jovi. Katherine’s death affected everyone in her life and that included Bon Jovi, who would later release a song titled “August 7, 4:15,” which was about her death. Their neighbors also planted a tree in memory of her and placed a plaque there in Katherine’s name.

Waiting for Witnesses

Unfortunately, the real story of what actually happened that August day may never be solved. No one in the Korzilius’ neighborhood has come forward to report anything unusual that day. To this day, the mystery remains unsolved. Given the number of unusual theories surrounding it, what do you think happened?

Missing Texas Child Stirs Controversy When Parents Try To Solve The Mystery Themselves is an article from: LifeDaily

It’s a sad fact that many criminals and even murderers get away with their crimes on a daily basis. Even with advanced DNA technology, wily criminals will always get through the cracks somehow. But sometimes the most simple and routine traffic stops can reveal horrible crimes.

It was a normal enough day in Springfield, Massachusetts when Stewart was pulled over for a broken tail light. It would turn out to be the most vital, if not shocking traffic stops these policemen had ever been involved with and it’s just as well that they trusted their guts.

Normal Day

It was a day much like any other in Springfield. Springtime was already very much in the air as the birds tweeted and the sweet scent of seasonal flowers filled the air. Traffic police were stopping suspicious looking vehicles, as well as those with broken tail lights and the like.

Right Place Right Time

The two police officers on duty had already stopped some cars for speeding and handed out tickets for other minor infractions. When they spotted Stewart’s car with a broken tail light they immediately attempted to stop him in order to check his details and most likely issue a ticket…

High Speed Chase

Instead of just complying and pulling over, Stewart decided, for good reason, to bail on the police, as he revved his engine hard forcing the police officers to initiate a high-speed car chase through the streets of Springfield. It was a dangerous car chase, as the police tried their best to avoid collisions with other cars and pedestrians.

Additional Cruiser

The police who gave chase had already requested backup as the car pursuit was getting faster and more dangerous. When a second police cruiser joined the fray, the driver of the car being chased smashed straight into it head on. The car chase was over but the fight was not…

Wrestling Police

Officers weren’t sure whether the man was drunk or high on drugs or both. They were relieved that the dangerous chase was over but they had a violent man on their hands who was putting up a serious fight, doing everything in his power not to get apprehended and arrested by the police. He had good reason though for not wanting to get caught.

Previous History

It only took a matter of minutes for the officers to subdue the man, while one of them checked the police database against his registration and name. They were shocked to learn that this guy has some serious previous history. He had already been charged with crimes in Massachusetts and New Jersey. One a breaking and entering charge and two charges for assault with a dangerous weapon…

Distraught Passenger

The twist in this story, and the one which led to the gruesome discovery came from the passenger in Steward Weldon’s car. The woman, who was distraught after the car chase and crash, told the officers that she had been held captive by Weldon for a month, but there was more to this story than met the eye.

Daily Beatings

While profusely thanking the officers for saving her life, the woman told them that Weldon has abducted her a month earlier and had sexually assaulted her, beat her with a hammer and other objects for no reason at all. “Thank you for saving my life,” she said, “I never thought I would get away.”

No Mercy

The police were clear about one thing; they were dealing with some kind of sadist or psychopath. After they took the poor woman to hospital she was admitted with what the police report called “grotesque and violent” injuries. She had a broken jaw, stab wounds to her abdomen and signs of trauma from being hit by a blunt object.

House Of Horrors

The last thing investigators were expecting to find was three dead bodies at Weldon’s residence. What started as a routine traffic stop turned rapidly into a triple homicide, but it got even worse than that. The torture these women were subjected to was shocking to the officers, even the veterans among them…

The Victims

None of the officers working the case even wanted to know what the motive was. The state of the 3 dead bodies, all of which were women, said it all. Meanwhile, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni identified the bodies as Ernestine Ryans, 47, and America Lyden, 34, both of Springfield; and Kayla Escalante, 27, of Ludlow.

Total Outrage

The families of the victims were understandably outraged by the revelations. According to Gulluni, the families remain “distraught and heartbroken,” after the gruesome discoveries. While the actual causes of death are yet to be revealed, there is no doubt that these women suffered horribly at the hands of a heartless and probably soulless sadist…

Not Guilty?!

As if the story couldn’t get any worse, Weldon pleaded not guilty to all charges against him at his first arraignment, including kidnapping with serious bodily injury, threat to commit a murder, resisting arrest and five related charges. He also denied he was guilty during a second court case, claiming he did nothing wrong, despite the mountain of evidence.

Addressing Bail

Weldon’s attorney waived a reading of a complaint he had previously made related to an obscure legal technicality, “Mr. Weldon has entered his plea of not guilty and looks forward to addressing these charges in the future in court as well as addressing bail at a later date,” public defender Matthew Fleischner said…

More History

It came out in the wash that Weldon had been involved in numerous run-ins with the law in the previous year. Back in October, for example, a police report shows that Weldon was accused of assaulting a woman on the street. He struggled during the arrest and even bit an officer’s leg as he resisted. He was found guilty and released on $1,000 bail at the time.

America Lyden

America was 34 years old when she was abducted and tortured by Weldon. Having been missing for more than a year her family had no idea what had happened to her until they received that call from the police. Her cousin Angela Rodriguez told reporters, “America was loved by her family very much, very deeply, unconditionally.”

Ernestine Ryans

Ernestine was the oldest of Weldon’s victims and was 47 when she was taken by the killer. Her brother Anthony Ryans said his sister was a wonderful person who didn’t deserve the end that she met, “She didn’t deserve for her life to end in the manner in which it did. And that’s the hardest part for us that she died alone and we couldn’t be there to help.” He said.

Kayla Escalante

Kayla was the youngest victim at 27. Her last Facebook photo posting from December shows her in a hospital gown proudly holding her newborn baby, with a comment which reads, “It’s so nice to hear and say…my family. I love it. I love my family. We have the greatest family ever!!!” Her Facebook account went mysteriously quiet after that, and it soon became clear why…

Dangerous Man

Authorities knew that Weldon was a dangerous man, but for legal reasons were unable to keep him behind bars. DA Gulluni said at the time, “We did everything we could to keep him behind bars, and that wasn’t the outcome.” Although it’s doubtful that Weldon will be released from police custody any time soon.

Working Alone

Perhaps the only silver lining in this case is that Stewart Weldon worked alone and all of his victims have now been located. A neighbor said he was a “strange looking man, but also “looked like an angry man,” LeAnne Lumiere said. Another neighbor added, “We were so close, and yet we never knew what was going on in that house. It’s not good. I fear for my life now.”

House Of Horrors Discovered After Routine Traffic Stop Turns Wild is an article from: LifeDaily

Dorothy was your average single mother who doted day and night on her only 4-year-old son who she had sole responsibility for. She was also a hard worker and a good friend, as well as a person that everyone trusted completely.

It was at a work meeting when Dorothy noticed that her colleague had a big red rash on his arm and she suspected he had been bitten by something potentially dangerous. But when a routine trip to the hospital ended up as something much worse, a whole community was left stunned and picking up the pieces…

Close Family

Dorothy hardly knew the father of her little boy but she loved and cared for his every need without question. She lived with her aunt in Anaheim, California, just a 20 minute drive from her parents, who she used to visit often. Dorothy may have been a single mother but she was also part of a tight and loving family that gave her all the support she needed.

Working Mom

Since she became an adult Dorothy worked hard for her money and relied on no one else but herself. At the age of 32, she was working two jobs; both as a back-office secretary, at Swinger’s Psych Shop and Custom John’s Head Shop. She was a conscientious worker and a pleasure to be around and was described by her family as a “kind, compassionate, churchgoing young woman.”

Strange Calls

One day, Dorothy began receiving strange phone calls at home from a man who refused to identify himself. She claimed she recognized the man’s voice but couldn’t quite place it. The calls were strange in that sometimes the man would speak calmly and sometimes he would shout. Dorothy wasn’t overly concerned, until one phone call which raised some major red flags for her.

Verbal Threats

During one of the more angry calls with the stranger, Dorothy, who kept quiet for the most part, was alarmed when the man said, “OK, now you’re going to come my way and when I get you alone I will cut you up into bits so no one will ever find you.” If that wasn’t worrying enough, the caller also told her that he was watching her every move…

Self-Defense Classes

Dorothy was shaken and with good reason, so she decided to take self-defense classes just in case she ever needed to defend herself. She spoke about buying a gun but ultimately decided against it for fear that her son Shawn might find it. Life went on as usual, but Dorothy now had a nagging voice of worry in the back of her head.

Staff Meeting

It was a pleasant spring evening in May when Dorothy needed to attend a staff meeting at the office. She dropped her son off at her parent’s house and made her way to the meeting. During that routine staff meeting, however, Dorothy noticed a swelling red rash on her co-worker’s arm and decided to take Conrad to the hospital to get it checked out…

Helping Out

It was so Dorothy to drop everything in order to help someone out, so nobody was surprised. Her friend Pam came along for the ride to the UCI Medical Center, just to make sure that the red mark on Conrad’s arm wasn’t something too sinister. Dorothy went via her parent’s home to check on Shawn and then headed over the hospital.

Black Widow Bite

Lucky for Conrad, Dorothy was right; he had been bitten by a black widow spider, a potentially deadly bite that needed urgent medical attention. After Conrad was treated the three left the hospital, while Dorothy went around the back to bring the car to the front of the hospital to take Conrad and Pam back home. The two waited for Dorothy but she sure was taking her time…

Total Shock

After about ten minutes passed Pam and Conrad finally spotted her Toyota station wagon careering towards them at high speed with full beams. Whoever was driving the car swerved to narrowly miss Pam and Conrad before making a right turn and switching off the headlights. Conrad and Pam knew something wasn’t right and immediately contacted Dorothy’s parents.

Police Called

As neither of Dorothy’s parents had seen or heard from their daughter the police were called. They took the missing person’s report but weren’t overly concerned as the hours passed by. It was a strange situation but neither the police nor Pam or Conrad knew anything about the threatening phone calls Dorothy had been receiving…

Car Found

The next day Dorothy’s car was found abandoned and burnt out completely in an alley around ten miles from Santa Ana. Police investigating the case told Dorothy’s parents not to talk to reporters while they initiated a massive manhunt for Dorothy. But then, one week later.

Kidnapped

Vera remembers answering her phone that night, as a disguised male voice asked, “Are you related to Dorothy Scott?” To which Vera replied “yes.” The man just said “I’ve got her” and hung up the phone. That, understandably, sent Vera and her husband into a panic and they called the police once more…

Reaching Out

For whatever reasons, Jacob Scott, Dorothy’s father, reached out to the Santa Ana Register who ran a story about the case. That same day, the editor of the piece, Pat Riley, received a phone call from the same man who confessed, “I killed her. I killed Dorothy Scott. She was my love. I caught her cheating with another man. She denied having someone else. I killed her.” The fact that Dorothy wasn’t dating anyone at the time made everyone very curious.

Every Wednesday

The shocking and possibly the most harrowing detail of this already dark story is that Vera, Dorothy’s mom, received a phone call each and every Wednesday from the same man who claimed to have killed Dorothy and that went on for the next four years!

Remains Found

Three months would pass before everyone’s worst fears were confirmed. A construction worker had come across some skeletal remains along Santa Ana Canyon Road in Anaheim. The man found a human head, pelvis, two thighs and an arm. The remains were soon identified as Dorothy’s, but why had someone killed and dismembered her body?

Calls Persist

As if the Scotts hadn’t been through enough trauma, the calls from the killer persisted every Wednesday when Vera was home alone. The man would taunt Vera asking her if Dorothy was home before hanging up. The calls only stopped when, one day in April, Jacob was home and answered the phone himself…

The Suspect

Years after the murder, it came out that Dorothy was acquainted with a man called Mike Butler who used to be the owner of the shop where she worked. Butler knew Dorothy through his sister but according to reports he became obsessed with Dorothy. He lived alone in the mountains and was known to be unstable as well as involved in cult activities. Police knew all about him but didn’t have sufficient evidence to even hold him in custody.

Likely Scenario

According to the police report, the most likely scenario is that Butler followed Dorothy to the UCI Medical Center that night and waited for her in the parking lot. He got lucky when she emerged by herself but was upset that she was with Conrad. Police think he then threw her into her own car and sped off. Neither Pat nor Conrad were able to see who was driving the car that night.

Never Solved

It’s a tragic fact that this case was never even nearly solved, while accusations against Butler never went further than just accusations. Due to the fact there was no DNA testing at the time Dorothy was abducted and murdered, detectives were left at a loose end and were also unable to ever track the Wednesday phone caller.

All Together

Sadly, there’s no happy ending to this story as Jacob Scott passed away just a few years after his daughter’s death, while Vera passed 8 years later. Investigators are still open to leads which could answer some questions; if nothing else, for Dorothy’s son Shawn who is now an adult himself.

Single Mother’s Mysterious Disappearance Baffles Detectives is an article from: LifeDaily

When we think about history, we generally believe that we know everything about the past, especially about recent history. After all, if it happened after the invention of paper, surely someone was around to write down all the important stuff.

The trouble is, human beings make mistakes and there are always things that slip through the cracks. When one woman stumbled across a minor mystery from the past, she would find help solving it from an unexpected place…

Children’s Book

Candace Andersen was an illustrator who was working on a children’s book about orcas. One of the topics in the book was going to be the US Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 so, as any good creator would, Candace decided she needed to do a bit of research.

Eye-Catching Photo

She contacted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for some information and they sent her a lengthy article on the subject. As she was reading through the dozens of pages of dense text, there was a photograph in it that caught her eye…

38 Faces

The photograph was of the attendees at the 1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales in Virginia, which was a gathering of some of the most prominent experts in marine biology at the time. The 38 people in the picture where mostly white and all men except for one.

Mystery Woman

In the third row of the picture, her face partially obscured by the man in front of her was a black woman wearing a bright headband. While all of the men in the photograph had their names in a caption, the woman’s caption merely said, “not identified”…

Who Could She Be?

“My curiosity nagged at me, not knowing who the woman in the photo was, or perhaps what she may have contributed to the conference,” Candace said. Without having anywhere to turn to find the woman’s identity, she turned to social media.

Mission

“Hey Twitter,” she wrote in a post. “‘I’m on a mission.” After she posted the photo, she quickly received hundreds of replies, many of them with suggestions of the woman’s identity. The conversation went viral and eventually caught the attention of an expert on the subject…

Hidden Figures

That expert was Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of the book Hidden Figures, which was turned into an Oscar-nominated 2016 film about the black women who worked as mathematicians at NASA during the Space Race. In Shetterly’s opinion, the fact that this woman was overlooked was emblematic of a larger trend.

Half-Obscured

“Here’s a working scientist, contributing alongside her colleagues, and she’s not even given the professional courtesy of having her name recorded at a scientific conference,” Shetterly said. “The photo, with her brown face half-obscured by the people around her, is a perfect metaphor for the larger issue of history’s failure to record the work of women scientists, particularly women scientists of color.”…

Possible Match?

Among the suggestions was Matilene Spencer Berryman, an oceanographer, professor and lawyer who died in 2003, and Suzanne Contos, a woman who helped organize the conference. But Berryman’s age didn’t seem to match the photo and when Candace contacted Contos, she said it wasn’t her.

Someone Knows

But thankfully, the viral twitter campaign came to the attention of Don Wilson, an archivist at the Smithsonian, who recognized the woman. Her name was Sheila Minor Huff who, at the time, was a biological specimen analyst at the Fish and Wildlife Service…

Facebook Search

Candace was delighted to have been able to track down the mystery woman but the story didn’t end there. Because there was a decent chance that Sheila was still alive, Candace did a search on Facebook to try and find her.

A Personality

After a day of searching through profiles, Candace had narrowed it down to who she thought was the right person and sent Sheila a message before heading to bed. When she awoke to a reply with an “OMG” and the “heart eyes emoji,” Candace was ecstatic. Not only was she “a living, breathing woman,” she thought, “she’s got a personality.”…

Beautiful Soul

When Candace spoke to her on the phone later that day, she found out just how much of a personality Sheila had. “She’s very sweet. Humble, kind-hearted, positive. She didn’t have a negative thing whatsoever to say,” she said. As the two talked for over an hour, Candace learned a bit of Sheila’s life story.

Quite A Career

It turned out Sheila had had a 35-year scientific career with the federal government that began with her first job after getting her bachelor’s in biology, working as an animal technician with the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. When she first applied, she was asked to work as a typist. “I said, ‘No, I went to school too long to be your secretary,’” Sheila said…

Bottom To The Top

Over the years, she completed her master’s degree while still working full time, went to the Soviet Union to attend a conference for mammalogists, and worked her way up the ranks, even running a Department of the Interior office in Chicago for a period before she retired just 12 years ago at the age of 58 as a GS-14 federal employee, one of the highest designations possible.

Not In It For Fame

Sheila said she wasn’t too bothered about going unnamed in the 1971 photograph. “It’s kind of like, no big deal,” she said. “When I try to do good, when I try and add back to this wonderful Earth that we have when I try to protect it, does it matter that anybody knows my name?”…

What’s The Fuss?

More than anything, she was tickled by the idea that so many people were interested in finding out more about her. “I had to go to open a Twitter account to see what all the fuss was about,” she said.

Happy Place

Now that Sheila’s retired, she focuses her attention on being a grandmother and volunteering at her church. Never one to be uninteresting, she also loves to drive around in her convertible and take belly dancing classes, two activities she says take her to her “happy place.”

Plan B

“Always have a Plan B where you can go to your happy place,” Sheila said. “It relieves me of stress and worry, it’s good exercise and I think it helps people lead a better life.” Considering her accomplishments, her lifelong interest in dance and her use of it as a stress reliever seems to work pretty well.

Telling The Story

Candace Andersen was so inspired by meeting Sheila and learning about the conference that she “considered writing a book about the events or Sheila herself,” she said. “I wish the finding of Sheila could become a piece of a bigger picture; like that of a series of episodes about uncovering unnamed or unrecognized women in STEM.”

Woman Solves Mystery Of Unnamed Scientist After Search Goes Viral On Twitter is an article from: LifeDaily

One of the hardest parts of parenthood is the moment you realize that your child doesn’t need you anymore. The only thing worse is realizing your child ‘failed to launch’.

In 2018, an elderly couple from Winfield, Illinois realized they had been enabling their dependant 50-year-old son who had never moved out. When they decided it was time to make some changes, however, their son didn’t take the news very well…

A Quiet Neighborhood

On May 21, 2018, a couple from a quiet neighborhood in Winfield, Illinois, noticed something unusual about the house right next door to their home. According to homeowner Katie Earls, she and her husband, Harry, noticed the lights in the home had stayed on all night.

Creatures Of Habit

If it had been any other home in the neighborhood, it wouldn’t have been a cause for concern. But Katie and Harry knew that the elderly couple next door never left lights on overnight and were normally very consistent with their routines and how they maintained the house…

Cause For Concern

The lights alone had been enough for the couple to worry whether something was wrong, but they were certain something was wrong when they saw 1 of the couple’s 2 dogs standing completely alone in the middle of the driveway outside the home.

A Friendly Check-Up

Katie and Harry decided it would be best to go check on the elderly couple to make sure they were both alright and to tell them that their dog was loose. “I’m like, something’s going on here, so I started banging on the door, ringing the doorbell,” Katie said…

Peeking In

“All the lights were on in the house. I didn’t see anything,” Katie added. At that point, the couple wasn’t sure if their neighbors were even home, so Harry tried peeking through a window to see if he could see Nancy or Clyde Clinkenbeard, or their older son who lived with them.

A Disturbing Scene

After looking through the kitchen window, however, Harry realized the situation was worse than they ever imagined. Inside, he could see Clyde, who everyone called Tom, and his 50-year-old son, Karl, lying motionless on the kitchen floor…

The 911 Call

Harry immediately told Katie to call the police, and Katie explained to the 911 dispatcher what they had seen inside the house. The couple couldn’t give the dispatcher any more details, so police and an ambulance was sent straight to the residential home.

A Familiar Address

When police officers on duty saw the address in the 500 block of Jefferson Street from the 911 call, they recognized the home right away since they had been sent there just 2 days earlier on May 19 after there had been a domestic dispute…

A Family Disturbance

According to the police, they had been called to the home to settle a ‘family disturbance’ after the couple’s 50-year-old son got into an altercation with a relative who did not live in the home. When they left the home, the situation seemed to be under control.

Another House Call

However, now the officers heading back to the home wondered if there had been another altercation as dispatch didn’t give them many details about what had happened. However, when they arrived at the scene, they realized it was much worse than they assumed…

A Forced Entry

Officers arrived at the home at about 6 in the morning. When no one in the home answered their repeated knocks, they forced their way inside and found 2 people inside the kitchen like the neighbors had reported after looking in the windows.

A Grisly Discovery

Both Clyde Clinkenbeard and Karl Clinkenbeard were both dead. After searching the rest of the home, police also found 76-year-old Nancy in another room, but sadly, she was also dead.  According to the police, all 3 family members had sustained multiple sharp force entry wounds…

An Investigation Begins

The victims clearly did not die of natural causes, so the police opened up an investigation and sent the bodies to be examined by the coroner’s office. When the coroner’s report was finished about 36 hours later, the results were extremely disturbing.

The Autopsy Results

According to the report, Nancy and 77-year-old Clyde had both been killed by their son Karl, who then committed suicide shortly after murdering his parents, which police estimated took place sometime between 12 p.m. and 1:15 p.m. on May 20…

The Victims

Nancy and Clyde, who were found the day after they were murdered, had both been upstanding members of the community and had lived in their home for decades. Both were retired, but Nancy had worked as a reading specialist in Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200.

Senseless Deaths

Clyde had worked hard as a maintenance employee with the same school district. At first, police couldn’t understand why anyone, especially their own adult child, would do something so horrific to the elderly couple. Then police started looking into the son…

A Bad Track Record

When investigators started looking into Karl Clinkenbeard, everything started making sense. According to police, Clinkenbeard had a long history of violence, drug abuse, and mental health issues that all began when he was a teenager. According to old records, Clinkenbeard started smoking marijuana at 14, started drinking when he was 15 and was drinking about a case of beer every day by the time he was 17 years old. Later, he occasionally did other drugs like cocaine, PCP, and narcotics.

The Diagnosis

Clinkenbeard had 2 felony convictions for burglary in 1988 and possession of a weapon by a felon in 1990. In 2013, he also was charged with domestic battery after punching a male family member. Over the years, he spent time in mental health facilities and was eventually diagnosed as bipolar…

A Sad Realization

In 2018, the 50-year-old was still living at home with his parents and was unemployed. His parents had never known how to handle him and allowed him to be dependant on them for decades. However, recently, they had realized that they had only enabled his behavior and dependency.

A Son’s Revenge

The couple had planned to make Clinkenbeard move out from their home in the hopes that it would help him finally get his life on track. When he discovered their plan, however, police explained that he snapped and made sure that would never happen.

50-Year-Old Son Exacts Revenge When Elderly Parents Want To Evict Him is an article from: LifeDaily

Our passions and dreams are what make life worth living, but sometimes the things we need to do in order to live get in the way of our dreams.

A father in Oklahoma always dreamed of opening up his own restaurant and serving his food to hungry customers. However, when life kept convincing him that his dream was impossible, he nearly gave it up until a single tweet from his daughter changed everything…

A Lifelong Dream

For as long as Dewayne Callahan can remember, he has always loved cooking delicious food as well as eating it. As he was growing up in Chicago, Illinois, he always dreamed of opening up his own restaurant and spending his days in the kitchen cooking his best dishes for customers.

Life Happens

Sadly, however, Dewayne was forced to push that dream to the side when life got in the way. Eventually, Dewayne ended up moving away from his native Chicago to Oklahoma, where he settled down and started a family…

Supporting His Family

Dewayne didn’t have the time or money to open up his own restaurant and start his own business. Instead, he studied and trained to become a radiation therapist, which is what he still does every Monday through Friday to supports his family.

A Career Vs. A Calling

While his work as a radiation therapist is important and fulfilling, he still couldn’t forget about his real passion which is cooking and his dream to open up his own restaurant. Sadly, that dream was still unattainable as he had to work full-time…

An Unattainable Dream

However, no matter how much Dewayne tried to ignore his passion, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. For months, the Oklahoma dad tried to think up ways he could possibly afford to start his own business and open up his restaurant.

Brainstorming The Impossible

Most of the ideas he came up with simply wouldn’t work because his schedule was already too busy and because he didn’t have enough funds to start the business. Then 1 day, Dewayne thought of an idea that would allow him to follow his dreams without risking his family’s well being…

The Food Stand

Dewayne had the idea to open up a food stand at weekend events inspired by the hot dog stands he grew up seeing when he was living in Chicago. “I grew up eating Vienna beef hot dogs,” Dewayne said about his inspiration for his own hot dog stand.

Best Of Both Worlds

“Cooking and food have been my passion for a long time if you can’t tell,” said Dewayne as he gestured to his stomach. “I love to eat and I love to cook.” For Dewayne, a food stand was the best of both worlds. It still allowed him to do what he loved, but there was a much smaller financial and time investment…

Back To His Roots

However, Dewayne wanted to figure out a way to make his food different from everything else being sold in Oklahoma. Yet again, Dewayne went back to his roots. “We decided you know what, let’s just go with where we’re from,” Dewayne said about his food stand idea.

Some Chicago Flair In Oklahoma

“We’ll bring some of the Chicago flair to the OKC area,” said Dewayne, who came up with the idea to do his own version of classic Chicago hot dogs, which were impossible to get in Oklahoma. “Why not put your own spin on them,” he said. “So I came up with the mac-n-cheese dog…”

The Preparation Begins

After Dewayne purchased his own hot dog stand, he made the sign for his stand and purchased all the ingredients his recipes called for. After some time trying out several recipes, Dewayne was confident he had made the ‘perfect dog’.

The Perfect Hot Dog

“When we were doing the planning, we went with a 1/6th-pound dog or a six to one,” Dewayne said about his carefully created hot dogs. “Because I felt like I wanted to be able to offer people a little more dog, but not overwhelm them with dog…”

The Supportive Family

Even his 2 daughters and stepson agree that his food is delicious. “They are very good,” Dewayne’s 16-year-old daughter, Maddi, said. “I would say if they weren’t, trust me. I’d tell him if they were not so good.”

A Family Affair

In fact, his kids were so supportive that they even agreed to help him out on the weekends while he was out at different events trying to sell his food. Despite all the time spent planning and perfecting recipes, the hot dog stand wasn’t as successful as Dewayne had hoped…

A Struggling Dream

During 1 weekend, Maddi was out helping her dad with the food stand, which sells more than just hot dogs. She couldn’t help but notice that they hadn’t gotten many customers and her dad was worried that he couldn’t justify his passion if it wasn’t bringing any money in.

A Lifechanging Idea

“It was slow and he was kind of upset that it wasn’t going so well,” Maddi said about the afternoon that her dad started thinking about giving up his dream for good. That afternoon, however, Maddi thought of an idea that would change everything…

A Simple Idea

Maddi came up with an idea to tweet about her dad’s food stand and how passionate he was about it. Even though she only had about 200 followers on her Twitter account, she had seen other similar posts from strangers go viral and hoped hers would do the same.

The Tweet

“I’ve seen posts where people have like put their parents on there and business just went up,” said Maddi. “Guys, my dad literally loves cooking so much, & owning this business means the world to him. His food is seriously amazing & he makes a lot more food than just hot dogs lol, I don’t have many followers so this won’t get much exposure but if you see this plz Rt it,” she wrote on her Twitter along with a photo of her dad…

Blown Away By The Support

Maddi’s plan worked just as she had hoped. “All of a sudden my phone just starts blowing up,” she said. “And the next day it was like 50,000 and I was like whoa… this is insane,” she said. Maddi’s tweet had received hundreds of thousands of retweets and likes.

A Dream Is Restored

“It’s a good thing. It makes me happy that it brought us this close,” Maddi said. Dewayne has been blown away by the attention and the new support from people in the community and around the world. Thanks to that support, he now is determined to open up his own restaurant. “You guys are really helping us get there, thank you so much!!”’ Maddi added.   

16-Year-Old’s Tweet Single Handedly Saves Dad’s Struggling Dream Business is an article from: LifeDaily

They say that trials and tribulations in life make one a better person. Personally, I believe that to be partly true. It is only by overcoming obstacles, loss, and limitations that we can truly ascend to greatness, and the man in today’s story is a prime example of this.

His accomplishments notwithstanding, today’s prevailing pontiff has recently come under scrutiny for a family secret in his past that has had a pretty significant effect on his self-identity, and indeed how some of the world now sees him…

Archbishop

Between his self-described “messy upbringing” and the moments of tragedy that rocked his young life, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has lived an interesting life indeed. An accomplished orator and true follower of Almighty God, the Archbishop has, for all his years, attempted to live his life by adhering to the tenets and values of the Anglican Church.

Personal Loss

His life was not without its tribulations or without trials. In 1983, he and his wife Caroline lost their first daughter, seven-month-old Johanna, in a car crash. It was a devastating blow and though he would never admit it openly, it shook his faith in ways even he couldn’t have imagined. Still, he soldiered on, he had, after all, been through worse times…

The Father

Justin Welby’s young life had been a difficult one. His father, a whisky salesman and son of a Jewish immigrant, Gavin Welby, had run for parliament twice but failed. Gavin was the type of man who “brought his work home with him,” if you catch my meaning. Justin and his mother Jane were tasked with dealing with his alcoholism on more than one occasion.

Scoundrel

Welby was, according to most people who knew him, a scoundrel. The Archbishop’s mother, Jane, described him as “a strong, possessive character” who began “bullying” her to run away with him almost from the start. They were married briefly, but three years into the union, Gavin fell in love with 23-year-old actress Vanessa Redgrave, and even went as far as to tell her father, Sir Michael Redgrave, they were going to marry…

“Rotten Piece of Work”

The Redgraves also happened to believe that Gavin Welby was, as they so eloquently put it, “a rotten piece of work” and they persuaded Vanessa to break it off. After that, Welby’s alcoholism got the best of him and he died alone in his apartment at the age of 67. Justin, on the other hand, managed to get out from under those difficult times and ascend to something greater than his father.

Grace and Trials

“Although there are elements of sadness, and even tragedy in my father’s case,” explained Justin in an interview some years ago. “This is a story of redemption and hope from a place of tumultuous difficulty and near despair in several lives…” What the Archbishop didn’t know at the time was that Gavin Welby, the man he knew as his father, was no such thing…

Honeymoon Baby

The Archbishop had heard rumors about his paternity before the real news surfaced of course. At the time, he had simply dismissed them as nonsense. After all, Justin had been born exactly nine months after Jane and Gavin had married. He always assumed that he, like so many others, was a honeymoon baby.

Illegitimate

What he didn’t know, what his mother didn’t even really know, was that Gavin Welby hadn’t gotten the chance to impregnate his new bride at all, because some other fellow had gotten there before him. The Archbishop of Canterbury had an illegitimate father and a DNA test was about to reveal not only who that mystery man was, but also what it meant for his understanding of his family history…

Settling the Matter

The whole issue was brought up when the rumors the Archbishop had been hearing for years were given credence by a newspaper doing research on his background. To get ahead of the ensuing media circus, Justin Welby decided to take a DNA test to settle the matter. The test compared his mouth swabs with the hair samples the testing agency had received from the potential dad.

Real Father

The results showed a 99.9779 % probable match. Justin Welby’s real father turned out to be Winston Churchill’s private secretary and RAF pilot, Sir Anthony Montague Browne. For those who aren’t aware, Sir Anthony Montague Browne served Churchill in Downing Street and even afterward during his retirement. But that was the least of what he did for his country…

Complete Surprise

The 60-year-old Archbishop was completely surprised by the results but described them as more of a “revelation” than anything else. As appropriate as that particular descriptor is for an Archbishop, it left a great deal of questions for his 86-year-old mother Jane, who was now the Lady Williams of Elvel after having remarried.

Knew Him Intimately

Justin remembered meeting Sir Anthony as a lad, through his mother’s Downing Street contacts but never had any clue who he truly was. Lady Williams of Elvel met with her son and explained that the DNA test was true, she had indeed had a brief liaison with Sir Anthony shortly before she married Welby. At the time though, neither she nor Gavin had suspected that Justin was not their own…

Wartime Pilot

In addition to being Sir Winston’s private secretary, Sir Anthony Montague Browne was also a decorated wartime RAF pilot, who fought in World War II. After the war, he decided to join the Foreign Office and worked directly as second-in-command to Churchill from 1952 until the former prime minister’s death in 1965. Sir Anthony himself died in 2013

Gaining a Sister

Sir Anthony’s widow, the Lady Montague Browne, made sure to keep several personal effects after his death. A few of these were hair brushes, which contained the most accessible DNA samples for use in testing. In learning where he came from, the Archbishop also gained a half-sister named Jane as well. Happy as he was to learn about his true past, his mother still had some explaining to do…

Coming Clean

Lady Williams of Elvel herself had become fairly involved in politics in her time. She’d been a magistrate and a deputy lieutenant for Greater London and had enjoyed a long career of public service. When the news of her dalliance became public, she admitted that her son deserved an explanation and to that end has been as open as she could be.

Blame it on the Booze

She explained that her relationship with Sir Anthony was admittedly, “fuelled by a large amount of alcohol on both sides” and that the two had shared a bed mere days before she walked down the aisle with Gavin Welby. She added that, “It appears that the precautions taken at the time didn’t work and my wonderful son was conceived as a result of this liaison…”

Proud of Mum

Lady Jane had also struggled with alcoholism at one time or another in her life and though she had been in recovery since 1968, the knowledge of what her son must think of her because of it has always haunted her. For his part, the Archbishop was not upset at her mother and hasn’t been at all since learning the news. He has always been enormously proud of her.

No Resentment

Justin Welby is taking the news of his true heritage in his stride and in a very classy and honorable, unequivocally British way. “There is no existential crisis and no resentment against anyone…Although there are elements of sadness, and even tragedy in my father’s case, this is a story of redemption and hope from a place of tumultuous difficulty and near despair in several lives..” There were some questions raised by other parties involved as well though…

Potential Complications

In true British fashion, the discovery gave Lambeth Palace cause to check canon law and make sure that the Archbishop’s position wasn’t at all impacted by the fact that he was born illegitimately. Luckily for Justin Welby, the law barring these men from becoming archbishops was removed in the fifties and his position was secure.

Others Knew

Sir Anthony’s widow, Lady Montague Browne, who worked as personal secretary to Churchill’s wife, Clementine, had long suspected that her husband had an illegitimate son. She had suspected that Sir Anthony was the Archbishop’s father for some time, merely based on the unmistakable resemblance. Also, Sir Anthony once told her that he thought he had a son.

DNA Testing Reveals Church Luminary’s Secret And Previously Unknown Origins is an article from: LifeDaily

In today’s chaotic world, we may sometimes feel that real humanity has become a distant memory from the past. But, like a bright rainbow after a rainy day, there are those whose acts of kindness replenish our hope.

A man from New Brunswick, Canada is now being calling “Uber Rob” by locals for his heroic efforts in helping residents isolated by the province’s extreme flooding.

Flooding And Chaos

Record floods have brought chaos to a large swath of southern New Brunswick. Key highways have been submerged in water, forcing many residents to evacuate. But, there are still many residents who were not able to evacuate in time, trapped in their homes, and having no place to go..

Trapped

Residents of the small community, tucked between Nauwigewauk and Hampton in southern New Brunswick, have been cut off from the mainland for days. Floodwaters have submerged all the roads to the mainland, making it impassable for vehicles.

A Catastrophe

With torrential rainfall still in the forecast and the flooding becoming worse by the minute, many parts of the town had already been covered in water. Residents had never experienced anything like this before in their lives, describing the unprecedented flooding as a “catastrophe.”

Things Got Worse

On Monday, people could wade across in their rubber boots. By Tuesday, they needed hip-waders to get through the cold, murky water. And by Wednesday, people were forced to use chest-waders, canoes or kayaks. By Thursday things made a turn for the worse…

More Rain To Come

The water level has reached 5.4 feet and it doesn’t stop there. Emergency officials predict the river will continue to rise from the unforgivable rain, producing record-breaking levels of about six feet by Sunday.

You’re On Your Own

It’s up to residents to find their own way to work, school, and medical appointments. But, the effects of the flooding have caused greater impact on the local senior citizen population, who have not had any access to medication vital to their well being. And with more rain predicted in the upcoming days, residents of the small town felt abandoned and helpless.

A Helping Hand

Most residents have sandbagged their homes in an effort to hold back the rising waters, but with little success. One resident, Kathy Gilmore and a group of neighbors were filling sandbags to protect her home. The water was still a few feet away from her foundations, but with more rainfall in the next few days, she knew the grim reality…

Debris Floating In The Water

It is becoming more challenging as the water level goes up, bringing it more because of debris from people’s yards. “I literally saw the kitchen sink floating by me,” one resident says, “I’m seeing couches, logs, rafters from houses, you name it, it’s out there and it’s just like going through the Everglades”.

Dirty Water

The flood waters have deposited all sorts of debris, including logs, wood, and even propane tanks, creating an extremely unsafe and dire situation for the residents.  “The water is dirty, absolutely,” said Greg MacCallum, director of the province’s Emergency Measures Organization.

A Hero To The Rescue

Feeling neglected by the local officials for their delayed response and lack of support, residents were running out of time. Thankfully, the prayers of the helpless residents had been answered. Not from their local government, but a local gentleman who has earned the nickname “Uber Rob”…

A Symbol Of Hope

Uber Rob had become a symbol of New Brunswick resilience. Rob has been using his powerboat to ferry flood-stranded Darlings Island residents to and from the mainland all week. But unlike Uber, his water taxi is free…

Not Even A Resident

Rob doesn’t even live on Darlings Island, but he grew up on the Hammond River and has never seen the water so high. “I do it because if I was in this situation … I would want somebody to help me,” said Rob . “I had the means to help people, so this is what I’m doing.”

Giving Back

Rob has made the trip a few times an hour to get people off the island in the mornings, then returning them each afternoon and evening. Rob said the profits he makes from a lucrative worm business allow him to give back to the community.

A Schedule

There’s even a schedule posted on a makeshift “Uber Rob” sign at the edge of the water. He has taken time off from his job and assigned himself two shifts per day. Today, he will start his river run at 5:45 a.m., until 10 a.m., and then again from about 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

A Savior

“He’s our saviour,” Patty Johnston said as she stood in the rain, waiting to cross choppy, debris-filled waters to get to her home. After days without access to food and water, residents finally had the opportunity to go back and forth from the mainland to their homes.

Steady Flow Of Passengers

Rob Dekany estimates he transported about 40 people on Monday night alone and had a steady stream of passengers on Tuesday, including a woman in her 80s who had to go to the Saint John Regional Hospital that night.

A Friendly Greeting

Rob can take up to five passengers at a time in his 150-horsepower boat and greets them with a friendly, “How you doin’?” He even supplies life-jackets….

Refuses To Take Money

Considering the ridiculously high price of gas for boats, Rob has spent thousands on the transportation. Yet, he refuses to take any money from his passengers, regardless of how much it is costing him. His selflessness has rallied the community to come together to show him their gratitude…

Grateful Gesture

“He is an absolute godsend to us,  we’re so thankful for his selfless help,” says Tasha Dawn. Tasha is the passenger who suggested taking up a community collection for a gas gift card for Rob after he refused to accept any money. “Boats are hard on gas, and with the number of trips back and forth this is surely going to be expensive for him,” Dawn posted on the Darlings Island Facebook group.

Is The Crisis Over?

With the crisis that rocked the town finally over, countless residents jumped at the idea of giving back to the one person who had put his life on hold to help them when it seemed like everyone else had turned their backs. “He is so amazing we would be more than happy to contribute,” replied Chris Calder. But, Rob was not looking for any praise or recognition, he simply wanted to help…

“Uber Rob” Becomes Symbol Of Hope As Residents Cope With Historic Flooding is an article from: LifeDaily

Hate hasn’t always been a part of American culture, but it’s done a good job of pretending to be. Ever since this country’s inception, people have been hating on others by virtue of their race or religion.

A white South Carolina man thought he was offering $500 to a hitman to kill his black neighbor, hang his body from a tree and burn a cross on his lawn, but instead, a shocking turn of events would transpire….

Hate Ran Through His Veins

Growing up in the South, tensions between whites and blacks was nothing out of the ordinary for Brandon. For generations, his family had become deeply rooted on racist sentiment. Prejudice ran in his blood….

A Group Of White Supremacists

Although blacks make up a large portion of the population in South Carolina, for years, Brandon had successfully avoided having any major interaction with them. His inner circle consisted of like minded people who also consumed an intense hatred of blacks. This inner circle would be none other than a group of white supremacists…

A New Neighbor

Living in a predominantly white neighborhood, Brandon would be in for a major surprise when a house on the market next door had just been sold. When Brandon’s new neighbor showed up to the house, he knocked on Brandon’s door and introduced himself. This would typically be a normal exchange of formalities, but this would be far from normal in Brandon’s world…

Not Welcome

The man who had come to offer his greetings was a black man. This had enraged Brandon. Infuriated and out for blood, in Brandon’s sick mind, this neighbor would not be welcome in his neighborhood. And he would make sure he would get rid of him at all costs…

Help Me Kill

Brandon reached out to one of his friends in the white supremacist group and expressed his anger with having a black man as his neighbor. But, Brandon wasn’t just looking for someone to talk too, he was in search of someone who would help him kill…

A Meeting With A Mysterious Man

This friend told Brandon he would not be able to help in his plan, but knew of someone in the white supremacist circuit that would gladly do the job. A demented and hateful soul, Brandon had spent weeks fantasizing over how he could get rid of his neighbor. Once he had come up with a concrete plan, he decided to contact the mysterious white supremacist…

A Ruthless Killer

In March of 2018, at a remote location, Brandon met the man who he planned to hire to execute his black neighbor. Brandon was quickly impressed with the stranger. This man also shared Brandon’s profound hatred of blacks, but it had been his absolute ruthless attitude that had intrigued Brandon the most. This man would gladly kill without a second thought…

Murder For Hire

During the conversation, Brandon made an arrangement with the hitman. The hitman agreed to kill the black man for a lousy $500, and in Brandon’s exact words “five hundred dollars and he’s a ghost.” But, one murder alone would not suffice for Brandon, he also planned for “future targets” that he wanted dead…

A Stalker

Brandon Lecroy stalked the neighbor for weeks, watching his every move. Then, telling the the hitman the best time and day to commit the murder. Lecroy wanted the man dead, and afterward, planned on buying the deceased man’s property for himself.

Hang From A Tree

Lecroy sent the hit man pictures of his neighbor. He also specified exactly how he wanted him to be killed. The twisted man wanted his neighbor to hang from a tree in his front lawn. With his dead body out in the open for the entire town to see…

A Cold Blooded Message

But, Lecroy’s demented plan did not stop there. He also wanted the hit man to put a flaming cross in his neighbor’s front yard, next to his lynched body. This would send a cold-blooded message to the entire black community in the area that racism lives on and that the same would happen to them if they dared to move into his town…

A Deposit For Murder

During their second meeting, Lecroy put a $100 deposit down to hire the man for the murder plot. He would pay the remaining $500 once the entire plan had been executed.  Lecroy told the hit man to use a 9mm “ghost gun” that would be untraceable.

Are You Sure?

When everything seemed to be in order, and the plan ready to be executed, the hit man asked Lecroy again if he was certain he wanted the man dead. There was no going back from this…

Thirsty For Blood

But, Lecroy had spent his entire life building an evil hatred of blacks, and had fantasized about his sick plan for weeks. There was no need for Lecroy to rethink the tragic events that would soon unfold. He was thirsty for blood…

Waited For This All His Life

The day the twisted plan was supposed to be executed, Lecroy could barely contain his excitement. He couldn’t sleep all night thinking of the events that would transpire. His whole life he was waiting for this moment. But, a shocking turn of events would take place, throwing a wrench in his premeditated plan to murder….

The Shocking Surprise

Lecroy would soon discover that the white supremacist hitman he had hired to kill his neighbor by hanging him from a tree for $500 was not who he thought he was. The mysterious man was none other than an undercover FBI agent…

A Staged Deal

The entire course of events had been staged, a strategic plan set up by the FBI to bring an attempted racist murderer behind bars. The various meetings that had taken place between the two men, and the calculated details in Lecroy’s plan had all been recorded. Lecroy would not fulfill his lifelong dream of killing a black man, but instead, would be placed exactly where he belonged, prison…

Lost In His Own Game

A fool and loser in his own twisted game, Lecroy was arrested April 9th at his home. His face turned away from his neighbor’s view, showing his true character, a coward. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged Lecroy for solicitation to commit a crime of violence in a hire for murder plot. 

Sent To Prison

A federal judge ordered Lecroy to be sent to a federal prison in Massachusetts. If convicted, Lecroy could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Is He Crazy?

Still awaiting trial, Lecroy has undergone countless psychiatric evaluations to assess his mental health. Medical professionals are trying to understand Lecroy’s thought process for wanting to commit multiple murders for no substantial or clear motive presented besides his hatred of non whites.  

White Supremacist Hires Hitman To Hang Neighbor and Burn Cross On Lawn But Fails In Surprising Twist is an article from: LifeDaily

Every day, dozens of murders go unsolved in the United States. If that sounds like it’s a hard pill to swallow, it is. It’s especially unsettling in a country where we presume that there is going to be some sort of degree of protection from criminals, and if not that, then those criminals need to be brought to justice.

Recently, a string of seemingly unsolved and unconnected murders occurred in a small Arizona city and police are only beginning to understand long-standing ramifications of those killings, and how they relate to an as yet unsolved 20-year-old case…

Call Comes In

The Scottsdale Police Department had already had their hands full dealing with a recent rash of killings that were rocking their small community when the call came in that someone else had been found dead. Despite the grim news, they were somewhat positive about the newest murder: if only because it might help them find the killer at last.

Therapy Building

Reports of the killing spoke of a man who had been found fatally shot inside his office. The office in question was located in a business complex that contained an assortment of professional people, though most of them were either therapists or counselors. One of those, as it turned out, was the victim…

The Victim

The victim’s name was Marshall Levine and prior to his untimely death, he worked as a psychologist and counselor, a life coach, and a hypnotherapist. His death was reported by staff working for his landlord, Karen Kolbe. Mr. Levine was, by all accounts, a good man, so why would someone want to see him dead?

Fourth in a String

The most worrying thing about the shooting was that it was the fourth such fatal shooting in a that same Phoenix suburb over the course of two days. Police believe that this death may actually be linked to the three other shootings as well. The question was, how were these people related to one another?

Law Firm

The second and third victims were both paralegals working at the law firm of Burt, Feldman, and Grenier. The firm practices, litigates, and mediates in family law cases such as divorce and child support, and despite the sensitive nature of these cases, the police don’t believe that this was why the women were killed.

Two Ladies

48-year-old Veleria Sharp and 49-year-old Laura Anderson were both killed on the premises of the law firm. One of the women was found dead at the scene and could not be resuscitated. The other, who was seriously wounded but not deceased, managed to escape the building, but died at the hospital some time later. Their fellow employees didn’t know much…

Treasured Friends

The supervisors at the law firm spoke highly of the two ladies and issued a statement saying: “Laura has worked with us as family for more than ten years…Veleria was a treasured member of our work family. She brought joy, calmness, warmth and compassion to all that she did.” Yet no one who worked at the firm had any idea why they were killed.

Sightings

However, some people did remember some information about the killings. Witnesses questioned after the first killing indicated that they had heard an argument, a loud one, preceding the gunshots. They’d also seen the assailant, or at least, the person they presumed to be the assailant, and gave police a description of the man…

Strange Connectors

Eyewitnesses described the suspect as an adult male, bald and wearing a dark-colored hat with a short brim. Police brought in a sketch artist and released a sketch of the alleged killer, but it seemed that not many people knew who he was. The strange connections between the four victims continued to elude them.

The First Murder

In order to try and figure out the type of killer they were working with, they’d have to go back to the first murder. The man, a forensic expert and psychiatrist, was also killed outside his Phoenix office, and his name seemed to resonate a bit with the Arizona police. After all, he’d been involved in another murder nearly two decades ago…

Forensic Expert

Dr. Steven Pitt was a well-known, prominent forensic psychiatrist who was discovered murdered outside his office with a gunshot wound. Dr. Pitt was so prominent because twenty years ago, he assisted in one of the most high-profile unsolved murder cases in American history, one that has captivated the nation for the better part of two decades.

High Profile

This high-profile murder case was the still-unsolved murder of former pageant queen and adorable six-year-old, JonBonet Ramsey. Besides the JonBenet Ramsey case, Dr. Pitt also worked on the “Baseline Killer” serial murder case in the early 2000s in the same Scottsdale, Arizona area. But why would someone want to kill Pitt or the others?

Famous Victim

6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was a beauty pageant star whose budding career as a beauty queen was only just beginning when she was discovered dead in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. It was the very definition of the tragedy: an innocent child killed on Christmas day.

Night of the Attack

The case attracted national attention, not only because of the victim’s age, but also because her parents’ media appearances made it appear as though they had something to hide. Her father was a stressed, workaholic businessman and her mother was a true “pageant mom” with a nasty temper and little patience. Obviously people drew some conclusions….

20 Years Later

Regardless of the long-held suspicions against the Ramsey family, which included JonBenet’s older brother, there has never been a successful answer to the mystery of who asphyxiated the poor girl. It’s been nearly 20 years since her death and disappearance and the case hasn’t been solved, but police believe that whoever killed Dr. Pitt may be related in some way.

Citizens Unite

There are a number of things in the case that don’t match up however. For one, it seems unlikely that whoever killed Pitt and the others, all adults and people killed at their workplace, had any interest in harming a child like JonBenet. The killer also shot the four latest victims, while JonBenet was strangled. Of course, that still doesn’t preclude the possibility that the Ramsey case holds some motivation for the current crime spree…

Not in Danger

Scottsdale police have notified family members and especially workplace colleagues of the victims about being vigilant just in case. They don’t believe they are in any danger per say, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Stay Vigilant

While they attempt to suss out the connection to the Ramsay case and the interpersonal connections between the four current victims, they are on the lookout for other shootings in the area over the past few years that seem similar as well. There is one theory, however, that many hadn’t considered…

Unlikely

It seems unlikely, but it’s possible that all the shootings, including Dr. Pitt’s, are unrelated to the case of JonBenet Ramsey’s murder. That this is simply a red herring and that Dr. Pitt drew the killer’s ire for some reason besides that. Either way, the people of Scottsdale are being a bit more cautious leaving work these days. For those of you still scratching your heads about the Ramsey Case, however, we have a slight update.

Lingering Questions

In 1996, when the death happened, DNA was not a commonly-used crime-detecting tool; the technology was too new. But when the case was revisited in 2008, a prosecutor cleared both her parents and her brother of the crime based on DNA evidence. In the meantime, we live in hope that one day JonBenet’s murder and the murders of the Pitt, Anderson, Sharp, and Levine will finally be solved.

Arizona Police Say String of Slayings May Be Linked To Famously Unsolved 20-Year-Old Mystery is an article from: LifeDaily

There are some people in this world who are just simply good people. They are unselfishly devoted to the welfare of others, and in doing so, they forsake their own cares and worries.

Being this unselfish is noble, and like the woman in the following story will display, it’s inspiring. What makes this woman’s organ donation different from others, is that she was in the small population of living donors who didn’t care about who received her organ. But when she learned who got it, everything changed…

A New Life

Giving birth for the first time is an experience that is so fulfilling to mothers and fathers alike, that the last thing they could imagine is their child being in pain. When it feels like your heart is literally beating outside of your body, seeing your little one suffer is the hardest thing a new parent could deal with.

Heartbreaking News

Samantha Gonzales knows this pain all too well. Shortly after her son’s birth, doctors discovered that her son had a life-threatening defect which was causing his liver to fail. He was exhausted all the time and couldn’t eat solid food…

The World Was Caving In

In addition to learning of Manolo’s diagnosis, Gonzales also had another thing on her plate. The same time that this was happening, her relationship with her son’s father was not doing too well. She was slowly giving up hope that there were any good people in the world.

Unaware Of What Was Happening Hundreds Of Miles Away

Little did Gonzales know that a complete stranger living 700 miles away in Montana was in the process of donating part of her liver for Manolo. The donor, Rebecca LaSalle, 24, had never met the Gonzales family before and this would be her second time donating an organ…

Transplant

Two years ago in 2016, Rebecca anonymously donated a kidney. But a liver transplant is a more difficult and risky operation. While surgery of any kind carries risks, the good thing about the liver is that it’s the only organ in the body that’s able to regenerate. Usually, with most organs like the heart, the damaged tissue is replaced with a scar. The liver, however, can actually replace damaged tissue with new cells.

Her Reason Was Simple

Rebecca was clear that she wanted to donate a part of her liver to whoever needed it the most. She merely just wanted somebody else to live. While you would think any healthcare professional would be grateful for the opportunity to take part in such a selfish act, they had major concerns. They didn’t exactly welcome Rebecca’s request with open arms…

Altruism

To make sure she was doing this for the right reasons and that she was in the right state of mind. As Dr. Elizabeth Pomfret from the University of Colorado Hospital explains, “with altruism comes a healthy dose of skepticism.”

Pre-Op Testing

Before even being able to schedule surgery, Rebecca had to go through dozens of in-depth tests. Besides being in optimal health, she was also evaluated by a psychiatrist, a social worker, and a nurse coordinator. It seems that she was the one who needed to convince medical professionals of why she was doing this…

Getting Ready For Surgery

After getting over that hurdle, Dr. Pomfret explains, “It was [Rebecca’s] demeanor and her passion and her conviction and her maturity.” Rebecca was ready to go through with the surgery without specifying who would be the receiver of her kidney.

The Procedure

Dr. Pomfret, who removed part of Rebecca’s liver, said that living donor transplants make up about 4% of all liver transplants done in the U.S. each year. Unlike most of the 8,000 liver donors in the U.S. just last year, Rebecca didn’t know or didn’t care who received that gift. She simply wanted to help someone out…

After Surgery

Manolo’s only cure was to go through with the transplant and the family was over the moon when they learned of the anonymous donation. Upon waking up from surgery, Gonzales didn’t know what to expect from her son Manolo. She figured it would take some time for him to get used to the new liver in his body.

A Healthy Little Boy

To her surprise, there was no transition period. From the moment Manolo woke up after the operation, it was like he did “a complete 180.” Gonzales explained she was shocked to learn that her son was ready to eat that same day and he was ready to start crawling…

Selfish Donor

After learning of her son’s diagnosis, Samantha feared he wouldn’t even make it to 18-months, but now that he did, she is forever grateful. Shortly after the life-changing transplant, Gonzales became curious about who her son’s donor was.

Wanting To Meet Their Real-Life Angel

What does this person look like? Is the person male or female? How old are they? Where do they live? These were all questions that Gonzales had and she contacted the hospital to see if the donor would be willing to meet her and Manolo…

First Time Meeting

Rebecca jumped at the opportunity to meet little Manolo and his mom. Samantha hugged her immediately and said, “At that time [when Manolo got sick], I was going through a really hard time with his dad and with what was going on with [Manolo].”

An Emotional Thank You

With tears streaming down her face, she said, “I had, like, lost faith in any kind of good person out in the world.” That was, until she met Rebecca. “There are no words I can express to you for how thankful I am for what you’ve done.” Rebecca had a simple explanation for why she did what she did…

Important Lesson

It goes back to a lesson that her mother drilled into her every day. “Before I could walk to school when I was a little girl…she would say, ‘Make the world’ and you had to say ‘a better place.’ And you would always groan it out,” Rebecca said.

Inspiration From Childhood

But looking back now her mother was right. Not only does her upbringing explain Rebecca’s inspiration, but it also explains the emotional letter she wrote to Manolo for him to read when he grows up…

A Letter For Manolo

A part of the letter read: “Most of all, I hope that this opportunity will inspire you to help others to make the world a better place.” She didn’t just stop there and she shared many other kind words with Manolo, that he will hopefully understand and appreciate when he’s older.

Pass It On

Rebecca also told Manolo’s mom that she doesn’t ever want her to feel like she’s indebted to her. “I don’t ever want you to have to feel like you have to say thank you because he deserved it.” We’re certain of one thing, that this is a story that will continue because there are many more good deeds to come.

Stranger’s “Altruistic” Organ Donation Saves Little Boy Before His Life Even Begins is an article from: LifeDaily

The way things are supposed to work is simple: You work hard, save your money, invest wisely and when you reach a certain age, you retire to live off your savings, ideally somewhere warm and dry.

But one of the problems with that story is there are people out there who prey upon the elderly, seeing them as little more than an opportunity to snag a lifetime worth of savings in short order. When one couple became the target of one of those predators, their daughter would spend years fighting on their behalf…

Twilight Years

Rudy and Rennie were a couple in their 80s, comfortably living out their twilight years in Sun City Aliante, an “active adult” community in Las Vegas that they’d moved to in 2005. Since then, they settled into a pleasant routine.

Life’s Great

Rudy would wake up at 9 and make himself some toast. He would read the paper and, when it was done, switch over to a book — something fun like Clive Cussler. He liked to keep notes of his thoughts as he read, writing things like “Life: the longer it cooks, the better it tastes.”…

Morning Visitor

Rennie, his wife of 57 years, took a little more time to get up in the morning. Recovering from lymphoma and suffering from neuropathy that made her legs swell up, would get a visit from a nurse 5 times a week who helped her bathe and dress. On a Friday at the end of August, 2013, Rudy was chatting with the nurse who’d just arrived when there was a knock at the door.

Get Your Things

At the door was a stocky woman named April Parks, the owner of the company A Private Professional Guardian. Accompanied by 3 men, she gave Rudy and Rennie shocking news. She said she had an order from the Clark County Family Court to “remove” them from their home and take them to an assisted-living facility. “Go and gather your things,” she said…

What’s Happnening?

“This is my home,” Rennie said as she began to cry. That’s when one of the men said that if the couple didn’t comply, they’d call the police. “You’re going to put my wife and me in jail for this?” Rudy remembered thinking. He was too bewildered by the situation to argue and the couple began hastily packing their things and were removed from the home in minutes.

Emergency Custody

Without their knowledge, Rudy and Rennie had become temporary wards of the court. Parks had apparently filed an emergency ex-parte petition, which provides an exception to the rule that the couple be notified of any argument before a judge. She then told the court that they posed a “substantial risk for mismanagement of medications, financial loss, and physical harm.”…

Unfit

She’d also gotten a letter from a physician’s assistant — whom Rennie had seen once — that said “the patient’s husband can no longer effectively take care of the patient at home as his dementia is progressing,” despite the fact that no mental evaluation had been done. Just like that, Park had gotten guardianship over Rudy and Rennie North and had complete control of their estate and their lives.

Get The Goods

After the North’s had been removed from their home, Parks went through the house with her colleagues removing all of their valuables. “We open drawers,” she said. “We look in closets. We pull out boxes, anything that would store […] paperwork, would keep valuables.” She took a pocket watch, birth certificates, insurance policies, and several collectible coins on that day alone…

Where Are My Parents?

That afternoon, the North’s only living child Julie Belshe came to visit. The 53-year-old mother of 3 lived just 10 miles away and visited her parents nearly every day. She was surprised to find her parents weren’t home or at the Sun City Aliante clubhouse, where they sometimes had a cup of coffee. She waited at their home for hours but they never returned.

Kidnapped?

She tried calling her parents’ home and mobile numbers but in their haste in packing, they’d forgotten their cell phones. She called the local hospitals and got the landlord to visit the house but there were no signs of them. Thinking they had been kidnapped, it wasn’t until Tuesday that she found a note taped to their door that read “In case of emergency, contact guardian April Parks.”…

‘It’s Legal’

When she contacted Parks and learned of the situation, Julie was outraged. “You can’t just walk into somebody’s home and take them!” she yelled. “It’s legal. It’s legal,” Parks calmly responded. Bizarrely, it was not only legal, it wasn’t all that uncommon.

Guardianship Racket

In the last dozen years, Parks had become the guardian of over 400 wards of the court using the same sort of legal loopholes and strong-arm tactics she used on the Norths. She would then petition the court to make the guardianship permanent and afterwards, charged exorbitant rates for their care and sold off all their assets to pay for it. Aside from those under Parks’ “care,” there were thousands of elderly people in similar situations in Las Vegas alone, millions around the country…

Stored Away

In the following months, Parks sold off nearly all of the Norths’ possessions through a third party company and transferred all of their savings to an account in her name. Meanwhile, Rudy and Rennie were kept in a single room at an assisted living facility where they were over-medicated for conditions they didn’t have and where their movement was restricted and their visitation severely limited. It was more like a prison than a home.

Using Every Tool

Julie tried to take guardianship away from Parks, arguing in court that her parents were able to care for themselves and if that weren’t the case, she would be more than happy to care for them as their blood relative. When that failed, she went to the press, urging Rana Goodman, the political editor of the Vegas Voice, to visit her parents and write a story…

Mobilizing The Public

Goodman published an article in the Voice describing Rudy as “the most articulate, soft spoken person I have met in a very long time” and calling Clark County’s guardianship system a “[legal] elder abuse racket” and through her urging, got thousands of readers to sign a petition demanding reformation of the state guardianship laws.

Changing Tune

A month after that article appeared, the Norths were in court again to fight for their freedom, Judge Jon Norheim — who’d previously had no problem with Parks’ business — was suddenly singing a different tune. He suspended Parks as the Norths’ guardian — the first time she was removed from a case for misconduct, despite pulling the same act hundreds of times…

Indicted

A short time later, Parks, her lawyer, her office manager, and her husband were all indicted for perjury, theft, racketeering, and exploitation of older and vulnerable persons among other charges related to their treatment of the Norths as well as hundreds of other elderly people.

Payback

Free, though penniless, Rudy and Rennie moved into their daughter’s home, transforming her small home office into their bedroom. They filed a lawsuit against the woman who had taken their life savings, their freedom and their dignity away from them and, after months of proceedings, Parks was ordered to pay them $8.5 million in damages…

Not Enough

Though Parks was behind bars and Rudy and Rennie had control over their lives again, the problem of the “guardianship industry” was far from over. Richard Black, director of the grassroots Americans Against Abusive Probate Guardianship organization was dismissive of the ruling against Parks, saying it was “irrefutably shallow.”

Go After The Industry

“It sent a strong message of ‘We’re not going to go after the real leaders of this, only the easy people, the ones who were arrogant and stupid enough to get caught,’” Black continued. Because there are unscrupulous people everywhere, there are many “hot spots” of guardianship abuse, such as Palm Beach, Sarasota, Naples, Albuquerque, and San Antonio, because they attract retirees. “The only thing that is unique,” he said, speaking of Clark County, is that it’s, “one of the few jurisdictions that doesn’t seal its records, so we can see what is going on.”

Daughter Fights To Protect Parents After Legal Loophole Allows Stranger To Seize Life Savings is an article from: LifeDaily

Coaches often tell their players to leave it all out on the field before a big game, but 1 Australian coach had no idea just how seriously his teenage son would do just that during an important championship game.

In early May 2018, an Australian football team was playing hard during their final game just as their coach had told them to. During the 3rd quarter, however, the coach watched in horror as his son was involved in a heart-stopping accident. Thankfully, a perfect stranger just happened to be in the right place at the right time…

Australian Football League

In early May 2018, 19-year-old Liam Birch and his dad, Adam Birch, from Wallan, Victoria, which is about 30 miles outside of Melbourne, Australia, were preparing for the biggest game of the Australian rules football season.

The Finals

Liam, a player for the Wallan Magpies, and his dad, a coach for the under-19 team, had worked hard all season, and the hard work had paid off so far. All that was left to do was make it through the finals, which were against grand finalists Rupertswood…

The Reigning Champs

The final match was scheduled for Saturday, May 2, 2018, and on the morning of the big game, Liam (center) and the rest of his family could only think about what would happen in just a few hours. However, the Wallan Magpies were the reigning champions, so they were confident that the team would play well.

Preparing For Battle

Adam made sure his son was as prepared for the game as possible by making sure Liam had a good breakfast, drank plenty of fluids, and had a good stretch that afternoon. Soon after, the family headed over to the Greenhill Reserve, where the game was being held…

The Game Begins

Once they arrived, Liam and the rest of the team got warmed up and practiced a few drills so they were ready to play at their best. Shortly after, the highly anticipated game started. Liam was out on the field and Adam was coaching from the sideline; just as he had done since Liam’s football career started when he was 8 years old.

A Lot On The Line

As the game began, the team was working hard to defend against their opponents while also getting as many points as they could. Neither the players or the coaches, however, had a clue that much more was at stake than the results of the game…

The 3rd Quarter

The Australian Football League consists of 4 quarters that are a minimum of 20 minutes long. By the third quarter, both teams were starting to show signs of fatigue. Liam, on the other hand, started to feel unwell and it wasn’t just because he was tired.

A Strange Sensation

During that third quarter, Liam became overwhelmed with dizziness, which he had never experienced before. In fact, Liam was so dizzy that he couldn’t even pay attention when the ball was being thrown in from the sideline…

The Last Memory

“All I remember leading up to it was feeling really light-headed and my eyesight going all weird,” said Liam, who had no idea what was going on. The next moment, Liam was completely unconscious and his body collapsed to the ground.

Right Place At The Right Time

Thankfully, a stranger was in the right place at the right time and saw the very moment Liam collapsed on the field. The stranger, Tony Freeman, had been watching his daughter play in her netball game. When it was over, he started walking to his car to leave…

Unusual Behavior

To get to the exit, Tony, who is a teacher, had to walk past the football game. As he walked by, he couldn’t help but notice Liam because he was standing off by himself on the field while everyone else was running for the ball.

Jumping Into Action

“He was standing by himself and just dropped to the ground,” Tony said about the moment Liam collapsed on the field. “I knew straight away it was something serious. He wasn’t in a good way at all.” Without hesitating, Tony ran out on to the field to help…

The Recovery Position

At first, Tony thought Liam had fainted from overexertion, but as he got closer, he got the feeling that something more serious was happening as it appeared the 19-year-old’s body was seizing up. “I ran over and put him in recovery position,” Tony said.

A Chilling Realization

“He started to have a fit so I checked his pulse,” said Tony, who is trained in CPR. At that moment, Tony realized what was really going on with the player; something that should have been impossible for someone as young as Liam…

A Heart Attack At 19

“There was no pulse…no oxygen going in,” Tony said. Liam had a heart attack and his heart had completely stopped beating. “I knew this boy had no heartbeat so I knew that if he didn’t get CPR he was going to die,” Tony added.

CPR Begins

“I rolled him over and started to perform CPR while club officials rushed to get a defibrillator and call for an ambulance,” said Tony. Meanwhile, Liam’s dad frantically ran out on to the field to his son. “When I saw Liam being worked on I was in shock, it was just terrifying,” Adam said…

A Shocking Miracle

Liam started turning blue and Tony knew CPR wasn’t going to be enough. Thankfully, someone brought over a defibrillator just in time and Tony was able to deliver a shock to Liam’s heart. After just 1 shock, Liam miraculously gained consciousness.

A Grateful Father

“To see him go from limp to being up and alive was amazing,” said Tony. An ambulance arrived within 10 minutes and rushed the 19-year-old off to the Northern Hospital nearby to make sure he was stable and to monitor his heart. “Once the paramedics came I gave Tony a big hug and kiss,” Adam said…

The Teen’s Hero

“Last thing I remember was the ball getting thrown in and just getting dizzy in the head and that’s all I remember,” said Liam, who was kept overnight as doctors are trying to determine why he had a heart attack. The teen is feeling much better already, and he and his family just want to thank Tony for knowing exactly what to do. “I can’t thank him enough,” Liam said. “Tony saved my life. If he wasn’t there I wouldn’t be here today. He’s my hero.”

A Lifesaving Course

“He’s basically our hero. He saved our son’s life,” Adam said. Tony, however, said he “just did what anyone else with CPR training would do.” Now, Tony is encouraging everyone to take a CPR course. “My message to the community is to do CPR training. It could save someone’s life.”

Stranger’s Quick Thinking Saves Teen From Heart Stopping Accident On Football Field is an article from: LifeDaily

Childhood is supposed to be a time free from pain, trauma, and suffering. Sadly, however, sick kids in the hospital are all too familiar with those emotions and experiences as they fight for their lives.

After spending the past 6 years in and out of the hospital fighting to be healed, an Oklahoma 6-year-old received a blessing that made her feel so good that she was determined to find a way to give that blessing back to other kids fighting for their lives…

An Exciting Time

When Kristen Williams and her husband, Toby, found out they were expecting their first child together, they were overcome with excitement at the idea of starting a family together. As the months passed, their excitement and love for their baby only grew.

Dreams And Expectations

During 1 of their early scans, the couple from Hugo, Oklahoma found out they were going to be parents to a baby girl. After finding out her baby’s gender, Kristen couldn’t help think about all the things her daughter would do as she grew up and couldn’t wait to witness it all…

5 Months Later…

However, all those dreams and expectations were torn away when doctors found something concerning during an ultrasound 5 months into the pregnancy. According to the couple’s doctors, their baby girl had 2 conditions called hydronephrosis and ureteral reflux.

Dangerous Conditions

Doctors explained to Kristen and Toby that hydronephrosis is a condition where the kidneys swell because urine can’t drain from them to the bladder as it should. To make matters worse, their baby also had ureteral reflux, which is a condition where urine flows backward from the bladder to the kidneys…

A Chilling Realization

While the doctors had diagnosed their baby girl, Kristen and Toby had no idea what to expect for their baby once she was born since every case was different. However, once Kristen gave birth to baby Brinley, they started to realize just how sick their daughter was.

The First Surgery

Brinley needed to undergo a variety of tests and a few months after she was born, she had to undergo surgery to fix the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder. The surgery was successful, but sadly, it also caused some serious complications…

A Serious Complication

According to her doctors, Brinley lost a large amount of blood. “Brin had lost so much blood from her kidney surgery that she had developed a heart murmur and the pediatrician at the hospital told us to ‘prepare ourselves’,” Kristen said.

A Long Journey Ahead

“It was the scariest day of my entire life. I will never forget the feeling of complete hopelessness I felt. I cried over and over and over (well screamed) out to God in prayer,” Kristen said. Unfortunately, that was the just the start of a long journey full of complications and setbacks…

Losing Faith

Over the next 6 years, Brinley has spent much of her time on Earth fighting to be healthy instead of playing and having fun like other children her age. Sometimes, her parents struggled with their faith and worried that Brinley would never be healed.

A Mother’s Worst Nightmare

“I remember crying even sometimes screaming out to God over the last 6 years and asking ‘Why have you not healed my baby, you say in your word that by His stripes she is healed, but she’s still sick!’ over and over and over,” Kristen explained…

A Fighter

“I remember feeling so alone, even when we had so many people who were there for us. I knew deep down that God was in control, but I somehow let my flesh take over and started to question,” said Kristen. Brinley, on the other hand, never lost faith that she would be fine.

Staying Positive

Even when Brinley was sent back to the hospital in July 2017 with more kidney issues, she tried to keep up a positive attitude even when she was in pain and doctors and nurses poked and prodded her with needles to administer her IV medication…

The Challenge

During that stay at the St. Francis Children’s Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Brinley’s nurses came up with an idea to make her time in the hospital more enjoyable. “The hospital staff told Brinley that if she would learn to swallow pills to get off of the IV medication, they would give her an American Girl doll,” Kristen explained.

A Blessing

“Brinley worked so hard to learn how to swallow pills to get that doll!” Soon enough, Brinley didn’t need the IVs anymore since she could swallow all of her medicine. As promised, the nurses presented Brinley with her very own American Girl doll…

Giving Back

Brinley loved her new doll, which helped cheer her up and feel like a normal kid even when she was stuck in the hospital. Once she was released, Brinley was determined to give back to the hospital and the other kids who were still sick. “After being released from the hospital Brin prayed to bless the hospital tenfold,” Kristen said.

The Plan

Brinley decided to raise money to buy 10 American Girl dolls for other kids at the hospital since it had made her so happy and helped her keep faith. Since each doll costs over $100, Brinley started thinking up ways she could raise the money on her own…

Raising Money

At first, she decided to set up a lemonade stand and use all the money she earned towards the dolls. After selling lemonade for hours, Brinley managed to save up $400. It was a good start, but she still needed more than double that much.

A 6-Year-Old Waitress

After that, Brinley got ‘hired’ to waitress at a family friend’s restaurant. When the community heard what the determined 6-year-old was doing, they came out to support her and helped her raise another $1,500 in tips, which gave her enough to buy 15 American Girl dolls for the kids at the hospital…

Exceeding Expectations

“Thank you so much to everyone who donated to make Brinley’s prayer become reality! The store was so sweet and blessed Brinley with a new doll as well,” Kristen said. Soon, Brinley will be able to deliver all 15 dolls to the St. Francis Children’s Hospital.

Time To Celebrate

As if that wasn’t reason enough to celebrate, Brinley hasn’t had any further health complications and has been healthier than ever. “After all she’s been through she still has faith and is the first person to ask someone if they need prayer. She is a true example of what faith looks like! Today we celebrate that Brinley is 10 months without a hospital stay and 3 months without ANY medication! God is so good and always faithful with his promises,” Kristen said.

Sick 6-Year-Old Gets Waitressing Job To Return Blessing Given To Her At Hospital is an article from: LifeDaily

In an emergency situation, it’s a parents’ responsibility to see to the safety of their children. Especially when they’re very young, they’re not as able to fend for themselves as an adult would be.

But what happens when the emergency is that the parent needs help? When one parent found herself in a life-or-death situation, it was her young child that would actually become the hero…

Afternoon With The Kids

On a Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio, Miranda was at home with her 3 young children. Her middle child, the 2-year-old Justin was due for a bath so she’d cleaned the kitchen sink, filled it with warm water, and wrangled the toddler long enough to get him into the “bath.”

Bath Time

While he splashed away at the water, having a great time and making a mess of things, Miranda was getting the real work done. She lathered him up, careful to keep the kid-friendly soap out of his eyes. As she bathed Justin, her other 2 kids were close at hand…

3 Bundles Of Joy

Her oldest, the 3-year-old Dorothy was splitting her attention between playing with her toys and barraging her mother with questions as toddlers tend to do while her 5-month-old was on the floor, strapped into a car seat, resting peacefully.

Perfect Simplicity

It was one of those moments of parenthood that often gets overlooked because it’s so ordinary but is truly perfect in its simplicity. But the idyllic moment would be shattered in an instant when something terrible happened…

Sudden Emergency

Without warning, Miranda went from bathing her child to lying unconscious on the floor. “I suffer from narcolepsy so occasionally I just have episodes where I just pass out,” Miranda said. Such an episode can occur at any time and can turn an ordinary activity — like giving your kid a bath — into something very dangerous.

No One To Help

It was especially bad because, aside from her children, Miranda Craig was home alone. With no one there to address the situation, both Miranda’s life and the lives of her children were at risk. Thankfully, her daughter Dorothy was a quick thinker…

Lesson Learned

Though she wasn’t even old enough to go to school and was just learning her letters, Dorothy’s mother had already taught the toddler about 911. She knew that because when her mother was having a “spell” she had to pick up the phone and dial those 3 magic numbers.

Without The Words

Dorothy opened up her mother’s phone and called emergency services and when the dispatcher said “Liberty County 911,” she simply responded “Mommy.” But when the dispatcher asked her what was wrong, the little girl was unable to articulate the problem…

‘Her Was Dying’

The toddler did her best to explain the problem, saying “Her fall down on the floor and was dead on the floor. Her was dying.” Beyond that, Dorothy just kept repeating “mommy” again and again.

Tracking Down

The dispatcher, a woman named Lela Holley, could hear crying in the background and knew she had to find the girl’s location to help with the emergency. One of her fellow dispatchers hurriedly “pinged” the cellphone Dorothy was using to track down its approximate location…

Keep Talking, Sweetie

Meanwhile, Holley’s primary goal was to keep Dorothy on the phone talking long enough to pin down the general area while at the same time, trying to get the toddler’s help in finding her exact house.

Door-To-Door

As police and medics made it to Miranda’s neighborhood and began knocking on doors to find Miranda, Holley enlisted Dorothy’s aid. “Open the door for me, OK?” she said. “I have deputies out looking for you. Open the door for me, OK?”…

House Found

As the 3-year-old tried to get the front door open, Holley asked her if she could hear sirens or see any flashing lights. “I do, I think,” The little girl said into the telephone. After a 30-minute search, one of the deputies spotted a little boy in the window. It was Justin, still splashing away in the sink.

Checking On Mommy

They entered the house, asked Dorothy where her mother was and found Miranda lying on the floor, and the 5-month-old was crying in the car seat. They immediately checked on her to make sure she was still alive…

Under The Spell

Thankfully, Miranda hadn’t sustained a significant head injury when she’d collapsed. She was simply asleep due to her narcoleptic episode. Within a short period of time, the deputies were able to wake her or, as Dorothy put it, “You wouldn’t wake up from the spell and the cops broke the spell.”

So Grateful

Miranda was beyond grateful, saying “I’m very thankful for all the cops and paramedics that came out. They told me that they had all of Liberty County looking for me because she couldn’t really tell them exactly where we were at.”…

Well Trained

She was also very grateful to her daughter, not to mention glad that she’d spent the time teaching her about 911. “We’ve worked with her for a long time about helping mama,” Miranda said. “If mama’s hurt or something go and call 911… so that’s exactly what she did.”

My Little Hero

This wasn’t even the first time Dorothy has had the presence of mind to call 911 during one of her mother’s episodes. “She’s done it for me twice now,” Miranda said. “She’s my little hero.”…

Smart Little Girl

“I am extremely proud of her,” The mother added, extremely proud of her daughter’s performance: “She’s such a smart little girl. It makes me happy to know that she knows what to do to get help for anyone, not just her mother.”

Important Lesson

Miranda Craig’s story highlights an important lesson for parents: It’s never too early to teach your children about 911. You never know when an emergency situation will arise and if they’re able to call for help in the event that there are no adults around, it could save the child’s life or someone else’s.

Quick Thinking Toddler Springs To Action During Life-Or-Death Emergency is an article from: LifeDaily