In recent years, the advancement of forensic DNA testing and evidence has helped overturn false convictions of innocent people wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit.

A man from Dallas spent more than 30 years of his life behind bars for a rape and robbery he didn’t commit. For decades, his pleas of innocence had been ignored, but with the help of an unexpected source, his chances of life outside of prison seemed much more possible…

Mysterious Men

On November 23, 1979, a young couple stopped at a Dallas liquor store to buy cigarettes. The 26-year old female stayed outside while her male friend entered the store. As she used a nearby pay phone, she noticed two African-American men approaching the pay phone next to her.

A Bad Vibe

When the woman finished her phone call, she turned around and noticed that the men were no longer there. Suspicious and uncomfortable, she rushed towards the car, but instead of finding her male companion, she would discover a horrifying scene…

A Horrifying Scene

Her male companion was held at gunpoint by one of the men and forced into the driver’s seat as the gunman climbed into the backseat. The second gunman grabbed the woman by her arm and threw her into the backseat, then proceeded to sit next to her. One of the men warned the pair to keep their mouths shut or else they would blow their brains out.

Take Our Money

The male was then ordered to drive on the highway. The pair both insisted that they would give the perpetrators all their belongings, including the car, but to leave them unharmed. But, sadly, robbery was not the only thing on their mind.

A Failed Escape

After driving on the highway for a few minutes, but what seemed like all eternity for the fearful pair, the perpetrators commanded the male victim to pull off the highway and exit the vehicle. At that frightening moment, the woman knew this would be her chance to escape, but as she attempted to run away, one of the men pulled her from the hair back into the vehicle.

Cruel Intentions

One of the men drove to a nearby park, while the other held a gun to the woman’s head, threatening again to blow her brains out if she attempted to escape or scream. At this point, the terrified woman knew what the men really wanted. She begged and pleaded with them to take her belongings, but to leave her alone. This only angered the men into a complete rage, beating her repeatedly all over the body for her verbal attempts to stop them.

A Savage Rape

They parked the vehicle in a remote parking lot and took turns raping the woman as the other one held her at gunpoint. After they had finished brutally raping the woman, they pushed her lifeless body to the ground, telling her she could leave, but if she notified the police, they would find her and kill her. Before they drove away, one of the cowards exited the car and demanded the woman to take off her rabbit fur coat.

A Passing Patrol Car

As the men drove away, the woman fled to the closest road and collapsed unconscious on the shoulder. A passing patrol car spotted her and brought her to meet her husband at the police station.

A Week Later

Exactly one week after the attack, friends, Cornelius and Anthony were walking to a party when they were randomly stopped by police. Police officers stopped and frisked the two men claiming they looked similar to suspects in a separate sexual assault case. Both men were searched and although Cornelius was unarmed, police recovered a handgun from Anthony that gave them cause to place the two men under arrest.

A Photo Lineup

Both Cornelius and Anthony were taken into police custody and their photos were submitted for an identification lineup. The male victim did not identify both men in the photo array, insisting that these men were not the real perpetrators. On the other hand, the female victim had a completely different conclusion.

Never Forget Their Faces

Only a week after being savagely raped and in a state of shock, the woman quickly picked both Cornelius and Anthony when presented with the same photos. With the entire ordeal still fresh on her mind, the woman insisted she would never forget the faces of the men who had destroyed her life.

A Faulty Investigation

The police took the woman’s word and completely disregarded the male victim’s persistence that none of the men in the lineup had been the actual perpetrators. The police also failed terribly in their investigation by also disregarded photo lineup results of two women who worked at the store where the perpetrators tried to sell the fur coat. Both women told the police they were 100 percent certain that the perpetrators were not the men in the photo lineup.

We Are Innocent

During a 12-hour police interview, despite pressure and various tactics by the investigators, Anthony and Cornelius repeatedly maintained their innocence. Even after their alibis had checked out, police still forcefully pursued the pair without searching for any other possible leads. The police were dealing with a shaken community breathing down their neck. They felt pressured to find the perpetrators and throw them in jail as quickly as possible, even if it meant that they were innocent…

Guilty From Faulty Evidence

Based on intangible evidence from their investigation, the police charged Cornelius Dupree and Anthony Massingill with the aggravated rape and robbery of the male and female victims. During the trial, despite the female victim’s positive identification of the two men, she repeatedly misidentified Anthony as Cornelius while both men were present in the courtroom. This inconsistency did not leave any doubts among the prosecutor, defense attorney, nor the judge. This unreliable factor had been the reason Anthony and Cornelius would eventually be found guilty.

A Victim Of The System

On April 3, 1980, when the judge handed down the sentence of 75 years in prison for aggravated robbery, Cornelius described the emotion of hearing the sentence as a “nightmare.” Prior to the incident, he had a fond impression of police officers and the legal system influenced by his liking of the Perry Mason show. That opinion changed when Cornelius became a victim of the system.

Refused To Plead Guilty

Police offered Cornelius parole if he participated in a sex offender rehabilitation program, but Cornelius refused. He would rather spend his entire life in prison than to plead guilty to a crime he had not committed. Cornelius was a soft-spoken, hard-working man that claimed he was the type that couldn’t kill a bug, let alone attack a human being.

Justice Failed

After the verdict had been handed down to the pair, Cornelius felt that the justice system had let him down. “They gave me life…It wasn’t a robbery they said we had done. They said it was a robbery and rape…I didn’t believe it. I mean, I didn’t think that I was going to be found guilty for something I didn’t do…I was sad, hurt, and disappointed.”

Appeals Denied

On three separate occasions, Cornelius attempted to appeal but had been denied each time. After the third time, Cornelius decided it was time to contact The Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in wrongful conviction cases. The Innocent Project submitted DNA samples of both Anthony and Cornelius. After a few weeks, the results from the lab work shocked the nation.

DNA Did Not Match

After forensic scientists compared the semen found in the female victim’s clothing from 30 years ago to the DNA samples provided by the two defendants, they were able to conclusively exclude them as possible sources. The District Attorney’s Office agreed that the DNA evidence undoubtedly had proven that Cornelius was innocent. 

A Hopeful Future

After spending thirty years of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit, Cornelius was finally released as a free man. A day after his release, he married his fiancee, Selma. The couple met two decades ago while he was in prison. Also, under Texas compensation laws for the wrongly imprisoned, Cornelius is eligible for $80,000 for each year he was behind bars, plus a lifetime annuity. He could receive $2.4 million in a lump sum that is not subject to federal income tax.

Flawed Investigation Sent Innocent Man Behind Bars For Thirty Years For A Crime He Didn’t Commit is an article from: LifeDaily

To meet your soulmate, have a picture-perfect wedding, sail off into the sunset in marital bliss and live happily ever after certainly sounds like something out of a storybook. It’s the kind of thing plenty of people fantasize about.

And for some lucky people, that fantasy can be a reality. They are fortunate enough to find that one special someone and have the means to take a magical honeymoon voyage. But as one pair of newlyweds would learn, the “happily ever after” is far from guaranteed…

Free Spirit

Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut George was a fun-loving, free-spirited boy. He played basketball and football, loved to ride his bike around, and was considered the family joker. As he got older, he developed an interest in computers and all things electronic and would go on to study computer science and business at college.

Cutting Loose

Another thing George learned in college was how to cut loose after pledging the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He was “a sweet guy, not too chatty, he wasn’t the center of attention at a bar, but he was well liked by everybody,” said one woman who knew him during those years. “Like every college student, he partied pretty hard, but we all did.”…

Finding The One

After graduation, George put his degree to good use taking jobs with a few different computer firms. Then in 2002, he met someone, a student working toward her master’s degree. “George was very quiet about his relationships, at least with us,” his older sister Bree said. “But suddenly we started hearing the name Jennifer a lot. My brother was a serial monogamist, but he and Jennifer seemed to get quite serious quite fast.”

Giving It Up

With a great career and a great relationship, it seemed as if George had everything he needed to be living a happy life. That’s why it came as a shock to his family when, in 2003, he suddenly quit his job and moved back to his hometown. The reason? More than anything else, he missed his family…

Family Business

Since the 1980s, his family owned and operated Cos Cob Liquor, the Greenwich area’s oldest liquor store and George wanted to go into the family business. But more than just manning the till he wanted to put his computer skills to use and began laying plans to move aggressively into internet liquor sales.

Loyalty

Just George’s presence in the store was good for business. His good looks, daily gym habit, and gregarious personality resulted in a noticeable bump in female customers. “So many women would come into the store just to see George,” his mother Maureen said. “But he was so, so loyal to Jennifer.”…

Tying The Knot

Jennifer had moved into the apartment George was renting close by his parents’ place and the two of them spent just about every free minute together. Naturally, George proposed and the two of them spent long hours planning out their storybook wedding. After tying the knot in a beautiful ceremony in June of 2005 at the Inn at Castle Hill in Newport, RI, they boarded a two-week honeymoon cruise around the Mediterranean.

Fabulous Journey

What was to be a beautiful trip with stops in Greece, Turkey, Italy and elsewhere all started off as planned. But when they boarded Brilliance of the Seas, a massive Royal Caribbean ship that could house 2,500 guests, they had no idea what kind of journey lay ahead for them…

Living It Up

Over the next few days. George and Jennifer Smith got down to the serious business of having a great time. As will happen when you’re on board, partying with the same people night after night, the newlyweds made some friends. Ten days after they’d gotten married, George and Jennifer were drinking and gambling in the ship’s casino with three college-aged young men.

Unclear Events

The exact events that happened on that night are somewhat murky but there are a few details that are known for certain. Firstly, George, Jennifer, and the young men were all drinking heavily that night. Second, there was an argument between the newlyweds at one point, which was over Jennifer supposedly flirting with other men…

Heated Exchange

The argument got especially heated on the casino floor and, according to one report, there was shouting before it ended with Jennifer kicking George in the groin and storming off. A passenger in the room neighboring the honeymooners would describe the sound of men arguing on the Smiths’ balcony later that night.

Passed Out

At around 4:30 in the morning, Jennifer was found by a pair of security guards. She was passed out, slumped against the wall of a hallway on their deck, on the opposite side of the ship from her room. They were able to bring her around and, after she told them her room number, they helped the disoriented woman get there. When they brought her inside, there was no sign of George…

Sleep It Off

The security guards didn’t notice anything amiss in the room, so they simply helped Jennifer to her bed and left her there to sleep off her bender. When she woke up around 8 am, there was still no sign of George. Initially, she didn’t report that to anyone since, Jennifer said, George had slept at least one other night outside of their stateroom. Instead, she went to the 8:30 massage appointment she and her husband had at the ship’s spa, expecting to meet him there.

Grim Situation

At around that time, several passengers in rooms above the Smiths noticed something horrifying. There was a large bloodstain on top of the white canopy beneath the Smiths’ room. When a group of ship’s officers examined it, they believed they could be in the middle of what Royal Caribbean terms an “overboard situation.”…

Paging The Smiths

The crew immediately paged the Smiths over the ship’s loudspeakers and the spa staff reported that she was there with them. Ships officers escorted Jennifer from the spa to a nurse’s office where, as gently as possible, they explained that her husband was missing and may have gone overboard. “She was like a zombie,” said ship’s guest-relations manager Marie Breheret. Through her tears, Jennifer “had a look in her eyes that said, ‘Help me.’ “

Coming Forward

Shortly after, Josh Askin, one of the young men the couple had been partying with the night before, approached a ship’s officer with his mother and told them a bit of what happened the previous night, suggesting that the Smiths were probably still sleeping. But it quickly became clear that George was no longer onboard, confirming the worst possible scenario…

Turkish Police

Both Jennifer and Askin were interviewed by Turkish police and the other two young men, Greg and Zach Rozenberg were later interviewed by the FBI. They approached the investigation from every possible angle, searching for the possibility of foul play.

Every Angle

Had Jennifer attacked her husband as part of a lover’s spat? Was there some sort of dispute with Askin or the Rozenbergs? Was there some other bad actor on the ship who’d crossed paths with George? Because the Rozenbergs were Russian-American, and had some less-than-reputable people in their extended family, they even investigated the possibility that George’s disappearance might somehow be related to the Russian Mafia…

Ultimate Conclusion

But after more than ten years of investigation, the FBI concluded that George Smith’s death had simply been an accident. While they couldn’t describe exactly how he’d come to take a tumble off his balcony and overboard, they were satisfied that they’d exhausted all possibilities of foul play and found no culprit.

Aftermath

In the ten years that had passed, Royal Caribbean had settled lawsuits both with Jennifer and with George’s family for his death. Jennifer moved on with her life and remarried in 2009. But the Smiths refused to believe that their son had died in an accident and held ill will toward Jennifer, saying she’d been too willing to accept his death as an accident. The Smith Family has offered a $100,000 reward for information that would lead directly to an arrest and conviction in the case.

‘Storybook’ Wedding Turns Into Honeymoon Nightmare Aboard Royal Caribbean Cruise is an article from: LifeDaily

It’s estimated that about 6,000 babies with Down Syndrome are born in the United States each year, making it the most common chromosomal condition. While this statistic is disheartening, it also means that the more people that have this disability, the better we can understand it.

Usually, society tries to put limitations on people with disabilities, but the young man in the following story is proving that Down Syndrome has not hindered his life in any way. In fact, the “realness” that he exudes has helped grow his business into something he could have only dreamed of…

Senior At Huntington High School

As John entered his last year of high school at Huntington High School in Long Island, he began to imagine what his future would look like. Having studied retail and customer service, it seemed natural that John would pursue a job in that field.

Down Syndrome

John, 21, has down syndrome, but for him, it was never a setback. In fact, he had an inkling that he should start his own business after graduation. Around the same time, his father, Mark, was beginning to build a few online businesses of his own…

Starting A Business

When John realized that he didn’t like any of the options he had seen, he turned to his father and said, “I want to go into business with you.” John had worked with his dad before and he thought the best way to find a job he would love was to create one.

Brainstorming

This was smart thinking for a 21-year-old and John’s dad was completely on board with this plan. All the father-son duo just had to now was come up with an idea for their first business together. After playing around with ideas, John brought up the suggestion of a fun store. One that was “fun” and “creative.” But neither of them could figure out what a fun store would actually sell…

Business Ideas

Next, John suggested a food truck. After falling in love with the movie Chef about a father-son food truck business, John thought it’d be a great idea. Along with his dad, the two began brainstorming what they would cook at their food truck until they ran into a problem.

A Eureka Moment

“We can’t cook,” John said. Now that the food truck idea was gone, John had a eureka moment. “Let’s sell socks,” he suggested to his dad. But, not just any socks, crazy socks. When his dad asked John why he explained that he’s worn crazy socks his entire life…

He’s Always Had A Love For Socks

“They are fun, colorful and creative. They let me be me.” Mark remembers when his son was young and they would drive around looking for fun socks. “It was [John’s] thing.” The idea dawned on them when they realized that if John loved socks so much, others would too.

Online Business

When the Cronin’s set out to build their business, they first built a website on Shopify, an e-commerce platform. They convinced some suppliers to sell them inventory and opened bank accounts and filed with the State of New York. The only marketing they did for the socks was to set up a Facebook page and shoot some videos with John talking about his socks…

A Personalized Approach

Within the first day of opening their business online, orders were pouring in. Most of the first few were from people who the family knew in Huntington. John and Mark even decided to make their first packages special by making local home deliveries and adding some candy and a thank you note with each package.

Off To A Great Start

This personalized idea worked and their customers loved the fun socks. They took pictures of John and pictures wearing their socks and shared them on social media. This word of mouth helped John and Mark’s business grow and by the end of their first month, “John’s Crazy Socks” had shipped 452 orders in December, which earned them more than $13,000 in revenue. Then, in March 2017, things exploded…

Little Marketing

They sold about 10,000 orders and made over $353,000 in revenue, all without any marketing, other than social media. The market’s response to “John’s Crazy Socks” was overwhelming and John felt confident in what he had accomplished with his dad. When they opened, the Cronins thought they might get a trickle of orders, but they had a ton in the first day alone.

Wipeout Of Inventory

In fact, Mark said, “We had a wipeout of the opening inventory.” To fulfill the orders in their first month, Mark bought and resold socks from local Kmarts just to keep up with the demand. Within the first four months, their business has grown so fast that the Cronins had to move to a bigger office…

Wide Variety Of Socks

The company has over 1,500 different kinds of socks and the socks feature everything on them from Abraham Lincoln to astrological signs to beer to NFL quarterbacks. Knee socks have proven to be the biggest seller but the company also sells compression and diabetic socks.

Business Model

John’s Crazy Socks is known as a pick-and-pack warehouse, which means that they distribute socks made by other companies. John works in sock-wrangling, where he picks out the socks and packages them for delivery. Mark deals with the technical aspects of running their business. This model has proven to be successful for the Cronins and in just over a year…

Over One Million In Revenue

In their first year in business, John’s Crazy Socks shipped more than 42,000 orders and brought in $1.7 million in revenue. Mark attributes the success to John’s dedication. “John never gets any special treatment…He works very hard in this business…We’re usually in the office before 9 am and frequently don’t leave until after eight at night.” Their hard work has been what’s led to their success and the fact that they care so much about their employees and customers.

Hiring People With Disabilities

Part of the Cronins’ business model is hiring people with disabilities. “[It shows] what people with disabilities can do if you give them a chance,” Mark said. The family also gives back and John’s Crazy Socks donates 5 percent of its profits to the Special Olympics. It’s an organization close to John’s heart and he’s training to compete in snowshoeing in the Special Olympics…

Giving Back

The company also designs special socks for other causes, such as autism and Williams syndrome. John’s Crazy Socks donates $2 from each cause socks to local and national organizations. “Giving back is essential,” Mark says.

Personal Growth

Since starting the company, both father and son have grown tremendously as a people. When they first opened for business, Mark asked John to deliver a pair of socks to a local customer. This meant that John had to discover how to knock on a door and talk to a stranger…

Overcoming Fears

He even had to deal with his fears everytime he hears a dog barking. He still freezes when he hears barking, but he is learning to overcome it. “One of the things that has been wonderful is the learning experience,” Mark said. John agrees, “It is possible. I have Down Syndrome and it never holds me back.” As far as Mark…

Harvard Graduate

He admits it’s been a learning curve for him as well. Mark is a Harvard graduate who spent most of his career in healthcare management and law. Even though the sock business is new to him, he is getting to learn and have fun with his son.

Man With Down Syndrome Starts Million Dollar Company is an article from: LifeDaily

Social media can be a force for good and for bad. Online bullying is an epidemic which impacts the lives of many people in negative ways. However, sometimes the Internet can be a wonderfully warm and giving place; You just need to send the right Tweet at the right time.

The right Tweet at the right time is exactly what our story today is all about; And how thrilled we are to be bringing our beloved readers a story of Internet positivity, where social media actually did its job right…

Meet Georgia

When Georgia opened her bookstore it was a radical change from her job working for six years as a Radiographer at Harrogate District Hospital in the U.K. Having been a lifelong lover of books, Georgia was about to do an English Degree when she was at College, but she opted to study radiology instead. But in 2016, all that would change, when she would open her Bookstore in Harrogate; the name she gave it is priceless.

Imagined Things

For Georgia, the very idea of opening a bookstore was a strange one and more like a pipedream or a fantasy than anything else. She aptly called the store ‘Imagined Things’ because when she had the idea it seemed like “an impossible imagined thing.” However, that thing soon became a reality…

Perfect Location

Harrogate’s first independent bookstore in twenty years proudly opened its doors on 14th July 2017. Located in the stunning Westminister Arcade in the city center, the shop is set in a beautifully quaint location and is also very central for locals and convenient for tourists.

Wide Range of Books

Imagined Things sells an eclectic range of books across many genres for both adults and young children. The store also sells stationery and gifts, but Georgia’s passion for books is what makes her bookstore so special and in many ways unique. It would be social media though that would come to save to the day for Imagined Things…

Hard Times

Maybe it was the slight recession or the fact that so many people buy books online or just download them to their Kindle. Heck, maybe it was the weather; Georgia had no idea why her baby wasn’t even nearly covering its own costs. She had fallen on hard times and found herself in a desperate situation financially and didn’t know what to do.

Twitter Time

Georgia was far more into snuggling up at home with a hot cocoa and a good book, and less inclined social media-wise. However, in her desperation, Georgia took to Twitter one Monday, confirming that she had taken a measly £12.34 ($15) that day.

Desperate Plea

Georgia Duffy’s Tweet spoke for itself, “We only took £12.34 today…if anyone was thinking about buying a book now would be a great time! Things have been tough recently – today the worst day ever. A card, a book, anything makes a huge difference to a small business like ours. We’d be very grateful for your support.”

A Little Cheeky

Georgia is the polite British type by all accounts and felt uncomfortable reaching out in that way on Twitter. However, as the saying goes: ‘Needs must,’ so Georgia didn’t obsess over it too much, thinking it would get lost somewhere in the Twittersphere in any event…

Phenomenal Response

Quite the opposite of what Georgia expected actually happened when her Tweet received a “phenomenal response.” That lone Tweet was retweeted more than 2,000 times as locals clamored to help Georgia in her plight.

Solid Support

One such book lover, Hannah, tweeted, “I went to Harrogate for my “treat yo’self” day this year & spent a lot of time in this lovely bookstore. Thought it was wonderful. You really should go & buy something if you’re visiting/live in Harrogate!” Showing Georgia that she wasn’t alone in her fight…

More Support

Yet another Twitter user, known as @patart69, also backed the bookstore, “I stand behind the counter of an independent shop at midnight I feel your pain. Too many people buying online and wanting stuff cheap. Too few supporting locals. They’ll miss us when we are gone.” They wrote.

Didn’t Expect This!

Georgia was touched and moved by the response and support she received. A few days later and she felt the need to take to Twitter once again sending out, “the biggest thank you to everyone who has supported us so far.” Shocked by the, “Absolutely phenomenal response on here everyone. Didn’t expect this at all!”…

Orders Up

Georgia was in shock by this stage as people from far and wide began ordering books from her online store: “Thank you so much, everyone, for all your support and messages. We’re utterly overwhelmed & can’t keep up! If we’ve missed anyone we’re really sorry! Please DM or email books@imaginedthings.co.uk or ring us if you’d like a response/for an order. We’ll get through them ASAP.” She Tweeted

Feeling Relief

The truth of it is that Georgia only had a few weeks left to even consider staying afloat and keeping her bookshop open; things were that bad. The relief she felt from the surge in sales was something she couldn’t keep to herself…

“Can’t Believe It”

Georgia said, “I can’t believe it, I never expected it. I am still going through all the orders. It has been pretty dreadful over the last few weeks. I have been worried about the shop because we are still quite new and we are building it up. I thought, ‘this can’t carry on’.”

In Two Minds

Georgia was really in two minds when it came to reaching out in the first place, “I was in two minds about the tweet because you can’t read the tone online but I thought it may encourage people who are thinking of visiting us to come in,” she said, adding, “By the time I went to bed yesterday my tweet had got 157,000 impressions on Twitter. We got 1,000 followers overnight and it had taken us a year just to build up 900 before that…

Online Shop

For the time being Georgia hasn’t had the money to invest in a sophisticated online platform to sell her books on. She has, for the most part, been taking orders by email and by telephone, and has even been a little overwhelmed. As Georgia explained…

Fortunes Changing

Georgia hopes very much that the recent spike in sales will be a long-term thing and that word of mouth will carry her through if she faces hard times again, “We’ve had people getting in touch on Twitter, coming into the shop, calling through for books even from people who live far away. We are looking at an online shop but it will be a limited selection and it is expensive to run.” She said…

Making A Difference

Georgia continued, “Hopefully this will be the start of people knowing us better,” she said. “I hope it will encourage people to think about other independent bookshops and indie shops in general and all the costs we face to run. Even just spending a few pounds makes a huge difference. I want people to know that they can make a difference to their local shop.”

Social Media

You see what social media can do if used in the right way, for positive things in order to help people? It’s astonishing to think just how many of us surf Facebook and Instagram, sometimes mindlessly and never actually use those platforms for anything especially useful. The story of Imagined Things is a tribute to the true power of the “tree of good and evil” that is the world wide web.

‘Worst Day’ Tweet Plea Garners Incredible Response From Dedicated Book Lovers is an article from: LifeDaily

When something doesn’t work, there are always 2 options. You can either give up and accept defeat, or you can improvise and adapt until you find a way to succeed.

In 1973, police exhausted all of their options in the hunt to find the sick person who took an 11-year-old girl. Sadly, every lead went cold, but the police never stopped hunting the person responsible. Thanks to their dedication and a creative use of new technology, the police finally have a new lead in the 45-year-old cold case…

A Ride To School

On the morning of Friday, July 6, 1973, an 11-year-old from Newport Beach walked out the front door of her family’s home at around 8 in the morning and jumped in the car with her piano teacher, who was waiting by the curb to drive her around the corner to summer school.

Stuck In Summer School

While the 11-year-old was good at spelling and loved science class, she struggled in almost all of her other classes and hated doing homework, which is why she was stuck spending her summer taking classes at Lincoln Intermediate School…

A Weekend Of Freedom

Throughout the 4 classes that day, the 11-year-old, who loved painting and playing the piano and the organ was described as ‘shy’, ‘quiet’, and ‘sensitive’, dreamed about the upcoming weekend and going to the beach close to her family’s house on Orchid Avenue.

A Call Home

After her last class of the day, the 11-year-old would normally have just jumped on her bike and headed straight home. However, because she got driven to school that morning, she didn’t have her bike and decided to call her mother at home from the school’s office asking for her to come and pick her up as she hated walking…

Too Busy And Too Close

When Linda Ann O’Keefe asked her mom to come and pick her up from school that afternoon, her mother refused. Not only was she busy with a sewing project, but the walk was so short as they lived just around the block from the school.

Tears Of Frustration

During their phone conversation, Linda started crying after her mother told her she had to walk home from school, which wasn’t unusual for the sensitive 11-year-old. Her mother figured she would sit around the school and sulk for a while before eventually coming home once she was hungry for lunch…

Sending A Message

In the hours that followed the phone call, however, Linda never came home. At first, Linda’s mom wasn’t too worried as Linda would often come home late to send a message to her parents if she was upset about something. In 1973, it was also normal for kids to go out roaming the neighborhood by bike or on foot for hours at a time.

The Search Begins

After 3 hours, however, Linda’s mom started to get a little worried since she still hadn’t heard from her 11-year-old. When Linda’s dad got home from work, she still wasn’t home, so he and Linda’s 18-year-old sister went out driving around the neighborhood looking for her…

Gone Without A Trace

At that point, the family believed that Linda was just being disobedient, not that she was in any real trouble. However, she was nowhere to be found and none of her friends had seen her after she got out of summer school. When it started to get dark out, Linda’s mom knew it was time to call the police as the 11-year-old would never stay out past dark.

A Missing Person Report

At 6:42 p.m., the family called the Newport Beach Police Department and reported Linda missing. During the call, the family told police Linda was 4 feet tall, weighed 85 pounds, and had long brown hair and blue eyes. She had been sent off to school that day wearing a white and blue dress that Linda’s mother made and a green ski jacket as it was unseasonably cold that day…

A City-Wide Search

That night, the police searched everywhere around the school, the streets between Lincoln Intermediate School and the family’s home, as well as the vacant fields, reservoir, and almost all the other streets in the neighborhood. Sadly, they didn’t find any trace of Linda.

A New Lead

By midnight, every police officer in the city had been looking for Linda, but there was no sign of the 11-year-old anywhere. That night, however, police got 1 of their only leads when a young woman named Jannine told detectives she was in the car with her mother outside the school and saw Linda talking to a man that pulled his turquoise blue van over to speak to her…

The Turquoise Van

Jannine and her mom watched with suspicion as Linda stood on the sidewalk next to the opened front passenger door of the van talking to the driver, who they described as a white man in his mid-20s or early 30s. They knew something didn’t feel right about it, and Jannine’s mom told her to write down the license plate number if the van drove by.

A Limited Description

Unfortunately, Linda climbed into the van, and it pulled away on a different street. Jannine and her mom never got a chance to get the plate number and couldn’t see if anyone else was in the van. Later, Linda’s friend Brenda told police that she saw a man in a turquoise van pull up next to Linda a few times as Linda walked back to school to call her mom after grabbing a snack quickly from a nearby shop…

A Horrifying Discovery

Early the next morning, a man rode his bike down to Back Bay with his 4-year-old son to meet up with 2 friends to look for a good spot to observe frogs for a nature study. While looking for frogs in a thick bunch of cattails, however, he found Linda’s body. After running off to get help, the man and his friends found a police officer who was looking for Linda and told them about what they found.

A New Type Of Investigation

After recovering Linda’s strangled body from the cattails, the missing person case has officially turned into a homicide investigation. Detectives interviewed countless witnesses and friends and followed every lead they had. But the case went cold. 45 years later, the police are still looking for Linda’s murderer…

45 Years Later

“Was it someone I knew? A stranger? The man in the van? There are so many questions… There will be theories, and a sketch of a ‘person of interest’, but my murder will eventually become a cold case. NBPD detectives still look at my file, interview people who saw me or knew me, follow leads… but the trails lead nowhere,” the police wrote in a chilling first-person ‘live-tweet’ 45 years to the day after Linda’s body was found in the hopes someone who knows something will provide new tips.

A New Approach

“Years have passed since this heinous murder, but the [Newport Beach Police Department] remains dedicated to justice for Linda and committed to finding her killer,” police said. “It’s difficult with a cold case … for people to relate to the victim on a personal level,” Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella explained. “We thought people would be able to connect with Linda in a different way from spending time with her…”

A New Lead

“But now, 45 yrs later, I have a voice again. And I have something important to say. There is a new lead in my case: a face. A face that comes from DNA that the killer left behind. It’s technology that didn’t exist back in 1973, but it might change everything today,” the police wrote during the ‘live-tweet’.

The Sketches

Thanks to new technology, police have new sketches of the suspected killer thanks to a DNA technology company, Parabon NanoLabs, that used DNA from the crime scene to predict the suspect’s eye, hair, and skin color. With the DNA, the lab was able to create a sketch of what the person might have looked like in 1973 as well as what he could look like today. Now, police are hoping their powerful ‘live-tweet’ and the new sketches will lead to the killer. “All it takes is the right person, the right set of eyes, to recognize that person and give us a call,” Manzella said.

New Clues Found In Suspect’s DNA Give Cops First Lead In 45-Year-Old Cold Case is an article from: LifeDaily

Our intuition tells us what to do long before our heads manage to figure it out, yet we often ignore those instincts out of fear of acting without proof and making a mistake.

In early July, a man traveling across India on a train couldn’t help but notice a group of girls sitting in the same train car as him. His intuition told him something sinister was going on, and thankfully, he decided to listen to those instincts even though he had no actual proof…

A Long Journey

On July 5, 2018, an Indian man was traveling on an Awadh Express train traveling through the Uttar Pradesh, a state in Northern India, on its scheduled 2-day journey from Muzaffarpur Junction to Bandra Terminus all the way on the east coast of the country.

An Unexpected Delay

After boarding the train, the man sat down and made himself comfortable for the long journey ahead of him. At the time, the man had no idea that the train and all the passengers would be forced to endure an unexpected delay all because of something strange he noticed on his carriage…

An Unsettling Observation

After boarding the plane and settling into his seat, it wasn’t long before the man looked around the train car and noticed that the carriage was completely full. Normally, that wouldn’t have been strange at all, but the age of the passengers did seem weird to the man.

The 26 Young Girls

According to the passenger, almost all of the passengers on the train car that he happened to be sitting in were little girls that appeared to be between the ages of about 10 to 14 years old. But that wasn’t the only thing that the observant passenger noticed…

In Distress

Adarsh, the man traveling on the Awadh Express train, looked around and realized that all the young girls seemed to be upset and scared. According to Adarsh, some of the younger girls were actually in tears.

A Sinister Scheme

No one else seemed to think anything was wrong, but Adarsh couldn’t shake the feeling that something incredibly sinister was going on. Rather than just sit by and let what he believed was going on happen, Adarsh decided to take action…

Victims Of Trafficking

Adarsh got the feeling that the girls, who were clearly in distress may be at risk of being trafficked against their will. While it sounds paranoid, Adarsh knew that human trafficking is tragically all too common throughout India.

A Human Trafficking Problem

Over the years, India has struggled with human trafficking issues specifically for women and children. According to government data, almost 20,000 women and children were trafficked in 2016 alone. About half of those trafficking victims were children…

Lured By False Promises

According to officials, those children are often from poor or rural areas and are often tricked into leaving their homes with complete strangers because they have been promised good jobs in the cities. Sadly, those strangers have no intention of keeping their promises.

The Tragic Reality

Instead, those children are then trafficked and sold to the highest bidder to become slaves, child laborers, sex workers, and child brides. Sometimes the children are adopted to parents who believe the child is an orphan and others are sometimes sent overseas…

Tackling The Issue

In recent years, the government has been making efforts to increase the public’s awareness as well as tackle the trafficking. In June 2018, India’s Railway Board started a campaign to make travelers aware of how vulnerable young children are on the railway network.

Taking Action

So when Adarsh saw a train car full of young girls who looked scared and uncomfortable, he immediately took out his phone, made himself a Twitter account for the first time, and tweeted out a message to officials to notify them about his concern…

A Lifesaving Tweet

In his tweet, Adarsh explained what he saw on his carriage, the number of young girls that seemed to be in distress, as well his current location and the next station the train was currently traveling towards. Adarsh then tagged railway and law enforcement agencies.

The Details

“I am traveling in Avadh express(19040). in s5. in my coach their (sic) are 25 girls all are juvenile some of them are crying and all feeling insecure (sic)… my current station is Hari Nagar my next station is Bagaha and then Gorakhpur. Kindly help them out. Please help,” Adarsh tweeted…

An Investigation Begins

Adarsh then tweeted again at rail authorities, the minister for railways, and even the prime minister that he believed the children were in the process of being trafficked. Thankfully, authorities saw Adarsh’s warning and they started investigating the tweets right away.

30 Minutes Later

Within half an hour, two plainclothed officers boarded the train and arrested a 22-year-old man and a 55-year-old man that had brought the group of girls on the train. After that, the officers took the girls to safety, where they could speak to them and figure out what happened…

Unconvincing Answers

“26 girls were found with two men, aged 22 and 55 years. All of them are from West Champaran in Bihar. The girls were being taken from Narkatikyaganj to Idgah. When questioned, the girls were unable to answer anything convincingly, so they have been handed over to the child welfare committee,” officials explained.

Red Flags

When questioning the girls, authorities explained that they had all struggled to tell them details about who their parents or guardians were, which was a clear sign that the men that had been arrested for the human trafficking scheme had tried to coach them to lie to anyone if they were ever questioned…

Safe And Sound

Once they were safely in the hands of the child welfare committee, authorities started working to reunite the girls with their families back in West Champaran in Bihar, which is in northeast India. “Their parents have been informed and the men have been taken into custody,” the Railway Protection Force said.

A Humble Hero

After it was reported that Adarsh managed to save all 26 girls with a single tweet, he was quickly hailed as a hero by people across the country and around the world. However, he insists he was just doing the right thing. “Thanks, but as a citizen of India, it’s our responsibility to help people.”

Observant Man Saves 26 Girls From Lifetime Of Suffering With Single Tweet is an article from: LifeDaily

Everyone who’s ever been in school knows how great field trips were. Whether it was a trip to the zoo, or even to the local bowling alley, getting away from the classroom for a day was the best thing for breaking up months of monotony.

For one group of young men and their coach, however, what started out as an exciting though routine field trip would prove to be a harrowing, life-or-death situation…

Disappeared

The group of boys and their coach were all from the Moo Pa soccer academy in Thailand. The coach, a 25-year-old who had been with the team for a while, was taking the assemblage of 11 to 16-year-old boys to visit an ancient cave system in their native Thailand. It would prove to be the adventure of their lifetimes.

Alive Somewhere

A few days after the soccer team went up into the wilderness to investigate the cave, the entire group of them disappeared. They had food with them of course, but not much, not enough to last 13 of them more than a couple days. Despite the fact that they were all athletes, being lost in the wilderness was not something they could possibly have been prepared for…

Heavy Rains

Immediately, the Thai government began to scramble search teams. It was monsoon season and the chance of heavy rains and flooding were both very real, very worrying possibilities. If the team and their coach were in the caves, it would be only a matter of time before the flooding jungles overtook them.

Time is Running Out

Drones and helicopters that had been previously flying over the area were stymied by the rain and time was running short. The fact was, the complex caves of northern Thailand were a subterranean maze of pitfalls and sinkholes, getting into them to search for the boys, let alone getting them out, was going to be a real challenge…

72 Hours

They didn’t know for sure, but it was the belief amongst the rescuers and the government that the boys were still in the caves. That they’d gotten turned around or trapped down there due to sudden storms. By then it had been 72 hours since their disappearance and they would have to start bringing in diving teams to search the perilous caves.

Narrow the Search Area

The six-mile-long stretch of subterranean caverns that make up the Tham Luang Nang Non caves are some of the most beautiful in the world, but they also happen to be some of the most treacherous. Finally, after days of searching, the diving team found evidence of something inside one of the deepest caves…

Found Them

There, perched on a small ledge along the cave, were the boys and their coach. They were located between 300 and 400 yards beyond the section of the cage that was on higher ground. This was what the Thai government had been worried about. If they stayed where they were, the cave would flood and drown them all.

All Thirteen

With the exception of some injuries to their legs and feet, all of the boys were in pretty good condition. Not only that, but all 12 of them were alive and well, as was their coach. They were hungry of course, and tired, as it’s hard to sleep in a damp cave with 12 other people. Finding them was only half the battle, however…

Months Away

By the time they had been found and the government had begun to facilitate their rescue, several days had passed. With each passing day, the prospect of their rescue became even more difficult to envision. Before they could do that though, they needed to supply the boys with extra rations to keep them going.

Additional Rations

Navy Captain Anand Surawan, of Thailand’s Armed Forces, announced that they were preparing to send them additional food, enough that they could be sustained for up to four months if they needed. At the same time, an experienced diver and medical professional would be sent down to tend to any lingering wounds. They had to consider other options for the rescue though…

Many Weeks

Experts believed that it could take many weeks for the monsoon flood waters to recede and they couldn’t just keep sending in supplies, especially if there was a resurgence of rains. The other option was to drill a hole elsewhere in the caves and attempt to rescue the group from there.

Solid Plans

Finding alternative entrances was also going to take time. It was essential that they try another method. The Thailand Armed Forces brought in expert divers from other countries to assist them in going in to get the boys out. Their plan was one that would hinge not only on the experts but the survival instincts of the trapped soccer team as well…

Dangerous Procedure

Their best plan to get the boys and coach out was to bring American cave rescue expert, Anmar Mirza to help extract them. This plan of just bringing them out wasn’t going to work, however. “Trying to take non-divers through a cave is one of the most dangerous situations possible…even if the dives are relatively easy,” explained Mirza.

Knowledge Transfer

Mirza’s solution was to teach the children and their coach to dive. Diving in caves, even for an expert, is fraught with difficulties. The caves are narrow, visibility is poor, and if one gets lost underwater and can’t find up, they can run out of air and drown in no time at all. Still, this was the only solution to the growing problem of even more flooding…

Rains Increase

They were under the gun too now, because the forecast over the following days was for even more rain. As the water rose, teaching the kids to dive would become that much more important, but also difficult. They needed to teach them as fast as possible and hope that they took the lessons to heart when the time finally came.

Camping and Waiting

As the soccer team struggled with their life-saving diving lessons, their family members waited patiently outside the mouth of the cave. They had been elated to learn their boys were alive and as soon as the monsoon broke, drove out to the jungle to support the rescue effort and await their safe return, or at least, what they hoped would be their safe return…

Tranquilized

Throughout all of the planning, the rescue team worried that they might not be successful. Many of the boys couldn’t even swim, and certainly not well enough to navigate their way through rising cave waters. Some people suggested they tranquilize the boys and carry them out, lest they panic, but that too would never have worked.

Treacherous Mission

What followed was one of the most daring and creative rescue missions in history. The team was fitted with dive gear and led through the labyrinthian confines of the treacherous cave by a team of experts. They were told to stay close and keep their group in sight. The world waited with baited breath for any sign of them…

In Shifts

During the course of the 18-day ordeal, one experienced volunteer diver even met his end. Ultimately though, Thailand’s Navy SEALs and a slew of volunteer divers from around the world were central to the rescue effort and through many shifts, they brought all thirteen people from the cave safely.

Miracles Happen

Cheers erupted as one by one, all of the teens and their coach came into sight at the cave entrance. They were brought to a local hospital, but despite their harrowing 18-day journey, none of them were any worse for wear. “We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. All the thirteen Wild Boars (the name of the team) are now out of the cave…Everyone is safe.” said a spokesman for the SEALs said.

Field Trip Gone Awry Results In Race To Rescue Trapped Teens is an article from: LifeDaily

In our legal system, it’s not only the facts of an incident that are taken into consideration when determining innocence and guilt. The difference between freedom and years behind bars often comes down to what a jury believes was in a defendant’s heart when a crime occurs.

Because of that, some unbelievable reasons for a person’s actions are sometimes presented in court. But the legal defense presented in one case was so far-fetched, it was incredible to think that a lawyer would even argue it, much less expect people to believe it…

Minor Disturbance

On a December day in Rutland City, Vermont, 911 dispatch got a phone call from some business owners on North Main street about a disturbance. Apparently, there were three people going from business to business, trying to use an inactive credit card.

Check It Out

Given that suspicious behavior, it was extremely likely that the credit card had been stolen and the original owner had called their company to have it shut down. The dispatcher accordingly sent out some officers to investigate…

Only Two

By the time police arrived on the scene, they only found two suspects, the third apparently having already left the scene. When police spoke to the remaining man and woman, they decided to issue them citations for fraudulent use of a credit card. That’s when the crooks bolted.

Fleeing On Foot

The pair split in opposite directions, resulting in a brief chase. The woman threw a backpack into a snowbank as she tried to make a getaway but, after the cops quickly caught up with them, they were able to retrieve it and found a number of other stolen goods inside…

Charges Piling Up

For what had started out as a ticket for the attempted credit card fraud was now, with the resisting arrest and new theft charges, potentially serious jail time for the couple. When the police took them downtown, they began to learn the story behind the petty crimes.

Fall From Grace

Jennifer and John were a married couple, living on the streets. Like many of the states in America’s Northeast in 2012, Vermont had a serious problem with heroin and opioids and these were two of the people afflicted and addicted. But contrary to what you might expect, they hadn’t always been on a downward spiral in life…

Good Life Gone

Jennifer and John had once been a respectable, professional couple with good jobs and a nice, suburban house. It was drugs that had reduced them to homelessness, petty theft, and despair. That despair, Jennifer would later say, is what led the former nurse to do something that would have been unthinkable in her “past life.”

Sneak Attack

As officer Damon Nguyen was sitting at a computer, doing some work in the police station, Jennifer Berube, somehow free of a cell and without handcuffs slowly snuck up behind him. As she put her left hand over his shoulder and around his neck, her right hand held a knife, which she put to his throat…

Fight For Your Life

Officer Nguyen noticed the woman creeping up on him just as the knife touched his skin and whirled around, rising from his chair with a speed born of combat training and the fear of death. Off balance, the two of them briefly fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs as the officer tried to free himself from Jennifer’s grip.

Time Like Molasses

The moments that followed passed in that near-magical slowed time that anyone who’s had a brush with death has experienced. Already bleeding, Officer Nguyen managed to maneuver himself behind Jennifer as he worked his way back to his feet, gaining control of the wrist of her knife hand as he did…

‘What Happened?’

Officer Nguyen and Jennifer’s shouts and the sound of scrabbling combat had alerted the others in the station of the ongoing struggle. From inside his cell, John cried out “what happened?” Pinned between her would-be victim and a chair and wall but still fighting, Jennifer cried out “I pulled a knife on him.”

Immediate Aftermath

Seconds later, a second officer, shortly followed by a third came into the room. Together, they were quickly able to gain full control of the situation. From the moment Jennifer had come up behind Officer Nguyen to when she was cuffed, just about a minute had passed. While one officer maintained control of the perpetrator, the other inspected the attacked cop’s neck…

Terrible Oversight

Thankfully, the cut in his neck had missed Officer Nguyen’s jugular by an inch and his wound was easily treatable. Though Jennifer had been searched earlier before being put in a cell, the officers performed a more thorough search of her and found that in addition to the knife she’d hidden in her clothing, she was also carrying a syringe.

Compounding Errors

Apparently, Jennifer had been handcuffed and put into an interview room earlier but was later taken out and released from the cuffs to use the bathroom. She was then put back into the interview room — which has no lock — without cuffs and with the door propped open with a trash can so Officer Nguyen could “monitor” her as he did his paperwork with his back to the door…

Appropriate Charges

While the police mishandling of the detainee had given her the opportunity, the choice to attack Officer Nguyen was all Jennifer Barube’s. As such, she was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault. Given the fact that the entire attack was caught on camera, a conviction was almost certain for the 40-year-old woman.

‘Peaceful’ Attack

Nevertheless, Barube entered a plea of not guilty. Her defense attorney’s put forth an incredible defense: she was only trying to scare the officer, not kill him, and had no violent intent. Jennifer claimed that she heard the sound of her husband’s boot laces coming out, followed by gagging, leading her to believe that he was trying to kill himself…

Incredible

Rather than calling out for the officer to help her husband, she thought it was a better idea to take a knife to him and force him to give her the keys to the cell. Perhaps even more incredible than her defense was the fact that the jury bought it.

Absolutely Free

It took the jury less than two hours to deliver a not guilty verdict on the attempted murder charge. They even ruled not guilty on the lesser offense of aggravated assault. And although Berube’s defense had expressly spelled out that she was trying to escape the jail, she hadn’t even been charged for that. After putting a knife to a cop’s throat, she would walk away scot-free…

Clear

The police and prosecutors were obviously disappointed with the outcome of the trial. “The video was pretty clear. The evidence was pretty clear. But depending on where you sit it’s possible to have different perspectives,” said Police Chief James Baker.

Justice Not Served

“I’m shocked and dismayed, quite frankly, not just by the verdict but by the disappointment I feel on behalf of members of the police department,” said Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras. “I’m not convinced justice was served in this case.”

Former Nurse Turned Homeless Addict Uses Far-Fetched Defense After Jailbreak Assault On Cop is an article from: LifeDaily

Being born with a genetic condition is a hard pill to swallow. The chance of a child being born with one depends on a number of things, but oftentimes, a defect can happen when only one parent passes along the gene for that disease.

The woman in the following story suffered this unfortunate fate, and she’s been forced to live her life with failing kidneys. But when she never received a call after being on the kidney waiting list for two years, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Her story is serving as an inspiration for others…

Living With Alport Syndrome

Born with a genetic condition called Alport syndrome, Maria has experienced progressive loss of kidney function. For the past 12 years, she’s lived with a kidney after a successful transplant, until her doctors told her she needed another one.

Taking Matters Into Her Own Hands

Maria put herself on a kidney waiting list, but after two years of not receiving a phone call, she finally made the decision to take matters into her own hands. Being that there were still three pages of names ahead of her on the list, she knew she had to act fast…

“Share Your Spare”

Maria Boyle remembers the day she decided to advertise her need for a kidney transplant through a sign on her car. The sign on the back of her car window reads: “Share your spare,” and it included her personal phone number. Her sister Marissa also sported the sign on her car, saying “I don’t know what I would do if she wasn’t here tomorrow…I don’t know.”

In Search Of A Kidney

After putting up her sign, people have signaled Maria from their cars telling her that they love it. But after seven months of driving around with the advertisement, two people finally stepped forward to offer their kidney. They called Maria on the phone and told her they were interested in helping…

All Part Of The Process

But the first woman who was tested wasn’t a match, and then a man filled out paperwork to begin the process, but he never followed through. Maria understands how much this is asking of someone so she completely understands the notion of getting cold feet or having a change of mind.

Children To Raise

In the meantime, Maria focused on her three children, as she couldn’t afford to be absent from their lives. “I remember with my first kid, I just wanted my daughter to get through high school, and she did, and now she’s in college…But, I still have two more kids.” Now, Maria was living with no kidneys and she was on dialysis, which allowed her to live a productive life while she waited for a transplant. Still, dialysis wasn’t a long-term solution…

What Is Dialysis?

Since the kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products from the blood, dialysis is a procedure that is a substitute for many of the normal functions of the kidneys. Types of dialysis are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis uses a machine and a filter to remove waste products and water from the blood, and peritoneal dialysis uses a fluid that is placed into the patient’s abdominal cavity to remove waste products and fluid from the body. Maria was on dialysis to extend her life, but she hoped it was only temporary.

Mixed Feelings

While she waited on the news of a donor match, Maria remembered the last time she got a phone call telling her a kidney was ready for her. She recalls the feeling she got last time during that phone call: “You feel so happy for yourself but you also know there was something sad that happened in the world and that day you know there is a family grieving.” Finally, after her “Share Your Spare” sticker went viral, a couple of news sites picked up Maria’s story…

Overwhelming Response

One of them was Fox 2 News and they shared Maria’s story about taking a novel approach in search of a kidney donor. Once the segment aired, 20 people reached out to her wanting to donate a kidney, some of whom lived across the country.

Facebook Page

Maria was humbled by the overwhelming response and her family created a Facebook page called “Maria’s Kidney,” where people who were interested in donating or learning more about the process can reach out. One of the posts on Facebook read…

Dozens Of Phone Calls

“I also had a call from Alabama and get this…interest from Germany!! All I can say is that this has got to be my year!” Maria wrote. Then, on January 11, 2018, Maria got a call from a potential donor named Jeremy. She said he’d been in contact with the medical center, Barnes Jewish, and he just needed a doctor’s visit to get checked.

Reassuring Maria

Jeremy called Maria and said, “I called to keep your spirit up and to continue to let you know I’m serious about this! Once I set my mind to something it’s going to happen!” At that moment, Maria knew that Jeremy was the real deal! On January 20, she shared an update…

Keeping Her Spirits Up

Maria said that Jeremy was totally cleared by his doctor to donate and that he texts her every day to cheer her up, say “hello,” and shares updates with her. Maria posted, “I’m feeling pretty good, besides severe low blood pressure (the kidney regulates that) but I’m in super duper positive spirits and it’s just a matter of time before I find out who my donor will be!”

Sharing Great News

Ten days later, on January 30, a Facebook post read: “Well the best birthday present I could have ever had is happening today. Jeremy Brown was cleared by his personal physician to be allowed to donate…I am thrilled to pieces…You guys wouldn’t believe this guy, it’s like he’s sent straight from heaven.” Maria was convinced that Jeremy would be her donor, but, in an unexpected turn of events…

Change Of Plans

Jeremy Brown was just a few weeks away from his surgery date when Maria received a call that a kidney was ready for her and she needed to get to the hospital immediately. She didn’t post much on Facebook after that as she was in recovery, but on March 5, she shared an update.

Maria’s Update

“I came home Friday evening after it took the hospital 2 days to get all of my care and machines in order…Tomorrow starts a new week, I know things will get better every day it just takes time…I don’t know what the future holds for this kidney and the fear that it won’t ever work but I always remember this simple quote that they had up a while in boot camp, ‘This to shall pass.’” But, what did Jeremy wind up doing with his kidney?

Jeremy’s Kidney

It turns out that Jeremy is still going to donate his kidney in Maria’s name. “He will either be put in the paired exchange program or he will be an altruistic donor to just somebody in need,” Maria explained.

Jeremy’s Dedication

She added that she’s trying to figure out if she will ever need to get another kidney or be allowed to, and she wonders if she will be able to receive Jeremy’s. “Either way I’ll get a kidney from a live donor because of Jeremy’s dedication to being a donor.” However, if the surgical team said no to her…

Update

Jeremy would be prepared to give his kidney to someone in need. On July 9, 2018, Fox 2 News shared an update that Jeremy wound up undergoing the surgery and gave his kidney to a stranger in need. It was donated in Maria Boyle’s honor.

There Are Still Good People In The World

“It just makes me happy there are still people in society that are good. People, you know, hear about the bad, but I have all the good calling me,” Maria said. Despite the fact that it wasn’t always this way for Maria, she can attribute her reality now to her hard work and dedication in taking control of her own life, even if doing so was as simple as putting a sticker on her car.

Woman Takes Creative Approach In Search Of A Kidney Donor, Inspiring Others is an article from: LifeDaily

When we step out our door, whether to start a vacation, head to work or even run to the local convenience store for a last-minute gallon of milk, we are assuming that the journey there and back will be as safe as it was every time before. Most of the time, this is a pretty reasonable assumption.

After all, we’ve made it to and from 7-Eleven plenty of times before without incident, so why should this time be any different? Shane was thinking the exact same thing that fateful evening, but that was an assumption he obviously shouldn’t have made…

Run to the Store

It was a cool January evening and Shane was out on the street. He had lived in the inner Sydney suburb of Enmore for much of his life, and he’d found it, like almost all his fellow suburbanites, to be a pretty safe place to live. On this night, as he passed the local 7-Eleven across the street, he heard something peculiar.

An Attack

He looked around to see what was making the sound when he saw one woman, a shorter one with a mass of dreadlocks, being hit in the head by another woman with what looked like a baseballs bat. If this was some sort of fight, it had obviously escalated to a point where Shane believe he might have to get the police involved…

Blood Splatter

Suddenly, he saw the dreadlocked woman hit the ground with a thud. Blood splattered everywhere, spraying the other woman. A few hundred feet away, another man, named Nathan Wood, watched the same scene taking place. Only what he saw was a woman with a bloodied weapon heading out of the 7-Eleven and directly for Shane.

Coming Towards Him

Shane noticed this too. The woman with the baseball bat was heading right towards him now. She wasn’t running though, she walked with purpose and an expression of impassiveness on her face. As she got closer, he could see that the weapon she was carrying was no piece of sports equipment, but a full-sized axe…

Attempted Murder

Nathan Wood, now also worried for his life, didn’t know what to do. Should he stop the woman from going after Shane, or try to flee himself? Shane, who had a leg injury which prevented him from running, was now faced with the irrefutable fact that this woman was about to attack him with a real, honest-to-goodness axe.

Improvised Weapon

Looking around for anything he could use to defend himself, Shane Redwood grabbed hold of the backpack he had slung over his shoulder and held it in front of him. The crazed woman approached him and, just as he had expected, swung at him with the axe. He backed up, trying his best to swing his backpack and knock the weapon out of the way, but he was quite outmatched…

Backpack Parry

He kept swinging the backpack at the axe, but it was only a matter of time until the relentless assailant connected. The woman slashed at the air with the axe and Shane blocked it, but the hit was so hard that the bag flew out of his hands. He was now completely unarmed and he knew that even if he turned and ran, he wouldn’t get far.

Try to Run

Because of his disability, Shane wasn’t really going to be able to run fast enough if she gave chase, but he had to try. He ran across the busy road and miraculously, found that the attacker didn’t follow him. Instead, the axe-wielding woman continued walking down the road, right towards Nathan Wood…

Turned Towards Him

It was like something out of a horror movie. Nathan remembered how slow, steady, and deliberate she looked as she made her way towards him. He ran down the road, as fast as his legs could carry him until he was far enough away to call 911 and get the police to the scene. He had no idea the true wake of destruction she’d left in the 7-Eleven…

Other Victims

That Monday night, evening shoppers Ben Rimmer and Sharon Hacker had both gone into their local 7-Eleven for different reasons. Neither of them had expected that 26-year-old Evie Amati would also be in the store that night, wielding an axe with deadly intent. That realization would only come once they felt the sting of her blade…

Bleeding Face

When Ben had first seen the axe-wielding woman that night, he thought she was just a weirdo shopping with some costume prop, perhaps even for a viral video. It wasn’t until she walked up to him and took a swing at his face, that he realized his mistake. The blow left a 10 cm laceration across his face and fractured his nose, cheek, and his eye socket.

Bleeding Profusely

Luckily, the blow didn’t damage his eye itself. In that moment, surprised as he was, he had no idea what had actually happened. “Then I stood up and all the blood, bleeding profusely, it wouldn’t stop. And that’s when I started to panic. I thought I would bleed out,” he explained afterward. But Evie Amati wasn’t done…

Failing

Miss Hacker, who had no idea what was going on as she was rung up, was leaving the store when she heard a whooshing sound behind her head. The force of the blow knocked her to the ground and she felt that strong, light-headed sensation of falling. She looked up behind her to see a blonde-haired woman carrying an axe.

Axe Attacks

It was only then that she put two and two together and realized that on her routine trip to 7-Eleven, she’d been hit over the head with a bloody axe. She fell unconscious for a time and when she came to again was being loaded into an ambulance. She still had no idea what the full ramifications of the attack would be…

Serious Injuries

Sharon Hacker’s assault left her with a fractured skull and ongoing nerve pain, pain so great that she is still unable to sleep for more than three hours at a time, even many months later. As for the axe attacker, Miss Evie Amati, was picked up by police soon after, having claimed no more victims along the road.

Saving Grace

When the case was brought to court later that year, the Prosecutor in charge made sure to mention that if it weren’t for Miss Hacker’s dreadlocks, she might have actually been killed by the attack. They acted as a sort of shield against the weapon, preventing a more serious injury or brain damage. Speaking of brain damage…

Not Guilty

Evie Amati has pleaded not guilty to all of the six charges levied against her, which are for causing grievous bodily harm with intent to murder. Her argument is that she was experiencing a bout of mental illness at the time and that her actions were not her fault. This would be a reasonable defence if it weren’t for one small detail.

True Feelings

You see, prior to going out into public wielding a deadly weapon, Moss Amati had sent out a Facebook message to a woman she had met on Tinder that had a pretty obviously violent sentiment. She told the woman that, “Most people deserve to die. I hate people” and “One day, I’m going to kill a lot of people.” This was less than an hour before she went to 7-Eleven…

Brain in Control

Charles Waterstreet, who is representing Ms. Amati, said that thanks to the very clear CCTV footage they collected from the 7-Eleven, there can be no doubt that it was she who swung the axe. However, his question for the jury is “whether the mind, brain, or soul of Evie Amati holds any legal or moral responsibility for the body’s actions that night.”

Awaiting Verdict

Today, the trial before Judge Mark Williams continues with no immediate sign of resolution. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether or not Evie Amati’s intentions were the work of mental illness, or of her own misanthropy. While we await an answer, what do you readers think?

Victims Of Violent Attack Saved By Combination Of Quick Thinking And Long Dreadlocks is an article from: LifeDaily

With the medical world evolving almost daily, new treatments and vaccines are developed at an unbelievable rate. But there’s a handful of medical cases that still baffle some doctors. The following story is one of those cases.

It explains what a family went through when both their children fell ill at around the same time. After taking the kids to numerous doctors appointments and performing various tests, they had nothing else to do but wait to find out the results. They hoped, that with time, the answers would reveal themselves…

Family From California

A family living in South Bay, Los Angeles, was looking forward to a long holiday weekend. But during Memorial Day weekend, one of the children felt sick. Kalea, 6, was complaining about headaches and one morning she threw it. But like most parents, Duncan assumed it was just a bug.

Heading To The ER

However, by Thursday, as Kalea’s symptoms worsened, the couple took their daughter to the emergency room. Then, the following day, the family visited their pediatrician and over the weekend, Kalea seemed to improve. But, by Monday, her condition had worsened again…

Ordering An MRI

That’s when the family went to see a neurologist who ordered an MRI. After performing an MRI, doctors discovered a tumor in the posterior fossa region of the brain, which is a small space in the skull near the brain stem and the cerebellum. The tumor measured 3.5 centimeters in diameter and was forming near the stem of Kalea’s brain.

Testing For Cancer

Shortly after, on June 11, 2018, surgeons removed the tumor and had it tested for cancer. It was then that they discovered Kalea had brain cancer and she would need chemotherapy and radiation. The family broke down and their immediate reaction was fear…

Everything Changed Overnight

It became too hard to even say the words out loud when they received that first diagnosis. Duncan Avery said, “We go from having a healthy baby girl who’s a skateboarder and a soccer player, who’s just loving life, to having a tumor removed from her brain.” After discovering the mass was cancerous, Kalea was diagnosed with medulloblastoma.

Medulloblastoma

Medulloblastoma is a fast-growing cancer that forms at the base of the skull and can spread to the spinal cord and other parts of the body. Since medulloblastoma tumors grow in the area of the brain that controls complex motor and cognitive functions, patients may display trouble with movement and balance. The week that followed was especially difficult for Kalea…

Recovery And Treatment

It took her several days to regain her ability to speak and that first week after surgery was extremely uncomfortable. Doctors said that they were lucky to remove the tumor as it was wrapped around an artery, but she still will have trouble with speech and some motor functioning. The Averys were quick to start Kalea’s treatment, but their nightmare was far from over…

Noah Complaining Of Feeling Sick

Just as Kalea was starting to improve, Duncan and Nohea starting noticing issues with their 4-year-old son Noah. He began taking longer naps than usual, but they figured their son was depressed about his sister’s situation. That was, until, he started complaining of headaches in the area between his eyebrows…

Mimicking His Sister

This was the same spot his sister pointed to just weeks earlier, but still, Duncan figured that he was mimicking Kalea’s symptoms. “He’s mimicking his sister. He misses his sister. It’s just him dealing with all these emotions,” Duncan said. But when Noah was “oddly walking like a drunk person,” the family immediately brought him to an oncologist.

What Are The Odds?

An MRI was ordered for Noah and when the doctor came back with the results, the Averys were at a loss for words. Noah’s MRI had revealed the same aggressive tumor in the back of the brain. “We looked at each other and thought, there’s no way this is happening again,” said Duncan. “What are the odds?”

Bonding Through Tragedy

The scans on June 21 revealed that Noah had a mass in the same spot as his sister and doctors removed a 5-centimeter brain tumor four days later. “We broke down in tears,” Duncan, 36, explains. “How could two kids in 14 days have the same exact tumor? How does that happen?”

The Parents Never Imagined Their Children Would Battle Cancer Together

Nohea said that she went numb after Noah’s diagnosis. “We’re all of a sudden hit with this and we’re starting all over again with our second child. At that point, I was just like, ‘how are we going to get through this?’” There was a shock wave going through their bodies, but there was very little time to cry…

Their Brave Fight

The parents realized they had to fight. “You take one look at your baby’s face, then you get back up again,” said Nohea. Dr. Alan Wayne, director of the Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, is treating the two children.

It’s Extremely Rare To Have Two Cancers In A Family

He said that they’ve both had surgery and are doing well post-operatively. “Next comes the beginning of chemotherapy and in some cases additional therapy beyond chemo,” Dr. Wayne said. But, being that is it extremely rare to have two cancers in a family raises the possibility of this being an inherited genetic predisposition…

Genetic Predisposition

Other experts agree that this case is genetic and is unlikely caused by something in the environment. Now, Dr. Wayne and his team are looking for the cause of the cancer by studying potential gene abnormalities. The family is expected to undergo genetic testing to search for a cause. But what are the chances that the cancer could come back for these kids?

Chances Of The Cancer Coming Back

“Most of the time with medulloblastoma, the children are cured,” Dr. Wayne said. Since the tumor affects the cerebellum, balance and coordination can also be affected. The siblings have been working with a team of oncologists and physical therapists and Duncan and Nohea are celebrating their children’s small victories…

How Are The Children Doing?

Kalea is currently undergoing physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. Nohea explains that her daughter went down a slide for the first time since her surgery and it brought tears to her eyes. As far as Noah, he’s also responding well to the treatment. Although, there is much more ahead for the siblings.

What Does The Future Hold For The Kids?

The children will move on to radiation and possible chemotherapy and to help cover the costs, a friend of the family set up a GoFundMe page. The page, to help the family with their medical expenses, has raised more than $168,000 with a goal of $200,000. The family is sharing their story in hopes of raising awareness and encouraging new research…

The Most Common

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children accounting for about 20 percent of childhood brain tumors. According to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, between 250 and 500 children are found with one each year.

A Silver Lining

The Averys are hopeful that there is a silver lining in all of this. They said it would be a blessing if their experience could help identify a genetic cause. “If our family was placed on this earth to help solve the answer of why this can happen, that would be amazing,” Duncan said.

Doctors In California Are Trying To Solve One Family’s Medical Mystery is an article from: LifeDaily

For years, people have held the opinion that older people are wiser and research is showing that this evidence is true. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, seniors were proven to have a heightened “ability to use intelligence for the social good.”

This is not to say that young people don’t have this ability, but it is more common in the elderly. It makes sense that the more time you have on this earth, the more time you have to become aware of not only yourself but your surroundings. The couple in the following story perfectly depicts this idea…

Newlyweds

After getting married in January 2018, an elderly couple from Northern Ireland decided to postpone their honeymoon until the weather was a bit nicer. But as the months went by, Jim, 84, and Maureen, who is in her 60’s, had a change of heart.

Abercorn Terrace, Londonderry, Northern Ireland

Jim thought, “Instead of going somewhere nice, why not make our own place nice.” Jim moved in with Maureen when they got married, and Maureen had already lived in the property for over thirty years. The property called Abercorn Terrace in Londonderry has a lot of history behind it…

Iconic Property

Derry composer/musician Phil Coulter was born there and directly across the street, Derry punk rock legends, The Undertones, were said to have made their first recording ever. Jim was thrilled to be moving in with the love of his life, and into a home that she truly adored.

Combining Their Passions

After moving in together, the couple’s combined passion for flowers and gardening inspired them to clean and then decorate the steps in front of their home. Their project eventually took on a new meaning when they won an award for their flower display at an Age Concern flower show. The entire neighborhood took notice…

Calling Off Their Honeymoon To Do Something Better

The newlyweds had been planning to visit Florence in Italy, but soon changed their minds. “Instead of going someplace to look at something beautiful, and then come home and still not have any flowers here, we forgot about the honeymoon and put the money back into the neighborhood,” Maureen Nelis told Derry Now. Jim agreed with his wife that this was the right decision.

Creating Their Own Oasis At Home

The generous couple decided to gift flower boxes to all of their neighbors and transform the neighborhood. Maureen and Jim started with the steps connecting Abercorn Terrace, Abercorn Place, and Harding Street and then they gifted flower boxes to everyone living on Harding Street. It began with those steps and progressed from there…

Dramatically Changing The Appearance Of The Area

Maureen said, “People were very appreciative of the steps and we got thank you cards through the door, then some of the neighbors started asking could we do something else.” That’s when they decided that they’d create their own “holiday” right outside their door.

A Beautiful Home Is More Important

“You go [away on Holiday] and you look around to see what you haven’t seen before and it’s beautiful- but you leave it all behind you, and you come back, and you have nothing,” Jim explained. Since installing the flower pots and plants throughout the property…

Changing The Neighborhood For The Better

The community has come together. Watering and maintaining the flowers has brought people out on the street and brought back a sense of community spirit. Pride has been instilled in the area and people who would’ve walked the longer route along the Abercorn Road to get to Harding Street now take a short-cut up the steps to see the flowers.

Can They Be Maintained?

“Elderly people can stop on the landing and have a breather and a look around and then walk on up the steps,” said Jim. The beauty of the neighborhood thanks to the couple’s efforts is undeniable, but can it be maintained?

Upkeep

The couple believes that most of the hard work has already been done with the introduction of planters and boxes. “Anyway it wouldn’t cost much to look after them,” they said. As far as upkeep, it’s a matter of collecting seeds, bulbs, and other items as time goes by. In fact, Jim and Maureen are hopeful that their creation will only flourish with time.

The Start Of Something New

They believe that terraced housing throughout the city has the potential to be showcased in such a way, as their architecture lends itself to window decorations in the form of flower boxes. Terraced housing is particularly popular in the UK. “If it catches your eye, if you stand at the top of the steps and look down, it’s lovely, you can see all the flowers,” Jim said. Maureen also commented…

The Outside Is Just As Important As The Inside

“Terraced housing is charming. And I think the outside of homes are as important as the inside, when you come home you should have a nice feeling.” Being that there are people who live in the neighborhood from all different walks of life, Maureen believes everyone can enjoy a nice place to come home to.

Pleasant Atmosphere

“There are people around here in different trades, others who are retired or looking after children. They’re all working people and I think they should have a nice place to look at as they come and go, and a pleasant atmosphere whenever they return to their street,” Maureen added. One of her neighbors, Noeleen English, is a member of the community since 1963, and she agrees…

Gratitude From Lifelong Residents

Noeleen knows the neighborhood better than most, and she, along with other residents have expressed their gratitude to Maureen and Jim. “I’m delighted, it is absolutely stunning. I have people visiting my home who look around in amazement, it is literally the wow factor. It encourages the residents to keep their area nice and to take pride in how it looks,” Noeleen said.

Neighbors Reacting To Their Act Of Kindness

In fact, neighbors have even been showing other visitors the work that the couple has done. The neighbors said the newlywed’s selfless act of kindness was “amazing.” The kindness, in fact, has proven to be contagious…

Cultivating Friendships

“[Neighbors] are helping each other maintain the plants, they’re watering for each other, you know, so they have to speak to each other,” Maureen said. “I’ve met new people through this, they’ve come up the steps and they’ve introduced themselves, so we’ve been more than happy.”

Bringing People Together

Their story quickly spread on social media as well, attracting tons of people to their home. The story has brought locals and tourists alike, to the Abercorn steps. The power of Facebook also reunited Jim with a friend he hadn’t seen in more than 40 years. Once the old friend saw Jim’s name mentioned online, he immediately went to visit Jim at home. “He said a few things and it suddenly all clicked- we had a fantastic chat.”

Praise From The Mayor

The Mayor, John Boyle even commended the couple. He said: “When I heard about Jim and Maureen Nelis’s thoughtful gesture I really wanted to meet them for myself to thank them personally for their generosity and community spirit.” Boyle added…

Moved By Their Personal Sacrifice

“I’m really very moved by the personal sacrifice they have made to benefit their neighbors and their community- it’s an example to us all…I hope their sense of neighborliness spreads beyond their street and inspires other people to join together and make the changes they need to improve their community.” Said Boyle.

Instead Of Going On Honeymoon, Elderly Couples Gives Generous Gift To Neighborhood is an article from: LifeDaily

Birthdays and holidays are meant to be celebrated with the people you love and cherish most in the world. However, for those who have lost a loved one, those days can be a painful reminder of their absence.

As a teenager’s birthday approached, 1 Texas mom knew that the only thing he really wanted was to feel connected to his father, who tragically died while serving his country. Miraculously, the determined mother found a way to make that happen…

Featured Photo Credit: www.nbcnews.com

Serving Overseas

In early 2003, 25-year-old Army 1st Lt. Jonathan Rozier was forced to leave his new wife Jessica and their infant son Justin when he and his army platoon were deployed to Iraq, where they were stationed at a traffic control point outside of a prison in Baghdad, Iraq.

Dreaming Of Home

While Jonathan was proud to be serving his country, he hated being away from his new family and dreamed about the day his deployment would be over when he would finally be able to fly home to be with Jessica and Justin. Sadly, that day never happened…

July 19, 2003

On the evening of July 19, 2003, Jonathan was on patrol when a pickup truck drove up to the checkpoint. The driver told Jonathan and his fellow soldiers that there was a dead body covered in blankets in the bed of the truck and asked to be let through to bury the body.

A Deadly Trick

As the truck passed by, the soldiers discovered they had fallen into a trap. The man in the bed of the truck was only pretending to be dead, and as the truck drove by, he sat up and shot an RPG Launcher directly at the soldiers…

A Shattered Family

Jessica, who had spoken to Jonathan just hours before, was devastated when she found out her husband and the father of her now 9-month-old had been hit and killed immediately. In an instant, the family was shattered and Jessica was forced to raise Justin as a single mom.

Tough Choices

In the weeks that followed Jonathan’s death, Jessica was forced to reevaluate her lifestyle and was also forced to make some tough choices to ensure she could afford to raise her son on her own. One of the things Jessica was forced to part with during that trying time was Jonathan’s ’99 Toyota Celica convertible…

A Waste Of Money

“I didn’t want to keep chipping away at my savings to pay for a car that nobody was using. It was just sitting in my driveway,” said Jessica, who returned the car to Toyota as she didn’t need and couldn’t afford a second car.

An Obvious Choice

With the money that was being used to pay off the car loan, Jessica could now afford daycare for Justin. While Jessica was sad to let go of her late husband’s car, she wasn’t going to go into debt for it. Soon enough, the busy mom forgot all about the car since she had her hands full working and raising a baby…

15 Years Later

It wasn’t until about 15 years later that Jessica thought about the car for the first time after finding the car registration while she was looking for a birth certificate. The old piece of paperwork triggered a lot of memories and also gave Jessica a crazy idea.

A Brilliant Idea

At the time, Justin was turning 15 years old and had his permit. He was planning on getting his license when he turned 16 and Jessica was thinking about getting him a car. However, when Jessica saw the registration to her late husband’s Toyota, she wondered if she could track it down, buy it back, and surprise Justin with a link to his father for his birthday. “I know that he wishes his dad was here…”

The Search Begins

“I wonder if this car is still out there? I was thinking I would go on a years-long search to find this car,” Jessica said. With about a year until Justin’s birthday, Jessica hoped it would be enough time to find the car and turned to Facebook to help her start her search.

Hoping For Magic

“Well, I’ve seen magical things happen on Facebook,” said Jessica, who explained the situation on her Facebook page. “Can someone please help me find this car? It’s a 1999 Toyota Celica convertible. VIN jt5fg02t3x0055626,” Jessica wrote…

Reaching Out

“It was Jon’s car (1LT Jonathan Rozier, KIA Iraq 7-19-03) and when he died, I wasn’t thinking ahead to when Justin (his son) would be driving 15 years later. If you facebookers could work your magic and help me find it, it would be an amazing present for his 16th birthday if it hasn’t become a tin can by now,” Jessica wrote in the post.

Word Travels Fast

The powerful message was shared by friends and strangers who were touched by the story, and within a few days, her post reached a woman in Utah who was the daughter of the man that owned the car. The woman sent a message to Jessica telling her to call her father but warned her he might not be willing to sell it…

The Phone Call

“If I call and he doesn’t want to sell it then my hopes would be crushed,” Jessica said. “It took me 12 hours to get the courage to call him.” Finally, the Texas mom picked up the phone, called the stranger in Utah, and explained why she wanted to buy the car from him so badly.

The Decision

At first, the man told Jessica that he needed some time to think about it and told her that he would be in touch to let her know his decision. However, just an hour later, the man called her back and told her what he decided. “I think that your son will get more enjoyment out of having his dad’s car than I would,” the man told Jessica…

Follow The Flag

“I just got really excited,” Jessica said. The next hurdle was coming up with the money to buy the ‘99 Toyota Celica, so Jessica turned to Facebook again for help. Kyle Fox, who runs a nonprofit called Follow the Flag, heard about Jessica’s mission and knew he had to help.

Going Above And Beyond

Kyle took it upon himself to raise the funds, buy the car, and then repaired and restored the car. “It’s what we do, it’s something we do in hopes of inspiring others,” said Kyle, who has dedicated his life to honoring, thanking, and supporting soldiers, veterans, and first responders…

The Big Reveal

After restoring the car to its former glory, Kyle personally drove the car from Utah to Texas to surprise Justin with the incredible gift on his birthday. “I started getting emotional because I never saw John drive that car home… I think I needed that,” Jessica said after the big reveal about the moment the car turned into the driveway.

A Priceless Gift

It took a few seconds, but Justin was overwhelmed with emotions once the surprise registered. “I was waiting for him, for it to click that’s dad’s car. He starts looking at it, gets in, he looks so much like his dad,” Jessica said. “I don’t know, just knowing that he had it — it’s a whole lot different than just any other thing,” Justin said.

Fallen Soldier’s Son Receives Emotional Birthday Gift From Dad 15 Years Later is an article from: LifeDaily

The conflict in Syria is a civil war which has raged for many long and painful years. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed, misplaced and maimed, while citizens of the country feel the full force of its brutal war.

When 8-year-old Maya lost her legs thanks to a badly timed incendiary device, she assumed she’d never walk again, after her legs were blown off. But where there’s a will there’s a way, and Maya soon showed the world the true meaning of the word determination…

War In Syria

When ISIS and AL Queda decided to plunder Syria into destruction, unfortunately, they were successful in their plight. With a war which has raged on for years, the people of Syria have suffered more than any nation should have to suffer, and mainly in the name of the religion; in this case, radical Islam.

Bitter Conflict

The Assad regime is based on secular principles, but with some hints of Islam. His opposition, the rebel forces and groups, are all about imposing their form of Islam on the people of Syria, as well as people all across the globe. The conflict has been a bitter one and one that shows no signs of a quick resolution…

Innocent Civilians

In 2017 alone, more than 10,000 Syrians were killed as a result of the conflict; most of them innocent civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. On top of that, more than 600 political prisoners died from torture in 2012 in Syria, but by 2017, that number rose to anywhere between 5,000 and 13,000, according to Amnesty International.

Many Maimed

One of the worst things about the conflict in Syria is the fact that thousands of people have been maimed, either by rebel forces on purpose or by allied bombings, usually by accident. One of the worst casualties of these incidents is helpless children who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time…

Meet Maya

Maya is an 8-year-old girl much like any other girl her age, but Maya is different. All she remembers is conflict and destruction since her country of birth has been in a state of war since she was born. Maya was unlucky, as when she was born, she was born without legs.

Making Do

As Maya never had legs she didn’t know what it was like to walk. She got around mainly by crawling but one botched surgery to make her leg stubs shorter actually made getting around for Maya even more of a struggle. And that’s when this special young girl decided to take matters into her own hands…

Global Sympathy

When Maya’s father posted pictures of his daughter online, there was a global outpouring of sympathy. When people across the globe saw how Maya had tried to build her own legs, they sent messages of support and even money to help her to obtain real prosthetic limbs.

Makeshift Legs

Maya and her father gathered together some plastic tubing, sticking empty tuna cans to it in order to fashion some makeshift legs for Maya. When people saw that they sent money so that Maya could travel the short distance to neighboring Turkey to have proper legs fitted…

One Righteous Man

The surgeon in Turkey was so touched by Maya’s story that he confirmed he would do the operation for free, and won’t even accept donations from people. He said that he will be honored to bear the related costs himself, making this story of generosity and hope even more special.

Maya’s Father

Mr Merdi is himself wheelchair-bound, as many of his family members suffer from genetic issues. He explained a little about what him and especially Maya went through, “After the operation, she was not able to move around and was sitting the whole time in a tent,” he said, then explaining how they fashioned legs for Maya…

Extremely Creative

There’s no question that the Merdis are creative people. “In order for her to move out of the tent, I had the idea to fix on her limbs tubing stuffed with a spongy material to reduce the pressure.” Said Maya’s father, adding, “Then I added two empty cans of tuna because the plastic was not strong enough to resist the friction with the ground.”

Once a Month

Merdi explained that at least once a month he would replace the plastic tubing that was Maya’s legs, and would replace the tin cans, which got badly worn, roughly once a week. While the whole set up was far from ideal, Maya was able to get around and even to attend the summer camp at her school…

Real Suffering

No parent wants to see their child in the situation that Maya finds herself in. “My heart suffers when I see her crawling in front of friends, while they play and run,” said Mr Merhi, knowing that his daughter needed a more permanent solution for her issues.

Maya Will Walk

Dr. Mehmet Zeki Culcu, the prosthetics specialist who is giving Maya legs, free of charge, said to reporters, “Maya will walk. God willing, in three months’ time.” And while she will need some time to get used to her new legs, it’s highly likely that Maya will be able to walk, almost like any other kid, when all is said and done…

Wanting The Best

While Maya inherited the same genetic defect as her father, Mr Merdi said it was his priority to get legs made for his daughter before he deals with his own situation. “It would be like a new life for us,” he said, “I dream of seeing her walk, going to school and back without suffering.”

Power Of Internet

It needs to be noted that it’s only the gargantuan power of the internet and social media that made getting Maya new legs even possible. If it wasn’t for the global outpouring of sympathy and demands from strangers for something to be done for little Maya, she would probably still be walking on tin cans…

Showing Real Love

Dr. Culcu was horrified when he saw the makeshift legs that Maya and her father had made. He said he was personally “very touched” by the photographs of Maya walking on tuna cans, “We have been contacted by people all over the world who want to make the donation. But this issue is closed and I will take on the cost,” he said.

Good Training

In any event, according to Culcu, the tin cans and plastic tubes were a good thing in a way, as they will have prepared Maya and almost “trained” her for the real deal. “We can’t really call what she has prosthetics,” Dr Culcu said, excited to be able to help this little girl in the way she needs to be helped.

Energy Of Desperation

Dr Culcu spoke about that fact that the Merdis are a great example of how suffering can transform into hope with the right resources, “It’s a kind of makeshift system for her to walk. With the energy of desperation, without any means, her father turned that suffering into hope.” He concluded.

Hope For The Future

While Maya is set to be up and walking right about now, the road ahead for her is a difficult one. She joins thousands of other Syrian children who have had their lives impacted and negatively affected by a conflict that doesn’t seem to be abating anytime soon, and in many regions is only getting worse.

8-Year-Old Refugee Who Made Fake Legs From Tuna Cans Will Walk Again is an article from: LifeDaily

We all like to believe that we’re unique in this world, that despite all the trends we follow, the interests we share, and the fashions we emulate, we’re ultimately the only person in the world like ourselves. This is a good thing to strive for, individuality is what makes us our own person.

This is particularly important when it comes to the criminal justice system. After all, it’s important to be able to prove that you are you when faced with the unlikely scenario of someone who looks or sounds like you committing a crime. And this is where our story begins…

Turn of the Century

This story begins at the turn of the 20th century in Leavenworth, Kansas. A man named Will was being brought to the United States Penitentiary, which at that time was one of the most famous maximum security prisons in the country. He had been sentenced for a crime that he’d indeed committed and was ready to serve his short stint.

What Have You Done Now?

The prison clerk was given his mugshots and upon seeing them, realized that she had seen this man before. She asked the man, “What now? What have you done now?” To Will, who had never before seen this woman before, this seemed most unusual. He told her that this was his first conviction…

I’m Innocent

Confused, Will added that this was his first time in Leavenworth as well and that it was impossible for the two of them to have met before that point. The clerk, however, was certain that she’d seen him before. As far as she was concerned, he must have been just paying the “I’m innocent, I swear” card.

Not Who He Says

Frankly, she had seen and heard it all so many times before that she was neither shocked nor startled by his response. Indeed, almost every criminal she’d booked into the prison had rejected his guilt and his crimes. “Mm hmm…” she muttered to the man and decided to double check herself by pulling his file…

Same Guy

She reached back into the office filing cabinet and pulled out what she believed was to be Will’s file. Opening the folder, she saw what was undoubtedly the face of the man standing before her. He had the exact same bone structure, equal nose length, mouth shape, and even his eyes were in the same position.

Taking Measurements

It was odd though, according to the file, Will was already serving life in prison. So why in the world had they brought him in to be booked again? Perhaps it was some clerical error. Still, she couldn’t take the chance. Instead, she decided to collect Will West’s measurements and see if they matched those in his file…

Identification System

In those days, all US prisons used a method of criminal identification called, the Bertillon system. This technique, developed by the French handwriting expert, Alphonse Bertillon, was a tried and true method for identifying criminals. Bertillon, a dedicated criminologist and biometrics researcher, was an expert in all those fields.

US Adoption

Bertillon’s method had been implemented throughout United States’ penitentiaries in 1887 as a way to keep detailed report cards on the many prisoners within the US penal system. Yet, as scientific as it all sounded, the “system” was little more than a simple criminal mug shot and an attached, slightly detailed description of the person’s face…

No Problem

Despite its obvious deficiencies, the system worked just fine for years without incident. Before that, criminals had been identified by only their picture and their full name. Two decades later though, as unlikely as it seemed, the system failed them, when Will West arrived at the prison he’d already been incarcerated in.

Life in Prison

The clerk informed Will that he, as far as the United States penal system was concerned, was already serving a life sentence in Leavenworth Penitentiary for first-degree murder. Will, for his part, tried to explain that he hadn’t done it, but when she showed him his mugshot, he became that much more perturbed…

No Lie

The truth of the matter was that Will West was telling the truth. He wasn’t lying, he had no idea how his picture got into that prisoner file. Was he going crazy? Had he committed a crime he didn’t know about years before? The truth, strange as it may sound, was actually more unlikely than all of that.

Another Fellow

As it turned out, there was indeed another inmate at Leavenworth with the exact same face and measurements as Will West. This identical criminal was already incarcerated, serving the aforementioned life sentence. And as if his identical physical features weren’t enough, things were about to get even weirder…

What’s in a Name

If all the other similarities weren’t strange enough, Will West’s double in the prison also shared an eerily similar name. The convicted criminal, the one serving the life sentence, was also named William West. He had been in that prison for two years, since 1901 when he arrived at the penitentiary.

Two Years Prior

At the time of William West’s incarceration, he too was admitted to the prison by the clerk at the time, M.W. McClaughry. The records clerk took his Bertillon measurements, compiled an archive file for the inmate, and explained the prison rules to him. The new clerk wondered if the two West men were perhaps long lost relatives…

Even more Unusual

The answer to this question, which made the situation even more remarkable, was that the two men, William and Will West were not remotely related in any way. Because of this, law enforcement quickly determined that they needed a new method of identification and they needed to implement it pretty quickly.

Doppelgänger

They say that everyone has a doppelganger, a mirror image of themselves somewhere in the world. In fact, it’s believed that most people on earth have more than one doppelganger out there. It makes sense genetically since most of us do share some portion of DNA with one another, but to find your double in the same prison: that’s quite rare indeed…

Fingerprints

To avoid similar confusion in the future, the United States decided to look into alternative methods of identification. As it happened, Bertillon had improved upon his methods and made another breakthrough in the advancement of dactyloscopy. This meant that given a database, he could identify people by their fingerprints. This included convicted murderers.

Unusual Case

United States Penitentiary at Leavenworth prison adopted this fingerprint identification system instead of the older Bertillon system, and it proved to be much more reliable. The case of Will and William West was indeed an unusual one, but it ensured that such a thing wouldn’t happen again…

Other Methods

These days, all it takes to identify a prison inmate or even a convicted criminal is a simple fingerprint check. Back then, in 1903, there wasn’t any sort of fingerprint registry for children, criminals, teachers, or anyone else. There are some rumors though, that this tale is little more than a modern folktale of sorts.

Luckily for Us

Because of these two men, those of us living today never have to worry about being imprisoned for having the same name or even face as our sinister doppelgangers out there. Evil twins of the world beware, Bertillon’s fingerprint system is there to rescue all of us from the scourge of mistaken identity.

Convicted Criminal Arrives To Serve One Year And Learns He’s Already Serving Life In Prison is an article from: LifeDaily

Considering all of the things that the government does, it’s only natural that the average person isn’t aware of all of its different branches. From the Office of Statistics to the US Board of Geographic Names, there are plenty of divisions of the federal government that most folks just don’t care about.

ICE is certainly not one of them. In recent years, the agency has been a political lightning rod. Usually, it’s because people’s opposing opinions on the morality of the agency’s law enforcement actions. But in one case, ICE would be the center of attention for all the wrong reasons…

Relatively Young

If you follow the news at all, you’ve probably heard a million things about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known by its acronym “ICE.” Formed in 2003, the law enforcement agency is a part of the Department of Homeland Security formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Protect America

According to their website, “ICE’s mission is to protect America from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety.” What that means in practical terms is trying to find and deport undocumented immigrants and combating transnational criminal organizations…

Spotlight On Immigration

The agency has been in the national spotlight recently because, since President Trump won the election, he’s made the deportation of undocumented immigrants a top priority. The ranks of ICE increased, their tactics and policies became more aggressive and the number of ICE arrests increased dramatically.

On One Hand…

Proponents of the change in ICE policies said they were doing a better job of protecting the US border and upholding the rule of law. They say that such actions are necessary to maintain the sovereignty of the country and keep crime rates down…

On The Other Hand…

But critics of ICE painted a different picture. They said that the agency was engaging in human rights violations and pointed toward the detention centers built for the children ICE separated from their families and practices like arresting immigrants as they show up for meetings with immigration officials as part of the legal immigration process.

Steeped In Controversy

It’s safe to say that ICE was one of the most controversial branches of government. But regardless of your feelings about the morality of the agency as a whole, almost everyone would agree that the ICE employees should follow the law in the execution of their duties. Unfortunately, not every one of them did…

Misconduct

Beyond the critiques about the official actions of ICE, there have been a number of reported incidents of various kinds of illegal abuse against immigrants at the hands of individual ICE officials. One of the biggest offenders was a high ranking ICE official who used his position to callously satisfy his own desires.

Since The Start

Raphael Sanchez had been an ICE employee since just after the agency was formed. He worked as an attorney for the agency. The 44-year-old had climbed its ranks for 17 years until he was the chief legal counsel for ICE in all deportation and asylum cases throughout Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, and was earning a comfortable six-figure salary for doing it…

I Need More

But that was apparently not enough for Sanchez. Using his privileged access to otherwise confidential agency information, he put together a scheme that would allow him to prey upon the vulnerable people in the process of removal proceedings to fatten his pockets.

Predator

Between 2013 and 2017, Sanchez combed through government databases and immigration files for the personal information of potential victims, zeroing in on the juiciest targets: people who wouldn’t realize or be able to report identity theft because they had no legal status in the US…

Identity Theft

With those people’s Social Security numbers, birthdays and addresses, Sanchez opened bank accounts and credit cards in his victim’s names. He did that by falsifying documents like public utility accounts for proof of residence and made counterfeit IDs, using his own photo for the men and the picture of a murder victim for the women. He was even so bold as to claim some of his victims as dependent family members on tax forms to get extra deductions from the IRS.

Elaborate Scheme

Sanchez also created sham businesses for funneling money from the fraudulent credit cards and bank accounts into his own pockets, an intricate and elaborate paper trail, defrauding his immigrant victims as well as major financial institutions, including American Express, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase out of over $190,000…

Unwitting Victims

“Meanwhile, many of the Victim Aliens left the United States unaware of the debts that Sanchez incurred in their names and that these substantial balances were due, owing, and growing,” said a later court filing made by the Justice Department.

Internal Audit

The identity theft was stopped when an ICE audit flagged suspicious activity on one of Sanchez’s accounts, launching an internal investigation. A short time later, Sanchez was arrested and charged in federal court with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft…

Other Misconduct

“We’ve been troubled about this situation particularly because it wasn’t the first time that there was wrongdoing in [the Seattle Office],” said Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The group represented Ignacio Torres who was deported after Jonathan Love, another Seattle ICE attorney, falsified government documents, a charge to which Love pleaded guilty.

What Else Is There?

Baron claimed that his clients deportation case was not unique, which made him wonder whether there were other victims, “Even before the whole Sanchez episode came to light.” Now the fact that “the head of the office was committing fraud himself,” it created grave concerns about the office’s integrity…

It Was My Childhood

Sanchez pleaded guilty to two felonies against him, with his lawyer saying that his massive theft scheme wasn’t motivated by greed. With a net worth of over $700,000, he wasn’t hurting for money in any way. Rather, his lawyer said, he stole out of “self-hatred” and “trauma” from a brutal upbringing under an alcoholic and physically abusive father.

No Excuse

Prosecutors acknowledged Sanchez’s difficult childhood and credited him for taking responsibility once he was caught but the DOJ trial attorney Jessica Harvey argued that Sanchez’s actions were a “profane and profound violation of the trust of the American public,” exploiting the vulnerable simply “to line his pockets.”…

Payback

Ultimately, Sanchez was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay over $190,000 in restitution for what he’d done. He also resigned from ICE and was disbarred. Despite the fact that he was to repay the money he’d stolen, it’s impossible to tell the full impact his misdeeds had on his victims, especially considering many of them have since been deported, perhaps wrongfully so.

… And Justice For All

While reasonable people can disagree on the lawful actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency or even the agency’s very existence, we must all agree that those in power, especially those in law enforcement, must conduct themselves ethically and be held accountable when they don’t. If the law does not apply equally to all people, can we call it justice?

High Ranking ICE Official Embroiled In Scandal After Internal Audit Uncovers Abuse Of Power is an article from: LifeDaily

Despite all our differences, our belief systems, our governments, our races and level of wealth, we all seem to have one thing in common: the majority of us would do absolutely anything for our children.

The family in this story is no different. They were like most, willing to give up all that they had if it meant they could take care of their kids. Yet, when it came to one of their children, the odds seemed to be against them right from the start…

Little Family

Maria and Jake married one another on a Florida beach, under cover from the impromptu rainstorm that had very nearly put the kibosh on their big day. Yet even though the ceremony was essentially inside, the resulted rainbows that soon dotted the skies were proof that their life together was going to be a very special one indeed.

Always Stronger

According to them, the rainbows that festooned their special day was just the first mild misfortune to help make their relationship stronger with each passing year. As far as Maria and Jake were concerned, they certainly wouldn’t have been able to make it in this life without each other to help give them strength. And it was the strength they would both need in the years to come…

Two Children

Today, nine years after they said “I do” the couple has two children. Two-year-old Fairen and six-year-old Brighton are the apples of their eye. They couldn’t imagine their lives without them. But blessings though the two little girls are, bringing them into the world has not been without its challenges.

Rare Disorder

Brighton, you see, though six years old, is developmentally still a newborn. She was born with a rare genetic disorder called Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, which along with retarded aging also comes with hearing and vision impairment, seizures, heart and kidney problems and more. This, of course, means that Brighton requires around-the-clock attention…

Pure Soul

When they first learned about Brighton’s condition, Maria and Jake were shocked of course, but they also saw it as a chance to meet this challenge and truly be parents. “She is a pure and beautiful soul,” says Maria Grey. Yet, while they feel blessed to have her in their lives, it doesn’t make caring for her any less difficult.

Adapting

Most parents only have to take care of a newborn for a few months, but not the Greys. “You know, when you have a newborn, everything gets really stressful. You really have to adapt to someone needing you 24/7, all the time,” Maria explained. “We’ve had a newborn for six-and-a-half years.” And her condition, of course, comes with even more problems as well…

An Expensive Ordeal

Brighton Grey’s rare chromosomal disorder is as expensive a condition to treat as it is time-consuming. Even with health insurance, the Greys spend upwards of $15,000 a year out of their own pocket on her healthcare. That amounts to more than 30 percent of their annual income.

Army Man

This expense has left them financially fragile and wary of any sort of overspending, either on themselves or their other daughter. Even for Jake, who is a US Army veteran with pretty decent health coverage, things have been hard. “It’s drowning us to try to keep up with her medical expenses,” he explains. There are some solutions, however, albeit difficult ones…

Medicaid

The couple’s first solution was to try and get Medicaid to help with the outstanding medical costs, but there’s an unfortunate caveat to that. Jake earns upwards of $40,000 a year, not a whole lot by modern standards, but apparently too much for his family to qualify for government-subsidized healthcare assistance.

The Waiting List

Another solution was to see if the state could help them out. They knew others who had done it and though the waiting list was “a little long” they were confident that Jake’s status as a veteran or even Brighton’s serious condition might give them some clout. At number 60,000 on the waiting list, however, that seemed unlikely…

Anything

At this point in Brighton’s young life, they have done everything they can think of to keep her happy, healthy, and cared for. “We’ve done everything we can do to try to keep her afloat, and we’re going to reach a point where we can’t do it and we won’t have another option. We don’t know what to do,” explained Jake.

Happily Married

At this point, even though Jake and Maria Grey are happily married with their two children, they have decided to make a change in their relationship. With the debt ever-mounting, they have one course of action available to them: they need to file for divorce. And when they do officially divorce, they will be doing so for the sake of their children if for no one else…

Only Way

Regardless of how crazy this sounds, there is a very good reason that Maria and Jake Grey are considering a divorce. “We’ve just struggled and struggled with it, and now we’ve gotten to the point, where we feel it’s a real possibility,” Jake said. So why would a happy couple contemplate divorce at all to help their kids?

Qualifications

In Texas, the only way they can get their disabled daughter legally qualified for Medicaid health care is by having Maria become an unemployed, single mother. They had heard of other families where this has been the only way to do it, and it has worked in those cases. And if that sounds crazy to you, you’re not alone…

Hard Decision

“We shouldn’t have to make that sacrifice to get our child Medicaid,” explains Maria Grey, and she is 100 percent right. Because of the absurdity of the situation, the Greys have decided to go public with their struggle to help raise awareness of this same predicament, which affects many Americans too afraid to speak up.

Not Looking

The fact that they are being so vocal about their situation has nothing to do with charity either. “We are not looking for charity, we’re not looking for money or donations,” said Maria “We don’t want a GoFundMe: we don’t want any of that…I just need the state to step up and give us the benefits that we need.” They’ve even had some experts weigh in on their situation as well…

Average Americans

Dr. Thad Miller, a health care policy expert at UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth, has taken a look at the Grey’s situation and compared it to the current state of healthcare in the United States. He explained that the average American spends about $600 on healthcare in a single year, compared to what the Greys spend on Brighton, that’s almost nothing.

Tough Spot

“For a family like this, they really are in a tough spot,” he explained. Dr. Miller went on to say that, as far as he knew, he’s never known a family to get a divorce because of circumstances like these. That being said, he believes the Greys to be right, and that considering the staggering number of people on assistance waiting lists, there are many, many out there…

The Problem Remains

“It’s just shocking, and I really think it speaks to our need to really rethink what we do and how especially for the most vulnerable,” said Dr. Miller. For my part, I agree with him. As a country that concerns itself way too often with the so-called “sanctity of marriage,” we’re sort of missing the point.

Just Our Take

The fact that a family would have to divorce in order to receive proper healthcare assistance to take care of one of its own is reprehensible. The Greys should not have to be forced to choose between their marriage and their child. What do you think though?

Veteran’s Family Faces Impossible Odds And Must Make Life-Changing Decision To Save Their Daughter is an article from: LifeDaily

There are many small towns in the U.S., but none quite like this one. It may be considered the most diverse square mile in the U.S. and some even refer to it as the “Ellis Island of the South.”

But, for its residents, it’s a safe place many miles away from the torment they experienced in their home countries. While welcoming thousands of refugees per year hasn’t come without opposition, Clarkston is continuing their efforts at being a welcoming community. Here’s what the town is all about…

A Small Town In Georgia

As states throughout the U.S. celebrated the fourth of July in their own unique way, so did Clarkston, a small town in Georgia. Unknown to some, Clarkston resembles a place from the 1970s and can be described as the Ellis Island of the South.

Ellis Island Of The South

The Mayor of Clarkston explains that the town is the most ethnically-diverse square mile in America, where there are over 40 nationalities, and 60 different languages are spoken. What’s surprising, is the entire town is only 1.4 miles…

Home To Thousands Of Refugees

In the past 25 years, Georgia has resettled close to 37,000 refugees and the majority of those refugees live in Clarkston, where 31.8% of the population is foreign-born. Clarkston may be one of the smallest towns in America’s Deep South, but they welcome around 1,500 refugees a year.

From All Over The World

The refugees come from every part of the globe and most of them are Syrians, Congolese, Bhutanese, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Liberians, Vietnamese, Somalis, and Sudanese. But how does a working-class city in the south manage to house 1,500 refugees per year?

Welcoming Refugees With Open Arms

The story of Clarkston isn’t necessarily just about who is being welcomed, but also who is doing the welcoming. The town’s mayor, Tedd Terry, 34, says that his goal with Clarkston is to showcase it. “I didn’t make this place a compassionate community. Yes, we enshrined it in an official way, but it was a compassionate and welcoming community long before I got here.”

Opportunity

What makes Clarkston work for refugees, are the opportunities of its high-density apartment complexes and good transport links, Brian Bollinger, the executive director of Friends of Refugees says. “This is why Clarkson was identified in the early 1990s as a good resettlement hub.” However, Clarkston residents point out that the town was not always so hospitable to refugees…

Opposition

Initially, their arrival was resented by many locals. But older opponents of refugees have either moved or passed away and they have been replaced by younger liberals. Bollinger calls Mayor Terry, who was elected in 2013 at age 31, “the physical embodiment of that change of perspective.”

Small-Town Feel

The small-town feel of Clarkston is one of the reasons why it works for refugees, but also why it’s a limited factor. For many refugees, Clarkston is a starter city. Success really means moving on and leaving the small apartment complexes behind. It’s not economic migrants who are coming to Clarkston, it’s people who have really fled in fear…

New American Pathways

Resettlement agencies like New American Pathways help Clarkston refugees find their way when they come to America. Paedia Mixon, CEO of New American Pathways says, “We partner with the U.S. government to welcome refugees that have already gone through that extensive vetting process overseas and have been approved to come to the U.S.”

Helping Families Become Self-Sufficient

“We set up an apartment for the family, we welcome them at the airport, and for the first, you know, six months in the U.S., we’re really there to provide cultural orientation, to provide basic needs and to help the family become self-sufficient,” Mixon says. Most of the people they work with are people who have been through really difficult times…

Survivors

Most of the refugees that they work with are genocide survivors, people who have survived war, conflict, people who have been tortured, people who have been imprisoned for their beliefs, and people who have lost family members. Maryam Ahmad Jan, 29, is one of these refugees and she’s a single mother who escaped a dangerous situation in her native Afghanistan.

Replacing Fear With Hope

In February 2018, she moved with her young son and daughter to settle into the town of Clarkston. While she initially felt fear getting off the plane with her children, her fear has been replaced with hope. Maryam was a skilled weaver in her home country and she got a job at a weaving company and a chance to use her craft to provide for her family…

A New Life

“Life is much better here,” Maryam said. “We had a lot of problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We did not even have one happy day. But here my children and I are happy and comfortable. And slowly we get to know the culture.” Compared to her past, living in America is much different.

A Diversified Community

“Here nobody can hurt us because of prejudice, because it is very diversified. There are people from all over the world, and we are just one part of them,” Maryam continued. “I see my children, I see smiles on their faces. I see lots of changes in my daily life. I see them happy, and I’m extremely happy.” Maryam has been an inspiration to those around her. In particular…

Praise From Co-Sponsor

Mary Martha Myette, Maryam’s co-sponsor describes Maryam saying, “She’s a woman who has quiet grace. She is very strong. She’s hardworking, she’s an amazing person. We consider each other as family.” Besides Maryam, another success story is Abdul.

Abdul

Abdul came to America with his wife and son in 2012 from Afghanistan on a Special Immigrant Visa. Now, he helps other refugees find jobs. “In America, you can be anything you want,” he says. “This is a great country and I can call it a great, great home.” But Mixon emphasizes that there is the idea out there of “we versus them,” “us versus them.” She explains…

It’s An Investment

“Working with refugees isn’t charity. “It’s an investment in people who bring really important skills to America. One of the things you don’t really think about is how important that resourcefulness and optimism has been in building this country and building our culture and making America thrive. These people have the same motivations, the same fear, the same pain, the same need to provide for their family as we do.”

Everyone Deserves Dignity

Mixon believes that we are all cut from the same cloth. “We all deserve dignity and to be treated with compassion.” Yet, despite, having welcomed a majority of refugees into Clarkson last year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, that number has dropped dramatically since the year before. The reason…

Executive Orders

Executive orders by President Donald Trump put a cap on the total amount of refugees the country will accept. The orders also banned anyone from entering from seven countries, five of which have Muslim majorities. Today the limit is 45,000 refugees for 2018, which is the lowest ceiling since presidents began setting the limit on refugee admissions in 1980.

Starting Off In America

This year, Georgia is expected to resettle about 1,000 refugees. Maryam says, “This is a great place to start off in America. It’s diversified. There are people from all over the world. It’s very accepting.” Clarkston was also named one of Georgia’s 50 safest cities with populations over 10,000 by the National Council for Home Safety and Security so refugees can add safety to the list.

There’s A Small Town In Georgia That Welcomes Thousands Of Refugees To America Each Year is an article from: LifeDaily

For some, the feelings of pain, sadness, and hopelessness become so much of a burden that the thought of living another day is too much to bear.

When a 31-year-old man from England reached that point, he needed someone who could help him see that life is worth living. Instead, he found another woman who claimed she knew exactly how he felt. When she changed her mind, however, she was also committing a crime…

The 911 Call

On the afternoon of December 17, 2015, a UK man called the police and frantically explained that he believed his girlfriend was suicidal. According to the man, he received a message from his girlfriend detailing her plans to end her own life.

Tracking Her Down

Police officers were immediately sent to find the suicidal woman, who was in her early 40s, and managed to track her down within an hour at a hotel near Rutland Water, a water reservoir less than 3 hours north of London, which is where she had planned to end her life…

A Change Of Heart

When police found her, however, she explained she had changed her mind at the last minute. When the police were satisfied that the woman wasn’t suicidal and wasn’t at risk of harming herself, they brought her to her home in Cambridgeshire and gave her resources to get help.

The Other Person

However, while the police were at her home, the woman explained that she hadn’t been alone when she tried to kill herself. According to the woman, there was another person that was at risk so the police rushed back to the reservoir…

A Tragic Discovery

At 6:38 that evening, police found 31-year-old Matthew Birkinshaw’s body in his Fiat Punto. He had taped a note to the car warning, “Do not enter, toxic fumes.” The doors were also locked, so police had to break the windows open with a baton.

Too Late

Tragically, they were too late. First responders tried to revive Matthew but he couldn’t be saved. By 7:24 that night, the 31-year-old postman was pronounced dead after suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Officers immediately opened an investigation and started by asking Natasha Gordon some questions about her involvement…

The Plan

While at the scene, Gordon gave police a statement that she had planned to commit suicide along with Matthew. However, when she changed her mind at the last minute and backed out, Matthew “asked her not to change his mind,” gave her £60 to get home, and locked the car doors.

The Online Forum

During the investigation, detectives found the online messages between Matthew and Gordon when they made the suicide pact. According to the police, it all started when Matthew posted on an online site looking for a suicide partner…

Looking For A Partner

Gordon had been using several online suicide forums since she made a real attempt to end her life about a year before. About 5 hours after Matthew posted on the forum, Gordon saw the post and responded to it claiming she too was looking for a suicide partner.

An Hour Later

Within an hour, the pair had made a suicide pact and were making plans to meet and kill themselves the following day. “I really can’t wait to go tomorrow — hope you don’t change your mind,” Gordon said in a message to Matthew…

Carrying Out The Plan

That night, the 31-year-old postman drove overnight from his home in Walsall, West Midlands, to pick Gordon up from her home in Cambridgeshire. From there, the pair traveled to Rutland Water, which is where they decided to carry out the last part of their plan.

Backing Out

According to police, Gordon, a former model and pole dancer, was encouraging Matthew to end his life with her and pressuring him to not back out of their pact. However, at the last second, Gordon was the 1 to change her mind…

Something Doesn’t Add Up

At first, it appeared like Gordon simply had a change of heart, however, police couldn’t understand why she hadn’t warned the police about what was happening about 500 yards away when they tracked her down earlier that day.

The Other Messages

However, when police started looking into Gordon’s online activity even further, they found she had encouraged at least 6 other people to commit suicide. Then, just minutes after Matthew was found, Gordon was caught making plans and encouraging even more suicidal strangers. Officers instantly got the feeling that something more tragic was going on…

The Arrest

Police arrested Gordon for encouraging Matthew to kill himself. “I only tried to help him,” Gordon said as police arrested her that same night. During her trial, the 44-year-old claimed she tried to talk Matthew out of it as well, but then he ‘locked the door.’

The Trial Begins

“I tapped on the window but he wouldn’t look at me. He leaned back and closed his eyes. I walked off and I looked back. Then the police phoned me and I answered it,” Gordon said during her trial, which started on November 22, 2017…

A Devastated Family

“It’s impossible to put into words the effect the loss of Matthew has had on our family. He was everything to us and has left a space no one else can ever fill,” Margaret Birkinshaw said about her son during the trial. “Matt was 31 when he died just one week before Christmas. His last words to me were: ‘Give me a hug mum, I’ll be back tomorrow.’”

A Tragic Misfortune

“I’ve asked myself a million times over the past two years: why didn’t I ring him? Would it have made a difference if he’d heard my voice? He was a man full of fun, laughter, love, and intelligence, with everything to live for but with a sensitivity which sometimes made life difficult for him, and the misfortune to meet with someone who wanted to do him harm when he most needed kindness and support…”

The Judge’s Decision

While the court recognized Gordon had seriously tried to kill herself in the past, Judge Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb QC determined that Gordon misled Matthew as she was not entirely serious about the suicide pact. “I have concluded however that you did not have a settled desire to commit suicide yourself when you were in contact with him. You were gripped by self-centeredness and wanted to accompany someone else,” Cheema-Grubb said.

The Sentence

“This is a serious case as Mr. Birkinshaw actually took his own life after this encouragement and I find that you misled him into believing that you were firmly intent on committing suicide with him even though you were not fully committed. You even introduced him to the method that he used and advised him on how it was to be deployed,” Cheema Grubb said. After, a jury ruled that Gordon was guilty and she was sentenced to 4 years in prison.

Woman Thrown In Jail After She Backed Out Of Plan To End Her Own Life is an article from: LifeDaily

Isaiah, at the ripe age of 18, only recently entered the world of adulthood himself. His girlfriend, Juliette, is also 18, but the couple is mature for their age. That’s one of the things that attracted them to each other in the first place; as well as the fact they’re both really cute.

An Instant Spark

When Cormier and Moore first met, their friends suspected that the two would become an item right away. The chemistry between them was undeniable as they had so much in common. Among other things, both were animal lovers and enjoyed the great outdoors as often as they could.

Romantic Camping Trip

The camping trip to Ruby Gulch in Boulder County, Colorado, also referred to as “Nederland,” offered the couple a chance to spend some quality time together outdoors. The first night was, luckily, pleasant and uneventful. But on the second day of the trip, things took an unanticipated turn for the worst.

Dark Clouds at Lunchtime

Around lunchtime the couple returned to their campsite after enjoying some food. They noticed the clouds growing a darker shade. The wind kicked up and it was clear a little rain was on its way. But a thunderstorm wasn’t what they expected.

Flash Flood

No sooner had the couple arrived at their campsite when the rain started to pour. They were busy stashing items in Moore’s car when a bolt of lightning struck nearby. The clap of its thunder boomed around them. Seconds later, another bolt struck even closer to where the car was parked.

Taking Cover

The couple knew they were in danger, so they instinctively bundled into their tent to try and avoid the storm. Moore made it inside with Cormier right behind. But, unfortunately, he couldn’t avoid the next lightning bolt.

Total Shock

Moore smelled something burning. She turned to notice Cormier on the ground unable to move, apparently paralyzed by the lightning strike. Yet, fearlessly, even with the rain as thick as a blanket and the visibility at less than a meter, Moore acted quickly. And her fast action is probably what saved her boyfriend’s life.

Flash of Light

Moore spoke about what happened on that day. “I didn’t see him get struck,” Moore said. “I had just gone inside the tent 10 or 20 seconds earlier. I saw a really bright flash of light through the tent, I don’t remember any sound. But I stuck my head outside the tent and [Cormier] was face down on the ground.”

A True Herione

Moore had previously completed a first aid course, fortunately, which allowed her to save her boyfriend’s life. She revived him twice using cardiopulmonary resuscitation, more commonly known as CPR. And apart from some stiffness on the left side of his body, Cormier felt no other symptoms from the bolt.

Stopped Breathing

Even though Cormier seemed to have made a full recovery, Moore remembers he stopped breathing at one point. “I rolled him over and it was really obvious he had been struck by lightning,” Moore said. “His coloring, it was a lot of colors. He was — I don’t know if you’ve ever seen electrical injuries before — but yellow, red. He started turning blue, but that’s because he had stopped breathing.”

Fight For Life

Moore yelled for help as she helped her boyfriend. A man camping nearby heard the screams and rushed to the scene. As the man made his way to assist, Moore watched Cormier’s chest rise and fall between rescue breaths. Lucky for Cormier, she had taken a lifesaving course just one month before.

CPR Skills

This story highlights the importance of knowing CPR. As Moore said, “I couldn’t imagine if I had seen him and not [known what to do]. Time is of the essence when you need to do CPR.” And she’s certainly right, as she was able to save her boyfriend’s life as a result of that CPR training.

Revived Twice

After stabilizing Cormier, Moore and the man who came to help bundled him in her car to head to the nearest hospital. She called 911. To her relief, there was an ambulance standing by in the area. Within minutes it was en route to Moore’s location.

No Clue

Stunned, Cormier had little idea where he was or what had happened. “I kept asking the guy in the back of the ambulance with me what happened,” he remembered, “and every time he told me I was struck by lightning, I said, ‘No way.'”

Lucky To Be Alive

Cormier was rushed to Boulder Community Health’s Foothills Hospital and was then transferred to the burn unit at UCHealth’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. He was only there for two days, mainly for observation, and walked out in good health.

Walk It Off

It may not sound like the most sympathetic response from doctors, but they told Cormier to live as normal. “They basically told me to walk it off,” he said. “I was surprised that I lived, let alone that I have no permanent injuries, and then for them to tell me to just start getting back to some light exercise and stuff — wow, I am very blessed to be where I am.”

Praying Hard

When Jason Cormier, Isaiah’s father, headed to the hospital to see his son, he told reporters that he and his family prayed all the way to the hospital. And when he saw his son he was relieved that he wasn’t in too bad a condition. Mr. Cormier had an interesting theory as to how his son survived and got away unscathed.

Those Headphones

Mr. Cormier was convinced that it was his son’s headphones, which he wore around his neck when the lightning struck, saved his life. He claims, based on the markings along his son’s neck and chest, that the headphones took the brunt of the strike.

Seeing Miracles

To Mr. Cormier, his son surviving is nothing short of miraculous. He believes that his faith in, and prayers to, God are what could have been the reason for this miracle.

Profoundly Real

“When we started to see some of the results we were seeing,” Mr. Cormier said, “[faith in God] just became something that was profoundly real. I just think that people have different ways of defining miracles, and if this isn’t one of them, I don’t know what is. I would say that it has reinvigorated our faith (in prayer) and more than anything made us very thankful.”

Heroine Saves Boyfriend’s Life Twice after Lightning Strikes is an article from: LifeDaily