Even though they say that blood is thicker than water, sometimes a family member has a responsibility to expose crimes even if that means their relative will get into some deep water. It depends on the nature of the crime naturally, but sometimes one just has to do the right thing.

One Dutch criminal mastermind called Frederik Holleeder was nicknamed De Neus (The Nose) due to the size of his nose. His sister Astrid loved him dearly, but she couldn’t hold her silence about his crimes for a moment longer.

Freddy Heineken

The year was 1983 when Holleeder was sentenced to eleven years in a Dutch jail for his part in the kidnapping of Heineken president Freddy Heineken. At the time, Holleeder demanded 35 million Dutch guldens ransom for the safe return of Heineken, but that was just the beginning of his criminal career in the Nederlands. Extortion and organized crime were Holleeder’s modus operandi, and he was very savvy at what he did.

More Convictions

In 2007, Holleeder was in trouble with the long arm of the law once again when he was sentenced to nine years in prison for extortion. One of the cases was that of Willem Endstra who was extorted and then murdered in 2004. Holleeder only served five years for that crime and was released from Nieuw Vosseveld prison in 2012. As of August of 2018, Holleeder is on trial for five counts of murder, as well as two counts of attempted murder.

Brother and Sister

Astrid Holleeder, 52, loved her brother dearly but she couldn’t sleep at night knowing that he was involved in crimes that included murder. After making the brave decision to wear a wire to entrap her brother for the police, Astrid was forced into hiding where she remains to this day. She was devastated to have to give up her career as a criminal defense lawyer, but she felt she had no choice.

Effectively Invisible

The threat against her life is so severe that Astrid remains effectively invisible. She sleeps in different safe houses and needs to be driven around in a bullet-proof vehicle. She also owns a bunch of disguises including prosthetic noses and teeth to hide her identity lest her brother catches up with her. She even dresses up like a man on some occasions when she ventures out in public.

Betrayed Him

The decision for Astrid to betray her brother was the most difficult decision she ever made in her life. She told reporters, according to a BBC report: “I know he wants to kill me and I don’t blame him for it. In a day there are many moments someone can be there and shoot you. It’s always there. I really feel a Judas. I betrayed him.” But the trouble all started when the Holleeders were kids, and their father worked at the Heineken brewery.

My Hero

Astrid told reporters that as kids she idolized her brother and even preferred him to her father. “He was like this great, strong, figure so different to our own father. I felt a lot of respect for him. He always had money in his pocket, drove big cars, always had nice girlfriends,” she said. And the two siblings were forced to become even closer as they forged a bond of fear due to their father’s brutal, alcoholic abuse. He would beat the children and their mother on a regular basis.

Taking Revenge

When Holleeder and his cohorts abducted Freddy Heineken in 1983, Astrid claims it was done as a type of revenge on her father. According to a Mail Online report: “My father adored [Freddy Heineken]. Not in a normal way … like a stalker,” she said. “So when he kidnapped Heineken that was probably the ultimate revenge on my father,” Astrid explained. But Holleeder became somewhat of a cult icon in Holland after he was released from jail.

Wanting Pictures

Astrid went on to explain that when her brother was released from jail, he was given the nickname “cuddly criminal” and even appeared on numerous popular talk shows. He would also often be asked to pose for selfies in the street with people who had heard of him and respected him. Even celebrities wanted a piece of this cuddly criminal, who in reality wasn’t that cuddly at all.

Criminal Celeb

Astrid explained that her brother soon rose to almost celebrity status on the streets of Amsterdam. “It was amazing. Everyone wanted to be in a photo with him; celebrities wanted to pose with him. When he rode around on his scooter everyone was yelling at him, ‘Willem, can I have your autograph?'” she explained. And even when Holleeder was sent back to jail in 2007, the public still had a positive image of him.

Two Faces

She went on to explain that it was frustrating as she knew her brother didn’t deserve all the acclaim he received from the Dutch public. “It was frustrating because we knew the other side. He has two faces. But we couldn’t blame the public, they didn’t know because we were silent,” said Astrid. It was at that point when Astrid decided to stop giving her criminal brother free legal advice and rat him out to the cops.

Wild Beast

Astrid said she felt she had no choice but to wear a wire and entrap her brother. “He is like a wild beast. It is a necessity to put him behind bars. It limits his possibilities,” she said. But she was also aware that her brother was a charmer and could even talk judges around to his way of thinking. Something had to be done to stop this man, and while Astrid felt bad for it, she felt she had no choice but to intervene.

Lovable Character

Astrid also explained that while her brother was a known criminal, he was so manipulative that most people liked him after meeting him. “He knows how to manipulate people into believing him. If you talk to him for five minutes, you like him, even though you know he committed a lot of crimes,” she said. But Astrid still maintains hidden respect for her brother despite his crimes.

He’s Fantastic

Some people are just lovable no matter what they say or do. It seems that Holleeder is one such character – at least according to his sister. “After 10 minutes you don’t believe what I’ve said about him anymore, after 15 minutes you think I’m crazy because he’s fantastic,” she explained. “I had the same problem. Every time he wins my heart.”

No Trust

Astrid’s decision to rat on her brother was made by herself. She knew she had to wear a wire to get incriminating evidence against him but didn’t trust the Dutch justice department. The main reason for that was because her brother had boasted to her on more than one occasion that the Dutch authorities were “in his pocket” already.

Customized Wire

Knowing that her brother was savvy and very observant, Astrid knew that the only way to entrap him was to make a specially customized wire that he wouldn’t be able to detect. She adapted her bra and sewed the mic into her collars. “He used to pat me down. I had to be careful he wouldn’t see the red light flashing through my top, so I taped over them and colored them in.” She explained.

Explosive Tapes

The contents of the recordings that Astrid was able to get were explosive. She employed the help of her younger sister Sonja for the sting, and the tapes were ultimately used by the prosecution against Holleeder in court. He lost it in court when the tapes were played and he realized he had been duped by his sisters.

Courtroom Outburst

Astrid explains that her brother took issue with her but more with Sonja when the recordings came out. He called Sonja a “cancer whore” in court among other choice insults. “It’s not cool to treat a woman like that. A lot of people heard the tapes and decided, well, I’m not going to help him,” Astrid said. She went on to write a heart wrenching autobiography about her life entitled “Judas.”

No Hero

Even though Astrid has made some serious money herself from the autobiography, she claims she feels like no hero. She says in the book that she wishes her brother could be locked away in a palace rather than a prison and accepts that her fate will always be intertwined with his. “I’m not ashamed of the things I’ve done. I don’t want to be a hero, or powerful. I just want to be me,” she writes in the book.

Death Penalty

Life for Astrid is hard as she lives in hiding. She also feels that one day her actions will catch up with her, even though she has no idea when that day will be. As she explained in her bestseller, referring to her brother: “We’re both sentenced to life if he gets convicted. If he doesn’t get convicted, then we both have the death penalty because I think we have to kill each other.”

Life Lesson

Many meaningful things were written by Astrid in her book as she tries to make some semblance of sense about her situation and her brother’s life of crime. She speaks about how her abusive father played a huge role in molding her brother into what he became as an adult but also gave some vital life lessons. As an example, she wrote: “I hope that people can see coming from a dysfunctional family doesn’t mean you have to be crippled for life.”

Dutch Sisters Hatch Plot to Get Gangster Brother Arrested After His Crimes Go Too Far is an article from: LifeDaily

Social media sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are typically slammed for ruining people’s lives as well as their physical and mental health.

However, one Nebraska mother of three recently came forward to reveal the unexpected way one social media app actually saved her life when she had experienced a life-threatening stroke last year when she was just 38 years old.

A Normal Morning

On the morning of July 31, 2017, Darnisha Ladd got up and got ready for work just like she did every other morning. The mother from Omaha, who was 38 years old at the time, then left for work in the student placement office for Omaha Public Schools.

A Normally Enthusiastic Employee

“She’s always very vibrant and enthused about being at work when she’s at work,” co-worker Tisha Holland told KETV7. However, that day, Ladd wasn’t feeling like herself. Ladd wasn’t feeling well, and as the day went on she only felt worse.

Working Through The Discomfort

According to Ladd, she started feeling light-headed and dizzy while she was at work. Ladd tried to work through the discomfort she was experiencing, but it started to become too intense for her to focus on anything.

Time to Go Home

At one point, Ladd experienced a pounding headache. Yet Ladd still tried to keep working. It was only when her arm started shaking uncontrollably that she decided it was time to go home. According to Ladd, the shaking in her arm was so bad that she couldn’t even control the cursor on her computer.

Call An Ambulance

At that point, Ladd decided to go tell her supervisor that she wasn’t feeling well and needed to go home for the rest of the day. But as she tried to stand up out of her chair, Ladd fell back into her chair and was unable to stand on her own.

The First Examination

The 38-year-old was rushed to the emergency room at the Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha. When she arrived just after one in the afternoon, doctors examined her and found her blood pressure was higher than it should have been.

No Sign of Stroke

Doctors wondered if she was having a stroke, but they didn’t find any signs of any brain dysfunction. They also failed to find any other typical signs of a stroke like weakness in the arms, difficulty speaking, or drooping of the muscles in her face.

One Final Scan

To be sure that Ladd wasn’t having a stroke, doctors performed a CT scan. They found no sign of a stroke so felt sure she wasn’t in any immediate danger. However, the doctors insisted Ladd stay in the hospital until her blood pressure went down.

A Parting Warning

By 6:30 that night, Ladd’s blood pressure was finally back to a normal level and her headache had gotten better. Doctors told Ladd she was free to go home but warned her to come straight back if the symptoms returned or got worse.

Afraid of Being Alone

Ladd’s mother had been with her at the hospital and drove the mother of three home. However, Ladd didn’t want to be left alone as she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to get help if the symptoms returned. So Ladd’s sister, Sherita White, agreed to stay with her.

Ladd’s Personal Nurse

White, who works as a nurse, had just finished her nursing shift but was happy to spend time with her sister that night. Yet shortly after arriving at the house, White noticed that Ladd still had an IV port in her arm.

The Snapchat Post

White filmed herself and Ladd while she removed the IV port from Ladd’s arm and then shared the footage on her Snapchat. Normally, Ladd teased her younger sister for using the video and photo sharing app.

A Relaxing Girls Night

Ladd had no idea, however, that the silly app would end up saving her life. Once the IV port was removed, the sisters turned on HBO’s Insecure. Once the show was finished, the pair continued to watch TV, but Ladd started getting drowsy and fell asleep.

Something Isn’t Right

“All of a sudden she woke up and something didn’t seem right,” White told the Omaha World-Herald. “Her eyes were (rolled) back, and she wouldn’t talk … I could tell she wasn’t breathing right.” White alerted the rest of the family and they loaded her into the car immediately.

Back to The ER

Ladd’s family drove her straight to the emergency room at the Immanuel Medical Center. According to the family, they arrived at the hospital just after 10 that night. By that point, Ladd’s entire left side was extremely weak.

Worrying Symptoms

While Ladd was conscious, she also couldn’t speak and couldn’t open her eyes. “It was scary,” Ladd later said. “I couldn’t say anything.” Despite ruling out a stroke earlier, doctors performed the tests and scans again.

The Diagnosis

The results from the new set of scans and tests showed Ladd had experienced a stroke. ER doctors called in Dr. Vishal Jani, a neurologist who wanted to treat Ladd with medication to save the 38-year-old’s life. But the medicine came with risks.

The Time Limit

According to Dr. Jani, the medicine needs to be administered within four-and-a-half hours from the first symptoms of the stroke. Unfortunately, doctors had no idea when the symptoms began and it had been more than that amount of time since she was released from the hospital.

The Difference Between Life And Death

“We can potentially save her life or kill her,” Jani told the Omaha World-Herald. The team treating Ladd had no choice but to assume that Ladd’s symptoms started when she left the emergency room, which meant it was too late to give her the life-saving medicine.

The Snapchat Proof

At that moment, however, White remembered the Snapchat she had taken. White showed it to the doctors, and they saw Ladd speaking and moving normally. Because of the time stamp on the video, doctors were able to prove Ladd’s symptoms had started less than four-and-a-half hours before.

More Complications

With just 12 minutes to spare, doctors administered the medicine that dissolved the blood clot, which had been stopping blood from flowing to the brain. However, Ladd wasn’t out of the woods just yet. She ended up needing to be intubated and her brain started swelling.

Two Weeks Later

To reduce the pressure in her brain, doctors were forced to remove part of her skull. For the next two weeks, Ladd was kept on a ventilator. “There was a point in time where the doctors had told us we need to start thinking about her wishes,” Ladd’s sister, Danita Webb, told KETV7.

A Long Road to Recovery

Yet the mother of three started showing improvements and was transferred to Madonna Rehabilitation. At the rehabilitation center, Ladd worked hard at her recovery and underwent physical, speech, occupational, and aquatic therapy.

Impressive Progress

Ladd had to relearn even the simplest tasks like chewing and swallowing her food, which was incredibly frustrating. Yet she never gave up. “On any given day, I would look up when I was in my therapy and one of my sisters or my cousins would be there cheering me on,” Ladd said. It’s been over a year since Ladd had a stroke, and she can speak and walk with the help of a cane. “I feel great. I feel very motivated to get myself back to 100 percent,” said Ladd, who is hoping to get back to work eventually.

Snapchat Helps Doctors to Administer Life-Saving Treatment to Mom After Stroke is an article from: LifeDaily

Theodore Seuss Geisel otherwise known as Dr. Suess is perhaps the most well-known children’s book author in modern history. Since his career began, he has sold more than 600 million children’s books in countries all over the globe and taught many more millions how to read.

What many people don’t know is that Dr. Suess, author of the world-famous How the Grinch Stole Christmas, was himself a bit of a Grinch. Exploring the complexity of this literary genius, however, is no easy task and to do so, we must first go back to the very essence of what made Dr. Seuss tick.

Millions of Fans

To the rest of the world, including millions of kids, Dr. Seuss was the kindly author of some of the most well-known children’s books on the market today. Though his colorful tales were packed with nonsense rhymes and unusual characters, they still managed to teach children all about the power of reading.

Truly A Grinch

Nevertheless, there are elements to the good doctor’s life that make one reconsider how highly he is held in the hearts of fans. Dr. Seuss reportedly hated children, almost to the point of avoiding them entirely. He also had an affair with a neighbor while his exceptionally supportive wife was dying from cancer. One wonders, where did all this negativity stem from and where did it start?

Springfield Kids

Dr. Seuss was born Theodor Geisel to Henrietta Seuss and Theodor Robert Geisel. All four of his grandparents had been German immigrants and his father’s father had actually started a brewery in their hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Seuss was raised as a Lutheran and seemed to have a keen interest in art and writing from a young age.

The Volstead Act

Unfortunately, the Geisel family Brewery was one of many swept up in the Volstead Act like so many others. Thankfully, Prohibition didn’t prove too much of a problem for the family. Though Theodor Robert Geisel had lost his job at the family brewery, he did get appointed to work in Springfield’s public park system by Mayor John A. Denison.

Dartmouth Years

After high school, Seuss enrolled at Dartmouth College, where he studied until his graduation in 1925. College proved to be to a positive experience for him and he made friends easily, especially when he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He even got a position writing for the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, a humor magazine for which he would eventually become editor-in-chief.

Prohibition

Like most college students, Seuss liked to partake of the occasional spirit with his friends. Unfortunately, prohibition was still in place and would be for some time. So when he and nine friends were caught with gin in their room, Seuss faced possible expulsion. He wasn’t expelled of course, but he was punished.

Infractions

As a result of this infraction, Seuss was forced to resign from all extracurricular activities, which included his beloved college humor magazine. He refused to allow the Dean to take that away from him, so he found a way to continue working on the Jack-O-Lantern in relative secret. He would do it while hiding in plain sight.

A Suess Is Born

It was during this academic suspension that Theodore Geisel first became “Dr. Seuss.” He worked on the Jack-O-Lantern in secret, signing under the pen name Seuss. From that day on, the name stuck and Dr. Seuss began his journey into the greater world of writing. He graduated from Dartmouth and moved to England to further his education.

A New Career

Dr. Seuss moved to England to study at Lincoln College in Oxford. His goal was to earn a doctorate in English, but fate had other plans. It was while at Oxford that he met Helen Palmer. She encouraged him to give up his desire to become an English teacher and to instead foster his other talent: drawing.

Branding And Re-Branding

The two were soon married. There was no doubt that Seuss was talented, but his first forays into the world of literature were less than stellar. His adult picture book never took off the ground and by the fifties, Seuss has resigned himself to making children’s books almost exclusively. He just hadn’t realized what a successful plan that would end up being.

A Man of Two Sides

Even in those days, there were two distinct sides to the man known as Dr. Seuss. One of his sides was the fun-loving man who inspired children everywhere. This Seuss was much more like the Cat in the Hat. The second side, the reclusive, angry man, prone to bouts of depression, was more like the Grinch.

Hard Topics

Despite his purported love for environmentalism and anti-bigotry, many of Dr. Seuss’ early works were a bit rougher than one might imagine. Many believe that Seuss’ famous Yertle the Turtle is an allegory for Adolf Hitler and the rise of Fascism. Of course, that wasn’t the author’s only work criticizing Hitler or his only work written during the war.

World War II

During World War II, Seuss was asked to write propaganda for the US government. This included a number of derogatory cartoons depicting Japanese-Americans. His work played into the paranoia of the time and on the existing stereotypes about them. People were afraid of the Japanese after Pearl Harbor and Seuss’ comical, sometimes scary images cemented that fear.

Controversy

When he wasn’t drawing political cartoons for the military-industrial complex, Seuss was harnessing his hostility into other questionable avenues. One 1929 illustration for Judge Magazine depicted distorted African Americans with exaggerated lips being offered to a white shopper under an offensive sign. He would later apologize for all these portrayals but they remained a tarnished part of his legacy.

Helpful Wife

His wife Helen had also been a successful children’s author but eventually gave up her own career to focus on Seuss’. Helen acted as his editor, spokeswoman, and his financial adviser. The two were unable to have children due to an emergency surgery Helen had undergone earlier in life, but this suited him just fine.

Wandering Attraction

Despite all her assistance and the 40 years of marital bliss the two had experienced, Dr. Seuss was restless. Everything began falling apart when he started growing closer to their beautiful neighbor, Audrey Dimond. Though she and her husband Grey were much younger, they had grown very close to the Geisels.

Whale Watching

The couple would often come over to the Geisel house for dinner, and it was in those moments that Seuss’ relationship with Audrey fully began to blossom. A whale watching trip in the early ’60s cemented their budding relationship. Helen knew that something was amiss, but was too busy worrying about the slew of illnesses she was experiencing to do anything about it.

Struggles

Eventually, the illnesses and cancer took their toll. Helen could take no more of the physical or emotional pain that surrounded her. In October of 1967, she committed suicide by taking an overdose of pills. She even left a note which gave reasons why she did what she had done. It was addressed to her husband…

The Note

Helen wrote: “What has happened to us? I don’t know. I feel myself in a spiral, going down, down, down into a black hole from which there is no escape, no brightness … And loud in my ears from every side I hear, ‘failure, failure, ­failure … My going will leave quite a rumor but you can say I was overworked and ­overwrought. … Your reputation with your friends and fans will not be harmed.”

Hit Hard

Helen’s death hit Seuss very hard. So hard in fact that he himself even considered suicide at times. He slipped into bouts of depression the likes of which he had never suffered before, but eventually, was able to come out of it. A year later, he and Audrey were married. Things were OK, except for the fact that his new wife had two young daughters.

Commitment

Audrey knew from the start that committing to this grouchy author was going to mean changes for her and her family. But like Helen before her, she put Seuss before her own happiness. She even sent her own daughters, aged nine and fourteen, away to boarding school in order to please her new husband. It was the right decision as far as she was concerned.

No Fan

Although Dr. Seuss had devoted most of his life to writing children’s books, he never had children of his own. He had lived his whole adult life without them and was very happy. As his second wife Audrey used to say, he wouldn’t have been happy with them and they wouldn’t have liked him. He used to say “You have ’em; I’ll entertain ’em.”

Downright Scared

Audrey recalled one of the times that Dr. Seuss was invited to tour a bunch of local schools. “One time, they got an old bus out and as Ted stood on the first step of the antique bus, the skies cleared … from every orifice of that school came droves of children, running as fast as they could, shouting. When he saw these hordes of children just tearing in his direction, he turned to get back in the bus.”

Posthumous Millions

Theodore Geisel died of oral cancer on September 24, 1991. He was 87 years old. Audrey had his remains cremated and scattered as per his wishes. She continued his legacy, turning his work into a multitude of books, cartoons, plays, and movies. Even today, Dr. Seuss continues to inspire millions of children, all of them heedless of the complicated life he once lived.

The Dark Truth No One Knows About The Beloved Dr. Seuss is an article from: LifeDaily

It seems like in the past, it was a lot easier to get away with a crime. With the way law enforcement techniques and technologies have improved, crimes that would have slipped by in decades past are now often caught and their perpetrators brought to justice.

And law enforcement isn’t just getting better at solving crimes that are happening now. They are applying their greater crime-solving ability to some of those very same cases that slipped through the cracks all those years ago…

Desert Shenanigans

On a Wednesday in April, way back in 1981, a couple guys from Tucson, Arizona were out in the desert close to Interstate 10. The two men were coworkers at a home improvement store and, both having the day off, they got into a Jeep and headed into the heat to hunt rabbits and look for “treasure.”

Strange Sight

They were driving east along a wash when they spotted something strange hanging from a tree. It looked like a bit of clothing swaying gently in the breeze. After driving the car over to the tree, they could see that it was a small jacket.

Dark Notion

It was an unusual thing to see in the middle of nowhere and the guys felt obligated to have a look around to see if the owner of the jacket was nearby, possibly in need of help. One of the men expressed his hope to the other that they wouldn’t come across a body in their search.

Terrible Discovery

But in a small tributary wash not far from the jacket, that’s exactly what they found. From far away, it looked like a young woman or girl lying there. The men approached just close enough to see that she was dead before they left to find a phone and notify the authorities.

Violent Demise

Investigators determined that the victim was a young adult somewhere between the ages of 18 and 22. She had been badly beaten and sexually assaulted before being strangled to death by some sort of ligature sometime in the last 48 hours. But because she was left out in the elements, she was in an advanced state of decomposition.

Difficult Identification

That had left her facial features unrecognizable to the point where they couldn’t even determine her eye color. The most distinguishing things about her had been her blouse, which was dark blue with puffy red sleeves and a flower design.

Unknown

The woman’s fingerprints and dental information were taken, but they didn’t match anyone in police records. She was also compared to any missing-person cases that might possibly be a match nationwide but they were all ruled out one by one. With no further leads, the woman was buried under a headstone with the placeholder name “Jane Doe” with the phrase “UNK – 1981” because her date of birth was unknown.

Old Photo

There wouldn’t be any breaks in the case until 2014 when some cold-case detectives took a look at a photograph found in the possession of John Kalhauser when he was being investigated for an assault back in 1995. They believed that the woman in photograph resembled a new digital reconstruction of their Jane Doe. The photograph also appeared to be taken sometime between 1979 and 1981, fitting the time frame when the victim was found.

Possible Identification

The authorities had been circulating the photograph to the public for just a short time before a number of tips from local residents led them to believe that she had been a woman named Brenda Gerow. They were able to track down Brenda’s brother Bill Jr. who confirmed that the picture was of her.

Running Away

Bill said that he hadn’t seen his sister since she left their home state of Massachusetts with her boyfriend at the time – Kalhauser – back in 1980. Brenda had called Bill a couple of weeks later after she and Kalhauser had apparently relocated to New Mexico. But after that, she had no further contact with her family. They tried various means to locate her but, because she’d left the state at the age of 20 and of her own free will, they were unable to file a missing person report.

Criminal Past

Had Brenda known that Kalhauser was already a convicted killer when she’d met him, she probably never would have crossed the country with him. In 1971, he’d been found guilty of manslaughter after shooting a man named Paul Chapman to death. Though he was sentenced to seven years in prison, he’d been released on parole after about a year.

Skipping Bail

Kalhauser had also been indicted for the attempted murder of Lowell Connector in 1979, but fled the area with Brenda after posting bail and started going by an assumed name. When investigators tried to track him down in connection with her disappearance, they found out that he was already in prison.

Another Victim

Kalhauser had been married to a woman named Diane Van Reeth, who had gone missing in 1995 while she was trying to divorce him. Though her body was never found, investigators determined that she had been murdered by Kalhauser and in 1999. He was convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison.

DNA Match

At the same time as they were tracking Kalhouser down, investigators were applying new DNA technology to help in making certain that the Jane Doe was the missing Brenda Gerow. In 2015, they were able prove that samples taken from the evidence more than 30 years old were a match. “We were able to find who her family was, did some DNA comparisons, and here we are,” said Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Tracy Suitt.”

Slow Process

Kalhauser was officially stated as a person of interest in Brenda’s death though he was not formally charged. Part of that was because prosecutors wanted to build as strong a case against him as possible and, considering he would be in prison until 2025 for the murder of his wife, they were willing to take their time.

Heartbroken

As for Brenda’s family, they had always held out hope that she was still alive and well somewhere, despite being out of contact with her for more than three decades. When they found out her fate, they were naturally devastated.

Why Would You Do This?

Brenda’s father, Bill Sr. said that he was “blown away” by the news. He couldn’t understand why anyone would want to wish harm upon his daughter, much less kill her. Knowing that she had been truly gone all of those years made him regret not being able to find her sooner.

Saying Goodbye

But now that they knew her fate, Brenda’s family was at least able to properly say goodbye. Her remains were taken from the Jane Doe grave and returned to her family, who decided to cremate them.

Reason Unclear

It may never be clear exactly what the motive was behind Brenda’s death. However, if we are to assume that Kalhauser alone was responsible, it would seem that her death was caused by the same thing that caused Van Reeth’s death: one man’s inability to control his rage.

Cautionary Tale

Perhaps Brenda’s story can serve as a warning to some young people out there who are prepared to upend their lives because of a relationship. Take care that you truly know the person you’re getting involved with before jumping in with both feet.

New Technology And An Old Photograph Lead to Breakthrough In 33-Year-Old Jane Doe Cold Case is an article from: LifeDaily

There are so many stories out there featuring miracle dogs – dogs who saved people’s lives, dogs who ran away only to return to their owners many years later, even dogs who survived great abuse or injury to become some of the best pets you’d ever meet.

It is rare, however, to find a story about a dog whose tenacity and lovability resulted in not only their own salvation but that of thousands of other canines as well. Our story begins at a St. Louis animal shelter with a dog whose time has just run out.

Normal Day

It was a chilly August morning in 2003. It wasn’t that it was unseasonably cool or anything, it was chilly because the employees at the St. Louis Animal Control pound had a grim task ahead of them. The same one they had been forced to do every morning; euthanize six to eight dogs who for whatever reason, had not found a home.

Not Uncommon

The preferred method of euthanasia utilized by the St. Louis Animal Control pound is by pumping poisonous carbon monoxide gas into a sealed chamber. The dogs breathe it in and slowly fall asleep in the room. Many believe this to be one of the most efficient and humane ways to put dogs to sleep, but there are problems with the method.

What Is Humane?

According to the Humane Society though, gassing is not the most humane way to put animals to sleep. The dogs are marched into a sealed room and left there as the gas fills the chamber. The animals become understandably distressed by being left alone in the room. They are also smart enough to sense when something is wrong.

Lethal Injection

Lethal injection is, of course, the preferred euthanasia method when euthanizing any animal. The reasons for this have to do with the “rapid loss of consciousness” that occurs prior to death. It’s quicker, easier on the poor animals, and unfortunately, it also happens to be far more expensive and time-consuming. Still, there were ways to make it more humane.

A Kindness

Rosemary Ficken and the other employees at the St. Louis location loved the dogs, that’s why they worked there. They weren’t heartless, they wanted to make their passing easier. So before they marched the dogs into the chamber, they tranquilized them. It calmed the animals and made the inevitable a bit easier for everyone to swallow.

Seven Dogs

The gas chamber was airtight and about the size of a large washing machine. Not big by any metric, but comfortable enough for Quentin, a one-year-old Basenji mix, was ushered off in a peaceable manner. Rosemary closed the door and started the gas. A few minutes later, she opened it again to find something remarkable standing before her.

Unbelievable

Rosemary had been working at the city pound, euthanizing unwanted animals for more than 15 years and this was the first time that she’d opened the gas chamber door to find one of the dogs still alive and kicking. Quentin sat among the dead dogs, wagging his tail and looking expectantly up at her.

Still Kickin’

A moment later and Quentin came sauntering out of the gas chamber towards her. He was swaying a bit as if he was a little drunk, but he seemed happy to see her and none the worse for wear. It was at that moment that Rosemary decided that she couldn’t just shut the door on him again. Quentin was a proper miracle.

Not Again

A brief vet check told them that Quentin was just fine. Rosemary knew deep down in her bones that this was no ordinary dog. He had a will to live and that meant that there had to be someone out there meant to have him. That someone, as it turned out, ended up being Randy Grim, an animal welfare advocate. It was love at first sight.

Meant For Quentin

When Randy Grim first met the miraculous mutt, his name wasn’t Quentin, it was Cain. Randy’s first meeting with the dog cemented in his mind that Cain was hardly a name for so pleasant and friendly a dog. So he changed his name to Quentin after California’s San Quentin prison, once known for its gas-chamber executions.

First Meeting

Even though he liked the dog, Randy wasn’t sure he was going to keep him at first. He had every intention of giving him up for adoption to a new family. Unfortunately, news of Quentin’s amazing brush with death soon gained national attention, and over 700 people applied to adopt him. Picking a single family was impossible. That and Randy had taken a liking to Quentin.

Keeping Him

It was an easy decision to make after that. Randy became Quintin’s new owner. Soon after that, Randy was contacted by the California-based animal rights group, In Defense of Animals. They asked if Quentin might be interested in becoming their “poster dog” to help educate Americans about the millions of strays euthanized every year.

The Good life

Randy and Quentin accepted and were soon flying around the country. Quentin even got to fly first class. He sat in the window seat, was served chicken, and when they landed, rode in a stretch limo. Quentin was even given the royal treatment when they got to the hotel. He had a feather bed, toys, bowls, everything he could ever want to be happy, even a loving owner.

Flying and Fundraisers

The amazing canine had gone from the gas chamber to living the high life and becoming a national icon. Together, dog and owner attended fundraisers, charity events, and in time even began lobbying for legislation against the use of gas chambers when it came to animal euthanasia. Thanks to Quentin’s notoriety, their efforts worked.

50 Communities

By 2008, Randy and Quentin had persuaded 50 communities to shut down gas chambers at their kill shelters. Naturally, St. Louis Animal Control pound was among them. Though they had made the switch barely a year after Quentin’s miraculous emergence. They had even lobbied to end them statewide.

Sad End

Sadly, in October of 2018, Quentin suffered a stroke and passed away. He had been known as the “spokesdog” for other animals like himself, animals who had been on death row. He didn’t die in vain though, Quentin’s story of survival inspired thousands and touched the hearts of thousands more, including that of his owner, Randy Grim.

Picking Me

Randy recently posted about his former buddy online so that his friends and followers could understand what Quentin truly meant to him, and to everyone. “Surviving the gas chamber in 2003, he picked me to be his partner to close down numerous animal death chambers across the country, but his miracles didn’t stop there.”

Miracle Buddy

“My miracle buddy also helped to spearhead the no-kill movement, an animal abuse task force, a shelter to protect the abused and forgotten, all the while keeping his dad, me, feeling loved and sane. He changed the landscape of an entire city, and I pray his legacy continues to be a driving force for a humane nation for all animals,” he explained.

Famous Friends

Randy wasn’t the only one who felt the loss. Upon hearing the news of Quentin’s passing, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson offered her condolences on Twitter. “I am very sorry Randy,” she wrote. “You and Quentin changed everything in animal welfare in St. Louis and across the country.”

Final Years

Quentin’s final years had been happy and he had “retired” from raising awareness for strays in 2013. He spent his days enjoying the wide open spaces and lush couches of Randy’s Rescue Ranch with other aging dogs like himself. “Quentin has done more for animal welfare than any human ever could,” says Randy Grim, and he’s absolutely right.

Dog’s Miraculous Survival Sparks Inspirational Movement For Other Animals Like Himself is an article from: LifeDaily

Most people would be relieved to find out they didn’t have to return to a dangerous, war-torn country where any number of threats can end your life at any second.

When one former soldier heard he wasn’t returning to duty in Syria, however, he was devastated. It wasn’t because he missed putting his life in danger every day, but because it meant leaving behind the tiny animal that had become his best friend.

10 Years of Service

Sean Laidlaw spent much of his 20s working as a soldier in the British Army. In the 10 years that he was with the Royal Engineers, Laidlaw completed two tours in Afghanistan. After finishing his second tour, Laidlaw returned home to Hornchurch, which is in Essex, England.

Returning to Civilian Life

However, returning home wasn’t as great as Laidlaw imagined it would be and he struggled with his transition back to civilian life. According to the now 30-year-old veteran, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after leaving the Army.

Struggling With PTSD

His family and loved ones tried to be supportive and help him with the transition, but they didn’t understand what he had been through while working as a soldier in a war zone. At one point, Laidlaw decided he wasn’t ready for civilian life.

Back to Work

According to Laidlaw, he found a job as a bomb disposal expert and was sent with a unit to Syria in February of 2018. After arriving in the war-torn country, the 30-year-old spent his days disarming deadly explosive devices.

The School Bombing

One day that February, Laidlaw and his unit had been sent to a school where bombs had been detonated. In the explosions, the building had almost completely collapsed. His job was to assess the school and see if there were any other bombs.

An Unusual Noise

While searching through the rubble of the collapsed school, Laidlaw explained he heard what sounded like whimpering. According to Laidlaw, he carefully located the source of the noise and discovered a small puppy nestled into the rubble.

The Lone Survivor

The puppy, which Laidlaw mistakenly thought was a boy and later named Barrie, was surrounded by her family. Tragically, Barrie’s entire family had all died in the explosion and the Asian Shepherd cross puppy was the only survivor.

A Traumatized Animal

Barrie was understandably shaken from the traumatic explosion. According to Laidlaw, she was extremely wary of him during their first meeting and wouldn’t even let him touch her or pet her. She also refused to leave her dead siblings behind.

Love at First Sight

While Barrie wasn’t sure about the human who had found her, Laidlaw instantly fell in love with the tiny puppy. Even though she had rejected him at first, Laidlaw refused to give up on her. That day, Laidlaw made sure the area was safe and that Barrie wasn’t in any danger.

Earning Barrie’s Trust

After first clearing the area and making sure the rubble was free from explosives, Laidlaw brought Barrie some food and water. Laidlaw didn’t want to leave Barrie there, but she wasn’t ready or willing to leave with someone she didn’t trust. Over the next few days, Laidlaw worked hard to earn Barrie’s trust.

A New Home

Each day, Laidlaw brought Barrie more water and food. According to the bomb disposal expert, Barrie finally started to warm up to him after three days. On that third day, Barrie finally allowed Laidlaw to pick her up and bring her back to the safety of his unit’s camp.

An Instant Bond

“I think as soon as Barrie and I bonded, where I could pick her up, for me she’d already become my dog,” Laidlaw said in a statement reported by the Daily Mail. Once back at camp, Laidlaw and Barrie quickly formed a bond and became inseparable as he cared for her all on his own.

A Welcome Responsibility

Before long, Laidlaw finally realized that Barrie was actually a girl, but decided not to change her name as it had already stuck. After being taken back to camp, Laidlaw started training Barrie and had her sleep in his room. “When we got back to camp, she lived in my room, I looked after her, I was responsible for her,” he explained.

An Unofficial Working Dog

“She slept in my room, I was training her, I was feeding her,” Laidlaw said. Over the next three months, Barrie did everything with her human companion and refused to part his side no matter where he went. At one point, Laidlaw had trained Barrie so well that he even brought her with him to work each day.

A Loyal Companion

“She stayed with me every day all day. She did jobs with me, I’d wake up, she’d come eat with me, she’d then sit in the passenger seat of my car when we drove to Raqqa,” Laidlaw said about the fiercely loyal puppy who insisted on being with him at all times.

Barrie’s Uniform

To protect Barrie as much as possible while at work, Laidlaw even had a special harness made for the puppy. According to Laidlaw, the harness was made from a bullet-proof vest as well as denim fabric and padding from a teddy bear.

Saving Each Other From War

“I feel like it may come across that I saved Barrie’s life, but I feel like she saved mine,” Laidlaw explained. “Working in a war zone, coming back to camp you sit in your room on your own. To have a companion you can play with and train. It kept my mind away from all the things I was seeing and doing out there.”

A Vital Distraction

“You can only imagine how bad Syria is, and to be able to come back to the camp and train her for three hours, take her for a walk, things like that really took my mind away from where I was. It gave me a bit of normality, she definitely kept me sane,” Laidlaw said.

War Paws

“Having a companion is one of the best things to help with PTSD. A dog always makes you happy, always wants to be with you,” the 30-year-old said. At one point, Laidlaw knew he wouldn’t be able to leave Barrie behind so contacted War Paws, a charity in Iraq that helps soldiers bring dogs home and raised £4,500, or about $5,700, to make it happen.

The Contract Cancelation

Barrie was then sent to Iraq to get vaccinated and checked by War Paws vets. She then needed to be quarantined for two months after being sent to Jordan. Meanwhile, Laidlaw went home in April after four months in Syria. It was supposed to be a short leave and Laidlaw planned to be back in Syria to reunite with Barrie. However, his unit’s contract was abruptly canceled and he was told not to return to Syria.

Desperate to Return

“I might be one of the only people who was unhappy not to go back to Syria. I was on the way to the airport with my dad when I got a message telling me not to board my flight and go home,” Laidlaw said. “I thought there might be a security issue, but then I got a call that night saying the contract is canceled and that everyone is being sent back home. I put the phone down and immediately called the charity, I didn’t think of anything else and tried to see how I could get Barrie home.”

A Difficult Seven Months

“It’s very difficult to be apart, my biggest issue was that I never had that moment with her to say goodbye as when I left I thought I’d see her in a couple weeks,” said Laidlaw, who was forced to spend seven months apart from his best friend. “That was hard for me, as I worried she was a totally different dog.” Out of desperation to be reunited with Barrie, Laidlaw prepared to fly to Jordan to get Barrie, but then Louise Hastie, owner of War Paws, agreed to bring Barrie along with two other dogs she was flying from Jordan to Paris.

The Reunion

In early November 2018, Laidlaw drove to Paris and was finally reunited with Barrie. According to the 30-year-old who now owns a gym, he was excited but nervous Barrie would be different or wouldn’t remember him. “Meeting her at the airport, seeing her in the flesh, was one of the best moments of my life. I’ve never been so happy,” he explained.

A Surreal Experience

“It was pure joy when she realized who I was. She’s exactly as she was back in Syria, it was just great to have my dog again. I’d be willing to travel across the whole world to have Barrie with me. Thinking about having Barrie with me now, the life we can have together – it’s surreal,” Laidlaw said.

Soldier Goes to Extreme Lengths to Reunite With Puppy That Saved Him in Syria is an article from: LifeDaily

When a black security guard was shot and killed by police just moments after stopping a drunk customer who had opened fire at a bar in Illinois, questioned were raised. While authorities have released details about the shootings, witnesses have contradicted some of the information that has come out.

Since the incident, many Chicago-area citizens were left confused, leaving people to make judgments about the incident. Here’s what happened.

Manny’s Blue Room

The incident at Manny’s Blue Room occurred at around 4 a.m. on Sunday, after a security guard told the drunk man to leave the premises. Jemel Roberson, 26, was working as a security guard at the nightclub when several men got into a fight that ended in gunshots.

Security Guard Stepping In

Witnesses said Roberson subdued one of the men and was holding him at gunpoint in the parking lot when a responding officer shot and killed him. State police said that Roberson was given “multiple verbal commands” to drop his weapon, although this account was contradicted by witness statements.

Demanding Answers

“In 35 years, I’ve never seen security get shot by police,” Abe Khan, owner of Chicago’s Reliance Security Services told the Chicago Tribune. “I would like to know what happened. It’s crazy. Police officers don’t do that.”

Unanswered Question

One unanswered question was whether Roberson was carrying a weapon. Dorian Myrickes, a fellow security guard who was working security with Roberson that night, told the Chicago Tribune that she and Roberson were stationed inside the bar. By law, liquor-serving establishments are allowed to have armed guards inside, although guards are permitted to carry weapons outside.

Where Was His Gun?

Although police said that Roberson was holding a gun when he was shot, they are unsure if it was his own weapon or one he picked up during the chaos. Myrickes told the Tribune that Roberson had left his gun in his car, although he may have retrieved it when the trouble started.

Alcohol And Guns

Mike Brown, who runs Security Training Concepts, said there’s a good reason for the prohibition on armed guards inside of bars. “Alcohol and guns do not mix,” he said. “There is no way Manny’s Blue Room could have (legally) hired him to work in an armed capacity inside, because it would have jeopardized its liquor license.”

How Roberson Was Dressed

Manny’s Blue Room’s liquor license at the time of the shooting had expired, according to government records. The preliminary report from the Illinois State Police, which is investigating the shooting, said that Roberson was wearing “plain black clothing with no markings readily identifying him as a Security Guard.”

Security

But, Myrickes said Roberson had a cap and sweatshirt emblazoned with the word Security. A witness who lives next door to the club also said he saw Roberson wearing a cap, although he wasn’t sure if Roberson had it on when he was shot.

Security Guards

Louis Phillips, director of training at PTC Security Training Academy, said he has seen younger security guards dressed casually on the job, but that he advises against it, saying visibility is important. If it turns out that Roberson’s clothes clearly marked him as security, then Midlothian police will have some explaining to do, said Phillips.

Accountability

“(The officer) is going to be held accountable,” he said. “They’re going to sue the shoes off that town, and rightfully so.” Phillips believes that another complication in the case is that Manny’s Blue Room is outside of Midlothian. He said that police are always familiar with the employees of their town’s liquor-serving establishments, and while Robbins police might have known Roberson was a security guard, Midlothian officers likely did not.

Midlothian Police

“If it’s part of their patrol district, they know who works in the club,” Phillips told the Tribune. “So when you call for an outside agency assist, their officers might not be familiar with that bar.” Midlothian police Chief Dan Delancey called Roberson “a brave man who was doing his best to end an active shooter situation.”

Protestors

The Tuesday following his death, protestors gathered outside the Midlothian Police headquarters, some carrying portraits of Roberson. A family attorney said the young man was a father and that his girlfriend is pregnant with their second child.

Rally

On Wednesday, community activists held a rally to call for Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx to investigate the shooting and for the officer involved to resign. “This young man has a nine-month-old son, he’ll never get to see his child grow up,” local pastor Anthony Williams told CBS News.

Unjustified Shooting

“This young man wanted to be a police [officer]. This young man was a child of God – he worked in the church and lost his life, unfortunately, so we want justice.” Gregory E. Kulis, who filed a lawsuit contending that the shooting was unjustified and unprovoked, said the police release is “woefully incomplete.”

Knit Cap

Kulis suggested it’s possible there was no mention of Roberson’s knit cap because witnesses said it came off as emergency workers tried to administer CPR. Another security guard at the nightclub said the officer jumped onto the bar and waved an assault rifle before running outside and fatally shooting Roberson.

Screaming

Kulis said the surviving security guard told him that the officer pointed a gun at him until he screamed at him that he was a security guard. “That’s when he jumped off the bar, waving the gun, and ran outside the door,” said Kulis.

Black Man With A Gun

An official in a neighboring community also asked for prosecutors to investigate, saying he’s concerned race played a role in the shooting. “Here is a security guard who is subduing a suspect,” but the officer “just sees a black man with a gun and kills him,” Alderman Keith Price said.

Race

Kulis did not say if he thinks race played a role in the shooting, but the fact that the officer is white and Roberson was black has prompted some to question the officer’s thinking. “I believe a police officer showing up at a chaotic scene where a white man has a gun would have at least hollered for him to put the gun down before opening fire,” Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell wrote.

Black Men

“But too often, black men are not given the benefit of the doubt,” Mitchell added. The Illinois State Police did not respond to a series of questions from CBS News, including the contradictory accounts of Roberson’s clothing, how much time elapsed between the time the officer shouted commands and opened fire, and whether video exists of the shooting, to name a few.

Administrative Leave

But, a spokesman said the investigation is ongoing and no further information outside of the statement would be released at this time. In an initial statement, Midlothian Police Chief Daniel Delaney said that the officer shot “a subject with a gun.” The chief also said the officer has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard in shootings until the investigation is complete.

Firearms

The sheriff’s department for the county released little information about the incident, but have said that Roberson had a valid firearms owners’ identification card. He did not, however, have a concealed carry permit, according to police.

Other Injuries

While Roberson was the only person killed in this horrific incident, four other individuals were injured, including the shooter. None of those wounds, however, are thought to be life-threatening. “A Midlothian officer encountered a subject with a gun and was involved in an officer-involved shooting,” the police chief said in a statement posted on the department’s Facebook page. “The subject the officer shot was later pronounced deceased at an area hospital,” he added.

Musician

Roberson has been described by those close to him as a musician who regularly played drums and keyboard at Chicago-area churches. Friends told local media that he planned on becoming a police officer.

Police Officer

“Every artist he’s ever played for every musician he’s ever sat beside, we’re all just broken because we have no answers,” Reverend Patricia Hill of Purposed Church said. “He was getting ready to train and do all that stuff, so the very people he wanted to be family with, took his life.”

Chicago Security Guard Shot By Police For Doing His Job At Local Bar is an article from: LifeDaily

When police receive a call about a missing person, they usually assume that person will be found safe and sound soon enough as that’s what happens in the majority of cases. But when neighbors call the cops alleging there’s a dead man in a property it’s a different story entirely.

When 65-year-old Brian Egg went missing from his Clara Street home in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, his relatives reported to the police that they hadn’t heard from him in days. But then a neighbor called saying they feared that Egg was dead inside his house.

Quiet Type

Brian Egg reportedly lived a quiet life in his suburban home in the South of Market neighborhood. Neighbors said he was the quiet, unassuming type who kept to himself for the most part. But when police started getting calls regarding the whereabouts of Egg, they went ahead and carried out what they call “wellness checks,” two of them to be precise.

Wellness Checks

Having received multiple calls from worried neighbors and family members, the local police performed two “wellness checks” which consisted of knocks at the door to check if anyone was home. When there was no answer at the door, the attending officers simply moved on without entering the property. This essentially makes those wellness checks useless in the face of a real missing person’s case.

Missing Person Report

When Egg’s sister filed a missing person report with the police, they attended the property once again. This was their third visit, and once again, as no one answered the door, they failed to gain entry and simply moved on. Police Cmdr. Greg McEachern attempted to explain the police’s actions during a press conference.

Gaining Entry

According to CBS Local, at the press conference, the police commander attempted to deflect blame from the police. “We don’t just go breaking down doors because someone reports someone missing,” said McEachern to one reporter. But another reporter present took issue with that answer and took the argument to the police spokesperson.

Multiple Reports

The reporter waited his turn and then addressed the police commander. “But you had family and neighbors saying over and over at that time they thought he was dead,” the reporter asked. To that, McEachern responded, “I don’t have information saying someone thought he was dead, just that there were people that were coming and going and they hadn’t seen him.”

Fourth Call

Around a week later and concerned neighbors called the cops once again. They reported suspicious activity around the property in the form of two middle-aged men and a cleaning truck. When police arrived, they arrested 52-year-old Robert McCaffrey and then, a little later in the day, a man called Lance Silva. They were arrested after cleaning products and suspicious odors were found in the home.

Search Warrant

When the SFPD obtained a proper search warrant the following day, no one was expecting to find what they found inside the property. That find was more gruesome than even some of the most seasoned officers were used to. The attending officers following a strange odor all the way to a concealed part of the house where they found a large fish tank.

Fish Tank

Inside the fish tank, the officers found Egg’s remains in an “advanced state of decomposition” with only his torso inside the tank. The discovery stunned the officers who needed to call for special forensic teams to attend the crime scene to find the missing parts of Egg’s body as well as the cause of death and other evidence.

Neighbor’s Outrage

A nearby neighbor spoke out against the way the police had handled the case up until the point they found Egg’s decomposing body. “If we didn’t say anything would it just have been ignored all this time?” asked Scott Free. “The police didn’t seem to take much interest at first.” The cops even acknowledged that Free made a good point.

Staying Vigilant

When asked about the fourth call police made to the property, they admitted that if it weren’t for that concerned neighbor flagging the suspicious activity, Egg would likely still not have been found. “We might not, that’s correct,” said McEachern. “And that’s where you usually rely on family or someone to let you into the place.”

Financial Fraud

It didn’t take the police long to figure out the motive for Egg’s untimely death. Court documents reveal that his stolen credit card was used to purchase a BMW from a dealership in East Bay. The owner of Silmi Auto Sales confirmed that Silva was the man who bought the car from him – a fact he was crystal clear about.

Photo Identification

The court documents reveal that Silmi was shown a photo of Egg, but he said he had never seen him before. When he was shown a mugshot of Silva, he told a Sgt. Kasper that he was the man who bought the car. Silva admitted to police that he drove that BMW but did not admit to buying it even though he was found in possession of the stolen credit card used.

Crime Scene Cleanup

In an almost unprecedented move, Silva hired a specialist crime scene cleanup company on a private basis to come and clean up Egg’s home following the murder. He used Egg’s Chase debit card to pay the company for the service in the hopes of disposing of all evidence of Egg’s body or his connection to the crime scene. That fact made Silmi’s assertion that Silva was the one who used Egg’s credit card even more legitimate.

Professional Fraudster

KPIX 5 spoke to Silmi about the positive identification he gave on Silva. “He told me he was Brian Egg. His ID and documentation were all Brian Egg,” said Silmi. “It was just a regular transaction to me.” He recalled that the man who bought the car was in a cheerful mood on the day of the purchase, bragging that he had just come into a large amount of money.

New House

Silva bragged further to the car salesman, telling him that he came into so much money that he was able to buy a new house. “He told me about a home he just purchased in SF and how he was coming back up and wanted to buy a car, so I was like, ‘Sure,'” recalled Silmi. Before long, Silva was in police custody.

Next Steps

For the time being, police are still looking into Silva and McCaffrey as they try to ascertain the connection between the two men and Brian Egg. The men are both persons of interest as far as police are concerned, but detectives need to meet with the San Francisco District Attorney to work out the next steps for any potential prosecutions.

Candlelit Vigil

Meanwhile, the sudden murder of a man described to be “eccentric and kind” has left family, friends, and neighbors shocked and wanting answers. According to one old friend, Mark Rosenheimer, who met Egg back in the ’70s, said that Egg was “the kind of generous spirit who gave cashmere coats and planted palm trees to his neighbors.” More than two dozen friends and family gathered outside egg’s home on what would have been his 66th birthday to take part in a candlelit vigil.

Sad Time

One of the people to speak in honor of the deceased was his sister Lynn Egg-Jakusovas. Standing aside her brother and niece, she addressed the people gathered. “This has been a difficult, confusing and sad time for our family,” she said. She also said that her family felt encouraged by the amazing support they have received in light of Egg’s tragic murder.

Old Friends

While Brian Egg never hid the fact he was gay, old friends and acquaintances brought old photos of him as well as paintings he had made for them. They recounted stories of the deceased, how he was arrested for growing cannabis and how he enjoyed dancing at nightclubs in North Beach. Many people had fond stories about Brian which they shared at the vigil.

Amazing Man

Another person to give a speech at the vigil was a neighbor, Jyrki Kalavainen, who lived on Egg’s street for two years. He constantly gave him and his wife gifts like pieces of art he had drawn or found. “He was a wonderful, warm-hearted man. The whole neighborhood knew him,” said Kalavainen. Another neighbor, Skot Kuiper, also described Egg as “the good spirit of the alley,” referring to an alleyway where he would walk his dog.

Living Together

Rosenheimer, who hadn’t seen Egg for the best part of ten years, brought a folder full of black and white photos of himself and Egg from a time back in the 70s when the two men dated. Rosenheimer told stories of the time he lived with Egg on Clara Street, and of the fond memories he has of him.

Always Kind

Rosenheimer, now 81, said he was shocked when he heard the terrible news about his ex-boyfriend. “I was shocked when I heard the news. It’s just unbelievable,” he said. But he also spoke about how fondly he remembers his old friend and what a generous and kind person he was. “He was so generous. He was always kind.” But even people at a high level within the SFPD want answers about Egg’s murder.

Not Acceptable

Soon after San Francisco Police Commissioner Petra DeJesus heard about the case, she immediately leveled some questions against Police Chief Bill Scott. She asked him why police did nothing more than knock on Egg’s door a few times without even gaining entry to check on his well-being. “A wellness check has to be followed up on,” she said. “What if someone is in there and has a broken hip and can’t get up? There has to be a different standard. Neighbors were raising red flags for a couple of months.”

Curious Standard

While the police said they had no reason to suspect any foul play initially when Egg was reported missing, DeJesus said she wanted more tangible answers. “I’m curious about that standard,” DeJesus said. “I don’t know if you need suspicion to go in on a wellness check. So what’s the best protocol and how many times do you have to be notified?” The case is ongoing pending the expected prosecution of the two suspects in custody: Lance Silva and Robert McCaffrey.

Man’s Torso Found In Fish Tank Prompts Investigation of Identity Theft And Murder is an article from: LifeDaily

Off the east coast of Florida, the seabed is littered with pieces of rockets and airplane debris from test launches at the U.S. Air Force base at Cape Canaveral.

During the summer of 2016, however, a group of treasure hunters found an incredibly rare piece of the country’s history that dates back to the 16th century. Two years later, those treasure hunters are suing the state of Florida for conspiring against them and robbing them of millions.

An Underwater Survey

In late September 2015, Global Marine Exploration (GME), a Florida-based company that locates and salvages historic shipwrecks, sent divers out to survey an area of water off the coast of Cape Canaveral. During the survey, the divers used underwater magnetometer equipment.

A Legal Search

The tools allowed the divers to locate metal that’s is lying below the surface of the seabed or may be hidden underneath layers of sand. At the time, the state of Florida had given GME permits to search seven areas off the coast.

A Rocket Graveyard

Because of how close the areas off the coast were to the U.S. Air Force base at Cape Canaveral and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, GME has found countless rockets and pieces of airplanes left behind from the countless test launches done over the years.

Littered With Rocket Debris

“We’ve found hundreds … of U.S. Air Force rockets that they were testing from 1948 forwards, and also shrimp boats, airplane engines, airplanes,” Robert Pritchett, chief executive of GME, told Live Science. “We have found some of the actual rocket engines, and lots of rocket tubes – some of these things are 30, 40 feet long,” Pritchett explained. 

A Future Treasure

“Some are sticking halfway out on the surface or sticking straight up out of the sand. There are literally thousands of them out there. We GPS and photograph everything we find, and we turn that stuff over to the U.S. Air Force, because one day, it will be valuable to someone for a historical reason,” Pritchett said.

A Rare Find

However, one day during their surveys, the divers located something much older and much more valuable than rocket and plane debris. With the underwater magnetometer equipment, divers ended up finding a shipwreck carrying priceless treasures from the 16th century.

An Unexpected Treasure

At first, the treasure hunters from GME thought they had just stumbled on more rocket debris. But when they dug just a few feet into the sand, the divers discovered 19 iron cannons, 12 anchors, a stone grinding wheel, and scattered ballast and ammunition from the ships. But that’s not all they found.

A Piece of French History

The team discovered three ornate bronze cannons between seven and 10 feet long. Based on their markings, the team believes the bronze cannons are French and were cast in the 1540s, which was during the reign of King Henry II.

A Priceless Discovery

The treasure hunters also found a rare marble monument engraved with the French king’s coat of arms. According to Pritchett, the monument may be “the only one of its kind – and probably the most significant piece of maritime history that’s ever been found on the entire East Coast of the United States.”

The Shipwrecks

The incredible pieces of history were found scattered among the remains of three colonial-age ships which were found across an area of about four miles long and a half a mile wide. According to Pritchett, the team was incredibly lucky to find the treasure because of its location.

An Unpredictable Location

The area is in shallow water, but the conditions are drastically different each day. “The sea there is shallow, 15 to 25 feet, and the sand shifts a lot out there, ” Pritchett said. “So the cannons could be covered by 3 feet of sand, or they could be covered by 8 feet of sand – it’s different every time the wind blows.”

The Lost Ships

Pritchett explained that he and his team first believed the treasure and the shipwrecks were part of explorer Jean Ribault’s ‘lost ships,’ which sank in 1565. The small French fleet sank during a storm while heading to Florida to set up a French colony in Florida.

The Ship’s Manifest

The team explored the wrecks more thoroughly in May and June of 2016. At first, the team identified the canons and monument from the manifest of a 1562 expedition Ribault lead to Florida. But when they investigated the items further, they found reason to believe the treasure was no longer in France’s possession when they sank.

The Spanish Reid

GME found records showing that the bronze cannons and the marble monument were installed at Fort Caroline, a French colony that was located where Jacksonville is today. However, in 1565, the cannons and monument were seized during a Spanish raid.

A Doomed Voyage

“So [the monument] would not be on a French ship if it was removed by the Spanish,” Pritchett said. Pritchett now believes the treasures were loaded onto Spanish ships headed for Havana, Cuba. However, those ships got caught in a storm and sunk to the seabed.

A Treasure at Risk

“We’ve been letting the state [of Florida] know that these artifacts are at the jeopardy of looters, and of the weather,” he said. “These cannons are worth over a million dollars apiece – so if looters could find out the location, then a piece of history is gone forever because it’s going to be sold on the black market.” The marble monument may be worth much more and had been described as ‘priceless’ since GME found it.

A Significant Discovery

“This is the most important shipwreck ever discovered in North America, archaeologically, historically – all of the above,” John de Bry, director of the Center for Historical Archaeology in Melbourne Beach, told The Florida Times-Union. “It’s going to tell us a lot about how people lived, and give evidence of how serious the French were in establishing a colony in New France, in Florida.”

An Unsolved Mystery

Pritchett explained they won’t know exactly who the treasure belongs to until they are retrieved from the ocean and archeologists are allowed to examine them. “It’s a mystery at this point, and until we bring all these items up and study them, we’re not going to know a lot more about them – only what we know from the little bit of research in the water that we’ve been able to do,” Pritchett said. “But right now, we’re waiting on the state of Florida.”

The Judge’s Decision

However, in 2018, a Florida judge ruled that GME has no right to the treasure worth millions of dollars and can’t salvage the artifacts. Instead, the judge ruled that the treasure belongs to France and that the country has the final say on what will be done with the items still laying on the seabed.

The Court’s Ruling

Judge Karla Spaulding ruled in favor of the state of Florida, which was backing France’s claim of ownership of the artifacts. Spaulding agreed that the artifacts were being carried on Ribault’s ship, La Trinité, and ended up on the bottom of the ocean after the ship sank in 1565.

Property of France

“Under the Federal Sunken Military Craft Act, the court ruled that the country of France owned the wreck and any items located within it,” the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum said in a statement. “Essentially, this ruling allows excavation of the wreck to be organized by the state of Florida, in cooperation with the French.”

Challenging The Courts

However, Pritchett is challenging the ruling especially since the artifacts haven’t even been salvaged and haven’t been assessed by experts. Now, GME is suing the state of Florida for millions of dollars in damages. They are claiming that the state conspired with France to rob them of their share of the treasure.

An Unfair Disadvantage

GME is arguing that they never got a chance to prove the ships were Spanish and not French because they were never granted underwater-recovery permits to allow them to recover some items from the shipwreck to identify them properly. In addition to their lawsuit, GME is still considering appealing the court original decision.

Expert Needed

“GME showed the court many times that it could not be a French vessel,” Pritchett said. “And the judge had no jurisdiction to say it was French. … The only reason the region has any archaeological knowledge is because of treasure hunters that do it the right way. It sure ain’t from the state or federal archaeologists – they have no field experience.” For now, the treasure is still lying on the seabed off the coast of Florida.

Treasure Hunters Claim Florida Robbed Them of Millions After Finding 16th Century Shipwreck is an article from: LifeDaily

What would you do if you knew a friend was trying to commit suicide? It’s a difficult question and one with no easy answer. Many would say that the most obvious choice is to talk the person out of doing something so final. Of course, suicide is hardly ever as cut-and-dry as all that.

One teen, however, decided that the best way to help their friend escape the pain they were experiencing was to help them go through with it. The case brought up a number of questions about not only the nature of suicide itself but how the law should respond.

Turkey Hunt

The Utah man who found 16-year-old Jchandra Brown’s body was nearly sick when he saw her. He’d started that morning on a good note. He was excited to head into the woods for a good, old-fashioned turkey hunt in Spanish Fork Canyon. He never intended to find the hanging corpse of a teenage girl dangling from a noose near Maple Lake.

Not Alone

The turkey hunter called the authorities, who came out to the area right away. After cutting down Ms. Brown’s body, they discovered a number of things. First and foremost was that Brown had committed suicide by way of hanging. Some other nearby contrivances and the relative height of the hanging girl revealed something else; she hadn’t committed this act all on her own.

Bagged Evidence

There were two grocery bags on the ground next to Brown’s body. They contained receipts for a rope and an aerosol air duster of the kind most people use to clean off their keyboards. Her phone was there too, as well as a handwritten note for those who found her to watch the video on it that revealed what had actually happened.

Crying Man

Walking on a nearby trail, Tyerell Przybycien was feeling very guilty. He was crying when police happened upon him and he openly admitted that he had been with Brown when she died. Przybycien admitted that he had been there in that moment and had fled because he was scared, but that wasn’t the whole truth, not by a long shot.

Questioning

The police brought him in for questioning and it was during that first, initial interview that Przybycien admitted everything. Brown had confided in him that she had wanted to die and despite his reservations, he had agreed to help her. As it happened, Przybycien’s “reservations” had little to do with helping her commit suicide, and everything to do with doing it the right way.

Incriminating Evidence

Przybycien also admitted that it was he who had purchased the rope and air duster. He’d picked Brown up after work and driven her to the spot. He’d done everything short of tallying the rope over the branch and according to the video evidence, the full extent of his morbid assistance was about to be revealed to the world.

Offhand Comments

A week before Brown’s death, Przybycien had spoken to friends over text about his part in the whole gruesome affair. “It be awesome,” he’d typed. “Seriously im going to help her. Its like getting away with murder! I’m so […] up. I’m seriously not joking. Its going down in about a week or two.” The 19-year-old actually seemed giddily excited about the prospect.

Grim Rejoicing

When it was done, Przybycien texted another friend saying, “Bro It happened … I helped her do it too and I feel so guilty.” Guilty or no, Przybycien’s fascination with death was apparent in much of their conversations and many of his friends could attest to that. According to Przybycien, helping Brown kill herself was “Like getting away with murder!”

The Video

The video on Brown’s phone revealed much of what actually happened in the moments leading up to her death. The recovered footage, which was recorded by Przybycien, shows Brown standing on a rock, by a piece of wood. Przybycien speaks to her through the lens and a moment later, Brown inhales the aerosol air duster, the noose tight around her neck.

Didn’t Work

Brown giggles and then, because of the aerosol, loses consciousness and falls off the rock. After that, you can hear Przybycien saying, “That did not work … That did not even work.” For the next 11 minutes, Przybycien continues to record Brown, asking her questions as she hangs there. She never manages to answer, she was already dead.

Leaving Her There

Throughout the video, Przybycien comments on the situation. He notes when the brain stops getting oxygen and finally, after an agonizing 11 minutes, Przybycien asks, “Thumbs up if you’re okay.” Once more, Brown does not respond. Knowing the deed is done, Przybycien sets the phone down on the ground saying, “I guess I’ll just leave this here now.”

Confident

Ever since the incident went public, people have been wondering how someone who purported to be Brown’s friend could have done something so sinister. Even if she had confided in him months earlier about her desire to kill herself, it seems unbelievable that he’d not only take her seriously, but buy her the supplies, take her to the location, and tie the noose so she could go through with it.

Helping Hands

Prosecutors quickly brought charges up against the 19-year-old. Their argument is that his actions ensured that Brown would die that day and that by some statute, this might make him guilty of murder. The argument over the legality of assisted suicide was first popularized by the government’s case against Dr. John Kevorkian, the famous suicide doctor.

Her Choice

Przybycien defense is that, even if he purchased and tied the rope, it was Jchandra Brown who chose to climb on the makeshift rock pedestal and place the noose around her own neck. It was her choice to ingest the compressed air and make herself pass out so that she fell from the rocks and hung herself. But the idea of “choice” in cases of suicide has always been a tricky thing.

Assisted Suicide

Przybycien’s case itself actually spurred Utah legislators to pass a law that criminalized assisted suicide. Thanks to his terrible actions, prosecutors can now seek a second-degree felony manslaughter charge for helping someone to kill themselves if they provided the physical means for someone to do so. Przybycien did just that by his own admission.

The Law

The assisted-suicide laws of the state of Utah precluded murder but the prosecution still alleged that Przybycien was directly responsible for Brown’s death. His actions precipitated an inevitable conclusion. There was also the fact that he seemed so morbidly curious about that outcome before, during, and after Brown’s successful suicide.

Pleading Out

In the end, Tyerell Przybycien, pleaded guilty to first-degree felony child abuse homicide. This plea deal saw prosecutors dropping some of the other charges against him including, dropped tampering charges as well as a single count of failure to report a dead body. But those were not the only charges against him at the time of his arrest.

“Lesser” Charge

Przybycien’s initial charges included, murder, which was dropped when the assisted suicide laws came into play, failure to report a dead body, and evidence tampering. Even after pleading guilty though, he still faces charges of possession of child pornography for images found on his cell phone of nude young girls, some under the age of five.

Punishment

At the current moment, Przybycien faces a minimum sentence of five years, but the judge still has the discretion to put him in prison for the remainder of his life. The number of charges, the degree of help he gave, and his outright callousness about something so tragic are serious considerations for the court to consider.

Parallels

The trial itself drew a number of parallels to another recent case. Michelle Carter, a Massachusetts woman, was recently convicted after goading her teenage boyfriend into killing himself. Her callousness seems to be reflected in that of Przybycien, who many still believe is escaping criminal responsibility with the current plea deal.

She Needed Help

The judge wrote about his ruling after the trial finished. “Encouraging and helping to facilitate the suicide of an impressionable minor who could have benefited from support, counseling or therapy is completely lacking of social value.” He was right of course, as the older of the two friends, Przybycien had other options available to him.

Suicide Prevention

Discussing a desire to die is one of the most common warning signs of suicide according to experts. Other feelings of anxiousness, hopelessness, and depression can be clear indicators as well. Beware of those who seem like they are in pain, prone to extremes mood swings, or are uncommonly reckless. Abnormal sleep patterns can also be clear signs.

Multiple Causes

We may never know what truly drove Jchandra Brown to do what she did, but we do know that it could have been prevented. The causes of these suicides are often convoluted and have multiple causes. Most are the product of a long-term suffering and not triggered by one single event. Mental illness is a factor but it can be helped.

Reach Out

Reaching out to those who are experiencing suicidal tendencies is a simple and effective preventative measure. These people need help and so did Jchandra Brown. As her aunt Polly explained it to the Salt Lake paper, “Her problem was, she thought she found a friend and she found a monster.”

Utah Teen Escapes Serious Punishment After Helping Friend Take Her Own Life is an article from: LifeDaily

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Ever since we first began taking photographs of the world around us and ourselves, we’ve been fairly obsessed with capturing every memory for posterity, even the most mundane of moments.

There is something to be said for having this ability at our fingertips at any given moment. It allows for the transference of knowledge and experience in an instant. It can also be inadvertently revealing for those with something to hide.

Chilling Selfie

Sean Histon and George Dixon were both flashing broad smiles for the camera. They’d taken a selfie to celebrate New Years. It was an innocuous moment, something that millions of other celebrants were doing all over the world at that very moment, but their selfie was far more chilling. You wouldn’t know it at first glance, but they had just killed a man.

Drunken Evening

Ashley Cochrane of Jesmond, Newcastle, England was a joyful and rambunctious fellow. Like Sean and George, he was out and about, enjoying a fun-filled New Year’s Eve. By 9:30 p.m., Ashley was so into his cups that he’d fallen asleep on the bar and had been asked to leave. So he headed to a friend’s place.

Catherine House

Needing somewhere to round out the rest of the Eve, Ashley left the Lord Clyde pub and headed over to Catherine House, an apartment complex on Shields Road in Byker. His good friend Robert Martin lived there and though he wasn’t home, he had a key so he let himself in. Meanwhile, Martin made his way home to meet him.

Returning Home

When Mr. Martin returned to his apartment, he and the friend he was with found that the entire place had been ransacked. They searched around, about to call the police, when they heard a groaning sound coming from one of the rooms. A body lay on the floor on a blood-soaked pillow, so wounded that it was completely unrecognizable.

Countless Injuries

Almost every one of the victim’s ribs was broken. The man’s cheekbone was fractured, he had extensive bruising all over, including some rather severe bruising to the head. His puncture wounds indicated that he’d been stabbed with both a pen and a knife, and his head appeared to have been smashed through a wall.

Unrecognizable

Neither Martin nor his friend had ever seen a body so badly injured before. They had been so brutally beaten that neither of them could tell that it was actually Ashley. Whoever it was though, they could plainly see that they were dying. They called emergency services, who did their best to stabilize him. But by the next day, Ashley Cochrane was dead.

No Idea

”I had no idea it was Ashley at the time when I found him on the verge of death. It was not until the following day I realized it was Ashley,” Martin explained in court a few months later. “When I was told I broke down in tears. I’ve still not come to terms with the fact I didn’t recognize him and the horrific state his face was in.”

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

The killers, Histon and Dixon, had gone after Ashley simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had been tortured, stabbed, and beaten within an inch of his life. Why had they done this though? Why beat this man to death? Even if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, there had to be some sort of motive.

Bank Details

The men hadn’t just killed Ashley, they had tortured him first. They wanted to rob him and in order to get his pin code, set about torturing it out of him. Drunk as he was, Ashley probably lasted far longer under this torment than he normally would have. In the end, they got nothing out of him except the card itself, which they used to unsuccessfully try and withdraw money from an ATM.

New Years Day

After they had killed Ashley, Histon and Dixon wiped their hands, destroyed what evidence they could, and went over to Dixon’s mother’s house to ring in the rest of the New Year. They had dragged the victim’s lifeless body to an unoccupied room and shut the door behind them. They had just brutally murdered a man for nothing and it seemed they hadn’t a care in the world.

Found Out

Eventually, the two men were trailed by their fraudulent use of Ashley’s bank card. The crimes they had so callously celebrated on that fateful New Years were now laid bare for all the world to see, including the grisly selfie they took right after committing the heinous act. Even brought before the judge, the two men still seemed unabashed.

Chastised

Justice Nicklin, who presided over the trial, made very little effort to try and hide his disdain of the two men. “You barely knew him, he had done nothing to you, he offered no threat. … He was drunk, possibly asleep, and you took advantage of that vulnerability.” They brought in an experienced pathologist to testify to the degree of damage the men had inflicted.

The Height of Nastiness

The pathologist spoke about how violent the nature of the attack was. But it wasn’t just that the attack was, “at the top end of nastiness,” as the pathologist described, it was how callously they had abandoned the dying man. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. They had left Ashley alone to die, unsure of why such a dreadful thing had happened to him.

He Did Nothing

Even after the evidence had been presented, it wasn’t clear whether or not both Dixon and Histon had both meted out the violence. In fact, most of the evidence seemed to show that Dixon had done nothing but watch as his friend beat and stabbed the innocent man to death. The judge took only partial pity on this, as it was clear he wanted the money as much as his partner in crime.

Loved Ones

Before the judge passed judgment, he gave Ashley’s family and friends a chance to speak. “One of the saddest and most difficult parts of sentencing for murder and manslaughter is hearing statements from loved ones,” said the justice. “Suddenly, without warning, a son, a brother, a partner, a friend is taken away from them by the criminal acts of others. A death changes lives forever and no sentence I can pass will ever take away the pain.”

Never Forget

Ashley’s mother, Gill Evans, spoke first. She spoke of her devastation from the loss and how awful it was to have the police come to her door with the news. “I will never forget the moment the police arrived and told me my son had been murdered,” she told the Newcastle courtroom. Speaking through tears, she pressed on.

An Endless Nightmare

“That was the beginning of a nightmare,” Gill explained. “A nightmare I’ve never woken up from.” She went on to speak at length about her “beautiful boy” and how enthusiastic he had been early in life. Like most parents, Gill was of the opinion that no mother should ever have had to go through what she did. Mrs. Evans referred to her “beautiful boy” and spoke of his enthusiasm during his early life.

Profound Effects

Gill spoke about the profound effect the incident had on her health. “To hear how he lost his life is something that will live with me forever,” she said. She wasn’t the only one who was invited to come to speak on Ashley’s behalf, either.

Victim Impact

Robert Martin, Ashley’s close friend, and the man who had come to Catherine House to find his friend beaten within an inch of his life that night, also got up to speak from the witness stand. He shook with emotion as he pulled out his victim impact statement and began to read. “I’m haunted by what happened that night and his death,” he began.

His Own Nightmares

“I hope I never have to see anything like that again. I have recurring nightmares about him, about the fact I found him on a pillow covered in blood and seeing his face in the terrible state it was in.” Like the others who had seen it, Ashley’s condition had made a life-long impression upon his psyche.

Needless Violence

Martin added that he couldn’t believe that any human being would have been able to inflict that much pain on another person. More so, he couldn’t believe that it had all been for nothing. They had tortured him and gotten nothing for it but a jail sentence. In the end, the whole thing was pointless.

Worming Their Way

Martin and Gill could both agree on the defense attorney’s flimsy arguments defending their clients’ unforgivable actions. As Gill put it, it was devastating watching her son’s killers “squirm like worms on the hook” to try and get away with the crime. They didn’t of course. They would pay for what they had done.

Convictions

In the end, 33-year-old Sean Histon, was convicted of murder and of committing acts intended to pervert the course of justice. This last bit refers to him washing his clothes and footwear following the murder. Despite his passive intervention, George Dixon was also convicted, but not of murder, of manslaughter.

Sentences

Their sentences were both more than adequate as well. Histon will be imprisoned for a life, with a minimum of 30 years. Dixon, will be serving at least 17 years for manslaughter. Nothing can bring Ashley Cochran back, but his soul can rest easy knowing that the men responsible for his untimely demise got nothing from their murderous deeds but jail time.

Mother Grieves Son’s Death After Killers Share a Selfie Following The Murder is an article from: LifeDaily

In times of emergencies, we’re told there is no time for mistakes to be made. Sometimes, however, a mistake is the best thing that could have possibly happened.

During a family emergency, one Florida woman thought she called the only people who could help. In reality, however, she mistakenly dialed the wrong number and called a sandwich shop. Thankfully, however, the strangers on the other end of the line rose to the occasion.

A Risky Surgery

In late October, Lisa Nagengast flew from her home in Florida to Omaha, Nebraska to visit her brother, Greg Holeman. Holeman, a 48-year-old Army veteran, needed to have a spinal fusion surgery. Nagengast flew out to be with him and make sure everything went alright since it was a risky surgery.

A Successful Surgery

“It was a risky surgery because he also has congestive heart failure,” Nagengast wrote in a post on Facebook. Despite the risks, Holeman needed the surgery and surgeons at Nebraska Medical operated on him. Just two days later, Holeman was discharged from the hospital and sent home.

Heading Home

“The entire surgery was taken care of under the VA and we had homecare workers setup to come to his house to help him with his recovery because my flight was leaving Saturday afternoon,” Nagengast explained. However, after a few days in Nebraska, Nagengast had to return home to Florida.

Landing In Tampa

“I took him home, made sure he was settled in and then I left. I thought everything was working out great and he was doing really well,” she explained. Nagengast had been relieved that her brother’s surgery had gone well considering how risky it was. Yet that relief disappeared by the time she landed in Tampa.

The Voicmail

Right after landing, Nagengast turned her phone on and discovered she had a voicemail from her brother. “He was in pain, there was a lot of blood and puss type fluid oozing from his incision. He said it was really bad and his left leg had gone numb. He was understandably upset.”

A Tight Budget

To make the situation worse, Holeman lived on disability and couldn’t afford to take a cab all the way to the hospital from his home. He didn’t want to call 911 as he couldn’t afford to pay for the ambulance and feared he would be forced to pay for it since he hadn’t gotten VA authorization.

Out of Options

According to Nagengast, Columbus, Nebraska doesn’t have Uber either. Holeman couldn’t think of any other option, which is why he called his sister. Nagengast assured him she would figure something out and called Holeman’s social worker to try and see what they could do.

The Phone Call

“So I called the number a young woman answered, I assumed it was the social worker Pam,” Nagengast said. “I told her who I was, why I was calling, gave her the whole story, and asked what can we do to get him to the hospital.” However, Nagengast wasn’t speaking to her brother’s social worker at all.

The Wrong Number

Instead, Nagengast had accidentally dialed the wrong number. Instead of calling Pam the social worker, she had called the wrong number and reached a Jimmy John’s restaurant in Columbus, Nebraska. The woman Nagengast thought was the social worker was actually Lupe Rodriguez, a Jimmy John’s employee.

The Manager Takes Over

Sensing there was a real emergency, Rodriguez told the woman on the other end of the phone that she was going to let her speak to her manager, Jason Voss. “She was a little panicky,” Voss told Omaha World-Herald. “At that point, I figured I should take a minute to think about it.”

A Serious Emergency

“It was obviously not someone making something up. It was an actual situation going on,” said Voss. “The whole time I pretty much knew that she didn’t know she was talking to someone from Jimmy John’s,” Voss told Fox59 about the unusual phone call.

An Unimportant Detail

Instead of telling the woman that she had called the wrong number and that they couldn’t help, Voss decided to help the woman. “It didn’t seem important to really bring it up, but I just wanted to make sure that she knew I was going to help her,” Voss said.

Discussing The Situation

Voss told Nagengast that they had drivers and told her he would call her back in 15 minutes to let her know what they could do. According to Voss, he would have driven the veteran to the hospital himself, but he couldn’t leave the restaurant. So he called Zach Hillmer, a Jimmy John’s delivery driver, explained the situation, and asked him if he was comfortable with helping out. “There was so much we didn’t know, what could happen, how it could fall to us,” Voss said.

A Confusing Call

When Hillmer, also a veteran, heard what happened, he was happy to help and called Nagengast back to get Holeman’s address and information. “At this point, I was confused because this was a social worker, they should already have his information,” Nagengast said. It was only then that she realized her mistake.

Realizing The Mistake

“I asked him if Pam had failed to give him the file or whatever had his information and he said ‘Umm, this is Jimmy Johns.’ I said ‘You mean Jimmy John’s like the food place?’,” Nagengast said. “I was kinda gracefully [trying to] back out of everything that had happened at that point,” Nagengast told CNN.

The Stranger’s Promise

“He was like, ‘No, no, no. I will take him to the hospital,’” Nagengast said about her phone conversation with Hillmer. “‘You give me his name and his address and make sure that he gets in the car with me, and I will get him where he needs to go.’”

An Emergency Room Delivery

Once he had the address, Hillmer went straight to Holeman’s house, helped him into the car, and drove him straight to the hospital. “Most places would have probably said something like ‘Gee I’m really sorry about your brother, but we can’t help you.’ But Zack, the delivery driver at Jimmy John’s picked up my brother and took him to the emergency room to get the medical attention he needed,” Nagengast said.

A Grateful Sister

“I cannot say thank you enough to Jason Voss and Zack Hillmer … there are not enough words to express my gratitude. Thanks to Voss and Hillmer, Holeman is now back home and healing well from his surgery,” she added. “In today’s political climate, everybody’s arguing with everybody, and we’re not actively listening to what anybody has to say. To have two complete strangers listen to me and then decide to do something to fix it — it was amazing.”

Humble Heroes

“I’m awfully proud of those guys,” said Sam Nixon, the owner and operator of Columbus’ Jimmy John’s, told Fox59. “What they did, I could not teach.” However, Voss and Hillmer just did what they thought was the right thing. “There is always time for people, especially people in need,” Voss said. “I had the resources, I had drivers, we weren’t super busy with deliveries, either. Zach was glad to help someone out.”

Another Random Act of Kindness

After word of the good deed spread, Jimmy John Liautaud, the founder of Jimmy John’s, flew to Columbus, Nebraska to surprise Hillmer with a new Ford Escape to thank him for what he did. “I couldn’t believe it. It was such a generous thing to do,” Hillmer said. “He did a random act of kindness, I did a random act of kindness, so that’s what it’s all about,” Liautaud told Omaha World-Herald. “This is about America and helping people out and helping your teammates out.”

Concerned Delivery Drivers Save Man After Woman Calls Jimmy John’s By Accident is an article from: LifeDaily

Every parent makes sacrifices for their children, giving of their time and energy. And if put in the situation where the need arises, many parents wouldn’t even think twice about putting their own life on the line to save their child’s.

But it’s a rarity when the situation is reversed – when a child is put in a position where they are the one called to make a sacrifice. Most young children never imagine themselves having to make such a choice.

Late Night Party

Just after midnight on December 2, 2007, a woman named Seliethia and her 7-year-old daughter Alexis were getting into the car of a friend named Alicia. It was a lot later than normal for her daughter to be going out, but they were heading to a late night get-together for Alicia’s mother’s birthday.

Excited Child

Alicia got into the back seat and her mother got into the front, both excited for a little bit of late-night fun. Neither of them could have had any idea of what kind of ordeal the night had in store for them.

Ambush

As they were getting into the car, a man with a handgun leapt out of the bushes and ambushed the women. Like something out of the movies, he forced them into the car and got in as well, telling Alicia to drive.

Personal Connection

The gunman wasn’t just looking for some random victims to attack. He had actually been waiting outside of Seliethia’s home, hoping for an opportunity just like this one. His name was Calvin and he was a spurned lover.

Stalker

Seleithia had met Calvin earlier in the year and they’d dated for about three months. But when she broke off the relationship, he reacted in just about the worst way imaginable. “He was harassing me,” she said. “He would constantly call my house, popping up in the middle of the night.”

Just Drive

Apparently that night, he’d been standing out in the cold with bad intent and the late night excursion provided a perfect opportunity. He didn’t seem to have a clear plan in mind, and just told Alicia to drive around aimlessly.

Please Don’t Do This

The next few minutes were spent in utter terror as Seleithia Parker begged her former boyfriend not to hurt her or her daughter Alexis. As Calvin Tillie seemed to be getting more agitated over time, Alicia’s mind raced to come up with a way for the three of them to escape from the situation alive.

Quick Thinking

Thinking quickly, Alicia Ford managed to convince Calvin that she was running low on gas. If he intended to go anywhere more than just a few minutes away, she said, they were going to need to stop for fuel. Calvin reluctantly agreed to stop at a gas station, but only allowed Alicia to get out of the car.

Shots Fired

When she got out, Alicia covertly informed the gas station attendant of the situation and tried to stall for time as he dialed 911. But Calvin must have gotten the sense that something was up because she suddenly heard shots ringing out from the car.

Incredible Heroism

Inside the car, Calvin had turned the handgun on Seleithia and managed to pull the trigger twice before Alexis took action. She screamed, “Don’t hurt my mother!” at the top of her lungs before jumping between the two of them.

Completely Selfless

“Alexis jumped over the seat to try and save my life,” Seleithia said. Without a thought for her own safety, she used her tiny body as a human shield, absorbing the next six shots from Calvin’s gun.

Terrible Injuries

The little girl was struck in the right eye, chin, cheek, chest, and jaw before Calvin bolted from the car, trying to flee the scene. Seleithia was badly injured too, with the first two shots striking her in the arm and grazing the side of her head.

Quick Response

Because police were already on their way to the scene, they were able to apprehend Calvin as he fled on foot, just a few minutes after the shots rang out. Paramedics were also able to arrive quickly to attend to the wounded woman who was unconscious in her car seat and her heroic daughter, who was curled up beneath the steering wheel in a pool of blood.

Stabilized

Amazingly, medics were able to rush Seleithia and her daughter Alexis to the hospital in time for them both to be stabilized. Seleithia was able to recover fairly quickly from her wounds but Alexis’ injuries were far more extensive.

Coming Back

The 7-year-old lost her right eye and would have to endure multiple surgeries to address all of her wounds. But just days later, her face swollen and wrapped in bandages, she regained consciousness holding her mother’s hand and the hero child gave it a squeeze.

Amazing Recovery

“She is doing much better,” Seleithia said. “She opened up one eye. Everything seems to be going great.” Over the course of the next two months, Alexis would come through all of her surgeries and recover until she was healthy enough to go home. In defiance of doctors’ warnings that she might never walk or talk again, Alexis thrived.

Born Tough

Her recovery from her gunshot wounds wasn’t the first time Alexis proved her resilience. She suffered a stroke before age one and suffered from epilepsy, which despite her recovery, left her with some developmental issues.

Small Savior

But none of that could stop her from having a hero’s heart. Alexis told ABC news that she loved her mother a lot and simply didn’t want to see her get hurt. “I saved my mom,” she said, adding that she didn’t consider herself a hero.

Widespread Support

Her mother felt otherwise, saying “She’s my angel and I love her to death.” As news of Alexis heroism spread, she got support from hundreds of people through letters and social media. Her school also received enough donations to set up a $30,000 trust fund for the little girl.

Behind Bars

As for Calvin Tillie, he was charged with two counts of attempted murder for shooting the mother and child. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and the judge in his trial was so disgusted by his actions that he vowed to personally appear before the parole board in 2033 at his first opportunity for release to argue that he should remain in prison.

Daughter Shot 6 Times Saving Mother From Gunman Survives is an article from: LifeDaily

James Hayes was a guy who grew up 20 minutes from the beach in the middle-class community of Camarillo, California. As a child, he showed promise as a violin player, becoming the youngest member of the county orchestra before his teens.

But growing up in a single parent home was difficult for him, especially considering his mother suffered from mental illness. At the age of 13, James was sent to live with his grandmother Melba after his mother began physically abusing him. In the next year, he quit playing violin.

Change of Interests

“I got interested in girls and they wouldn’t talk to me if I was holding a violin case!” James wrote in his typical upbeat style. “So I got into cars!” By the time he was 18, he was tooling around the neighborhood in a convertible Baja Bug, splitting his time between surfing, his car, and his girlfriend.

Fun Guy

“He was cute; he had wild hair and freckles. He looked like a let’s-go-have-fun type of guy,” said Candace Walker, his girlfriend at the time. “He had a funny sense of humor and was usually in a good mood.” But when Candace got pregnant at the age of 17, “he didn’t want to be a father, so I ended up finding a family who took our son.”

Booted

The two of them stayed together for 15 more years after that until, in 1997, Hayes left Candace for a younger woman. “I got the boot and got kicked out of the house. The next year, he was 35-year-old working the graveyard ship as a security guard for commercial and residential buildings when something happened that would change his life forever.

Lucky Day

On January 7th, 1998, Hayes bought himself a Quick Pick lottery ticket at a gas station. His grandmother, who he was living with and caring for at the time, would check the numbers as part of her morning routine while he slept after work. That morning, she interrupted his sleep with some fantastic news: He’d hit a $19 million jackpot.

Money Changes You

Hayes was beyond ecstatic but was also wary about the kinds of change that such a sudden influx of money could mean for his life. “I know I’ll change but only for the better,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “Mainly what I want to do is help out my family and friends in need.” He added, “I’m not going to blow the money.”

Car Crazy

After taxes, Hayes was going to be taking home a little under $14 million, which he would get in 20 annual payments of $684,000. Contrary to his word, he started burning through the cash immediately. “I owned six different Lambos,” he wrote. “I’m a car guy – Bentleys, Porsches, Corvettes, etc. I owned beachfront houses, had actress girlfriends, you name it, I’ve probably done it.”

High Life

He was deeply enmeshed in the “high life,” starting a business to rent exotic sports cars to high rollers in Las Vegas. “Because of his cars, he met celebrities like Mario Andretti, who picked one of his Lamborghinis – I would say the color was nail-polish pink – to drive at the Running of the Bulls,” said David Parker, Hayes’ former personal photographer. “He had a lot of toys and was in that crowd.”

Taking Half

In the late 1990s, Hayes divorced his first wife Stephanie and she was awarded half of his annual lottery payments. But even with his income chopped in half, he didn’t stop splurging. “He developed a taste for the best,” said his second wife, Stephanie Wysinger-Hayes.

Still Balling

“When I got together with him,” Wysinger-Hayes continued, “he had 17 cars. He’d let my kids drive his Ferrari. He was living a flashy life and I was enjoying his gifts.” Being a banker, she had a better head for money than he did and tried to get Hayes to take some lessons in financial management but he was “caught up in the excitement,” and blowing his dough on his toys, in Vegas Casinos, or just giving it away to his friends.

Flip Side

“Having money enabled me to live my wildest dreams,” Hayes said. “But there’s a flip side. It’s the lottery curse.” A work injury from his past came back to haunt him and he suffered three herniated disks which required surgery in 2004. When the surgery didn’t help, James Hayes turned to prescription medications to deal with his pain. “Doctors prescribed me Vicodin, Norco, then Oxycontin. I was addicted without even knowing it.”

Spiral of Addiction

Like all untreated addictions, Hayes’ got worse as time went by. “I started to need a stronger and stronger dose,” he said. Without a steady job or healthcare, he was paying for all of his pills out of pocket. Though he was still taking home about $300,000 after income tax and alimony payments, his debts, bad business decisions, and pill addiction led to a bankruptcy in 2007.

Losing it All

Hayes moved into a modest apartment complex where he worked as a manager in exchange for free rent. He was getting along just fine until 2017 when a fire destroyed the complex and nearly everything he owned along with it. Desperate and broke, he moved into a friend’s garage. That was when, suffering from Oxycontin withdrawal, he turned from prescription pills to less expensive street drugs.

‘The Answer’

“The first time I tried heroin, I dissolved it into water and sniffed it. It took away my back pain and the pill sickness for 48 hours. I thought, ‘Wow, that’s the answer!’” Needing money to pay for a new addiction, he was struck by a crazy idea while listening to some ‘80s metal music. “I mentally snapped,” he said. “I was broke, dope-sick, pissed off at the world, living in a garage with my beloved cat looking up at me hungry.” So, he thought, why not rob a bank?

‘Priest’s’ Message

As he began to weigh the pros and cons of becoming a bank robber, Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law” began to play. By the time the song was done, he’d made up his mind. Outside of a bank in Carpinteria, he stuffed a pillow under his shirt and pulled a baseball cap low over his face and went inside. He handed a teller a note demanding cash and, after she handed it over, he bolted to his car.

Easy Money

In less than three minutes, Hayes had made himself $3,300 and was stunned at how easy it was. “I’d never been so scared in my life until I walked out of the bank with those $100 bills,” he said. “The poor teller […] was terrified. She just handed [the money] over.” According to the news, his simple disguise had left investigators searching for a 350-lb man, filling him with even more confidence.

Easier And Easier

Hayes read up on true crimes to get better at his craft, disguising his body type, spraying his fingers with liquid bandages to avoid leaving prints, and making sure he was always gone in less than three minutes. “It got easier every time,” he said. “I was completely hooked. I was getting off on it. It was like a game.”

Serial Robber

Using money from the robberies, Hayes bought himself a tan-colored PT Cruiser that he used exclusively for all future robberies. Over the next five months, he hit more than ten banks, blowing through the money just as he had with his lottery winnings only this time, he was spending about $1,000 a week on heroin. Dubbed the “PT Cruiser Bandit” by the local media, it wasn’t long at all before the FBI was on his trail.

Escalating Frequency

“You could see the robberies were escalating in frequency,” said Special Agent Ingerd Sotelo, lead investigator on the case. “We were hoping they wouldn’t escalate in violence.” The FBI developed a theory that their man lived somewhere along Highway 126, since it connected all of the banks that had been hit. Then in September of 2018, investigators got their first big break in the case.

Spotted

Hayes tried to rob a Wells-Fargo that he’d previously hit last June but was forced to flee the scene empty-handed after an employee recognized him. “I knew he was going to hit again because he was out of money,” Agent Soleto said. The FBI set up a camera on Highway 126 and captured his car and license plate as he fled from another bank robbery a short time later. They had him.

Caught

A few days later, Hayes was walking out of the garage he was still staying in when he heard “Don’t move!” shouted at him. More than a dozen FBI agents had their weapons drawn on him as he was arrested. His wife, Stephanie Wysinger-Hayes was also arrested as she was a suspected accomplice.

It Can’t Be

The FBI grilled her for over an hour, believing that she must have some knowledge of the heists. “I thought it was a case of mistaken identity,” she said. But after being shown photos of the man in question at various crime scenes she recognized that the agents were telling the truth. “I said ‘Oh, my God, that’s him.’ It was one of the freakiest moments of my life.”

No Denial

In the other room, Hayes simply asked for a cigarette and confessed immediately, making sure investigators knew that Wysinger-Hayes had no knowledge of his actions. He was sent to a federal detention center in Los Angeles where he detoxed from heroin, cold turkey.

Go Easy, Your Honor

After Hayes pleaded guilty to multiple counts of robbery, his defense attorney Stephen Demik argued for leniency, citing Hayes’ clean criminal record, rough upbringing, and the non-violent nature of his crimes. “Mr. Hayes was a pitiful drug addict, living in a garage and dealing with one of the worst addictions ever,” he wrote in court papers. He also cited the “lottery curse” as part of the reason for his turn to crime.

Worst And Best Thing

He was ultimately sentenced to 33 months in prison and forced to pay back the nearly $40,000 he’d stolen. “He could have gotten a lot more time,” said Agent Sotelo. “Prison is a the most horrible thing ever but I’m thankful it happened. It saved my life. I should have overdosed 100 times and now I’m eight months sober,” James Hayes said. It seemed he had a little luck left after all.

Multi Million-Dollar Lottery Winner Turns to Crime After Bankruptcy And Heroin Addiction is an article from: LifeDaily

The David Sheldrick Wildlife trust is at the forefront when it comes to saving the lives of animals in the wild while ensuring their well-being. The Orphan Project is at the heart of their operation, having achieved world-wide acclaim for their highly successful elephant and rhino rescue missions over the years.

Once elephants and rhinos have been saved by the good people at the Orphan Project, the animals are enrolled in a special program to rehabilitate them. Fighting the constant threat of poaching, The project recently saved a baby elephant from drowning after it became submerged in the Mzee Kirema’s dam outside of Tsavo East National Park.

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The Davis Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, usually known as DSWT, focuses on the protection of elephants, rhinos and other wildlife. Having been involved for the best part of 40 years in saving animals in the wild, the operation is based in Kenya but also helps animals across Africa, from baby elephants to trapped antelopes. The trust’s mission statement notes that animals have “a right to be free, to roam wild, and to be safe in their surroundings.”

Orphans’ Project

The Orphans’ Project is very much the centerpiece of the organization, as they offer hope to Kenya’s threatened elephant community and dwindling rhino populations. Poachers get good money for the ivory and horns they take from these animals, as they also battle against loss of habitat due to human population pressures and conflict, deforestation and drought. But the project’s main love is the baby elephants they raise.

Infant Elephants

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is proud to have hand-raised 150 infant elephants. To add to that achievement, they have also accomplished their long-term conservation priority by effectively reintegrating the orphans back into the wild. Those elephants then go on to have babies of their own who are monitored and checked on a regular basis by employees of the trust.

Fostering Programme

The key to the Orphans’ Project’s success is the Trust’s Fostering Programme. Thousands of kind and generous animal lovers from around the world support the organization both voluntarily and financially. It’s this financial support that is key to the ongoing work continuing to be a success. Some people donate a mandatory $50 per year to the trust, while others donate in the thousands.

Malima and Tamiyoi

Malima and Tamiyoi are two elephant friends who the project saved from the grips of death and hand-reared. They are close friends and have a lot of love for each other. Tamiyoi is the mini-matriarch who likes to spend most of her time with the little ones. Malima is also learning how to be a good mother from her friend who she observes on a daily basis.

Close Neighbors

Inside the compound where the elephants are housed, right next door to Malima and Tamiyoi are Kuishi and Sagala, who were also rescued by the project a while back. These two infants have an interesting relationship. The daily 9 a.m. feedings are a testimony to this interesting dynamic between these two infant elephants.

Got Milk?

When it comes to feeding time the relationship is far more on the hate than the love side as the elephants get down to business. Kuishi is always the one to finish her milk bottle first, and she then tries to get some extra milk from her freind Sagala. Sagala is one step ahead though and reportedly takes her time over her milk, never sharing it with any other elephants. All the infants love feeding time and always rush to their feeders at exactly the right times.

Report Received

In the early morning, a KWS Company Commander working with the Taita Ranches received a report of a submerged baby elephant on privately owned land in the Mzee Kirema’s dam outside of Tsavo East National Park towards Mackinnon Road. Salim Mokomba received the report that community members had watered their livestock the previous night although they didn’t see a baby elephant in distress at the time.

Floating Elephant

By the next morning, the workers discovered the baby elephant floating somewhere in the middle of the dam. No one had any idea how many hours the little elephant had been in distress. The poor little elephant was totally submerged with only its trunk above the surface of the water to breathe. But the conditions in the dam were treacherous, making the rescue of the baby very challenging.

Nasty Slip

The little infant had clearly lost its footing at some point in the dam and was unable to right himself. The rest of his herd saw what had happened to him but were unable to enter the dam themselves to rescue him. After the herd sensed the imminent danger, they left the calf in the dam and were nowhere to be seen when rescuers finally made it to save the baby from drowning.

Wading In

The brave workers, known as KWS Rangers, arrived at the dam and immediately stripped down to their underwear. They reached the calf in the middle of the dam after some time, and as many hands as possible began to push him to safety. Extracting him from the dam was also a challenge as the poor infant was exhausted and could hardly walk on his own. These workers managed to save the infant and transport him to their camp.

Calling For Help

Once the land cruiser had transported the infant to the camp, the KWS Rangers contacted the DSWT funded Tsavo Mobile Veterinary Unit headed by KWS Vet Dr. Poghon. He arrived within the hour along with keepers from the DSWT Voi Relocation Unit. They were very concerned about the state of the calf but were also hopeful for his future. They now needed to decide what to do with him.

Grave Concern

Dr. Pohgon, as well as the rest of the keepers, were gravely concerned about the condition of the rescued calf. They concluded before long that he was a definite candidate for the intensive care that the DSWT nursery could give if he was to survive his ordeal. But time was of the essence as the condition of the calf was deteriorating fast. Poghon called for the DSWT helicopter.

IV Drip

While the helicopter was en-route to help, Dr Poghon stabilized the infant by placing him on an IV drip. His body was splashed with water to keep him cool and to clean away the compacted mud which had caked onto him from the dam. It was now midday, and the temperatures were soaring to record highs for the time of year. Then the helicopter flown by pilot Andy Payne arrived on site.

To Nairobi

The helicopter arrived packed full of all the emergency equipment required for the elephant’s safety. He was flown directly to Nairobi, ensuring his drip was intact as he was transported by air. The drip needed to remain in place for the duration of the flight so that the calf could get the much-needed liquids he needed to recuperate and survive.

Strapped Fast

While it was a challenge to get the calf strapped fast for the flight, the 1.5-hour journey went well. The calf was unable to move and was clearly distressed by this, but with responsive eyes and a quivering trunk, the experts with him knew he would be alright at the end of the day. Then, there was keeper, Kingoo, who personally cared for all the needs of the elephant calf throughout his journey.

Keeper Kingoo

Keeper Kingoo took an immediate shine to the calf and sat with him to comfort him throughout the flight. He also changed his IV drip regularly and ensured that he was as comfortable as possible. When the calf landed at the Nursery, he was carefully offloaded from the helicopter and then loaded onto a pickup truck to be transported. The Nursery keepers were all ready and waiting and had already been briefed about the situation.

Direct Delivery

The KWS helicopter played a vital role in rescuing this calf from death. The beauty of it is that it delivers the calf directly to the site, alleviating all the additional stress and hassle of airports and transport, according to the Orphan’s Project website. Time was truly of the essence for this poor calf and had it not have been for the helicopter delivering him directly to where he needed to be, he could have died.

Nairobi Park

Soon after the helicopter touched down at Nairobi Park, right opposite the Trust Nursery headquarters, the infant elephant was taken to a warm and freshly prepared stable where he received further medical attention. It was touch and go for a while as the calf recuperated, having been through a life-threatening ordeal.

Standing Up

Once the calf had arrived at the stable, he was unstrapped, unwrapped and washed. After he was helped to his feet, he was able to stand for the first time and seemed calm and relaxed despite his new surroundings. He seemed to understand that the people were there to help him and he was reportedly responsive and quiet throughout. Now it was time to see if the traumatized calf could eat.

Warm Milk

Keepers were pleasantly surprised when the calf took a bottle of warm milk, enjoying food for the first time in days. They were even more surprised when he ate from freshly cut greens that were hanging in his stable. Keeper Kingoo didn’t leave his side for a moment and slept in the stable with him on his first night at the Nursery, feeding him warm milk every three hours.

Taking Medication

The calf was eating well, and that was encouraging for the keepers, but his eyes needed medical attention due to being submerged in foul water for so long. He was put on a course of strong antibiotics to curtail the risk of pneumonia. The 18-month-old was then given a name by the staff who were all very fond of him due to his calm and quiet nature.

Named After

They called the calf Dololo, after the region in which he was discovered and rescued. But Dololo was still very weak, and vets weren’t completely sure that he would even survive. Along with an infestation of worms and some other issues, Dololo needed round-the-clock attention for his first few weeks at his new home. As the days passed, the deworming process went well, and Dololo began gaining strength.

Getting Better

After a few weeks of intense treatment, Dololo was getting better and even joined other calves out in the Park during the day. But Dololo is very lucky to have been found when he was as a few more hours could have spelled death for him. The keepers and staff who saved him couldn’t be happier with his progress as they continue their vital mission of saving distressed wildlife who would otherwise perish.

Wildlife Rescuers Fight to Save Orphaned Elephant Calf After It Nearly Drowns is an article from: LifeDaily

Single parents struggling to get by on their own dream of being able to give their kids anything they could possibly want or need. Unfortunately, their budgets don’t allow them to do that.

In late 2017, however, a single mom from south London got to do things she had always dreamed of doing with her kids after switching lives with a wealthy couple. According to the mother of three, the experience ended up effecting her in more ways than she ever imagined and has changed her life forever.

Rich House Poor House

In late 2017, single mom Skye Walker from Lewisham, which is in south London, agreed to be on a show called Rich House Poor House. The television program follows two families for a week as they switch lives to see how the other half lives.

The Top And Bottom Earners

According to the show, they pick a family from the lowest 10 percent of earners in the United Kingdom and have them swap lives for a week with a family with an income in the highest 10 percent of earners. The families are then forced to live on each other’s weekly budget.

The Rules

The rules are simple. The families are allowed to spend their weekly budgets however they want. One of the only rules is that families are not allowed to use any money from the weekly budget to pay off any bills or debts. The point of the rule is to ensure that each family really gets to really experience what life is like for the other family.

A Tight Budget

According to Walker, she decided to go on the show to inspire her three young children,  Ashani, 13, Riahiema, seven, and two-year-old son Kareem. Walker and her family currently live in council housing. According to the single mom, she and her kids live off of £170, or about $215 a week that she had left over after paying the bills and her debts, which included a car payment.

A Single Mom’s Dream

At the time of the episode, Walker had been working as a cleaner and was earning just £7, or about $9, an hour. Her dream is for her kids to get a good education and get good jobs so that they have a better life and can provide more for their future families.

Showing Her Kids What’s Possible

Walker hoped that by going on Rich House Poor House, her kids would finally see why she wanted them to take school seriously. According to Walker, she wanted to show her kids that they can accomplish anything “if they put their heads in their books, and get the A-levels I want them to get.”

Struggling to Get By

With such a tight budget, Walker normally has to stretch her money as far as it will go. According to Walker, she sometimes struggles to buy enough food for an entire week and she doesn’t want her kids to live like that when they’re older.

A Week Without Worries

During the episode, however, Walker got to live a week without any worries about money or a budget. While she normally lives on just £170 a week, Walker was given a budget of £1,599, or over $2,000, for a week after swapping lives with the Sethard-Wrights family.

The Sethard-Wrights Family

46-year-old Belinda Sethard-Wrights, a designer, and 47-year-old Matt Sethard-Wrights, an accountant, live just five miles away in a gated mansion in Bromley. According to the couple, they had another important reason for agreeing to come on the show.

Appreciating Their Privilege

According to Belinda, she grew up in council housing near where Walker and her children live. While she is happy she can give her kids anything they want or need, she also wanted to show them how lucky and privileged they really are.

Humble Beginnings

“When I contacted the show I said ‘I don’t know if we’re the sort of people you want because we haven’t come from a privileged background at all,” Belinda told The Sun. “I grew up in council houses and I lived in three different council estates.”

An Important Lesson

“So I’m always batting on to my children about the privilege of their lifestyle,” Belinda said about her efforts to show her two kids, 12-year-old Olivia and Theo, how lucky they are. “I have big issues with things like clothes lying around on the floor because I never had the privilege of feeling so dismissive about things in life.”

A Learning Experience

“I thought doing the show would be good for them,” Belinda added. And when Belinda moved into Walker’s home for the week, everything felt familiar from her humble beginnings. “Where Skye lives in Downham, I also lived from the age of two to four in an identical house so it didn’t feel massively different.”

Full Circle

“The main difference was that I was conscious I didn’t see as many children out playing as I recall when I was little we were all in and out of each other’s gardens,” Belinda said. “It looked tiny. Funny, 46 years and you come full circle. I never thought I’d end up where I am today.”

Different Worlds

“As it turned out we were just five miles away from Skye but living in different worlds,” Belinda said. For Walker, stepping into Sethard-Wrights’ home with a tennis court, an indoor pool, a gym, and a disco room was a little more shocking.

A Shocking Experience

“When I first saw the house it was amazing because it’s just around the corner from my house. I really didn’t expect something like that to be so close,” Walker told The Sun. “It’s crazy. The gates and everything just seemed a different kind of world.”

Walker’s First Instinct

“The kids were so happy. I’ve never seen their smiles so big in my life. They were amazed by it,” said Walker, who didn’t have to worry about money or food for the first time in a very long time. “Faced with all that money, I just wanted to pay my bills,” said Walker.

The Hardest Part

“If it had been down to me I would have paid off some of the outstanding bills, but I wasn’t allowed to do that and that was the hard bit about it,” the single mom explained. “But I loved having the nice life for a week. It was like being on holiday with nothing to worry about.”

Priceless Gifts

During that week, Walker got her kids new clothes, a computer so they wouldn’t have to go to the library to do homework, a private math tutor, and swimming lessons. “It was seeing the kids’ faces, seeing them being kids again. Where I live, they can’t play in the garden and have fun, and just be kids. If they make a certain noise in the house, the neighbors are complaining. Where we stayed, the kids could run up and down, have a laugh, play their music, there was no one to tell them to turn it down. The kids were just kids, and that was lovely, they were having a whale of a time.”

A Stressful Week

The Sethard-Wrights, on the other hand, struggled to make Walker’s budget work even though their family is smaller. By Friday, they had nearly run out of money for the week and they were left amazed that by how hard Walker worked to support her family. “There’s this cold hollow hole in the middle of my chest,” Belinda said on the show. “I normally feel quite relaxed on a Friday night and I’m suppressing this need to want to cry. I’m going home but this is genuine for a lot of people.”

A Parting Gift

By the end of the week, the couple was so impressed by Walker that they got her kids bikes, some household essentials, and even a new mattress for Walker. “I just thought these are the little things that Skye probably wants to get that she’s got to prioritize,” Belinda said. “We didn’t want them to come back and think ‘oh we felt sorry for you, here’s stuff’, because that is far from what we want. It just felt right to do something,” Matthew added.

Determined to Do Better

“We came home at the girls were like ‘look at our new bikes’. I don’t normally get anything from anyone, I always work hard for things,” said Walker, who finished the bittersweet week with a drive to do more for her family. “I felt kind of sad because I went back to a normal Downham, where my kids can’t be kids and be happy. After seeing what it was like in the other house, where my kids were free, running up and down the garden with the dog and having so much fun, I thought ‘I’ve got to do something better than this. I’ve got to fix it.’”

Working Toward Her New Goals

“My main goal about money is basically to get a house. I want my own house. I was homeless, and I’ve been [dependent] on food banks, and it’s not nice,” said Walker, who has since started a new job as a carer for disabled kids. She also started a T-shirt business to make extra money, which Belinda is investing in.

Bonded For Life

The best part of the entire experience, however, is that the families have remained close ever since meeting. “I’ve got a new friend, a new family member. My daughter has a new sister, best cousin, whatever you want to call it,” Walker said. “I’ve made a friend and it’s been great to have our children be friends,” Belinda added. “To see someone do so well on their own, she just deserves a medal.”

Struggling Family Gets Help After Appearing On Television Show ‘Rich House Poor House’ is an article from: LifeDaily

Being that our heart is perhaps our most vital organ, ignoring any unusual behavior might ultimately prove fatal for anyone not cognizant enough to realize it. This can also a result from folks misunderstanding the symptoms of an oncoming heart attack as well.

On the morning of August 13th, 2018, Ed Burkett got up as he always did. He showered, got dressed, and got ready for an early tee off. He hadn’t known anything was wrong, he’d slept just fine and was well rested. Burkett had no clue that inside his chest, his heart was about to put him through the most difficult day of his life.

A Passion

Not knowing what awaited him at the course, Ed Burkett got into his car and drove off to the Lake Park golf course in Lewisville, Texas. It was the same course he frequented four or five days a week. Golf was a passion for Burkett and in his retirement years, it had become the thing he looked forward to the most.

Friends On The Links

Burkett never golfed alone either. Many of his guy friends were also returned and the group of them would often meet up on the links to play for money. It wasn’t much, usually ten cents a hole, but it made the game a bit more interesting. The stakes were a bit higher on this particular day than they had been on any others, however.

Chest Pains

The friends golfed as usual and had a few laughs when suddenly, Burkett started to feel gas bubbling up into his chest. After trying to ignore it, the gas pains began stretching all across his arms and up into his shoulder. They aches arched across his chest and forced him to lean against the cart.

Something Amiss

John Wood, one of Burkett’s oldest friends, noticed that his friend was in a bit of discomfort, but was assured that he was fine. The group got to about the 13th hole before Burkett reached over to John and told him, “I gotta get some help.” Yet the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes told John just as plainly that something was very wrong.

Take The Cart

John helped Burkett into the golf cart but left the gold clubs where they lay. Burkett was worsening with each passing moment. John drove the little golf cart over the hills of the golf course, going as fast as he could until they reached the clubhouse. The rest of their golf buddies stayed behind to gather their things.

Transport to Safety

An ambulance was waiting for Burkett when they arrived. The Navy veteran was rushed to the VA Center in Denton and then transferred to Medical City, Denton. It was clear by his chest pains, shortness of breath, and tingling in his extremities, that Burkett had suffered a heart attack, but even the paramedics had no idea how bad it really was.

Worrying Condition

Cardiologist Dr. Gary Fazio was on call when Ed Burkett was brought in. He recalled that by the time Burkett actually arrived in the emergency room, he looked awful. Over the next harrowing hour, this particular patient would prove to even a veteran physician like Fazio what the human body is capable of.

One Attack, Two Attack

Burkett’s heart stopped when he was on the table, so Fazio and the other doctors restarted it. A moment later and it stopped again. Hooked up to the machines, it was easy to watch as Burkett’s oppressed organ stopped and started in rapid succession. He had suffered one heart attack on the links and the travel to the hospital gave way to many more.

Pre-Emptive Measures

Even as Burkett was laying in the emergency room, fighting for his life, his grieving family was already planning for the worst. Being that his odds of surviving and leading a normal life were about 1.75 million-to-one, it seemed prudent to be prepared. They even put a down payment on his funeral. Things were that bad.

Rapid Succession

It wasn’t until hours later that Dr. Fazio and his team were finally able to stabilize the former Navy man. This was after having to restart his heart a whopping 44 times. Still, they had done it, they had stabilized him. This was an impossible task and one that even Burkett’s worried relatives had not anticipated happening.

A Near Thing

It was a near thing to the end and one that Dr. Fazio considers nothing short of miraculous. “There are miracles that happen every day here,” he explained while talking to NBCDFW. The astonished doctor added that “Sometimes it takes someone like Ed to make it so obvious.” The incident wasn’t just miraculous, it was also unheard of.

44 Attacks, 20 Years

Dr. Fazio had been in medicine for more than 20 years and in two decades of working with patients and specifically the heart, he had never seen someone survive after 44 separate attacks. He had never come close to witnessing that kind of physical and emotional fortitude. “Generally speaking, after that many defibrillations, you’ve lost that battle,” he explained.

Brain Damage

Still, even though Burkett had survived, that didn’t mean that he would return to normal. His brain has been deprived of oxygen a number of times for minutes, seconds at a time. He could have suffered brain damage or internal damage that they were unable to detect immediately after. He remained unconscious for the next eight days.

Long Stay

Burkett woke up and was kept under observation for another four days. Besides the usual trauma that one might expect from 44 separate restarts of one’s heart, he seemed none the worse for wear. He spent a total of 12 days in the hospital. He was sent home with a clean bill of health and a brand new outlook on life.

Moving On

Though it was harsh, Doctor Fazio had informed Burkett that most people who go through what he had sometimes have long-lasting effects, that is, if they even survive long at all. But Burkett kept going. He had literally died 44 times and he’d survived. He was going to keep living his life, not worry about the potential scythe hanging above his head.

Back on The Links

Less than a month after his near-death experience(s), Burkett was back on the links. He couldn’t let them go without him, not when there were dimes to be won. “I don’t think it’s changed me a lot,” he said of his experience. “I think the biggest change might be, I’ve attended church every day since I got out of the hospital.”

God’s Will

“It could have gone either way,” Burkett explained. “I don’t have any doubt I would have gone to heaven.” And since it went this way, Burkett is ready to do what he believes God would want him to do, that is, keep playing golf. “It is God’s will,” he said, chuckling. “It’s gonna be the way he wants it.”

Great For Everyone

Dr. Fazio said that Burkett’s amazing story has lifted the spirits of staff and patients alike in his hospital. His story of survival is a reminder that where there is life, there’s hope. He adds that “if you have faith, anything is possible.” But Burkett is hardly the first cardiac patient to defy the odds in recent years.

Miracles Happen

Diesel mechanic, Tony Yahle, had suffered a heart attack and doctors had been unable to revive him. After he was presumed dead, the nurses began preparing his body to be seen by the family, when they noticed something odd; he was showing signs of life. Five days later, he woke up fully.

A Son’s Directive

The doctors couldn’t find any congenital defects of any sort with his heart in their follow-up examination and lay the cause for his heart attack on a potential viral infection. In the end, he told the doctors that it was partially due to his teenage son’s last words to him before he died. “Dad, you’re not going to die today,'” the 18-year-old said, and so he didn’t.

Golf Enthusiast Suffers 44 Straight Heart Attacks And Survives is an article from: LifeDaily

Doing what’s right isn’t always easy and can actually be dangerous at times. Yet those who are brave willingly put themselves in harm’s way in order to do what they believe is the right thing.

Recently, an active duty sailor in the Navy decided to stop and help out a stranger after spotting what looked like a driver stranded on the side of a California freeway. Tragically, however, the sailor’s act of kindness and bravery ended up costing him his life.

An Early Morning Drive

In the early hours of October 27, 2018, 21-year-old Curtis Adams, a sailor in the Navy, was driving with his girlfriend in San Diego, California. According to police, the pair had been heading southbound on Interstate 15 at around 2:20 in the morning on a Saturday.

The Stranded Driver

While driving on the interstate, Adams spotted a car pulled over near the northbound Interstate 5 on-ramp. Adams could see the driver of the car, who appeared to be stranded, and wondered if his car had broken down or if there was an emergency.

The Right Thing

Most people in that situation would have just kept driving and left the stranded motorist on the side of the interstate, especially since it was so late. However, Adams knew the right thing to do was stop and see if the person was alright and ask if they needed any help.

A Navy Sailor

Adams was an active duty member of the Navy. According to officials, he worked as a steelworker construction man in the Navy and had been stationed in San Diego at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. For Adams, helping out a complete stranger was second nature.

An Act of Kindness

So Adams pulled over on the side of the interstate where the stranded motorist was pulled over. He told his girlfriend that he was just going to see what was wrong with the motorist and see if there was anything he could do to help out. Tragically, Adam’s act of kindness would end up costing him his life.

Senseless Violence

According to police, Adams stepped out of his car and started walking over to the stranger. Tragically, he only made it a few steps before the stranded motorist pulled out a gun and shot Adams. The sailor never even got the chance to explain he just wanted to check if everything was alright.

The Only Witness

Adams was hit by the bullet and instantly collapsed where he had been standing. His girlfriend had been in the car the entire time and afraid she would be shot if she jumped out of the car to see if Adams was alright. Instead, she did the only thing she could think to do.

The 911 Call

Adams’ girlfriend pulled out her phone and called 911. She frantically explained what had just happened and told the 911 dispatcher that her boyfriend needed an ambulance to take him to the hospital as he had been shot. Meanwhile, the shooter was getting away.

Help Arrives

The man who Adams had believed was a stranded motorist sped off in his car and left Adams bleeding out on the side of the road. Not long after, however, first responders arrived and loaded Adams into an ambulance, where they tried to stabilize him and stop the bleeding.

A Tragic Ending

After being loaded into the ambulance, Adams was rushed straight to the UC San Diego Medical Center. Doctors hoped there would be enough time to save the young Navy sailor. But tragically, he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

The Shooter’s Description

Meanwhile, police were back at the scene of the crime speaking with Adams’ girlfriend. They needed to get as many details about what had just happened if they were going to find the person who had shot the 21-year-old. While making a statement, Adams’ girlfriend tried to give a detailed description of the shooter and the car that he had driven off in.

The Alert

Shortly after, an alert was sent out by the California Highway Patrol. In the alert, they explained that a vehicle had stopped on north Interstate 5 near 32nd street. According to a witness, a man had been seen walking away from the area around that time.

Catching The Shooter

Officers from the San Diego Police Department immediately went out in search of the shooter. According to the police department, officers on patrol spotted a man who fit the shooter’s description walking nearby where the car had been found. They stopped him and started questioning him.

The Arrest

After questioning the suspect, who the police have identified as 21-year-old Brandon Acuna, they were confident they had caught the shooter who had killed Adams. According to the police, they arrested him on the spot for suspicion of murder and burglary.

The Charges

Police also explained that Acuna hadn’t been alone in the car at the time of the shooting. They also managed to find the passenger and detained him as well. Acuna was then booked into San Diego County Central Jail and charged with first-degree murder and second-degree burglary.

A History of Crime

While in custody, police learned that Acuna had pleaded guilty to a few misdemeanor charges over the years and had been on probation at that time. According to investigators, some of those charges included driving without a license, carrying a concealed dagger, and possessing methamphetamine.

The Investigation Continues

Just minutes before killing Adams, Acuna had been involved in another incident where he and his accomplices shot at a man, who didn’t end up getting injured, after he caught them trying to break into his car. For now, police are trying to figure out who else may have been involved in Adams’ death and what their roles were in the incident.

Breaking The News

Shortly after Adams’ death, police notified his family, who were understandably devastated and shocked by the news. “It felt like a ton of bricks on your chest when I heard the news,” Adams’ brother, Kadeem told Fox 5. He was the goofiest, silliest kid you would ever meet.

A Crazy World

“He was just an amazing person. … This situation just shows that the world we live in is crazy,” Kadeem added. “To stop and offer help and someone just takes something away from you, your life.” According to his family, Adams had grown up in Brooklyn, New York and enlisted in the Navy in March 2016. While they were shocked by the news, they weren’t surprised when they heard Adams had died while trying to help the stranger.

A True Hero

“He always wanted to do great things. He always wanted to help people,” Desmond Abrams Jr., Adams’ cousin, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “You have to be really brave to live like that. He was very excited about deploying and doing his job with the Navy. He loved the uniform. He was really proud of being a sailor.”

Navy Sailor Found Dead After Trying To Help Stranded Motorist is an article from: LifeDaily

New York City experienced an unprecedented amount of homicides in 1991 – 1,886 to be exact. Since that year, the number of homicides has gone down significantly, but no one will forget the horror that occurred in the early ’90s.

This included the subway murder of a young tourist from Utah. The case known as “Baby Hope” remained notorious. Here’s what happened in the “Baby Hope” cold case that was solved 22 years later.

New York City 1991

While all the homicides that occurred in 1991 were horrible, one involving a little girl stood out from the rest. On July 23, 1991, a construction crew was working on a building along Henry Hudson Parkway, when workers came across a blue cooler. Inside, they found the stuff of nightmares.

Blue Cooler

Under a handful of soda bottles and water (which was presumably ice at one time), was a dead child. Her body was bound with cords and rope and she was placed in a fetal position with her hands pressed together. The girl’s body was then wrapped in a garbage bag and placed inside the navy blue cooler.

Baby Hope

Since no one knew the girl’s name and they had no way of identifying her, she was called “Baby Hope.” Police detectives decided to call her “Baby Hope” because hope was all they had left in their attempt to solve her case. Investigators believed she was Hispanic and she had dark, wavy hair in a ponytail.

VictimoOf Sexual Abuse

The little girl was terribly malnourished, weighed only 28 pounds, and it was apparent that she was a victim of sexual abuse. When she died on or around July 18, 1991, she was estimated to be between three and five years old. After the remains were originally discovered, a witness told authorities that she had seen a Hispanic man and woman carrying a cooler in the location where the body was found, but the case went cold.

Burial

Detectives donated a casket to bury the little girl and her headstone was marked as “Baby Hope.” One of the officers who was investigating the case led a eulogy and two hundred people were in attendance. In 2006, “Baby Hope’s” body was exhumed, and in 2011 DNA information was obtained. But two years later, in 2013, detectives received a break in the case they never saw coming.

Tip

A tip came in over the summer that led police to identify “Baby Hope” as 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo. This led police to Anjelica’s sister, who said that Anjelica had been killed years ago. DNA then confirmed the sisters’ link to their biological mother.

Estranged

Anjelica’s mother, Margarita Castillo, who lived in upper Manhattan, told detectives that she and the girls’ father had split after her birth, leaving him with custody. Anjelica’s abusive father, Genaro Ramirez, took two of his three young children and disappeared. Margarita explained to police that she believed that her ex-husband had probably taken the girl back to his native Mexico.

Queens

In reality, he left Anjelica in New York, taking her to stay with the children’s adult cousin, Balvina Juarez-Ramirez, who lived in a house in Astoria, Queens. It turned out that Balvina’s brother and Anjelica’s cousin, Conrado Juarez, admitted to torturing, raping and sodomizing the child before smothering her. His confession came 22 years later.

Torture

Juarez who was 30 years old at the time of the murder, had bound Anjelica to a table in his sister’s apartment and deprived her of water on multiple occasions. He claimed he didn’t originally intend to kill Anjelica but then suffocated her with a pillow after she cried out during her rape.

Car Service to Manhattan

After Juarez informed his cousin Balvina that their cousin was dead, he claimed she insisted they dispose of the body. That’s when Anjelica’s body was placed in a cooler and the siblings took a car service to Manhattan to dump the cooler. Margarita, believing her daughter was in Mexico with the father, never reported her missing. She was also unable to communicate in English.

Missing Child

Margarita did claim that she and her family had searched for her daughter but were unable to locate her. For that, she became the subject of much criticism and anger when Anjelica was finally identified in 2013. Other reports revealed that her family also neglected to report her missing, as some of the other family members, including Margarita, were undocumented immigrants.

Feared Being Deported

They feared that if it was discovered that some were in the country without documentation during the course of an investigation, that they would be deported. Juarez, Anjelica’s killer, was initially questioned by detectives after being located working as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Greenwich Village.

Night of Her Murder

Jerry Giorgio, a former detective who worked on the case, told reporters that Juarez said on the night of Anjelica’s death that he had come home to the apartment drunk. He encountered Anjelica in the hall, took her by the hand, and “she went with him,” Giorgio said. “She may at one point have started to yell or scream, looking for help. That’s when he put the pillow over her face.”

Confession

The interrogation led to his confession and arrest for the crime. Although, before his arrest, he was believed to have traveled back to Mexico. He was subsequently charged with felony murder and police stated that they also suspect that Anjelica may not have been Juarez’s only victim.

Child Abuse

The New York Times quoted a law enforcement officer who requested anonymity as saying that Juarez’ sister, Balvina (now dead), had been involved in the abuse of other children, along with, and apart from, Juarez. When Margarita was first interviewed by reporters, she refused to show her face but spoke through a closed door. She gave the explanation of why Anjelica was not reported missing and also described the devastation she felt when she learned her daughter was gone.

Artist Recreations

Some family members and friends of Anjelica’s family didn’t even know she existed. Anjelica’s sister, Laurencita Ramirez, said that she didn’t become familiar with “Baby Hope” until the case was reopened and publicized in 2013. When she saw the artist recreations of what they believed “Baby Hope” looked like before she was killed, Laurencita saw a resemblance between the victim and herself.

Fleeing to Mexico

She wondered if the still identified “Baby Hope” might be the missing sister she heard rumors about. Before Juarez confessed, Anjelica’s father was believed to be involved in her death. To this day, he has never been located, but he’s believed to reside in Puebla, Mexico, and it’s likely he’s unaware of what happened to his daughter after he left her.

Speaking out

Margarita eventually spoke out to press telling them that she confronted Juarez about 12 to 14 years ago at the Queens home. “I went to the house, sat at the table, and asked, ‘Where are my girls?’ and he said, ‘You need to pay for the time we supported them,’” Margarita said during an interview with Noticias Telemundo.

Interview

She demanded that Juarez let her see her girls. Juarez allegedly responded, “When I returned from Mexico there was only one girl, and they told me the other girl was dead.” When Margarita was asked in the interview what she would say to her dead daughter, she replied, “I would ask her to forgive me, that I wish I could have stopped him before he could hurt her.”

Confrontation

“I would ask her to forgive how I let my children be taken away from me,” she added. Margarita said she initially kept tabs on Anjelica with the help of a neighbor near the Astoria apartment where the tragedy took place. “I would ask her, ‘How’s my girl doing?’ and she … would say, ‘Yes, I saw her. She’s at the house.’” But eventually, when Margarita tried to return to the house, they had moved, and she didn’t know where they moved to until Balvina died.

Arrest In ‘Baby Hope’ Cold Case Brings Closure After More Than Two Decades is an article from: LifeDaily

Chris Brown and Kenzie Houk had been friends since they were teenagers. Though life had taken them in different directions for a while, they reconnected and were getting ready to officially tie the knot, and give birth to a baby boy they had already named Christopher.

Our story begins during that pregnancy, on a chilly February morning. Chris was running late for work and though his eight-months’ pregnant fiancee asked him to stay home, he decided that he should go into the office anyway. They had a baby on the way after all. It was a decision that would haunt him from that day on.

Little Brother

Despite the fact that the blended family had only just moved in together, they seemed to be bonding well. Jordan had even begun referring to Kenzie as “mom.” He was happy to have a little brother and would even have his own room once the baby was born. It was in that downstairs bedroom that Kenzie had been sleeping in that morning, simply because it was easier.

Ready For Baby

It wasn’t that Kenzie was worried about the pregnancy, she was ready to have the baby and had plenty of practice being a mom. After all, she already had two daughters from a previous relationship – 7-year-old Jenessa and 4-year-old Adalynn. She even had a stepson through Chris in the form of his 11-year-old son Jordan.

Stay at Home

That morning, Jordan was awakened by his sister Janessa. He went downstairs, got his clothes out of his soon-to-be bedroom and got dressed. Then, the two siblings sat in the living room until the bus came. About 8:15 a.m., Jordan and Janessa went out the back door and headed to school. At around 9 a.m., some tree trimmers arrived to do some work around the house.

Crying Child

Not long after they’d begun working, one of the tree trimmers noticed 4-year-old Adalynn standing in the doorway and crying that her mother was dead. The worker quickly called 911 and waited for Pennsylvania State Police to arrive. Corporal Jeffrey Martin was one of the first responders on the scene. Right away, he could tell something was very wrong.

Hemorrhage

Martin waited for another officer to arrive and then went with him into the bedroom. At first, it appeared that Kenzie had some sort of medical emergency related to the pregnancy. Based on the blood, it appeared as though she might have hemorrhaged somehow and sadly had died because of it. They didn’t move her, choosing to preserve the integrity of the scene as they waited for the medical examiner.

Homicide

As soon as the coroner began taking photos, Martin realized that what they were looking at was no complication or accident. Kenzie Houk had been shot in the back of the head. Her death was the result of a homicide. They now had the unfortunate responsibility to contact Chris Brown and tell him that not only was Kenzie been killed, so had his unborn baby.

Tell Her Husband

Chris had been at his job in the shipping department of a local tableware company when he received the news. He fell to his knees in despair and once he had regained composure, made his way to the state police barracks. As part of procedure, they had to interview him and even swabbed his hands for gunpowder residue just in case. But he had been at work during the shooting, so he couldn’t have done it.

Black Truck

At the same time, officers had been dispatched to Mohawk Elementary School to speak to Janessa and Jordan. It appeared that neither of them had noticed anything unusual that morning. Later though, Jordan recalled seeing a black truck near the garage. He believed it had been a work truck and thought nothing of it. The family went home and grieved together.

A Warrant

The girls were sent to their father’s house while Chris and Jordan stayed in the home. At around 3:30 am, Chris awoke to the police pounding on his door. They had a warrant for 11-year-old Jordan’s arrest. They took him to the police station and resumed questioning. The young man wasn’t just a suspect in his step-mother’s murder, he was the prime suspect.

Media Circus

It had been barely 18 hours since Kenzie was killed and already, Chris had lost his fiancee, unborn son, and his only remaining son. The arrest of an allegedly murderous fifth-grader quickly found its way onto the Internet and onto network news. Millions were watching this small Pennsylvania town. As for Jordan, he seemed to have no idea what was happening.

Change of Story

Jordan’s second interview revealed that not only had he seen a “black truck” in the driveway, he’d also seen someone inside it. He had changed his story, albeit slightly, but enough that his soon-to-be half-sister’s account cemented in their minds that he might be lying. Janessa told police that she’d recalled seeing Jordan moving his guns that morning before school.

Janessa’s Revelation

This recollection was hardly an innocuous detail, it also happened to be something that Jordan had omitted entirely from his own description. Not only that, but Janessa recalled waiting in the living room for Jordan when she heard a “big boom” echo through the house. It sounded to her like a gunshot, but when Jordan appeared none the worse for wear, he didn’t think anything of it.

Learned to Shoot

Kenzie’s death had been caused by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, possibly by a 20-gauge shotgun.The Brown household held a number of handguns, rifles, shotguns, including a 20-gauge one, and several rounds of ammunition. This being rural Pennsylvania, this was not uncommon and neither was Jordan knowing how to shoot.

Difficult Charge

Jordan assured them that he hadn’t touched any gun that morning, but the smell of gunpowder and the youth model shotgun in the home told a different story. They even found a perfect shotgun shell in the driveway. Still even working on the idea that Jordan was jealous of his new baby brother, all of this might not be enough to charge him with the crime. Especially with the media frenzy surrounding the case.

Ex Boyfriend

Kenzie’s old boyfriend, Adam Harvey was another suspect the police originally liked for the murder. He too drove a black truck but investigators quickly determined that it would have been impossible for him to have made the 24-mile drive over to the house without disturbing the snow on his hood from earlier that day. He also didn’t seem to know where Kenzie lived.

Not His Kid

Of course, Harvey also just discovered that 4-year-old Adalynn, was not his biological daughter as he once believed her to be. He admitted to police that he and Kenzie argued about money but much as that seemed like viable motive on his part, it still couldn’t be him. Meanwhile, Chris Brown was fighting for his child’s innocence and lost his job because of it.

Sticking True

The following years saw Jordan Brown fighting for his freedom and reading the fantasy books his father brought for him. He maintained his innocence the whole time and never changed his story. More than two years after he was charged, the now-13-year-old was moved out of adult and back to juvenile court. He was no longer facing life in prison.

Delinquent

There was a chance that Jordan could be released much earlier, but it would be another eight months before he would stand trial for double homicide – one count for the mother, one for the baby. He was found guilty of being a juvenile delinquent, which effectively meant he was guilty. In prison, he taught himself guitar and how to play basketball, but it was still a prison. Meanwhile, his father kept fighting for his freedom.

Overturned

Jordan’s conviction was eventually overturned due to insufficient evidence. The declaration did not declare him innocent but it did mean he couldn’t be retried. After nine-and-a-half years, Chris Brown felt as if a great weight had been lifted off him and his family. He and Jordan finally felt vindicated in their assertions that Jordan hadn’t committed that terrible crime.

Convinced of Guilt

Of course, Kenzie’s family remains convinced that Jordan is responsible and that he was released on what is essentially a technicality. They still believe that he should receive the maximum punishment and even that he should be tried as an adult. Whoever killed Kenzie certainly did something that day, they tore apart what could have been a loving, happy family.

Pregnant Mother’s Murder Leads Police to Arrest Her Step-Son is an article from: LifeDaily