There are plenty of jobs out there that, when most of us hear about the risks to life and limb that they entail, we think “you’d have to be nuts to do that sort of thing.” They even make TV shows of some of the more dramatic dangerous professions, like Deadliest Catch.

But one job that you may not come to mind for everyone is being a journalist. It makes sense, considering journalists biggest health risk is carpal tunnel from typing up too much copy. But for those brave – and perhaps reckless – journalists who choose to report from war zones, their profession can place them firmly in the cross-hairs of some very dangerous people…

Danger Zone

In 2014, one of the deadliest places in the world to be was Syria. For years, the country had been embroiled in a civil war fought between the Russian-backed Bashar al-Assad and his government, the Free Syrian Army, ISIS, and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. The kindest way to describe the situation was “politically complex.” To describe it in more visceral terms, the term ‘fubar’ comes to mind.

Stay Away

Unless you were a soldier fighting for the cause you believed in, it was an area of the world much better left alone, which is why millions of Syrians fled their homes rather than facing death from fighters under any number of banners or simple starvation.

Moth to Flame

But while ordinary people were fleeing the country, and fighters were flocking toward a conflict without easily identified “good guys,” there were journalists who were crazy enough to come to Syria simply to let the rest of the world know the truth about what was happening there.

War Reporter

One of those journalists was a man named Kenji Goto. He was a 47-year-old freelance video journalist who had built his career reporting from war-torn countries around the world, especially in Africa and the Middle East, with his work focusing on the lives and humanity of ordinary people living through extraordinarily bad situations.

Ignoring Warnings

Having been a war journalist his whole career, he was familiar with the dangers a place like Syria posed. He had been repeatedly warned by the Japanese government not to go into the country but went anyway, motivated by his desire to rescue Haruna Yukawa, a Japanese hostage that had been captured by ISIS.

Snatched

Despite all his experience, Goto was also captured by ISIS and became another bargaining chip for the terrorist organization, which was demanding that the Japanese government pay them $200 million in exchange for his and Yukawa’s lives.

Failed Negotiations

Unfortunately, the negotiations for their release broke down and both Goto and Yukawa were brutally executed. The following year, another Japanese journalist named Jumpei Yasuda ventured into Syria. His aim was to uncover the details and report on the capture and subsequent death of Goto.

Warzone Communication

It seemed that Yasuda would follow too closely in Goto’s footsteps when, in June of 2015, he went unaccounted for somewhere in northwestern Syria. Of course, it’s not always easy to get communication into and out of a warzone, so his friends and family hoped for the best.

Missing

But by mid-July, it was clear that something was wrong. Yasuda had failed to return to Japan on the date he’d scheduled to do so, leaving his family, friends, and colleagues fearing the worst. It would be more than a year before there would be any indication of what happened to him.

Video Footage

In March of 2016, footage of a man believed to be Yasuda was posted online. He was reading a message in English to his family and to the Japanese government, demanding a large sum of money for his release. The man who uploaded the footage said that Yasuda was being held captive by the al-Nursa Front, an al-Qaeda linked militant group.

‘Please Help’

In late May, video footage of Yasuda holding a message that said “please help” written in Japanese was sent to multiple media outlets. It would be more than a year before there was any indication whether he was alive or dead.

Old Video

Then in July of 2018, more footage of Yasuda was uploaded to Facebook, this time saying in English that he wanted to see his family. But the footage seemed to have been shot in  October of 2017, so it wasn’t clear that he would even be alive.

Raising Questions

Another video that appeared in late July that caused even more confusion. A man, appearing to be Yasuda, was saying in Japanese “My name is Umaru and I’m South Korean,” adding “help.” It wasn’t clear why he had referred to himself as a South Korean, but experts did believe the video was shot that month.

Big Demands

Al-Nursa wanted $10 million for the release of the journalist but the Japanese government was unwilling to pay. While they wanted the safe return of their citizen, they had a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, for obvious reasons.

Direct Petition

Yasuda’s wife Myu had been doing everything she could for years to try and get her government to act and to work through whatever channels she could to get her husband home safe. Now, she decided to speak directly with her husband’s captors and in early August, held a news conference in Tokyo.

Tearful Plea

Fighting through tears, she pleaded with al-Nursa, asking if they could just find it in their hearts to let Yasuda go free. Ultimately, it wouldn’t be any amount of money or any emotional or moral concerns that would determine his fate.

‘Safe Condition’

In October of 2018, a video of Yasuda was sent from a Turkish immigration center, speaking in English. “I have been held in Syria for 40 months, now in Turkey. Now I’m in safe condition. Thank you very much.”

Reason Unclear

“It’s hard to say why he was released at this point in time,” said Shuji Hosaka, an expert on the Middle East and Islamic militancy. In his opinion, it was likely that it had to do with the way the war was going.

Pressures of War

Assad’s regime had “been clamping down on the opposition in north Syria, and some anti-Assad forces [like al-Nursa were] beginning to withdraw from the area,” Hosaka said. And because the group that held Yasuda captive had to pull out, “it would have been hard to take Yasuda with them, so they may have felt it was the right time to release him.”

Alive And Well

The government of Qatar had contacted the government of Japan to help facilitate the transfer, though both governments denied that they gave any money or any sort of concessions in exchange for Yasuda. Whatever the reason, Myu and the rest of Jumpei’s loved ones were beyond ecstatic to have him back alive and well.

Japanese War Journalist Disappears Into Chaos of Syrian Conflict is an article from: LifeDaily

Janet Winston had been dealing with a persistent rash for some time now. It had started out like anything else – small, itchy, and easily cleared up with a bit of lotion. Unfortunately for the 56-year-old English professor, this was the type of rash that wasn’t about to go away after a few applications of Gold Bond Medicated Powder.

No matter what she did, the rash wouldn’t abate. Janet had no choice but to contact a professional to cure it. She just had no idea that the solution to the persistent itch would be a whole lot of scratch.

Stress

Janet lived in Eureka, California and taught English at Humboldt State University. When the rash first appeared, she wondered if it was perhaps the result of stress from work. But she’d been teaching for years, this one was just like the rest – that is to say, not particularly stressful. She’d always had sensitive skin though, perhaps a cream would work.

Allergy Creams

Janet’s sensitivity had always been to specific ingredients in some skin creams and cosmetics, so she generally avoided them. This time though, her doctor had suggested that antifungal cream might be the answer. Unfortunately, the antifungal cream only made matters worse. It seemed she was allergic to that too.

Busy Office

After a bit of extensive research, Janet was able to find an expert dermatologist in her rural Northern California town. Unfortunately, the man was booked for months in advance. She needed to find a solution sooner rather than later, before the rash spread. She had to keep looking for someone else, no matter how far.

Six Hours

Eventually, Janet turned to Stanford Health Care, a specialized treatment center nearly six hours south of her home. She made an appointment and headed out. Her hope was to not only clear up the rash but see what else she might be allergic to. The ensuing allergy tests were fairly comprehensive but did provide answers.

Detailed Tests

To begin with, Janet explained that she had avoided cosmetics like lipstick and a number of skin products over the years. The doctors at the facility had to go above and beyond though if they wanted to narrow down the potential allergen. They taped 119 tiny, plastic containers of allergens to her back and tested her over the next three days.

Compounds

When it was all said and done, Janet learned that she was allergic to a number of things. One of which was ketoconazole cream, the same cream she had been prescribed to treat her persistent rash. She was also allergic to neomycin, a common preservative used in cosmetics and as a dye in clothing, as well as gold, nickel, and cobalt. There was more too.

Linalool

Perhaps the most interesting offending allergen was the compound linalool, an allergen that can be found in lavender and other plants. One of those plants are roses, something that Janet had plenty of in her garden back in Eureka. Of course, she could still handle the flowers, so long as she washed her hands afterward. Armed with this knowledge, she could go home and rest easy … sort of.

Spared Some Expense

You see, Janet’s doctor at Stanford had warned her ahead of time that the extensive allergy testing might have been a bit expensive. The skin-patch tests are among the most comprehensive and costly tests out there. But Janet wasn’t worried, her benefits through the State of California were pretty reliable, or so she thought.

Unbelievable Bill

When the bill finally came, the total amounted to a whopping $48,329. This included $848 for the time Winston spent with her doctor. Anthem Blue Cross, the State of CA’s health insurance provider only covered some of that. The remaining $3,103.73 was billed to Janet. She could hardly believe it.

Outrageous

Though she was grateful for the care Stanford had provided her, she couldn’t believe that the clinic had the audacity to charge such an insane amount for the test. There was no anesthesia, no surgery, she had partly-opened, fluid-filled plastic containers taped to her back. It was certainly not $3,000 worth of treatment, let alone $48,000, in her opinion.

The Details

Janet went to some experts about the situation and found that though some of them think Stanford’s charge for the allergy patch test was excessive, others believe the charge to be customary and reasonable. But how can such a price be “customary” in the least? How can they get away with charging $399 per allergy?

Inflated

Michael Arrigo, a San Francisco-based medical billing expert was called in to check out her bill. He found that the true customary cost for a single allergen test in the area is about $35, not $399. The average charge for private insurers was about $16 per allergen through Medicare. Something wasn’t adding up.

Balance

Eric Lail, a spokesperson at Anthem Health noted that one of the insurer’s examiners did review the bill prior to processing it. Unfortunately, they could not say whether or not it had received any additional scrutiny due to its high cost. He added that the whole process is as balanced as it can be, based on available network choices for providers and patients alike.

Overcharges

This is not an unusual case in recent years. Obamacare affected many different parts of the healthcare system. Providers, patients, and insurance carriers were all impacted by the change. In some cases, providers had to begin charging essentially exorbitant rates for their services. These are known as “chargemaster” or list prices.

Rising Prices

Stanford Health Care, in particular, has a lot of power in dealing with insurers. Because they are an academic medical system and one of the largest practices in their region, they can sort of raise health care prices of their own accord. Their consolidated power in the Bay Area has made it so some insurance companies have had to stop working with them.

A Spike

Unfortunately, the same things that give Stanford Health so much power, their popularity with high-end Bay Area customers, and the depth of their academic medical prowess, make it much harder for insurance companies to just “opt out” of doing business with them. As a result, health care costs across the board have soared in California in recent years.

They’ll Pay

Leemore Dafny, a Harvard University health care economist, spoke to MPRnews about big health systems like Stanford. These large health organizations, with so many hospitals and outpatient clinics, can essentially pressure insurers to pay big for their services. The thing about it is, these insurers will often just roll over and pay it, no matter how egregious the sum.

Spokesman’s Words

Patrick Bartosch, a spokesman for Stanford Health Care, had a bit to say about Janet’s tests as well. According to him, Stanford customized her treatment rather than using “off-the-shelf test kits.” Thus, their comprehensive evaluation was meticulously planned towards Janet’s own unique situation. This is what they say warranted the enormous cost in the end.

Grateful

“I was grateful I had so much insurance, and that it was in-network, and I could afford the [final] bill,” Winston told MPRnews. “On the other hand, I thought, ‘How can they get away with this?’ Most Americans could never afford this procedure, at least at this facility, and it made me think about the grand piano in the lobby.”

Final Bill

In the end, even though she went through all the proper channels, Janet still got caught with her pants down. She had the best insurance and used an in-network provider and though she fought it and got a 50 percent discount, she still ended up paying $1,561.86 out of pocket. It didn’t hurt to ask after all.

English Professor’s Unexplained Rash Results In Astronomical Medical Bills is an article from: LifeDaily

When a child goes missing, time is of the essence. Sadly, as time goes on, the chance of finding the child alive gets slimmer and slimmer. After just a few days, the odds of finding a missing child alive are slim to none.

Despite the depressing statistics about missing children, one Canadian woman never gave up hope that she would one day be reunited with her long-lost son. And more than 30 years later, the woman experienced a moment that almost everyone believed would never happen.

Court-Ordered Visitation

On June 24, 1987, Lyneth Mann-Lewis brought her 21-month-old son, Jermaine, to see his father. The couple had previously split up, and Mann-Lewis was required to bring Jermaine to see his father, Allan Mann Jr. That day, a court-ordered visitation had been scheduled so Mann-Lewis dropped her son off with his father as she was supposed to.

A Weekend With Dad

The scheduled visitation was for just a weekend. Tragically, the moment Mann-Lewis dropped Jermaine off at his father’s home in Toronto was the last time Mann-Lewis saw her son. When she went back to her former partner’s home at the end of the weekend, no one was there.

Filing A Report

Mann-Lewis tried contacting Mann, but he didn’t answer and he never returned to the Toronto apartment. Mann-Lewis was stunned and terrified. Not knowing what else to do, the panicked mother called the police and reported her son was missing and that she believed his father had abducted him.

An Investigation Begins

The police immediately started investigating the missing child report. Based on the details they had at the time, investigators also believed Mann-Lewis’ theory that Mann had taken off with their son. Sadly, however, they never managed to track Mann down.

The Case Goes Cold

As time passed, the chances of finding Mann and Jermaine got slimmer and slimmer. Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months without any news of Jermaine. Investigators did everything in their power to find Mann-Lewis’ little boy and checked up on every lead, but the case went cold.

The Evidence

According to investigators who had been assigned to the case, they only had a few pieces of evidence despite conducting more than 400 interviews. Based on the information they had gathered over the years, the police believed Mann had most likely taken Jermaine and crossed the border into the United States.

From Toddler to College Grad

Investigators believed that Mann and Jermaine were living somewhere in the northeastern United States. As the years passed, they had reason to believe Jermaine had grown up and had graduated college decades after his abduction. They even had an idea of the college he had attended.

The Mystery Identities

Yet investigators didn’t know the key piece of information that they needed to solve the case. When Mann had escaped to the United States, he had to obtain fake documents for both himself and Jermaine as well as take on fake identities. At that point, the police still had no idea what Mann and Jermaine’s fake names were.

Needle In A Haystack

“We had no names,” Ted Davis, a now-retired police officer from the Calgary Police Service who was originally assigned to the case, told The Star.  “We were looking for a needle in a haystack, and this was a really, really big haystack.” Despite the little progress the police had made in the case, Davis never gave up hope that they would find Jermaine.

A Stubborn Cop

In fact, Davis was so invested in finding Jermaine and reuniting Mann-Lewis and her son that he stuck with the case even after he retired from the Calgary Police Service. For the past 28 years, Davis has been working with the Missing Children’s Society of Canada to find Jermaine.

A Special Case

“Ted encouraged me to be always, always believing,” Mann-Lewis told reporters at a news conference about her missing son. According to Davis, he was so committed to solving Jermaine’s disappearance because of Mann-Lewis. “Lyneth was special,” Davis told The Star.

Keeping Faith

According to Davis, nearly all parents who are fighting to find their children are engaged in the investigation and dedicated to finding answers. Mann-Lewis was both engaged and dedicated, but her faith in finding Jermaine never waned over the years.

New Information

“Whenever you talked to her you could tell that she was still persistent and passionate about getting her son back,” Davis said. But Davis and investigators made huge progress after the international fugitive squad conference in 2016. During the conference, U.S. law enforcement officials heard about Jermaine’s case and offered to help.

Tracking Mann Down

U.S. Marshals from both New York and Connecticut managed to track down some of Mann’s relatives who were living in the United States. They told authorities that Mann had lived in the Bronx in the 90s with his son, but that they hadn’t seen him in a long time. The family explained they believed Mann had moved with his son to either Connecticut or North Carolina.

The Fake Identity

The family also divulged one crucial fact. They told authorities that Mann had changed his name to  Hailee DeSouza. Investigators then found the driver’s license for a man with the same name living in Connecticut and a forensic specialist compared photos of Mann and DeSouza and confirmed they were the same person.

The Fake Documents

Investigators then managed to track down Mann, who had been living with his now adult son in HUD-subsidized housing in Vernon, Connecticut. According to officials, Mann had obtained fake birth certificates claiming that he and his son had been born in Houston, Texas.

The Arrest

Shortly after tracking Mann down, they arrested him and matched his fingerprints to those on file with the Canadian police. According to Davis, he refrained from telling Mann-Lewis about the developments until Mann was taken into custody as he feared getting her hopes up if something went wrong. Once Mann was in custody and Jermaine, who had been raised with a different name, was located, Davis jumped on a plane to tell Mann-Lewis the news. “You can’t tell someone, after waiting 31 years, over the telephone or FaceTime, ‘Hey listen, I found your son,’” Davis said. “You gotta be there.”

Breaking The News

“The words ‘Your son is alive, we’ve found him’ – that is breathtaking,” Mann-Lewis told reporters about the moment Davis told her the miraculous news. “It’s been a long and hard 31-year journey since my son was abducted and I endured many, many hard days.” Just two days later, in late October of 2018, Mann-Lewis jumped on a plane and flew to Connecticut to meet her now 33-year-old son.

The Emotional Reunion

“I squeezed his head. I wanted to feel if he was real. He said, ‘Mommy, you have my eyes.’ He hugged me and he kissed me and we held for a long time,” Mann-Lewis said about the incredible moment she met her son, who believed his mother died when he was a baby. “I want to encourage other families with missing children and loved ones not to ever, ever give up hope on finding them,” Mann-Lewis said. “I am the proof that after 31 long years of suffering, 31 long years, one should never give up. But be patient. Be strong and believe that all things are possible and that anything can transpire.”

A Grateful Mother

Mann has been charged with making false statements to get HUD housing. Mann will then be extradited to Canada to face an abduction charge. Mann-Lewis is now focusing on rebuilding a relationship with her son and is grateful for everything law enforcement agencies in Canada and the U.S. have done for her. According to Mann-Lewis, she is especially grateful for Davis, as he encouraged her to never give up hope and played a big part in finding her son. “I will forever be grateful for him for everything he has done.”

Relentless Cop Reunites Mother And Son 31 Years After Abduction is an article from: LifeDaily

The Powell family of Salt Lake City, Utah was the very definition of an All-American family. Susan and Joshua had two sons both of whom they loved with all their hearts. The only problem was that Susan and Joshua had very little love for each other.

In December of 2009, all of the growing animosity between the husband and wife came to an ugly head when Susan mysteriously vanished. Some said that she chose to leave rather than risk her life, but others believed that she had waited too long to avoid that dire result.

Building A Life

Susan Cox married Joshua Powell in April 2001. Susan was a trained cosmetologist who ended up getting a job at Wells Fargo to support their growing family and Joshua had a bachelor’s in business and had worked a number of different jobs over the years. Together, they were building a life, but even from the start there was blood in the mortar.

Stressful Existence

Right from the start, it seemed that Susan and Joshua were having marital issues. Stress infused every part of their relationship and many of their friends believed that this stemmed directly from the financial burden of Joshua’s extravagant spending habits. By 2007, they had over $200,000 in debts and had to file for bankruptcy.

Serious Allegations

This was accentuated by the fact that Joshua was apparently, very, very controlling towards Susan. She told her friends and even recorded a video of her surveying property damage attributed to Joshua stating: “I want it documented that there is extreme turmoil in our marriage … If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one.”

Church Days

It was on the morning of December 7, 2009, about a year after they had made that video, that Susan Powell disappeared. She and her two sons, Charles and Braden, had gone to church early in the day on December 6, and a neighbor had visited them at home till around 5:00 p.m. By the next day, Susan was gone…

No Shows

At the onset, it was the entire Powell family who was reported missing. Joshua’s mother Terrica and sister Jennifer Graves had come to the house looking for the family but found that no one was home. They’d come because the boys’ daycare had called to ask them why Charles and Braden hadn’t been dropped off in the morning. Susan hadn’t shown up to work either.

Something Amiss

The police were called, but no one seemed able to find Susan or Joshua. Worrying that the family might have been the victims of carbon monoxide poisoning, the police broke into the house. They found no one inside but did notice two running fans blowing on a wet spot of carpet. The officers also found Susan’s purse, cell phone, and car, but no Susan, Joshua, or the boys.

Impromptu Camping Trip

It wasn’t until 5 p.m. that day that Joshua Powell returned home with his sons. He was immediately taken to the police station and asked what had happened to Susan. He answered that he had taken the boys on an impromptu trip shortly after midnight on December 7th and that he’d left Susan sleeping at home. When the police investigated this alleged campsite, they found no evidence of the Powell’s having been there.

Mounting Evidence

They searched the Powell house and found traces of Susan’s blood on the floor. They also discovered that Joshua had a $1.5 million life insurance policy on his wife. When they discovered a slew of handwritten letters from Susan expressing fear for her life, they decided to look more closely into Joshua Powell’s suspicious actions of late.

Suspicions Grow

First and foremost was his demeanor when the police informed him that his wife was missing. He didn’t seem at all concerned. In fact, when he was released from custody, he liquidated her retirement accounts, canceled her chiropractic appointments, and withdrew his children from daycare. There were even reports that he had spoken to coworkers about how to hide a body in the desert.

Charlie’s Account

Police decided to interview the couple’s children – both of whom had some rather telling things to say about the events of that fateful night. Charlie confirmed that the trip had taken place. Only, as he remembered it, Susan came with them and then disappeared from the campsite. This was in direct contradiction to his father’s account that she had stayed home and there were more revelations to come.

Revelations

Police were informed that several weeks after Susan’s disappearance, one of Charlie’s teachers heard Charlie claim she was dead. Little Braden also seemed to know more than he knew. He drew a picture of a van with three people in daycare and told the workers that “mommy was in the trunk of the car.”

The Move

Before the police could find sufficient evidence to tie him to the disappearance and at this point, assumed murder, of Susan Powell, Joshua Powell took his sons and moved to Puyallup. He’d lost his job and was forced to move in with his father Steven, his brothers Michael and Jonathan, and his sister, Alina.

Harsh Words

Meanwhile, the Internet was abuzz with cross words against Joshua and Susan both. One website insinuated that Susan’s disappearance was connected to that of Steven Koecher, a Salt Lake Tribune journalist who vanished the same week. The theory was that she had abandoned her family due to mental illness and run off to Brazil with Koecher.

Paternal Obsession

Nevertheless, Joshua remained the prime suspect. What no one knew at the time was that there was indeed another potential suspect very close to Susan. Josh’s father, Steven Powell. Unbeknownst to anyone, Steven had been obsessively infatuated with his son’s wife for years. There were rumors that the family’s move to Utah was an attempt to get Susan away from Steven’s unwanted advances.

Loving Susan

These advances included love songs posted online under a pseudonym and a slew of photographs taken without her knowledge – 4,500 of them to be exact – and many of these close-ups of various body parts. The police had been warned about this obsession by an anonymous friend following Susan’s disappearance.

Red Herring

Despite his stalkerish behavior, there wasn’t enough evidence to tie Steven Powell to Susan’s disappearance either. Steven was officially arrested on charges of voyeurism and child pornography. It wasn’t just Susan he’d been taping, it was a number of women, some of them young girls. Steven went to jail and Joshua and the boys continued to live with the family.

Change In Custody

News of Steven’s predilections and subsequent arrest prompted Charles Cox, Susan’s father, to file for custody of her children. Charles already had his suspicions about Joshua’s part in his daughter’s disappearance, and this was the last straw. He was granted temporary custody until the court could figure out what to do next.

Visitation Rights

In 2011, Joshua was evaluated by the court to determine if he had adequate parenting skills to be permitted at least visitation rights. They determined that he had a steady job but that his criminal history and the ongoing investigation into Susan’s disappearance raised some concerns. They also found him to be overbearing, defensive, and paranoid. Regardless of all this, he was allowed some supervised visitation with the boys.

Like Father, Like Son

In January 2012, Utah police discovered 400 images of simulated, cartoonish child pornography, bestiality, and incest on Joshua’s computer. Though not illegal, they were of great concern to the court and it looked as though the Coxes were going to receive full custody. On the morning of February 5, a social worker bringing the boys over for a supervised visit called 911.

Explosive End

The woman said Joshua grabbed the boys and wouldn’t let her into the house. A few minutes later and the house exploded, killing Joshua and both boys. It was ruled a case of deliberate murder-suicide. In 2013, the police closed the active investigation into the disappearance of Susan Powell and it is widely assumed that Joshua killed her and disposed of the body.

Accused Husband Takes Drastic Measures to Keep His Children Following Wife’s Disappearance is an article from: LifeDaily

Despite the fact that farming has destroyed many traces of history, some still remain, as a recent find in Norway proves. Only a few burials have been discovered in recent years, making this one pretty important.

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used as a container for the dead and the grave goods. Norwegian archaeologists found just that buried beneath the ground near a busy freeway in Oslo.

Landmark

The RV41 118 freeway in Oslo, Norway, has served as a local landmark for centuries. But archaeologists never bothered to examine the area near the busy freeway since they assumed that a century of plowing and farming had destroyed any traces of history.

Remains

Archaeologists thought that any remains in the nearby fields must have been destroyed in the late 19th century by farmers’ plows. But in the spring of 2018, county officials asked the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Research to take a look, just in case, and archaeologists discovered something incredible.

Viking-Era Jelle Mound

They were able to scan the soil underneath almost 10 acres of farmland around the mound. Andrew Curry from National Geographic reported finding the remains of 30-foot tall Viking-era Jelle mound. This is one of the largest Viking ship graves ever found, and experts say that intact Viking ship graves of this size are vanishingly rare.

100-Year Find

“I think we could talk about a hundred-year find,” says archaeologist Jan Bill, curator of Viking ships at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. “It’s quite spectacular from an archaeology point of view,” he told National Geographic.

Radar Scans

Using ground-penetrating radar, the remains of the Viking ship grave, burial mounds, and longhouses near the hill were found underneath it. The traces of the ship were hidden just 20 inches beneath the surface. Knut Paasche, head of the archaeology department at the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Research and director of the recent work at the site, estimates the ship was at least 65 feet long.

Oslo Fjord

The well-preserved ship had clear outlines of the keel and the first few strakes, which were visible from the radar scans. The ship was likely dragged onshore from the nearby fjord at some point during the Viking age, by someone powerful.

Kings And Queens

The ship was covered more than 1,000 years ago, and most-likely served as the final resting place of a prominent Viking king or queen. “Ships like this functioned as a coffin. There was one king or queen or local chieftain on board.”

Similar Structures

Archaeologists also believe that whoever buried the ship wasn’t alone. There are also traces of at least eight other burial mounds in the field, some of which are almost 90 feet wide. Three large longhouses (one is 150 feet long) are also visible from underneath the site’s soil, along with a half dozen smaller structures.

Dating The Mounds

After this incredible find, Paasche hopes future excavations will help date the mounds and the longhouses, which may have been built at different times. “We can’t be sure the houses have the same age as the ship,” Paasche says.

Cemetery

It is difficult to say if the houses were related to the cemetery or come from another period of occupation. A research proposal is in the works to use non-invasive techniques to continue studying the site and maybe eventually dig up the ship.

Ship’s Hull

Paasche plans to return to the site next spring to conduct more scans, including surveying the site with a magnetometer and possibly digging test trenches to see what condition the ship’s remains are in. Then, if there is wood from the ship’s hull preserved beneath the ground, it could be used to date the find more precisely.

King’s Treasure

But many believe that the chances of finding a king’s treasure are slim. Since they were so prominent in the landscape, many Viking Age burials were robbed centuries ago, way before they were leveled by 19th-century farmers.

Well-Preserved

“[But] it would be very exciting to see if the burial is still intact,” says Bill. “If it is, it could be holding some very interesting finds.” Only three well-preserved Viking ships have been found in Norway, and all of them were dug up a long time ago.

Contemporary Techniques

This Viking ship find can give archaeologists their first chance to investigate a boat burial using contemporary techniques. While the site hasn’t been dated yet, the ship was likely buried around 800 A.D. according to Smithsonianmag.com.

Two Ship Burials

While burial ships are rare, they occur across Europe and have been found in present-day Sweden, Denmark, England, Russia, Estonia, and Ukraine. Last year, researchers in Iceland discovered two ship burials, one of which contained the interment of a chieftain along with his sword and his dog.

Viking Age

On June 13, 2017, Icelandic archaeologists working at a large burial site in a northern part of Iceland came across the remains of a ship burial dating from the Viking Age, circa 9th or 10th century AD. “The burial scope was probably furnished for a Viking chieftain, who was ritually interred in his ship along with some of his worldly possessions, including his sword and dog,” wrote Realm of History.

Iceland

Two days later on June 15, the researchers identified two other ship burials at the same site. “Now it should be noted that while it may have been a known practice to bury wealthy chiefs in boats during the Viking Age, archaeological evidences for such graves are rare, especially in Iceland,” they wrote.

Robberies

Viking burials in their preserved state are also very rare, due to unfortunate occurrences of robbery throughout the centuries. But in this case, “part of the boat is completely untouched and we see no signs of it ever having been robbed by people, so we are hoping to find more artifacts untouched in the grave,” Hildur Gestsdottir, the head of researchers at the site, said.

Burial Goods

All the Viking ship finds have provided a glimpse into some of the mysteries buried for years. “Only practiced for the deaths of prominent individuals, the ritual used a boat as a coffin for the body and burial goods,” wrote History.com.

What’s Next?

Being that the ground-penetrating radar used by the team in Norway, is still a young technology, it’s already produced results. This means that archaeologists will continue to search for more buried treasure. Next comes the challenge of using other non-invasive investigative tools to digitally map the unique discovery.

Rare Viking Era Ship Found Buried Next to Busy Norwegian Freeway is an article from: LifeDaily

Fort Dodge is a Webster County city about 95 miles northwest of Des Moines in Iowa. Home to about 25,000 people, homicides are rare, with one reported in 2017, and another in 2016.

But in 2018, there were two homicides, on the very same day. Investigators called this a “rarity,” and they worked diligently to find the suspect and bring justice for the victims’ families.

Fort Dodge, Iowa

When Chad Nickerson learned his two uncles had been fatally shot in Fort Dodge, Iowa, he was sick to his stomach. “This is still surreal,” he told the Des Moines Register. Nickerson, 22, was among at least a dozen family members and friends who gathered Monday afternoon in the parking space and alleyway where the two brothers were killed.

Two Brothers

Marion Rhodes, 37, and El Dominic Rhodes, 34, both from Fort Dodge, were killed in an unspeakable tragedy. Jahleel Price, 29, a friend of the brothers, told the Register, “I probably would’ve been lost without those individuals.” She knew the brothers for 10 years and said that they came to Fort Dodge from Kansas City for a better life. They were known for their love of music and their passion for helping young men.

Hip-Hop Group

Jeremy Mack, who rapped with the brothers in a hip-hop group 6 Gang, couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the men lying dead on the ground. Police Captain Ryan Gruenberg said it was evident that the two suffered severe gunshot wounds and died almost immediately. 

Unresponsive

They were found lying unresponsive in an alleyway behind 910 2nd Avenue North in Fort Dodge when officers responded to reports of a shooting at 12:03 a.m. The brothers were pronounced dead at the scene, making the incident the city’s first double homicide in more than a decade.

Double Homicide

Authorities believe the double homicide was an isolated incident and that there was no immediate threat to the general public. Initially, Gruenberg said that any possible suspects likely knew the brothers, whose bodies were taken to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsies. “There is no reason to believe this was a random act by any means,” he said.

Gunfire

Witnesses told police they’d heard an argument in the area before the shooting, although it wasn’t clear if the two were connected. An officer even reported hearing the gunfire from a few blocks away.

Crime Scene

After the horrific incident, investigators with the Fort Dodge police department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation remained at the crime scene for more than nine hours after the shooting. They searched for evidence and interviewed witnesses, although to get answers will take time.

Grieving

In the meantime, family and friends stood by at the scene where the brothers were killed and continue to return there. They have taken pictures and placed their hands on the area where the Rhodes brothers were found. “Two good men are gone,” Mack told the Register while sitting in the parking space where one of the men died and wearing 6 Gang necklaces. “We just want justice for our loved ones.”

Witness

Police spoke with a woman who lives in the 900 block of Third Avenue North, who said she heard the gunshots and saw a white, scrawny man run by her house. He had a cell phone in one hand and a handgun in the other, she told police.

Suspect

Her description led police to locate a central Iowa man, Tanner King, 28, who matched the woman’s description. He was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, according to Fort Dodge police.

Altercation

King told police his DNA might be on shell casings recovered in the alleyway where the brothers were slain, according to a criminal complaint. A witness argued with the accused shooter at the scene about getting money back after he allegedly sold his girlfriend bad drugs. Marion then exchanged words with King before El Dominic arrived.

Escalating

An argument broke out and King shot the Rhodes brothers, causing them to suffer gunshot wounds. Over the next few days following the shooting, community members provided the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations agents leads. Investigators alleged that King fired at least one gunshot at a third victim, a 28-year-old man who was not injured.

Search Warrant

After executing a search warrant at King’s apartment, officers found a box of .40-caliber ammunition with rounds missing. According to the complaint, he verbally objected to officers searching the garage where the box was found. Telling police his DNA could be found, King said the shell casings at his residence may be the same as those recovered at the crime scene.

Alibi

According to court records, authorities believed the King’s alibi wasn’t adding up. He initially told police he went to his mother’s home after 9 p.m. that day before stopping by three other residences. However, one of the people King claimed to have spoken with says he hasn’t seen or spoken to King since 2008. King’s mother also said she hadn’t seen her son in three to four weeks.

Surveillance Cameras

In a later interview, King told agents he was at the shooting and he described seeing the brothers and two other men and leaving after hearing gunfire. Several businesses had video surveillance that captured images of cars passing near the crime scene. One vehicle, in particular, was a white Lincoln, which frequently drove by just before the shooting. Then, it was not seen on camera after the murders.

White Lincoln

It turns out that the Lincoln was associated with the girlfriend of one of King’s relatives and the footage assisted authorities in finding witnesses. King previously has been convicted of a number of crimes in Iowa, including burglary, carrying weapons, domestic abuse assault, and impersonating a public official.

Attempted Escape

While King was an inmate at the Webster County Jail in 2012, he was injured when he fell from a four-story rooftop in a failed escape attempt. He was on a special watch at the time because he had tried to commit suicide once before, according to the Register.

2013 Fire

Then, in 2013, King and another man were accused of burglarizing an electrical business run by the family of Fort Dodge Mayor Matt Bemrich. The men set a fire to the building, destroying most of it. King pleaded guilty to second-degree aiding and abetting arson and two counts of second-degree burglary in that case, according to records.

Bond

King is now being held at the Webster County Jail and at his initial appearance, Magistrate William Thatcher set his bond at more than $2 million – $1 million for each murder charge – and $100,000 for the attempted murder charge.

A Rarity

But a double homicide in the city is pretty rare, according to Gruenberg, who has been with Fort Dodge police for eight years. The last one was in 2005 when Richella Stark, 29, was fatally shot with her two young children before she killed herself in what police called a murder-suicide.

Investigators Uncover Suspect In Rare Double Homicide In Fort Dodge, Iowa is an article from: LifeDaily

When one Russian official went to Estonia to warn the government there about a massive money-laundering scheme, that scam would turn out to be the biggest ever money-laundering scheme in the history of the world.

Known as the $200 Billion Danske Bank Scandal, Andrei Kozlov, the first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank, met a gruesome end when he turned out to be the whistleblower who cost corrupt officials millions.

Andrei Kozlov

Andrei Kozlov served as the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation from 1997-1999, and then again between the years 2002 and 2006. Fluent in Russian, German and English, Kozlov was married with three children but was killed at the end of September 2006 and died in a Moscow hospital from gunshot wounds.

Humble Roots

Having been born in Moscow, Kozlov served in the Soviet Army and was a very proud Russian. After attending the faculty of international economics at The Moscow Institute of Finance, he got a job at the central bank. Having also worked in the private sector for a time, Kozlov was considered an economic genius by many people despite his humble beginnings.

Making Enemies

Kozlov was always considered to be a straight-laced type of person. This personality trait made him some enemies along the way as he attempted to cut down on corruption and lead Russian banks down the path of righteousness. When he introduced a deposit insurance system and founded the Deposit Insurance Agency to restore public faith in the banking system, many people were keeping a close eye on him.

Taking Control

Being the head of bank supervision, Kozlov made even more enemies when he withdrew licenses from banks suspected of money laundering. Then, in 2004, when he took control of Sodbiznesbank, he accused them of engaging in high-profile money-laundering using ransom money from hostages. He even revoked the license of the Neftyanoi Bank a few years later, making him even more unpopular in some financial circles.

Keynote Speech

On September 8, 2006, Just a few days before he was murdered, Kozlov gave a keynote speech at a banking conference in Sochi according to a Daily Beast report. At the conference, Kozlov said, “Those who have been found out laundering criminal money should probably be barred from staying in the banking profession for life. Such people disgrace the banking system.” No one was that surprised when he was knocked off a few days later.

Third Victim

Kozlov was the third victim linked to the Danske scandal. The first victim was Alexander Perepilichnyy, who was involved with the bank’s Estonia branch. The second victim was Sergei Magnitsky (pictured above), a Russian lawyer who was investigating the theft of $230 million when he died in Russian custody. It came out after the fact that the majority of that money was laundered through the Danske Bank.

Stellar Reputation

Kozlov was well-known in financial circles, and some people liked what he was doing to clean up corruption. Those on the receiving end, however, did not and that’s when a plot was hatched to ‘take care’ of him. As he walked out of a friendly soccer match between bankers and financial regulators at the Spartak Moscow sports complex, he was fatally shot in the car park outside.

Fatal Shooting

When Kozlov and his chauffeur, Alexander Semyonov, walked into the car park, three gunmen were waiting for them. The driver died on the spot from the volley of bullets while Kozlov was shot in the head, chest, and stomach. He died a few minutes after reaching the operating table at Moscow’s Hospital No. 33. This was the most high-profile killing in Russia since Putin took power.

Taking Revenge

Following Kozlov’s brutal murder, officials in Russia assumed that he was likely murdered as a message of revenge for revoking the licenses of small banks. Boris Gryzlov, the chairman of Putin’s United Russia Party, said on the day he died, “It’s quite possible that the gangsters linked to them might have put out a contract on him.” Gryzlov was right; Authorities found that Alexei Frenkel, who owned VIP bank, had been shut down by Kozlov and it was him who ordered the hit.

Not Guilty

As Frenkel was led away from his first court appearance for hiring three Ukranian men to kill Kozlov, he managed to exclaim to the media who were present, “I am not guilty!” But despite claiming innocence, Frenkel was found guilty and sentenced to 19 years behind bars. But Kozlov had a multitude of enemies and his assassination would have come later if not sooner in any event.

Warning Estonia

Kozlov should have known that he would find himself in some hot water after he visited Estonia in 2006. He warned authorities there that billions of rubles were being transferred illegally into dollars and euros via the Estonian Sampo Bank based in Finland. That bank was taken over by Denmark’s largest bank, the Danske Bank later that year. Kozlov had a vital conversation during that visit with Andres Palumaa, the head of anti-money-laundering at Estonia’s Financial Supervision Authority.

Admitting Guilt

It took another 12 years for the Danske Bank to finally admit that $234 billion in non-resident money had made its way from Russia through Danske’s operation in Estonia. What made matters even more shocking were allegations that the suspicious accounts were owned and operated by Putin and his family. But Palumaa didn’t concur with Kozlov at the time and claimed he had found “no evidence of wrongdoing.”

Central Nexus

According to Kozlov’s claims, the Sampo Bank in Estonia was the “central nexus” of many criminal activities run from Russia. Even the bank’s internal inquiry recently found that more than $200 billion in foreign currency was allowed to flow through the bank. For so many people, getting rid of Kozlov was a must, and it needed to happen as soon as possible before he blew any more whistles.

Global Investigation

In light of the serious claims leveled against the Danske Bank, U.S. authorities opened an investigation alongside investigators in Britain, France, Denmark, and Estonia. Even though it will no doubt take years to untangle the mystery of the laundered $200 billion, people want answers when high-ranking officials like Kozlov are murdered in cold blood.

Respecting America

Following Frenkel’s arrest as the main suspect in the Kozlov slaying, the reaction in Moscow was mixed. While some still wanted Kozlov and his theories out of the window, others were impressed that the U.S. was showing such determination to bring justice for Kozlov. At the time a source said, “This is the first time that authorities went after not just the ones who committed the crime, but the ones who ordered it and paid for it,” adding, “It is also the first time that a Russian, not a Ukrainian or a Georgian, was found responsible.”

Austrian Connection

At the same time, the Austrian government was also involved in the whole debacle. Before his death, Kozlov had been in contact with Austrian financial regulators, warning them of illegal sources of money coming from Russia. A few weeks before his death, Kozlov had even ordered the closing of a small Russian bank involved in the Austrian banking sector. Seven months after he was killed, the Austrian government opened their own investigation into Kozlov’s murder.

Official Corruption

The Austrian probe concluded that as they worked closely with Kozlov after the Russian money-laundering pipelines were shut down, they could not rule out “official corruption” on a massive scale as well as being the motive for his murder. Russian opposition outlets also claimed that Kozlov was killed for knowing too much and for exposing high-profile but corrupt officials.

Frenkel Framed

Meanwhile, Natalia Morar, a Moldovan investigative journalist for the Russian magazine New Times, felt that Frenkel had nothing to do with Kozlov’s demise. “The New Times interviewees at the Interior Ministry, in the State Duma, and in the banking community are convinced that ‘Frenkel has nothing to do with the murder,'” she wrote.

Knew Too Much

According to Morar’s sources, Frenkel himself could well have been framed as he was privy to the same sensitive information that Kozlov was. The fact that Kozlov was leading an investigation into “the possibility of money-laundering through foreign banks by a number of Russian commercial organizations, and also by individuals,” according to Morar, meant that anyone could have arranged the hit on Kozlov.

Massive Impact

When Kozlov took his trip to Estonia to try to shut down the Danske Bank money-laundering route to the West, he had no idea what he was getting involved with. Perhaps, had he known that this corrupt money-laundering scheme went all the way to the top, he would have thought twice about poking a hornet’s nest that ultimately spelled his demise in such an unceremonious fashion.

Whistleblower Shot While Investigating $200 Billion International Bank Scandal is an article from: LifeDaily

Stunt performers are seriously injured due to stunts gone wrong more often than you’d think, and they rarely receive the recognition they deserve. We tend to praise an actor who “does his own stunts,” though we ignore the stuntmen and stuntwomen themselves, doing the stunts every day for a living. Whether it’s being the stunt performer for an actor in a major motion film or doing background work, working in the field takes skill and training.

Unfortunately, most injuries end up being pretty serious, with the stunt performers even dying during a stunt. The artist and stunt performer in the following story was filming a music video when things went terribly wrong.

Extreme Stunts

Jon James McMurray was born in Calgary, Alberta in Canada and he began his career as a professional athlete during high school. He competed in free-skiing and extreme stunts. He filmed internationally throughout North America, Europe,  Australia, New Zealand, and was featured in several action sports movies.

Musician

McMurray was also the owner and founder of Loose Canon Productions, a film company that released the sports action lifestyle film Without A Cause. Known for combining free-skiing and extreme stunts, McMurray was the first action sports personality to successfully land a back-flip transferring from rail to rail.

Surgeries

As his popularity increased, McMurray received sponsorships from companies including Oakley, Rossignol, Rip Curl, and Smith Optics. His tendency to perform dangerous stunts led to several serious injuries including a fractured neck and a broken back on two occasions, requiring seven surgeries.

Musician

After he broke his back, McMurray began rapping and producing music, performing under the name Jon James. He even released a record in 2016 called “Rex Leo.” Even though his sports action career proved risky, McMurray’s rap career wasn’t nearly as dangerous. That was, until, he was performing a music video stunt that involved rapping while walking on the wing of a plane.

Stunt

McMurray had been training intensively to complete the stunt on a small Cessna plane. It was a project he had been working on for months, and his final act involved walking on the wing of the plane. A statement from his rep told People.com, “As Jon got further out onto the wing of the plane, it caused the small Cessna to go into a downward spiral that the pilot couldn’t correct.”

Wing

“Jon held onto the wing until it was too late, and by the time he let go, he didn’t have time to pull his chute. He impacted and died instantly,” the statement continued. The plane reportedly landed safely and no one was else was injured in the accident, which took place in Vernon, British Columbia.

Passionate

“Jon was an incredibly passionate person and was always smiling. He filled everyone around him with positivity, and never spoke poorly about another person. He truly had a heart of gold,” a rep from McMurray’s management said.

Music Videos

McMurray’s music videos frequently featured him performing stunts like flip and base jumping to skydiving. A 2015 video for “Hello” opened with the rapper admitting that he broke a parachute while prepping for the shoot. “His passion for making music videos and performing stunts were combined, and Jon pushed music in a new direction that was unchartered territory,” the statement said.

Investigating His Death

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, coroner’s office, and Transportation Safety Board have all begun an investigation into McMurray’s death. A GoFundMe page has also been set up for him to “get his stuff out there to the world in the right way.” The GoFundMe announced his death saying “Canadian music artist Jon James McMurray died performing an airplane stunt in Vernon BC on October 20, 2018, just outside the town of West Wold between Vernon and Kamloops.”

World-Renowned Skier

The GoGundMe also noted his accomplished describing McMurray as a “world-renowned skier with multiple world firsts under his belt.” “He was the first skier ever to backflip onto and off of a rail in addition to garnering a reputation known as one of the most innovative and well-respected skiers in the world. After sustaining multiple injuries including a broken back … Jon decided to pursue his growing passion for music.”

Center of Gravity

After pouring his ambition for life into his music and working relentlessly toward “advancement in the music industry,” McMurray earned his way onto the stage. He loved to perform at large events like the Center of Gravity alongside some of the biggest names in Hip Hop. “Jon continually pushed his music into unchartered territory by merging his passion for performing incredible stunts with his groundbreaking music video production.”

The Jon James Team

McMurray’s company, The Jon James team described him as an incredibly motivated person, always smiling, encouraging everyone around him to follow their passion and to live life to the fullest. They explained that “Jon would want to be remembered as a beacon of light to follow your dreams.”

Celebration of Life

A portion of McMurray’s GoFundMe page which has a $100,000 goal will be used to help his family with the costs associated of his Celebration of Life, which the family will be having instead of a traditional funeral. The rest of the fund is dedicated to releasing all of McMurray’s remaining music and video content for the world “to see, hear, spread, and enjoy.”

Funds

“The funds raised on GoFundMe will be completely dedicated to production of Jon’s music and video content specifically to be made into a series, which had been planned in the event of his tragic ending. He had a favorite producer and close friend Adium with whom he has a large amount of previously unreleased content that we will be publishing to honor his legacy,” his team said.

Close Friends And Family

McMurray’s GoFundMe will be controlled by his brother Jarred as well as his closest friends Rory Bushfield and Chris Biollo. “The extremely tight team that he built around his brand, that has been working together for the last 5 years, will continue to work together to market and release Jon’s groundbreaking music and video content.”

Future Content

Lastly, all money generated from the sale of McMurray’s future content will be donated to a foundation dedicated to helping kids realize their dreams and teach them to capitalize on their “limitless potential.” Since his tragic death, McMurray’s story has been covered by several magazines.

Publications

Time Magazine, People Magazine, US magazine, Yahoo, Newsweek, Access Hollywood, XXL Magazine, Global, Billboard Magazine, and Hotnewhiphop are among the publications. McMurray’s team explained that he knew how dangerous his job was and that he was “prepared” for this.

Prepared

“Jon was always prepared for this event as he knew it was a real possibility with each new stunt he intended to conquer. He was documenting his life from the time he was 12 until the moment of his death. He had hundreds of tracks and new albums that he recorded and prepared for us to release in the event of his death,” his team said.

Harry Potter

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time a daredevil died or was seriously injured while performing a stunt. While working on a flying scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double David Holmes was on the receiving end of a staged explosion. After hitting the wall with such force, he became paralyzed.

xXx

In the 2002 film xXx, Vin Diesel’s stunt double Harry O’Connor was killed instantly during filming while doing aerial stunts. O’Connor was attempting to rappel down a parasailing line, with a goal to land on a submarine. But, instead, he hit a bridge while going down at high speed. Countless others stuntmen have been injured throughout the years. McMurray’s death, though tragic, shows how dangerous and underappreciated this line of work can be.

Canadian Rapper Falls To His Death After Slipping Off Of Plane Wing is an article from: LifeDaily

It was a cold November night in 2004 when police responded to a disturbance at a suburban home in Delmar, New York. They came inside to find 52-year-old Appellate Division court clerk, Peter Porco, in a pile of his own blood, dead from massive head injuries.

Peter’s wife, speech pathologist Joan Porco, was lying next to their blood-drenched bed with similar head trauma. Her face was completely disfigured, one eye was destroyed, and her skull was caved in, but she was alive.

Whodunit

Inside the couple’s bedroom, a bloodied ax sat upon the floor. There were no fingerprints on the weapon and no one was in the home when they arrived. Someone had killed Peter Porco and had very nearly killed his wife, now it was up to the officers to find out who. First, though, they needed to get Joan to a hospital.

Indication

Christopher Bowdish was a Bethlehem Police detective on the scene. As paramedics carefully lifted Joan Porco onto a gurney, Bowdish took a moment to try and ask her if she could tell him anything about her attacker. He asked if the attacker was someone she knew, a family member, and she used her head to nod, “yes.”

Weak Nods

Bowdish, knowing the family history, pressed on. He asked if it had been her older son, Jonathan, but she shook her head. When he asked about her younger son, Christopher, she nodded her head up and down. It made the most sense, Jonathan Porco was a Naval officer stationed in South Carolina at the time. Christopher was closer.

Learned of The Attack

Christopher Porco was still about 230 miles away from the Porco household on the day of the murder, of course. He was studying at the University of Rochester at the time and apparently only learned of the attack when a reporter approached him on campus the next day. He immediately made his way home to Delmar.

Investigation

Joan Porco slipped into a coma soon after her admission, but her wordless affirmations to Detective Bowdish were more than enough for the Bethlehem Police to put the majority of their focus on Christopher Porco. At first glance, it seemed like a rather narrow investigative avenue to follow, but the police did have their reasons. Even beyond Joan’s admission.

Grand Jury

In late November of that year, the Albany County District Attorney convened a grand jury in order to hear testimony firmly implicating Christopher in his father’s murder. Many people testified, including Christopher’s college friends, a campus safety officer, and even his old girlfriend. The indictment was handed down and then something miraculous happened.

Dying Declaration

Joan Porco’s alleged identification of her son as the murderer was a compelling fact for the would-be prosecutors to lean on. More of a dying declaration, one must not forget that Joan was severely injured and her brain was wounded. Perhaps she had not known what they were asking her. She probably didn’t even know where she was or what had happened.

Awakened

Eventually, Joan Porco emerged from a medically induced coma to find that not only was her husband dead and her face serious disfigured, but the authorities were also trying to pin it all on her baby boy. She maintained that Christopher had nothing to do with her husband’s murder and insisted she hadn’t identified her son as the attacker.

Leave Chris Alone

She began to recover and nine months after hearing about Christopher’s trial, she wrote a plaintive letter to the Albany Times. “I implore the Bethlehem Police and the District Attorney’s Office to leave my son alone, and to search for Peter’s real killer or killers so that he can rest in peace and my sons and I can live in safety.”

Financial Issues

Unfortunately for Christopher, the impassioned pleas of a traumatized mother counted little when comparing them to the sordid complications of his life up to that point. There had been known tensions between the Porcos and their son, specifically when it came to money. He owed money on his new Jeep Wrangler and on his tuition and a year before the murder, had even been forced to withdraw because of poor grades.

Fall Tuition

He readmitted the following year, taking out an additional loan of $31,000 to pay his Fall 2004 tuition. His father was the cosignatory on the loan, he just didn’t know it. In fact, Christopher was using the $31,000 to repay his loans from the year before. In time, even his prodigious perfidy was discovered.

Confrontation

Two weeks before Peter was murdered, he confronted Christopher about the whole ordeal via email. “Did you forge my signature as a co-signer? What the hell are you doing? You should have called me to discuss it … I’m calling Citibank this morning to find out what you have done and am going to tell them I’m not to be on it as a co-signer.”

Reaching Out

Before he could contact Citibank, Peter Porco was notified that his son had also used a newly-obtained line of credit from Citibank to finance the Jeep Wrangler. Peter reached out to his son again but he wasn’t taking any of his parents phone calls and he hadn’t for weeks. With that in mind, Peter tried another email.

Forgiveness

“I want you to know that if you abuse my credit again, I will be forced to file forgery affidavits in order to disclaim liability,” Porco wrote. “That applies to the Citibank college loan if you attempt to reactivate it or use my credit to obtain any other loan. We may be disappointed with you, but your mother and I still love you and care about your future.” But was this threat enough to push Christopher that far over the edge?

Lies, Lies, Lies

Christopher’s spot was eventually blown when he went on a trip to England in March of 2004. His parents had seen his interim grade report and learned that he was on thin ice with the school. He, of course, denied what the college was saying and chalked it up to a registrar issue. He then earned readmission the next year by forging a transcript.

Driving Off

There was also some suspicious evidence that Christopher may have actually made the 230 mile trip back home on the night of the murder. A New York State Thruway toll collector just outside Rochester recalled seeing a yellow Wrangler with large tires passing rather quickly through the toll plaza around 2 a.m.

Time Frame

The time frame was correct. There was every possibility that Christopher Porco could have driven down to his family’s hometown and then driven back in one night. It would have been one heck of a journey, but based on everything the police now knew or suspected of the young man, it would be one he’d surely be angry enough to make.

History of Offense

Then there’s the fact that Christopher had a long history of anti-social, some might say sociopathic, behavior. This included burglary and fraud, both of which were crimes committed against his own family. Christopher stole laptops, Dell and Macintosh computers, and sold them all on eBay under his brother’s name; then just didn’t ship them after customers had paid.

No Conscience

One of the most telling portions of this case involves Christopher’s personality. Investigators believed that he might be not just sociopathic but psychopathic as well. He had a knack for pathological lying and egomania. He also showed a distinct lack of conscience. Even his father’s clerk agreed that every encounter she’d had with Christopher led her to believe he was a sociopath.

Sociopath

Because the case saw such a large amount of publicity, several Albany-area psychologists and mental health professors weighed in on Christopher’s alleged behavior. All of them agree that this behavior was indeed consistent with that of a sociopath, specifically when it came to his constant lying.

No Physical Evidence

Despite all this evidence proving that Christopher Porco was a bad person, there didn’t happen to be a shred of physical evidence proving he was any kind of murderer. No fingerprints, shoeprints, or any other such indicators were present at the scene. So how would they prove he was there?

Overlooked Possibilities

There was also the fact that the police had overlooked other possibilities in Peter Porco’s death. There was some speculation by Christopher’s defense attorneys that the killing was some sort of retaliation against Peter’s uncle Frank Porco, who was once a captain in New York City’s Bonanno crime family.

Fireman

Frank Porco used to work with the New York City Fire Department before he’d turned to crime. Eventually, he had been found guilty of extortion and loansharking and eventually served two years in prison because of it. During the trial, Frank’s name was incorrectly brought up in association with a murder. This obfuscation did nothing to help Christopher, however.

Guilty

It all amounted to very little in the end. After a few hours of jury deliberations, Christopher Porco was found guilty on all counts: one count of second-degree murder and one of attempted murder. He was sentenced to 50 years to life for each count. He won’t be eligible for parole until December 2052.

Court Clerk’s Body Found Next to Battered Wife Spurs Investigation Into Son’s Dark Past is an article from: LifeDaily

Some couples want an over-the-top wedding, while others want something more low-key like a backyard wedding. Then there are those couples who elope or obtain a marriage license and have a small celebration with family and friends afterward.

Every couple has their own idea of what they want for their wedding day, just like the couple in the following story did. But after they received backlash from the Internet on their wedding, Detroit came together to throw them another one.

Detroit Couple

Janae and LaQuint Rhodes of Detroit went back and forth on what kind of wedding they wanted to have. While discussing the idea of a big wedding, they settled on waiting until June 2019 for something bigger. But after waking up and feeling spontaneous one morning, the Rhodes decided they wanted to do it right away.

Intimate Wedding

“Everything we got for that day was between him and me and my dad – and Facebook Marketplace to be honest,” Janae told Yahoo Lifestyle about their wedding. It took place on September 22, 2018, on the front lawn of their home with about 50 guests.

Preparation

They prepared the whole thing in just two weeks and stayed up until 4 a.m. the night before their wedding making decorations and preparing the food themselves. When guests arrived that afternoon, they assigned jobs to anyone who volunteered. Janae and LaQuint didn’t rehearse anything and the wrong song played when they walked down the aisle.

Wedding Day

To make matters even worse, Janae lost her voice the day of her wedding and she could barely manage to say her vows. “But it was all worth it,” Janae said, despite the unplanned events of the day. “It was happy, it was joyous, and it was memorable. It was intimate and personal.” But some on the Internet didn’t agree …

Social Media

Someone driving by the wedding snapped a photo of the setup and shared it on social media writing, “What in the Detroit hood wedding is this?” The photo showed the reception chairs set up on their lawn and the post went viral, even before the celebration was over. Strangers made horrible comments criticizing their choice of wedding venue.

Daughter

Janae and LaQuint didn’t even know the post went viral went since they were battling a much more serious problem. On the way downtown to take photos after reception, the couple got a phone call that LaQuint’s 6-year-old daughter, Donnae, had been in a swimming pool accident and almost drowned.

Hospital

The couple rushed to the hospital and spent the night there in their wedding clothes. “It was immediate parent mode,” Janae said. Donnae remained in the hospital the night of the wedding and was reportedly on life support. Meanwhile, a local radio personality and life coach Randi Rossario saw the viral post and felt sympathetic for the newlyweds.

Viral Post

She posted their wedding photos on Instagram and wrote, “Earlier, a friend of mine sent me photos of people making fun of a wedding and suggested we put together a reception for her. After speaking with the bride, I learned more details that their flower girl/daughter (groom’s biological) was on life support. She’s been hospitalized since the night of their wedding.”

Radio Host

Rossario then decided to put her Internet radio station, Oh So Radio, and her social media reach to good use. “The life coach in me was like, ‘Let me help these people and let me see what I can do, because I know how I would feel in that situation,” Rossario told Yahoo. “It wasn’t that they needed another wedding. I thought that they deserved another wedding.”

Detroit Reception Challenge

She immediately posted what she called the #DetroitReceptionChallenge on social media, asking for listeners, followers, wedding vendors, and Detroit locals, to step in and do something for the couple. The Rhodes only wound up finding out about their unwanted fame at the same time that Rossario issued her challenge.

Overwhelmed

“We were shocked and appalled,” LaQuint said of the backlash. “Seriously? It was just unbelievable. Where do you get negativity when we were embracing love and happiness? That’s what we thought that mattered the most.” After a few days, Donnae was out of the hospital and improving and the couple had a chance to talk to Rossario.

Vendors In Detroit

Despite being traumatized by the cruelty of the internet, they decided to go along with her plan. Vendors all over Detroit stepped in to provide everything from dresses, hair, and makeup, to the venue and music for the big day. Rossario, being the coordinator of it all, became the Rhodes’ personal wedding planner.

Generous Donations

She even raised over $1,300 for the couple on GoFundMe. “Myself, along with other metro-Detroit business owners would like to take their minds off of their troubles for just one day and give them a star-studded reception,” Rossario wrote. The vendors that donated their time and services “wanted to be a part of something good.”

Positive Light

“They said they’re constantly hearing negative things about Detroit, and to see something positive being done, they wanted to do their part,” said Rossario. This was the main reason why the Rhodes decided to have their wedding all over again, even though they were personally satisfied with their first one.

Second Time Around

“Detroit already has such a bad name because of different crimes or situations and all of that, so to have some light shine through the city was phenomenal to us,” Janae said. “It was definitely a chance to relive a special day from beginning to end and actually have our hair down about it. I had butterflies this time – I think we both had butterflies this time.”

El Club

For their second wedding at the El Club, more of the Rhodes’ family and friends were able to attend. Jannae said that this time around they were on “cloud infinity.” They almost didn’t realize that their other gift, was an all-expense-paid honeymoon to Jamaica, which they will take next year.

Pure Joy

Janae shared her joy on Facebook writing, “HUGE shout-out to the epic and phenomenal Boss Queen Randi Rossario Hardy for creating the dopest ever #DetroitReceptionChallenge for us and putting together a whole ceremony and reception in less than 3 weeks. … People normally WISH things like this happened or used to them being something you’ll see on a movie or on freaking Oprah and to be witness of it all is nothing short of a blessing and feelings of nothing but PURE JOY.”

Friend For Life

Janae shared wise words saying, “A good friend of mine reminded me, [you] can’t have the flower without the dirt … How else would we appreciate the good without the bad or the light without the darkness.” She even said of Rossario, “We’ve gained a sister … Donnae was asking today, ‘When can I go visit auntie Randi?'” Rossario replied in the comments that Donnae can see her whenever she wants and said “You definitely have a sister for life.”

Planning Their Future

With their wedding behind them and Donnae on the mend, Janae and LaQuint are planning how to use this experience for their future together. They may even write a book about it. “We both have a passion for just encouraging, inspiring, and uplifting others,” Jannae told Yahoo.

Valuable Lesson

Rossario hopes that others can take away a valuable lesson from this story. “Be nicer on social media. Social media is not just social media; it’s real life too, and you’re hurting someone’s feelings in real life.” We couldn’t agree more, this was well said.

Detroit Couple Mocked On Social Media For Drab Wedding Gets Redo After Radio Host Offers Help is an article from: LifeDaily

When Lyft driver Shawn Pepas Lettman picked up passenger Robert Ortiz, he figured that the $8 ride would be as uneventful as they usually were. But when things got heated in the car, the driver pressed a button on his phone and recorded the whole 16-minute tirade.

Lettman had already pulled over to the side of the road after an argument with his passengers over music started. Ortiz was sitting in the back seat of the Lyft car with two buddies and was on the phone with a dispatcher as he claimed: “I don’t want to hang up with you for my safety.”

Not Black

Whether Ortiz was having a bad night or not was anyone’s guess, although it very much seemed that way. After arguing with his driver about the style of the music playing in the car, the disgruntled passenger made a call to Lyft, telling the dispatcher: “I feel racially profiled … because I’m not black.” But the driver refused to change the music and that only escalated matters further.

Threatening Talk

At one point, the three men in the back, who all happened to be gay, asked the driver if he was refusing to change the music because of their sexual orientation. “He knows he’s f**ked up,” one of the passengers said about Lettman. But matters descended even further when the driver started recording what was going on in the back of his car.

Open Insults

The Lyft driver felt worried for his safety and understandably so. “I’m gonna make sure while you’re recording this that you never have a job as a Lyft driver ever again,” Ortiz told him, threatening, “I’m going to make sure that you never have a job as a f**king driver again. You piece of s**t.” When the passenger started calling him names, the driver became worried and was actually relieved that Ortiz was on the phone with Lyft head office.

Music Change

The argument was a strange one in the first place as Ortiz claimed that the driver was refusing to change the music because he wasn’t black. He told the dispatcher on the end of the line, “I came out of a gay club, and your driver is racist against gay people.” Ortiz got racism and sexism mixed up in his head, and that confused the issue further.

Calling Police

Not satisfied with the answers he was getting from the driver, Ortiz hung up the call with Lyft and decided instead to dial 911. He told Lettman that he intended to wait for the police to arrive and would not be paying for his fare. “I’m telling you that I called the police to protect myself because I know my legal rights as an American citizen,” he said according to a Newsweek report.

Turn For The Worse

After about 10 minutes of arguing and name calling, matters took a serious turn for the worse when Ortiz started using the N-word against the black driver. At one point, Ortiz called a friend on Facetime, saying: “Tell me why I’m in a Lyft, and the n***a f***ing pulled over … We’re waiting for the police because this f****t charged me,” he said.

One-Party Consent

Ortiz was accusing the driver the whole time of recording him illegally, not knowing that New York is what’s known as a “one-party consent” state. That means that only one person in a conversation needs to give consent to be recorded. Lettman remained completely silent throughout the incident, apart from at one point when he said: “Could I say one thing? There’s a sign right there that says you will be recorded.”

Taking Sides

Lyft did what they had to do by initiating an investigation into the incident. At the time, they deactivated both the Lyft accounts of Ortiz and Lettman until they had carried out a full review. Having reached their conclusions, Lyft sided with their driver, reactivating his account and deleting Ortiz’s account forever. But a story like this was bound to make it’s way to the mainstream media, and it did.

Deeply Concerning

Before long, Lyft issued an official statement on the incident saying: “The behavior exhibited in the video is deeply concerning. Lyft is committed to maintaining an inclusive and welcoming community, and discriminatory behavior is unacceptable,” they stated. “We have also reached out to Mr. Lettman to express our support.” Lettman also had some choice words for the people who supported him over social media.

Keeping Calm

Lettman was applauded by supporters as well as by Lyft for remaining so calm in the face of such abuse. On a GoFundMe page that was opened for the Lyft driver after the incident, he gave all the credit to his mother who he claimed taught him that “patience, humble and calm will get you through anything.” And in this case, it did, even though Lettman did make a call to the police himself just after the incident to err on the side of caution.

World is Good

Lettman seemed to have no hard feelings after the incident and decided instead to make the best of it and to learn a lesson. “I know America is better than this and despite the hate, we have to deal with from a few, my heart tells me, the world is mostly good,” Lettman wrote. Meanwhile, many social media users expressed their extreme outrage at the way Ortiz had behaved towards his Lyft driver.

Trouble Ahead

As a result of the incident, the firm which employed Ortiz at the time, CityMD, came under pressure to do something about their employee’s outburst. The company wrote on their Facebook page that that did not “condone this kind of behavior in any way,” adding, “CityMD exists to build healthier and kinder communities. This behavior does not represent the values of our team or the values we hold dear.” Ortiz was promptly fired from his job.

Living Hell

While Ortiz can be seen on the video telling Lettman he would make his night a “living hell,” he also mentioned the Black Lives Matter movement in relation to the driver. “I bet you if I was black – and Black Lives Matter,” he said, “he would have put the music on. F*** Black Lives Matter – every life matters … all I asked for was music.” As things ended up, Lettman was reinstated to Lyft while Ortiz was banned from ever ordering a car from the service again.

Speaking Out

For his part, Lettman wasn’t about to let this incident be swept under the carpet so easily by anyone. In the GoFundMe page he set up, which he entitled “Insulted but not broken,” he wrote some very meaningful stuff about the life lessons he had learned from his mother which he felt got him through this traumatic experience.

Important Lessons

“When my mother died,” he wrote, “she taught me a very important lesson, which was always useful but more now than ever. She taught patience, humble and calm will get you through anything. As a father of two, my single means of providing for my wife and children is driving a rideshare, accommodating people from all walks of life. All of which I treat with the utmost respect, after all, I must provide for my family.”

Wanting Peace

Having raised more than $26,000 from the GoFundMe campaign, Lettman was asked how he managed to remain so cool and collected during the altercation with Ortiz. “I wanted to defuse the narrative that all black men are aggressive and violent,” Lettman said. “Some of us we are actually capable of performing in an intelligent setting. … It’s not always worth it to use your fists.”

Not Racist

As well as not winning the case against Lettman, Ortiz has had to change his phone number as he has received so many hate calls from people calling him a racist. In a display of humility though, Ortiz has come out and publicly apologized for his racist tirade, accepting that it was “unjustifiable.” He claims that he had been drinking to excess that night and was simply drunk at the time of the incident.

Been Drinking

Ortiz reached out to Pix11 News, telling them: “At the end of the day, my actions were unjustifiable. There’s nothing that I can say behind that to say ‘But this.’ I was drinking. A lot of the stuff that I said I didn’t even remember until the next day,” he said. Ortiz also claimed that he just wanted people to understand that he was not a racist.

Raised Well

Ortiz added that he was raised in the projects and was himself Puerto Rican. “That’s not how I was raised to treat people,” he said. “I grew up in the projects, so I just wanna make sure that people understand that I’m not racist – I’m Puerto Rican, I’m from the Bronx, I’m gay.” But the damage was already done and had been squarely caught on video for all to see.

Moving On

For his part, Ortiz told reporters that he simply wants to move from this incident and live his life. “I just want to go on with my life. I’m not racist; my actions were completely wrong. I wouldn’t want anyone to speak to the way that I spoke to him,” he said, concluding with a direct apology to the Lyft driver, Ortiz said: “The only thing that I can say is that I’m sorry.”

Lyft Passenger Fired From Job After Drunken Tirade Goes Viral is an article from: LifeDaily

When the bodies of 93-year-old Wilbert Scheel and his wife, 80-year-old Gloria were found dead in their car on a northern Kandiyohi County road, their grandson Gregory became the main person of interest for the police who were investigating the incident.

The cops already knew that their suspect in this gruesome double homicide had a checkered past and a pretty serious criminal record behind him. But they had no idea he was capable of carrying out murders that brutal.

Found Tied

When the couple was found dead near to their home in Paynesville, where they lived with their grandson Gregory Scheel, the police were faced with a brutal sight. Wilbert was found with his hands and feet tied with electrical cord and a plastic bag over his head. His wife Gloria was found with an electric cord around her neck; both died from strangulation or asphyxiation.

Arrested On Foot

When the couple’s grandson was arrested on foot about a mile from the property, police soon realized that he was a felon. Back in December, Scheel had been apprehended by Chippewa County sheriff’s deputies with stolen goods. But as he was being booked, Scheel escaped from custody but was found in a stranger’s garage the next day with some sort of homemade weapon which could be used to stab or electrocute someone.

Serious Charges

After evidence at the couple’s property linked Scheel to the crime he was arrested by officers and indicted. He was indicted on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder – punishable by life in prison; two counts of first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse, and two counts of second-degree intentional murder at the Stearns County District Court.

More Charges

As well as the murder charges he faced, Scheel was also to appear before a Chippewa County Court, charged with two felony counts of first-degree burglary. He was also to be charged with a felony count of third-degree burglary, a misdemeanor charge of theft and a gross misdemeanor charge of escaping from custody. Even though the double homicide charge was more serious than previous charges, now that police had the suspect in custody they threw the book at him.

Sordid History

Having been in and out of the court system for 15 years, it was about time that this man faced some justice for the numerous crimes he had been involved with. Back in 2003, Scheel was sentenced for drug possession. Then, a year later, he received another felony violation for driving drunk. But Scheel was in trouble with law enforcement almost on a constant basis between 2003 and 2018.

Domestic Assault

In 2007, Scheel was sentenced for a second-degree burglary charge, but at the time an arson charge against him was dismissed. Then, in 2010 and 2011, Scheel was sentenced for felony domestic assault in McLeod County and Sibley County. Throughout the next few years, Scheel was in trouble with law enforcement constantly for driving drunk and other numerous traffic violations.

Deferred Plea

Having been charged with a bunch of previous crimes, when it came to the murder charges, Scheel deferred making a plea, and a motion was made to release a transcript of the grand jury proceedings to the defense. The suspect’s bail was set at $75,000 with conditions or $100,000 without. The irony was that it was Scheel’s dead grandfather who co-signed the bond that bailed his grandson from jail originally.

Family Dinner

The alarm was raised when the elderly couple failed to show up for a family dinner. At 10:30 p.m., the police attended their home to find them dead in their car outside. When they caught up with Scheel, he was on a trip to Sauk Rapids with some friends. But CCTV footage from the home showed that one visible occupant left the house soon after the couple was murdered.

Floor Cleaned

When police attended the property they saw what could have been blood in the garage. It was also clear to the attending officers that the garage floor had been scrubbed clean recently. When they found an eyeglass lens with blood on it in the drain that belonged to Gloria, they were sure that some foul play had gone on at this property and intended to get to the bottom of it.

Feeling Devastated

Gary Herzberg, a friend of the deceased couple who knew them from the local church, said he was devastated to hear about the way his friends had been killed. “I don’t think Willie would hurt a fly, he was just a kind guy,” said Herzberg according to a CBS report. The couple was well-known and much-loved within their community.

Always There

Despite his old age, according to Herzberg, Wilbert was always ready and waiting to help someone in need – whether a family member or a perfect stranger. “If something came up he’d be there to help out. And the church people are taking it pretty hard,” Herzberg explained. “It’s something I never would have thought would happen to the Scheels,” Herzberg added.

Mental Problems

It was clear to just about everyone that Scheel had serious mental issues. As one neighbor, Sig Pheifer, who knew the family said to reporters: “Just to have children or grandkids do something like that, has to take a person with mental problems to do that,” he said. To make things even more tragic, Wilbert was amazingly active for a 93-year-old.

Community Member

According to Pheifer, Wilbert loved driving his old Cadillac in area parades and was always happy to offer a stranger a lift around town. He was often seen playing ping-pong with younger members of the community over at the local community center. He was also an active and valued member of the local Grace United Methodist Church.

Hard to Believe

Herzberg said that both Wilbert and Gloria knew that their grandson had issues, but they simply wanted to help him out in his time of need as he was estranged from his parents. “It’s pretty tough to go through,” said Herzberg. “It’s really sad someone could do that to their own grandma and grandpa. It’s hard to believe it,” he said.

Great Man

A local publication, WCCO, even featured Wilbert Scheel last year in their newspaper. As a proud great-grandfather, Wilbert spoke about his love for ping-pong as well as for his community. As a seven-time cancer survivor, Wilbert chose to play ping-pong at least four nights each week to stay in shape. He even delivered meals on wheels to other elderly and disabled couples for 20 years.

Business Owners

As well as being an integral part of the local community, the elderly couple were also successful business owners. They once owned and ran the former Black Saucer Motel and Cafe, and were also very active volunteers whenever the community needed them. The fact they were murdered in this way by their grandson was indeed tragic.

Guilty Plea

When it came time for the court case against the suspect, Gregory Scheel appeared before a jury of his peers at the Stearns County District Court. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, which he pleaded guilty to, and was sentenced to 60 years in prison without the possibility of parole until he reaches the age of 94.

Showing Remorse

It was clear to just about everyone that Scheel was indeed a troubled man suffering from some serious mental health issues. In court he showed remorse for his actions, saying: “Nothing I can say will ever bring back the two most loving, funniest, caring grandparents in the world.” But Scheel’s first cousin Stephanie Depinto had some choice words for the accused man outside court.

Justice Served

Despite the terrible loss of her grandparents, Depinto feels that justice has been served regarding the sentence handed down to Gregory Scheel. As Depinto said to him following the court case and verdict, “Now, finally, you’ll have to live with the consequences of your actions.” But Scheel admitted that his grandparents had always been good to him and given him numerous chances when he messed up.

Unconditional Love

Even though Scheel admitted that his grandparents had always treated him with “unconditional love” according to a Kare11 report, he still killed them. He sobbed throughout most of the hearing and was highly emotional. When asked if he wanted to make a statement in court, Scheel said: “I love you grandpa and grandma. I’ll never forget you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Grandson Who Plead Guilty To Killing His Grandparents Sentenced To 60 Years In Prison is an article from: LifeDaily

When Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared into thin air on March 8, 2014, en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, crash investigators were left at a complete loss. They had no idea what had happened to the aircraft which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members.

Without a crash site, there can be no investigation, and that’s why the disappearance of this fated flight sparked hundreds of conspiracy theories around the world. But a video producer and a tech expert now claim to have found parts of the missing plane using Google Maps.

Flight MH370

After the plane went missing, it was commonly referred to as “MH370”, “Flight 370”, or “Flight MH370.” But no matter what it was called, hundreds of families were desperate to know what happened to their loved ones; 227 passengers and 12 crew members were all presumed dead. After the crew lost radio contact with air traffic control just 38 minutes after takeoff somewhere over the South China Sea, people on the ground were left stunned and confused.

Deadliest Incident

Missing flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777 and the deadliest incident in Malaysia Airlines’ history. When they lost another plane 17 months later, the combined financial loss caused the Malaysian government to re-nationalize the company at the end of 2014. But no one knew what had happened to flight 370 or where the remains of the aircraft and the people on board were.

Making History

The search for the missing plane was the most costly in aviation history. Initially focused in the South China and Andaman seas, the search later moved to the southern Indian Ocean due to the aircraft’s automated communications with an Inmarsat satellite. But a severe lack of information from those in the know had the Chinese people in uproar at the time.

Some Debris

While some pieces of marine debris from the aircraft washed up in the western Indian Ocean, a three-year search across a massive 120,000 square kilometer area yielded nothing. Meantime, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre heading the operation suspended their activities in January 2017. A private contractor called Ocean Infinity launched a search in 2018 but to no avail.

Biggest Mystery

The fated 370 flight is one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time, relying almost solely on satellite information. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said at first that a “hypoxia event” was the most likely explanation for the crash. Some claimed the plane was hijacked by terrorists while the Malaysian Ministry of Transport’s official report noted that the cause of the crash was “inconclusive.”

New Measures

As a result of the crash, in the absence of a definitive cause, numerous new safety recommendations and regulations within the air transport industry were introduced. They include increased battery life on underwater locator beacons as well as the lengthening of recording times on flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders. But two men claim to have found parts of the missing plane using Google Earth.

In Cambodia

When Ian Wilson, a video producer, claimed to have seen parts of the plane from flight MH370 in Cambodia, he vowed to travel there to see for himself. Wilson claims to have seen an engine among the wreckage from a Google Earth image of the area but another man, Daniel Boyer, a tech expert, also claims to have found the cockpit and tail of the aircraft.

Perfect Match

Boyer, who took Wilson’s lead told The Daily Star that the measurements of the image match perfectly with the engine size of the missing aircraft, being 4.3m wide and 2.7m in length. The other potentially encouraging fact is that Boyer’s “crash site” is just 10 miles from Wilson’s.

White Objects

The Google images certainly show something, although more investigation is needed to ascertain exactly what. Several white objects on the forest floor to the north-west of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, can be seen. To Boyer and Wilson, they are part of flight MH370.

Boyer’s Findings

In the interview, Boyer told the publication that he had measured one piece, at 17.8ft, which he thinks is close enough to the size of a Boeing 777’s cockpit, which left him “convinced” that he had found the front of the aircraft. He also insisted that he could see the red outline of the Malaysia Airways logo, which he claimed must be the tail.

Some Hope

Boyer said in the interview: “I couldn’t believe it when I made the sighting,” adding, “First the cockpit can be seen, and now this. The debris definitely needs to be investigated,” he said. And while the images from Google Maps did appear to show the outline of a plane in a remote part of Cambodia, it could have been any aircraft lying there.

Copyright Date

One issue that has hampered any further investigation of the site is the disparity between Google Earth’s copyright date and imagery date for the pictures. The images have had different years and months attributed to them, and this has led to speculation that the area has been photographed several times over the past few years.

Unlawful Interference

For their part, investigators of missing Malaysian flight MH370 claim they cannot exclude the possibility of “unlawful interference by a third party” following their release of the report by the Malaysian government agency. Wilson also believes that the plane parts in Cambodia are from MH370 and he plans to travel there as soon as possible to prove it. But there’s a good reason for that.

Finder’s Fee

Neither Wilson nor Boyer are working for charity. They are both interested in the $55 million finder’s fee for whoever manages to successfully locate the missing aircraft. Wilson and his brother were even making plans to go to Cambodia to search the place they saw on Google Maps.

Hiring Guides

Wilson and his brother feel confident enough that they booked flights to Cambodia. He told the Star: “After much discussion last night, we’re just organizing final vaccinations and the hiring of guides.” For Wilson, the potential finder’s fee makes the trip worth it even if it doesn’t turn out to be the missing Malaysian flight.

Plane Visible

To Wilson’s mind, the trip to Cambodia is well worth it. According to a report in The Express, “Whether it has been updated at all is questionable, regardless of the data Google gives it,” he said. “And if the plane was visible in 2014 as well and updates have been applied, then the plane must be there,” Wilson concluded. He also spoke about his plan to locate the plane once in Cambodia.

The Plan

Wilson told reporters: “The plan is still for me and my brother Jackie to go inside in the next few weeks.” Once they arrive, the brothers will go with tour guides, deep into the Cambodian forest to look for the aircraft. However, some aviation experts feel that the dates listed on the Google images don’t necessarily mean the image was captured on those dates.

Explanations Needed

Dr. Yu, an Open University academic, said it’s high time that Google gives some much-needed explanations. “It does require Google to comment on this,” he said. “If they cached the image since 2014, it is either the satellite they use never updated the datasets for four years, or there is a system glitch.” He suggests that a drone is flown over the area to confirm Wilson’s claims.

Gut Instinct

Either Wilson is correct with his gut feeling that the plane he saw on Google Maps is flight MH370 or he is being blinded by the reward on offer. He told reporters, “I feel like I know the plane is there and I just want to see it through to the end.” He added, “I want to go there and see the plane or stand there and go ‘oh, it’s definitely not here’ and then stop thinking about it.”

Needing Closure

Despite the finder’s fee and all the conflicting theories, so many families just want closure so they can move on with their lives. There are a thousand bereaved family members who want to know how their loved ones perished. Whether it was a technical fault, human error or a terrorist attack, these people deserve to know the truth. And the truth can only be investigated once the debris from flight MH370 is located.

Tech Expert Claims to Have Found Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Using Google Maps is an article from: LifeDaily

Most of the people who work in medicine are full of love for their fellow humans and feel it’s their calling in life to help others in times of medical need. Whether working as a doctor, nurse, surgeon or a first responder, few things are more satisfying and meaningful than saving someone’s life.

When one east Tennessee paramedic named Gordon Brett Stokes bragged openly on social media about having a drill and not being scared to use it, it raised some serious alarm bells which ultimately saw his paramedic license revoked indefinitely.

Teachable Moment

The whole story surrounding Stokes has raised some very uncomfortable questions about the process paramedics need to go through to qualify. When Stokes took to Facebook, bragging that he had intentionally drilled into a patient’s bone without anesthesia, he told other paramedics at the time that this was a”teachable moment” on how to deal with troublesome patients.

Serious Negligence

Stokes reportedly told a fellow first responder to insert a breathing tube into a patient’s nose coated with alcohol-based hand sanitizer instead of lubricant. That would be very painful for a patient who needed a breathing tube to survive and could be considered a type of torture. But Stokes made his intentions abundantly clear when he wrote on Facebook during the procedure.

Not Scared

The post, which was seen by all of Stokes’ social media friends, was shocking to its core. “If you should ever find yourself drunk in my ambulance, do not become belligerent,” he wrote. “I have a drill and I ain’t scared for a second to use it.” This man had a history of abusing patients and something needed to be done fast to stop him. But Stokes claimed he did nothing wrong when he showed other paramedics how to drill into a patient’s bone marrow.

Suing The State

According to Stokes, who was attending an emergency call for a drug overdose in Blount County, his intentions were twisted by the Tennessee Board of Emergency Medical Services to make him appear negligent and even psychotic. Stokes claims, according to a report in the Tennessean, that he was legitimately attempting to help the overdose patient at the time by injecting drugs into his bone and clearing his airway. He is now suing the state for revoking his license.

Witch Hunt

To Stokes, the whole thing was a witch hunt against him which he claims was unfounded. “It’s ridiculous. This was all a little witch hunt they did off a stupid Facebook post,” Stokes told The Tennessean. “I was trying to teach them something. I don’t know if they weren’t interested in learning or trying to save their skin, but needless to say, the whole thing came back and bit me in the a**.”

Training Drill

According to authorities, Stokes knew what he was doing when he carried out the procedures on a patient in the midst of an opioid overdose, who should have been rushed to the hospital for treatment. The fact that Stokes instructed two less experienced medical technicians to carry out the procedures simply made matters even worse. Stokes claims it was all part of an on-the-job “training drill” he was doing for his colleagues.

Pure Evil

But Stokes couldn’t explain away his intentions so easily when it came to the caption he added to the photo of that patient on Facebook. Why he posted a picture of a patient being treated for an overdose in the first place is anyone’s guess, but the caption was simply shocking. “I actually like the drill and ‘forgot’ the lidocaine bolus for this (expletive). Lubed his (nasopharyngeal airway) with alcohol hand sanitizer too. :-)” he wrote.

Ridiculous Bravado

Stokes admitted to posting the image and caption on Facebook but claimed that it was simply “ridiculous bravado” that did not accurately represent what occurred during the incident. He also said he had been a paramedic for 14 years and wanted his license back so he could practice in the future as a nurse. But after bragging openly about abusing a patient simply for fun, it’s questionable whether he will ever get a job as a nurse anywhere.

No Time

While records show that the overdose patient was already wearing a neck and back brace from a previous injury, Stokes thought this was a good opportunity to teach his colleagues a drill lesson. They told him at the time that the patient was clearly in the midst of an “obvious overdose” and that there was no time to “conduct class.” But Stokes proceeded with the class and paid no attention to their advice.

Wrong Procedure

When Stokes instructed his junior colleagues to inject the patient’s leg with Narcan, a drug used to reverse opioid effects, it was the wrong thing to do anyway. But Stokes defended his actions during that incident saying the injection was necessary and safely performed. He even thought he might be saving the patient’s life.

Saving Life

To Stokes’ mind, he was doing this patient who was overdosing a great favor. Stokes believed that the patient’s life was at risk and felt he had no choice but to carry out the procedure at the time. “At this point, this guy was not going to die,” Stokes said. “So I thought it was a great training opportunity for these guys.”

Good Airway

Following the unnecessary bone marrow injection, Stokes told his colleagues to insert a breathing tube into the patient’s nose. The colleague initially questioned this request insisting that the patient “had a good airway.” To that, Stokes simply replied, “that he would explain later.” What happened next was even more disturbing though.

Hand Sanitizer

The colleague smothered the nasal tube in lubricant as is standard practice. But at that point, and for reasons still unknown, Stokes told his colleague to remove the lubricant and use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer instead. He told the EMT’s with him that this had been a “teachable moment on how to deal with belligerent patients,” even though the patient hadn’t been belligerent at all.

Bizarre Lesson

Stokes claimed that his “teachable moment” was in relation to how to deal with a drug overdose and had nothing to do with a belligerent patient. He also claimed that he was simply teaching his colleagues that hand sanitizer could be used instead of lubricant in a case where paramedics had none. But why did he make them use it when the right lubricant was at hand?

Army Surgeon

In trying to defend and explain his actions, Stokes said that he learned the technique during his time working as an Army surgeon in Afghanistan. “I was taught that technique by an Army surgeon in Afghanistan,” Stokes said. “Everybody thinks that’s the craziest s*** in the world, but it’s actually not.” Stokes has been called “reckless and macho” for his actions, which led to his license being taken away.

Unanimous Agreement

The case against Stokes is clear-cut in many ways. When the Tennessee Department of Health petitioned to revoke Stokes’ paramedic license in September, government attorney Paul Richardson explained that the decision had been “unanimously approved” by all the members of the Emergency Medical Services Board. Stokes didn’t even bother showing up for the hearing which also worked against him.

Getting Defensive

While he didn’t attend the hearing, Stokes did write to the board, telling them to remove his license and to render it “null and void.” In a sick display of more senseless and macho behavior, Stokes claimed he now had no interest in being a paramedic at all and didn’t care in the slightest if his license was revoked.

No Interest

In the email Stokes sent to the Emergency Medical Services Board he wrote: “I have absolutely no interest in working as a paramedic again. Please mark me as never being eligible to reapply in case nostalgia gets the best of me.” But Stokes’ defensiveness won’t help him much as his license has been taken away and likely will never be returned.

Nursing Career

Stokes still wants to stay in medicine, even if he cannot work as an EMT. When state officials received the letter from him, they felt he was happy for his license to be revoked. However, according to Stokes, he was asking for a “null and void” finding to be able to work as a nurse in later life. A complete revocation would prevent him from doing that.

Patients Beware

This shocking story highlights the negligence that patients across the world face on a daily basis from medical professionals who favor their own agenda over the health of the people they are treating. While the case of Gordon Stokes is an extreme one, it does teach patients an important lesson when it comes to emergency medical procedures carried out by people who are not doctors.

Paramedic Loses License After Hurting Patients On Purpose Then Bragging About It On Social Media is an article from: LifeDaily

A murder victim’s final moments are full of fear, pain, and agony as the person’s hope for escape or rescue is replaced by the realization that their life is about to be cut short by a sadistic or unhinged killer.

In 2000, a jury heard the painful and agonizing way an innocent 20-year-old’s life was taken from her by her former roommate. As a result, the jury sentenced the man to death so he would also know what it was like to have his life cut short. According to witnesses, however, the killer’s final moments were more disturbing than they could have imagined.

May 19, 1998

According to authorities in Texas, May 19, 1998, was the last day 20-year-old Christina Muse was ever seen alive. That evening, Muse had gone over to her former home in Tyler, Texas to visit her former roommates, Troy Clark, and his girlfriend, Tory Gene Bush. Muse had only intended on making a short social visit to Clark and Bush, who she had only lived with for a short time. However, according to the police, Clark and Bush had another, more sinister plan for the evening that had stemmed from their paranoia.

Illegal Activities

Clark and Bush both used and sold methamphetamine and during the time that Muse had lived with them, she witnessed them on multiple occasions using and selling the drug. As a result, they had become paranoid that she would notify the police about their activity after she moved out.

Growing Paranoia

Instead of waiting to see if Muse would inform the police about the couple’s drug operation, the police claim that Clark decided to silence her before she ever got the chance. So on the night of her social visit, Clark made his move to carry out his plan.

Silencing Muse For Good

On the night of May 19th, Clark shot Muse with a stun gun. Once she was subdued, he proceeded to use duct tape to bind her hands and legs together. He also used the tape to cover Muse’s mouth so that she couldn’t scream for help. After that, he dragged her down the hall and stuffed her in a closet.

Business As Usual

Over the next few hours, Muse was left bound in the closet not knowing what Clark planned to do with her or what her fate was. Meanwhile, Clark acted as if nothing was wrong and played video games for a few hours and sold drugs to customers who came to the home.

The Attack

After several hours, Clark returned to the hall closet and moved Muse to the bathroom, where he intended to silence Muse for good. Clark then started hitting Muse with a heavy wooden board at that point. According to the police, Clark wasn’t alone in the attack.

Clark’s Accomplice

Clark had threatened his then-girlfriend into helping carry out his plan. After being beaten with the wooden board, Muse was in bad shape, but she was still alive. So Clark called Bush into the bathroom and forced her to help him drown Muse in the bathtub, which ultimately killed the 20-year-old.

Disposing of The Body

Once Muse was dead, the couple stuffed her body into a barrel. Clark and Bush then poured a water, cement, and lime mix into the barrel, which Bush had gone out and purchased that night. The couple then covered the top of the barrel with trash and dumped it in a ravine.

The Informant

Over the following months, however, police searched for Muse, who seemed to have vanished out of thin air. However, their investigation eventually led them to Muse’s former roommates after the couple’s friend, Tracy Mize, a defendant in a federal drug case, promised them information about Muse’s murder in exchange for leniency.

Another Disappearance

Unfortunately, Mize suddenly disappeared while helping authorities with their investigation into Muse’s disappearance and murder. According to the police, they believed Clark and Bush had discovered Mize was informing on them and made sure to silence her as well.

A New Informant

By that point, however, investigators already knew that Clark and Bush had something to do with Muse’s death, so they got Bush to turn on Clark and cooperate with their investigation. Bush admitted to the police what happened and what Clark forced her to do to Muse.

Finding Muse

Four months after Muse went missing, Bush lead police to the ravine off Texas Highway 64, which was on a piece of property outside of town that belonged to Clark’s landlady. While searching the property, police found the barrel with Muse’s body inside.

The Second Discovery

According to police, they also found Mize’s body floating in a septic tank on the property. “When you actually are out in a field, and you see a barrel with a woman’s body being taken away and a septic tank is opened up and you see another individual floating face down in it, it really grips you,” prosecutor David Dobbs later told media.

The Arrest

Police immediately arrested Clark, who had previously served time twice for possession of a controlled substance and was on parole at the time. In 2000, Clark finally went to trial for the murder of Christina Muse. During the trial, prosecutors presented the evidence they had found and a number of witnesses that testified against Clark.

Overwhelming Testimonies

One witness testified that Clark had not only killed Muse but also killed Mize and another man. They also testified that Clark had also raped a woman. Bush, who was also on trial for Muse’s murder, testified against Clark and gave a detailed account of Muse’s final moments.

No Doubt

“I have no doubt in my mind that Troy Clark killed Christina Muse and Tracy Mize,” prosecutor David Dobbs told the jury. “I’m not an expert on what causes this. I’m not an expert on what mitigation may have happened in his life. I just know that my job as a prosecutor for Smith County was to make sure our streets are safe. And our streets are safe without Troy Clark on them.”

A Bizarre Request

Despite the overwhelming evidence and witness testimonies, Clark insisted he was innocent and even claimed that Bush was the real mastermind of the murder. During the trial, Clark also took the stand, which his lawyers urged him not to do. “I really ain’t got no story to tell. It’s just I want the death penalty,” he told the court. At the end of the trial, the jury found Clark guilty and sentenced him to death. Bush was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the murder.

18 Years Later

For the last 18 years, Clark has been in prison awaiting his death. The entire time, he’s maintained his innocent in Muse’s murder. On September 26, 2018, 20 years after Muse was murdered, justice was finally served after 51-year-old Clark was put to death by lethal injection.

Clark’s Final Moments

According to witnesses, Clark again denied he was guilty of Muse’s murder in his final moments. “I’m not the one who killed Christina,” Clark said. “But, hey, whatever makes you happy.” Clark then addressed his friends and said he loved them. But what he did next, left witnesses disturbed.

Justice Finally Served

As Clark was injected with a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital, he continued to joke and laugh. “I feel it,” he said during his execution. According to witnesses, Clark said the injection “burned going in.” Clark then started grunting, gasping, and then snoring. Then, 21 minutes later, Clark was pronounced dead, which made him the 17th inmate put to death in the United States in 2018.

Death Row Inmate Offers Disturbing Last Words Before Sentence Is Carried Out is an article from: LifeDaily

Logan Kyle, 22, had already served his country numerous times. Four years prior, he’d graduated high school and went into the army, eventually finding himself shipped off to Iraq. The army had a positive influence on him and before long, he found himself moving up in the ranks.

By the time he returned home, Logan had become a corporal with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. Still, it was about time he returned home and put some effort into another important part of his life: his already rocky marriage.

High School Sweethearts

Logan Kyle and Shelena Gayler had been high school sweethearts at William Henry Harrison High School. When he graduated, Kyle worried that he might lose touch with a woman who, at that point, had been truly the love of his life. They were married in 2016, but thanks to Kyle’s secret passions, the marriage was rocky right from the start.

Lovers

Eventually, Shelena decided that she could not come to terms with her husband’s peculiar predilections and they separated while he was in Iraq. when he returned home, Kyle began dating Sarah Parker (pictured above), a woman he’d met on a dating website. Things were going well between them until Shelena reappeared. She wanted to make things work between them.

Death in The Family

Kyle and Shelena got back together and she moved into the on-base home they shared at Fort Polk in Louisiana. But there was something between them still, an animosity that Kyle couldn’t seem to come to terms with. One dreadful night, Kyle’s rage and frustration won out. He strangled Shelena to death in their bathroom.

Reasons Enough

So what did Shelena do to put Kyle over the edge? She had threatened to reveal Kyle’s deepest, darkest secret to his Army superiors. This secret was something that would not only end his army career, it could also potentially ruin his life if found out. Manly though he seemed in his Army day job, Logan Kyle still liked to dress as a woman in private.

Sexual Secrets

The 22-year-old fire team leader was secretly a fully-fledged cross-dresser. It was a secret passion, one that had put significant strain on his relationship with his wife, and would no doubt have given his girlfriend Sarah pause as well once she found out. This secret wasn’t just something Kyle did in the privacy of his bedroom, either.

Transexual

When he was in the mood, Kyle wore full make-up, women’s wigs, and feminine clothing, but not just for sex. In fact, Kyle had a desire to become fully trans. He had even confided in some friends that he even contemplated having a sex change once he left the army. Of course, that was only once he left. If they found out beforehand, there could be consequences.

Acceptance

Shelena could not accept his life in drag and had threatened to out him because of it. Sarah Parker, on the other hand, supposedly embraced it. She told him that she would love him no matter who he was. Once he had killed his wife, there was only one place left to go. He had to try and reconnect with Sarah, and dispose of the body of course.

Drive Off

Kyle carefully packed Shelena’s body into the trunk of his Nissan and drove off. It was an hour and a half to Sarah’s house, and the two hadn’t spoken for weeks, but he knew deep down that she would be there for him. Surely Sarah would understand why he had killed Shelena. Maybe she’d even help him dispose of the body.

Moving Day

As it happened, Kyle showed up on a perfect day. Sarah was moving out of her children’s father’s home and back to her own father’s house. So she could use the help. Kyle spent most of that Sunday moving her stuff to and fro, using mostly her car – mainly because he didn’t have the free trunk space.

Good-Mannered

Jackie Parker, Sarah’s father, recalled how polite and respectful the former Army man seemed that day. He was clean-cut, clean-shaven, and good-mannered. Seeing this handsome, young man laughing and helping his daughter move, he could never have expected that just a few hours earlier he’d killed his own wife.

Grandma’s House

Once they were done moving, Sarah decided to take her two young children, After moving her stuff back, Sarah decided to take her children, two-year-old Jakob, and 18-month-old Lisette, to her grandmother’s house for a visit. Grandma June lived an hour north, so she asked Kyle to come with them.

Strange Smell

While Sarah was seeing to her children, Kyle took the opportunity to transfer his dead wife’s body to the trunk of Sarah’s car. When she returned to the car, Sarah sensed something was off. Whether it was a smell, a sixth sense, or some other indicator, she knew that Kyle had done something horrible and she was about to find out about her own involvement in the whole affair.

Threats And Burial

Somehow, Sarah managed to get word to her grandmother about the crazy man in her car and the dead body he’d apparently smuggled into the trunk of her red Ford Taurus. Sarah confronted Kyle about the body and he told her that if she didn’t help him dispose of the body, he would kill her and her two young children.

Stalling

Nevertheless, the 24-year-old woman remained calm. She stalled, driving around the area trying to talk Kyle down. Eventually, her grandmother got the tip to the local police, who flagged down the red car and pulled them over. Rather than take just Kyle into custody, the police proceeded to arrest both he and Sarah Parker.

Hostage or Accomplice?

As far as Sarah’s family was concerned, she and her children had been held hostage by a mad murderer. The police had a very different interpretation of events, however. They insist that Sarah was a willing participant in Kyle’s attempt to dump the body in a nearby river. But was Sarah a hero, or an accomplice?

No Time

Currently, Sarah is being held in Lake Charles and is facing charges that could result in her spending upwards of 40 years in prison. Kyle, on the other hand, is in military custody and is being investigated by the US Army. He is likely to face a dishonorable discharge and jail time at the very least. Meanwhile, Jackie Parker is fighting for his daughter’s exoneration.

Family Danger

Jackie insists that if it wasn’t for his daughter driving Kyle around and stalling him for hours, the police would never have been able to locate Shelena’s corpse or prove that he was the one that killed her. “Kyle said he would kill her and her kids, and probably me too,” Jackie said. “She kept calm and stalled knowing the police would eventually come.”

Other Evidence

Despite all the talk of Sarah and her children being threatened, the police have indicated that they have evidence to suggest that she wasn’t coerced or threatened in the least. Though they have not seen fit to divulge what that evidence is at this time. Still, Sarah’s family remains convinced of her innocence.

Police Intrigue

Sarah’s aunt even told DailyMail.com that she knows someone in law enforcement, though not the lead detective, that there is empirical proof of Kyle threatening Sarah and their family. “She was in fear not only for her life but for the lives of her two young children.” Sarah is currently in jail on a $60,000 bond but seems to be upbeat.

Outed

The subsequent investigation into the whole sordid affair has also made certain that everyone in the world, including the US Army, now knows about Logan Kyle’s secret double life in drag. In the end, Kyle’s murderous decision ruined the lives of so many more people than just his own. It’s doubtful many will be shedding a tear for his lost privacy in this particular matter.

Military Drag Queen’s Double-Life Exposed After Soldier’s Arrest For Murder is an article from: LifeDaily

Normally, when a burglar breaks into a property, the unsuspecting owners or residents are the ones in danger of being harmed. However, sometimes those residents choose to fight back.

Recently, a Florida man decided to break into a property just days after getting out of jail. What he didn’t realize, however, was that the creatures living at the property are one of the most dangerous predators in the world.

The 911 Call

On the morning of November 6, 2018, a resident of the Lighthouse Park neighborhood of St. Augustine, Florida, called 911. According to the resident, at around seven in the morning, they noticed a half-dressed man crawling in the yard of their home. “We’re normally up pretty early,” Jeff Black told First Coast News about the Tuesday morning his wife spotted the man.

An Unusual Sight

“She says, ‘there’s a guy crawling next door in his boxers in the mud.’ Next thing I know, he jumps into our courtyard,” Black explained. At that point, Black’s wife decided to call 911. “There’s a man with only gym shorts crawling,” Black’s wife told the 911 dispatcher.

A Possible Burglar

“He’s just crawling with his shorts halfway down his [butt] and no other clothes. He was doing a slow, creeping crawl like he didn’t want to be seen,” she added. “The doors are locked and your dogs are inside?” the dispatcher asked the caller. “Yes, ma’am. But now he’s crawling back over the wall into our neighbor’s yard,” Black’s wife said during the 911 call.

The Police Arrive

The dispatcher sent officers from the St. Augustine Police Department that were on patrol over to the neighborhood. When they arrived, they saw the young man crawling and walking around just as the caller had described. At first, residents believed the man had been crawling around to avoid detection.

The Bite Marks

But as the residents watched him crawl out of a bush he had been hiding in when police arrived, they realized he was likely crawling because his foot was injured. According to Black, it appeared the man’s foot had been bitten. “He definitely had three good bites,” Black said.

An Outrageous Claim

“You could actually see the teeth marks. They were on the top of his foot,” Black added. However, what the young man told the responding officers made everyone think he was either delusional or high on drugs. “He kept saying, ‘I was held hostage in a pool with gators.’”

Held Hostage

“He says, ‘Yeah, I got bit by alligators.’ Everybody’s looking at him like, ‘OK, he’s got to be on something.’ He was wired. Clearly running on adrenaline or something,” Black added about the unusual story. According to the police, the young man told them that he had been taken by an old man and held hostage.

An Unlikely Story

The arrest report noted that the man told them that the “old man had the alligator on a leash and he was surrounded by all these baby alligators in the old man’s garage.” The man continued and explained that the old man was feeding him to the alligators and had forced him to drink a “black concoction.”

Medical Attention

While the officers didn’t know what to think about the man’s story, they could see his foot had been bitten by something and had him taken to Flagler Hospital for treatment. While the young man, who police identified as Brandon Keith Hatfield, was on his way to the hospital, the police received another unusual call.

Another 911 Call

This time, the caller was the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. They reported that the alligator farm, which was a little less than a mile away from the neighborhood where Hatfield had been found, had been broken into. According to staff members at the alligator farm, they believed someone had played a prank on them.

The Damage

The caller explained to police that they thought someone had vandalized the park because of the state of the property when they opened the farm that morning. As they were preparing for opening, the staff discovered several lamps and signs had been broken.

A Dangerous Prank

According to park director John Brueggen, they found a statue on a tiny island in the middle of the crocodile pit had been knocked over. What concerned them the most was that the statue can only be reached by swimming in the crocodile-infested water.

The Floating Croc

The reason they first believed the damage was a prank from vandals was that staff members also found a pair of shorts and a single Crocs shoe floating in the crocodile pit. But the staff quickly realized the damage wasn’t part of a prank after finding a lot of blood on the zip line platform that overlooks the crocodiles.

Connecting The Dots

During the 911 call, staff at the alligator park told them about what they had discovered that morning in the park’s crocodile pit. “Oh, I think we’ve already got the perpetrator in custody. We got somebody who told us they were bitten by an alligator,” an officer said in response.

The Surveillance Footage

The staff then played footage from their surveillance cameras from the previous night to see what had really happened. In the footage, a man can be seen jumping into the pit of the Nile crocodile enclosure from a roof that was 20 feet high. The man can then be seen swimming on the pond, which had three deadly crocodiles ranging from 9 to 12 feet long.

Four Hours With The Crocs

The surveillance footage shows the man, who police believe was 23-year-old Brandon Hatfield, stayed in the park for about four hours. During that time, he caused more than $5,000 in damage to the property. He also spent that time swimming in the pond and sitting on the edge of the water.

A Brush With Death

At one point, the footage shows a 12-foot crocodile lunge at Hatfield and bite down on his leg and foot. Hatfield managed to fight the crocodile off and escape with his foot still intact. When police asked Harfield about what happened the night before, however, he seemed to have no idea that he had almost been killed.  “Oh no sir, I wasn’t,” Hatfield told the police when asked if he had been at the alligator farm.

The Charges

Police charged Hatfield with Burglary and Criminal Mischief for the incident. They also charged him with violation of probation after discovering he had been arrested for being caught with methamphetamine and stealing a car and had been released from jail just three days before breaking into the park.

Concerning Behavior

“I’m concerned about him. I don’t know if it was a suicide attempt or if he was on so many drugs he didn’t know what he was doing,” Brueggen told First Coast News. “I think it’s sad to see anyone going through what he was going through,” Black added. “Whether drug induced or not. He was clearly out of sorts. He was lucky to be alive.” Police said that they tested Hatfield but the results of his toxicology report have not been made public.

A Lucky Escape

According to Brueggen, Hatfield is likely only alive because the crocodiles, which easily could have killed him, were in shock. “I think really the saving grace for him is just a total shock on the crocodile’s part. It was totally shocking that it was such a prey item,” Brueggen told Action News Jax. “They are a very aggressive type of crocodiles,” according to Gil Costillo, who has worked with the animals for 40 years. “They contribute to a lot of deaths. The fact that the guy is still alive, he’s very, very lucky.”

Florida Burglar Bitten And Arrested After Breaking Into Animal Enclosure is an article from: LifeDaily

A study by researchers at Oxford University found that people working on the sea are up to 50 times more likely to die while working compared to other jobs. In fact, 103 in every 100,000 fishermen die while working.

In the following story, three fishermen aboard a broken down boat tried to alert a popular cruise ship that they needed help. Unfortunately, they failed to receive it and wound up suing the company for neglect. Here’s what happened.

Princess Cruise Lines

Three passengers were bird-watching on a Princess Cruise Lines ship, were one of them spotted a stranded fisherman signaling to him and his companions for help from the fishing boat. The fishing boats, Fifty Cents, had been adrift for 15 days when it crossed paths with the Star Princess on March 10, 2012. The passengers immediately notified crew members of what they saw.

Broken Down Boat

At the time, all three fishermen aboard were alive. Later that day, 16-year-old Fernando Osorio died, having lost hope as the Star Princess sailed away. Five days later, another fisherman onboard the broken down boat, Oropeces Beancourt, 24, also died at sea.

Panamanian Fisherman

The only man left, whom the fisherman spotted on the fishing boat, was 18-year-old Adrian Vasquez. The trio’s February 24 fishing trip started out well, according to Vasquez’s mother, Nilsa de la Cruz. The three caught plenty of fish, de la Cruz told CNN. But, the boat’s engine died without warning and with no tools and scant navigational experience, there was little they could do.

Ship Officer

Two days after the passengers spotting the struggling fisherman, the three cruise ship passengers followed up with a ship officer, asking him what happened to the fisherman on the broken down boat. The officer reportedly did not have an answer for them and walked away without an explanation.

Passenger

Jeff Gilligan, one of the cruise ship passengers who said he saw the stranded fisherman and alerted the cruise ship’s crew, told CNN that he took a picture of the fishing boat from about two miles away. He saw the tiny vessel through high-powered scopes and said it appeared not to be moving, but the men on board were moving.

Spotting Scopes

“We were looking through powerful spotting scopes before I took those photographs, and we – the three of us – couldn’t come up with any reasonable explanation why somebody would have been flagging with two different colors of cloth, clothing or whatever it was, to our ship from perhaps two miles away on a little boat that wasn’t moving, over 100 miles from the coast,” Gilligan said.

Crew Members

At the time, Gilligan and his fellow passengers believed the cruise ship crew members would do something. “We fully expected the ship to turn around or to send a tender boat out to investigate our suspicions,” he said. But that never happened.

Fifty Cents

Another one of the three passengers who spotted the small fiberglass boat, was Judy Meredith, 65, from Bend, Oregon. She told the Guardian: “Finding out later that the Fifty Cents continued at sea for over two more weeks was horrific news. And two of the men died and both could have lived, had the cruise ship responded to our urgent request.”

Evidence

Her story is supported by Don Winner, a Panama-based, English-language blogger who covered the story of Vasquez’s trials at sea. The publisher tracked down Vasquez, who confirmed that he and his friends had seen the cruise ship and had signaled frantically with his red t-shirt and orange life vest, believing it would rescue them.

Photographs

Vasquez also confirmed that a picture taken by the cruise passengers was of his boat. Winner then published satellite tracking data appearing to show that the Star Princess was in the area at the time. Following the allegations, a spokesman for the company said, “We’re aware of the allegations that Star Princess supposedly passed by a boat in distress that was carrying three Panamanian fishermen on March 10, 2012.”

Birdwatchers

“At this time we cannot verify the facts as reported, and we are currently conducting an internal investigation on the matter,” the statement said. Another woman, Meredith, a keen birdwatcher, was traveling on the Star Princess with two fellow birders, one being Jeff Gilligan, who also spotted the small boat.

Stranded

Meredith was on the promenade deck for most of the day scanning the ocean with powerful binoculars, when Gilligan saw the small panga, which is another name for a Panamanian fishing boat. Meredith immediately noticed something was wrong, as at least one person was standing up waving a piece of cloth high over his head, up and down.

Signaling For Help

“We could see it was moving – there were nets pulled onto the boat and apparently no nets in the water. So we soon questioned – is this a stranded, disabled boat, signaling for us to help?” Gilligan said to the Guardian. Meredith informed a crew member in an officer’s uniform, who said he would relay their concerns to the captain.

Trying to Alert Authorities

“We were convinced the bridge [captain] knew what was happening, and thought maybe it took a while to turn around. But after a while we realized it wasn’t turning,” Gilligan said. The three of them decided to contact coastguards themselves, but slow Internet access and problems finding a local connection, left them emailing U.S. authorities to alert them. The email appeared not to have been received or logged.

The Rescue

Adrian Vasquez was finally rescued when the Ecuadorian navy spotted him north of the Galapagos Islands in March. Ecuadorian Rear Adm. Freddy Garcia Calle said that at the time when he was found, the 18-year-old showed “severe signs of dehydration and lack of nutrition.”

Negligence Lawsuit

He said Vasquez has to throw his friends’ bodies into the ocean “because they had become badly decomposed.” After being rescued, Vasquez filed a negligence lawsuit in Florida against Princess Cruise Lines. During his 28 days adrift at sea, he says the cruise ship failed to save him.

Lawsuit

The lawsuit sought compensation for physical, emotional, and psychological injuries that it alleges he suffered as a result of the conduct of cruise line employees. Robert Dickman, a lawyer for Vasquez, speculated that one reason the Star Princess didn’t stop was because the cruise ship’s crew didn’t want to get off schedule for their next stop in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, and thus, lose money.

Puntarenas

Princess Cruises spokeswoman Karen Candy said the ship did arrive in Puntarenas on March 11, but she strongly denied that the crew decided not to help the fisherman for financial reasons. Princess Cruises then released a statement saying it was “deeply saddened that two Panamanian men perished at sea” and “very sorry for the tragic loss of life.”

Explaining Themselves

The cruise line explained themselves further saying, “Because of what we suspect was a case of unfortunate miscommunication, regretfully the captain of the Star Princess was never notified of the passengers’ concern. Had he been advised, he would have had the opportunity to respond, as he has done numerous times throughout his career.”

Statement

“This is an upsetting and emotional issue for us all, as no employee onboard a Princess ship would purposefully ignore someone in distress. It is our ethical and maritime responsibility to provide assistance to any vessel in need, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for our ships to be involved in a rescue at sea. In fact, we have done so more than 30 times over the last decade,” the statement said.

Fisherman Stranded at Sea For 28 Days Sues Cruise Line For Failing to Help is an article from: LifeDaily

Juan Guerrero Chapa and his wife Julia were driving from their Southlake, Texas home towards the upscale shopping district known as Town Square. They were headed to Yumilicious to get some frozen yogurt and to do a little shopping afterward. They pulled their burgundy Range Rover in front of Victoria’s Secret and walked around.

The town of Southlake is one of the richest places in America and is home to a number of wealthy celebrities. Their police department averages one or two arrests a day and most of those are for minor offenses. This particular evening would prove to be a rare and dangerous exception.

New And Unassuming

The 43-year-old Guerrero and his pretty wife cut a handsome picture in town. Him with his ruddy face and slick black hair, crisp blue jeans, and a black polo – Julia with her auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail, black pants, red blouse, and stylish sandals. They were fairly new in town, having moved into their $1 million mansion only two years earlier.

A Gun

This being Texas, it was still sunny at around 6:45 in the evening. As the two headed out of Nine West and back to their Range Rover, they were unaware that both of them were being watched. Julie threw her bag into the driver’s side back seat as Guerrero climbed into the passenger seat. Suddenly, a white Toyota Sequoia pulled up behind them. The man who emerged was holding a 9mm pistol.

Shots Fired

That same gun-toting man had been wearing a hoodie and had a bandanna covering his face. He approached the Guerrero’s Range Rover and began firing into the vehicle. The first two shots came from behind Guerrero and one of them hit the frame of the car’s rear window. Seven more followed, all of them going through the front, passenger-side window.

Mad Scramble

Slivers of glass flew everywhere, Julia was screaming, and blood began to flow. Guerrero, unbuckled as of yet, scrambled into the back seat of the car. Soon, more shots rang out. Multiple shots hit him in the side and back. The shooter fled, jumping back into the Toyota and driving away from the scene.

Crowds Gather

A few moments later and Guerrero stopped moving. He slumped forwards onto the front seats, bleeding profusely. Julia hadn’t been hit, but only because she’d ducked down as soon as the first shots rang out. She began to panic in English and Spanish, begging anyone to come help. Sirens sounded in the distance and a crowd of wealthy shoppers began to gather.

Unsuccessful Resuscitation

The arriving paramedics were able to extract Guerrero and did their best to resuscitate him on the sidewalk, but it was no use. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead at the scene. Though police tried to scan the security cameras for a face, the masked shooter was too quick and covered. The whole encounter took less than ten seconds.

No Place For This

The public murder of Juan Guerrero shocked the residents of Southlake. Not only because of the brazenness of the whole thing but because it was the first murder in the town for more than a decade. That sort of thing didn’t happen in a town like Southlake. It was enough to get the FBI and the Department of Justice involved, although they had other reasons for joining as well.

Deliberate

Within a few days, Guerrero’s death was all over the news. Many of the town residents who had witnessed the crime felt ‘put out’ by the whole affair and all of them wanted the killer or killers to be caught as soon as possible. But something that deliberate and well-orchestrated wasn’t going to be easy to solve, especially considering who Guerrero was.

Guerrero’s Past

The public may not have known a lot about who this Guerrero person was, but the FBI sure did. In his past life, Juan Guerrero worked with one of the most violent criminal organizations in the world. He had been the personal attorney of Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, former leader of the Gulf Cartel.

Charges And Arrest

Cárdenas had been nicknamed El Mata Amigos, which translates to “The Friend Killer.” He was not what one would consider a nice person by any means. The former paramilitary and cartel leader was eventually arrested in a lengthy shootout with the Mexican military and extradited to the U.S. a few years later for a number of drug trafficking, money laundering, and attempted murder charges.

Power Vacuum

With their leader gone, a power vacuum developed inside the Gulf Cartel. Infighting ensued and the famously bloody power struggle that followed affected parts of Northern Mexico for a decade afterward. Thousands died in the mayhem and violence and many of those were innocent bystanders just trying to live their lives.

Plead Out

Two years after he arrived in the US, Cárdenas pleaded guilty and agreed to turn over $50 million in cash, real estate, and aircraft to the U.S. government in exchange for a meager 25-year sentence. And who was tasked with helping the Americans collect the assets and move them over the border? Juan Guerrero, of course.

High-Ranking

Though Guerrero’s involvement wasn’t made public, he was still in grave danger. The Gulf Cartel was fuming about Cárdenas’s deal. Because of his cooperation, the Department of Homeland Security moved Guerrero and his family to North Texas. The whole thing remained hush-hush until Guerrero was publicly murdered in Southlake.

Quiet And Secret

Guerrero had lived a quiet life, but he was a complicated man whose connections put him and his loved ones in constant danger. The cocaine found in his bloodstream at the time of his death indicated that drugs were evidently a coping mechanism. Still, he loved his soccer teams, his cattle ranch, and dining out. He seemed like a normal guy, but the Cartel obviously knew better.

Wanted

A few years prior to the shooting, Guerrero had been at home with Julia and their three kids in Grapevine, Texas when they got an urgent call from his contact at the Dept. of Homeland Security. He was terrified afterward. The Gulf Cartel had found them. So they moved out of Grapevine and headed to South Florida. They laid low for a while before settling in Southlake.

Vegas Bound

Their new house was purchased in cash, it couldn’t be traced, but a distressing call in February of 2013 revealed the truth; they still weren’t safe. Guerrero fled again, moving from hotel to hotel and staying in Vegas with his brother. He was cautious when he returned home and barely left the house, except to get his favorite frozen yogurt.

Being Tracked

When he got shot, FBI agents examined the Range Rover first. A plastic box about the size of a deck of cards was glued to the undercarriage. It was a GPS tracker. The Feds subpoenaed Google and located the Gmail address the tracker had been feeding info too. It led them to a bald, bespectacled, retired Verizon tech named José Cepeda Cortés, or Joe for short.

Links to Cartels

Joe was a legal Mexican immigrant in his late 50’s who seemed mild-mannered. They searched his emails but nothing they saw seemed to link him to any drug cartels. They did, however, find records for car and property rentals in North Texas and South Florida and links to his cousin Jesús “Chuy” Ledezma Cepeda, a private investigator.

Links And Killers

Eventually, the FBI was able to link Chuy and Joe to another man named Jesús Ledezma Campano, also known as Gerardo. He was Chuy’s son. He and his father had crossed back into Mexico, allegedly fleeing from their involvement in the Guerrero murder. Eventually, the combined data was enough to charge and arrest all of them.

Guilty on All Counts

They had all of them been working as hitmen for the cartel, tying up loose ends in the Cárdenas debacle. When the trial was done, the jury deliberated for a few hours before finding both Jesús “Chuy” Ledezma Cepeda and his cousin José “Joe” Cepeda Cortés guilty on all counts. The two older men were sentenced to life. Chuy’s son, Gerardo, was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison.

Mexican Cattle Rancher’s Murder Reveals His Life In Witness Protection is an article from: LifeDaily

From Wendy’s smarmy Twitter comebacks to IHop rebranding themselves entirely for a time to show that they too serve hamburgers, it seems that viral marketing has taken on a whole new level of meaning in the age of the Internet.

Consumers are hungry for more than fast food these days, especially during the holiday season. Luckily, one Topeka, Kansas-based shoe seller has come up with an equally clever, if not a little dishonest way to comment on the absurd prices of footwear out there in the open market.

Modern Cobblers

Since the late 1950s, Payless Shoesource Inc. has been one of the biggest names in discount footwear. They do exactly what they say they do: sell shoes at discount prices. Like every other brick-and-mortar retailer, the past few years have seen them having their own share of trouble competing with online retailers like Zappos and other luxury shoe outlets.

Bait-And-Switch

Recently, Payless took part in a rather clever reverse of a bait-and-switch operation in conjunction with a luxury influencer in Santa Monica, California. The event took place at a former Armani store, which they renamed “Palessi” for the occasion. They stocked the entire place full of their discount-priced boots, heels, tennis and leisure shoes. Then they opened the doors.

Paying More For Less

They invited partygoers to come in and buy the shoes, normally priced between $20 and $40 and sold them with inflated designer price tags and prices of upwards of $200 to $600. Each person who went away with a pair described them as “elegant” or “sophisticated,” heedless of the fact that they were paying for the same cheap shoes as everyone a few income brackets lower.

The Reveal

They, of course, refunded the inflated prices after letting the secret out and plan to use the video testimonials as commercials on social media and TV in the coming months. Palessi sold about $3,000 worth of shoes in a few hours, pretty impressive all things considered. The campaign proved that the discount store is still a great place to shop for affordable, fashionable, well-made shoes.

Discount Shoe Store Tricks VIPs Into Paying Hundreds of Dollars In Fake Store is an article from: LifeDaily