LifeDaily

When your gut is telling you something, it’s usually right. We should always think twice before brushing our instincts aside, considering the power of our intuition. There are those who do not believe in our mind’s ability to have these celestial feelings, but they will often learn, by ignoring them, they will be put themselves in unwanted situations.

Almarasa did not listen to her inclination that something terrible would happen to her if she embarked on a cruise with her husband, hence she found herself in a tragic situation that permanently shattered the calmness often acquainted with the seas.

A Beloved Teacher

Almarosa Tenorio Story — Almarosa Tenorio / Facebook

Almarasa, a 52-year-old teacher from Florida, worked passionately with children to further their education. She worked diligently to provide the best learning experience for all her students. As a beloved teacher, all who had known her, described her as full of life and devoted to her students.

A Marriage Falling Apart

As a mother of two, Almarasa had a vibrant personality, lighting up any room she walked into. She had many friends, welcoming everyone into her life with open arms. However, not everything in Almarasa’s life was so peachy, like many married women, she struggled to keep her marriage afloat.

An Idea To Help Marriage

So, when Almarasa’s husband, Leo, suggested taking a trip alone together to rekindle their marriage, it sounded like a great idea, but something was holding her back. Almarasa was never the type to believed in jinx or inexplicable phenomena, but in the weeks prior to the trip, she was consumed with uneasiness and fear…

Her Ominous Instincts

It’s as if she had known something would happen to her, like some inexplicable force, possibly her intuition, telling her that something terrible was going to happen. She couldn’t explain the feeling, but it was undoubtedly there. Subconsciously, her mind was shouting at her to be cautious and alert or else…

Something Terrible Will Happen

Almarasa’s children said she “did not want to go” on the trip. “She knew something was going to happen,” said daughter Andrea Smith. She had told her children she didn’t want to go on the trip because something inside her gave her warning that it would be a mistake.

The Last Hug

Almarasa Tenorio was deeply concerned that something would happen to her if she embarked on the trip. “My mom did not want to go on this cruise,” Andrea Smith told ABC’s Good Morning America. Timothy Tenorio, Almarosa’s son, said the night before his mom left for the cruise that she hugged him “for a good five minutes” and told him that might be the last hug he gets from her.

The Trip

And although Almarasa was fully convinced that something tragic would happen to her if she went on the cruise, it did not stop her from going. Almarasa and her husband Leo drove to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to board the seven-day cruise with Royal Princess Cruise to Aruba. Almarasa brushed her unwanted feelings aside, and decided it would be best to focus on her bringing back her marriage to life.

Listen To Your Gut

Almarasa should have listened to her instincts. In the following days, while aboard the ship, mysterious and inexplicable events would take place. A trip that was meant to help a strained marriage would instead, lead to a horrible tragedy.

A Happy Couple

A few days into the trip, things seemed to go well between the husband and wife. They were enjoying the scenic views, made some friends on the ship, and played a few hands of blackjack in the casino. But, according to some passengers, their blissful vacation quickly turned sour…

The Argument

Passengers couldn’t avoid the loud bickering between Almarasa and her husband on the casino floor. It could have possibly been fueled by a few too many drinks for the duo or excessive gambling. But, the argument with Almarasa’s husband would be the least of her worries as things would soon spiral out of control with another man.

An Alert

At the crack of dawn, a security alert was issued by the ship’s Captain. Passengers woke up to a chaotic scene, with confusion of why the alert had gone off in the first place. But, in a matter of moments, passengers witnessed a horrific and bloody scene on the ship’s deck.

A Grisly Scene

Horrified passengers said a woman’s leg was torn off in a fall, creating a gruesome scene with glass everywhere. The rest of the mutilated body laid in the lifeboat, with a pool of blood around it. When investigators arrived on board, they discovered the lifeless body to be none other than Almarasa.

Missing Puzzle Pieces

Which twisted being did this to Almarsa and why? Where was her husband? These questions are currently under investigation. The puzzle pieces are slowly being put back together as officers use witness testimony from passengers and evidence from the gory scene to figure out exactly what had happened to Almarasa.

The Deadly Fall

There was a murder on the ship. Almarasa had plunged to her death after she was reportedly seen fighting with an unidentified man on the deck of the 16th floor at around 10:30 pm. She either fell or was pushed off from the deck at 4 am.

Passengers Terrified

Many passengers woke to the loud and unnatural sound of her body falling bluntly against the ship. Passengers who witnessed the heinous scene, could not believe their eyes. A relaxing vacation had turned into a real life nightmare more suitable of a scene from a horror movie.

A Vacation Turned Nightmare

Passenger Logan Tignor described the horrifying incident on a video call with CBS News, saying: “It’s surreal and I’m kind of traumatized for it. I never would expect that it would happen on vacation.” Many other passengers who had witnessed the deadly scene have difficulty coming to terms with what has happened to Almarasa. For some, as far as swearing not to ever embark on a cruise again for the rest of their lives.

The Mysterious Man

The man, described as being muscular, allegedly strangled Almarasa before tossing her from the ship’s deck. Aruba investigators are now performing an autopsy to establish if the woman was choked to death or died from the fall. According to the Princess Cruises, the tragic incident was also reported to the FBI to help local authorities determine the exact cause of death and the person responsible.

What About Her Husband?

Her husband Leo was brought in for questioning, but denied any involvement in the death of his wife. He has returned to his home in the States, and continues to voice his innocence and is not treated as a suspect by authorities. Leo, an airbus executive, said in a statement that his wife’s death would “haunt him,” and that he hopes to treat the memory of his wife “with respect.”

No Closure In Her Death

Almarasa’s mysterious death has caused tremendous pain on her family, especially because many questions remain unanswered. It is difficult for them to move forward without any closure. Tim and Andrea have said they love both of their parents, and a GoFundMe page has been set up for funeral expenses. They’re looking to raise $10,000.

Shocking Turn Of Events

In a shocking twist, Almarasa’s husband, Leo told FOX10 News his wife’s tragic death wasn’t a murder, but an accident. Leo was upset with several reports that his wife was strangled and pushed off the deck. As her senseless death still remains a question, the FBI and local authorities are in an ongoing investigation to provide a concrete explanation of what really happened to Almarasa aboard the dreadful trip.

Woman Killed On Cruise With Husband Knew Going On Vacation Was A Mistake is an article from: LifeDaily

All one USC college student had was a grainy old photo of a woman posing in a pool which would be the only clue to track down the woman responsible for giving her life. With the help of her supportive family and friends, this information turned out to be all she needed.

Witness the emotional reunion, almost two decades later, between a woman who donated her egg in college and the daughter she never met…

Egg Donation

Amy Throckmorton Story — shutterstock.com

Since Elizabeth Gaba was a young girl, she’s known she was born via egg donation and surrogacy. Her parents have always been transparent with her and Gaba knew that it was for this egg donation that her life has been possible.

Egg Donor

But it wasn’t until she turned 18 that Gaba decided she would like to meet the egg donor that created her. Little did she know, she not only had matching DNA with her donor but also matching voices.

The Search

When she began her search, Gaba had little information to go on, but the fertility clinic where her mother had been a patient released details of the egg donor’s file. Still, there wasn’t much to go on.

Glamour Shot

The file included the donor’s birth year (1977), the college she attended (USC), the sorority she was a member of (Alphi Phi), and a glamour shot of a pretty blonde in a hot tub.

Donor Eggs

Since most fertility clinics pay egg donors between $5,000 and $10,000 and require they be between 26 and 32, and have a college education, the donor’s degree wouldn’t have narrowed the list down much. As of 2010, more than 18,300 women received donor eggs, according to the Daily Mail.

University of Southern California

This meant that finding her donor was possible, but the chances were slim. Gaba was surprised her donor attended the same college where she was currently a student, and she had gotten a degree in music, the same major she was pursuing.

Sorority Sisters

As Gaba searched the Internet for more clues, she also consulted her manager, Amanda Newman. Newman began the search right away and figured out what year Throckmorton could have graduated and contacted sorority sisters from that year through Facebook.

Beauty Of The Internet

She also sent Throckmorton’s glamour shot to each, simply asking if they knew her. But seconds after she hit send on the fourth message, Newman knew she had just sent the message to Throckmorton, who was clearly the woman from the glamour shot.

Finding Her Egg Donor

Newman texted Gaba asking her if she was sitting down, saying, “this one is a doozey.” “I found your egg donor, and she [was in] SoCal Vocals!” It was incredible that her donor had sung in the same A Capella group at the same school just 18 years earlier.

Meeting

Throckmorton, who has three children, told KTVU, “We have so many similar quirks. But the fact that she sang in my old A Capella group was mind-bending.” Throckmorton and Gaba decided they would have to meet and eventually sing together.

Singing Together

“Meeting her was wonderful and surreal,” Throckmorton said. She took a video of her and Gaba singing and posted it on her Facebook page with a heartfelt caption. “Funny story. In college, I was an egg donor for an infertile couple. Today, I met that egg.”

Genetics

“She goes to my college and sings in my A Capella group. It was a crazy and wonderful day! I’m so excited to know her and especially freaked out (in the best way) to hear our voices together,” Throckmorton wrote. “Skip a minute or two into the video to hear us sing together. Genetics, man!”

College Years

As she thought back to her decision to donate eggs in her college years, Throckmorton said it was an easy decision because it seemed like a “win-win” for everyone involved. “I wasn’t squeamish about the medical procedures (lots of self-administered shots, etc.) and I liked the idea of helping a couple who couldn’t have children of their own start a family,” she said.

Checking A Box

When Throckmorton, now 41, filled out her forms with the fertility clinic, she checked a box saying she would be open to contact. She always knew in the back of her mind that someone could come forward to her many years later, although she wasn’t aware that any of her eggs led to viable pregnancies.

Building A Relationship

After she got to meet Gaba, she also introduced her three children to her. As far as if they will continue to nurture a relationship, Throckmorton said, “I do think we’ll continue to have a relationship.” “She’s a really cool chick and I’m so excited to know her.”

Next Steps

Gaba feels the same saying she leads a happy life and loves her family, but she always wanted to learn more about where she came from. The pair said they plan to continue building their relationship.

Delicate Issue

While this story had a happy ending, more often than not, the outcome is not ideal. Contact between children and their donor parents remains a delicate issue in the fertility world. Some research suggests that telling donor children where they come from does not benefit them.

Studies

In a 2009 study by Oxford Academic, 37 percent of the offspring who were told during childhood felt confused and 27 percent were shocked. There was a lower percentage in those who were informed later but clearly worse than those who were not told at all.

Moral Dilemma

While some authors of these studies state that no differences were found in those who were told and those who were yet, they conclude that it is better for children to be told. One possible explanation of this the moral premise that ‘children should be told the truth,’ or ‘children have a right to know their genetic origin.’

Emotional Preparation

Others studies indicate that women feel they are not adequately informed or emotionally prepared for the implications of donation down the line. For Gaba, her mother has always encouraged her to get in touch with her egg donor, so she already had a great support system behind her.

Woman Meets The ‘Egg’ She Donated In College 18 Years Later is an article from: LifeDaily

We often think we can run from our problems or our responsibilities. But no matter how hard you try to run, the truth can’t be avoided forever. Eventually, our problems and responsibilities wind up catching up with us.

In early 2017, a California woman attempted to run from the law after her carelessness ended up costing an innocent man his life. In the end, however, the truth about what happened finally caught up with her despite going to extreme lengths to stay hidden.

A Typical Monday

Andrea Dorothy Chan Reyes Story — shutterstock.com

For 46-year-old Agustin Rodriguez, the morning of Monday, January 30, 2017, started just like any other day. The father of three from Whittier, California was up early like every other morning. That day, he was scheduled to work at a packaging warehouse.

A Hard Worker

According to his family, Rodriguez worked hard at the warehouse to support his children. So sometime after seven in the morning, Rodriguez left his family’s home and started riding his bicycle to his parents’ house as his father was going to drive him to work. Tragically, he never made it to his parents’ home.

An Impatient Driver

At around 7:30 a.m., Rodriguez was riding along Calmada Avenue and was trying to cross the street. A car closest to the father of three slowed to a stop to let him pass. However, the driver of the car behind that stopped car pulled out to the side to pass it.

A Careless Accident

According to the police, witnesses claim the driver of the white Lexus pulled out into the opposite lane and sped around the stopped car. The driver hadn’t realized that the other car had stopped to let Rodriguez pass on his bicycle. Sadly, it was too late by the time the driver saw Rodriguez.

A Disturbing Reaction

According to witnesses, the white Lexus then plowed head-on into Rodriguez. What happened next, however, was even more disturbing. Instead of stopping and calling for help, the driver slowed down but then sped back up, ran over Rodriguez, then dragged him two and a half blocks.

A Handful Of Mistakes

“The Lexus slowed down briefly and then sped up, dragging the bicycle rider under the Lexus,” FBI Agent Erik Arbuthnott explained in court documents. “The traffic collision investigation concluded that the Lexus drove into opposing lanes and was traveling at an unsafe speed, failing to yield to the bicycle rider.”

The 911 Call

After dragging Rodriguez 800 feet, the Lexus sped off. A horrified witness immediately called the police to report what happened. By the time first responders arrived about 15 minutes later, Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene by coroner officials.

‘She’s A Monster’

“The police confirmed she dragged him. She’s a monster. I think if she would’ve stopped, my uncle might still be here,” Angelica Miller, Rodriguez’s niece told KCAL 9. Since Rodriguez couldn’t be saved, the police then focused their attention on finding his killer since they had fled the scene.

The Investigation Begins

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much information for the police to start their investigation. The little information they did have came from witnesses to the hit and run. According to those witnesses, Rodriguez’s killer was likely a woman and had been driving a newer model of either the Lexus 250 or ES 350.

Looking For The Suspet

Police learned that the car had tinted windows and that it likely had damage to the front of the car from the accident. Within hours of the accident, the police released a statement to the public asking for their help locating the hit and run driver responsible for Rodriguez’s death.

The Family Speaks Out

“You can’t just get away in broad daylight at 7:30 in the morning and not be seen,” Monique Limon, Rodriguez’s other niece, told KCAL 9. “It wasn’t a little crime, she dragged a person two-and-a-half blocks. Have a heart, please come forward because my family is hurting.”

Struggling To Find The Killer

“He was definitely a family man, he was a gentle, kind person, there isn’t a person who could say a bad thing about him,” Miller said about her uncle. “He was murdered and someone is hiding it.” Over the following days, investigators did everything but struggled to come up with any leads in the case.

The Anonymous Tip

However, everything changed when they got a call from an anonymous woman who believed her co-worker was the hit-and-run driver. According to the woman, her colleague seemed to fit the description that police had released. She also claimed that her colleague drove a white Lexus and had come into work late the day of the accident.

A Major Breakthrough

“That was the real turning point in the case,” Officer Robert Jensen from the Whittier Police Department’s Traffic Bureau told Whittier Daily News about the tip he received over the phone. After the woman gave Officer Jensen her co-worker’s address, he ran it in the system and found their suspect.

The Prime Suspect

Based on the information he received, Jensen was confident the driver responsible for Rodriguez’s death was Andrea Dorothy Chan Reyes, a 33-year-old finance adviser and analyst who worked as a fraud auditor. According to the police, Chan Reyes was born in the Philippines but had been living in California at the time of the accident.

Retracing The Killer’s Steps

After that breakthrough, investigators tracked down an auto body shop in Huntington Beach that Chan Reyes had visited the day after the accident. She had gotten her windshield replaced and had the front of her car repaired. According to the shop, Chan Reyes told them that she had hit a deer.

Concrete Evidence

At that point, the police got a warrant to track the location of the Lexus through the car’s internal GPS system. According to Officer Jensen, that led the police to Alan Gold’s home in Meridian, Idaho. Gold was Chan Reyes’ boyfriend and was hiding the Lexus in a private garage owned by a business associate. After seizing the car, the police examined the car and found Rodriguez’s DNA on it.

The Hunt Goes Global

An arrest warrant for Chan Reyes was later approved, however, local police decided to reach out to the FBI after learning that the 33-year-old may have fled the country just days after the accident. According to authorities, Chan Reyes flew to Hong Kong, where she reportedly had relatives, to avoid a vehicular manslaughter charge and a hit-and-run charge.

The Arrest

Eventually, however, authorities tracked Chan Reyes from Hong Kong to Australia. By using as many as 11 different aliases, Chan Reyes was able to restart her life in Australia and settle in Adelaide. Once police caught up with, they found her living with a new boyfriend and arrested her on April 17, 2018. After the arrest, Chan Reyes was taken into custody at a women’s prison but is expected to be extradited to the United States to face charges.

Awaiting Justice

If convicted, Chan Reyes likely faces 15 years in prison, however, the Rodriguez family has been left waiting to find out when or if they will get justice for their deceased relative. “Not having any closure or information on what’s going on with everything pretty much keeps that rawness of his death in our minds,” a spokesperson for the Rodriguez family told The Advertiser. “He is deeply missed by everyone who knew and loved him. He was a good man… He would give the shirt off his back to someone in need.”

Police Chase Accountant Turned Fugitive Across The Globe After Lethal Hit-And-Run is an article from: LifeDaily

Some people need only a few things in life to be happy. Robert was a man of simple habits and few desires.

He was able to devote his entire life to just one thing, even to the end. But after his death, things didn’t work out quite as he would have liked…

Difficult Childhood

Robert Morin was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1938. Born with a curved spine and a clubfoot, and he had a severe limp for his entire life. He came from a working class family, his parents never even owned a house or a car.

Bright Young Man

One thing stood out about Robert from a very young age. He was a very smart boy. As he grew older, he became less and less interested in the things that interest other kids. He grew to prefer reading or studying alone.

First Of His Family

When he graduated from Nashua High School in 1955, he was as an honor student. The promising young man enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, and was the first person from his family to attend college.

Lots Of Hard Work

But it wasn’t smooth sailing for Robert. Due to money troubles, he had to repeatedly drop out of school and take on more work to make ends meet. Probably the best thing to happen to him during that time of his life was landing a part-time position at the UNH library. He liked it so much he got a master’s in library science, and stayed on full time after he graduated…

Poring Over Media

Robert’s job was cataloging the new media that came to the library. Before computers, that meant typing all their information on little cards. He was remarkably good at his job, and so was usually given the toughest assignments.

Devoted To His Job

Robert’s work as a librarian was his entire life. Though he was very sociable with his co-workers and the UNH students, he stopped short of ever developing many deep friendships. He preferred it that way, choosing to invest time in his hobbies rather than relationships…

Hobbyist

Robert followed those hobbies with the same enthusiasm and thoroughness that he brought to cataloguing. He claimed to have watched over 21,000 films at home with his VCR. And when his TV broke in the 90s, instead of buying a new one he took up a new hobby: reading every single book published in the US during the 1930s in chronological order.

Penny Pincher

Extremely frugal and fond of routine, Robert kept an ordered and simple life. He never traveled, even when on vacation. He even ate the same foods every day: a breakfast of Fritos and Coke from one of the library’s vending machines, a packed sandwich for lunch, and a frozen dinner at the end of the day. Living life so simply is how he was able to amass his fortune…

Financial Aid

In 1971, Robert met Ed Mullen, an insurance agent, when the two had to discuss a small life insurance policy he’d taken out with his mother, the only remaining member of his family he was on speaking terms with, as the beneficiary. At the time, Robert wasn’t very financially savvy, keeping the majority of his money in a checking account. With Ed’s help, Robert began to invest more intelligently.

Growing Wealth

Ed advised Robert on how to maximize his retirement funds and diversify his investments. Over the years, the two became closer and closer friends and Robert built up a multi-million dollar nest egg…

Secret Stash

Robert never discussed his growing wealth with anyone and not even the best detective would have figured it out from his lifestyle. Remaining extremely frugal, he drove the same car and wore the same clothes for decades.

Let’s Make It A Surprise

In 2004, when Robert’s mother died, he decided to change to make UNH the beneficiary of his estate. Even though Ed suggested several times that he alert the university about his eventual donation and specify how it should be used, Robert declined, preferring to keep his gift a secret…

Collapse

Then one day in 2014, Robert’s co-workers found the elderly man collapsed in his cubicle. He was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Though he moved into an assisted living facility, Robert continued to work even while undergoing chemotherapy.

Big Gift

The following year, in March, Robert passed away. As he requested his entire estate, which was worth more than $4 million, was donated to UNH. But because Robert kept his donation a secret until his death, he hadn’t instructed the school on how his donation should be spent…

An Insult To His Memory

Stunningly, the University of New Hampshire pledged only $100,000 of the donation to the library that Robert had devoted 49 years of his life to. That perhaps would have made sense if the university was in dire need of money for some important project. Instead, they used $1 million, a full quarter of what Robert had donated, to purchase a high definition scoreboard for their football stadium.

Priorities

The university was in the process of renovating their football stadium and decided to capitalize on Robert’s donation by upgrading their planned scoreboard from a much more reasonably priced one to one with a $1 million dollar price tag. At the same time, they knew that such a move wouldn’t be well received…

Bad Press

It was clear to the school that UNF putting such a small portion of his donation – 2.5% – going to the library would receive a lot of bad press. “The gift is so large,” the president of the UNH Foundation, wrote in an email, “and he worked in the library and only a relatively small amount is going to the library.”

Put Some Spin On It

So the college began a media campaign to paint Robert as a huge football fan. The school learned that for the first time in his life, Robert had begun watching football in the assisted living home he moved into when he got cancer.

Revisionist History

The school used that little bit of information as the centerpiece in their opportunistic marketing campaign. They implied that Robert had in fact wanted a portion of his donation to go towards the school’s football program when every fact about the way he lived his life would suggest that the library was all he cared about.

A Token Bit Of Money

In the end, UNH got its million dollar scoreboard and the library got a token bit of money. Whether Robert would have been happy with that decision will forever be unknown.

Former Librarian’s Donation To School Is Spent On Something He Never Wanted is an article from: LifeDaily

When 53-year-old Linda McDonald from Dundee, UK, was walking her Jack Russell Terrier in the woods near to her home, she assumed it was a day much like any other. She was nearly done with the walk and was looking forward to a nice cup of tea back at home as the weather was chilly.

As she walked through the woods on her way back home, the last thing she expected to encounter was a convicted murderer with a dumbbell in his hand…

Walking Betsy

McDonald loved the wooded areas around her home. They were within walking distance and her dog Betsy loved playing in them during walks. At one point as dusk fell, McDonald spotted a man with no expression on his face walking towards her carrying something that appeared to be heavy. What happened next was the last thing she or her dog were expecting.

Feeling Panicked

As she walked through the Templeton Woods, a man called Robbie McIntosh approached her with a dumbbell in hand and without warning began hitting her with it. As Betsy barked furiously, McDonald pleaded with her attacker not to hurt or rape her but to no avail. This man had one thing and one thing only on his mind: murder.

Playing Dead

As she pleaded with the man not to hurt her, McDonald noticed that he displayed zero emotion on his face whatsoever. The victim explained that as she was hit repeatedly over the head with the heavy object, she tried to remain conscious to get a proper look at the man. At the same time, she recalls, she “played dead” and slowed down her breathing in the hopes that her attacker would leave her there for dead and go away.

Prayer Time

At the time of the attack, McDonald was convinced that she was going to die. “I thought that if I stopped breathing and played dead it would finish and he would go away,” she said according to a Daily Mail report. “I said a prayer to God and went somewhere else peaceful in my own mind to remove myself from what was happening to me,” she added.

Sixth Sense

McDonald, who miraculously survived the attack, told reporters that she had taken Betsy out for a walk in the woods like she did every day. In her own words: “I met a few people, and then I was aware of this man walking towards me,” she said. “My sixth sense told me that something wasn’t right and I was very uncomfortable. He was a really tall figure, and he had a military-style march,” she recalled.

Footsteps Stopped

McDonald recounts that she felt relief when she walked past the man until she suddenly heard heavy footsteps behind her. It was at that point that she was attacked. “There was a nanosecond of silence when the footsteps stopped, and I just knew that something bad was going to happen. I turned around, and he was running towards me,” recalled McDonald.

No Chance

According to McDonald: “I had no chance to react before he struck me on the right-hand side of my head. … The blow stunned me, and immediately I felt lethargic, but I also realized immediately that I was going to have to fight if I was going to survive.” It was then that the victim pleaded with her attacker to spare her life and to not carry out whatever plan he had.

Pure Sadist

McDonald also recalls that when she told the man, “Please don’t do this,” he was expressionless and seemed to enjoy that his victim was pleading with him. “He was expressionless, but he also looked like he was enjoying me begging for my life,” she said. “I knew he was going to strike again and I decided I was going to have to scream and make a noise.”

Warm Blood

McDonald recalls that at one point she felt warm blood on her head as her eyesight began to falter. “Then the blows continued, and I felt warm blood,” she said. “I couldn’t see and thought I was going blind,” she recalled. It was at this point that the attacker thought the job was done and he left his victim there in the woods to die alone.

Passed Out

McDonald further recalls that she was initially knocked out on the path she was on and dragged quickly into the more wooded area close by. “I must have passed out because I came round and was aware I was on my tummy, being dragged very quickly into the wood,” she said.

Stripped Naked

The victim also recalls that she was stripped almost naked by her attacker and she was unsure whether he was going to rape her or not. “The clothes on my upper body were off, and I thought he was going to rape me. He was leaning over me, and it was at this point I decided to stop breathing and play dead,” she said.

Feeling Peace

As McDonald was all but convinced that she was going to die then and there, she decided to take herself “somewhere else” in her mind. “I took myself somewhere else, and at that point, I felt peaceful and had no pain. I thought about my family and how distressed they would be if I left them,” she said.

Praying Harder

“I prayed to God, and above all else I was determined that I would live to be able to describe my attacker so that he wasn’t able to do it to anyone else ever again,” recalled McDonald who was fighting to remain conscious at this point so she could get a good look at her attacker should she end up surviving.

Wanting Detail

All the poor victim could think about at this stage was how she could help to stop this man doing such a thing to a person in the future. “My overriding thought was to make sure that I could describe every detail of that man. I had to make sure he was caught,” she said. But the next thing she remembers is two men leaning over her.

Raise The Alarm

When Charles and Peter Connor were walking their dogs in the same woods, they stumbled upon McDonald who was bleeding profusely from the head and clearly in distress. Once they ascertained she was still alive, they raised the alarm and contacted 911 then and there.

Huge Manhunt

As Dozens of police officers rushed to the scene of the crime, they simultaneously launched a massive manhunt to find the perpetrator before he struck again. Their search soon led them to the village of Bridgefoot, north of Dundee, where they found the suspect: 31-year-old McIntosh.

Home Leave

The prison system in the UK is an interesting one and far more lenient than the system in the states. For whatever reasons, McIntosh was allowed out of prison on “home leave” for a week having stabbed another dog walker to death years ago in nearby Law Hill. McIntosh was serving a 16-year sentence for the crime.

Psychopathic Traits

McIntosh had already been assessed to have “psychopathic traits” by professionals in prison. He was rightly convicted for murder but was allowed home for a week on the 16th anniversary of that murder. The inmate was granted a short leave prior to his release from prison. But after just five days of freedom, this man’s urges got the better of him, and he went into the woods with a dumbbell to look for another victim.

Guilty Plea

After McIntosh was caught and taken to the High Court of Aberdeen, Lord Arthurson imposed an order for lifelong restriction on the suspect after he pleaded guilty to trying to murder McDonald. According to the judge, McIntosh was to spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.

Back to Work

Following the brutal attack, McDonald and her husband Matt are doing what they can to make life normal again. McDonald had already gone back to her job as a medical secretary, and the couple has vacations planned already. “I used to be the one in control of my family. I looked after everyone, but since the attack, they have had to look after me,” she said, concluding, “I’m getting my life back, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.”

Convicted Murderer Home On Prison Leave Attacks Grandmother With Dumbbell is an article from: LifeDaily

The Walt Disney Company is a multinational organization worth more than $100 billion. As such, they have an awful lot of closets and it’s therefore inevitable that a company as popular, beloved, and long-lasting as Disney is going to have more than a few skeletons in those closets.

Most of these proverbial skeletons are little more than weird rumors borne of decades of hearsay, but there are a few lingering secrets about the Walt Disney Company, specifically, it’s amusement parks, that persist so much that it might mean they’re actually real…

Fantasyland

Disneyland Myth Story — Robert Noel de Tilly / shutterstock.com

Ever since they first opened in 1955, Disney Parks have always had a bit of a mystique about them. At the time it was first erected, the idea of Disneyland had been completely unheard of. Walt Disney wanted to create a fantasy-land, where anyone could escape from the mundane and be transported to someplace they’d never imagined.

Swirling Rumors

An unreal world is likely to stir the imagination of anyone who encounters it. Then, of course, there’s the fact that Walt Disney insisted on keeping the day-to-day running of the park a closely-guarded secret. These two factors contributed to a half-a-century’s worth of swirling rumors about the nature of Disneyland itself.

Hard to Quash

Despite all the talented PR people working to keep the Disney Company in a positive light, the rumors persisted. These rumors have since become the sort of creepy urban legends that prove impossible to quash. Most are the result of people connecting disparate stories into one cohesive, albeit unusual, urban legend.

Creative Legends

Some of these fictions strain credulity at best. Especially those that refer to the many ghost stories that seem to permeate every square inch of the so-called “Happiest Place on Earth.” One of these such ghost stories has recently emerged from Disneyland’s most ghastly haunts: the Haunted Mansion.

Haunted Mansion

Disney’s Haunted Mansion is one of the only scary attractions in the park. Located in both Disneyland and Disneyworld, the haunted house is often seen as more whimsical than frightening. But the rumors surrounding those who built it and who might have been buried in the ride itself, are definitely bone-chilling.

The Legend

The main urban legend concerning the Haunted Mansion involves the bereaved families of deceased Disney fans taking their cremated remains and scattering them inside the attraction. These fans apparently loved Disney so much they never wanted to leave. This allegedly takes place in all of the Haunted Mansion locations.

Ghost of Disney

Disney has recently confirmed that this sort of thing isn’t as unusual as it might sound. There have been more than a few cases of this happening. When it does occur, custodial staff has to go into high gear and get the mess cleaned up as quickly as possible. Of course, you can’t just grab a dustbuster.

Smuggled In

Even with guards posted at the doors, it’s hard to keep someone from smuggling in a ziplock baggie of grandpa’s ashes taped to the back of their leg. When such a disturbing, though clearly emotionally-charged action does occur though, it can wreak havoc on park operations. The ride must first be shut down.

HEPA Vacuum

Custodians and Imagineers, as their called, shut down the ride, evacuate it, and call for a HEPA cleanup to come through the attraction with a special vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately, human ashes don’t always stay still, so they often get blown about, prompting a much longer cleanup process. Human remains are certainly not hygienic, after all.

Codenames

The employees who work at Disney often come up with morbidly humorous, albeit, uncouth methods of explaining these unusual occurrences. Recently, an unnamed ex-Disney employee came forward and explained that she’d gotten in trouble for calling the situation a “Code Grandma” with her fellow Imagineers.

How Often?

As crazy as it sounds, these incidents actually happen fairly often. Between all the Disney parks, it happens about once a month. That’s right. Every month, someone gets it in them to smuggle their loved one’s ashes into the Haunted Mansion to dump them as they travel through the spooky house.

Unlawful

As bold and touching as this strange practice may appear on the surface, there are many consequences for those who dare to dump. This type of behavior is strictly prohibited by park rules. It also happens to be completely illegal. If guests are caught attempting to do this sort of thing, they are escorted quietly off the property. But that’s not all.

Misdemeanor

The Anaheim California Police Department considers the act of spreading ashes without permission, especially on private property, a misdemeanor. So anyone caught in the act will also have to deal with the police when all is said and done. Nevertheless, plenty of people are willing to take the risk to honor the last wishes of their loved ones.

Her Happy Place

One person ready to take the risk was Jodie Jackson Wells. In 2009, her mother passed away and she traveled to Disney World in Florida to sprinkle her ashes on the It’s a Small World ride. She also dumped some of them in front of Cinderella’s castle. Disney was her mom’s ‘happy place’ and she was more than happy to do it for her.

Technical Difficulties

Some people have even been known to put ashes on other rides as well, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Dumbo flyers when they were there, and in either of the grand castles in the parks themselves. Wells got away with the scheme and only spoke about it after the fact. As far as she knew, neither the Small World ride nor the castle had to be closed down due to “Technical Difficulties.”

Recent Cases

As for the “official” word from Disney themselves, the general gist is still that this doesn’t happen. Their spokespeople added that they aren’t aware of any confirmed ash-scattering incidents in the park and that the practice doesn’t happen by accident or with Disney’s permission. As far as they want everyone to know, it’s still a rumor, just one with a few isolated anecdotal examples.

Haunted Hearse

There are others about the mansion, however, that is a bit more anecdotal, though no less morbid. They say that the ghost horse-drawn hearse located outside the Disneyland Haunted Mansion was once used to carry Brigham Young to his place of burial after he died in 1877.

No Truth

Even this is not true, though. Glen M. Leonard, director of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Museum of Church History and Art, spoke out after hearing the rumor. There is no historical evidence about the funeral of the famed religious leader that indicates he was carried in a hearse of any kind; let alone a ghost-horse drawn one.

Rumors Develop

One may wonder how rumors like these got started, but the origin of such tales is fairly simple. As for Young’s alleged hearse, it was bought by a collector named Dale Rickards in 1973 and though he tried to sell it to the Church of Latter Day Saints, ended up selling it to Disney instead. Thus the rumor of the hearse’s somewhat notorious origin began.

Nobody Dies At Disney

Of all the rumors that surround the Disney parks, the most persistent is one that states no one has ever died on the Disney premises. The official story is that any victims or injured persons have been removed from the park before they were declared dead. Perhaps there are no ghosts in Disney after all.

Urban Legend Behind Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Confirmed is an article from: LifeDaily

It happens all the time, one minute you’re driving along minding your own business and the next, you find yourself in a life or death situation.

The young mother in this story thought it was going to be just another normal day. She was driving along the highway, her two sons in the back seat, when she stopped, as usual at a traffic light. A few moments later, her life would change forever, though not in a way she ever expected.

Frantic Call

It was a cold day at the end of October when the Union City police department received a frantic call from a hysterical woman. She told them that she had been carjacked on Highway 49 and that the thief had forced her out of the vehicle and driven off with her kids still in the backseat.

Single Mom

The caller, Susan Smith was a mere 23 years old and already a single mom with two young sons: three-year-old Michael, and his younger brother, 13-month-old Alexander. She had only been a single mother for about three months, having been recently separated when her husband Michael decided that he’d had enough…

Separation

For the first several years of their young marriage, Michael and Susan were the happiest of couples, but as they often do, children complicated things, and their marriage soon fell apart. Still, even though they were separated, both parents were successfully co-parenting their sons without any real issues.

New Love

Meanwhile, despite her situation, Susan had begun dating someone new: the handsome son of a prominent business owner. A few weeks into the relationship, he ended things on the pretense that he didn’t want a long-term relationship, let alone one that came with the prospect of kids. Susan was heartbroken, but moved on. Then, some weeks later, life threw her another curve ball…

The Carjacking

That October, Susan Smith was driving through Union City on Highway 49, when she stopped at a stoplight. Before she knew what was happening, a man had come up to her car with a gun, demanded she get out, then drove off with the car and her two young son’s still strapped in their car-seats in the back.

National Manhunt

Susan called the police and before long, a massive manhunt ensued. She and her husband went on TV numerous times and pleaded for Michael and Alex’s safe return. She begged the abductor to bring her boys home, but to no avail. The police, meanwhile, were trying to piece together her story…

Something Was Off…

Though they didn’t make their feelings public, the police were skeptical of Susan Smith’s story almost from the get-go. She may have acted like a worried mother when she was in front of the camera, but many of the detectives assigned to the case noticed that her mannerisms betrayed a woman who wasn’t quite sure what had happened to her missing boys.

Changing Tales

She also kept changing her story every time she was asked about it, which of course didn’t help her case. The biggest red flag of all came when police looked into the intersection where Smith had told them the carjacking took place. According to her, there were no other cars around at the time of the kidnapping. Based on the evidence, that wasn’t possible…

No Pressure

You see, in order for the light at that particular intersection to have been red, the pressure pad beneath the road on the intersecting street would have had to been pressed. Otherwise, the light wouldn’t have turned red. There was absolutely no way for her to have been forced to stop at a red light there. Perhaps though, she’d just gotten the street wrong.

A Lie … For Justice

Union County Sheriff Howard Wells didn’t think so. He was so suspicious of Smith’s story that he decided to try and catch her in her own lie, by telling one of his own. Nine days after her sons went missing, Sheriff Wells informed Smith that there were surveillance cameras in the area where she had told them the carjacking occurred, and that based on the footage, they knew she was lying…

Confession

Of course, Sheriff Wells had no idea if his tactic would work or not, so he decided to up the pressure a bit. He told her that he was going to take his findings to the media to possibly flush out the culprit. Smith, who was plainly lying, couldn’t allow that. So she did the only thing she could, she broke down and decided to tell him what really happened that October day.

Slipping Away

She told the sheriff that she had left her children strapped into the back seat of her red Mazda Protégé, then, once she knew they were secure, she took off the parking brake and let it roll down a boat ramp into Union City’s John D. Long Lake. She had killed her own children…

Not Alright

After that, the case was open-and-shut. Smith gave the police an oral and a written account of how she killed her children. The world was shocked. In every interview she had seemed so sincerely upset by the loss and so determined to have her boys back. When asked why she had done it, why she had killed two small children who were completely unable to help themselves, she replied with a curt and cryptic: “We’re not alright.”

Her Defense

Smith’s defense attorneys painted the picture of a distraught, mentally ill woman with suicidal tendencies who was forcibly coerced into giving a confession through lies. They went on to explain how she had been abused as a child by her stepfather and that this abuse continued into adulthood…

Childhood Abuse

Smith’s biological father had killed himself when she was only six and apparently this suicide created a long-term depression that she carried with her throughout her life. At her trial, Smith’s stepfather, Beverly Russell, took the stand and testified that he had molested her as a teen and that the two had also engaged in “consensual” sex when she’d reached adulthood.

Defending Her

Towards the end of his testimony, he even came clean about his behavior and apologized for having done it, stating: “Had I known what the result of my sin would be, I would have mustered the strength to behave according to my responsibility.” It all added up to a rather convincing argument for her insanity plea, but would it stick?

Heinous Crime

It didn’t matter that she had been abused, nor that she had been suicidal. In the end, the heinous and inhumane manner in which Smith murdered her young sons and the evidence the police had against her, proved enough to convict her. Smith was sentenced to serve 30 years to life in prison for the murder of her boys.

Not A Man

Prosecutors used the excuse that Smith had killed her children in part because of the breakup letter she had received from her ex-boyfriend. Yet, even today, more than two decades after she had been put away, she maintains that the crime had nothing to do with a man. In fact, according to Susan Smith, she was a good mother….

Good Mother

“I was a good mother and I loved my boys. … Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself. There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind,” she explained. Of course, her behavior over the past 23 years doesn’t exactly gel with this tacit expression of remorse. Indeed, the prisons she’s been in all express very matter-of-factly that she has never shown the slightest hint of reform since her incarceration began.

Model Inmate

Since the first day she was brought into prison, Smith has racked up numerous infractions which include violence and sexual contact with guards and officers. “Most murderers are one-time, crime-of-passion people, and they end up becoming good people. Susan Smith just hasn’t been able to fit that mold,” said prison director John Ozmint.

Mom Rolls Car Into Lake Drowning Both Sons, Pleads Insanity is an article from: LifeDaily

Misdiagnosing cancer is more common than we think, according to Best Doctors, Inc. And breast cancer, in particular, is the second most deadly cancer for women in the United States.

A delay in the diagnosis of breast cancer means a delay in treatment, and oftentimes, a poorer prognosis. This is exactly what happened to the woman in the following story and she is sharing what happened to encourage other women to get themselves checked out.

First Pregnancy

Kirstie Galbraith Story — shutterstock.com

Others thought she was just a pregnant woman going to the doctor for a check-up before the birth of her first child. “Any other day they would have been right, though not that day. I had found a lump on my right breast and had come to get it checked out,” Kristie wrote in her story on Fabulous Online.

Lump On Right Breast

Kirsite Galbraith, 25, from Scotland, knew she was a worrier, so she took her partner of two years, Stephen Dott, to her appointment. After a doctor felt around the area, he said it was nothing more than an abscess. She was simply written a prescription for antibiotics. “Take these and it’ll go down in a few weeks,” the doctor told Kirstie.

Antibiotics

Kirstie was frustrated after the antibiotics didn’t do anything to heal the abscess. In fact, her pain only got worse. She then went back to the doctors and had another examination. This time, she wanted the GP to refer her for surgery to have the abscess cut, but she was told she had to wait until the baby was born as the injection used to numb the area could harm her.

Birth

Leading up to her child’s birth, Kirstie coped by taking painkillers, although she was in constant pain. Harley was born in December, and she was a welcome distraction to the turmoil that Kirstie was experiencing. Kirstie then had the surgery to remove the lump, leaving a wound on her torso that failed to heal properly.

After Harley

For the first three months after having Harley, Kirstie was making daily trips to her GP and going back and forth to the hospital. As the wound became progressively worse, Kirstie was taken in for more surgery, but when the wound began to open again, she feared for the worst.

Returning To The Hospital

Only days after going under the knife, the dressing felt full and heavy with fluid. “I undid them to have a closer look and to my horror, the hole was leaking pus.” Kirstie immediately called Stephen to rush her back to the hospital. She screamed after looking in the mirror and was scared for her life.

Checked Again

“The wound wouldn’t heal and kept bursting. I started to think it could be cancer and after finding another lump under my right arm, I asked to be checked over again. I knew deep down something was seriously wrong but the doctor and nurse shrugged off the notion and said I was too young to have cancer,” Kirstie told the Daily Record.

Ultrasound

Doctors never paid attention to her request for a CT scan and said that if it was cancer, it would show up on an ultrasound. “They tried to reassure me by saying the wound looked good, despite half the flesh from my breast hanging off. They didn’t listen and never carried out proper checks.”

Operation

After having a third operation, Kirstie was still in pain and nothing seemed to be addressing her problem, whatever it was. Doctors tried so many different types of dressings on the wound, but two weeks after the procedure, it was soaking with blood again.

Reconstructive Surgery

Kirstie was at her wits end and it was only when she was referred to see a plastic surgeon for reconstructive surgery on her breast, that it was discovered something was seriously wrong. The surgeon discovered she had sepsis in her breast tissue and he arranged an emergency operation for the next day.

CT Scan

Kirstie recalled how the doctor removed a large piece of flesh and a CT scan showed that it was stage three breast cancer. “If it wasn’t for my wonderful plastic surgeon, I don’t know where I’d be. He listened to me and knew it was far more serious than just an abscess.”

Breast Cancer

“I’ll always be grateful but I should have been properly examined for cancer in the first place,” Kirstie said. Doctors successfully removed Kirstie’s right breast but the cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes.

Infertility

Just as she was coming to terms with her cancer diagnosis, Kirstie was told that chemotherapy could leave her infertile. This news devastated her and her partner. “I’m on stage three and grade three and the cancer spread because it took so long to be diagnosed,” she said. Kirstie said she always wanted more kids, so finding out about the possible damage to her ability to have children on her own in the future was devastating.

No Children In The Future?

“To add insult to injury, I’ve now been denied the chance to have more children in the future because the NHS refuse to freeze my eggs for free because I already have a child,” Kirstie told the Daily Record. “It would cost 5,000 pounds, which is a lot of money when you are dealing with cancer and we just don’t have it. I feel cheated out of my future.”

Feeling Hopeless

“Because I have Harley, I’m classed as already having a family. I’m only 25 but it feels like a limit has been put on how many kids I can have. It’s a lot to deal with being 25, fighting cancer, having a mastectomy and facing the possibility of not being able to have another son or daughter,” Kirstie said.

Determined To Beat Cancer

If, however, Kirstie meets all the Scottish Government criteria and if the urgency of treatment allows time for egg harvesting which takes two weeks, she could be considered for fertility preservation. Whatever the outcome is, Kirstie is determined to beat cancer and she hopes her story will encourage women to check for lumps.

Staying Positive

“I’m going to beat this and I’m lucky to have so many amazing people supporting me,” Kirstie said. “Having cancer makes you look at life differently and I’m staying positive. I just hope this makes other women check themselves and push for a diagnosis before it’s too late.”

Statement From The Hospital

The hospital, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde issued a statement saying: “We recognize this is extremely distressing for this mom and her family. However, the treatment provided to the patient by her consultant was consistent with her clinical presentation and ultrasound results, which both showed a breast abscess.”

NHS Greater Glasgow And Clyde

“There was no obvious evidence either clinically or radiologically of any malignancy until the results of the tissue testing were received,” they added. “While we have not had a formal complaint, the clinical team will be discussing the case.”

Focusing On Her Family

After the doctors falsely diagnosed her, Kirstie says she’ll register with another practice once her treatment is finished. But, she will not take legal action. “I’ve spent almost a year battling to find out exactly what was wrong with me and I’m done with any negativity,” she told Fabulous Online.” All I want to do is focus on my family and getting better. I’ve missed so much of Harley’s first year and have a lot of catching up to do.”

Mother Faces Heartbreaking Diagnosis Doctors Failed To See is an article from: LifeDaily

Most people think that it’s a flight attendant’s responsibility to wait on you hand and foot, and make sure you’re as comfortable as possible during a flight. But really, their job is to make sure that each and every passenger is kept safe from the moment they board the plane to the moment they step off the aircraft.

So when flight attendant Shelia Fedrick was working on an Air Alaska flight one day in February 2017, she was hailed a hero for the incredible thing she did after she discovered the sickening truth about one of her passengers.

Flight Attendant

Shelia Fedrick Story — www.scallywagandvagabond.com

Shelia Fedrick has always been extremely outgoing and loves working with people, which is why she was drawn to getting a job working as a flight attendant. As she expected, she was a natural when it came to dealing with passengers.

The Perfect Job

“I love to smile, like being around people, that’s why I’m a flight attendant,” said the 49-year-old, who also works as a model and an actress when she’s not working as a flight attendant. “Loving working with people and taking a risk.”

10 Years Of Experience

So when Shelia, who has been a flight attendant for the past 10 years, showed up to work on an Air Alaska flight from Seattle to San Francisco, she expected it to be like any of the countless other uneventful flights she had worked over the years.

Not What She Expected…

When Shelia got to work that day, however, she had no idea that the nearly 2.5-hour flight to San Francisco would not just change her life, but completely change the way she and other flight attendants performed their jobs forever…

Bad Feeling

But as Shelia watched all the passengers file onto the small plane, alarm bells started going off in her head when she saw one of the passengers and she started to get the feeling that this flight would be different than any other she had worked on.

The Girl In The Window Seat

Once Shelia helped all the passengers to their seats and made sure their bags were all safely stored away in the overhead compartments, she noticed something seemed very strange about a young girl that was sitting in the window seat of aisle 10…

Unusual Appearance

It’s not unusual for passengers to look a little messy or disheveled while they travel, but Shelia thought the girl, who appeared to be 14 or 15 years old, looked unusually unkempt. The girl “looked like she had been through pure hell,” Shelia said.

First Red Flag

The girl’s hair was extremely greasy and it looked as though she desperately needed a shower. The man the girl was traveling with, on the other hand, was older and was wearing nice clothes. But that wasn’t the only thing that was a red flag to Shelia…

A Strange Conversation

The 49-year-old flight attendant’s instincts were already telling her something wasn’t right. But when she tried to start a conversation with the pair like she normally did with other passengers, the girl never responded for herself and the man quickly got defensive.

Whispered Instructions

At one moment during the flight, Shelia carefully whispered to the girl so the man wouldn’t hear her and told the girl to visit a specific bathroom on the plane. The young girl looked petrified but got up and went to the bathroom that Shelia had pointed to…

The Note

“I left a note in one of the bathrooms,” Shelia said. Once inside, the girl found the note, which asked if she was alright, on the mirror. She quickly wrote back a reply and then went back to her seat before the man she was traveling with got suspicious.

Help

When Shelia went back into the bathroom, she discovered the girl’s response on the note, which confirmed that her instincts had been correct about the situation the entire time. “She wrote back on the note and said ‘I need help.'”

The Flight Goes On

Shelia assumed the man had kidnapped the girl or she was a victim of human trafficking, but had no way of knowing the truth based on the girl’s short note asking for help. However, it was clear that if the pair got off the plane, Shelia would have no way of helping the girl.

Call To The Cockpit

Shelia discreetly called up to the pilots in the cockpit and told them about the passengers and the note that the girl had written asking for help. While they were still in the air, one of the pilots notified authorities on the ground in San Francisco…

Police Save The Day

So by the time they landed at the airport in California, the police were waiting for them in the terminal. The man had no idea what was waiting for him just inside the airport, but as the passengers got off the plane, police officers apprehended him.

A Hero

When news spread about what Shelia did for the helpless girl and how she stayed so calm, people around the world hailed her a hero. “I’ve been a flight attendant for 10 years and it’s like I am going all the way back to when I was in training,” Shelia said…

An Eye-Opener

Even though Shelia had 10 years of experience, she felt she had never been properly trained to spot the signs of human trafficking and it made her wonder how many victims had gone undetected on her flights throughout the years.

See Something, Say Something

“And I was like, I could have seen these young girls and young boys and didn’t even know. If you see something, say something,” said Shelia, who was contacted by the grateful girl that she helped rescue a few weeks after the flight…

Second Chance

“I put my phone number on the note that I left for her and I guess she memorized it, so a few weeks later, she called me,” Shelia said about the girl, who has been given a second chance at life and is now enrolled as a student in college.

Others Aren’t As Lucky

Because Shelia listened to her intuition, this story thankfully had a happy ending. However, the incident shed light on the fact that most flight attendants don’t receive enough training to spot the signs of human trafficking. Now, organizations like Airline Ambassadors are working to teach airline staff across the country how to spot and report human traffickers.

Flight Attendant Hailed A Hero After Saving Girl On Plane is an article from: LifeDaily

Doctors and nurses are supposed to fight for their patients’ lives and ensure they are getting the best care possible. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

When a mother from the UK noticed her young daughter had an insidious mental illness, she begged doctors to help her daughter get better. She expected doctors would take her daughter’s illness seriously, yet they failed the 16-year-old when she needed them most. Now, the devastated mother is fighting for answers and justice.

A Mother’s Dream

Rosemary Westwood-Rose always imagined that when her daughter Libby grew up, she would be happy and successful. She dreamed that her daughter would grow up and start a family of her own one day. When Libby was a child, it seemed like that dream would one day become a reality.

A Bright Future

According to Rosemary and Libby’s father, Ricky, they had always been proud of their little girl. She was smart, kind and ambitious. Libby had a bright future ahead of her, however, that all changed when she left her school at The Old Hall, a prep school in Wellington, England.

The New Kid

At the time, Libby was 11 years old and she transferred into the Charlton School, which was also in Wellington. Libby didn’t know anyone at the new school and she struggled to make friends at first. As a result, she focused even more heavily on her studies.

Things Start To Change

Eventually, Libby became friends with a group of girls, who Rosemary described as like-minded and sensible. Over the next few years, Libby was happy, was doing well in school, and had a good group of friends. However, things took a turn when Libby was 14 years old.

Self Awareness Turns Into Self Loathing

Libby had become aware of the fact that she was bigger than many of her friends and decided to go on a diet to try and lose weight. “I thought I had this super clever child, that she’ll do the diet and feel a whole lot better about herself,” Rosemary told Shropshire Star.

Like Mother Like Daughter

“I have always struggled with my weight and I thought she’d be like me, she’d gain and she’d lose and try diets like me. I didn’t know she would develop an eating disorder,” Rosemary explained. “I just saw my clever, smart, astute 14-year-old. Had I known then what I know now, I would have stopped it then and taken a lot more control.”

The First Diet

No one knew it at the time, but that first diet was the beginning of an incredibly unhealthy and dangerous relationship with food that soon spiraled out of control. After finishing her first diet, Libby started a ‘clean eating’ diet, which Rosemary wasn’t worried about. She thought Libby was just getting interested in taking care of her health.

The Concerning Weight Loss

In reality, the opposite was happening. And when Libby started losing weight, Rosemary thought her daughter had just lost some baby fat. Yet when people started commenting on the weight loss, Rosemary decided to bring her daughter to the doctor just to check and see everything was fine. “She didn’t look ill, and because I saw her every day I didn’t notice it,” Rosemary explained.

Time To See A Doctor

“She wasn’t wearing big baggy clothes, she wasn’t covering up and she was eating. I thought everyone was making a fuss and that I knew her better. But because enough people had mentioned it we took her to the doctor, and this was when she first entered the system,” Rosemary said.

A Shocking Sight

“She had to take her top off and lie on the couch to have the ECG electrodes connected. It was at that stage I looked and I was really shocked. She didn’t look emaciated, but she was thin and I thought, ‘my God, how have I not noticed this?’ It was like someone had lifted the blinkers. I fell apart right there in the surgery. She admitted she had anorexia, but said she was going to stop.”

A Triggering Meal

After leaving the doctor’s office, Rosemary and Libby cried together. Then Libby promised she’d get healthy again and asked for pizza for dinner and then tea. Rosemary thought that was a promising step in the right direction. But it was really the point that things truly became out of control with Libby.

A New Battle Begins

Libby had been starving herself up until that point. After binging on pizza at dinner, she threw it all up later that night, thus beginning her battle with bulimia. “I didn’t realize the huge impact of her having that pizza that night. It seems incredibly stupid now, but at the time I just didn’t know,” Rosemary said.

Uncontrollable Binging

“I would start to find lots of food packets, but I still didn’t know about bulimia. I’d find the packets, clear them out and I would talk to Libby about sensible eating and not pigging out. Sometimes I got cross. But I just did not know what was happening,” said Rosemary. “I’m a nurse, but I didn’t see any obvious signs of poor health.”

A Vicious Cycle

As time went on, however, Rosemary realized what was happening. “She started buying so much food, I didn’t know. It would be eaten, vomited and then hidden. But the evidence became more and more obvious,” said Rosemary, who tried to get her daughter help at that point. Unfortunately, Libby’s BMI wasn’t low enough to be considered an urgent case needing treatment.

Treating The Wrong Problems

“At one point her case worker said ‘I don’t really know what to do’, and that is not enough,” said Rosemary. “The eating disorder books were mostly about anorexia. But the same guidance doesn’t apply for someone with bulimia. How could I sit and say ‘Libby you need to eat’? Getting her to eat wasn’t the problem. That was the least of the problems. She ate non-stop, all the time.”

Out Of Control

Rosemary was lost and had no idea what to do. She even tried locking the doors and windows to the house to keep Libby in, but she managed to break out. At one point, the family even tried locking the food away to keep Libby from binging and then purging. When Libby turned 16, Rosemary lost even more control as the teenager got her own bank account and told doctors she didn’t want her mother involved with her case anymore.

Begging For Help

“A lot of it I didn’t see. It sounds crazy to say it, but she was really adept at hiding it all,” Rosemary said. “It got to the stage where I started to notice bottles of vomit in her bedroom. One day I counted 27 bottles of vomit around her bedroom. Along her radiators, along her surfaces, some of them overflowing. All the professionals knew about this, I told everybody. They couldn’t do anything.”

Libby’s Last Chance

Shortly after turning 16, Libby’s condition got so bad that Rosemary rushed her to the hospital where doctors finally agreed she needed to be treated at an inpatient facility. Libby spent three months at an eating disorder clinic in Sutton Coldfield. According to Rosemary, she received almost no treatment or therapy. She was nowhere close to overcoming bulimia, but the clinic discharged Libby anyway.

A Tragic Ending

Three days later, Libby’s heart stopped as a result of dangerously low potassium levels and she died after suffering for two years. “The three days before she died were lovely,” said Rosemary. “Looking back at her letters she knew she was going to die and wanted to make everything right.” After Libby was found dead in her bedroom, Rosemary found notes Libby wrote in her final days knowing she was about to die. “It’s no one’s fault,” Libby wrote. “I love you so much.”

Fighting For Justice

Now, Rosemary is taking legal action to fight back against the system that failed to give her daughter the early intervention she needed and discharged her when she was deathly ill. “We are all angry and frustrated, broken. We want to know why Libby did not receive early specialist support and the subsequent therapy that she needed to prevent her unnecessary death. We are determined to find out what happened and what could have been done to prevent Libby’s death,” Rosemary wrote on Crowd Justice. “We want to know what changes are needed to improve services for others suffering from eating disorders.”

Bulimic Teen Denied Proper Treatment Dies Days After Release From Clinic is an article from: LifeDaily

Even for people who love their jobs, there will always be some responsibility or aspect of the job that is less than enjoyable. However, they stay because the good aspects of the job outweigh the bad.

For a long time, one teenager from Canada stayed at his job at Walmart because he was getting a lot of hours and was making a steady paycheck. Yet when the bad things about the job started to outweigh the good, he decided to resign in a way that would send his message loud and clear to management…

A Loyal Employee

Jackson Racicot Story — Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com

For more than a year and a half, one teenager from Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada has been an employee at the city’s local Walmart. According to 17-year-old Jackson Racicot, he always made sure to be a dependable and hardworking employee.

The Company Culture

Soon after he got a job at the Walmart, however, Racicot started to realize the company culture wasn’t as great as he was lead to believe while interviewing for the position. He had been told by managers at the store that employees are always valued and respected.

Unfair Treatment

Racicot soon realized that the way his managers at the store treated him and other fellow employees was anything but fair and with respect. Instead, he and other store employees were regularly treated poorly and written up for ridiculous offenses.

Sticking It Out

Racicot always imagined that if he quit one day, he would find a way to make his exit dramatic to make a point to management. However, Racicot explained that he never felt pushed to the point of quitting. While there was a lot Racicot didn’t enjoy about his job, he had always put up with it without much complaint.

Staying For The Money

The main reason Racicot had stayed so long at Walmart was that he was getting a steady paycheck. However, after working there for a year and a half, the loyal and dependable employee was finally pushed to his limit and decided it was finally time to leave.

An Unnecessary Challenge

According to Racicot, management had been moving him around the store making him work in different departments every single day. Racicot believed he would be able to do his job better if he could focus on one department instead of jumping around each day.

A ‘Waste Of Time’

On several occasions, Racicot made requests to his manager to be assigned to one department, which he believed was a fair and logical request. Racicot’s assistant manager didn’t agree and called the teenager a ‘waste of time’. While frustrating and insulting, Racicot tried to let it go.

Punished For Being A Hardworker

Unfortunately, another incident occurred not long after. According to the 17-year-old, he was written up for working on his day off, which he was doing to try and make up hours. After he was punished for being a dedicated and hardworking employee, Racicot knew it was finally time to leave.

The Last Straw

“It was a little shove because my toes were already hanging off the edge,” Racicot recently told The Star about the reason he decided to stop working at Walmart. At that point, Racicot started planning his exit strategy and committed to making it as dramatic as possible.

The Resignation Letter

On December 6, 2018, Racicot finally went through with his plan. That day, Racicot went to work with his resignation letter, which he had handwritten on a copy of his resume. Sometime after showing up for his shift, the 17-year-old handed his letter to his assistant manager.

The Rant

After officially resigning, Racicot walked over to the intercom system and typed in a number combination that would allow him to broadcast his message to the entire store. “Attention all shoppers, associates, and management,” Racicot said to get everyone’s attention.

Airing His Grievances

With both the attention of his former coworkers and every customer in the store, Racicot then proceeded to air all of his grievances, which he explained was the cause for his dramatic resignation. At that point, Racicot was also filming the scene on his iPhone.

A Bold Warning

“I would like to say to all of you today that nobody should work here. Ever,” Racicot warned over the loudspeaker. “Our managers will make promises and never keep them and not only that they will preach to us about how they care about their employees.”

No Help

“But about a month ago, my boss, assistant manager Cora, called em a waste of time and management did nothing to help,” Racicot explained during his expletive-filled rant. “Management will also try to save money every step of the way,” he added.

The Employees Lose Out

During his store-wide announcement, Racicot explained that during his time working at the store, he saw how management would save money at the expense of their employees. According to Racicot, they did that by cutting benefits of full-time employees to a part-time employee.

A Breaking Point

Racicot, who worked typically worked more than 40 hours a week, was just one of several full-time employees who had their benefits unfairly cut. “I’ve been a loyal employee here for over a year and a half, and I’m sick of all the bull—-, bogus write-ups, and my job,” he said.

Uploading The Footage

As if his message wasn’t already clear, Racicot finished off his cathartic speech by saying “F— management. F— this job. F— Walmart.” According to Racicot, he then immediately left the store and went home. Once at home, Racicot uploaded the footage of his resignation to his Facebook page.

A Viral Sensation

“I was expecting a couple hundred views and a few shares,” Racicot said. Yet the video quickly went viral and has been viewed over 600,000 times. “I got fed up,” Racicot told the Edmonton Journal after his rant went viral. “I don’t regret what I did, I went into this knowing what will happen,” said Racicot, who also added that he had already secured another job before his Walmart resignation.

Walmart’s Reaction

“We are aware of the video circulating online and are disappointed by this incident,” Walmart said in a statement reported by the Edmonton Journal. “Respect for all individuals including our associates and customers is a core value at Walmart. We are looking into this matter and will address it internally as required.”

Taking A Stand

“I want people to start boycotting it,” said Racicot, who has since been contacted by other Walmart employees who are fed up with the way management treats them. “It’s not just our f—ing Walmart. It’s nationwide. It’s a corporate thing. It’s how the managers are trained,” Racicot said. “Don’t be treating your employees as if you own them, if they are your property. Don’t think to throw them around.”

17-Year-Old Walmart Employee’s Dramatic Resignation Goes Viral is an article from: LifeDaily

Real estate schemes seem to be a dime-a-dozen these days. Ever since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, many people, especially in the United States, have been wary of buying new real estate, specifically when a deal looks too good to be true.

Recently, a real estate scheme in Moscow, Russia, gained worldwide notoriety. Not because of its poor payouts or cheap and easy money making potential, but because the end result for all those involved was the same, dreadful end…

An Offer

Roman Shugaibov Story — shutterstock.com

The man who came to the door was charming, though in a rough sort of way. He wasn’t clean shaven, wasn’t wearing the perfect, crisp suit of a businessman, but he was charming all the same. He had come to extend an offer to the elderly woman. She could sell him her apartment at a profit and buy her some new property.

Persuasion

It was a great offer, one that seemed almost too good to be true. This was because it was in fact too good to be true. Though the elderly victim didn’t know it yet, the whole offer was a scam. The reason that the man offering it was so charming was all part of the scam, his associates knew that his power of persuasion had few equals.

Accomplices

The man’s name was Roman Shugaibov. The 34-year-old Russian con artist had been at it for a while. He and his accomplices had successfully persuaded many elderly victims to sell their apartments with the promise of using the proceeds to buy some property for them. This woman was no different and sadly, her fate would be the same.

Chance of a Lifetime

In the victims’ minds, it made sense. If they sold their flats in Moscow, they could buy a smaller place outside the city. The pocket money they saved would help to boost what meager salaries they had. Many of them were also running exceptionally low on their pensions as well. This was the chance of a lifetime.

Bleak Night

Before he had crept upon this poor woman’s door, Shugaibov had run the scheme on other people as well. One of them, an elderly man who’d agreed to hand over the lease to his flat, had opened the door some days later to a most unwelcome sight; a murderous Shugaibov, holding a bag in his hands.

Strangled

Shugaibov then convinced the poor, confused man to come out to his car, at which point he placed a bag over the man’s head and strangled him to death. Once the deed was done, Shugaibov and his partners dug a shallow grave and buried the man’s remains. Then they pocketed the money.

A Bloody End

The scheme was elegant in its simplicity. It was the best kind of plan, brutal and efficient. The people they targeted were vulnerable, many of them elderly and some prone to alcohol abuse. The gang had been careful to case them beforehand, to prevent their looking for any outside counsel before the deal was done.

Posing

Over a series of lucrative months, Shugaibov and his gang of unscrupulous “salesmen” managed to parlay their murderous exploits into a number of new homes and quite a bit of stolen money. They would pose as buyers and then others would come back as sellers, legitimizing the whole enterprise in their victim’s minds.

Proceeds

From the very first moment they began the scheme, the gang knew it was ironclad. How could it not be? There were no witnesses, many of the victims’ families were too concerned with their own lives to worry about their now missing elderly relatives. The proceeds from the first murders also allowed them to purchase a bit more legitimacy towards future cons.

Cash Advance

The victims were paid in cash for their trouble, which was usually stolen right back as the new “realtors” showed up and turned that money into profit for the elderly victims. The money, of course, was just being funneled back and forth between gang members and so cash made the transaction more secretive.

Huge Gang

Shugaibov’s gang, which was allegedly founded in 2013, consisted of seven other men and eight women. Together, the lot of them ended up stealing roughly $430,000 in proceeds. They weren’t found out right away, however, and ended up working their brutal scheme on at least nine different victims.

Arrested and Confessing

Eventually, Roman Shugaibov was arrested and taken into custody. Despite his cool outward exterior, he sang like a bird when questioned. Not only did he confess to the whole scheme and name every single one of his accomplices, he even admitted to how he managed to hide all the bodies in the end.

Masked Graves

When he and his fellows had finished the bloody business of buying, the faux real estate agents ended up taking the deceased victims to the local cemetery and burying them in unmarked graves. Which they then masked by taking crosses and flowers off other nearby graves. That way, no one would even bother to ask questions.

Many Victims

Though Shugaibov admitted that they’d killed at least nine, the Moscow police believe that many others might actually have been casualties of the large-scale scheme. Some of them may have been more patsies, and others may have been professionals in the real estate industry they needed to glean information from.

Wealthy Enterprise

By all accounts, the enterprise was a lucrative one, even split sixteen ways. Shugaibov was more than happy to relay the information to detectives about the money and the scheme as a whole. He was so morbidly candid about the affair that the detectives were slightly shocked when he told them about some of the other victims.

Cruel Endings

The detectives videotaped the confession. In one of the videos, Shugaibov explained to detectives how he dragged a homeowner out into the street and held him face down in water for about 10 minutes. With that one, he left the body and drove away, but the last revelations of his victims proved the most unsettling.

Worse than Death

In some rare cases, members of the criminal enterprise actually went so far as to bury the victims alive. They wouldn’t even bother killing them first, just tied and gagged them, before tossing them into open graves in official cemeteries. The poor souls would never be found amidst the actual dead.

The Charges

In the end, the charges against Shugaibov amounted to violations of part 1 and part 2 of Article 210, which refers to creating a criminal community. The others include murder and part 4 of Article 159 referring to large-scale swindling. These articles are documented in the Criminal Code of Russia, which is the prime source of law in the Russian Federation. But Shugaibov’s arrest wouldn’t be the end of the story.

Ignominious End

Shugaibov’s so-called “black estate agents,” became a media sensation almost immediately. As for the mastermind himself, he didn’t make it to his day in court. In November of 2018, Shugaibov committed suicide while in prison. It seemed his confident confessions were just more obfuscation of the coward beneath.

No Way Out

Today, the rest of Shugaibov’s accomplices are currently awaiting their own charges. As for Shugaibov, he clearly felt that life in prison was no way to live and chose to take the only other way out available to him. One can’t blame him. After all, as his victims found out, there are some fates worse than death.

Russian Real Estate Scheme Ends In Tragedy For Nearly A Dozen Senior Victims is an article from: LifeDaily

It seems like so many things in life, good and bad, are determined by being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time. Call it luck, fate, or random chance, it plays a huge part in what happens in our lives.

On an autumn day in Pennsylvania, a number of people were walking along, minding there own business. Some would quickly learn that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, while for one of them, the opposite would be true.

Cloudy Day

Penn State Shooting Story — www.chronicle.com

It was a typical Wednesday in mid-September. Grey clouds lazily crossed the sky over the green hills of the Pennsylvania State University campus. At around 9:30 in the morning, students were milling about, going to and from their classes.

Shortcut

Brendon Malovrh was one of those students, casually going about his business. The 21-year-old senior was walking through the grass by the HUB-Robeson Center, taking a shortcut after his morning class to grab a bite to eat…

Chatting After Class

Another of those students was Melanie Spalla. She was also a 21-year-old senior. After her Spanish class, she spent a little time chatting with a classmate before making her way down the sidewalk, still wet from a bit of early morning rain.

About to Change

At the same time, Nicholas Mensah, a 22-year-old sophomore, walked by the Health and Human Behavior Building. None of them had any idea how much their hum-drum day would change in just the next few moments…

Pop Pop Pop

As he was walking along, Brendon heard an unusual sound ring out through the air. “I heard these very loud noises, like cannon fire, but at a higher pitch,” he said. Thinking the “pop pop pop” sounds were fireworks, Brendon started walking toward the sounds.

Taking a Closer Look

As he walked along, Brendon noticed a bit of smoke coming out of the bushes. It looked like he found the spot where someone was setting off fireworks. Because he was “pretty much curious about all things,” went to investigate.

Unexpected Sight

When Brendon walked the 25 or so feet from the northwest to the southwest side of the lawn, he saw something he didn’t expect. He saw a young woman kneeling in the bushes with a tarp beneath her. In her hands was a high powered 7mm Mauser rifle.

Setting Up Her Shot

Just a few minutes earlier, the young woman named Jillian Robbins spread out the tarp beneath her and set up her rifle. The 19-year-old had grown up close to the school but was not a student. The “pop pop pop” Brendon heard earlier was Robbins firing shots at passersby.

Bullets’ Paths

Two of her shots hit passing students. One hit Melanie Spalla in the back and exited her neck, killing her instantly. The second passed through the left side of Nicholas Mensah’s abdomen, knocking him to the ground. He was bleeding profusely as a student who had been walking right in front of him dragged him into a nearby bush.

Brush With Death

Two other shots came close to hitting two more students, William Mocker and Kerry Butler. Both students had their backpacks grazed by shots as they ran from the sound of gunfire. Neither of them realized they’d come so close to death until after they returned to their dorm rooms…

Awkward Encounter

It was after Robbins had fired those shots that Brendon came across her. The two locked eyes and gave each other an instinctual nod. Brendon didn’t realize that Robbins had a gun in her hands until she turned and pointed it at his chest as she was reloading.

Instinct

Without thinking, Brendon charged across the 20 feet that separated him from Robbins. Just as she finished reloading, Brendon grabbed the barrel of her gun. Pulling with all his might, he yanked it out of Robbins’ hands…

Knife fight

Unfortunately for Brendon, Robbins didn’t have just one weapon. After he’d disarmed her of her rifle, Robbins pulled out a hunting knife and took “a couple quick stabs at me,” Brendon said. In an instant, Brendon had gone from strolling along to disarming a shooter to being in a lopsided knife fight.

Once In A Lifetime

“I jumped backward. I have trained in martial arts,” Brendon said, “but I [didn’t] know the exact defense if someone’s stabbing in a downward, overhead motion with a knife. I was thinking, ‘Wow. This is the first time, and probably last time, I’m ever going to use this.’”

Oops

Once Brendon successfully evaded Robbins’ first couple of stabs, she got “annoyed,” he said. In moving forward and making another stab at Brendon, Robbins missed once more and accidentally stabbed herself instead. The knife had sunk about three inches into her upper leg.

Totally Disarmed

As Robbins was momentarily distracted by the pain and shock of having stabbed herself, Brendon managed to grab the knife away from her. He took it and the rifle and threw them far away from her and began yelling to people on the sidewalk to call for the police. Then, he turned his attention back to Robbins…

Using His Belt

Brendon took the belt from his trench coat and moved toward Robbins. Rather than further attacking her or binding her hands, Brendon took the belt and tied it around Robbins’ leg above her knife wound in order to stop the bleeding. Robbins was stunned and had apparently gone into shock.

Quick Reaction

In no time after the shooting began, university police and the entire nursing department on duty that day showed up on the scene. They couldn’t do anything to help Melanie, who’d died instantly when she was shot, but they were able to rush Nicholas, the young man shot in the abdomen, to the nearby hospital.

Cuff Her

Two university police officers were less than a minute away when they got the call about the shooting and they put handcuffs on Robbins, just a couple of minutes after the first shot was fired. The spot Robbins had chosen had a 40-foot area of concealment on a hill where she could see everything down towards College Ave. and no one could see her.

Decades in Prison

If Nicholas hadn’t been walking where he was, it would have likely taken much longer to find and stop Robbins. She was charged with third-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder. After pleading guilty to all charges, Robbins was sentenced to 30-60 years in prison and will be up for parole in 2028.

Student’s Quick Thinking Saves Lives At Penn State is an article from: LifeDaily

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but in this modern age, this seems like somewhat of a superfluous notion. This might be because of technology. Everyone has a camera on them all the time and we are able to constantly snap and post pictures of just about anything. But does their abundance mean that pictures don’t say nearly as much as they once did?

Some would say, yes. Think about it… what does a picture of your lunch say? What words are conveyed by your sixtieth selfie post to Instagram in the past week? Yet, as widespread and sometimes annoying as selfies can be, one man learned that a simple selfie would ultimately save his life…

Lumberyard

Christopher Precopia Story — www.dailyentertainmentnews.com

22-year-old Christopher Precopia was working at the lumberyard, hauling and cutting wood, just as he always did. The yard, located in Georgetown, Texas, was the same place that Chris worked every day. The only people that ever came into the yard were those who worked there, except for that day. On that day, the police showed up.

Don’t Act Surprised

The officer approached the foreman, who pointed out Chris. The police then informed him rather roughly that he was under arrest. When the bewildered 22-year-old asked them what they were arresting him for, they replied with a smarmy “don’t act like you don’t know what we’re talking about.” The thing was, he really didn’t know what they were talking about.

Accusations

It wasn’t until they hauled him into the police station and into the interrogation chamber that Chris learned the truth. He had been accused of burglary, but that was not all. He allegedly also had the intent to commit other, more serious crimes as well, according to them anyway. He had no idea what they were talking about or why it was happening to him.

Hauled In, Let Out

After that, the officers hauled Chris off to Williamstown County Jail. He was arraigned and given a bail of $150,000. Knowing that he was innocent, his family posted the $150,000 and he was released. Unfortunately for him, he still didn’t know exactly who he had burglarized or what else they believed he had planned to do.

99 Years

From there, Chris went home to think about the potentially disastrous fate that awaited him. By this point, he had been officially charged with first-degree felony burglary of a habitation, with intent to commit additional felonies. If he was convicted, the 22-year-old could end up serving up to 99 years in prison.

Charged Regardless

Despite having a pretty solid alibi, the authorities had no problem charging him. As it happened, they’d actually charged him before they’d even taken him to the station. This was particularly odd considering police usually interview suspects before charging them. Nevertheless, the severity of his alleged crimes evidently gave them a reason to ignore protocol.

Learning Later

His parents, having posted a pretty significant amount for his bond, were now on a mission to prove their son’s innocence. In the course of their own investigation, they learned that Chris’ accuser was someone he had known personally. The accusations came from his ex-girlfriend, someone he hadn’t seen since he graduated high school.

Ex-Accuser

Yes, Chris’ accuser was a girl he hadn’t seen or spoken to in more than four years. She was one of his ex-girlfriends, a woman he hadn’t dated since high school. And though police hadn’t known it at the time, she had fabricated the whole crime just to get him into trouble. Though he couldn’t have told you why.

Racking his Brain

Chris racked his brain over the next few days, trying to figure out when he’d last spoke to the woman, much less seen her. Regardless of what he and his parents knew, however, the girl’s story was shocking enough that if he couldn’t prove his alibi, the court would most certainly throw the book at him.

Break-In

Chris’ accuser said that he broke into her home in Temple and began an altercation. The two began to fight, vases were smashed, items were taken, and eventually, she fell to his strength. When she was prone, Chris allegedly pulled out a box cutter and sliced an X into her chest as a memento. The angry, red wound and her own tears had been enough to convince the police.

Staged

Of course, the whole altercation had merely been staged to look like a violent confrontation. She had broken her own vase, thrown items around her home, and knocked over furniture so it looked like a struggle. As to why she had done this thing, that mystery still remained to be solved. In the meantime, Chris had to clear his name.

Miles Away

Luckily for the harried lumberyard worker, he had been more than 65 miles away from Temple when the alleged attack occurred. He and his mom Erin had been staying at the Austin hotel that night and they’d even taken a picture of the impromptu getaway as well. As long as he had that selfie, his innocence was assured.

Selfie Evidence

Chris’ alibi evidence included a few time-stamped, geolocated photos of his night in Austin. This, along with the sworn affidavits of the people he had been with on that night, was more than enough to exonerate him. Erin Precopia knew where her son was and so did several others, it was a rock-solid alibi.

Fortune Favors

Eventually, the time came for Rick Flores, Chris’ lawyer, to address the charges. He brought forward a motion to dismiss. “He was very fortunate that she chose a date and time that he just happened to have a rock-solid alibi for,” Flores told the Sun. “He and I have talked many times about how lucky he is, whether you believe in a higher power or good old-fashioned luck.”

Nine Months Later

In the end, Flores had been right about Chris’ luck. Nine months after the arrest, the police dropped the charges against him. The selfie had been more than enough to secure his alibi. But Bell County prosecutors still had a problem on their hands. Someone had lied to the police and disrupted a young man’s life. So what was her fate in all this?

No Charges for Her

Firstly, it must be understood that Chris’ accuser’s identity was not immediately made public. This is due to the fact that despite her lies, she is not being charged with any crime. Though she eventually admitted that her rocky relationship with Chris was what caused her to make up such a vindictive lie. The Bell County prosecutors seemed to be at a loss when it came to taking action against her.

Admission

After Flores presented the evidence and the charges were dropped, the district attorney admitted their mistake … sort of. Rather, they admitted how difficult situations like this are to properly prosecute. “We are always willing to listen and examine new information, and that’s exactly what we did in this case,” explained Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza.

No Black or White

Garza went on to discuss how most of the time, the courts deal in grey matters. Nothing is ever truly black or white, but they had to err on the side of caution if Chris Precopia was truly a dangerous criminal out on the loose. It was prudent thinking. It was just handled poorly by everyone involved.

Not the Same

Regardless of their “good intentions,” Chris’ suffering at the hands of the courts has had something of a negative effect on his personality. Even his mother admits that his change in demeanor has broken her heart. Chris is just not the same young man he was a year and a half ago.

Ignoring the Liars

Nevertheless, Chris Precopia is ready to move on with his life. “I’m ready to actually live my life, the way I want to, without having any kind of worry that this can come back and hurt me,” he told KVUE. Here’s hoping both he and the ex-girlfriend stay well clear of one another in the future.

Wrongly-Accused Man Saved By Seemingly Innocuous Selfie is an article from: LifeDaily

The impact of inspiration in our lives is sometimes difficult to put into words. When we are inspired, it lights a fire within us that drives us closer to our dreams, it can be developed from anything that reignites our hope and faith in humanity, and it encourages us to unite for the greater good.

In 2013, the entire city of San Francisco came together in an inspirational tale of magnificent proportion. And from their efforts, a little boy’s life would change forever…

Full Of Life

Miles Scott Batkid Story — Warner Bros. Pictures / YouTube

Miles was just like any other vibrant toddler, full of life and curiosities about the world around him. Spending his days on his family’s farm in Tulelake, California, Miles loved exploring the animals and rural environment around him. But, there was one thing he loved more than his adventures on the farm, and it was his love for the superhero, Batman.

Favorite Superhero

Miles and his dad shared a nightly routine of sitting in the couch and watching an episode of Adam West’s Batman series. Between Batman themed pajamas, slippers, bedding, and much more, the caped superhero had officially taken over their home. And when everything in life was going wonderfully, shy of Miles’ second birthday, his parents noticed a drastic change in their little boy.

The Shocking News

In the blink of an eye, the lives of Miles and his family had gone from completely happy and normal to complete devastation. One doctor’s appointment had changed the entire course of their lives. Miles went from being a healthy, active boy to feeling lethargic and unwell.

The Diagnosis

After running tests and blood-work, doctors had made a heart wrenching discovery. Miles had leukemia, the most common type of cancer in children and teens. The unexpected diagnosis of their little boy was utterly devastating.

Harsh Treatment

After months of chemotherapy and radiation, little Miles had become increasingly weak and agonized. At such a young age, it had become difficult trying to explain to little Miles why he had to suffer. And when Miles’ pain and tears would heighten, his parents, Nick and Natalie, knew what to do to cheer him up.

A Wish

Watching Batman would light up his face, and bring out a smile every time. After years of battling the crippling disease, Miles had just turned five, and although he had grown, his love for Batman remained. Close to the end of his treatment and in remission, Nick and Natalie asked their little boy what he had wished for, and without any hesitation, he wanted to be his hero, Batman.

Five Year Mark

Reaching the five year mark in remission is a significant milestone for patients given it can mean a positive future prognosis. His wish also marked the end of extremely painful and invasive treatments. His mom, Natalie, said at the time, “This wish has meant closure for our family and an end to over three years of putting toxic drugs in our son’s body.”

Make A Wish Foundation

So, Nick and Natalie reached out to the Make A Wish Foundation and asked if they could come up with a plan together to make Miles into a real life superhero, Batman of course. To their excitement, Make A Wish not only responded with a yes, but their magnificent idea would make history.

Volunteers Needed

Patricia Wilson, head of the foundation in the Bay Area, wanted him to spend a day saving San Francisco. Patricia began putting the call out to volunteers to help turn San Francisco into Gotham City for a day for Miles. What happened next was both amazing and wonderfully surprising.

Outpour Of Help

The foundation was flooded with offers of help, so many that Patricia found herself having to turn volunteers away. They originally thought they would have no more than 200 people come forward, but boy were they wrong. A local man offered his Lamborghini to become the famous Batmobile. Another local woman offered to be the “damsel in distress.”

City United

The police gladly cooperated, so did countless local merchants, and so did the local paper. Word of the foundation’s efforts spread quickly on social media, and soon what began as a small effort to make a 5-year-old boy a hero for the day turned into a citywide extravaganza, with support and volunteers coming in from all over.

Gotham City

With the help of the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, the San Francisco Police and Fire Departments, the San Francisco Giants and countless others, San Francisco turned into Gotham City to help provide one brave boy the chance to forget his illness for a day. The San Francisco Chronicle produced a special edition of the newspaper the day of his wish, and even astronauts on the International Space Station were watching and sending messages of encouragement.

Social Media Frenzy

More than 25,000 people crowded the city’s streets to take part in Miles’ Make A Wish dream to be his favorite superhero for a day. An estimated two billion people followed his heroics on social media, including President Obama. The little caped-crusader’s wish resonated with so many people that the hashtags #SfBatKid and #BatKid went viral.

Might Be Overwhelmed

As events took on a life of their own, Miles’ parents feared he’d be too shy and wouldn’t know what to do about all the craziness swirling around him. Enter Eric Johnston, who assumed the identity of Batman, and spent time with Miles to put him at ease. The Batman to Miles’ Batkid was a world famous video game programmer who helped create some of the games you know and, in some cases, deeply love and fondly remember.

A Real Life Superhero

Miles had turned into a real life superhero, as Batkid. San Francisco was beset by a wave of crime on Friday, as a woman was taken hostage and tied to cable car tracks, a criminal calling himself the Riddler attempted to rob a bank vault, and a miscreant known as Penguin generally made a nuisance of himself in the downtown area.

The Batmobile

Miles’s day began with a fraught message from police chief Greg Suhr, alerting “Batkid” to the various criminal activities and pleading with him to help the city fight off the criminals. Miles was about to lose to the criminals, but Batman came to his rescue in the infamous Batmobile.

Keys To The City

As thousand watched from the sidelines, Batkid and Batman zipped from location to location, saving a damsel in distress, stopping the Riddler and capturing the Penguin at AT&T Park. At the end of the day, Batkid was able to save his beloved city from the villains and received the keys to the city from grateful San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.

The Movie

Now the legendary pint-sized superhero is hitting the big screen in Batkid Begins. This time, Batkid’s fans are getting the whole story. “That event rocked my world,” says Batkid Begins director Dana Nachman. “People saw bits and pieces of this day and fell in love with Miles and the people who made it happen. My goal is to take you behind-the-scenes and see how and why it happened.”

An Inspiration

It doesn’t end there. Julia Roberts plans to produce and star in a movie based on Batkid Begins, keeping the feel-good memory alive. Millions of others around the world have also been inspired by the heart felt story of Miles. Miles’ life has become an inspiration for thousands across the globe to play a more active role in helping children in similar situations.

Where is Miles Now?

Many people ask if Miles is still cancer free and the answer is a resounding yes! Since his crime fighting day five years ago, Miles has returned to being a typical kid, playing little league, going to school, helping his family farm, and even selling his first market goat in the local fair. Now, 10 years old and in fifth grade, Miles loves science and robotics.

Boy With Cancer Is Granted The Wish Of A Lifetime By An Entire City is an article from: LifeDaily

It’s fairly common for Americans seeking discounted plastic surgery to travel outside the US. By traveling abroad, patients can save up to 80 percent for plastic surgery, depending on the procedure and country.

While many Americans would never consider going overseas for a knee replacement, they don’t hesitate as much with cosmetic surgery. The drawbacks, however, can be dangerous. Take a look at what happened to the woman in the following story…

Mexico

When 36-year-old Laura Avila, of Dallas, Texas, decided she wanted a nose job, she hopped on a plane to Mexico for the procedure. The procedure’s cost in Mexico is around a third of what it would cost in the US.

Rhinoplasty

She booked an appointment for the rhinoplasty procedure on October 30, 2018, at the Rino Center in Juarez, Mexico. Avila’s supportive fiance, Enrique Cruz, traveled with her to be by her side for the big operation.

Surgery Center

From the moment they arrived at the surgery center, the nightmare began even before the procedure. Avila was administered anesthesia via her spine and the anesthesia traveled to her brain, instead of downward throughout her body, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

Coma

Within moments, Avila went into cardiac arrest and hospital officials were forced to place her into a medically induced coma to prevent further brain damage. While this was happening, her fiance was not informed about the severity of the situation.

Operating Room

Cruz told WFAA, “I was kind of getting upset and worried because they would not let me see her or anything.” For eight hours, she laid in a room and Cruz was only told that her blood pressure had dropped and they couldn’t perform the operation.

Anesthesia

“They injected anesthesia in her spine at the clinic and instead of flowing down her body, it went into her brain which caused severe swelling,” said Avila’s sister Angie. Eventually, a doctor from the Juarez hospital was called to the clinic and Cruz said he wanted Avila moved to the hospital immediately.

Cardiac Arrest

“That’s when they told us, ‘oh, by the way, she had a cardiac arrest,’” said Cruz. Avila then spent four days in a Mexican hospital as her family fought to move her to a hospital in the US. Hospital officials in Mexico refused to sign her transfers papers until the family paid the bill.

Hospital

“The hospital basically held us hostage because we wouldn’t pay the full amount,” said the sister. They were finally able to get her taken by ambulance to a hospital in El Paso, but they didn’t have the critical medical records they needed.

Brain Damage

Hours later, doctors shared the grim news with the family. “They say she suffered severe brain damage so much that she will never be our Laura again,” said Angie. The family was then given the choice to take her off life support or put feeding and breathing tubes in to keep her alive.

Prayer

“They told us she could never be able to walk or eat for herself again or speak,” said Angie. The family continued to pray for a miracle and Cruz said, “really we want a second opinion.” They desperately wanted to transfer Avila to another hospital but the family said that three major hospitals in Dallas have turned them away.

GoFundMe

Even though she is a Dallas resident, they refused to take her because she has no insurance. Angie Avila set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for her sister’s medical expenses. “It is with a heavy heart that I request your prayers and assistance in this great time of need. My sister Laura Avila has endured a tragedy that has been very heavy on our family,” Angie wrote.

A Woman Who Exudes Life

“If you know or have met Laura, you know she gives us all life. Laura exudes love, life, laughter, joy, selflessness, enlightenment, passion, friendship, loyalty, forgiveness, wisdom, and so much more,” she added. “Without Laura, I would not be where I am today. She is my sister, a second mom to me, my best friend, and my #1 fan.” Thanks to the GoFundMe, Angie was able to raise $81,710 on behalf of her sister.

Second Opinion

Unfortunately, despite the generous donations, Avila’s health was rapidly declining. Desperate for a second opinion on her condition, the family wanted Avila transferred to the Parkland Medical hospital in Dallas. But, they have “denied her a second time, despite the fact that it is a public hospital and she is a Dallas resident who pays taxes.”

Tragic Death

After they moved Avila across a border to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, Angie informed family and friends that her sister had passed away. “My heart aches, and I truly don’t know how or if I’ll ever overcome this pain,” Angie wrote. “I’m kind of numb right now with everything that is going on and trying to be strong for the family,” Cruz said.

Justice For Laura

“This morning my tiny dancer passed to the other side. I knew it was coming but it still hit me unexpectedly … My next mission is justice for Laura. After paying all the hospital bills and giving some financial support to her family, I will tenaciously be pursuing the lawsuit against the criminals that killed her,” Cruz added.

Memorial Service In Tulum, Mexico

Cruz told a CBS affiliate that he and Avila’s family have “already hired some attorneys. … We’re after the negligence and now murder.” Cruz also planned memorial service in Tulum, Mexico, where the couple was supposed to wed and he will also spread her ashes there. “The ocean of Tulum [is] where we first fell in love … She loved to sing. She loved to dance.”

Cross-Border Discount Surgery

The family’s attorney, Larry Friedman, urged others to think about Avila before traveling to Mexico to save money on medical procedures. “So that her death is not in vain, people should think of Laura before they look for cross-border discount surgery,” Friedman told WFAA.

Investigation

“They should do their homework and investigate the experience, training and track record of anyone BEFORE they sign up. Always LOOK before you leap!” Since her death, CBS News reported that their news correspondent Anna Werner spoke to a prosecutor in Mexico who is now handling an investigation into the Rino Center where Laura was treated.

Raid

No formal charges have been filed as of yet, but the clinic has been raided. Since the clinic did not provide Avila’s medical records to the Mexican government, Angie alleged on Facebook that “as a result, they were raided … The documents are under review.”

Large Public Health Issue

Dr. Dennis Orgill, the medical director of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Wound Care Center in Boston, told The Chicago Tribune that people are motivated to leave the country for medical procedures because the cost is significantly cheaper. Still, he said, “Some surgeons in these countries are excellent, but sometimes it is hard for patients to tell the difference by looking on the Internet.”

Texas Fiancée in Coma After Mexico Surgery Dies Following Month-Long Battle on Life Support is an article from: LifeDaily

When a child is sick or in pain, a parent will do whatever it takes to help their child get better. Unfortunately, parents sometimes are powerless to ease their child’s suffering.

For a couple from California, the only thing worse than having a sick son was not being able to do anything to help him. Their desperate search for help began when their son’s condition turned out to be worse than they thought…

A Red Flag

Kyle Crawford Story — sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

When Kyle Crawford was just four years old, his parents, David Crawford and Angela Kwan, started noticing an unusual amount of bruises on their son. At first, they thought it was just from playing outside. However, when the excessive bruising didn’t stop, they started to get worried.

Time To See A Doctor

At one point, the couple from San Mateo, California, brought their 4-year-old in to see a doctor. They were worried that the bruising was a sign that Kyle was sick or something serious was wrong. Yet the doctor brushed off their concerns and assured them nothing was wrong.

Nothing To Worry About

According to Crawford and Kwan, the doctor told them they had nothing to worry about. Bruising was common and to be expected for an active young boy like Kyle. At first, the explanation made sense and their worries faded away. But the assurance didn’t last long.

A Bad Ending To A Dream Vacation

Not long after, the family took a trip to Disneyland. Everything was going great until the last day of the dream vacation. Crawford and Kwan noticed that Kyle’s lips started bleeding. Because it was the last day of the trip, the couple decided they would wait until they were home to bring him to the doctor.

A Bad Sign

Shortly after arriving at home, however, Kyle started vomiting blood. Crawford and Kwan knew that wasn’t normal and that their instincts had been right all along. Something was very wrong with their 4-year-old. Rather than wasting any more time, the couple brought Kyle straight to the hospital.

Getting Some Answers

Once at the emergency room, the terrified parents described all of Kyle’s symptoms to the nurses and doctors. The team performed several tests, and soon after they had a diagnosis. According to Crawford and Kwan, they were told that their son was suffering from a rare and dangerous condition.

The Diagnosis

Kyle was diagnosed with a severe form of aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease where the body stops creating red blood cells. If it was left untreated, it meant that a simple infection that most kids’ immune systems would be able to fight off could actually kill Kyle.

The Bad News

Kyle’s parents were glad they discovered Kyle was sick before it had gotten to that point. However, doctors then broke the bad news to them. The only way Kyle could get better from severe aplastic anemia was if he underwent a bone marrow transplant.

An Added Challenge

Normally, finding a matching bone marrow donor is an extremely difficult and lengthy process. According to the doctors, Kyle’s case was even more challenging because he was half Caucasian and half Chinese. Doctors hoped they would find a donor within their family, but sadly, no one came back as a match.

Buying More TIme

To buy Kyle more time, doctors put Kyle on cyclosporine, a drug that suppresses the immune cells’ activity that damage his bone marrow. Unfortunately, however, this was only a temporary fix. The drug can cause permanent organ damage if used for too long.

Running Out Of TIme

By the summer of 2014, doctors explained they had to take Kyle off the drug. It was too risky for him to continue taking them as the drug would soon start damaging his vital organs. Now, the pressure was really on to find a matching bone marrow donor.

The Search Continues

Kyle’s parents desperately held donor registration events in the hopes that someone they recruited to help would be a donor. They also reached out to Be The Match, the world’s largest bone marrow donor registry, which is located in Minneapolis and has been connecting donors with patients needing bone marrow transplants for 25 years.

Slim Odds

After speaking to Be The Match, however, the family was struck by how hard it would be to find a donor for Kyle. According to the registry, only four percent of donors are mixed race. After searching through their registry, however, Be The Match miraculously found a match for Kyle.

The Match

In August 2014, Be The Match contacted Lieutenant Kawika Segundo. Segundo, an Iraq War veteran and father of two, is Caucasian, Chinese, and Hawaiian. At that time, he had been working as the department head for the administration department for Naval Health Clinic Annapolis.

A Good Deed

In 2009, however, he had joined the C.CW. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program while he was undergoing radiation health tech training. When he received a call that August day in 2014, he had almost completely forgotten about his good deed several years before.

An Unusual Phone Call

“When I got the call, I thought it must be a telemarketer, so I was considering to not pick it up,” Segundo told Maui News. “I picked it up defensively and they immediately told me, ‘Hey we got this kid and you’re found to be a probable match. Is that something you’d be interested in?”

Committing To Help

Segundo was interested in helping out the 7-year-old across the country but had to get approval from both his wife and from his chain of command since harvesting bone marrow is considered an elective surgery. With their approval, he committed to helping save Kyle’s life. “If it wasn’t for the military, I wouldn’t have been in that drive, so I don’t know what the chances would have been for Kyle to find a match,” Segundo said.

The Transplant

On September 23, 2014, Segundo underwent surgery to extract bone marrow from his hip at the Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Kyle was waiting desperately for the bone marrow after undergoing intense chemotherapy and radiation to wipe out his immune system so his body wouldn’t reject the donation.

A Year Later

Thankfully, the transplant was a success and Kyle has since been able to return to the school and is even back to playing sports. A year after the transplant, Kyle was finally able to meet the war hero who had become his personal hero. “I’ve done a lot of cool stuff in the military, but nothing really compares to this,” Segundo said. “This is really life-changing being able to save somebody’s life.” During their first meeting, Segundo even gave Kyle the Purple Heart he received for his service in Iraq. “There are many heroes in this world,” he told Kyle.

Bonded For Life

Now, the two families are bonded for life and take family vacations together to Hawaii, where Segundo grew up and where Kyle’s parents went on their honeymoon. “I told him he is now part of our ohana,” Kwan told Maui News. “How do you thank somebody who saved your son’s life? As a mother, you just can’t thank somebody enough,” she added about her family’s hero. “I don’t even know what to do, he’s just such an awesome guy. It’s literally like we won the lottery. It was that slim.”

US Soldier Is Perfect Match For 7-Year-Old Boy Who Needs Bone Marrow Transplant is an article from: LifeDaily

When San Diego teen, 17-year-old Christopher Alexis Gomez and his best friend, 18-year-old Juan Suarez-Ojeda visited Tijuana in Mexico for a vacation they knew that the area they were staying in had a high crime rate.

The friends had no criminal record and were not known to authorities in Mexico. Apart from a questionable charge for car theft back in the US, these friends appeared to be on vacation, though the trip didn’t go as planned…

High School

Juan Suarez-Ojeda Story — shutterstock.com

While Gomez was in his senior year at O’Farrell Charter High School, he was far more interested in pursuing his passion for Football than anything else. His buddy Suarez-Ojeda was a little more studious than his friend but not by much. Suarez-Ojeda had also graduated from Ingenuity Charter School on the shared Encanto campus earlier this year. A break was coming up, so the two teens decided to book a vacation to Tijuana in Mexico. They had Mexican roots and had visited family in the country before.

High-Crime

Tijuana is a border city in Mexico, just south of California. It’s main street, called Avenida Revolución, is full of souvenir shops for tourists as well as many lively bars and restaurants offering local cuisine at reasonable prices. Despite some of its charm though, this border city is rife with crime and enjoys the notorious honor of having one of the highest murder rates in Mexico.

Lomas Verdes

Why the pair decided to find accommodation in the dangerous Lomas Verdes neighborhood is anyone’s guess. While the area is considered middle-class, it is also known to be a high-crime area in central Tijuana with much drug-dealing and domestic violence. The area is known as a “bedroom community” as the majority of the residents living there commute to México City for work.

Victims Found

Just a few days after the two friends arrived at their holiday destination they were found murdered outside the complex where they were staying. The semi-naked bodies of the two teens and a third local teen, having all been shot execution-style by a single bullet to the head were found. The bodies were found during the early hours of the morning, and no witnesses had seen or heard anything the night before.

Ongoing Investigation

When Jorge Alvarez, the head of the Baja California Attorney General’s Office in Tijuana, gave a press conference on the case, he was obviously hiding some vital information. He said that preliminary information indicated that the two San Diegans knew the neighborhood where they were killed well. They had family there and were visiting them during their trip.

Frequent Visits

Alvarez also confirmed to reporters in a heated exchange of questions and answers that the teens visited the area regularly. “They did not live there, but they came to visit family members, one of them apparently did so frequently,” Alvarez said according to a San Diego Union-Tribune report.

Third Victim

Angel Said Robles was a 17-year-old Tijuana high-schooler was also murdered at the same place, but the connection between Robles and the two American teens was unclear. They knew each other, as confirmed by Gomez’s cousin, Katheryn Garcia, but the connection between the three was tenuous and they were likely just good friends.

Contradicting Stories

Despite the police’s take that Gomez had visited Tijuana many times before, his cousin Garcia claimed that he had never visited the city before. She claimed Gomez was raised in San Diego and had only visited Mexico once. On that trip, he traveled with his family to visit other family members in Morelia, the capital of the central state of Michoacan, she said.

Innocent Boy

Garcia described her cousin as “an innocent boy” who was the “sweetest, most selfless person.” He had recently gotten a job cleaning cars at a parking lot near the San Diego International Airport and following graduation, planned to join the marines. “We’re all in disbelief that this happened,” Garcia said during a phone interview.

Barbecue Time

Gomez’s family reported that Gomez headed out Friday with Suarez-Ojeda, who was dating his sister. Robles joined the two friends, and the trio attended a barbecue with friends and family on that night at a residence in Ensenada. The San Diego teens never made it home, and when Robles called his mother, he told her the boys were safe but had lost their cellphones.

Frantic Search

As soon as the families contacted the Baja California authorities to report the teens missing, a frantic search was initiated to locate them. Tragically, at the same time approximately, the Tijuana police had found the bodies of three teens who had all been shot outside the Lomas Verdes apartments.

Some Hope

Before the bodies were positively identified, the families were holding on to hope that the boys were still alive. “We were still holding out hope it wasn’t them,” Garcia said. But as soon as Gomez’s uncle went to identify the bodies at the morgue, their worst fears were confirmed. The tragic news soon reached the administration and students of the O’Farrell Charter High School.

Pretty Devastating

Superintendent of the O’Farrell Charter School, Jonathan Dean, was also contacted by reporters following the incident. “It’s been pretty devastating for students and staff,” he said. “It’s a tough situation.” Meanwhile, Dean and his staff ensured that social workers and counselors were available for students should they wish to talk to someone. The school’s senior class of 135 students also held a meeting to discuss plans for a memorial service.

Good Kid

According to superintendent Dean, Gomez was a “really nice, good kid.” He explained that the teen was a leader during this year’s football team’s inaugural season and was even considering entering professional football at some point. According to John Van Houten, a former teacher and basketball coach at O’Farrell, Gomez also liked basketball and enjoyed coming to watch his friends play.

Hard Working

While Van Houten explained that Gomez came to all the school’s basketball games, his cousin explained that he was a hard worker and had high hopes for the future. “He was so hard working, always helping his parents out,” Garcia said. “Nobody had a bad thing to say about him, he was just so goofy, happy and always smiling,” she added.

Sad Story

Garcia spoke more about the tragedy that had befallen her family. “I know how this story sounds, like something that people hear on the news: You go to Tijuana, and this happens,” Garcia said. “But he was the most selfless, kindest boy ever … This shouldn’t have happened to him.” His freind, Suarez-Ojeda, did finally graduate too but he reportedly had issues at school.

Team Effort

When Suarez-Ojeda dropped out of school at O’Farrell, Dean called his mother in for a meeting. He said she was instrumental in convincing him to enroll at Ingenuity, an independent study program that shares a campus with O’Farrell. It was a team effort, but it paid off, and the teen received his high school diploma.

High Hopes

Robles’ uncle told reporters that his nephew attended the Jose Vasconcelos high school in Tijuana and worked part-time as a barista at a coffee shop to make some extra cash. He was earning money to buy a car and had hoped to attend college to become an industrial engineer. “His name Angel was what he was to all his family,” his uncle said. “A great kid with good grades in school, kind, lovable. He will be missed.”

Mistaken Identity

The uncle explained that the family felt the murder must have been a case of mistaken identity. “His whole family is broken,” he said. In the meantime, Mexican officials say they are working closely with US authorities. “When we have this type of incident, we work together with US authorities,” Alvarez said. “They help us, and we help them.”

Raising Funds

When the faculty at O’Farrell found out that the families barely had enough cash to fly the teens home for burial, they immediately set up a GoFundMe page to help out. “We are asking for donations to help both families cover the funeral arrangements and any other unexpected costs,” reads the page. The case is ongoing as Mexican authorities do what they can to locate and apprehend the perpetrators of this horrific triple-murder.

San Diego Teens Vacation In Mexico Never To Return is an article from: LifeDaily

When world-renowned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was caught by law enforcement, everyone knew that a domino effect would ensue. After all, once a drug lord is finally caught there are friends, accomplices and business partners who also certainly had some involvement.

Due to the nature of the charges and sentences these men face, it’s common for them to do what they can to make themselves undetectable to the cops. One accomplice of El Chapo’s, a man named Juan Carlos Ramírez Abadía, who was nicknamed Chupeta, went to remarkably astonishing lengths to avoid capture. Just how much this man did to stay hidden is something to behold…

North Valley Cartel

Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia Story — shutterstock.com

Abadia was one of the main leaders of the North Valley Cartel. This cartel was involved in millions of dollars of drug trafficking but also murder and RICO charges in the US. According to police, Abadia was also involved in extensive money laundering as well as heroin trafficking. This man amassed a personal estate of $1.8 billion according to the US Department of State but was able to avoid law enforcement for years.

Dodging Cops

Abadia and his cohorts were masters of disguise as well as being drug trafficking experts. They went to great lengths not to be caught by the police and would stop at nothing to ensure that remained the case. But according to Adam J. Szubin, Director of the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Abadia was “one of the most powerful and most elusive drug traffickers in Colombia.”

Cali Cartel

While El Chapo had been around for a while, Abadia entered the drug trafficking scene in 1986 under the so-called Cali Cartel. By the mid-1990s, Abadia had smuggled thousands of kilos of cocaine into San Antonio and Los Angeles. Abadia was the youngest of the members of the cartel and was not to be reckoned with as he had a propensity for violence.

Arrests Made

By January 2007, Colombian officials stepped up efforts to combat the drug cartels who were seemingly running free. They carried out some targeted raids on their financial holdings and seized $54 million in cash and gold in just one week, hidden in buildings in the south-eastern portion of Cali. The residents of the homes where the money was found were taken into custody, but the $54 million was but a drop in the ocean of Abadia’s $1.8 billion fortune.

Finding Abadia

In August 2007, Abadia was arrested in an exclusive area of Brazil called Aldeia da Serra. He sat in jail for years until he was extradited to the US by the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil in 2008. He was finally extradited in August 2008. An auction of his possessions followed his arrest as hundreds of Brazilians stood in line to get a piece of his massive estate.

El Chapo Trial

During the trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, defense lawyers claimed they intended to discredit prosecution witnesses who they called “criminal liars” who would say anything to convict their client and come to a deal with the prosecution. First on the stand was Abadia, who was hammered for more than an hour by defense lawyers.

Killings Ordered

As well as admitting to the assassination of a man in Queens, Abadia was accused in the federal court in Brooklyn of being involved in the murders of 150 people. He even kept meticulous financial records which listed the costs of those killings. Guzmán’s lawyer William Purpura showed jurors an image of a business ledger and asked Abadia if an entry referred to “the murders of three people.” He said, “That’s correct.” He claimed not to remember the victim’s names but admitted the cost of the killings was $45,000.

Admitting Guilt

In court, through an interpreter, Abadia admitted ordering the killing of a brother of a cartel member who he believed was a snitch. He even admitted openly that that hit specifically cost exactly $338,776. When he was asked to explain why that hit cost so much more than the others, he said, “It was a big group of hit men who took part in that killing.”

Brutal Man

It soon became clear that Abadia would stop at nothing to protect his business and financial interests. He admitted in court that he invited the cartel member named Tocayo to a meeting where he and his associates were shot and killed. Abadia admitted that the bodies of the men were thrown into the back of a pickup truck and disposed of accordingly.

Violence Necessary

Attorneys were shocked by the matter-of-fact way in which Abadia spoke about murder and violence. After acknowledging that he killed a man by shooting him in the face at the distance of one meter, he told the court, “It’s impossible to be the leader of a cartel in Colombia without violence,” making out like he was just doing his job and that this was normal behavior.

Discrediting Witnesses

The whole effort from Guzman’s defense team was to attempt to discredit Abadia to make his claims against Guzman of drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and other crimes not credible. The attorney then turned his attention to Abadia’s face, which had been through extensive plastic surgery.

Fooling Nobody

Despite thousands of dollars and hours under the plastic surgeon’s knife, Abadia was fooling no one. He was traced by US and Brazilian authorities to a hideout in an upscale neighborhood outside São Paulo and arrested. He was finally identified by prosecutors using voice-recognition technology.

Bribing Officials

Abadia admitted openly that he was a liar. He promised Colombian authorities that he would dismantle his cartel, stop selling cocaine and cooperate with them in exchange for a lighter prison sentence, but he never kept that promise. “Would you lie to avoid arrest, avoid extradition, avoid going to prison?” the attorney asked. “At that time, of course, I lied,” replied Abadia.

Maximum Sentence

At the age of 55, Abadia is all set to receive the maximum sentence of 30 years for a guilty plea he made back in 2010. That sentence could be reduced to 25 years if it’s deemed that the suspect cooperated and was telling the truth. But Abadia is the third drug kingpin to implicate Guzman as the ringleader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

Different Methods

Abadia explained to jurors that he and Guzman, as well as many others, used different methods to smuggle cocaine from Colombia, via Mexico to the US. In the early 90s, drug shipments were mainly transported on planes. But after authorities caught on to this method of smuggling, the cartels agreed to shift the shipments to Pacific Ocean shrimp boats.

Virgin Method

The cartel members called the shrimp boats a “virgin method,” as they had no idea whether it would prove to be lucrative or not. According to Abadia, Guzman requested he joined him and others in seeking approval for this shipment method from Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, a respected member of the crime group whose nickname was El Azul. But once the game was up, Abadia wanted to do whatever he could to not be caught by the cops.

Three Surgeries

When Abadia was asked in court about his altered appearance, he explained that his jawbone, cheekbones, eyes, mouth, ears, and nose were all altered during at least three rounds of plastic surgery. But Abadia’s success was mainly down to a meeting he had with Guzman at a hotel in Mexico where the men agreed to work together.

Purest Product

Abadia recalled in court that when Guzman told him he wanted the “purest product possible,” he was happy to oblige due to wanting “a reputation for myself for my cocaine being so good,” he said. Guzman also asked for a larger cut of the proceeds as his network was so large and successful. “I’m a lot faster. You’ll see,” he recalled Guzman bragging.

Positive Identification

For the most part, the plastic surgery had worked. Abadia looked so different that when cops finally caught up with him, they needed to use voice recognition to confirm it was the suspect as no one was sure. Once they confirmed it was him, that extensive and painful plastic surgery accounted for nothing and was pointless.

Going Down

While law enforcement across South America as well as in the States was looking for these cartel members for years, they were pleased that they were finally caught. Now, authorities in the US have to carefully play a delicate cat and mouse game to get the cartel members to testify against each other so that the maximum sentences can be handed down to men who ruined the lives of thousands of people and took the lives of others.

Colombian Drug Lord Undergoes Extensive Plastic Surgery To Avoid Capture is an article from: LifeDaily

The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple has been a fascination in India for many years and one that involves both mystery and fear. The six chambers that reside in the Temple are known to have billions, if not trillions, in gold, diamonds, rubies, gems, and other precious stones.

All but one of the six chambers has been opened, and legend has it that anyone who opens the final treasure chamber will be met with disastrous results…

Sree Padmanabhaswamy

Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in India is a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The temple is one of the 108 centers of worship in Vaishnavism. It’s renown from the early medieval Tamil literature (6th-9th centuries), with structural additions made throughout the 16th century.

Lord Padmanabhaswamy

The temple and its assets belong to Lord Padmanabhaswamy and were controlled by a trust headed by the Travancore royal family for a long time. However, the Supreme Court of India has since removed the Travancore royal family from leading the management of the Temple.

Temple

The Temple stands as a replica of the famous Sri Adikesavaperumal Temple at Thiruvattar and only Hindus are allowed to enter. Inside of the temple, Sri Padmanabha reclines on the serpent Anantha or Adi Sesha. The serpent has five hoods which are facing inwards and this is meant to signify contemplation.

Serpent

“The Lord’s right hand is placed over a Shiva lingam. Sridevi, the Goddess of Prosperity and Bhudevi the Goddess of Earth, two consorts of Vishnu are by his side. Brahma emerges on a lotus, which emanates from the navel of the Lord,” according to Forbes contributor Jim Dobson.

Trip To India

While Dobson was traveling throughout India, he visited Thiruvanathapuram on the southwest coast, and couldn’t help but stop by to see the famed Temple. “Visiting the temple, I was awestruck at its decadence and gold-plated glory. This was after all the richest temple in the world,” he said.

Six Chambers

Among the six chambers in the Temple, Chamber B is not part of the Temple Treasury, but it does house an idol of Sri Padmanabha and many valuables. Since Dobson’s article was published in 2015, the Supreme Court of India and its seven-member committee have open six of the secrets vaults.

Secret Vaults

The secret vaults found 20 feet underground, contained approximately $22 billion in treasure, including golden elephants, golden idols, and idols wearing 18-foot diamond necklaces. There was also many bags of gold coins from around the world and ceremonial costumes including 66-pound solid gold coconut shells studded with rubies and emeralds.

Vault A

“After my visit, it was announced that a hidden treasure vault had been discovered beyond the already well-documented Vault B inside,” Dobson said. In an inventory list from August 2014, Vault A contained 2,000 pounds of gold coins dating to around 200 B.C.

Billions In Treasure

A pure Golden Throne adorned with hundreds of diamonds and fully precious stones, meant as a seat for the 18-foot-long Deity was also discovered. In addition, there were solid gold crowns, all studded with diamonds, and many other precious stones.

Valuables

It’s estimated that the valuables have been accumulated in the temple over several thousands of years “having been donated to the Deity by various Dynasties and Kings,” Dobson said. In 2014, he wrote that Jake Halpern, a journalist with The New Yorker Magazine, conducted extensive interviews with the people who opened the vaults.

Vaults A & B

Halpern said, “The doors to Vaults A and B required multiple keys, which had been entrusted to Varma and the Temple’s current executive, V.K. Harikumar. The observers used the keys to open the metal-grille door to Vault B, and discovered a sturdy wooden door just behind it.”

Observers

The observers then entered a small room with a huge rectangular slab on the floor, resembling a toppled tombstone. “It took five men more than thirty minutes to move the slab. Beneath it they found a narrow, pitch-black passage, barely wide enough for an adult to get through, leading down a short flight of steps,” Halpern said.

Special Equipment

Before the observers descended, a team of firemen arrived and used special equipment to pump oxygen into the enclosure, and at the bottom of the stairs was the vault. One of the observers was a 59-year-old attorney named M. Balagovindan, and he recalled his first glimpse of the treasure.

Darkened Vault

“When they removed the granite stone, it was almost perfectly dark, except for a small amount of light coming in through the doorway behind us. As I looked into the darkened vault, what I saw looked like stars glittering in a night sky when there is no moon,” M. Balagovindan said.

Diamonds And Gems

“Diamonds and gems were sparkling, reflecting what little light there was. Much of the wealth had originally been stored in wooden boxes, but, with time, the boxes had cracked and turned to dust. And so the gems and gold were just sitting in piles on the dusty floor. It was amazing,” he added.

Chamber B

For many years, Chamber B has been considered as highly mysterious by astrologers of India. And with the mysteries and mythologies so many have heard about opening sacred tombs and temples such as this, it’s no surprise that whatever was behind Chamber B could be both highly valuable and highly dangerous…

Disaster

Dodson said that “If any human attempts are made with man-made technology to open the mysterious inner chamber beyond Chamber B, other than by chanting highly sacred and powerful ‘GARUDA MANTRAS,’ it is told that disasters are likely to occur in and around the Temple and throughout India and quite possibly the world.”

Unsuccessful Attempts

In a book titled “Travancore: A guidebook for the visitor,” written by Emily Gilchrist Hatch, she recalled a group of people who tried to open the vaults in 1931 and they to flee for their lives when they found the place infested with cobras. An earlier attempt was also unsuccessful in 1908.

Large Diamonds

However, when observers got a close look at Vault A, they discovered loose diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other stones. According to M. Balagovindan, the most impressive of the gems were the large diamonds, some of which were a hundred and ten carats “the size of a large thumb,” as he put it.

Investigation

Today, the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple is protected by metal detectors, security guards, and more than two hundred guards equipped with machine guns. In November 2015, the court was submitted a 500-page report pointing out instances of theft and grave mismanagement. The investigation could end up in higher courts or it could be dismissed. “The fear of the unknown is very real in India, and even Supreme Court judges are not immune to its legend,” Dobson said.

Richest Temple In India Holds Just As Much Mystery As It Does Wealth is an article from: LifeDaily