laughing

yoga can kinda be funny. i'm occasionally laughing in yoga. once i looked up and the teacher was like, "don't look at me" right before i'd fell. another time in a criminal justice class i'd mentioned offering to take a brother for a class so he'd get a feel for college.

run errands

i'm running errands tomorrow for my mom. since things are opening up she says it's time to get me outta the house. i'm like ok. i told a brother, "hey you'll posibly have to come get me tomorrow." he's like ok. mom still has to work so i've got to have someone pick me up and dop me off. it's a pain in the rear but i've gotta get outta the house. i told her a few days ago to make a list of things she needed around the area i'll be "running around" and i'll try getting them. i told her i'm low on yarn. she needs things and i agreed to get them.

Disappearance of Katrice Lee

Katrice Lee is a British person who has been missing since 28 November 1981. She was last seen, aged two, in Paderborn, West Germany. Background: Katrice Lee was born 28 November 1979, at the British Military Hospital in Rinteln, West Germany. Her father, Richard Lee, was a sergeant major in the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars of the British Army stationed in West Germany, along with her mother Sharon and her elder sister Natasha, who lived in the Schloß Neuhaus area of Paderborn. Disappearance: On 28 November 1981, Katrice's second birthday, the family decided to go to the nearby NAAFI shopping complex in Schloß Neuhaus to buy things for her birthday party. Katrice's elder sister Natasha decided that she did not want to go shopping, while her aunt Wendy and uncle Cliff, who also worked for the British Army, had come over from Bielefeld for the birthday party. Wendy went to the NAAFI complex with Katrice and her parents while Cliff stayed at home with Natasha. Ritchie Lee drove them to the NAAFI and waited for them in the car-park. The day was the last payday before Christmas, so the NAAFI complex was exceptionally busy. Katrice decided she did not want to ride in shopping cart, so she was carried around the supermarket by her mother Sharon, who placed her down at the checkout. Sharon briefly left the checkout before returning to find Katrice was nowhere to be seen. Her aunt Wendy thought Katrice had followed her mother down the aisle, but she had vanished. Description: Katrice had curly light brown hair, brown eyes, a pink birthmark slightly to the right of the base of her spine which looked like a rash, and strabismus in her left eye. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing red Wellington boots, a turquoise duffel coat, a green and blue tartan pinafore dress with frills around the shoulders, a white blouse underneath, and white tights. Despite spending her life in Germany, Katrice could only speak English. Investigation: The military police were effectively in charge, but had to negotiate with the German civil police because the NAAFI building was within a German town, not on military premises. Both the military and German police believed Katrice had fallen into the nearby River Lippe and drowned, but no body was ever discovered. The German police refused to go to the press, and it was six weeks before an item appeared in the local newspaper. The investigation produced little result, and despite dredging the river and conducting house-to-house inquiries, no trace of Katrice was found. Police re-opened the case in 2000, after computer technology helped them to form an image of how she could look now. People came forward who had never been interviewed, including a young man who had been standing behind the Lees at the checkout, and one of the checkout ladies. One woman also came forward to say that her boyfriend at the time, who was in the same regiment as Katrice's father, had confessed to murdering a child. The man now lived in Northumbria, and the military police interviewed him but he denied it, and the woman who gave the details died soon after, therefore ending the lead. Afterwards the military police told the family they thought he was probably a fantasist. Three possible sightings of Katrice Lee came after her story appeared on the BBC television show Missing Live, where during the show a digital rendering of the potential appearance of Katrice as a 29-year-old was shown. Natasha Lee, Katrice's elder sister, appeared on Crimewatch to highlight the appeal, after which an anonymous woman phoned and left a message on Richard Lee's answer machine, saying to "look for your daughter in France". The police took the answer machine tape away, but there was nothing more to the investigation. Major Kevin Bell-Walker, who was leading the inquiry, said: "With the advances in crime detection like search techniques, forensic archaeology and DNA profiling, it does suggest the case can be progressed after all this time". One line of enquiry followed by the police is that Katrice was intentionally abducted from the NAAFI complex, and has possibly been raised by another family in Germany, the United Kingdom, or elsewhere in Europe, unaware of her true identity. Lee was born with a distinctive condition in her left eye which would have required two medical operations to correct, they were appealing for medical personnel with knowledge of such operations to come forward if they had operated on a child. In April 2018, it was announced that the British Military police, in conjunction with the German police, would spend five weeks undertaking a forensic search on the banks of the Alme river. The search did not uncover any new information. In September 2019, a man living in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, was arrested in connection with her disappearance, though subsequently released without charge.

baby

one of my favorite little babies i used to play with was a chubby little one. she was small, fat and had a big jelly belly. she tried getting someone to pinch her belly. it was so cute. i loved her. my last day there i'd almost gotten taken home by her. she'd grabbed my fingers after a last hug. she was like, "ok Ms. Jackie let's go home." that was cute. i was like huggie? she ran to me 2x. the 2nd time she almost took me home with her. probably because i was super affectionate with her. she probably wanted that. once she'd waddled over to the swing where i was playing with a kid. her mom came and got her. she was like don't take me i want to play with my friend and teacher.

Disappearance of Sheila Fox

Sheila Fox (disappeared 18 August 1944) was an English girl whose disappearance at the age of six from Bolton, Lancashire, England has been called one of World War II England's most "baffling" mysteries. The press dubbed Fox "The Girl in the Green Mac". Circumstances: Fox was last seen leaving her school at 4:00 pm in Farnworth on 18 August 1944, presumably on her way home, to which she never arrived. Companions of Fox claimed to have seen her with a man outside a bakery, where some accounts stated the pair were walking together and others stated she was sitting on the upturned crossbars of a black bicycle he was riding. The subject seen with the unidentified man matched Fox's physical description and also wore the same clothes she had been last seen wearing. The man seen with Fox was described as a well-dressed, clean-shaven male of slim build between the ages of 25 and 30 years. One of the witnesses claimed to have spoken with her and stated Sheila said she was "going with this man" when asked where she was going. Due to the fact that Sheila Fox was described as very shy, it is believed she probably knew the man "very well" if she was to interact with him. Due to this, it is strongly believed that the individual responsible for the child's disappearance was someone that the victim was comfortable with. After this, no trace of Fox was ever reported again. Fox's parents stated that Sheila may have been attempting to meet with friends in London. Family members, greatly affected by the event, long hoped that she was still alive, as police were unable to find her body. Neighbours of the Fox family stated that their hopes later changed to speculations that the girl had been murdered. Investigation and aftermath: The case has always been treated as a missing person case, as no definitive evidence of murder, or even a body, has ever been found. On the night of her disappearance and the following days, extensive searches for Fox were conducted in the area by both members of the police force and volunteers. Despite their efforts, police were unable to find any evidence, including the clothing she was wearing, of where she and the man had gone. Newspapers covered the story though it was soon overshadowed by the events of World War II. An attempt was made in 1948 to link her disappearance with a "tall, thin man" wanted for stabbing two other children. Searches for Sheila were "expanded" in 2001, after police were notified by an individual claiming to have witnessed a twenty-year-old resident digging in the area around the time she had vanished, during the late hours of the night and had long suspected foul play was involved. This tip led to the case being reopened by investigators. The location was fairly close to where she lived. Residents expressed doubts that anything would be found, as earlier maintenance of the city sewers in the area had not unearthed any remains. The property, at the time, was owned by the man seen digging, who is now deceased. The man was convicted of a rape six years after the disappearance and had later been convicted of a child's sexual assault in the 1960s. It was later excavated manually by authorities in hopes of finding Fox's remains. The procedure, which began on 5 June 2001 and lasted a few days, was unsuccessful, as nothing of evidentiary value was discovered. The person of interest's son stated he had no knowledge of any circumstances requiring a police search. Some have connected the case to the murder of Quentin Smith, four years after Fox disappeared. Other similar notable cases include two attacks on schoolgirls of the same age as Fox in 1945 and 1948. These involved an individual bearing a knife, which was not consistent with the events leading up to Sheila Fox's disappearance and the perpetrator was never apprehended.

Bobby Joe Long

Robert Joseph Long, also known as Bobby Joe Long, was an American serial killer and rapist who was executed for the murder of Michelle Denise Simms. Long abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at least 10 women in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida during an eight-month period in 1984. He released one of his last victims, 17-year-old Lisa McVey, after raping her over a period of 26 hours. McVey provided information to the police that enabled them to track him down. Long was sentenced to death for two of the ten murders. He was executed by lethal injection on May 23, 2019. Early life: Long was born on October 14, 1953 in Kenova, West Virginia to Joe and Louetta Long. Long suffered multiple head injuries as a child. Long also had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother; he slept in her bed until he was a teenager, and resented her multiple short-term boyfriends. Long married his high school girlfriend in 1974, with whom he had two children before she filed for divorce in 1980. Prior to the Tampa Bay area murders, Long had committed at least 50 rapes as the "Classified Ad Rapist" in Fort Lauderdale, Ocala, Miami, and Dade County. Starting in 1981, Long answered classified ads for small appliances, and if he found a woman alone at home, he would rape her. Long was tried and convicted for rape in 1981 but requested a new trial, which was granted. The charges were later dropped. Before Long moved to Florida, he lived in Long Beach, California, on the 2500 Block of Eucalyptus Avenue, where he rented a room from a woman named Kathy. Long dated a 17-year-old girl across the street from his rented room. Long began contacting women through the Penny Saver and other classified ads. When Long found a woman alone, he asked to use the bathroom, took out his "rape kit" and brutally raped and robbed the woman. These crimes were never prosecuted by the local California authorities, in part because the statute of limitations had already expired by the time he was caught. Murders: Long moved to the Tampa Bay area in 1983. Long’s first victim was discovered in May 1984, when the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) was called to a crime scene where the body of a nude woman had been found. This began an intensive investigation into the abduction, rape, and murder of at least 10 women in three counties in the Tampa Bay area (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas) involving the personnel from the HCSO, the FBI, the Tampa Police Department (TPD), the Pasco County Sheriff's Office (PCSO), and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The bodies of the victims were typically found in a state of decomposition long after the murders, having been dumped near a rural roadside and dragged into the woods. Modus operandi: In 1984, while on probation for assault, Long began driving around, in a 1978 Dodge Magnum looking for victims in areas known for prostitution and in bars where women were found alone. Long claimed that his victims approached him, and he would persuade them to enter his car and took them to his apartment. Long would then bind the victims with rope and ligature collars he had fashioned, using a variety of rope knots. Long later confessed that he derived sadistic pleasure from the abduction, rape, and brutal murder of his victims, some of whom he strangled to death. Others he killed by slitting their throats or bludgeoning them. Long would then arrange his victims' bodies in unique positions, or "display." Of Long's 10 known victims, five of the women were identified as known prostitutes, two as exotic dancers. The remaining three victims were a factory worker, a student, and one had an unknown occupation. Known victims: -Artiss Ann Wick, 20 – killed on March 27, 1984 -Ngeun Thi Long, 19 – killed on May 13, 1984 -Michelle Denise Simms, 22 – killed on May 27, 1984 -Elizabeth Loudenback, 22 – killed on June 8, 1984 -Vicky Marie Elliott, 21 – killed on September 7, 1984 -Chanel Devoun Williams, 18 – killed on October 7, 1984 -Karen Beth Dinsfriend, 28 – killed on October 14, 1984 -Kimberly Kyle Hopps, 22 – killed on October 31, 1984 -Lisa McVey, 17 – assaulted on November 3, 1984; survived -Virginia Lee Johnson, 18 – killed on November 6, 1984 -Kim Marie Swann, 21 – killed on November 11, 1984 -Linda Nuttall – assaulted in May 1984; survived Capture: At the time of his capture, Long was wanted in three Tampa Bay area jurisdictions where investigators had collected multiple forms of forensic evidence, including clothing, carpet fibers, semen, ligature marks, and rope knots. Long was arrested outside a movie theater on November 16, 1984, and charged with the sexual battery and kidnapping of Lisa McVey. Long signed a formal Miranda waiver, and consented to questioning. After the detectives procured a confession for the McVey case, their questioning focused on a series of unsolved sexual battery homicides in the Tampa Bay area. As the detectives questioned Long about the murders, he replied, "I'd rather not answer that." The detectives continued the interrogation, and handed Long photographs of the various murder victims. At this point, Long stated, "The complexion of things sure have changed since you came back into the room. I think I might need an attorney." No attorney was provided, and Long eventually confessed to eight murders in Hillsborough County, and one murder in Pasco County. Fiber evidence analysis by the FBI linked Long's vehicle to most of his victims. Trial: The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office confronted Long with the evidence. The State Attorney and the Public Defender's Office of Hillsborough County reached a plea bargain for eight of the homicides and the abduction and rape of Lisa McVey. Long pled guilty on September 24, 1985, to all of these crimes, receiving 26 life sentences without the possibility of parole (24 concurrent and two to run consecutively to the first 24) and seven life sentences with the possibility of parole after 25 years. In addition, the State retained the option to seek the death penalty for the murder of Michelle Simms. In July 1986, the penalty phase of the Michelle Simms trial was held in Tampa. It lasted one week and received extensive media attention. Long was found guilty and was sentenced to die in Florida's electric chair. Although Long confessed to raping and killing women, his confession was thrown out. His trial proceeded straight to the penalty phase, which was possible in the 1980s. In early 1985, he received the death penalty. Long was convicted and appealed his first degree murder conviction and death sentence for crimes committed in Hillsborough County. Long appealed his first degree murder conviction and sentence of death in the death of Virginia Johnson. On appeal from the Circuit Court in and for Pasco County, in which Long's death sentence was vacated, his conviction reversed, and his case remanded to the trial court with directions to enter an order of acquittal for the murder of Virginia Johnson. On February 24, 1999, Long accused the Capital Collateral Regional Council (the state office defending death row inmates in their appeals) of revealing his private letters to a book author, thus violating attorney–client privilege. He also accused the agency of running a "death pool," betting on the dates on which inmates would be executed, and asked that the agency be removed from his case. An investigation concluded that these allegations were unfounded. Long's petition for a writ of mandamus to require Bob Dillinger, the public defender for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, to relinquish possession and control of his file in State v. Long, was denied. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, Long had one five-year sentence, four 99-year sentences, 28 life sentences, and one death sentence. Execution: On April 23, 2019, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed Long's death warrant, this being the first death warrant signed by DeSantis since he took office in January 2019. Long's subsequent appeals were denied and he was executed by lethal injection on May 23, 2019, more than 30 years after his conviction. He ate his final meal at 9:30am local time; he requested roast beef, bacon, french fries and soda. He was pronounced dead at 6:55pm and made no last statement. Documentaries: The story of Long's crimes was told on: -The FBI Files, Season 1, episode 7: "Killing Spree" -Forensic Files, Season 2, episode 1: "The Common Thread" -I Survived..., Season 2, episode 7 -I Escaped My Killer, Season 1, episode 1, (Crime & Investigation Network) -Killer Doctors on Death Row (CBS Reality) -Evil Lives Here, Season 3, episode 2: "The Monster I Married" (Investigation Discovery) -World's Most Evil Killers "The Classified Ad Rapist: Bobby Joe Long" (Reelz) -On the Case with Paula Zahn, Season 6, episode 5: “Hanging By A Thread” (Investigation Discovery) TV Movies: Bobby Joe Long's story has been depicted in the Lifetime TV movie Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey which aired in 2018. The film stars Katie Douglas as Lisa McVey, Rossif Sutherland as Bobby Joe Long, and David James Elliott as Larry Pinkerton.

Bunny Man

The Bunny Man is an urban legend that originated from two incidents in Fairfax County, Virginia in 1970, but has been spread throughout the Washington, D.C., area. The legend has many variations; most involve a man wearing a rabbit costume who attacks people with an axe or hatchet. Most of the stories occur around Colchester Overpass, a Southern Railway overpass spanning Colchester Road near Clifton, Virginia, sometimes referred to as "Bunny Man Bridge". Versions of the legend vary in the Bunny Man's name, motives, weapons, victims, description of the bunny costume or lack thereof, and sometimes even his possible death. In some accounts, victims' bodies are mutilated, and in some variations, the Bunny Man's ghost or aging spectre is said to come out of his place of death each year on Halloween to commemorate his passing. Origin: Fairfax County Public Library Historian-Archivist Brian A. Conley extensively researched the Bunny Man legend. He has located two incidents of a man in a rabbit costume threatening people with an axe. The vandalism reports occurred ten days apart in 1970 in Burke, Virginia. The first incident was reported the evening of October 19, 1970, by U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Robert Bennett and his fiancée, who were visiting relatives on Guinea Road in Burke. Around midnight, while returning from a football game, they reportedly parked their car in a field on Guinea Road to "visit an Uncle who lived across the street from where the car was parked". As they sat in the front seat with the motor running, they noticed something moving outside the rear window. Moments later, the front passenger window was smashed, and there was a white-clad figure standing near the broken window. Bennett turned the car around while the man screamed at them about trespassing, including: "You're on private property, and I have your tag number." As they drove down the road, the couple discovered a hatchet on the car floor. When the police requested a description of the man, Bennett insisted he was wearing a white suit with long bunny ears. However, Bennett's fiancée contested their assailant did not have bunny ears on his head, but was wearing a white capirote of some sort. They both remembered seeing his face clearly, but in the darkness, they could not determine his race. The police returned the hatchet to Bennett after examination. Bennett was required to report the incident upon his return to the Air Force Academy. The second reported sighting occurred on the evening of October 29, 1970, when construction security guard Paul Phillips approached a man standing on the porch of an unfinished home, in Kings Park West on Guinea Road. Phillips said the man was wearing a gray, black, and white bunny costume, and was about 20 years old, 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, and weighed about 175 pounds (79 kg). The man began chopping at a porch post with a long-handled axe, saying: "You are trespassing. If you come any closer, I'll chop off your head." The Fairfax County Police opened investigations into both incidents, but both were eventually closed for lack of evidence. In the weeks following the incidents, more than 50 people contacted the police claiming to have seen the "Bunny Man". Several newspapers, including The Washington Post, reported that the "Bunny Man" had eaten a man's runaway cat. The Post articles that mentioned this incident were: -"Man in Bunny costume Sought in Fairfax" (October 22, 1970) -"The 'Rabbit' Reappears" (October 31, 1970) -"Bunny Man Seen" (November 4, 1970) -"Bunny Reports Are Multiplying" (November 6, 1970) In 1973, Patricia Johnson, a student at the University of Maryland, College Park, submitted a research paper that chronicled precisely 54 variations on the two incidents. Colchester Overpass: Colchester Overpass was built in about 1906 near the site of Sangster's Station, a Civil War era railroad station on what was once the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Because of its association with the legend, the overpass is a popular destination for paranormal enthusiasts (ghost hunters) and curiosity seekers (legend trippers). Interest increases around Halloween, and starting in 2003, local authorities began controlling access to the area during that time. During Halloween 2011, over 200 people, some from as far away as the Pennsylvania–Maryland state line, were turned away during a 14-hour traffic checkpoint into the area. In popular culture: -"Bunnyman", the final song on Music To Piss You Off, a 2010 compilation album by rhythmic noise/industrial artist C/A/T (Chaos and Terror), was inspired by the Bunny Man legend. -The 2011 slasher film Bunnyman is an exploitation-style version of the story. -In 2017, Badwolf Brewing Company, of Manassas, Virginia, released their hoppy, red lager known as The Bunny Man in a can that depicted the tunnel, a figure in a bunny suit, and a child holding a red balloon. -The 2017 Amazon original series Lore, based on the podcast of the same name, uses the Bunny Man legend to introduce the second episode of Season 1. -In The Chris Gethard Show episode "Let's Get Scared", host Chris Gethard dresses as the Bunny Man for the full episode. -In 2015, non-fiction author Jenny Cutler Lopez published a full-length feature in Northern Virginia Magazine (readership 100,000 plus) titled Long Live The Bunnyman.

"Chimney Crossdresser"

The skeletal remains of a lightly-built Caucasian male between the ages of 22 and 27 were discovered in the now-defunct 'Good N Loud' music store on University Avenue in Madison on September 3, 1989, when the owner pulled a vent pipe from the brickwork in an attempt to find the source of a blockage that was causing water seepage. He was wearing a paisley dress, a black, long sleeved White Stag blouse, an Iron cross necklace, and a 'shag' sweater, and had brown hair and a slight overbite. He was carrying a butter knife, a spare pair of socks and a comb at the time of his death, and was not wearing underwear. His pelvis had been broken, possibly in the process of forcing him into the chimney, and he may have been there for two months to two years. He may have worked as a page in the state Legislature sometime between 1977 and 1985.

Robert D. Keppel

Robert David Keppel is an American former law enforcement officer and detective. He is also a former associate professor at the University of New Haven and Sam Houston State University. Keppel is known for his contributions to the investigations of Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway, and also assisted in the creation of HITS, the Homicide Investigation Tracking System. Early life: Robert Keppel was raised in Spokane, Washington, where he attended Central Valley High School. After graduating, he went on to attend Washington State University, where he competed in the high jump. Keppel was inspired by his father to pursue criminal justice, in hopes to become a police chief. He went on to receive his master's degree in police science and administration. Following graduation, Keppel worked for the King County Sheriff's department before being drafted as an Army drill sergeant and a captain in the Vietnam War. Career: The "Ted Murders" marked the beginning of Robert Keppel's career as a detective. Witnesses from Lake Sammamish State Park provided information regarding a man named "Ted" who had talked to two young women that were declared missing. During the investigation, Keppel narrowed down a large list of suspects until he was left with 25, including Ted Bundy. He confronted Bundy, but Bundy dismissed the conversation. Before Keppel could speak with him again, Bundy had already been arrested and fled custody. After moving on from the "Ted Murders," Keppel decided to return to a doctorate program at University of Washington. While completing this 12-year program, he took the position as chief investigator for Washington State Attorney General's office. In this position, he investigated other crimes like the disappearance of Captain Rolf Neslund, and the death of Donna Howard. Keppel was asked to assist in the Green River Task Force for the investigation of a set of murders in Washington. By 1984, Ted Bundy began writing letters to Robert Keppel in hopes to help in the investigation of the Green River Killer. This correspondence led to interviews between the two, which resulted in Bundy confessing to his unidentified crimes days before his execution. Later life: Keppel retired as chief criminal investigator for the Washington State Attorney General's Office. He joined the faculty of the Seattle University. As of 2004, Keppel was an associate professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University, and currently teaches there via teleconference. In 2007, Keppel joined the University of New Haven as an associate professor of criminal justice. Keppel is author of The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer, made into a made-for-TV movie of the same name in 2004, starring Bruce Greenwood as Keppel and Cary Elwes as Bundy. He is also the author of many textbooks regarding criminal justice and related topics. Works: -Serial Murder: Future Implications for Police Investigations (1989; ISBN 0932930840) -Signature Killers (with William Birnes) (1997; ISBN 0671001302) -Murder: A Multidisciplinary Anthology of Readings (with Joseph Weis) (1999) -The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations: The Grisly Business Unit (with William Birnes) (2003; ISBN 0124042600) -The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer (with William Birnes) (1995; ISBN 0671867636 / Revised after Ridgeway confessions, 2004; ISBN 9780671867638) -Offender Profiling (2006; ISBN 075938875X) -Forensic Pattern Recognition: From Fingerprints to Tool Marks (with Katherine M. Brown and Kristen M. Welch) (2006; ISBN 978-0132329484) -Serial Violence: Analysis of Modus Operandi and Signature Characteristics of Killers (with William Birnes) (2008; ISBN 9781420066326) -Profiling: Principles, Processes, Practicalities (with David V. Canter) (2010; ISBN 9780131192768)

Murder of Georgeann Hawkins

Georgann Hawkins was an American college student from Tacoma, Washington, who disappeared from an alley behind her sorority house at the University of Washington in Seattle. Serial killer, Ted Bundy, confessed to her abduction and murder shortly before his execution in 1989. Bundy claims that partial remains of Hawkins were discovered at one of his crime scenes, but never identified. His statement regarding the discovery of her remains has never been confirmed and Hawkins is still listed as a missing person, but is presumed dead. Background: Georgann Hawkins was born on August 20, 1955 in Tacoma, Washington, to Warren B. Hawkins and his wife, Edith “Edie” Hawkins. The youngest of two daughters of a upper-middle class Episcopalian family, Hawkins was raised in Sumner, Washington alongside her older sister, Patti. As a child, Georgann was reported to be a spirited, vivacious, and outgoing individual. Her “wiggle worm” personality and talkative nature was well-documented in report cards that her parents received from her grade-school teachers. Adored by her peers, Hawkins mother dubbed her “the Pied Piper”. Her mother later recalled of her daughter, “she had quite a following but she was not the kind of person who stuck to one group or clique. She had friends among everybody, older than her and younger than her. She was a very self-confident little girl … she wasn’t vain, she wasn’t arrogant and she wasn’t snooty. That’s why kids liked her.” At some point in her childhood, Hawkins had a brief bout with Osgood-Schlatter disease which left a few small bumps just below her knees. Despite this, she was a star athlete and swam competitively throughout grade school and won numerous AAU swimming medals. She later transitioned to cheerleading as a teenager, and was a member of the Lakes High cheerleading squad for four consecutive years. In addition to being a star athlete, Georgeann was an honors student and maintained a straight A record throughout her school years. She was a graduate of Lakes High School in Lakewood, Washington class of 1973. In 1972-73, during her senior year, she was named a princess to the royal court of the annual Washington Daffodil Festival. As a Daffodil Princess, Hawkins traveled around the state of Washington with the other court princesses, regularly being featured in newspapers, attending concerts, meeting children, riding in parades, and signing autographs at charity events. A highlight for Hawkins was in the spring of 1973 where she made a speech addressing lawmakers at the Washington state Legislature. Hawkins elder sister, Patti, attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, which was 120.6 miles away from their hometown of Tacoma. When it came time for Georgann to go off to college, her mother didn’t want Georgeann as far away as her elder sister had been. At her mothers request, Georgann enrolled at University of Washington in Seattle, which was only 30 miles from her hometown. Hawkins parents paid tuition, books, room and board; Georgann worked all summer to pay for everything else. During her freshman year, Georgann joined the on campus sorority Kappa Alpha Theta. After her experiences as a Daffodil princess and seeing the news media coverage of the hearings for the Watergate scandal, she had aspirations of becoming a broadcast journalist or possibly a television news anchor. She was looking into majoring in Broadcast Journalism. While in college, Georgann got good grades and enjoyed going to campus parties, dance formals, and Kappa Alpha Theta events. She had also found a steady boyfriend, Marvin Gellatly, who was a member of the Beta Theta Pi sorority. She occasionally came home for the weekends, and last saw her parents on Mother’s Day weekend 1974. She also landed a summer job in her hometown of Tacoma, which was set to start on June 17, to help her pay for her next year of college. Events prior to murder: Beginning in 1974, the state of Washington began to experience a string of mysterious disappearances of young college aged women. -February 1: Lynda Ann Healy (21), disappeared from her basement room in Seattle, WA. -March 12: Donna Gail Manson (19), vanished off The Evergreen State College campus in Olympia, WA, while going to attend a jazz concert. -April 17: Susan Elaine Rancourt (18), disappeared off Central Washington State College campus in Ellensburg, WA, after leaving a dorm advisors meeting. -May 6: Roberta Kathleen Parks (20), went missing from Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR, after leaving her dormitory to go meet friends at a coffee shop. -May 31: Brenda Carol Ball (22), went missing after leaving the Flame Tavern in Burien, WA. The disappearances baffled law enforcement officials, and many questions began to arose concerning the connections between the cases. There were many similarities to the cases of missing women that the detectives noticed. The girls all shared the same basic physical characteristics of being young, attractive, slender, of Caucasian decent, with long hair that was parted in the middle. They were all also considered to be of more than average intelligence with some sort of gifted talent and came from stable backgrounds. During the times of their disappearances, they were all reported to have been wearing slacks and vanished in the hours of darkness within a week of a midterm or final at a local college or university. Strangely enough, there was also construction work being done on each campus where the girls went missing from. Lynda Ann Healy’s case was the only one with physical evidence in the form of a blood stained mattress and night gown. The timeline of Donna Gail Manson’s last whereabouts were difficult to construct due to the fact that she wasn’t reported as missing for six days. This was because Manson often hitchhiked to nearby locales and could disappear for several days at a time without notice, and her peers initially believed that she decided to travel without sharing her plans beforehand. Manson was also depressed at the time of her disappearance, and law enforcement couldn’t rule out the slim possibility that she may have left of her own account to committed suicide. Susan Rancourt was also physically different from Linda Ann Healy and Donna Manson, in that she had blonde hair that was just past her shoulders. In contrast to Healy who had waist length chestnut colored hair, and Manson who had long dark brown hair. Captain Herb Swindler was convinced that Roberta Parks disappearance was linked to the others, but all other law enforcement officials doubted his claims feeling that Corvallis was too distant for a victim of the perpetrator who prowled the campuses of Washington colleges. Parks also had ash blonde hair, while all the other girls (except for Susan Rancourt) were brunette or dark haired. Police also couldn’t rule out the possibility that, like Donna Manson, Parks may have disappeared on her own account to commit suicide. It was a plausible theory as she had a history of mood swings, recently broke up with her boyfriend, was feeling homesick for her hometown in Lafayette, CA, and two days before she went missing got into a verbal altercation with her father who then had a near fatal heart attack that same day. The Willamette River, which was near the city of Corvallis, was briefly seen as a place of interest where Parks’s body might have been found, in the event that she had chosen to end her life by throwing herself off the river bridge. But after the being dragged, Willamette was ruled out. Brenda Ball was also not reported missing until after the disappearance of Georgann Hawkins. Like Donna Manson, Ball was somewhat of an adventurous spirit and may have taken off on a whim. With no bodies found, very few clues to go on, and the limits of forensic technology of the time, the disappearances became more complex to piece together. Events of June 10–11, 1974: On June 10, 1974, Georgann Hawkins went with a sorority sister to a party on campus. Hawkins didn’t stay at the event for too long as she had to study for her upcoming Spanish finals. Before leaving the party she told her sorority sister that she was going to the Beta Theta Pi House to say good night to her boyfriend and to pick up some study notes from him. Georgann was a very cautious person. The area along the sorority houses had become so familiar to her, the streets were always so well lighted, and there were generally people around that she knew. The alley behind the houses was brightly light by street lights approximately every ten feet. On the warm night of June 10th, most students were still awake cramming for their finals well past midnight. Hawkins boyfriends sorority house was six houses down from her sorority, approximately ninety feet. Hawkins arrived at Beta Theta Pi House around 12:30 A.M. on June 11th, and stayed for a little more than half an hour. After retrieving the Spanish notes and saying good night to her boyfriend, Hawkins exited the sorority house for the short walk to her sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. One of the Betas, Duane Covey, heard the back door slam shut and stuck his head out the window, recognizing Hawkins, calling out “Hey George! What’s happening?”. They talked for a minute or two, Hawkins mentioning her upcoming Spanish exam, and then she headed south towards her residence. She was last seen wearing navy blue cotton bell-bottom pants (which had one button and were missing three), a white backless T-shirt, a sheer red, white, and blue top, and white open-toed wedge sandals. Hawkins also had two rings: one was a rectangular black onyx ring on her left middle finger (with a small diamond in the center set in yellow gold), and the other was a cultured pearl ring in a Tiffany setting on her right ring finger (with a slender gold band). She was carrying a tan leather satchel-type purse with reddish stains. The contents of Hawkins purse included her large royal purple wallet, her school identification card, her checkbook from Sea 1st Bank Lakewood Branch, a small quantity of cash, a mini hairbrush with black bristles, a bottle of Heaven Sent perfume, a small jar of Vaseline, and the Spanish notes she borrowed. Investigation: Since Georgann had previously lost her key to the house, Dee Nicholas, Hawkins roommate, had been waiting for the familiar rattling sound of small stones hitting the window, signaling her to run downstairs to let Georgann in the house. When Hawkins failed to return by 3 A.M., Nicholas became concerned, and informed the housemother. By dawn police were on the campus to investigate. Standard law enforcement practices typically requires a 24-hour waiting period before commentcing a search for a missing adult. However, in view of the string of young girls who had disappeared that year in Washington, the disappearance of Georgann Hawkins was treated very differently. Hawkins case was also focused with intensity because she fit the physical profile of the previous girls who had mysteriously disappeared. Like the other girls, Hawkins was a young Caucasian female who was beautiful, intelligent, and had long dark hair that was parted in the middle. An extensive search on hands and knees of the ninety foot trail that Hawkins had to take, recovered no traces of any evidence. The father of one of Hawkins sorority sisters was a newsman. This pushed the story of her disappearance onto the front pages of newspapers and the top of TV broadcasts more quickly and frequently in contrast to the previous missing girl cases. Georgann lived in room Number 8 of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority house. A search of her room showed that all of her possessions, but the clothes on her back and the few items she was carrying in her purse, were still there. When law enforcement interviewed Hawkins roommate she said to them, “Georgann never went anyplace without leaving me the phone number where she’d be. I know she intended to come back here last night. She had one more exam and then she was going home for the summer on the thirteenth.“ Police didn’t believe that Hawkins would have left on her own account with an upcoming exam and taking only a meager amount of supplies, and no change of clothes. Hawkins was nearsighted, and wore eyeglasses and contact lenses to correct her vision. Ironically she had neither in her possession at the time of her disappearance. Her roommate told police that the reason why Hawkins didn’t have her eyeglasses or contact lenses with her that evening was because “she’d worn her contacts all day to study, and after you’ve worn contact lenses for a long time, things look blurry when you put glasses on, so she wasn’t wearing them either.” Despite her visual impairment, she still had relatively a fair view of the familiar brightly lit alley. Police suspected that if the perpetrator had been surreptitiously lurking in the shadows of the alley and learned Georgann‘s name after overhearing her friend call her by name. This would have given her abductor the chance to seize, gag, and carry her off undetected. No witnesses reported seeing or hearing such a thing.There were several occasions before Hawkins disappearance were strong young male students on campus would engage in picking up female students, playing “caveman” to relieve their tension during finals week. But there weren’t even reports of this type of play on the night Hawkins disappeared. Police then theorized that Georgann may have been hit on the head with a blunt object, rendered unconscious with chloroform, or captured through brute force. Since Georgann stood just over five feet tall, was visually impaired in the darkness of the night, and without the aid of her contacts or glasses, it wouldn’t have been that difficult for someone to overpower her in her vulnerable state. With no physical evidence to go on, and no suspects in question, Hawkins disappearance case quickly grew cold. As the days turned into weeks, it was becoming painfully clear that Georgann Hawkins had likely met the same fate as the other five girls who were suspected of being abducted and killed by the same person, or at least the same group of people. Aftermath- Lake Sammamish Abductions: Despite an early response, intense publicity, and an extensive search for Georgann, the case quickly went cold with no leads. Discovery of remains: On September 6, 1974, two hunters stumbled across skeletal human remains near a service road in Issaquah, about seventeen miles east of Seattle and two miles from Lake Sammamish. King County police sealed off the area. After a three day search, a set of two skulls were found along with various other bones and tuffs of reddish blonde and dark brown hair. The remains had decomposed and disturbed by scavenging animals. The absence of clothing and jewelry at the scene led investors to believe that the bodies were left and discarded at the scene naked. The skulls were later identified to be that of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund, through dental charts and samples of their hair taken from hair brushes. There was also a third set of additional remains discovered in the form of a femur and several vertebrae’s. These are believed to be the remains of Georgann Hawkins, but these remains were impossible to identify. Six months later on March 1, 1975, forestry students from Green River Community College discovered the skull of Brenda Ball on Taylor Mountain, approximately thirty miles from the Flame Tavern where she disappeared. Two days later on March 3, Bob Keppel stumbled upon the skull of Susan Rancourt, who had vanished from Central Washington State University in Ellensburg, eighty-seven miles away. Like Ball, Rancourt’s skull had been fractured from a blunt object. Roberta Park’s skull was the next to be found, 262 miles away from the campus of Oregon State University. Like the others, her skull too had signs of fractures from a blunt object. The last remains to be found on Taylor Mountain were those of Lynda Ann Healy. Unlike the other discoveries, only her jawbone was discovered and later identified through dental records. The remains of Donna Manson and Georgann Hawkins were never found. After the discovery of the remains, law enforcement found more common denominators in the murders and disappearances. Each of the victimized women had been dealing with a turbulence of some sort on the day they had disappeared. -Lynda Ann Healy had hinted to be feeling ill with some stomach aches. -Donna Manson was reported to be weighed down with depression and had fallen behind on her academic work due to late night partying. -Susan Rancourt, who was a nyctophobic, was walking on campus alone at night. -Roberta Parks was depressed due to breaking up with her boyfriend and homesickness. She was also believed to be ridden with guilt over her father having a heart attack after they had gotten into a verbal altercation. -Brenda Ball was stranded and struggled to find a way of getting back to her residence. -Georgeann Hawkins was stressed out over struggling in Spanish class and was anxious for the upcoming final. -Janice Ott was missing her husband who had been away for several months in California on business matters. -Denise Naslund had an argument with her boyfriend. Ted Bundy- Bundy’s 1989 Confession: In an effort to avoid the electric chair, Ted Bundy confessed the details of Hawkins abduction and murder to detective Robert Keppel. Bundy stated that he approached Hawkins in the alley limping along on crutches and dropping his briefcase as a ruse. He asked Hawkins for assistance with carrying his briefcase to his car, which was located in a parking lot just off the side of the alley. Thinking that the strange man was really injured, Hawkins agreed to help him. As she bent over to put Bundy’s briefcase in his car, he grabbed a crowbar that he had hidden before hand, knocked Georgann out with a single blow to the head, pushed her into his car, and sped off. Bundy claimed that while driving, Hawkins regained consciousness and started to incoherently talk about her Spanish test. He proceeded to knock her out again with the crowbar. Once at the secluded location, allegedly located near Lake Sammamish, Bundy took an unconscious Georgann out of his car and killed her by strangulation with an old piece of rope. He then claims to have severed her head and buried it in the woods on a rocky hillside. It’s also been alleged that Bundy said that one of her femur bones had been discovered but unidentified, one mile east of an old railroad trestle just outside of Issaquah around the same time that the remains of Janice Ott and Denise Naslund had been found. Though this statement has never been confirmed. In his confession, Bundy also claimed that he ventured back to the parking lot on his bike that same morning, as the area was being secured off by law enforcement, to retrieve evidence. Bundy recovered the earrings that were knocked off Hawkins ears after he’d struck her with the crowbar, as well as one of her shoes that fell off one of her feet during the abduction. Peddling through the area, Bundy surreptitiously observed law enforcement officials a block away, and noticed that they had not yet examined the parking lot where he abducted Georgann from. After Bundy’s confession, Keppel and a team of Washington law enforcement went to the alleged area of the crime scene 14 years later in 1989. Despite the intensive search efforts that lasted several days, no remains of Hawkins were found and she is still listed as a missing person. Hawkins Family: Georgann‘s family deliberately stayed out of the limelight. Although they refused to give interviews, Hawkins mother, Edie, gave an exclusive interview with Green Valley News in 2014. “I was very, very angry and very bitter, and that was one of the reasons I didn’t want to talk. Not only that, but angry, bitter and guilty — you think, what did I do that this.” Edie also recalled that in order to cope with Georgann's untimely death, she and her husband her rarely spoke about their daughter over the years, stating that “it was easier to think of other things.” They discarded most of the sympathy cards they received, and kept no shrine of their daughter. Of the notes they did find comfort in and ultimately kept, were the ones that mentioned specifically about how Georgann had touched their lives. Her parents one form of memorialization for their daughter was a thick scrapbook filled with pictures, school awards, and the few sympathy cards they kept. Hawkins father, Warren B. Hawkins, died in 2003. Her sister, Patti Hawkins, later got married and had children. As of 2014, her mother, Edie Hawkins, is reported to reside in Green Valley, AZ. In the media- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule: Ann Rule referenced Georgann Hawkins and her disappearance in her 1980 best selling book, The Stranger Beside Me: “Georgann Hawkins, at eighteen, was one of those golden girls for whom luck or fate had dealt a perfect hand until that inexplicable night of June 10. Raised in the Tacoma suburb of Sumner, Washington, she’d been a Daffodil Princess and a cheerleader... Vivacious and glowing with good health, Georgeann had a pixie-like quality to her loveliness. Her long brown hair was glossy and her brown eyes lively. Petite at five feet two inches tall and 115 pounds, she was the youngest of the two daughters of the Warren B. Hawkins family.” The Deliberate Stranger (1986 TV film): In 1986, the best selling book by Richard W. Larsen was adapted into a two part television film with Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy. In the film, Georgann Hawkins name was changed to Anne Pitney and she was portrayed by an uncredited actress. The films opening sequence consists of a re-enactment of Hawkins abduction in a dark alley. The film presents many historical inaccuracies with Hawkins in particular. In the film, she is seen wearing a hot pink navel baring top, with a white mini skirt, and stiletto platform shoes carrying a fancy designer handbag. In reality Hawkins was actually wearing long blue slacks, a sheer floral print long-sleeved shirt over a white backless shirt, with open-toed wedge sandals. While Hawkins was carrying a handbag, it was either a tan leather sack or satchel type of purse. Another historical inaccuracy is shown with Bundy sneaking up behind her (while she was walking down a dark alley) and snatching her. In reality Bundy first approached Hawkins while he was on crutches and carrying a briefcase (he often feigned injuries to ensnare his victims), and asked Hawkins to help him carry it to his car (which was nearby). He lured her into a secluded parking lot near the alley. Bundy then unlocked his car and opened the door, and as Hawkins bent over to put his books into the car he grabbed a crowbar he had hidden under the wheel of his car and knocked Hawkins out cold. However, at the time the film was made, Bundy had not confessed or given the details to Hawkins murder, so the exact details of her death where not known at this time. It wasn't until three years after production, days before his execution, which Bundy confessed to Hawkins murder. Throughout the rest of the film, Hawkins is occasionally referenced with a picture of the actress portraying her as her missing persons photo. Murder Made Me Famous (TV Series 2015– ): In the first season of the TV series Murder Made Me Famous, episode five focused on Ted Bundy’s crimes. The show features a re-enactment of Bundy abducting Georgeann Hawkins, with George Quartz as Ted Bundy and Alisha Revel as Georgann Hawkins. The depiction is based off of Ted Bundy’s 1989 confession and retains a faithful adaptation to his words. The clothes that Revel wears as Hawkins, are much more consistent with what Hawkins was last reported to be wearing. Although there is no re-enactment of the murder itself, there is a close up shot of a dead persons bare foot laying on the grounds of a dark woods, with a narrative stating that Georgann’s body has never been found. Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer (TV Mini series 2020): Georgann Hawkins is mentioned in great detail of this series. It also features previously never before seen color photos of Hawkins in her lifetime. Phyllis Armstrong, a friend to Hawkins, was interviewed for this series and she shares her story of meeting Hawkins when they were Daffodil Princesses at the Washington Daffodil Festival in 1973, and their experiences together as peers at the University of Washington. Furthermore, Armstrong also revealed that Bundy had approached on crutches her asking for help with his books a few days before Georgann went missing.

Disappearance of Ben Needham

Ben Needham is a British child who disappeared on 24 July 1991 on the Greek island of Kos. At the time of his disappearance, he was aged 21 months. After initial searches failed to locate him, he was believed to have been kidnapped. Despite numerous claims of sightings, his whereabouts remain unknown. In October 2012, South Yorkshire Police began to follow a line of inquiry which suggested that Ben had been accidentally killed and buried in a mound of rubble by an excavator driver working in a field adjoining the house where he was last seen. Extensive excavation of the rubble was undertaken by British and Greek Police. One item of particular interest to the police was a Dinky toy car, which they hoped to recover and believed could be "key to discovering his fate." The search failed to detect any human remains or items belonging to Ben. In September 2016, the police returned to Kos to carry out further excavations. Although no remains were found, a yellow Dinky car, believed to have been Ben's, was recovered. Detective Inspector Jon Cousins, heading the inquiry, said: "It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing. The recovery of this item, and its location, further adds to my belief that material was removed from the farmhouse on or shortly after the day that Ben disappeared." In November 2018, British police said that blood found on the aforementioned toy car was not Ben's. Disappearance: Ben Needham was staying with his family on the Greek island of Kos, where his maternal grandparents had a home in the village of Iraklis, near Kos town. He went missing on 24 July 1991. On the day of his disappearance Ben had been left in the care of his grandparents, Eddie and Kristine Needham, while his mother went to work at a local hotel. Ben had been coming in and out of a farmhouse the family were renovating when, at approximately 2:30 pm, the adults realised he had disappeared. The family first searched the area for Ben, assuming he had wandered off, or that the boy's teenage uncle, Stephen, had taken him out on his moped. When no trace of the boy was found, the police were notified. They initially questioned the Needhams, viewing them as suspects, which delayed notification of airports and docks. Over the following 11 days, searches of the area were carried out by Hellenic Police, Hellenic Army and fire brigade personnel. Nikolaos Dakouras, the island's chief of police, said: "We now believe we have searched every possible part of that area, and the boy is not there. It leaves us with a great mystery. We have no theories. We have no solutions." Following a request from UK Prime Minister John Major, the Hellenic Army undertook further searches of the island in January 1993. Alleged sightings: There have been more than 300 reported sightings of boys matching Ben's description, both on the Greek mainland and on Greek islands. Most were reported shortly after his disappearance during 1991 to 1992. In December 1995, Stratos Bakirtzis, a private investigator, found a blond boy, aged around six years old, living with a Romani family in a camp located in Salonika, Greece. Bakirtzis told Greek TV network ANT1 that the child said he had been "given to the gypsies because his parents did not want him." Police from Veria took the boy into custody and determined he was not Ben Needham. Ioannis Panousis, Veria's chief of police, said the child's birth certificate was authentic and that the child's natural father was currently serving a prison sentence and had left him in the care of the Romani couple. In November 1998, John Cookson saw a blonde boy of about ten playing on a beach in Rhodes. Cookson said that the child was known as 'the blond one' by his friends and was the only fair haired child in the group of dark haired Greek children. Suspicious, he took photographs of the children and used the pretext of tousling the boy's head to acquire a hair sample for DNA analysis. However, DNA testing proved the boy was not Ben, and the Greek boy's family also provided infant photographs to prove he was their child. In October 2003, Ian Crosby made a visit to Kos with Ben's uncle Danny, followed by further visits to meet police from Greece. Crosby has also investigated a photograph, sent to him by a holidaymaker who visited Turkey in 1999, which depicts a number of Turkish village children, including a blonde boy who resembles the age progression photo of what Ben might look like aged 13. The Needham family believed that Ben was kidnapped with the intention of selling him for adoption, or that he was taken by child traffickers. Carol Sarler, writing in The Times in 2007, said: "I have repeatedly asked police and press, British and Greek, for a single example to support this rumour. There is none. When pretty little Western European kiddies go missing... we know about it; if we don't know, it isn't happening. Those of us who properly investigated Ben's disappearance are certain he was not abducted; put bluntly, a child less than 2, toddling unsupervised for five hours on a baking, remote, inhospitable hillside that is still largely unsearched, is easy prey to the lonely accident." Age progression images: In September 1992, South Yorkshire police used electronic facial identification technique (E-FIT) software to produce an image of how Ben might appear at age 3. The picture was reproduced on posters which were displayed at airports around the Greek islands. It was thought to be the first time that E-FIT had been used to age a person's appearance. Age progression images were created and distributed again in March 2000, June 2003, October 2007 and September 2016. Police forensic excavations- October 2012: In October 2012, police from the United Kingdom travelled to Greece to search an area that they believed might contain Ben Needham's remains. On 19 October, Greek police, assisted by a team of specialist search advisors from South Yorkshire Police, began an operation to examine the grounds of the property from which Ben disappeared. The operation, involving geophysical survey equipment, forensic archaeologists and human remains detection (HRD) dogs, was triggered by a police line of inquiry into whether Ben had been accidentally buried as a result of an excavator driver dumping building rubble nearby. The operation did not detect any trace of the child. September 2016: In September 2016, police informed Kerry Needham that they had learned that a man from Kos had said that Konstantinos Barkas, a digger operator, now deceased, had told him that Ben had died in an accident, and that Barkas had hidden the body in building waste. On 16 September police began a search for remains, in a different area from the one searched nearly four years earlier. Excavations were focused around a tree, apparently planted since Ben vanished. A replica of the sandals he had been wearing was being made, to see if they matched any found items. The excavation work ended on 16 October. More than 800 tonnes of soil had been dug up, with any items of interest sent back to the UK for forensic analysis. DI Cousins said that one item which was found "close to an item dated to 1991" had been identified by the Needham family as being in Ben's possession at the time he went missing. Cousins said: "My team and I know that machinery, including a large digger, was used to clear an area of land on 24 July 1991, behind the farmhouse that was being renovated by the Needhams. It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result of an accident near to the farmhouse in Iraklis where he was last seen playing. The recovery of this item, and its location, further adds to my belief that material was removed from the farmhouse on or shortly after the day that Ben disappeared." New findings in 2017: In July 2017, South Yorkshire Police announced that traces of blood were found on a fragment of a sandal, as well as on soil from inside a toy car, both items believed to belong to Ben. The head of the British soil forensics group, professor Lorna Dawson, said her team discovered a genetic "profile indicative of human blood decomposition" on the piece of sandal and that the next step is to extract DNA from the fragment to determine whom the blood belongs to. According to Inspector Jon Cousins, these findings further strengthen the theory according to which Ben was killed the day he disappeared and is buried in Kos. In the media: The disappearance of Ben Needham has been the subject of several television documentaries: -"The Lost Boy" – part of the Cutting Edge series, first broadcast in the UK by Channel Four on 10 March 1997. -"Ben Needham: Somebody Knows" – part of the Real Crime series, first broadcast in the UK by ITV on 20 June 2001. -"Ben Needham and Katrice Lee" (S01E01) – part of the Missing Children: Lorraine Kelly Investigates series, first broadcast in the UK by Sky Real Lives on 12 August 2009. -"Unsolved Disappearances" (S02E05) - part of the Top 10 Secrets and Mysteries TV program.

so bad

i took a music class when i first started college. few people actually paid complete attention. i did but not always. i learned how to do a new hair style, did my homework and read. others played on their gameboys and other things like that. i passed so who cares? it was funny we all passed without much work

mice flats

i've had them said, "Jackie you're shoes are like golashes." i'm like my mice flats? those things are cute but they're not "temple worthy." the temple in the faith i'm in is usually conservative. i know that but i'm like how do you know people wear inside that? i've worn a sweater with a white belt and free size dress. i've worn a blue dress, platform heels and a sweater. i've worn a shirt with sleeves, skirt and platform shoes.

pretty hair

mom always comments on my "pretty hair." she said it's awesome for me to have this hair as it's nice. she knows it's pretty. its awesome but a pain in the rear. i like my long curly hair but it's super long and a pain to brush. granted the bangs looked nice as it's curly and long. i'd gotten my hair a lot more dry as i shaved my legs. i'm happy they looked awesome. the curly hair is long. the thing is i don't tend to brush my hair a lot so when i do it takes a while. my hair grows like a weed.

getting out of the house

so as things start opening up i'll be let out of the house. i need to as being stuck IN the house for months on end is suffocating. i'm glad i'm able to get more writing done but i'm so bored of it. it's boring now. i miss things in person. once while my mom was outta state my friends helped pick up the slack and got me outta the house and neighborhood. my mom loved it. it's why i'm chosen to do some errands around the kentlands area. i need to get outta the house.

Anglican Communion sexual abuse cases

The Anglican Communion sexual abuse cases are a series of allegations, investigations, trials, and convictions of child sexual abuse crimes committed by clergy, nuns, and lay members of the Anglican Communion. Anglican Church of Australia: A 2013 study in Victoria, Australia, found that Anglican child sex abuse cases were one-tenth the number of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases. However, a 2016 investigation found cases of child abuse in the Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia. During 27 January to 5 February 2016, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held public hearings. They centered on the Church of England Boys' Society (CEBS) and scrutinised the Anglican dioceses of Tasmania, Adelaide, Sydney, and Brisbane regarding "their responses to allegations of child sexual abuse" connected with CEBS. The royal commission examined "the systems and policies within the CEBS and the four Anglican dioceses, in relation to youth camps and activities, and raising and responding to concerns and complaints about child sexual abuse". Regarding the Diocese of Brisbane and CEBS in that diocese, the royal commission interviewed a person (who cannot be named for legal reasons) who "complained of repeated sexual abuse" when he was "associated with the Church of England Boys Society". He also said that he had taken his complaint to Peter Hollingworth, former Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in August 1993. When Hollingworth was interviewed, he admitted his handling of the matter was poor. "After a great deal of consideration over the past 22 years I acknowledge unreservedly that my actions were misguided, wrong and a serious error of judgment and that I genuinely regret it", he said. Hollingworth was also questioned about "his handling of abuse claims at St Paul's School while he was Archbishop between 1989 and 2001". Hollingworth said he was sorry for the boys who were molested by the teachers. "I am appalled by the abuse you suffered at the hands of two school staff members from St Paul's School," he said. A 2019 investigation into the activities of CEBS activities in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney, Australia between the late 1960s and through till 2013, also in relation to youth camps named 'Rathane' as well as 'Chaldercot' and 'Deer Park' located in the Royal National Park facilities of the Anglican Church in the Port Hacking River region resulted in the arrest and conviction of a 'leader' of the Church of England Boys Society. Church of England: There have been many cases of sex abuse in the Church of England. In the 1970s concern was raised over Jeremy Dowling, a lay preacher and employee of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Truro, and a member of the general synod from 1977. Dowling was accused of sex abuse at specified schools and of sadistic behaviour. Maurice Key, was bishop of Truro at the time and until 1990; Michael Ball succeeded Key. In 1993 Peter Ball, who had co-founded a monastic community called the Community of the Glorious Ascension with his brother Michael Ball in 1960, was the suffragan Bishop of Lewes in the Diocese of Chichester from 1977 to 1992, and the diocesan Bishop of Gloucester from 1992 to 1993, resigned after admitting to an act of gross indecency with a 19-year-old former novice at the monastery, and accepting a formal police caution for it. Ball continued to serve in churches after that. During Peter Ball's trial in 2015, it emerged that in 1993 Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyers had determined that "sufficient admissible, substantial and reliable evidence" existed that Ball had committed indecent assault and gross indecency. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Barbara Mills, had decided not to prosecute Ball, as a member of the royal family, a lord chief justice, JPs, cabinet ministers and public school headmasters—"many dozens" of people—had campaigned to support him at that time. In 2007 Peter Halliday, a choirmaster in Guildford in Surrey, who had told the church that he had abused children in the 1990s but was allowed to continue working with children, was convicted of three counts of sexual abuse of children, and police were concerned that there had been many more cases. In light of this event and the public airing of the church's bad handling of Halliday, as well as two other high-profile sexual abuse convictions, the House of Bishops decided in May 2007 to ask the Central Safeguarding Liaison Group to hold a review of past cases throughout the Church of England, which was carried out starting in 2008. The Diocese of Chichester and the Sussex Police also began investigating long-standing allegations of sexual abuse in East Sussex. The Chichester diocesan past review cases report was commissioned in 2009 and run by Roger Meekings. In 2008, Colin Pritchard, a vicar in Bexhill-on-Sea was convicted of sexually abusing two boys; The Guardian described it as the "breakthrough case" for dealing with sexual abuse in the Chichester diocese. Roy Cotton, a priest in the Chichester diocese died in 2006 but allegations of abuse by him emerged shortly thereafter. In 2018, Pritchard, who by then changed his name to Ifor Whittaker, was convicted of further sexual abuse that he had carried out in collaboration with Cotton. In 2010 the Church of England past cases review was published. In 2011 the Diocese of Chichester asked Elizabeth Butler‐Sloss to conduct an independent review of the way the Pritchard and Cotton cases were handled by the Chichester diocese. In December 2011 the Archbishop of Canterbury opened an official inquiry (an archiepiscopal visitation) of the Chichester diocese due to the severity of the sexual abuse problem there; the last time such an inquiry had been established was in the 1890s. The Meekings Chichester past cases review report was made public in February 2012 and the next day, the Church of England issued a rare public apology in response to the report's damning description of the way the Church handled Cotton and Pritchard and failed to protect and care for people abused by them. In March 2012 two retired Chichester vicars, Gordon Rideout and Robert Coles, were arrested based on information from the past cases review and the Butler-Sloss report. In May 2012 the review and historic files about Peter Ball were given to the Sussex Police. Ball and another priest, Vickery House, were arrested in November 2012 and Ball was put on trial in 2014. The Butler-Sloss report on the handling of Cotton and Pritchard published in December 2012 and was severely criticized when it was released. In 2014 the UK government set up an Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to investigate how the government had handled allegations of sexual abuse and Butler‐Sloss was appointed to lead it. Objections were raised to her participation. The final straw came when Phil Johnson, who by that time was a member of the National Safeguarding Panel for the Church, and who had been abused by Cotton and Pritchard and had given testimony to Butler‐Sloss during her 2011 inquiry, made it public that he had told Butler‐Sloss about abuse by Peter Ball, and that she had chosen to omit that in her report. The inquiry was disbanded and re-established the next year, and in November 2015 the panel said it would be include the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church in its investigations. In July 2015 Dowling was convicted of child sex abuse and sent to prison. Several bishops failed to take action over Dowling possibly because there was not an earlier prosecution. A few days later the Bishop of Durham said at a church synod that the 2003 abolition of defrocking may have been a mistake; it had been abolished over concerns about wrongful convictions. In October 2015 Ball was sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment for sexual abuse after admitting the abuse of 18 young men over a period of 15 years from 1977 to 1992. Further charges of indecently assaulting two boys, aged 13 and 15, were allowed to lie on file in a contentious decision by the CPS, Vickery House, was also convicted in October 2015 and was sentenced to serve 6½ years in prison for sex assaults against men and a boy. House worked in the same diocese as Ball. House and Ball collaborated in abusing three victims. If Ball had not pleaded guilty both men would have been tried together. There was a long delay between the first complaints to the police over House and a proper police investigation. The Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth had a number of sexual abuse convictions in the 1980s and 1990s. Timothy Bavin was the bishop between 1985 and 1996 and during this time a number of serious safeguarding issues took place. For example, Bishop Bavin did not report Father Terry Knight to the police when parents raised their concerns to him in 1985. Father Knight was allowed to carry on in his position until he was later convicted for sexually abusing boys in 1996 and again in 2016. Bishop Bavin had also allowed a convicted paedophile priest, Father Michael Gover, to carry on working for the church on his release in 1990. Father Gover was convicted in 1985 at around the same time as parents raised their concerns about Father Knight. Bishop Timothy Bavin stood down in 1995 whilst Father Terry Knight's police investigation and court case was taking place. In March 2016, the "first independent review commissioned by the Church of England into its handling of a sex abuse case" issued a 21-page report by Ian Elliott, a safeguarding expert. The Church published only its conclusions and recommendations and "acknowledged the report was 'embarrassing and uncomfortable' reading". The review centered on the case of "Joe" – described in the report as survivor "B". In July 2014, Joe had "reported the abuse to the church’s safeguarding officers". He sued the church in October 2015. The church paid £35,000 in compensation and called the abuse is "a matter of deep shame and regret". The review criticised the office of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury. It said that Welby's office failed "to respond meaningfully to repeated efforts by the survivor throughout 2015 to bring his case to the church leader’s attention". Speaking on behalf of the Church, Sarah Mullally, bishop of Crediton, said that Welby has made "a personal commitment to seeing all the recommendations implemented quickly". The eleven recommendations included (1) training clergy (especially those in senior positions) to keep records and take action for those who report abuse and (2) the church should insure that "pastoral care of survivors takes precedence over protection of reputation or financial considerations". Bishop Mullally "is drawing up an action plan to implement the report’s proposals, covering education and training, communication and structural change".

Gray rape

Gray rape or grey rape is sex for which consent is unclear. The term was popularized by Laura Sessions Stepp in her 2007 Cosmopolitan article "A New Kind of Date Rape", which says gray rape is "somewhere between consent and denial and is even more confusing than date rape because often both parties are unsure of who wanted what". The term "gray rape" has been criticized. Lisa Jervis, founder of Bitch magazine, argued that gray rape and date rape "are the same thing", and that the popularization of the gray rape concept constituted a backlash against women's sexual empowerment and risked rolling back the gains women had made in having rape taken seriously. Former chief of sex crimes for Manhattan district attorney’s office Linda Fairstein states that while "in the criminal justice system there’s no such thing as gray rape, it is not a new term and not a new experience. For journalists, it may be, but for those of us who had worked in advocacy or law enforcement, this description of something being in a gray area has been around all the time.” ConsentEd, a Canadian nonprofit sexual education foundation, dismisses the idea of gray rape, stating that in rape, perpetrators know exactly what they are doing; rape is not an accident. Terminology: The concept was mentioned in Katie Roiphe's 1994 book The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus where she writes, "there is a gray area in which one person’s rape may be another’s bad night." Roiphe "...argued that college campus feminists’ activism against rape infantilized women by redefining ambiguously coercive sexual encounters as rape"; she claims that "...contemporary feminists’ widening of the definition of rape is a puritanical infantilization of women in the guise of progressive politics." According to HuffPost writer Emma Gray, "gray sex" can be defined as "sex that feels violating even when it's not criminal"; Rachel Thompson states that "while these "experiences might not technically fall under a legal definition of sexual assault", we "...use the term "grey area" because we do not currently have the terminology to describe these experiences." Elsie Whittington stated that this "...grey area is "such a tricky topic" because "we don't really have a language for talking about it." Katrina Margolis states that there "...is a space that lies between rape and consensual sex that remains unnamed and undiscussed." Margolis states that when a woman has "...been drinking with a guy, and it gets past 2am, there is a certain expectation of sex if you end up together in a bedroom"; or, "after flirting, and inviting a guy home, I didn’t exactly want to have sex, but it was easier to say yes than saying no, ...easier to just let it happen." Ashley C. Ford described a female roommate's experience with her boyfriends, which she describes as "just lay there and let them do it", such as "...when you come home and you're drunk, or you're too tired, or you don't feel like it, but he's there and he wants to, so you just...kinda...let him". Ford "identified... the need for "more definitive language" to facilitate nuanced conversations about the "spectrum of harm" inflicted on women physically and psychologically as a result of these experiences." In a New York Times article entitled “When saying ‘yes’ is easier than saying ‘no,’” Jessica Bennett describes the "complex situation" of sexual encounters "...you thought you wanted, or maybe you actually never wanted, but somehow here you are and it’s happening and you desperately want out, but you know that at this point exiting the situation would be more difficult than simply lying there and waiting for it to be over. In other words: saying yes when we really mean no", which have been termed “the point of no return,” “gray zone sex,” “begrudgingly consensual sex,” “lukewarm sex,” and “bad sex,” an expression in which "bad" refers “not to the perceived pleasure of it, but to the way you feel in the aftermath.” The term gray rape was used to describe the 1996 Brown University rape allegation involving students Adam Lack and Sara Klein. According to Lack he had consensual sex with Klein. Klein was apparently unaware the two had sex until days later after Lack asked about the experience. She said she did not remember the incident due to her consumption of alcohol, and 5 weeks later, filed charges. Lack said she not only gave consent, but was the one initiating and that he was unaware she was intoxicated. The charges were subsequently dropped, but Lack received academic discipline as a result. After Laura Sessions Stepp's Cosmopolitan article, "A New Kind of Date Rape", gray rape definition came to include regrettable sexual experiences and decisions made under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Reina Gattuso states that women have sexual "experiences that feel violating yet ambiguous", which "challenge us to think of violence as a spectrum of power and coercion, rather than a simple dichotomy between “good sex” and “rape.”" Gattuso states that the “gray zone” "...idea has often functioned as a tactic to minimize or dismiss violence in couples, and therefore evade accountability, by claiming that sex is inherently a murky, illegible realm." Feminist magazine Bust defines the expression “gray zone” as "sex that isn't completely consensual, but isn't sexual assault" or as an “unwanted sexual experience." Amanda Sileo states that the "gray zone" was "...constructed by a society engulfed in rape culture and should not exist", because "open communication is missing from so many sexual encounters" and because "women feel too unsafe to speak up". Sileo states that “If you've ever tried to put your finger up a straight guy's ass during sex, you'll know that they actually understand ongoing consent, withdrawal of consent and sexual boundaries very well. They act confused when it's our (women's) bodies.” Sileo states that during an encounter, "without the enthusiastic consent of your partner for a new sexual activity when changing activities, you are no longer participating in consensual sex." Examples: An article about a woman (pseudonymously named Grace) "regarding her sexual encounter with proclaimed feminist actor and comedian Aziz Ansari" was perceived by the woman as “violating,” telling Ansari the next day via text that “You ignored clear non-verbal cues; you kept going with advances.” Following this story, there was widespread discussion in the media; The New York Times stated that “Everyone seems to have an opinion about what she did, what he did and whether talking about gray-zone sex, where the man believes that everything that happened was consensual and the woman feels otherwise." Writer Anna North states that "situations like the one Grace describes, in which a man keeps pushing and a woman, though uncomfortable, doesn’t immediately leave, happen all the time"; Samantha Bee commented that “We need to set a higher standard for sex.” Controversy and debate: The University of Florida stated that a "debate has erupted over a particular kind of encounter, one that may not be viewed as sexual assault but which constitutes something murkier than a bad date." In 2014, Washington and Lee University expelled a student identified only as John Doe for what was described as "gray rape" after he allegedly raped a woman identified as Jane Doe. According to the claim, Jane met John at a party in February 2014 where the two had sex; she did not ask him to stop at the time, but later regretted it, reportedly after seeing him kiss another woman. In the summer of 2014 while working at a women’s clinic that helps sexual assault victims, Jane spoke with staff and later reassessed the encounter as rape. Within 21 days John was expelled from Washington and Lee. John Doe later sued the school. In 2015, Washington and Lee filed to dismiss the lawsuit, but Judge Norman K. Moon denied the motion to dismiss allowing John Doe to continue seeking damages from his expulsion believing that John had been the wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. Washington and Lee University ended up settling out of court with the student. Some reject the idea of gray rape, saying that it promotes the myth that rape can be an accident. They say that consent is consent, and there is no gray area between consent and lack of consent. In Sara Alcid's 2013 article "Navigating Consent: Debunking the “Gray Area” Myth", she argues that the “gray area” around sex and consent that "...we have come to know as an inevitable part of sex and consent is a product of our culture’s less than healthy or communicative approach to sex"; Alcid states that "women’s outfits...are wrongly perceived as an invitation for sex or a signal of pre-consent"; "flirting and acting romantically interested in someone is commonly interpreted incorrectly as a desire to have sex"; the incorrect belief that dating confers "a permanent state of consenting to sex", or the myth that being pressured or intoxicated is consent. Responses: Susuana Amoah, who founded the I Heart Consent Campaign, has called for more consent education, including on boundaries: "To avoid grey areas, it's important that people of all ages are educated about what sexual consent means and are able to have informed wider discussions about coercion, body language and abuse of power." Rachel Thompson has called for more "conversations of grey areas", noting the wide-ranging discussion over the short story "Cat Person" in New Yorker, which examined the "realm of bad sex" and the "reality of terrible sex and its emotional impact". Conor Friedersdorf stated that "singling out individuals"—like Aziz Ansari—isn't an "effective" way to explore "these thorny, noncriminal, nonworkplace flaws in sexual culture." Friedersdorf stated that it may be better to discuss the fictional portrayals of sex in movies and TV shows. Kate Margolis states that "we need to get to the point where saying no is much, much easier. We need to make no-guilt-attached sexual refusal the norm" and it "should be easier to say, 'I don’t really feel like having sex' without the addition of an adamant push, or a neighbor-alarming yell"; she says discussing these issues could "help men to distinguish between genuine enthusiasm and silent reluctance".

"Baby Lollipops" murder

The "Baby Lollipops" murder was the murder of three-year-old Lazaro Figueroa by his mother Ana Maria Cardona, in Florida. The body of Lazaro was found abandoned, and identified through house-to-house inquiries. The case was widely covered in US media, who called the initially unidentified boy "Baby Lollipops", after the design on the T-shirt he was wearing when found. Cardona was arrested for the murder and sentenced to death; her girlfriend, Olivia Gonzalez, was sentenced to forty years. On a second appeal Cardona was sentenced to life in prison. Gonzalez was released after 14 years. Background: Lazaro Figueroa was born on September 18, 1987 to Ana Maria Cardona and Fidel Figueroa. Cardona also had two older children. Fidel Figueroa was a well-known drug dealer and died under mysterious circumstances on September 20, 1987. This crime remains unsolved. In November 1990, Lazaro Figueroa's body was discovered in front of a beach property in Miami Beach. He had been severely battered, which made it initially very difficult for authorities to identify him. Because Lazaro's remains were unidentified for weeks after his discovery, local news outlets nicknamed him "Baby Lollipops" in reference to the shirt he was found wearing. The cause of death was later determined to be a blow to the head from a baseball bat. Trial evidence showed that shortly after leaving Lazaro's body in the bushes, the couple fled to Central Florida, even making a stop at Disney World. Despite claims by neighbors and other individuals that Cardona was abusive towards Lazaro, she consistently denied it. Her main defense was that it was Olivia Gonzalez, her lover, who had beaten Lazaro and delivered the fatal blow with a baseball bat. Cardona attested that she wanted to escape the pain of her son's horrible beatings at her girlfriend's hands and so sank into cocaine use to cope. To support claims on the influence of her past in the case, her defense presented the court with evidence pertaining to her unsettled Cuban upbringing and the psychological devastation caused by the death of Lazaro's father. According to prosecutor Reid Rubin, however, Cardona was "angry and spiteful" from the death of her wealthy husband as she had lost a luxurious lifestyle. Gonzalez, however, was able to state her case against Cardona in exchange for a lighter 40-year sentence on the count of second-degree murder. She served 14 years. While admitting she played a role in her girlfriend's abuse of Lazaro, she was able to lay the majority of the blame on Cardona for Lazaro's eventual death. Discovery: Employees for the Florida Power & Light Company discovered Lazaro Figueroa's dead body on the morning of November 2, 1990 at Miami Beach, hidden beneath some bushes. The boy was so emaciated that he appeared skeletal, with a bruised right eye. He wore blue gym shorts over a soiled diaper wrapped multiple times with brown packaging tape. At the time of his murder, Lazaro's weight was 18 pounds (8.16 kg), half the weight of a healthy child his age. The t-shirt he was wearing caused the Miami Beach Police Department to name him “Baby Lollipops,” and he remained unidentified for weeks after his discovery. The Miami Beach Police Department hosted a media conference with multiple detectives handling the murder case. They also conducted door-to-door interviews in both English and Spanish to obtain more information about the boy. They received numerous leads and were eventually able to identify the boy as Lazaro Figueroa, son of Ana Maria Cardona and the late Fidel Figueroa . Physical injuries and autopsy: The autopsy revealed that Lazaro had a fresh tear to his corpus callosum as the result of a head injury that occurred hours to days before he died. The police concluded that he died from a fractured skull, later known to be the a result of a baseball bat blow. He was also starved and beaten, with a cigarette burn on his left cheek, broken teeth, broken bones, and bedsores from being bound to a mattress for extended periods. His diaper was caked with excrement and attached to his body with brown packing tape, and his arm was permanently fixed at 90 degrees. Weighing only 18 pounds at the time of his death, Lazaro was malnourished, anaemic, and dehydrated. The majority of his body bore bruises and scars, which were the result of longstanding injuries from the months preceding his death. Evidence presented at the trials demonstrated that Lazaro experienced 18 months of torture while he was alive․ Medical data demonstrated repeated occurrences of severe abuse resulting in an arm fracture and skull fractures with underlying subdural and subarachnoid hematomas. His two upper front teeth also appeared to be knocked out. Medical examiner Dr. Bruce Hyma testified that Lazaro's physical injuries were inflicted upon him over a long period, and that he had been subject to gagging and repeated starvation. Trials- First trial: At her first trial in 1992, Cardona claimed her girlfriend at the time, Olivia Gonzalez, was the one who tortured Lazaro, eventually causing his death. Acquaintances of Ana Maria Cardona testified against her by recounting how she had consistently treated Lazaro poorly. Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 40 years and served 14 years. Gonzalez testified that on the "last day of October" (the last day before Lazaro's death), Cardona "got pissed off and she hit Lazaro with a bat over the head" because he was slow in taking off his diaper. She stated that Cardona hit Lazaro until "a hole was opened up in his head. His head was cracked." Gonzalez explained that the wound "started bleeding and bleeding and bleeding, and then I put mercury on it and I applied a plastic band." Throughout the trial, Cardona labelled Gonzalez as a "murderer" and as a "monster" who forced her to succumb to a sexual relationship with her in exchange for food and shelter for herself and her children. Defense attorney Steven Yermish remarked, "She was in an abusive relationship she viewed as inescapable because she was being provided for." Judge David L. Tobin described Lazaro's long-standing abuse as the most "heinous, atrocious or cruel of all times." Cardona was found guilty of first-degree murder as well as aggravated child abuse. She received a sentence of death based on the condition of her son's body, becoming the first woman to be sent to death row in Florida. Second trial: In 2002, Cardona's initial sentence was overturned due to a Brady violation by the prosecution team, who had failed to allow defense attorneys access to interviews with Gonzalez, and the Florida Supreme Court granted her a second trial. At the second trial in 2010, prosecutors focused their attention on Lazaro's physical condition and the abuse he had suffered at the hands of his mother. In the second trial, a mentally-handicapped 14-year-old girl, Gloria Pi from Miami Beach, provided a detailed confession of throwing Lazaro against a wall. As a result, Cardona's legal defense team attempted to shift the blame of Lazaro's murder from Cardona to the girl. During the trial, Pi retracted her confession and maintained that she was innocent, emphasizing that she had never cared for or met Lazaro when the defense posited that in the days leading up to his death, Pi was looking after him. The jury requested that the confession be reread during their deliberation for the verdict. However, the jurors discounted Pi's testimony because there was not enough evidence to suggest that Lazaro ever stayed at Pi's residence. Kathleen Pautler described the confession as a "diversionary tactic" used by Cardona's defense team. Miami-Dade jurors again found Cardona guilty of the two counts, and in 2011, she was sentenced to death a second time. In contrast to her outrage at the verdict in the 1992 trial, Cardona appeared collected when her sentence was handed down. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle stated, "Almost 20 years later, a second jury heard the evidence and has come to the same conclusion...The truth still remains the truth." While reading her sentence, the judge, Reemberto Diaz stated, "Ana Maria Cardona, you have forfeited your right to live... Lazaro was tortured to death." Third trial: Cardona spent 17 years on death row before her verdict was overturned by a higher court because the prosecution had used arguments that "improperly inflamed the minds and passions of the jurors". The prosecution in the third trial did not seek the death penalty. In her third trial in 2017, a neighbor testified, "She closed the door...it didn't appear that any lights were on but the shower was going and he was screaming." She stated that Lazaro was "very small, very thin, very frail." However, Cardona insisted under oath that she did not inflict significant abuse on her son or break any of his bones. She also continued to recant her 1990 statement that Lazaro fell off the bed and hit his head, causing the tear in his corpus callosum. Instead, she placed the blame on her ex-girlfriend Olivia Gonzalez, insisting that she struck Lazaro with a baseball bat. The defense said they would introduce evidence Gonzalez had confessed to hitting the boy with the baseball bat and killing him. Cardona's lawyer, Stephen Yermish, attempted to persuade the jury that while she was indeed a bad mother, she was not necessarily a murderer. He conceded that "the charge of aggravated child abuse may have been proven", but that the "charge of murder has not". The jury found Cardona guilty of the death of Lazaro Figueroa in 1990, and the court convicted her of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse for a third time. However, this time she was sentenced to life in prison instead of a death sentence. Presiding Judge Miguel de la O remarked, “there are wild beasts that show more empathy for their offspring than you showed Lazaro.”

Murder of Alexis Murphy

Alexis Murphy was a 17-year-old female from Nelson County, Virginia who went missing on August 3, 2013. She was last seen at a gas station in Lovingston, Virginia. Her remains were never recovered, but evidence was recovered from a vehicle and camper (referred to as a trailer by some outlets) belonging to 48-year-old Randy Taylor. Taylor was put on trial for Murphy's murder on May 1, 2014. He was found guilty a week later and given two life sentences. Taylor was also linked to the disappearance of Virginia teenager Samantha Clarke, who went missing in 2010. Disappearance: On August 3, 2013, Murphy left her home in Shipman, Virginia to travel to Lynchburg. She was last seen at a gas station in Lovingston on the evening of August 3, where she was driving a white 2003 Nissan Maxima. In the following days, she was reported as missing and a search was launched. Murphy's car was found on August 6 in Albemarle County, where it had been abandoned in a theater parking lot. On August 10, the police announced that they were trying to identify photographs of persons seen in close proximity to Murphy. The following day, a suspect, later identified as Taylor, was arrested. Investigation: Prior to arresting Taylor, police investigated him as one of several people who appeared on the gas station's surveillance video. The police searched Taylor's camper, where they found a strand of Murphy's hair. As Taylor lived near a river, dive teams and canine units conducted a search and found a red sweater. The sweater was initially speculated to have belonged to Murphy, but an investigator later stated otherwise. Several cell phones were also found and sent to Quantico for testing. Authorities found DNA evidence that Murphy had been in Taylor's camper. On September 24, 2013, Taylor was indicted on two felony charges. In January 2014, Taylor was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder and abduction with the intent to defile, as well as an unrelated grand larceny charge. Investigators conducted a final search of Taylor's property shortly before he was set to be tried. Trial and sentencing: Taylor's case was brought to trial on May 1, 2014. Jury selection took about eight hours to complete and the trial was presided over by Judge Michael Gamble, who issued a gag order for the case. Taylor pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder, stating that while Murphy had been in his camper, she had arrived with another man, Damien Brown, in order to buy marijuana and that the two had left together. His lawyer, Michael Hallahan, argued that law enforcement did not fully investigate this claim and focused predominantly on Taylor despite Brown leaving the state shortly after Murphy disappeared. Evidence brought against Taylor included testimony from a cashier at the gas station, a bloody T-shirt; and evidence pulled from Taylor's camper, which included the strand of hair, a torn fingernail, and a diamond earring stud. Hallahan had made a pretrial attempt to suppress statements and the evidence found via search warrants, but this was denied. On May 8, Taylor was found guilty on the charges of first-degree murder in the commission of an abduction and abduction with intent to defile in connection with the disappearance of Murphy. During the sentencing, Taylor tried to bargain for a lesser sentence. He said that a third person had been involved and that he would reveal the location of the body in exchange for a twenty-year sentence; Taylor's offer was declined. On July 23, 2014, Taylor was given two life sentences. Jesse Matthew link and appeal: In October 2014, shortly after the remains of Hannah Graham were discovered, Taylor requested that authorities perform a DNA test on Jesse Matthew. Taylor's lawyer alleged that because Matthew had been linked to several disappearances, including that of Morgan Dana Harrington, that he could have been responsible for Murphy's disappearance. Hallahan also requested a social media analysis to see if Murphy had ever contacted Matthew via any of her social media accounts. Nelson County Commonwealth's Attorney Anthony Martin remarked there was nothing to tie the two cases together but ran the requested tests, which ruled Matthew out as a suspect. In December of the same year, Taylor filed an appeal, claiming that he did not receive a fair trial and that he received poor representation from Hallahan. His appeal was denied in May 2015 and a second appeal was filed with the Supreme Court of Virginia.