Smiley face murder theory

The Smiley face murder theory (variations include Smiley face murders, Smiley face killings, Smiley face gang, and others) is a theory advanced by two retired New York City detectives, Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, that a number of young men found dead in bodies of water across several Midwestern American states over the last decade did not accidentally drown, as concluded by law enforcement agencies, but were victims of a serial killer or killers. The term smiley face became connected to the alleged murders when it was made public that the police had discovered graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where they think the killer dumped the bodies in at least a dozen of the cases. The response of law enforcement investigators and other experts to Gannon and Duarte's theory has been largely skeptical. Gannon and Duarte's investigation: As recently as 2008, Gannon and Duarte were examining evidence going back to the late 1990s that they believe connects the deaths of 45 college-age males, whose dead bodies were found in water in 11 states, often after leaving parties or bars where they were drinking. The men, according to the former detectives, often fit a profile of being popular, athletic, and good students, and most were white. Gannon and Duarte have theorized that the young men were all murdered, either by an individual or by an organized group of killers The term smiley face became connected to the alleged murders when it was made public that Gannon and Duarte had discovered graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where they think the killer dumped the bodies in at least a dozen of the cases. Reception of the theory: Other police forces that have investigated the deaths dispute the conclusion that the cases are linked. The La Crosse, Wisconsin police department, which was in charge of eight of the investigations, released an official statement reiterating their original conclusions that the deaths were accidental drownings of inebriated men and stating that no smiley face symbols were found in connection with any of these cases. The Center for Homicide Research in Minneapolis, Minnesota has recently published a research brief that also attempts to scientifically refute the theory. In March 2009, Lee Gilbertson, a criminal justice faculty member at St. Cloud State University, voiced his support for the theory on an episode of Larry King Live which discussed the alleged murders. Criminal profiler Pat Brown calls the serial killer theory "ludicrous", arguing that the evidence does not fit what is known about serial killers. Brown also believes that the smiley face images found in some of the cases are likely nothing more than coincidences based upon making a guess at where the body entered the water and searching a wide area until an example of smiley face graffiti can be found. "It's not an unusual symbol," she told Matt Smith of the Minneapolis-based newspaper City Pages. "If you look in an area five miles square, I bet you could find a smiley face." The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued the following statement: "...The FBI has reviewed the information about the victims provided by two retired police detectives, who have dubbed these incidents the “Smiley Face Murders,” and interviewed an individual who provided information to the detectives. To date, we have not developed any evidence to support links between these tragic deaths or any evidence substantiating the theory that these deaths are the work of a serial killer or killers. The vast majority of these instances appear to be alcohol-related drownings. The FBI will continue to work with the local police in the affected areas to provide support as requested..." Ruben Rosario of the Pioneer Press questions the motives of Kevin Gannon. He states that Gannon has failed to provide any factual evidence that a group of killers exists, and that others, like reporter Kristi Piehl (the original reporter of Gannon and Duarte's theory), and some of the parents of the young men, who were at first encouraged by Gannon, now wonder if he isn't actually hurting the families who are trying to get over the loss of a child. One of the parents, Bill Szostak, and Rosario even speculate that Gannon is out for either money or the notoriety and press attention. Another parent, Kathy Geib, is working with Piehl and others, but their main goal now is just to get police to take a compulsory second look at cases of alcohol-related drownings.

Temple (Latter Day Saints)

In the Latter Day Saint movement, a temple is a building dedicated to be a house of God and is reserved for special forms of worship. A temple differs from a church meetinghouse, which is used for weekly worship services. Temples have been a significant part of the Latter Day Saint movement since early in its inception. Today, temples are operated by several Latter Day Saint denominations. The most prolific builder of temples of the Latter Day Saint movement is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). There are 149 operating temples (which includes 5 previously dedicated, but closed for renovation), 15 under construction, and 9 announced (not yet under construction). Several other variations of the church have built or attempted to build temples. The Community of Christ operates two temples in the United States, which are open to the public and are used for worship services, performances, and religious education. Other denominations with temples are the Apostolic United Brethren, the Church of Christ, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. History: The Latter Day Saint movement was conceived as a restoration of practices believed to have been lost in a Great Apostasy from the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Temple worship played a prominent role in the Bible's Old Testament, and in the Book of Mormon. On December 27, 1832, two years after the organization of the Church of Christ, the church's founder, Joseph Smith, reported receiving a revelation that called upon church members to restore the practice of temple worship. The Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio were commanded to: "Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." (Doctrine and Covenants 1835 VII:36, LDS 88:119, RLDS 85:36b) More importantly, Latter Day Saints see temples as the fulfillment of a prophecy found in Malachi 3:1 (KJV): "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." This is believed to emphasize that when the Lord comes again, he will come "to his temple." As plans were drawn up to construct a temple in Kirtland, the decision was made to simultaneously begin work on a second temple at the church's colony in Jackson County, Missouri. Surviving plans indicate that both temples would have the same dimensions and approximately the same appearance and both were to be at the "centerplaces" of cities designed according to Smith's plan for the City of Zion. Conflict in Missouri led to the expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, preventing any possibility of building a temple there, but work on the temple in Kirtland continued. At great cost and after great sacrifice, the Latter Day Saints finished the Kirtland Temple in early 1836. On March 27, they held a lengthy dedication ceremony and numerous spiritual experiences and visitations were reported. Conflict relating to the failure of the church's Kirtland Safety Society bank, caused the church presidency to leave Kirtland and move the church's headquarters to the Mormon settlement of Far West, Missouri. Far West was also platted along the lines of the City of Zion plan and in 1838 the church began construction of a new, larger temple in the center of the town. They may also have dedicated a temple site in the neighboring Mormon settlement of Adam-ondi-Ahman. The events of the 1838 Mormon War and the expulsion of the Mormons from Missouri left these attempts at temple-building no further progressed than excavating foundations. In 1839, the Mormons regrouped at a new headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. They were again commanded to build a "House of the Lord" — this one even larger and greater than those that went before. Plans for the temple in Nauvoo followed the earlier models in Kirtland and Independence with lower and upper courts, but the scale was much increased. New conflicts arose that caused Joseph Smith, the prophet and president of the church, to be murdered, along with his brother Hyrum the Patriarch, at Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844. The Nauvoo Temple stood only half finished. Eventually, this temple was finished and dedicated. Some temple ordinances were performed before most of the saints followed Brigham Young west across the Mississippi River. Joseph Smith's death resulted in a succession crisis which divided the movement into different sects. The concept of temple worship evolved separately in many of these sects and only the sects claiming a succession through Brigham Young continued to build new temples until April 1990 when the Community of Christ, then known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), began to construct the Independence Temple, which was officially dedicated in 1994. The Community of Christ still owns the Kirtland Temple, which is used for worship services and special events but also open to visitors, including various Latter Day Saint denominations interested in the building's historical significance. Purposes: Temples have held numerous purposes in the Latter Day Saint movement, both historically and their differing expressions today. These purposes include: -A House of the Lord — Joseph Smith reported a revelation in 1836 explaining that the recently dedicated Kirtland Temple was built "that the Son of Man might have a place to manifest himself to his people." (Doctrine and Covenants LDS 109:5). All Latter Day Saint denominations with temples still consider temples to be special houses of the Lord. -A House of Learning — The Kirtland Temple housed the "School of the Prophets." -Center of the City of Zion — Latter Day Saints often view temples as central to the establishment of Zionic communities. Examples include: the Kirtland Temple, the original (unfinished) Independence Temple, the (unfinished) Far West Temple, the (unfinished) Adam-ondi-Ahman Temple, the original Nauvoo Temple, the Salt Lake Temple, the St. George Utah Temple, the Mesa Arizona Temple, the Laie Hawaii Temple, and others. -Headquarters of the church — the Kirtland Temple served as the headquarters of the early church from its completion in 1836 through the end of 1837. -Sacred spaces for special ordinances — Beginning in Nauvoo, temples were spaces in which to perform special ordinances such as the endowment and baptism for the dead — see Ordinance (Mormonism). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has been the most prolific builder of temples. There are 149 operating temples (which includes 5 previously dedicated, but closed for renovation), 15 under construction, and 9 announced (not yet under construction). In the LDS Church, temples are not only a House of the Lord, but are also where members of the church make covenants and perform sacred ordinances, such as: baptism for the dead, washing and anointing (or "initiatory" ordinances), the "endowment," and eternal marriage sealings. Ordinances are a vital part of the theology of the church, which teaches that they were practiced by the Lord's covenant people in all dispensations. Additionally, members consider the temple a place to commune with God, seek God’s aid, understand the will of God, and receive personal revelation. Upon completion (or after the completion of significant renovations), temples are open to the public for a time (an "Open House"). During the Open House, the church conducts tours of the temple with missionaries and members from the local area serving as tour guides, and all rooms of the temple are open to the public. The temple is then dedicated as a "House of the Lord," after which only members in good standing are permitted entrance, thus they are not churches but rather places of consecrated worship. History: In 1832, shortly after the formation of the church, Joseph Smith said that the Lord desired the saints build a temple; and they completed the Kirtland Temple in 1836. Differing from other churches in the Latter Day Saint tradition, members feel that the first endowment ceremonies were performed in Kirtland, Ohio, although the endowment performed in Kirtland differed significantly from the endowment performed by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo. The construction of the Nauvoo Temple and the teaching of the full endowment by Smith are seen as the final steps in restoring the church founded by Jesus Christ following the great apostasy. Because it is an integral part of their worship, members, upon arriving in Salt Lake City began plans to build temples there, and built the Endowment House to allow members to receive the endowment until the temples were completed. Construction: Initially, the church constructed temples in areas where there were large concentrations of members: Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Hawaii (all in the USA), and Alberta (Canada). In the mid 20th century, because of the importance of temples in the theology, the church tried to balance density with the travel requirements that attending the temple imposed upon members. Thus, temples were built in Europe (Switzerland-1955 and England-1958); the Pacific Islands (New Zealand-1958); and Washington, D.C. (1974-first American temple East of Utah since Nauvoo in 1846) when membership alone might not have justified the effort. Temple growth continued in the 1980s, Spencer W. Kimball directed the church to build smaller temples with similar designs. Before this time, all but the Swiss Temple were at least 45,000 square feet (4,200 m2), and the average size of the first 20 temples was 103,000 square feet (9,570 m2). The new temples varied in size but were generally less than 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) allowing temples to be built where there were fewer members. As a result the first temples in South America (Brazil-1978); Asia (Japan-1980); and Central America (Mexico City-1983) were built and the number of temples doubled from 15 to 36. LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) also accelerated the construction of temples through the use of an even smaller standardized base design and set a goal to have 100 operating temples before 2001. Between the brief building period from 1998 to 2001, 38 of these standardized temples were constructed and dedicated, meeting Hinckley's goal and, during Hinckley's service as president, the number of temples more than doubled from 47 to 124.

Family and mormonism

I've heard mormons are big on families. I was invited to a dinner and makeover but i backed out as i haven't seen my mom in a week.

Murder of Jessica Lunsford

Jessica Marie Lunsford was a nine-year-old American girl who was abducted from her home in Homosassa, Florida in the early morning of February 24, 2005. Believed held captive over the weekend, she was raped and later murdered by 46-year-old John Couey, a convicted sex offender who lived nearby. The media covered the investigation and trial of her killer extensively. On August 24, 2007, a judge in Inverness, Florida sentenced Couey, to death for kidnapping, sexual battery, and first degree murder. Abduction, rape and murder: Couey stated in an audio/videotaped confession that he had abducted, raped, and murdered Jessica Lunsford. A judge ruled on June 30, 2006 that Couey's confession was inadmissible in court because when it was recorded police had not granted Couey's requests for a lawyer, thereby rendering the confession invalid and unreliable under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. Over Couey's objection, the trial court ruled that all evidence collected after the confession, including the recovery of Lunsford's body, would be admitted, as would incriminating statements allegedly made by Couey to investigators and a jail guard. Couey's confession: In his confession, Couey said that he entered Lunsford's house through an unlocked door at about three o'clock in the morning, awakened Lunsford, told her "Don't yell or nothing", and told her to follow him out of the house. He occupied a trailer along with two women, some 100 yards (91 m) away, at the time of Lunsford's abduction. He admitted in a videotaped and recorded deposition to raping Lunsford in his bedroom. Lunsford was kept in Couey's bed that evening, where he raped her again in the morning. Couey put her in his closet and ordered her to remain there, which she did as he reported for work at "Billy's Truck Lot". Three days after he abducted her, Couey tricked Jessica into getting into two garbage bags by saying he was going to 'take her home'. He instead buried her alive as he decided he could do nothing else with the girl. He said he 'Didn't want people seeing him and Lunsford across the street.' On March 14, Dixon (Couey's half sister) gave permission to police to search her home. On March 19, 2005, the police found Lunsford's body at a residence located on West Snowbird Court, buried in a hole approximately 2½' deep and 2' circular, covered with leaves. The body was removed from the ground and transported to the coroner's office. Her body had undergone "moderate" to "severe" decomposition and according to the publicly released autopsy reports was skeletonized on two fingers that Lunsford had poked through the bags before suffocating to death. The coroner ruled that death would have happened even in best circumstances within 2–3 minutes from lack of oxygen. Arrest of John Couey: After approximately three weeks of intense searching for Lunsford around the area of her home, Couey, age 46, was arrested in Savannah, Georgia for an outstanding warrant of cannabis possession, but he was released after questioning because it was only a local warrant. He was later arrested in Augusta, Georgia. On March 18, 2005, Couey confessed to having kidnapped and murdered Lunsford. On March 19, 2005 police found Lunsford's body. On March 7, 2007, Couey was found guilty in Florida of all charges in relation to Lunsford's death, including first degree murder, kidnapping, and capital sexual battery. On March 14, 2007, the jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. The case was appealed to the Florida Supreme Court. Couey continued to maintain that he was innocent until his death in September 2009. Death of John Couey: On August 24, 2007, Couey was sentenced to death, in addition to three consecutive life sentences. However, on September 30, 2009, before the sentences could be carried out, Couey died of natural causes. Jessica Lunsford Act: Following her death, her father, Mark Lunsford, pursued new legislation to provide more stringent tracking of released sex offenders. The Jessica Lunsford Act was named after her. It requires tighter restrictions on sex offenders (such as wearing electronic tracking devices) and increased prison sentences for some convicted sex offenders. "Jessica's Law" refers to similar reform acts initiated by other states. The award-winning documentary Jessie's Dad follows Lunsford as he pushes for the passage of Jessica's Law around the country. Directed and produced by Boaz Dvir, this hour-long film has earned a 5-star rating (highest possible) on iTunes and Amazon. Wrongful death and negligence lawsuit: On February 19, 2008, almost three years to the day after her kidnapping and murder, Jessica's father was represented by Jacksonville, Florida lawyers in a pre-trial brief filed against the Citrus County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. After receiving notice of the pending suit, Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy stated that he believed the case to be "baseless... There is only one person in the world that should be held responsible for Jessica Lunsford's death and that's John Couey." Following complaints and suggestions from Citrus County residents that the pending litigation was being pursued out of greed and that had he been a better father his child may still be alive, Mark Lunsford and Jacksonville-based attorneys Eric Block and Mark Gelman held a news conference in Jacksonville, where it was stated that the pending litigation was "not for the money... but for change." Lunsford stated that changes were needed in procedures and policies. It is alleged that Couey had Jessica Lunsford alive in the trailer while Citrus County officials visited the trailer, that police dogs indicated Jessica was being held in the direction of the trailer and were ignored, that Citrus County officials actively pursued Mark Lunsford's father as their prime suspect while evidence pointed elsewhere, and that had Citrus County officials followed up on an outstanding warrant issued by Georgia, that Citrus County officials could have entered Couey's residence and possibly saved the child. Other media: Mark Lunsford's transformation to a child activist after the murder of his daughter Jessica is the subject of the 2011 documentary film, Jessie's Dad. The abduction of Jessica Lunsford was covered in 2013 on the TV Show FBI: Criminal Pursuit In the episode "Lurking Menace". (Full Episode on YouTube)

Murder of the Grimes sisters

Barbara and Patricia Grimes were teenage sisters who disappeared from the Brighton Park, Chicago, Illinois area on December 28, 1956 and were found dead on January 22, 1957. Despite an official conclusion that they had been murdered on the night of their disappearance, there were numerous alleged sightings of the girls in the period prior to the discovery of their dead bodies. The confession of the prime suspect, Bennie Bedwell, was not supported by forensic science. Bedwell later recanted his confession. This double murder case has never been solved. Disappearance: On December 28, 1956, sisters Barbara (aged 15) and Patricia (aged 13), students at Thomas Kelly High School and St. Maurice respectively, went to the Brighton Theater to see the Elvis Presley movie Love Me Tender. The theater was about one-and-a-half miles from the girls' McKinley Park home. They had $2.15 between them. It is not known how they travelled to the theater. Patricia's friend, Dorothy Weinert, sat behind the girls with her own younger sister during the movie. Weinert and her sister left the theatre at the intermission of the double feature showing that night, about 9:30, and, while leaving, saw the Grimes girls in the popcorn line who seemed in good spirits. Neither the Weinerts nor anyone else noticed anything unusual. The sisters stayed for the second film, and were expected home around 11:45 p.m. When there was no sign of them by midnight, their mother Loretta sent their older brother and sister to wait by the nearest bus stop for their arrival. After three buses had gone by with no sign of them, the siblings returned. At 2:15 a.m., their mother reported Barbara and Patricia as missing. The two girls' disappearance launched one of the biggest missing-person cases in Chicago history, producing many reports of sightings but nothing in the way of hard evidence. It was initially thought that they might have simply run away, possibly to Nashville to see Elvis Presley in concert or just to "emulate his lifestyle." On January 19, 1957, a statement was issued by Graceland in which Presley was ostensibly asking the girls to return home: "If you are good Presley fans, you'll go home and ease your mother's worries." Sightings: Between the last confirmed sighting of them at the movie theatre on December 28, 1956, and the subsequent discovery of their bodies on January 22, 1957, there were several unconfirmed sightings of the girls both in and outside the city. The most widely reported sightings include the following: -Numerous people said that they saw the girls boarding a CTA bus on Archer Avenue heading east into the city after the screening. They allegedly got off the bus at Western Avenue, about halfway to their home, around 11:05 pm. Why they would get off the bus at that station is unknown. -At approximately 11:30 pm, two teenage boys said that, while they were driving through the neighborhood, they saw the sisters heading east on 35th Street, "giggling and jumping out of doorways at each other" near Seely and Damen Avenues, approximately two blocks from their home. -A security guard on the northwest side believed he was asked for directions by the Grimes girls near Lawrence and Central Park avenues on the morning of December 29. -A classmate of Patricia's, eating at Angelo's Restaurant at 3551 South Archer Avenue on the evening of December 29, reported her as walking past with two other unidentified young girls. -A railroad conductor reported seeing them on a train near the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in north suburban Glenview. -On December 30 at 5:40 am, the owner of the D&L Restaurant at 1340 West Madison claimed to have seen both girls, with Patricia apparently too drunk or sick to walk without staggering, accompanied by suspect Bennie Bedwell. This location was over five-and-a-half miles from the Brighton Theater.[5] A clerk at the Claremont Hotel, after viewing the bodies at a mortuary, likewise identified the sisters as having checked into the hotel on this date.[6] -On January 1, 1957, the girls were reported aboard a CTA bus on Damen Avenue. -The following week, a night clerk at the Unity Hotel on West 61st street refused two girls a room because of their age, whom he believed were the Grimes sisters. -On January 3, three employees at Kresge department store thought they had seen the girls listening to Elvis Presley music at the record counter. -Adding credence to the theory that both sisters had run away to Nashville, a woman reported having met them at a bus station there, and accompanied them to a state employment agency to search for work. A clerk at the same agency identified the sisters from photographs and recalled them using the "Grimes" name. -On January 14, the parents of Patricia Grimes' classmate Sandra Tollstan received two telephone calls around midnight. During the first call, nobody at the other end spoke. Picking up the second phone call 15 minutes later, Sandra's mother Ann heard a "frightened and depressed" voice asking "Is that you, Sandra? Is Sandra there?" Before Ann could bring her daughter to the phone, the caller had hung up. Ann stated she was convinced that the caller's voice belonged to Patricia Grimes. Discovery of the bodies: Following a thaw and rain, on January 22, 1957, while driving along German Church Road, about 200 feet east of County Line Road in unincorporated Willow Springs (later, in 1960, incorporated as part of Willowbrook) a construction worker named Leonard Prescott spotted the nude bodies of the Grimes sisters behind a guard rail. Initially unsure of what he had seen, Prescott later returned to the site with his wife Marie, who fainted on taking a closer look. Barbara Grimes lay on her left side with her legs slightly drawn up toward her body. Patricia Grimes lay on her back, covering her sister's head. It was thought that they had most likely been dumped there from a passing car. The autopsy, performed by experienced pathologists, concluded that due to their stomachs containing the approximate proportions of their last known meal, both sisters had in fact died within about five hours of the time they were last seen at the theatre, i.e. on either the evening of December 28 or the early morning of the 29th. However, Harry Glos, at the time chief investigator for the Cook County coroner's office, disagreed with the time of death. He pointed to a thin layer of ice found on the bodies of the girls as indicating that they had been alive until at least January 7, since only after that date would there have been snowfall enough to react with their warm bodies and create the ice layer, let alone hide the bodies until their discovery. There were no obviously fatal wounds on either girl's body and nothing to indicate that they had been drunk, drugged or poisoned. Despite being "very clean", both corpses had various bruises and rodent bites, including three puncture wounds in Barbara's chest that may have come from an ice pick. It was also later revealed by authorities that Barbara at least had likely had sexual intercourse around the time of her death, but no evidence of forcible molestation was found. The "immediate cause of death" in the girls' death certificates was given as "secondary shock" resulting from "exposure to low temperatures," yet the case overall is labeled therein a "murder." Suspects- Bennie Bedwell: Edward Lee "Bennie" Bedwell was a 21-year-old illiterate drifter from Tennessee who allegedly bore some resemblance to Elvis Presley. According to Minnie Duros, owner of the D&L Restaurant where Bedwell had worked as a dish washer, he was there with the Grimes sisters on the morning of December 30, 1956. Bedwell was booked on murder charges January 27, 1957 after signing a confession stating that he and another man were with the Grimes sisters January 7 and after seven days of drinking at West Madison Street ("skid row") saloons, they fed the sisters hot dogs and then beat them to death for refusing their further sexual advances before discarding the bodies on January 13. Loretta Grimes, mother of the victims, was quoted upon Bedwell's alleged confession: "It's a lie. My girls wouldn't be on West Madison Street, they didn't even know where it was." He later withdrew the confession on the grounds that it had been coerced by the sheriff's men. The autopsy reports later supported this contention as no alcohol or hot dogs were found in the victims' systems nor had they been beaten to death. Bedwell was also clocked in at Ajax Consolidated Company, his place of employment, from 4:19 pm on December 28, 1956, to 12:30 am on December 29, covering the time period of the girls' likely abduction and murder. However, Harry Glos, chief investigator for the Cook County coroner's office, who strongly believed Bedwell had in fact committed the murders, later charged that the marks found on the bodies had not been adequately investigated. He further theorised that they were evidence that the sisters had been beaten, and, in tandem with the evidence of sexual activity, were thus in line with Bedwell's claims. Glos claimed that official investigators were covering up these and potentially other more lurid details of the case, possibly out of a desire to protect the girls' reputations and/or spare their mother's feelings. Similar allegations would be repeated in later years by others, some of whom claimed to have seen the original casefiles. The Chicago crime lab, meanwhile, continued to insist that there was no evidence in either girl's case of extreme violence or sexual molestation. After refusing to retract his statements, Glos was fired by Coroner Walter E. McCarron on February 15. Max Fleig: Max Fleig was a 17-year-old suspect in this case. He voluntarily took a polygraph test and failed it. After failing the polygraph, he allegedly confessed to kidnapping the girls. However, because at that time it was illegal to perform the polygraph test on a minor, police had to let Fleig go. He was never charged with the murders because there was no evidence that he killed or kidnapped the girls other than his alleged confession and the polygraph failure. Max Fleig was sent to prison a few years later for the unrelated murder of a young woman. Walter Kranz: Walter Kranz, a 53-year-old steamfitter, called police on January 15 to say that he had dreamt that the bodies of the girls were in Santa Fe Park at 81st Street and Wolf Road. The park was around one-and-a-half miles from the true location where they were to be found one week later. Krantz told police that psychic powers ran in his family. After multiple interrogations by the police, he was released. Silas Jayne: Silas Jayne was a stable owner who, as the Helen Brach investigation was later to reveal, was connected to the Peterson-Schuessler murders of 1955 through pederast Kenneth Hansen. Hansen owned Bro-Ken H Stables at 8214 Kean Avenue in Willow Springs around the time of the Grimes sisters murder. Outcome: The case remains unsolved. In 2013, Ray Johnson, a retired West Chicago police officer, began an investigation of the case, on his own accord. Johnson became interested in the Grimes sisters' case in 2010, while he was researching a book he was writing about the city's history. The Grimes sisters' brother, James Grimes, aged 68 in 2013, who was 11 when Patricia and Barbara disappeared, welcomed what he saw as the "reopening of the case." He stated "I just assumed it was never going to be solved. But maybe there's hope."

Levi Frady

Levi Frady (March 6, 1986 – October 22, 1997) was a kidnapping victim in Georgia's Forsyth County. On October 22, 1997, Frady was abducted while riding his bicycle home after playing with his friends down the street. After being abducted, Frady was murdered (outside of the county). His case remains unsolved. Case: At approximately 7p.m. on October 22, 1997, Frady was riding his bike home from a friend's house along Little Mill Road. Frady's bike was found the next morning in a driveway along Little Mill Road. William Bearden, then 11, found the bike while walking to the bus stop, where Bearden believes Frady was abducted. FBI Special Agent Mitchell Posey said he believes the abductor drove Frady in the dark to Dawson State Forest, 15 miles away. Posey said the crime scene evidence indicates Frady fought his abductor and was shot in the back three times as he tried to get away. Based on his experience, Posey said the abductor likely intended to sexually assault Frady.

Colonial Parkway Killer

The Colonial Parkway Killer was an apparent serial killer believed to have murdered at least eight people along the Colonial Parkway of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia (or nearby) between 1986 and 1989. During that time, three couples were murdered and one couple is missing and presumed to be dead. The book All That Remains by Patricia Cornwell is loosely based on the killings. Victims- First couple: The first two known victims were United States Naval Academy Class of 1981 graduate Cathleen Thomas, 27, and College of William & Mary senior Rebecca Ann Dowski, 21. On October 12, 1986, their bodies were found inside Thomas' white 1980 Honda Civic along the Colonial Parkway. An autopsy found rope burns on their necks and wrists, signs of strangulation, and their throats had been slashed, and diesel fuel was poured over the bodies and the car but apparently failed to ignite. Their purses and money were found inside the car. It appears that Thomas may have struggled with her attacker. A clump of the hair was later captured by her fingers. Both women were fully clothed and there was no evidence of robbery or sexual assault. Second couple: On September 22, 1987, David Knobling, 20, and Robin Edwards, 14, were found shot to death in the Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge, on the south shore of the James River in Isle of Wight County, near Smithfield, Virginia. Knobling's black Ford Ranger pickup truck was found at the refuge parking area with the wipers and radio on and some articles of clothing inside. Three days later, the two bodies were discovered by his father and a search party along the water's edge. Third couple: On April 9, 1988, Christopher Newport University students Cassandra Lee Hailey and Richard Keith Call were reported missing after attending a party in the University Square area in Newport News during their first date together. Call's red 1982 Toyota Celica was found, unoccupied, on the Colonial Parkway the next day with some articles of clothing inside. Neither body has been found, but both are presumed dead. Fourth couple: On October 19, 1989, the bodies of Annamaria Phelps, 18, and Daniel Lauer, 21, were found in New Kent County by hunters in the woods near a rest area on Interstate 64 between Williamsburg and Richmond. Phelps had been dating Lauer's brother at the time they went missing on September 5 when they vanished on route to Virginia Beach. The hunters discovered the bodies on a logging road about a quarter-of-a-mile from Courthouse Road, a location about a mile from the I-64 New Kent rest stop where Lauer's gold 1972 Chevrolet Nova had been found heading in the wrong direction, away from their intended Virginia Beach destination. At least one of the badly decomposed bodies appears to have suffered knife wounds. Television broadcasts: In 1996, the unsolved case of the Colonial Parkway Killer was presented on national television on the program Real Stories of the Highway Patrol, a series that aired from 1993-1999. Actor Steve Altes portrayed the killer. In 2007, the disappearance and presumed murder of Cassandra Hailey and Keith Call were featured in the Investigation Discovery program "Sensing Murder," whereby investigators brought in psychics Pam Coronado and Laurie Campbell to gain new insights into the crimes. The show mentioned that this disappearance may be part of the Colonial Parkway killings. Psychic Pam Coronado felt that the killings were all related but that the location of the cars were not where the actual violence occurred. In 2008, E! Entertainment Television presented a full length documentary, "THS Investigates Serial Killers on the Loose" which features a segment on the Colonial Parkway Murders. In 2013, the Colonial Parkway Murders were profiled in the Investigation Discovery television series "Dark Minds" with host and true crime author M. William Phelps. In February 2016, journalist/attorney Allison Hope Weiner interviewed Bill Thomas, brother of murder victim Cathleen Thomas, as part of on overview of the Colonial Parkway Murders on her show Crime Time. Assistance of Spingola: In June 2010, the victims' families requested the assistance of a retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective, Steven Spingola, an investigator with a national reputation for excellence. After visiting the crime scenes, Spingola spoke with a handful of family members, tipsters, and law enforcement veterans. In August 2010, Spingola released Predators on the Parkway: a Former Homicide Detective Explores the Colonial Parkway Murders, a 29-page magazine article that detailed his findings. Profile: Spingola ascertained that the murders are the work of different killers, especially the slayings of Cathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski. The former homicide detective believes the Thomas-Dowski crimes are directly linked to the deaths of Lollie Winans and Julie Williams who were found with their throats slashed in the Shenandoah National Park, 180 miles west of the Colonial Parkway, in 1996. After Spingola's team of investigative journalists, known as the Spingola Files (SF), after their Web site's online moniker, visited Yorktown, Virginia, a family member of one of the victims searched the belongings of her deceased relative. A note was discovered that may identify a possible person of interest in one of the couple-homicides. While the Virginia State Police claim the information in this note was previously examined, one of the lead investigators at the time of 1989 murders told a television reporter from WAVY that he could not recall such a note. Criticisms: Spingola's lengthy magazine article has its critics. A family member of one of the victims claimed the former detective sought to profit from his writings. In Predators on the Parkway, Spingola also described the vehicle of the possible person of interest mentioned in the recovered note, which a family member of a victim dubbed "irrelevant" to the overall investigation. But Spingola and his SF staff insist that the note found in a victim's belongings is "very significant" and that the proceeds from Predators on the Parkway are used to off-set costs associated with records requests and travel to explore other unsolved homicides. 2015 Fiction Book based in the Colonial Parkway Case: In June 2015, author Renee MacKenzie released "23 Miles" a fictional account based the Thomas/Dowski murder, the first of the Colonial Parkway Murders. Investigation status: In September 2009, after the story broke on CBS News affiliate WTKR that graphic crime scene photographs of Colonial Parkway murder victims were used inappropriately to instruct a class by a retired and now deceased former FBI photographer, the FBI reopened its investigation of the Colonial Parkway murders. WTKR Reporter Mike Mather and investigators soon found that much of the evidence, stowed for over two-decades, had yet to be tested for DNA and other trace evidence. Responding to the resulting media and family member criticism, a team from FBI Norfolk and FBI Headquarters met with the victims' families in January 2010. Dozens of pieces of evidence were then submitted to the FBI Quantico crime lab for DNA and other trace analysis. The FBI reportedly told the victims' families that the results of some of the DNA testing should be available in the latter part of 2010. Testing of crime scene evidence and interviews of suspects have continued through the fall of 2015. As of fall 2015, the killer or killers have not yet been identified. Investigators have speculated that the suspect might be a law enforcement officer, a National Park Service Ranger or someone impersonating one, or perhaps a rogue operative from the Central Intelligence Agency, which has a training facility nearby at Camp Peary in York County. Other investigators believe the killings were committed by more than one person working as a team.

Bessie Darling

Bessie Darling (1885?-1933) was a socialite from Baltimore who was brutally murdered in her mountain property on Halloween night, 1933. Bessie Darling (née Warren) was born to James and Nancy Warren in the mid-1880s. At some point Ms. Darling married, divorced, and had a son. It is possible that the son was a result of the marriage but this is unconfirmed. Wesley Warren, her son, took her maiden name. During Joseph Pache's term directing the Baltimore Oratorio Society, Ms. Darling worked as his secretary. Halloween Murder of 1933: Sometime in 1926, Darling became acquainted with George F. Schultz. Schultz and Darling were so close that Schultz went to see her family for Christmas in 1930. In the Fall of 1933, Schultz (then 62 years old) began to suspect Darling (then 48) of passing her time with other men. His suspicion was particularly directed toward Charles Wolfe, a 63-year-old widower who had just lost his wife in the previous year. To avoid his anger, Darling left Baltimore in September and stayed at the Valley View Hotel in Deerfield with her maid. On Halloween night, 1933, Schultz took action on his suspicions. He hopped on a mail train to Thurmont which did not stop at Deerfied Station. (It was 10 minutes from the Darling residence). He then got a ride From a Clarence Lidie and insisted that Lidie take him to the Valley View Hotel, threatening Lidie with his pistol. After being informed by the maid that Darling was in her room, Schultz strode upstairs and forced open the door at which point he shot and killed Darling with the pistol. He then sent the maid to call the authorities. As she was doing so, Schultz attempted suicide by shooting himself. His attempt failed and he was captured and brought to the local hospital. Schultz recovered from his self-inflicted gunshot wound and was tried on March 13, 1934. He was found guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced to eighteen years in prison. His plea during the trial was that the murder was in self-defense, as Darling had also been armed with a pistol, but the court decided that Darling had a reason to be in possession of her weapon as he had previously threatened her life.

Skateboarding to church

Skateboarding to church is something i want to do. So maybe if I'm able to I will do so.

Skateboarding

I'm going to skateboard again as soon as I've set up my dorm.

Skateboarding

I had a skateboarding accident. I was able to skateboard again after years of not doing it.

Peggy Hettrick murder case

The Peggy Hettrick murder case concerns the unsolved 1987 death of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins, Colorado. Timothy Lee "Tim" Masters enlisted in the Navy following a high school career plagued by police accusation of murder when he was a sophomore at Fort Collins High School. After eight years in the Navy, he was honorably discharged. Masters worked for Learjet as an aviation mechanic until 1997, when he was arrested for the murder of Peggy Hettrick. He was charged and convicted of the Hettrick murder in 1999 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. His sentence was vacated in January 2008 when DNA evidence from the original crime scene indicated that he was not the responsible party. Three years after his release from prison, Masters was exonerated by the Colorado Attorney General on June 28, 2011. To date, no one else has been charged with Hettrick's murder. Background: On the morning of February 11, 1987, a bicyclist investigated what he thought was a mannequin and discovered the dead body of 37-year-old Peggy Hettrick in a field in southern Fort Collins. According to the coroner, she died from a single stab wound in the upper left back, likely very early in the morning. Her body had been "sexually mutilated," with the precise removal of her left nipple and areola, as well as a female "circumcision", including what one doctor described as a partial vulvectomy; a procedure that requires high skill and quality surgical equipment to perform. Before the bicyclist found the body, 15-year-old Timothy Masters saw it while walking to school at daybreak. Thinking it was a mannequin left as a prank, Masters did not report the body to the police. After Masters' father Clyde Masters told canvassing police that he'd seen his son deviate from his usual path across the field to the bus that morning, police pulled "Toothpick" Masters, then a five-foot-ten, 120-pound high school sophomore, out of class for questioning. Investigation and conviction: Early in the investigation, lead investigator Fort Collins detective Jim Broderick centered on Masters as the primary suspect due to his failure to report the body found on his way to school. However, no physical evidence linking Masters to the crime was found. On February 12, investigators searched his home, including the sinks for blood, and his school locker. They found 2,200 pages of writings and violent artwork by Masters in his bedroom, backpack and school locker, along with a knife collection and pornography. The local newspaper with the account of the body's discovery was found on his dresser next to his knife collection. However, no trace of Hettrick's blood or hair was found in Masters' room or among his belongings, including his clothes and knife collection. Despite hours of police questioning without an adult present, wherein policemen repeatedly told Masters they knew he'd committed the murder, the 15-year-old Masters maintained his innocence. The adolescent was administered a lie detector test after police interrogation; the results were inconclusive. Over 1,000 pages of Masters' violent artwork were admitted into evidence. Two hairs were found on Hettrick, but they did not match Masters. Investigators also found unknown fingerprints in Hettrick's purse, but these did not match Masters either.[4] With no new leads, on February 12, 1988, investigators planted an article containing false information in the local newspaper, in an attempt to provoke an incriminating reaction from Masters based upon consultation with the FBI Behavioral Science Unit.[7] Around-the-clock police surveillance of Masters saw no reaction. Masters maintained his innocence during periodic police interviews during his high school and Navy years. In 1992, during an interview with a former fellow high school student, investigators discovered that Masters told his friends details about the sexual mutilations. The investigators thought this information had never been made public or disclosed to Masters or his defense attorneys; they thought that only the killer would know those details. Investigators interviewed Masters again in Philadelphia, where he was serving in the Navy. He told investigators that a friend in his art class told him about the mutilations. The friend had been part of a group of Explorer Scouts helping the police search the crime scene, and he was told of the nature of the mutilations early in the investigation. His story checked out. The investigation reached a dead end until 1997. In 1997, Broderick contacted Dr. J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist from California. Meloy analyzed Masters' writings and artwork extensively and concluded, without having ever spoken with Masters—he could not since Masters was protected by his Fifth Amendment right--, that some of the drawings represented Masters reliving the crime. In 1999, based on the testimony of Dr. Meloy and others, and Master's own drawings, including one that Meloy interpreted as a knife cutting into a vagina and another drawing of a body being dragged, Masters was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder. Though some jurors had doubts about his guilt, his drawings and writings were cited by jury members as compelling evidence against him. Appeals: Soon after his conviction, Masters appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals on the grounds that his drawings were inadmissible under rules of the court, as was testimony concerning a confrontation between Masters and a teacher before the murder occurred. Masters' defense team also objected to the testimony by Dr. Meloy. The Colorado Court of Appeals unanimously upheld his conviction on February 15, 2001. In 2002, the Colorado Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether evidence eliciting Masters' violent nature, which was fundamental to the prosecution in securing a conviction, was improperly admitted. Finding that some evidence should have, in fact, been suppressed, the Court, nevertheless, determining the error to be harmless, affirmed the lower court's finding. On December 16, 2002 the Colorado Supreme Court denied a petition for rehearing in the case, effectively ending his first appeal. In 2004 Masters mounted another appeal on the grounds of ineffective counsel. The state appointed a new defense team who immediately began investigating the case. The defense team discovered that evidence, including the hairs found on Hettrick and photographs of the fingerprints found in her purse, was missing. During 2007 hearings, the defense alleged police and prosecutorial misconduct in the investigation and trial. The defense argued that Jim Broderick perjured himself during the 1999 trial concerning his involvement in the case, and that prosecutors allegedly withheld evidence about links to Dr. Richard Hammond, a potential suspect in the murder. Release: In early 2008, special prosecutors assigned to the case agreed that critical information was not turned over to the original defense team. On January 18, 2008, defense attorneys released evidence that further suggested Masters' innocence. Defense attorneys had touch DNA testing done in the Netherlands on evidence found at the scene, but tested samples did not include Masters' DNA. Rather, the DNA results pointed to Hettrick's sometime boyfriend. Special prosecutors assigned to the appeal recommended overturning Masters' sentence as a result of the DNA findings. The DNA results were confirmed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. On January 22, 2008 a Colorado judge vacated Masters' conviction and ordered him released immediately. On February 5, 2008 District Attorney Larry Abrahamson and the Eight Judicial Circuit held proceedings to decide whether to retry Masters or to drop all charges against him. Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss murder charges against Masters on January 26, 2008, though at the time the Larimer County District Attorney stated that Masters has not been exonerated for the crime. In an announcement on June 28, 2011, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said Masters is no longer a suspect in the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick of Fort Collins and has been exonerated. Suthers stated, "Pursuant to the mandate from the Governor's Office, our team undertook a comprehensive review of the entire Hettrick homicide", Suthers said in a statement. "Our team conducted more than 170 interviews and conducted further DNA analysis. Throughout the past year, the Statewide Grand Jury heard evidence and testimony from numerous witnesses. Based on the testimony, the forensic analysis and the crime scene analysis, the overwhelming conclusion is that Timothy Masters was not involved in the murder of Peggy Hettrick." He continued: "Masters cooperated fully with our investigation, including the Grand Jury proceedings. Given the nature and extent of the Grand Jury investigation, the time has come for law enforcement to officially exonerate Timothy Masters. The Hettrick case remains open. We have made significant progress in the investigation. Our team will continue to develop evidence and we will continue to work on this case until the murderer is brought to justice. Too many lives have been affected by the events of that day. Justice requires that we continue to diligently work on the case." Alternate suspects Dr. Richard Hammond: In 1995, seven years after the murder and two years before the retention of experts for the Masters’ trial, Dr. Richard Hammond, an eye surgeon, was arrested for secretly filming women's genitalia, including that of his own female family members, through fake ventilation grates in his downstairs bathroom. The cameras were positioned to allow for detailed, closeup viewing of the women's genitals while sitting on the toilet. Investigators also found that Hammond kept thousands of dollars worth of pornography hidden in a locked office and in a storage shed in town, indicating an obsession with female genitalia. As a surgeon, Hammond had the skill and equipment to perform the precision mutilation found on Hettrick's body. In 1987, Hammond's bedroom window overlooked the location where Hettrick's body was discovered, and he was home the morning after the murder, despite his usually scheduled surgeries on that day of the week. Hammond committed suicide in March 1995, several days after his arrest. The police were called to a La Quinta Motor Inn in north Denver. There, they found Hammond dead, an IV needle containing cyanide residue sticking out of his thigh. "My death should satisfy the media's thirst for blood," he wrote in the suicide note. Though investigators noted a possible link between Hammond and the Hettrick murder, no follow up investigation was done. Broderick ordered evidence in the Hammond case destroyed before it could be examined for any link with Hettrick based upon the premise that he had committed suicide and there was no criminal investigation that would begin. The arrest of Dr. Hammond, and his subsequent suicide, was information withheld from Dr. Meloy and the other experts, and the FBI was not informed of this case by Larimer County to reconsider their profiling of Mr. Masters from 1987. Matthew Zoellner: The DNA testing that led to the 2008 overturning of Masters' conviction also implicated Hettrick's sometime boyfriend, Matt Zoellner, a young used car salesman, who testified at Masters' trial. Zoellner was initially a suspect in 1987, but was quickly ruled out. Officials plan to renew the investigation. Aftermath: Colorado law had no requirement that evidence be preserved, and shields liability to authorities who destroy evidence after criminal trials are complete. Partially as a result of this case, Colorado lawmakers passed H.B. 1397, which requires the preservation of all evidence that may contain DNA that is collected in cases resulting in a conviction for a Class 1 felony or a sex offense. The evidence must be preserved for the life of the defendant, after which the evidence may be destroyed. If charges have not been filed, DNA evidence must be preserved for the length of the investigation. In a June 2008, after a six-month review of the case, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck ascertained misfeasance, but not malfeasance. "Buck was responsible for determining whether Broderick broke any laws, but in a letter to Chief Judge James H. Hiatt, he said it was important to give context of the overall case, which he used to reach his conclusions. 'After consideration of the evidence, I did not discover criminal conduct among employees of the Fort Collins Police Department or the prosecutors in the case,' Buck wrote." Buck also noted that the statute of limitations had expired. On October 21, 2008, David Lane, a criminal defense attorney in Denver filed a civil suit in federal district court against the Larimer County prosecutors, Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair, as well as detective James Broderick, alleging violations of Masters' civil rights. In their legal brief are facts concerning the Masters' case, including withholding evidence from Dr. Meloy and other expert witnesses (including a surgeon consultant and a criminalist), and interference with the sharing of evidence among expert witnesses that would cast doubt on Masters' involvement in Hettrick's homicide and would have pointed toward other suspects. No information on the other suspects, including their existence, was provided to the experts at the time of their retention. The county settled with Masters for US$4.1 million and the City of Fort Collins settled for US$5.9 million, for a total of US$10 million. The original Masters' case was prosecuted by then deputy District Attorneys Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair, who were elevated to district judgeship soon after. On September 9, 2008, the Colorado Supreme Court censured Gilmore and Blair. In an agreement with the Colorado Supreme Court's Office of Attorney Regulation, Gilmore and Blair acknowledged failing to ensure that Masters' defense attorneys received large amounts of the information which had been obtained by the Fort Collins Police Department, including many key pieces indicating Masters' innocence. In addition, the prosecutors failed to gather other information from police, despite indications that it existed. In the General Election of November 2, 2010, less than 40% of voters in the 8th Judicial District voted to retain Judges Blair and Gilmore, and their tenures ended on January 11, 2011. On June 30, 2010, a Larimer County Grand Jury under the direction of neighboring Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck's office indicted Lt. James Broderick on eight counts of felony first-degree perjury for materially false statements he made pursuant to the arrest and conviction of Masters. Count 1, concerning an affidavit for Masters' arrest, was dismissed by Weld County District Judge James Hartmann in the January 26, 2011 ruling, "People v. Broderick," in a section entitled "Bronston Principles." On May 9, 2011, all remaining charges were dismissed by a ruling from Weld County District Judge James Hartmann that the 3-year statute of limitations for perjury in Colorado had expired. Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, who is handling the prosecution of the Broderick case, said he was evaluating the judge's order and "will proceed with Broderick's prosecution if legally appropriate". Buck's options include a direct appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court as well as filing a reconsider motion with the original judge which would include a clarification of the timeline in the case. On July 29, 2011, a different Larimer County Grand Jury under the direction of Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck's office re-indicted Lt. James Broderick on nine counts of perjury. Broderick faces up to six years in prison for each count if convicted.[36] Those charges also were dismissed. In 2013, Broderick resigned, thus suspending an internal investigation into his handling of the Hettrick murder. Fort Collins has reportedly spent $400,000 to date to defend Broderick. A detailed forensic study that included the investigative methods used in the Hettrick murder case was published in 2009. In June 2012, Berkley Books published Drawn to Injustice, a book co-written by Timothy Masters which tells the story from his perspective. Investigative Reports: A&E's true crime television documentary series, Investigative Reports, produced and narrated by Bill Kurtis featured a 2004 episode, Murder Illustrated, that dealt with the Peggy Hettrick case. The episode labeled Masters a murderer and congratulated the Fort Collins Police Pepartment and District Attorney's office for a job well done. Since Masters' exoneration and the controversy surrounding the blundering of the case by the authorities, the episode has been withdrawn from viewing circulation, although it remains available on DVD. Kurtis refused to comment on the episode.

Murder of Barbara Barnes

Barbara Ann Barnes was an American thirteen-year-old school girl who was murdered in December 1995. The case remains unsolved to this day. Many have speculated that her grandfather may have been responsible for her death, but others believe that the crime was committed by someone local to the area. Journalist James Renner has published his theory that the case may be connected to the murders of Tina Harmon, Krista Harrison, Deborah Smith and Amy Mihaljevic. Background: Barnes was described to have been a soft-spoken girl who did well in school. She was in eighth grade and attended the nearby Harding Middle School. Because of the short distance between her home and her school, she walked to and from it every day, along with many other students. Her father had been shot to death in 1989, which had affected her to the point where her personality had changed. Disappearance and murder: It was reported that Barnes was seen walking to school in her hometown of Steubenville, Ohio when she was believed to have been kidnapped on December 7, 1995, by a classmate who was reportedly walking behind her prior to the beginning of the school day. After she failed to return home, an investigation began, including statewide searches. On February 22, 1996, her remains were discovered by surveyors in a riverbed and the cause of death was determined by examiners to have been by strangulation and she had also been raped. Investigation: Although her body was discovered on the property of her uncle, Louis Boyce, he has yet to be charged with her murder. Boyce has remained under suspicion due to the fact that he reportedly did not pass a polygraph test regarding the murder of Barbara. He is also believed by Barnes' family as well as members of the city to have been partially responsible for the murder of Barbara's father, although one man is currently serving life in prison for his death. A friend of Boyce expressed that it was unlikely that her grandfather had anything to do with the murder, stating that it was not likely for him to have harmed any of his grandchildren. Other leads include a Florida man convicted of abducting children who had been present in Steubenville when Barbara Barnes was abducted, although some members of the police department are skeptical, supporting the theory that she may have been murdered by someone native to the area.

2nd graduation

the 2nd high school graduation i'd gone to i was tricked into going. anyhow i was able to fit in as i was in a black dress and arm warmers making it look like i was in a graduation gown. i was totally nervous. i'd said hi to tons of people.

skateboard backwards

most skateboarders don't want to skateboard backwards. i do. I've always been fascinated with what would've happened had i went backwards. most likely i would fall backwards and hit the back of my head.

Michele Avila

Michele Yvette "Missy" Avila was an American teenager who was murdered by her former best friends and rivals, Karen Severson, and Laura Doyle, in October 1985. Background: Michele Avila and her friends grew up in Arleta, Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. Michele Avila and Karen Severson had been best friends since they were eight years old. The two girls began to grow apart when they entered high school; Severson reportedly grew jealous of Avila because she was considered more popular and attractive. Severson was also upset because Avila began spending less time with her, opting to spend her time with boys. Severson later started a rumor that Avila had been having sex with various boys. As a result, Avila was beaten up by a group of girls who accused her of sleeping with their boyfriends. During the girls' junior year in high school, Avila began dating a boy named Randy. Avila broke the relationship off after a month due to Randy's constant partying. Shortly after the break up, Severson and Randy began a relationship and eventually moved into an apartment together. Severson later told Avila's mother Irene that she once witnessed Randy pulling Avila onto his lap. Avila told Randy she was not interested in rekindling their relationship and advised Severson to break up with Randy. The incident angered Severson and she stopped speaking to Avila. Ten days before Avila's death, the two got into a physical altercation in a neighborhood park. According to witnesses, Severson threatened Avila with a broken beer bottle and then pushed and slapped her. Murder: On October 1, Avila told her mother that she was going out with one of her school friends, Laura Doyle. Doyle picked Avila up and the two left. Four hours later, Doyle called Avila's mother and asked to speak to Missy. After Avila's mother told Doyle that she thought her daughter was with her, Doyle told her that she had dropped Avila off with three boys driving a blue Camaro. After getting gas, Doyle said she returned to the location where she dropped Avila off but she and the three boys were gone. On October 5, Avila's body was found face down in stream in Big Tujunga Canyon in Angeles National Forest. She had been forcibly drowned in eight inches of water, her waist length hair was hacked off and there was a four-foot log found on top of her body. Conviction and aftermath: Irene Avila later said she had no reason to suspect Severson or Doyle were involved in her daughter's death. Both had attended Avila's funeral and Doyle sent the family a sympathy card along with $20. Severson also moved in with Irene Avila for a time in an effort to console the family (although this is disputed by Severson). Severson was also seemingly obsessed with the murder. She visited Avila's grave several times a week, covered the walls of her room with pictures of Avila and newspaper clippings about the crime, and repeatedly visited the creek where Avila's body was found. At one point, she told Irene Avila that she had seen Avila's ghost. Police had no leads in the case and the case went cold. In July 1988, Eva Chirumbolo, another teen who had taken the 45-minute drive into the mountains, came forward and told police about the murder. Severson and Doyle were arrested and charged with first degree murder. According to the prosecutors, Severson and Doyle lured Avila to the creek and then proceeded to yell at her about her supposed promiscuity. Both girls accused her of having sex with their boyfriends and told her that she had messed up too many relationships. The two then held Avila face down in approximately six inches of water. To hold her body down in the water, the two placed a four foot, 100 pound log on her body. In March 1990, Severson and Doyle were convicted of second degree murder, and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. The jurors later said they were not convinced that the murder was planned and rejected the first degree murder charge. Karen Severson was released from prison on December 9, 2011 after serving 23.5 years. Laura Doyle was released from prison in December 2012 after serving 22 years. In popular culture: -The case inspired a book, called Missy's Murder, was written by Karen Kingsbury who covered the case. -The case also inspired a movie, called A Killer Among Friends, starring Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Patty Duke. -On January 13, 2012, the case was featured on an episode of Deadly Women called "Deadly Delinquents". -On March 31, 2013, the case was featured on an episode of Unusual Suspects (TV series) called "Deadly Forest". -On December 17, 2014, the case was featured on the "Dr. Phil" show, with an interview with Karen Severson.

Walker family murders

The Walker family murders is an unsolved murder of two parents and two children which took place on December 19, 1959, in Osprey, Florida. 1959 murder case: Authorities believe that 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived at the family's farm home around 4pm on Saturday, December 19, 1959, and was raped and shot by intruders. Her husband Cliff, 25, then arrived, and was shot to death. Their three-year-old son Jimmie was also shot, and Debbie, a month shy of her second birthday, was shot and drowned in a bathtub. News stories at the time noted that there were gifts around the Christmas tree. Physical evidence left at the scene included a bloody cowboy boot, a cellophane strip from a Kools Cigarette wrapper, and a fingerprint on the bathtub faucet handle. A serial killer named Emmett Monroe Spencer subsequently confessed to the murders, but the confession was discredited by Sarasota County Sheriff Ross Boyer, who labeled Spencer a pathological liar. Spencer’s confession was "determined to be cleverly constructed from real murders written up in newspapers and true-crime novels that he liked to read." In 1994, a female bartender in Stroudsburg claimed that one of her customers had boasted of killing the Walker family; this tip was never verified. Police never identified a motive, and 587 people were suspects at one time or another. The case remains open. 2012 developments: In 2012, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office began investigating possible links between the Walker family murders and Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock, who had been convicted and executed for the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. The Clutter murders were the topic of Truman Capote's 1965 best-selling true crime book In Cold Blood. While that book devoted several pages to the Walker case, it dismissed a possible connection to Hickock and Smith, asserting that the two men had an alibi for that day. However, records and witness accounts collected by Kansas and Florida investigators show several factual contradictions in Capote’s account. The Sheriff's Office admitted that Hickock and Smith had been considered suspects as far back as 1960. After killing four members of the Clutter family in Kansas, 34 days before the Walker murders, Smith and Hickock fled to Florida in a stolen car, and were spotted at least a dozen times between Tallahassee and Miami. The pair checked into a Miami Beach motel, about four hours from Osprey, and checked out on the morning of the Walker murders. At some point that day, Smith and Hickock bought items at a Sarasota department store, just a few miles from the Walker home. One witness said that the taller of the two men "had a scratched-up face." The pair were arrested for the Clutter murders in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 30, 1959, and were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. While a polygraph test appeared to clear them of the Walker murders, at least one expert has asserted that polygraph machines of the early 1960s were notoriously inaccurate. According to Sheriff’s records, the Walkers had been considering buying a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, the same kind of stolen car that Smith and Hickock were driving through Florida. It is therefore believed that Smith and Hickock may have gained entry to the Walker home on the pretense of selling their car. In December 2012, Sarasota County investigators announced they were seeking an order to exhume Smith’s and Hickock’s bodies from the Leavenworth Prison graveyard, in the hopes that mitochondrial DNA extracted from their bones could be matched to semen found at the Walker home. After a court order was obtained, Hickock's and Smith's bodies were exhumed at the Mount Muncie cemetery in Kansas on December 18, 2012. DNA was extracted and the bodies reburied that same day. Kansas authorities stated that they would process the DNA samples with active cases taking higher priority, and that results would take "weeks or months." In August 2013, the Sarasota County Sheriff's office announced they were unable to find a match between the DNA of Perry Smith or Richard Hickock with the samples in the Walker family murder. Only partial DNA could be retrieved, possibly due to degradations of the DNA samples over the decades or contamination in storage, making the outcome one of uncertainty (neither proving nor disproving the involvement of Smith and Hickock). Consequently, investigators have stated that Smith and Hickock still remain the most viable suspects. However, based on the personal items that were stolen, Katherine Ramsland, of the University of Pennsylvania, finds Smith and Hickock unlikely and instead suspects that the killer knew at least one member of the Walker family.

Edgecombe County serial killer

The Edgecombe County serial killer, also known as the Seven Bridges killer, is an as yet unnamed serial killer, in the surroundings of Edgecombe County and partly in Halifax County, in North Carolina, USA. Ten black women are missing, the remains of eight have been found, all of them fitting a similar profile of several women from Rocky Mount whose bodies were discovered within the past years, dating back to 2005. Each victim was black, and all had a history of drugs or prostitution before they disappeared. Rocky Mount police Chief John Manley acknowledged to media that authorities are dealing with a serial killer. History: One of the victims, Roberta Williams, could be traced back to 2008, as it has been the last time Williams was seen alive. Her remains were discovered in 2010, off Seven Bridges Road, between Battleboro and Whitakers. In June 2008, the sheriff's office requested assistance from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and formed a task force of local, state and federal officials to try to find out if the killings are connected. In January 2011, more human remains were found by a hunter in Edgecombe County, whereby this victim could be number nine. The remains have been identified in January as 37-year-old Yolanda Lancaster, who was listed as missing. In September 2009, a suspect, Antwan Maurice Pittman, a registered sex offender, was charged with at least one of the cases, that one of Taraha Shenice Nicholson, 28, who was found strangled. Authorities are still questioning whether Pittman may have been connected to some of the other killings. The first victim found was Melody Wiggins, 29, back in 2005. In 2007, Jackie Thorpe, 35, was found nude in a pile of trash. 2008, the body of Ernestine Battle, 50, was found in a wooded area. A farmer found in June 2009 the skeleton of Jarniece Latonya Hargrove, 31, also in a wooded spot. Conviction of Antwan Pittman: On September 28, 2011 a jury convicted Antwan Pittman of first-degree murder of one of the women, 28-year-old Taraha Nicholson. Although he has never been charged in the death of any of the other alleged victims of the Edgecombe County serial killer, authorities have stated that Pittman is a suspect in at least seven of the other cases. Public awareness: In July 2012 a motorcycle ride was held in contribution to the five women found murdered. The ride was organised to help raise awareness for the nine women in total found dead.

Yummy pastas

I love eating pasta. Its vegetarian and fills you up quickly. Plus it'll give you energy

Pain

Pain is a common thing in weight loss. It sucks but gotta do what you gotta do.

Great wolf lodge

Its an adorable place. I love the free ice cream i got

Sahara Sue

Sahara Sue is the informal nickname given to a murder victim who was found in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 14, 1979. Her identity is not known. She was nicknamed "Sahara Sue" because her body was found near the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. Also, her body was found at the intersection of Sahara and Las Vegas avenues. The victim is also known by the fact that she was wearing an upper denture despite her young age, but the lower denture was missing. She was photographed, reconstructed, fingerprinted, and had her DNA analyzed, yet she has remained unidentified for more than 30 years. Discovery of the body: Sahara Sue's body was found lying face down in a parking lot on August 14, 1979. It was estimated that she had died three to four hours before being found. She had been stabbed several times in the abdomen. It was reported that a woman matching her description was seen with a white man prior to discovery of the body. Description of the body: Sahara Sue was a white woman with brown eyes and wavy light brown hair. She was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 100 – 105 pounds. Her age has been estimated to be between 15 and 30. She had no teeth and did wear at least one denture, as the maxillary piece was discovered in her mouth after the body was located. The mandibular piece was not recovered. The nails on her feet and hands had been manicured and painted with red polish. She was wearing a shirt and hip-hugger jeans. Her shirt was blue and made of linen, with a tie near the waist area. It had red embroidered designs and sequins. Her shoes were not found and it was evident that the killer had removed some of her clothing. Jewelry: On her right hand, she had a ring made of white gold without any stone. She was wearing two pendant necklaces made of white gold. One pendant had a leaf design and a round turquoise stone. The other was made of plastic and was heart-shaped with a rose design. She was not wearing earrings, and her ears had not been pierced. Investigation: Fingerprints were taken from the body and entered into national databases, but no match was found. Her body was exhumed in 2003 to obtain DNA but no match was found. Through these forms of body identification, at least seven missing people have been ruled out as possible identities for Sahara Sue. Pictures of her face have also been released to public websites, and multiple reconstructions of her face also exist.

Killing of Margaret Martin

Margaret Martin (1918/19 – December 1938) was a resident of Kingston, Pennsylvania, United States, who went missing on December 17, 1938, and was found dead in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, several days later. Martin was a recent graduate of the Wilkes-Barre Business College. On December 17, 1938, she met an unknown man who claimed to be offering her a secretarial job, and was never seen alive again. Her body was discovered in the wilderness 25 miles (40 km) away by a hunter four days later. Martin's death resulted in a lengthy manhunt. Numerous suspects were examined, but no one was ever convicted of the crime. As of 2016, it remains an unsolved case and it is unlikely that the perpetrator will ever be discovered. Victim: Margaret Martin was a resident of Kingston, in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Kingston High School in 1937. She took classes at the Wilkes-Barre Business College to gain secretarial skills and graduated with honors at the beginning of December 1938. She was 19 years old at the time of her death. According to Betty Hopkins, a former classmate, Martin was "a shy, studious, friendly girl who had many friends". Her parents described her as "a living saint". She was also a devout Christian. Martin's father was John Martin, a local foreman and minor politician. Margaret Martin was the eldest of four children. Disappearance: On December 17, 1938, a man contacted Martin, claiming that he was setting up an insurance company and needed a secretary, adding that he had heard of her through the Wilkes-Barre Business College. The two agreed to meet in Kingston Corners, not far from Martin's home. Martin was first noted to be missing that evening, after she had failed to return home from the alleged job interview. Several witnesses said they had seen her getting into a brown Plymouth or black sedan with a man after a brief conversation. This was the last time she was seen alive. The witnesses were only able to give vague descriptions of the man, described as a "suave, neat, sandy-haired young man", and did not identify the car's license plate. The man was between 25 and 30 years of age and slightly overweight. Martin's friends and family called the police and started a search, but her disappearance was difficult to publicize since the local newspapers were on strike. Death and discovery of the body: According to a 1999 article in The Times Leader, Martin was tortured and murdered in a sawmill in the mountains about 15 miles (24 km) from the creek where her body was found. According to theories by the police, the killer had attempted to dismember her body and destroy it in the mill's firebox, but had been scared off by the mill's owner, James Kedd. Kedd had assumed that the killer was a mere trespasser and had fired a warning shot in the killer's direction. The killer drove to a point close to the creek and carried Martin's body the final 75 yards to the creek, where he abandoned it. Initially, it was suspected that Martin's disappearance was linked to a sex slavery ring. However, her body was discovered in the forested wilderness of Northmoreland Township, Wyoming County, on December 21, 1938, about 25 miles (40 km) from her home. The discoverer was 19-year-old Anthony Rezykowski, who was trapping muskrats in the area. Rezykowski noticed a large burlap bag partially submerged in 2 feet (0.61 m) of water in a creek. Upon further investigation, he found the bag to contain the mutilated body of a young woman with no clothing. The body was soon identified as Margaret Martin's. At the time of her body's discovery, she had been dead for at least 24 hours. If not for Rezykowski's discovery of her body, it may have gone unnoticed for several years. Martin's body showed signs of having been beaten—perhaps with a rock—and strangled. She had bruises on her throat and body, as well as knife wounds on her stomach and thigh. Her autopsy found the cause of death to be strangulation and stated that she had "suffered the molestation of a degenerate". Initial investigations: After the discovery of Martin's body, approximately 75 state troopers combed the area in search of clues. However, no tire tracks were seen near the site where her body was found, and the burlap bag proved to be of no use in identifying any suspects. According to The Citizens' Voice, burned cloth matching the clothing Martin was wearing when she was last seen was discovered at an abandoned sawmill near Forkston. However, an article in The Kane Republican stated that this was not the origin of the cloth. An incident involving a bundle of clothing being thrown from a car near Orwigsburg proved to be unrelated to Martin's killing. On December 22, the Scranton Tribune predicted that Martin's killer would be arrested within 24 hours. Many hundreds of people attended Martin's funeral at St. Ignatius Church in Kingston on December 24. Plainclothes police officers also attended her funeral in the hopes of noticing anyone suspicious attending. Several theories about the identity of Martin's murderer were suggested by locals. These included a mortician from Wyoming County, a businessman's son who left the area soon after the murder, a local assistant pastor, a teacher at the Wilkes-Barre Business College, and a local teenager who had a crush on Martin. Two men who had attempted to attack a 16-year-old girl from Hanover Township, Luzerne County, were also investigated. Some investigators believed that due to the killer's familiarity with the area's terrain, the killer must have been a local. More recently, it has been suggested that the killer was actually a non-local serial killer. Impact and aftermath: On December 28, 1938, Pennsylvania state senator Leo C. Mundy stated that at the next state legislature, he would introduce a bill making sex crimes punishable by execution and requiring registration for all sex offenders. Mundy had resolved to introduce the bill due to Martin's murder. Physicians and welfare and social service workers would also be required to report anyone with tendencies towards such offenses. By the beginning of 1939, most clues pertaining to Martin's murder had proven to be useless. The manhunt for the killer was still ongoing in February of that year, but the police had not turned up any more information. In June 1939, further clues were discovered, but the killer was not identified. Although a very large number of suspects were investigated after Martin's death, no perpetrator was ever identified. In September 1942, Orban Taylor of New York City confessed to Martin's murder. However, his confession was proven to be false after ten hours of investigation. Taylor was not charged with that crime although he did confess to several other crimes. In 1948, a decade after Martin's murder, the case was one of the few major unsolved murders in Pennsylvania. In 1999, Peter Paul Olszewski, Jr., who was at the time the Luzerne County District Attorney, stated that even with modern criminal investigation methods and forensic techniques, it is unlikely that the identity of Martin's killer will be discovered. It is presumed that the killer is now long-deceased.

Crazy

I think mormonism is slightly crazy. I'm heavenly father's daughter, he doesn't like addiction or tattoos.

Augusta Stone Church

Augusta Stone Church is a Presbyterian (PCUSA) place of worship located in Augusta County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA in the unincorporated community of Fort Defiance. The church was one of two meeting houses established by The Congregation of the Triple Forks of the Shenandoah in the year 1740. Augusta Stone and sister meeting house Tinkling Spring were both served by the Rev. John Craig. The final structure which was completed in 1749 is still in use and holds the distinction of being the oldest Presbyterian Church in continuous use in Virginia. History: The congregation was founded in 1740 by the Rev. John Craig, and a log meeting house was constructed 1/4-mile from the present stone church. The stone church which was intended to serve as both a meeting house and a fort against Native American raids; construction began in 1747 and was completed two years later. An old tale says there is a "secret passageway" in the minister's office that was meant for time of war. However, no member of the church has seen the alleged secret passageway, and there are no references to it in church records. In the early 1800s the small community near the church became known as Fort Defiance. The stone church has been in continuous use since 1749, making it the oldest Presbyterian house of worship in continuous use in Virginia. Two major additions were added to the rear of the church. The transepts in the sanctuary and a wing of rooms and offices were added in 1921-22, and a large social hall (called "John Craig Hall") and kitchen which were completed in 1956. The church has a museum on the property containing artifacts from the church's early history. The two cemeteries at the church contain the graves of Revolutionary and Civil War veterans. The museum houses the baptismal records of the Rev. John Craig from 1740-1749. Location: Augusta Stone Church is located on U.S. Route 11 (also known as the Lee Highway) adjacent to Fort Defiance High, Clymore Elementary, and Stuart Gordon Middle schools in the Shenandoah Valley, eight miles north of Staunton and 15 miles south of Harrisonburg in the small, unincorporated community of Fort Defiance, Virginia.

Richard I. Winwood

Richard Ivan "Dick" Winwood (born January 18, 1943) is an author, religious leader, and business executive with Franklin-Covey. Biographical background: Winwood was born in Portland, Oregon to Robert Ivan Winwood and Edna Pauline Enz. He attended Portland State University and Seattle City University. Winwood was raised as a Protestant, though skeptical of organized religions. He was given a copy of the Book of Mormon when he was around twenty-five and a married father of two. This led to his conversion and 1971 baptism into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Portland, Oregon. Shortly afterward, his new faith was shaken by the anti-Mormon book Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?. This led to his investigation of anti-Mormonism and involvement in Mormon apologetics. In the 1990s he published a book and video defending the LDS Church against critics. Winwood is married to Judith Annette Rigas and they have four children.[2] They currently reside in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Business: Winwood was a founding executive and Chief Operating Officer of Franklin-Covey (formerly Franklin Quest and Franklin International Institute), which has published some of his books. He was the principal designer of the first Franklin Day-Planner and author of the original Franklin Time Management Seminar. Winwood has been chairman of BioMeridian International Inc (formerly Magellan Technology), a non-invasive medical screening device manufacturing company in Draper, Utah, and Keystone Aviation LC (dba Million Air Salt Lake City/Provo), an aircraft services company. He also founded WinAir Airlines in 1997, and Million Air LLC in 2001, and is the current owner of Intermountain Air. Religious service: For the LDS Church, Winwood has served as Mission President of the Canada Halifax Mission from 1991–94, Visitor Center Director and Mission President of the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission from 1999–2001, and President of the England Missionary Training Centre in Preston from 2005–07. Published work: Winwood has authored books on business and personal management, including Time Management: An Introduction to the Franklin System, Creating Quality Meetings: Latest Techniques for Mastering Group Communication, and Time Effective Meetings. He also authored Take Heed That Ye Be Not Deceived, a work in defense of Mormonism.

Disappearance of William Tyrrell

William Tyrrell (26 June 2011 – disappeared 12 September 2014) is an Australian boy who became, at the age of 3, a missing person when he had been playing with his sister and wearing a Spider-Man suit. He is believed to have been kidnapped. Disappearance: William Tyrrell disappeared from his grandmother's house on Benaroon Drive in Kendall at 10.30am on 12 September 2014. At the time of disappearance, William was playing with his sister in the front yard and was wearing a Spider-Man suit. The house where William was last seen is directly across the bush land road from the Kendall State Forest, about 35 km south of Port Macquarie. Police said that the boy disappeared during a five minute window from sight. Investigation: Hundreds of police, State Emergency Services, Rural Fire Service and members of the community searched day and night for William. Specialist police, including the sex crimes squad form Strike Force were immediately formed. Motorcycles and helicopters were bought in to search for William. 200 volunteers searched overnight, hundreds of people combed rugged terrain around the home. Later, hundreds of police, State Emergency Services, Rural Fire Service and members of the community searched day and night for William. However, after 5 days of search, the police said they were unable to come up with any leads. The Police later began investigations on finding the drivers of two cars were spotted on the street on the day of William's disappearance. The cars described as being a white station wagon and an older-style grey sedan were parked in the street on the morning William Tyrrell went missing. These cars were noticed by William's mother since they were unusually parked on the street, rather than in one of the long driveways. The cars were seen with its drivers side windows down. The Police think suspicious of these particular vehicles as there is no logical reason why they would parked on the street before William's disappearance Current status: Despite various search efforts and months chipping away with no breakthrough by the police and the forensic testing which failed to turn up any trace of Tyrrell or clues about his disappearance. Therefore, the Police have yet to conclude what actually happened to Tyrrell. However, despite the lack of evidence, Chief Inspector Jubelin renewed his commitment to seeing the case and commented that “The investigation into the disappearance of William Tyrrell remains a priority for the NSW Police Force,”. He also said that the investigators would treat the case as though William was alive until they had evidence proving otherwise.

skateboarding

skateboarding generally relaxes me so i think i'll go out for a quick session.

Skateboarding accident

I had a skateboarding accident when i fell off my skateboard. I've had minor accidents. Road rashes mostly. The worst one was when i fell off my skateboard and scrapped my leg. There are parallels between my accident and a story of when Peter walked on water. I think of a general area where i want to land. Peter focused on god. I panic and fall off my skateboard. He panics and starts to drown.

Aw so sad

A girl i know from church is leaving today. And in 6 days I'm turning 21

broken covenets

i'm breaking my covenets with god. the missionaries are challenging me to quit coffee. the thing they suggested i replace it with i'm mildly allergic to. it'll stay on my mouth for a long time and it'll slightly get my blood sugar up. so why bother?

Pumpkin Ravioli

i'm going to eat pumpkin Ravioli tonight. this is going to be hilarious.

Perpetual Education Fund

The Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) is a program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), first announced by church president Gordon B. Hinckley on March 31, 2001. The mission of the PEF, as stated in that address, is to provide educational opportunity [not welfare support] to members living in areas with widespread poverty, enabling and empowering them to lift themselves and establish their future lives on the foundation of self-reliance that can come from training in marketable skills. This program reflects the values and stated aims of the church around the importance of education and the duty to help and assist the poor. Anyone may donate. History: The LDS Church has made similar efforts in the past to provide for the temporal needs of its members. The program is modeled after the Perpetual Emigration Fund, which provided loans to more than 40,000 19th century Latter-day Saint immigrants looking to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, but lacking the funds to do so. In 1903, the church established a fund to provide aspiring school teachers with loans for school expenses. A related effort, not specifically targeting education, began in 1936, when church president Heber J. Grant set up a welfare system in order to provide a means for people to earn a living during the Great Depression. Operation and administration: The Perpetual Education Fund functions as an endowment, meaning that all loans are made from interest, while the corpus (or body of the fund) remains intact. All donations made to the fund go to the fund corpus. Anyone may donate to the PEF, regardless of affiliation with the LDS Church and donations have been made by members and non-members alike. Because the program is administered through the LDS Church, all donations go directly toward the loans. The executive director of the PEF from its inception through September 2012 was former general authority and Church Historian John K. Carmack; with Richard E. Cook, another former general authority, as the managing director. In September 2012, the church's First Presidency announced Robert C. Gay, of the First Quorum of the Seventy, as the new chairman of the fund. The Perpetual Education Fund provides loans to members of the LDS Church seeking additional education, mainly through vocational school and technical training. In connection with the more recent PEF-B program, (and for those already part of the International Education Fund program) opportunities for university education are also available. In 2005, career training options requested included: school teacher, network administrator, computer science, systems analyst, human resource specialist, flight attendant, managerial, clinical lab technician, computer support technician, university faculty, political analyst, physician's assistant, physical and corrective therapy assistant, lawyer and judge. Potential loan recipients first complete a short training program on personal finance, budgeting and career planning and work with a loan administrator to select viable vocational and educational options for their particular region. Recipients are encouraged to work, if possible, during their schooling to provide for their own living expenses. Loans for tuition and fees are paid directly by the fund to the educational institution, further reducing the potential for mismanagement. During the course of the loan, recipients make small, manageable payments and participate in regular progress reviews. PEF loans average about $800 and the average training program of a Perpetual Education Fund loan recipient lasts 2.6 years. More substantial payments on the loan begin 90 days after graduation and the loans are usually scheduled to be paid off, with a modest 3-4% interest, over the course of 2–6 years. Recipients are also encouraged to make further contributions to the fund as their circumstances allow. Loan repayments and subsequent donations are channeled back into the fund corpus, making it a truly “perpetual” resource. Progress: Less than 18 months after its inception, the PEF had disbursed more than 5,000 loans. Within three years (2004), approximately 10,000 young adults had received loans from the fund. By 2007, the numbers had climbed to 27,000 students in 39 different countries, and in late 2009, it was announced that over 40,000 people had received loans through the program. The Perpetual Education Fund has made loans to students in more than 40 countries, including Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru, the Philippines, India, Fiji, Tonga, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria.

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism

David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism is the first book to draw upon the David O. McKay Papers at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, in addition to some two hundred interviews conducted by the authors, Gregory Prince and William Robert Wright. The work was first published on 9 March 2005 through the University of Utah Press and was met with mixed reviews. Based largely on an extensive body of records gathered and maintained by McKay's longtime secretary, Clare Middlemiss, the book focuses on the years of McKay's presidency, during which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faced the challenges of worldwide growth in an age of communism, the American Civil Rights Movement, and ecumenism. Reception: The Journal of Mormon History praised the book as a "fine example of the bookmaker's art, the oversize volume is beautifully designed and brilliantly executed" and commented that although they had initially held concerns about the work being based predominantly on the Middlemiss diaries, they grew more confident on the material's accuracy the further they read in the book. The journal Church History also gave a favorable review, stating that it should be "required reading in American Religion". The Deseret News was more critical in their review, writing that there was "a huge and interesting body of material here that will be fascinating to both general readers and historians" but that it "suffers from the use of huge, undigested quotations from McKay and a number of church leaders and associates. A trained historian would have pared down the material, done some paraphrasing and devoted precious time to analyzing the evidence."

Small snack

I'm eating a small snack before dinner tonight. I'm thinking a small snack before dinner will help with my weight. Plus eating lots of little times helps with weight

Sick

I'm sick by drinking hot cocoa. Too bad I'm allergic