Sugamo child abandonment case

The Sugamo child-abandonment incident (巣鴨子供置き去り事件 Sugamo kodomo okizari jiken) was an incident that took place in Japan in the late 1980s. The incident was covered extensively by both Japanese and international media, and was fictionalized as the 2004 film Nobody Knows. The incident, in which a mother abandoned her five underage children, took place in 1988 in Tokyo's Toshima Ward. The children's names were never released; they were referred to simply as Children A, B, C, D, and E. Background: Child A, a boy, was born in 1973; Child B in 1981. Child C died soon after birth in 1984. Children D and E were born in 1985 and 1986 respectively. All of the children had different fathers. Although it is unclear, it appears that besides Child A, several (perhaps all) of the other children were unregistered. None of the children attended school. In Autumn 1987, having met a new boyfriend, the mother placed Child A in charge of the others, leaving him with ¥50,000 (around US$350 at the time) for their living expenses in their Tokyo apartment. Discovery: In April 1988, the youngest, Child E, was assaulted by friends of Child A (known only as Friend A and Friend B), and died as a result. On July 17 of the same year, acting on a tip from the landlord, Sugamo officials entered the apartment and discovered the severely malnourished Child A (then 14), Child B (seven), and Child D (three). They also found the body of Child C, but not Child E. The information given by the children was vague. It was determined that the malnourishment was caused in part by the children's diet, which consisted largely of food bought at convenience stores. As a result of news coverage of the incident, the mother turned herself in on July 23. Her testimony revealed that the children had been alone for about nine months and that the whereabouts of Child E were unknown. On July 25, Child A's testimony revealed that Child E had been killed by Friend B of Child A, and that her body was buried in a wood in Chichibu by Child A and Friend A. Friend A and Friend B were sent to a reform school for their involvement in the death. In August 1988, the mother was indicted for child abandonment. She received a three-year sentence, suspended for four years. Although Child A was probably not present at the time of his sister's death, he did assist Friend A in burying the body; he was indicted for abandoning a body, but in consideration of the circumstances was remanded to a care facility. After the mother's three-year sentence, she regained custody of the two daughters. Film version: The 2004 film Nobody Knows, directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, presents a fictionalized and generally less grim account of the incident. There is no mention of Child C, whose body the mother kept in the family apartment following the child's death. Similarly, rather than being killed by Child A's friends, Child E in the film dies after an accidental fall. The police do not become involved, and the film ends with the three surviving children, aided by a female friend of Child A, continuing their impoverished, unsupervised life.

Give a talk

I am giving a talk. The reason is because I'm hoping I'm going to fully slide to the singles ward full time.

hi

i ran into a friend from church at a grocery store. i tried changing my appearance (like removing my skirt, i had capris on underneath, pulled my hair into a bun and put my flannel on) and he stilled recognized me after that.

pizza

i forced an entire pizza down my neck on a couple of occasions. My brothers hated the type of pizza i had to eat.

nachos

my favorite snack. i love them so much. i can eat an entire plate on my own.

double jointed

i'm double jointed on my main joints (arms, legs, shoulders etc.). i'm able to dance since i'm able to have my double jointed-ness.

old camisoles

i've gotten rid of several camisoles since i'm a human furnace or as some people "run hot". unfortunately because of my back my shoulders are uneven.

sweetheart

a ton of the Elders have been sweethearts to me.

Henri Désiré Landru

Henri Désiré Landru was a French serial killer and real-life "Bluebeard". Biography: Landru was born in Paris. After leaving school, he spent four years in the French Army from 1887 to 1891, and afterwards had a sexual relationship with his cousin, who bore him a daughter. He married another woman two years later and had four children. After being swindled by his employer, he turned to fraud himself, often swindling elderly widows; he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 1900, the first of several such convictions. By 1914, Landru was estranged from his wife and working as a second-hand furniture dealer. Landru began to run lonely hearts advertisements in Paris newspapers (for example, "Widower with two children, aged 43, with comfortable income, serious and moving in good society, desires to meet widow with a view to matrimony"). Because of World War I there were plenty of widows upon which he could prey. He would seduce women, gain access to their assets, then kill them and burn their dismembered bodies. Between 1914 and 1919 he killed ten women and the teenage son of one of them. The police did not connect the disappearance of these women, as Landru used a wide variety of aliases in his schemes. He kept a ledger listing the particular alias he used when corresponding with each woman. In 1919, the sister of one of Landru's victims attempted to track her down. She did not know Landru's real name but she knew his appearance and where he lived, and she eventually persuaded the police to arrest him. Initially, Landru was charged only with embezzlement. He refused to talk to the police, and with no bodies (police dug up his garden without result), there was seemingly insufficient evidence for a murder charge. However, police did eventually find fragmentary paperwork listing the missing women, and combining this with other documents provided the necessary evidence. Trial and execution: Landru stood trial on 11 counts of murder in November 1921. He was convicted on all counts, sentenced to death, and guillotined three months later in Versailles. During his trial, Landru drew a picture of his kitchen, including the stove in which he was accused of burning his victims, and gave it to one of his lawyers; he had written on the back, Ce n'est pas le mur derrière lequel il se passe quelque chose, mais bien la cuisinière dans laquelle on a brûlé quelque chose ("It is not the wall behind which a thing takes place, but indeed the stove in which a thing has been burned"). This has been interpreted as a confession. List of victims: -Mme. Jeanne-Marie Cuchet -Mme. Cuchet's son, André Cuchet -Mme. Thérèse Laborde-Line -Mme. Marie-Angélique Guillin -Mme. Berthe-Anna Héon -Mme. Anne Collomb -Andrée-Anne Babelay -Mme. Célestine Buisson -Mme. Louise-Joséphine Jaume -Mme. Anne-Marie Pascal -Mme. Marie-Thérèse Marchadier In popular culture: -Landru is mentioned in Chapter Two of 'The Prisoner', part of 'In Search of Lost Time' ('À la recherche du temps perdu') a novel by Marcel Proust published in 1923. -Landru is listed as one of the wax effigies at Roger's Museum in H. P. Lovecraft's 1932 short story collaboration "The Horror in the Museum". -Landru was the inspiration for Charlie Chaplin's film Monsieur Verdoux (1947). -The 1960 film Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons starred George Sanders as Landru. -The 1962 film Landru, directed by Claude Chabrol, was inspired by the murders. -In the 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone entitled "The New Exhibit", a wax figure of Landru plays an important role.

do a 180

my family has done a 180 when it comes to my religion. i'm glad they're supporting me but why? i'm thinking it's because they're my family, they love me and they've wanted to be there for me.

what the heck?

i don't understand my mom's interest with my religion. she's not willing to be baptized, which isn't surprising but she's willing to let me do things in relation to the church. she's super interested in the temple. it's crazy.

curly

my hair is super curly. I've gotta wear it short or try to straighten it out since i don't like my hair being curly.

panic attack

when i had 1st gone to the temple i had freaked out. i'm scared but happy to go in.

Monster of Udine

The Monster of Udine (Italian: Mostro di Udine) was an unidentified serial killer who killed at least 4 victims in the Province of Udine, Italy between the years of 1971 and 1991. Murders: The official number of murders attributed to the Mostro di Udine is 4, although there may have been more (up to 16). The victims were found with a gaping incision in their abdomen cut and cleaned with extreme care, most likely with a scalpel or something similar. The incision of the cut was very close to that of a Cesarean, which convinced police that the killer was a doctor, but the police never had any real leads in the case. This is a list of the four credited victims: -Maria Carla Bellone, killed in 1980; -Luana Giamporcaro, killed in 1983; -Aurelia Januschewitz, killed in 1985; -Marina Lepre, killed in 1989.

Wonnangatta murders

The Wonnangatta murders occurred in late 1917 and in 1918, in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The victims were Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand. Barclay was a well-respected and much liked bushman, while Bamford was regarded with suspicion, and was known to be easily roused into violent tempers. The case has never been solved. Barclay and Bamford: James ("Jim") Barclay was employed as the Wonnangatta Station manager in about 1916. He usually lived alone at the station. Aged in his late 40s, he had previously lost his wife to tuberculosis and left his newborn child James (also "Jim") to be cared for by relatives. Stephenson describes him as a "hardy and competent bushman ... a contented man of simple tastes." His nearest neighbour was Harry Smith, stepson of the original owner, with whom he had a good relationship. In December 1917 Barclay decided to employ a cook and station hand. English-born John Bamford had lived at Black Snake Creek, 12 miles (19 km) from Talbotville, for twenty years. By 1917 he was aged in his late 50s and was variously described as "surly" having a "wicked temper" and being suspected of "having strangled his wife". However, Keith Leydon and Michael Ray suggest there is no evidence of this. What Barclay thought of him is not known, but Talbotville storekeeper Albert Stout is known to have warned Barclay not to be "drawn into arguments with Bamford". With the First World War raging and few men available for labour in the bush, it's likely Barclay had few choices regarding employees. Alan King, a stockman, stayed at Wonnangatta in late December 1917 and recalled that Bamford seemed to be on good terms with Barclay. Barclay and Bamford were last seen alive in late December 1917. They had been to Talbotville to cast their votes in the so-called Reinforcement Referendum, the second of the two plebiscites held in Australia during the First World War to decide whether to introduce military conscription. It is not known how they voted, only that they agreed on the vote. They stayed the night with Albert Stout in Talbotville, before leaving for Wonnangatta at about 10 o'clock on the morning of 21 December. The discovery of the murder of Barclay: On 22 January 1918, Harry Smith arrived at the station to deliver mail. He found Barclay and Bamford absent, although the words ‘Home tonight’ were chalked across the kitchen door. Smith stayed two nights, but no one came home, so he returned to Eaglevale on 24 January 1918. Harry Smith returned to the Wonnangatta homestead late in the afternoon on 14 February 1918. The homestead was still deserted and the mail still sitting where he had previously left it on the kitchen table. Smith was shocked to find Barclay’s favourite dog "Baron," starving and neglected. He briefly searched the area again, stayed the night at the homestead and left for Dargo the next day to raise the alarm. There he telegraphed the owners, Arthur Phillips and Geoffrey Ritchie of Mansfield. On 23 February 1918, Arthur Phillips and stockman Jack Jebb arrived at Eaglevale from Mansfield. With Harry Smith they returned to Wonnangatta. After a prolonged search they discovered a badly decomposed body near the Conglomerate Creek, about "420 paces" south east of the homestead. From the remaining pieces of clothing, a belt and a tobacco pouch, Smith identified it as Barclay. The body had been buried in a shallow grave, but dingos and foxes had apparently uncovered it. Newspaper reports that the skull was detached from the body at the time were incorrect, The skull was attached but protruding from the sand. The body was reburied. Phillips returned to Mansfield and contacted police. Shortly after, Detective Alex McKerral was dispatched from Melbourne, together with Constable Ryan, a native of the Mansfield district. Several days later, the police party set out from Mansfield on the 80-mile (130 km) ride across the Great Dividing Range to Wonnangatta, to collect Barclay’s remains and return them for a post-mortem at Mansfield hospital. Wallace Mortimer recounts the famous tale of the Police party finding strychnine in the pepper container when they prepared a meal in the homestead on the night of their arrival. Police found a shotgun in Barclay’s room that had recently been discharged although there were no bloodstains in the room. His bed was in "a state of disorder." Bamford’s room was also in some disorder, and his horse, saddle and some belongings were missing. On the return journey, on the Howitt high plains, the police party came across the horse that John Bamford had ridden to Talbotville for the vote, running wild without a saddle or bridle. The post-mortem: The post-mortem found that Barclay had been murdered by a shotgun blast in the back, and had been dead for several weeks by the time of discovery. At the inquest that followed, McKerral said; "I am of the opinion that Barclay and Bamford had an argument over working matters and that Bamford loaded the gun and shot Barclay. He removed his working clothes, and dressed himself in Barclay’s suit, which is missing, saddled his horse and after dragging the deceased to the creek, rode the horse away." The verdict of the inquest was murder by person or persons unknown, probably sometime between 21 December 1917 and 4 January 1918. Jim Barclay’s body was handed to his extended family who lived on the Mornington Peninsula, and he was buried at Tyabb Cemetery. The discovery of Bamford’s body: Bamford was now the prime suspect, and a statewide search was begun. A reward of £200 was offered by the government for information regarding Barclay's murder. A man claiming to be Bamford, and claiming to have killed Barclay, was arrested near Yarram and charged. However, it was realised that this person was suffering from delusions. He was later identified as a vagrant known as James Baker. In early November 1918, Mounted Constable Hayes, together with local bushmen Harry Smith, William Hearne and Jim Fry, were searching the Mount Howitt area when Hearne noticed a boot protruding from a pile of logs, near the Howitt Plains Hut. Under the pile they found Bamford’s body. As the route to Mansfield was still under snow, the body was taken 80 miles (130 km) to Dargo. The post-mortem found a bullet lodged in the skull, and again at the inquest, a verdict of murder by person or persons unknown was made. Bamford’s body was buried at Dargo cemetery. Theories: Up to this point it had been taken for granted that Barclay had been killed by Bamford. Speculation now followed the line "that Bamford shot Barclay and afterwards Bamford was shot by some friend of the manager, in revenge, in the good old wild west manner." Police suspicion naturally fell on Harry Smith, but there was no direct evidence. In addition, he would have had to carry out a complex deception about the discovery of Barclay’s body, and he was present at the discovery of Bamford's. It is also unlikely he would have knowingly allowed the body of his friend Jim Barclay to lie where the murderer left it and be disturbed by animals for three weeks. He was not charged. Writing in 1980, Harry Stephenson seems to favour the theory that Smith "might have had an answer to the mystery" and noted that older cattlemen were still reluctant to discuss the case. A second theory was that the two men had been victims of stock thieves. Wallace Mortimer suggests Barclay and later Bamford were perhaps killed by horse thieves, and cites "old timers who are adamant in their belief such was the reason." The Police report refutes this, pointing out that the only stock missing from Wonnangatta was Bamford's horse that had been recovered on Mount Howitt. Wallace Mortimer dismissed any significance of the right shoe and a hat found placed near the crotch of Barclay's body. According to Mortimer, the idea that this implied a motive for the killing (Barclay, a ladies man, killed by a jealous husband) came from a novelist, "who had obviously done little or no research into the matter." Aftermath: After he finished his schooling, Jim Barclay's son Jim (junior) went to work for Harry Smith, for many years, at Eaglevale. Harry Smith died aged about 86 in 1945. Sometime in the late 1970s Mortimer interviewed Jim Barclay Junior for his history of Wonnangatta Station. Barclay's enigmatic comment on the murders was; " It was all a long time ago and both the murderers are long since dead. I can't see that anything can be gained now, it's all best forgotten."

can we count on you?

what i'm usually asked for church. i'm usually gonna say no

Death of Rebecca Riley

Rebecca Riley, the daughter of Michael and Carolyn Riley and resident of Hull, Massachusetts, was found dead in her home after prolonged exposure to various medications, her lungs filled with fluid. The medical examiner's office determined the girl died from "intoxication due to the combined effects" of prescription drugs. Police reports state she was taking 750 milligrams a day of Depakote, 200 milligrams a day of Seroquel, and .35 milligrams a day of clonidine. Rebecca had been taking the drugs since the age of two for bipolar disorder and ADHD, diagnosed by psychiatrist Kayoko Kifuji of the Tufts-New England Medical Center. Background: The Riley parents were unemployed and the family relied on Social Security Benefits. From the age of two, Rebecca was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder, mainly on the basis of information given by her mother to child psychiatrist Kayoko Kifuji from the Tufts-New England Medical Center. Kifuji prescribed a range of drugs for Rebecca: clonidine, valproate (Depakote), dextromethorphan, and chlorpheniramine and her heart and lungs were damaged due to prolonged use of these prescription drugs. Death: In 2006, Rebecca was found on the floor of her parents bedroom, dead from a drug overdose. Immediately after her death, her medication regime was defended by Tufts-New England Medical Center. Aftermath: Michael and Carolyn Riley were taken into police custody on February 6, 2007 for Rebecca’s death and charged with first degree murder. Their two other children, who were also on a number of prescription medications, have been moved to foster homes and the Department of Social Services reports the parents have a history of being abusive and neglectful. On February 9, 2010, Carolyn Riley was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of her daughter and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 15 years. Michael's trial began on March 8, 2010. On September 27, 2010, Michael Riley was found guilty of first degree murder and received the automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. As of 2013, Kayoko Kifuji continues to practice as a child psychiatrist.

not scratch the surface

dancing last weekend wasn't even close to my level of dancing. i'm pretty good at dancing. my family support it and occasionally see me stretching to help with my joints.

Murder of Tara Lynn Grant

Tara Lynn Grant was an American woman from Washington Township, Macomb County, Michigan, who was murdered by her husband Stephen Grant, in February 2007. The case gained large attention, both in Michigan and the entire United States. Case: On February 14, 2007 Stephen Grant notified the Macomb County Sheriff's office in Macomb County, Michigan to report that his wife, Tara Lynn Grant, was missing. After interviewing Grant, authorities discovered a period of five days had lapsed between the time Grant had last seen his wife and when he notified police of her disappearance. Grant explained it was not the first time his wife had disappeared and, therefore, he didn't immediately notify police. Grant told police that on the evening of February 9, 2007 he had overheard his wife talking with someone on the phone, telling them, "I'll meet you at the end of the driveway". Grant said he saw his wife get into a dark-colored vehicle which then drove off. He told police he had not seen or heard from his wife since that evening. Throughout the investigation, Stephen Grant made numerous television appearances, at times accusing authorities of harassment. The day after reporting his wife missing, Grant was stopped by police and arrested for driving on a suspended license. Grant accused the police of using the traffic arrest solely as an excuse to take him into custody and question him about his wife's disappearance. Police denied the accusation. Authorities were able to bring the search for Tara Lynn Grant to a close in just over two weeks. On March 2, 2007 a search warrant was executed at the Grant home in Washington Township and a portion of her dismembered body was discovered in the garage. An arrest warrant for open murder was immediately issued for Stephen Grant. On March 4, 2007, after tracking a cell phone call made to his sister, Grant was located in northern Michigan's Wilderness State Park. He was found to be suffering from weather-related injuries and, after being taken into custody, he was airlifted to an area hospital. According to authorities, Grant gave a complete and detailed confession saying he had strangled his wife before dismembering her body. An autopsy performed by the Macomb County coroner's office confirmed strangulation as the cause of Tara Lynn Grant's death and determined she was likely killed on February 9, 2007. Stephen Grant's disappearance and capture: According to police, Stephen Grant was less than cooperative with them throughout their investigation. He refused to answer questions. However, he did agree to take a polygraph test, as long as it was administered by someone other than the police. On March 2, 2007, police executed a search warrant at the home of Stephen and Tara Grant in Washington Township, Michigan. A human torso, believed to be that of Tara Grant, was found in the garage. An open murder arrest warrant was immediately issued for Stephen Grant. Grant, however, was nowhere to be found. He had fled the area in a pick up truck he borrowed from an unsuspecting friend. On March 4, 2007, a cell phone call Grant made to his sister was tracked and he was located 280 miles away in Emmet County, Michigan. With the assistance of a United States Coast Guard helicopter crew, he was pursued and captured by local, state, and federal authorities while hiding in the Wilderness State Park. Clad only in pants, shirt, and socks in the frigid northern Michigan weather, Grant was suffering from minor frostbite and hypothermia at the time of his capture. He was taken into custody and airlifted to Northern Michigan Hospital where he was hospitalized for a brief period of time. According to authorities, during his hospitalization Grant gave a full confession, explaining in detail how he had first fought with Tara Grant before strangling her. He said he then took the body to a family owned tool and die shop where it was dismembered. He said he then took the remains to nearby Stony Creek Metro Park in Shelby Township and disposed of the body parts there. However, upon learning that police would soon be conducting a search in that area, Grant returned to the Metro Park and recovered the torso of Tara Grant. He returned home and hid the remains in black plastic garbage bags in the garage. According to his spoken and written confessions, Stephen Grant killed his wife during an argument, after she had slapped and belittled him. The veracity of his statements has not yet been determined. He was released from Northern Michigan Hospital and was transported to Macomb County by a convoy of Sheriff Deputies. On March 6, 2007 Grant was formally charged with count one homicide, murder in the first degree that is premeditated and with count two disinterment and/or mutilation of a dead body. The charge of count one homicide in the first degree that is premeditated is punishable by life in prison. The charge of disinterment, dismemberment, is punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a $5,000 fine or both. Aftermath: On April 13, 2007, Stephen Grant's confession was released to the public, including the entire conversation he had with authorities, and a written confession that he gave police. Tara's family decided that her children will be able to read the confession when they are adults. Grant's sister was given authority against her estate and she has filed a wrongful death suit against Stephen Grant. On June 13, 2008 Stephen's father, William Allen Grant, committed suicide in Capac, Michigan, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Early reports indicate William Grant was seeking some visitation with the two Grant grandchildren. Media coverage: Grant's murder has gained strong media coverage, in Michigan as well as the entire United States. During the search, the Macomb County Sheriff's Department, which retained jurisdiction in the case, told the public that they would hold a press conference each day during the search, until Tara was eventually found. After Stephen Grant's arrest, the story was featured on Larry King Live and Court TV; more recently it was told on the Biography Channel's series "Casanova Killers", as well as Investigation Discovery's series "Scorned: Love Kills", Season 1, Ep. 8: "The Au Pair Affair", since the murder appeared to be predicated by an affair, confessed by Grant, with the couple's au pair, Verena Dierkes, who he had groomed and manipulated into the affair when she was only nineteen years old. On March 12, 2007 the defense request for a gag order was rejected. There have been at least two books written about the case, A Slaying in the Suburbs: The Tara Grant Murder, covers the case and includes the only interviews with Grant after his arrest. Author Miller visited Grant several times at the Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility. "Limb From Limb," was written by Detroit News crime reporter George Hunter, who covered the case from the beginning, and former Detroit News editor Melissa Preddy. Verdict: On Friday, December 21, 2007 Stephen Grant was found guilty on the charge of murder in the second degree. On Thursday, February 21, 2008, he was sentenced to a minimum of fifty years in prison. On March 30, 2010, Grant lost his final appeal in state court, leaving intact the original sentence of 50–80 years. The Michigan Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that found Grant's trial was not unduly prejudiced by pretrial publicity in the widely covered case, nor was Grant improperly denied access to an attorney before making a confession to police. In March 2015, U.S. District Court Judge David Lawson denied Grant's “petition for writ of habeas corpus," where Grant claims that police improperly obtained his confession in his hospital bed as he was being treated for hypothermia and exposure and also denied Grant's claim that pre-trial publicity made it impossible for him to receive a fair trial. Lawson said that officials in Macomb County took “extraordinary measures” to ensure that a fair and impartial jury was seated.

Murder of Katherine Ann Olson

Michael John Anderson, a resident of Savage, Minnesota, was convicted of having murdered Katherine Ann Olson in October 2007. Because Anderson met Olson through Craigslist, a popular classified advertising website, the media dubbed him a Craigslist Killer, a generic term for murderers who find victims by placing or responding to ads in Craigslist. Anderson was the first killer given this title in news accounts. The crime: Michael John Anderson, age 19, murdered Katherine Anne Olson, a 24-year-old theater and Hispanic studies graduate of St. Olaf College and temporary nanny, on October 25, 2007, in a Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb after seeing an ad for her services as a nanny on Craigslist. The prosecution charged that Anderson created and posted a fake advertisement on Craigslist "in order to lure a woman to his home so he might experience what it felt like to kill." Posing as a married woman named "Amy" who was looking for nanny services, Anderson exchanged emails with Olson. When she arrived at his parents' house for an interview, he shot her in the back with a .357 Magnum and put her body into the trunk of her car. He then drove to Burnsville Nature Preserve, where he abandoned it. The car containing Olson's body was discovered on October 26, 2007. Conviction: Psychiatrists hired by the defense diagnosed Anderson with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. Anderson's attorneys contended that the disorder played a key role in the shooting and explained Anderson's behavior after the shooting. The judge refused to allow evidence of the diagnosis to be presented in court, ruling there was no proof the disorder was connected to the crime and that it could invite jurors to speculate about diminished capacity, which is "not recognized in Minnesota." Anderson, who was the first murderer referred to by the media as a "Craigslist Killer", was found guilty of first degree murder and received a life sentence without parole on April 1, 2009. Alan Margoles, the lead attorney arguing in Anderson's defense, stated that the killing of Olson was "accidental" and that he plans an appeal because during the trial he had not been allowed to present evidence that Anderson has Asperger syndrome. The Supreme Court of Minnesota affirmed the verdict and sentence on appeal in October 2014.

dress up

i have to give a speech on Tuesday and i'm hoping it's cold enough for flannel.

break out the flannel

it's that time of year: break out the flannel

argument

once i gotten into an argument with my dad over my coming back. my dad was shocked but i was like nope i'm back. he'd misheard me.

blurt out

i accidentally blurted out something when i was scared a few times. the reason i blurted out things: being shocked. once i said, "Ah. hi. didn't you move?" i was confused. someone said they were moving and then i bump into them the next day.

physically restrain

i'm able to physically restrain someone who is up to 6'1 tall despite me being 5'2. the reason: my brothers are 6' tall

can't wait

i can't wait to give my talk. my mom's coming. i'm hoping i'll get my topic soon.

dropped off the face of the earth

2 times friends thought i "dropped off the face of the earth". once i "re-emerged" from my disappearance people were happy to see me again and see where i'd ran off to. that was awesome. my family knew people who were worried about me.

panic disorder

i'm trying to get over a panic disorder. it sucks since i'm in my 20's and need to do it now or i'll never get over it.

Yay

I got some exploring done today that I've been wanting to do for weeks

Crud

When I give my talk my mom will be there. Yay but no proselytizing

suggestions

1 suggestions i take are coffee. i love it despite being Mormon. i'm not a good Mormon because following all the rules will suck the fun out of life.

progression

i'm making some headway with my family. they're starting to meet people from church and be ok with the church.

running in an ankle length skirt

i once tried keeping up with a bishop (at a different ward) in a long skirt. that's hilarious.

tired

i exorcised and then studied. i'm tired. i hope things stuck for tomorrow's midterm.

everyone loves your daughter

2 people have said positive things about me in relation to church. the bishop's wife said it to my mom and the host of a halloween party said a similar thing to my dad.

Murder of Mark Tildesley

Mark Anthony Tildesley was an English schoolboy who disappeared, at the age of seven, on 1 June 1984, whilst visiting a fair in his home town of Wokingham in Berkshire. A widespread search was promptly conducted in the Wokingham area, involving both police officers and British Army soldiers, but no trace of Tildesley was ever discovered. As part of the investigation, a national poster campaign was launched, with one displayed in every police station in the country. Tildesley's disappearance was publicised in the local Wokingham Times and also featured prominently in national newspapers. The Times, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror all covered the story, and the case appeared in ITV's Thames News. The disappearance was mentioned on the first ever episode of BBC Crimewatch UK in 1984, and a full reconstruction was aired on the same programme a year later. Despite a huge public response, however, these efforts brought little concrete evidence. In 1989, Tildesley's disappearance was linked to the Operation Orchid investigation into missing children. As part of this operation, in 1990 it emerged that on the night he disappeared, Tildesley had been abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered by a London-based paedophile gang, led by Sidney Cooke. Another man named Leslie Bailey was charged with murder in 1991 and the following year was given two life sentences. He was murdered in prison in 1993. A memorial service was held and a memorial bench was placed at the entrance to the fairground site. A headstone was also placed in a nearby burial ground. Tildesley's body has never been found and the murder is Wokingham's most notorious unsolved crime. Thames Valley Police initially thought his body was buried within a mile of Wellington Road in Wokingham, the location of the fair from which he was abducted, but they now believe that his body was probably buried in a shallow grave on abandoned farmland. Background and disappearance- Mark Tildesley: Mark Anthony Tildesley was born on 31 August 1976 in Berkshire to John Tildesley and Lavinia Rachel Gwladys Tildesley. Tildesley had a brother, Christopher, who was born in 1963, and a sister, Christina (born 1959), who had moved out of the family home to live in nearby Finchampstead with her husband Ted and their daughter Mary, who was born in 1981. The Tildesleys lived at 1 Rose Court, off Rose Street, in Wokingham town centre. It was a combination of a small semi-detached cottage and an adjoining bungalow annexe (the bungalow annexe has since been demolished and re-built as a separate house called 1a Rose Court as of 2010, leaving the original cottage as a mid-terrace). Tildesley was a Year 3 pupil of the Palmer C of E Junior School (renamed All Saints CE (Aided) Primary School in 2009) in Norreys Avenue in Wokingham. Half-term holiday: On 25 May 1984, the Palmer Junior School had broken up for its summer half-term holiday. The Frank Ayers Fun Fair, which came to the Carnival Field off Wellington Road in Wokingham four times a year (now the site of the indoor swimming pool which opened in 1992 and now forms part of the Carnival Leisure Park) had come again during that holiday week. Tildesley was desperate to go but he did not have enough money to do so. His pocket money was only 30p a week, so he supplemented this by putting trolleys from Tesco in Denmark Street (now an Argos and a Cleaver restaurant) back to where they belonged, thus collecting their customers' abandoned 10p deposits. Frank Ayers Fun Fair: At the end of the week, on the afternoon of 1 June 1984, Tildesley had met a man outside the Candy Shop in Denmark Street (which has also since closed and which was located 20 yards up from the then Tesco site) who gave him a 50p coin to buy some sweets with. The shop assistant who had served Tildesley many times before, Margaret Hickman, thought it was odd as he usually only paid in 10p pieces. The man said that he was going to the fair later that day and that he would pay for him to go on the dodgems that evening. After eating dinner, at just after 5:30 pm, Tildesley left his home at Number 1 Rose Court, off Rose Street, on his most treasured possession, a second-hand gold Raleigh Tomahawk bike, to make the half-a-mile journey to the fair, which would open at 6pm that evening. He promised to be back home by 7:30 pm, saying "Don't worry mum, I won't be late". On his way to the fair, he met with two of his friends who were in the town at the time. However, they wanted to go back home first and then go to the fair later so Tildesley decided to go to the fair alone immediately. This was the last time anyone who knew Tildesley well saw him alive. Reported missing: At 7:30 pm, the time at which Tildesley had promised to return home, he had still not arrived. At 8:00 pm, his parents went down to the fair to find him. However, all they could find was his bike chained to railings near to the entrance of the Carnival Field where the fair was being held. Having spent an hour searching around the fairground site to no avail, Tildesley's parents returned home with his bike, to find his brother Christopher watching television but no trace of their missing son. At 10:00 pm, Lavinia Tildesley phoned the local police, to report Tildesley missing and to ask if they had heard anything, but they had not and they recommended she phone back in an hour. In the meantime, she phoned his sister Christina in Finchampstead, and Christina's husband Ted also went over to the Carnival Field to search for him without any success. Searches and public appeals- Initial search: Thames Valley Police undertook an intensive and thorough search of the Wokingham area. This included using a helicopter, searching the Carnival Field site with loud hailer appeals, as well as searching nearby rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. Heat seeking equipment was also borrowed from the Metropolitan Police, which could detect dead bodies. Every worker and stall holder at the Frank Ayers Fun Fair was questioned the day after Tildesley went missing. Wokingham town centre's 29 streets, consisting of 960 shops, businesses and houses, had to be covered by officers on a door-to-door basis. On the following weekend of 9–10 June 1984, 15 policemen and two tracker dogs teamed up with 100 soldiers from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers training battalion in Arborfield Garrison to search the south side of Wokingham, from Barkham Road through to Amen Corner, which proved unproductive. Two weeks after the disappearance, Detective Superintendent Roger Nicklin had to concede that the police still had "absolutely no idea about Mark's disappearance". A train driver on the Guildford to Reading line reported seeing a fox carrying what looked like a child's arm in its mouth, but three weeks later this turned out to be animal bones. A strong smell of decomposed flesh was also reported in the nearby village of Crowthorne, but this turned out to be rotten sheep. National appeals: In addition to a national poster campaign being launched, with every police station in the country displaying one, Tildesley's disappearance not only appeared in the regional Wokingham Times, but it was also featured heavily in national news coverage at the time. The Times, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror all wrote about the story, and the case was also covered in ITV's Thames News. On 7 June 1984 Tildesley's disappearance was mentioned on the first ever episode of the newly launched BBC television series Crimewatch UK, a programme which reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from members of the public. These first appeals resulted in 400 calls being made to the police by members of the general public. Shortly after Tildesley's disappearance, several witnesses reported seeing a boy who fitted his description being dragged away forcefully against his will away from the fairground site by a Stooping Man between 7pm and 8pm that evening. Further sightings were at the nearby Cockpit Footpath on the corner of Denmark Street and Langborough Road (where the current Wokingham Library which opened in 1996 now stands) as well as at Number 9 and Number 51 Langborough Road. There were also a number of conflicting sightings. A witness reported seeing a boy who looked like Tildesley sitting on the wall of the Waitrose car park in Rose Street with a bike similar to his at his side at 8:10pm on the evening of his disappearance. (The site is located almost directly opposite to the entrance to Rose Court where the Tildesleys lived and it is now occupied by a small Marks & Spencer store as a result of Waitrose having since relocated to a larger site in Rectory Road (opposite the then police station) in Wokingham in 1995). However, Tildesley's bike was actually found chained to railings at the entrance to the fairground site in Wellington Road half a mile away by his parents at exactly the same time. Reconstructions: The day after the first Crimewatch UK broadcast, the police shot their first video reconstruction. A seven-year-old local boy dressed in clothes similar to those worn by Tildesley and was filmed around Rose Street including sitting on the wall of the Waitrose car park, and also at the fairground site as well. Whilst only a partial reconstruction, it did get a positive response. Two days before the first anniversary of Tildesley's disappearance, and with the Frank Ayers Fun Fair back on the Carnival Field in Wokingham, a second police reconstruction was filmed. These included shots in Rose Court, Rose Street, Broad Street, Denmark Street, the Carnival Field off Wellington Road and Langborough Road. Ten-year-old Paul Little played the part of Tildesley, whilst Peter Russell played the part of the Stooping Man. In the case's second appearance on the programme in just over a year, the footage was aired at 9:25pm on 13 June 1985 on the BBC television series Crimewatch UK. A full reconstruction of his last known moments was broadcast, in which Mrs Tildesley took part. Over 1,000 people called in with information, one of the highest volumes in Crimewatch UK history. Success of appeals: Overall, the police received a huge public response with over 1,200 different individuals phoning in, who gave 2,500 potential leads, but little concrete evidence emerged. Crucially, Thames Valley Police never received any breakthroughs that would lead them to either Tildesley being found safe and well, or in the worst-case scenario, to the identity of the perpetrator(s) and/or the recovery of his body. Investigations- Initial investigation: The initial investigation was led by Detective Constable Geoff Gilbert. Coincidentally, Gilbert knew Tildesley personally through his mother's job at the local Wokingham Police Station. From the start, Wokingham police were unprepared for such a major task. Only four officers were assigned to the case, as Thames Valley Police were short-staffed with many colleagues sorting out the 1984–1985 miners' strike. As Wokingham Police Station was too small, the attic storeroom was used as the incident office. The police also promptly set up a mobile office on the fairground site. By the first Sunday following his disappearance, 3 June 1984, they had to use the Wokingham Baptist Church on Milton Road in Wokingham (immediately behind the police station) as a meeting room. The next day after that, Mrs Tildesley said in the Daily Express "I am sure somebody is holding him". However, Superintendent Alan Cussell conceded "Mark may have been murdered". The police had to check that, given the age difference between Tildesley and his brother and sister, that he was in fact Mrs Tildesley's son and not Christina's. DC Gilbert was summoned to do this task, which Mrs Tildesley described as "ridiculous". Tildesley's brother Christopher, who had had an argument with him earlier on the day of his disappearance, was initially the prime suspect. However, it soon became clear that this could not be the case. On 7 June 1984, the day of the first Crimewatch UK appeal, two anonymous calls came in to say that they suspected a fairground worker called Martin Earley was responsible for Tildesley's disappearance. He had worked for Frank Ayers for eleven years and was at the Wokingham Fun Fair on the night Tildesley went missing. He was arrested and confessed to Tildesley's abduction, saying that he had raped and murdered him at his caravan nearby, which fitted in with what a hypnotist had said was likely to have happened to Tildesley. However, he changed his story so many times that it became unreliable and detectives worked out that they had in fact got the wrong man. After six weeks, the case became so big that Thames Valley Police had to move the incident office from Wokingham 20 miles up the M4 motorway to Sulhamstead near Newbury. On 16 August 1984, the Metropolitan Police called on another fairground worker, Sidney Cooke, at his home in London. One of his colleagues had alerted detectives at the Tildesley incident office about his suspicious behaviour towards young boys in the past. The police asked Cooke whether he was in Wokingham on the night Tildesley had vanished. He denied this and had an alibi. He claimed that he was working at a fair opposite West Hendon Police Station in London that night, and the fair owner, Rosie Gray, confirmed that Cooke was her employee. Cooke therefore remained on file but was eliminated as a suspect. By October 1984, with little new leads to go on, Thames Valley Police started to wind down their investigation into Tildelsey's disappearance. Two-and-a-half years after this, on 29 April 1987, it emerged that there had been a number of attempted abductions of young children over the past six months in the Wokingham area. The police investigated whether these could be linked to Tildesley's disappearance, but this was eventually dismissed. Operation Orchid: In 1989, the Metropolitan Police established Operation Orchid, an enquiry into the disappearance of missing children. This was led by Detective Chief Superintendent Roger Stoodley. As part of this operation, in December 1990 they interviewed a convicted East London-based paedophile gang member called Leslie "Catweazle" Bailey, who had already been charged with two other murders, that of 14-year-old Jason Swift and six-year-old Barry Lewis, both of which occurred after Tildesley's disappearance. The police had obtained a hand drawn paper map and a hand written paper letter which had been given by Bailey to a fellow inmate at Wandsworth Prison. The map showed where Tildesley had been killed, and the letter, which had been written by a cell-mate, was addressed to Sidney Cooke, who was also another gang member, and who also knew about his murder. At this point, Bailey, who suffered from a mild learning disability which meant that he had limited understanding, confessed that his paedophile gang, whom the police had nicknamed the "Dirty Dozen", led by Cooke, from the Kingsmead Estate in Hackney, had abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered Tildesley on the night he disappeared. It was at this point that the police realised that the Stooping Man who had been frequently described in connection with his disappearance was in fact Cooke. "Mark's party": On the night of Tildesley's disappearance, Bailey had been asked by another member of the gang, his lover Lennie Smith, to drive him from Hackney to Wokingham, as there would be a party (of child sex abuse) in a caravan owned by Cooke located near to a fair. Upon arriving in Wokingham, Smith went into the fair to find Cooke and they came back to Bailey's white Triumph 2000 car in Langborough Road, near to the fairground, with a young boy who was "dragging back", despite being enticed away from the fairground on the promise of a 50p bag of sweets. The young boy, Tildesley, had to be physically picked up and forced into the back of the car to get him in. With Bailey driving, Smith was in the front passenger seat, whilst Cooke was holding Tildesley back in the rear of the car. They then met a fourth man, a relative of Bailey known as "Odd Bod", (who had a mental age of an eight-year-old), at Cooke's blue and white caravan, which had lace curtains. This was located a short drive away past the relocated Tesco in Finchampstead Road (which had opened in 1998), on a field called "The Moors" on Evendons Lane, which is located in between Finchampstead and Barkham. After Cooke gave Tildesley a glass of milk laced with muscle relaxant, of which he only drank half of it as he said it "tastes funny", the four men had non-consensual anal intercourse with Tildesley, starting with Cooke and ending with Smith. After more muscle relaxant was applied directly down the boy's throat, the gang rape started again. Smith then forced a tablet into Tildesley's mouth before grabbing him by the throat. The party, referred to as "Mark's party" by Bailey, had already lasted for half an hour and Bailey stated he knew at this point that Tildesley was dead as he could not feel a pulse, but that Cooke had told him that he was fine and that he would take the boy home. This meant that it was likely that Tildesley was already dead before his parents even knew that he was missing. After the murder of Mark, Bailey drove Smith back to Hackney, arriving there after midnight. Before Bailey dropped Smith off at marshes, Smith said to Bailey that he would leave the disposal of the body to Cooke. Unfinished investigation: The police received a Judge's Commendation for pursuing an honourable and sustained investigation which led to the eventual solving of the Tildesley case. However, the police admitted in public that the case had not been finished as Tildesley's body had not been found. In 2007, Thames Valley Police set up the Dedicated Review Team to re-investigate unsolved murders and serious sexual assaults over the previous 50 years, which included Tildesley's murder, but nothing has come of it. Tildesley is the "Dirty Dozen" ring's first known murder victim. However, in 2015, following media and political pressure, the police re-opened the case of 29 July 1981 murder of seven-year-old Vishal Mehrotra near East Putney tube station in London. The "Dirty Dozen" gang are being investigated in relation to this killing, which was more than three years earlier than the murder of Tildesley. Also in 2015, former Chief Superintendent Roger Stoodley said he feared a "cover up" by the Metropolitan Police over the Tildesley murder case itself. He maintained that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Cooke over Tildesley's killing. Police started investigating Sidney Cooke's potential involvement with the unsolved murders of nine other boys in 2015. Legal proceedings- Sidney Cooke: Sidney Charles Cooke was born on 18 April 1927. In 1984 his occupation was that of a fairground worker. Nicknamed "Hissing Sid", he was described by The Guardian newspaper in 1999 as "Britain's most notorious paedophile". Cooke has never admitted playing any role in Tildesley's murder, despite a tiger key ring identical to the one owned by the boy being found in his repossessed dark coloured Jaguar XJ car in 1985, a year after Tildesley's disappearance. No charges were therefore brought against him as the Crown Prosecution Service felt that Bailey's confession was insufficient evidence for his case to result in a successful conviction. In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service also declined to prosecute Cooke for Tildesley's murder as he was already in prison for the manslaughter of Jason Swift. Leslie Bailey: Leslie Patrick Bailey seemed to be the only one of the gang who would admit to the murder of Tildesley. Bailey suffered from a mild learning disability which meant that he had limited understanding. When he was sent to trial for Tildesley's killing, he was already in prison for the 1985 killing of Jason Swift. On 7 October 1993, Bailey was murdered by strangulation with a ligature in Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire. The death was welcomed by the boy's parents. Mr Tildesley said he would like to shake the murderer's hand, whilst Mrs Tildesley opened a bottle of wine to celebrate. It later emerged that Bailey had been murdered by two other inmates. Lennie Smith: Leonard William Gilchrist Smith was born on 23 August 1954. Smith has never admitted playing any role in Tildesley's murder. No charges were therefore brought against him as the Crown Prosecution Service felt that Bailey's confession was insufficient evidence for his case to result in a successful conviction. Smith has since died of AIDS in a secret unit in Nottingham Prison in 2006. Once again, Mrs Tildesley responded by celebrating the news. "Odd Bod": A fourth man, mentioned by Bailey as part of the Operation Orchid investigation as being partly responsible for Tildesley's murder, was a relative of him. He was referred to as "Odd Bod" throughout the investigation. However, as "Odd Bod" had a mental age of an eight-year-old, he could not have his name disclosed or be charged, put on trial or sentenced in connection with Tildesley's killing. No charges were therefore brought against him as the Crown Prosecution Service considered him to be too young for his case to result in a successful conviction. Murder charges: On 18 October 1991, Bailey, "along with persons unknown", was charged with the murder of Tildesley. Trial: The Tildesley family kept away from the majority of the trial at Reading Crown Court. Bailey stood alone in connection with Tildesley's killing. It was very unusual in that the judge not only named Cooke and Smith, but also described in court what he believed they had done to Tildesley, in their "homosexual party", despite neither of them having ever been charged in relation to the case. Equally unusual was Bailey instructions to his defence barrister to seek the maximum sentence possible, saying that he was "surprised and disappointed" and could not understand why Cooke and Smith were not in the dock with him. Sentences: On 22 October 1992, Bailey pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court to the lesser charge of manslaughter and one charge of buggery and received two life sentences on 9 December 1992. On hearing the verdict, Mrs Tildesley responded by calling for the re-introduction of the death penalty, saying "He should have been hanged". Body: Bailey claimed he did not know where Cooke had buried the body. Cooke has indicated he knows where the body is buried, but refuses to tell the police, or the boy's family, the exact location. Following the confession by Bailey to the murder, the police dug up "The Moors" field in Evendon's Lane in March 1991, but they did not find anything. In May 1998, the police refused to re-question Cooke, in relation to Tildesley's murder, and to dig up a nearby golf course to search for his remains. In 2008, Cooke's former lover and cell-mate, on-the-run convicted paedophile David Patrick, claimed to know where Cooke had buried the boy, which he would reveal for the sum of £3,000. Police later dismissed the claim as false and an attempt to extort money from Tildelsey's mother. In 2012, a fragment of human skull, discovered near Evendon's Lane, was found not to be Tildesley's. Tildesley's body has never been found and the murder is Wokingham's most notorious unsolved crime. Thames Valley Police initially thought his body was buried within a mile of Wellington Road in Wokingham, the location of the fair from which he was abducted, but they now believe that his body is buried in a shallow grave on abandoned farmland. Aftermath and memorials- Tildesley's bedroom: The boy's parents kept his bedroom exactly how it was the day he went missing, until Mrs Tildesley moved to nearby Langley Common Road in Barkham (further away than Evendons Lane), shortly after Mr Tildesley's death in 2005. Memorial bench: Shortly after the boy's disappearance, a public memorial, that of a jade coloured bench, was erected exactly at the very spot where he was seen leaving the fairground by the general public. This can be seen directly to the right of the entrance to the Carnival Leisure Park on Wellington Road in Wokingham. A name plate on a plank of wood at the top of the bench reads "In Memory of MARK TILDESLEY". When Mrs Tildesley died in 2011, a second name plate was put on the bench, with her name on it, on the plank of wood directly beneath the one with the boy's name plate on, in remembrance of her. Memorial service: A memorial service was held on 30 January 1993 at the Rose Street Methodist Church (now the Wokingham Methodist Church) in Rose Street in Wokingham (next to what is now the small Marks & Spencer store which was a Waitrose at the time of both Tildesley's disappearance and murder in 1984 and the memorial service in 1993 and which is located on the other side of the road to the Tildesleys home in Rose Court). Headstone: A headstone to Tildesley was erected, on 30 January 1993, at the Free Church Burial Ground on Reading Road in Wokingham. It reads "IN LOVING MEMORY OF MARK ANTHONY TILDESLEY BORN 31 AUGUST 1976". In popular culture- Books: -Tildesley's murder was featured in the 1993 book "Lambs to the Slaughter" by Ted Oliver and Ramsay Smith. Oliver and Smith were actually editors of the Daily Mirror at the time of Tildesley's disappearance. -Tildesley's murder was mentioned in the 2003 book "Catching Monsters" by David Bright. Television: -Tildesley's murder appeared in the BBC Crimewatch episodes on both 7 June 1984 and 13 June 1985 -Tildesley's murder was documented in the BBC Crimewatch File "The Lost Boys" episode in 1994 -Tildesley's murder was featured in an episode of the Channel 4 programme Dispatches in the late 1990s -Tildesley's murder was shown in the episode of BBC Panorama on 11 May 1998

clarify

let me clarify 1 huge thing: my family is super supportive of me becoming a Mormon and doing a ton of things for the church but i don't think they're about to become Mormons themselves. the closest is getting them to consider going to something. that's about it. my mom even called me once "a newly minted Mormon" a few months after my baptism at my family reunion

Mascara

My eyes are heavily mascara'ed. I did that to give them volume plus they high light my eyes

Hand eye coordination

The best hand eye corrdination anyone had seen was babies hands to adult's glasses. I can attest to that. A little baby wailed to say, pick me up Ms Jackie. So I did and she dropped my glasses on the ground both times I picked her up

coffee as a sweet drink

once after going to barnes and noble my brothers and i went to McDonalds and my brothers got milkshakes. my brother was like wait Jackie do you want a milkshake? i'm like no thanks i have coffee as a drink. it's sweet he thought of me as an after thought.

seizures

i was born with them. i've never been ashamed of them but i've been bullied because of them. many people say it makes you a stronger person. great. doesn't make it easier.

pizza and coffee

i love pizza and coffee but i know when to stop with both. if i've got a buzz i'm good on coffee. if i eat more than 5 pieces of pizza i'm over stuffed.

friends

i'm glad to have bumped into some friends from school. they remembered that i had muscle spasms and collapsed. they congratulated me on my baptism. we just caught up.

Murder of Melanie Carpenter

Melanie Carpenter was a woman who was abducted from a Fleetwood Town Centre tanning salon, and found dead several weeks later. Disappearance and death: On January 6, 1995 after Carpenter had received some suspicious phone calls from a man feigning interest in a business deal, she was snatched from where she was working. The afternoon that Carpenter went missing, a bank security camera recorded a 37-year-old man named Fernand Auger making a $300 withdrawal using Carpenter's debit card. The image was shown on national TV the next day, and a warrant was issued for Auger's arrest. Auger at the time was on parole for doing an armed robbery, but before Auger could be arrested, he committed suicide Carpenter's body was found several weeks later in Hope B.C., and was concealed by a white blanket, and in a crevice. Investigation and aftermath: Just days after Carpenter had disappeared, Auger had become the number one suspect in her abduction. In 1995 the Melanie Carpenter Foundation was established. After Carpenter's death, Steve Carpenter, Melanie's father formed a petition to keep murderers in prison as speeches were made, petitions were signed and rallies were held in protest against Canada’s parole system.

The Family Murders

The Family was the name given to a close-knit group of men believed to be involved in the kidnapping, drugging, sexual abuse and, at times, torture of young men and teenaged boys in Adelaide, the capital city of the state of South Australia, and surrounding areas throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s. The existence of the group came to the attention of the public following the murder of five teenagers between 1979 and 1983. The high-profile occupations of some of the suspects led to claims of an alleged high-society conspiracy. The name of the group stems from an interview a police detective gave on 60 Minutes, claiming the police were taking action "to break up the happy family". Four of the five murders remain unsolved. Only one suspect has been charged and convicted for crimes: Bevan Spencer von Einem was sentenced in 1984 to a minimum of 24 years (later extended to a minimum 36-year term) for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. Victims: -Alan Arthur Barnes, aged 16, murdered in 1979. Last seen being picked up by a white Holden sedan with three or four people in it while hitchhiking, his body had been severely mutilated and dumped in the South Para Reservoir, northeast of Adelaide. A post-mortem examination revealed that Barnes had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. His body also showed signs of beatings and torture. He had died several days after he went missing and Noctec was found in his blood suggesting he had been drugged. -Neil Fredrick Muir, aged 25, murdered two months after Alan Barnes in 1979. His remains had been dissected and neatly cut into many pieces, placed in a garbage bag and thrown into the Port River at Port Adelaide. Skin bearing tattoos had been removed and most of the body parts were placed in another garbage bag before being placed within the abdominal cavity. The head was tied to the torso with rope passed through the mouth and out through the neck. A post-mortem examination revealed that Muir had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object and Noctec was found in his blood. -Peter Stogneff, aged 14, murdered in 1981. His skeletal remains were found ten months later by a local farmer at Middle Beach, 50 km north of Adelaide. Stogneff's body had been cut into three pieces in a similar fashion to Neil Muir. Little more could be determined as the remains had been accidentally burnt by the farmer while clearing his property of scrub. -Mark Andrew Langley, aged 18, murdered in 1982. His mutilated body was found in scrub in the Adelaide foothills nine days after his disappearance. Among the mutilations was a wound that appeared to have been cut with a surgical instrument that went from his navel to the pubic region and part of his small bowel was missing. The hair around the area had been shaved as it would have been in an operation in a hospital. The post-mortem revealed that Langley had died from a massive loss of blood from gross injuries to his anus, similar to Alan Barnes. The sedative-hypnotic drug Mandrax, also known as a "Quaalude" and popular in the 1970s disco scene, was found in Langley's blood. -Richard Dallas Kelvin, aged 15, murdered in 1983. The son of popular Adelaide Channel 9 News presenter Rob Kelvin, he was abducted a short distance from his North Adelaide home. His body was found by an amateur geologist in the Mount Crawford Forest. Kelvin was held captive for over five weeks and a post-mortem examination revealed that he had died of massive blood loss from an anal injury, likely caused by the insertion of a large blunt object. Analysis of Kelvin's bloodstream revealed traces of four hypnotic drugs, including Mandrax and Noctec. Trace evidence, including hair and fibres from Bevan Spencer von Einem's home, was found on Kelvin's body and clothing. Case: Police believe that up to 12 people, several of them high-profile Australians, were involved in the kidnappings. The suspects and their associates were linked mainly by their shared habits of "actively having sought out young males for sex," sometimes drugging and raping their victims. Bevan Spencer von Einem was convicted in 1984 of the murder of Richard Kelvin and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1989, von Einem was charged with the murders of Alan Barnes and Mark Langley, but the prosecution entered a nolle prosequi (voluntarily discontinue criminal charges) during the trial when crucial similar fact evidence was deemed inadmissible by the presiding judge. Von Einem was also one of the last people seen with Neil Muir following his abduction. Apart from von Einem, three other core members are thought to be directly involved in the murders, although while DNA testing re-commenced in 2008 no further charges have been laid. Suspect 1, an eastern suburbs businessman, is believed to have been with von Einem when Kelvin was abducted. Suspect 2, a prominent Adelaide physician, Peter Leslie Millhouse was initially charged with Muir's murder but found not guilty at trial in 1980. Millhouse died in a nursing home at Cessnock in NSW on 30 June 2015, aged 80. Suspect 3 was a former male prostitute and a close friend of von Einem and Suspect 1. The remaining known associates were involved to a lesser degree; they were either indirectly involved or had knowledge of the murders but continued to interact with the group. Another Adelaide doctor, Dr Stephen George Woodards was also alleged to have links to the 'family' and recently (2011) stood for child sexual abuse charges. The statutory suppression order on his identity lapsed during the course of his trial and an application for a new order was denied. Other suspects include several members of the legal community, the brother of an Olympian and members of the business community. Two men who were living with suspects 1 and 2 respectively at the time of the murders were also "persons of interest". Although many had previously been named, with the exception of Suspect 2, their identities have since been suppressed by the courts. A cold case was opened in March 2008 with a $1,000,000 reward available for anyone who provides information leading to a conviction. The reward carried an offer of immunity to accomplices dependent on their level of involvement. Due to changes in the Forensic Procedures Act which now allow DNA samples to be taken from suspects in major indictable offences, all the suspects voluntarily submitted to DNA testing. The ongoing investigation featured in an episode of Crime Stoppers which went to air on 2 March 2009. The cold case review was completed in November 2010 with no charges being laid against any of the three key suspects. Some authorities do not recognise the term "The Family", stating that, "They should not be given any title that infers legitimacy. These people have no such bond, only an association that with time probably no longer exists". Some who have examined the cases, however, argue that there were many more victims: criminologist Alan Perry of the University of Adelaide has argued that the murders were part of widespread series of kidnappings and sexual assaults of boys that might number several hundred victims in South Australia from about 1973 to 1983.

invited

my mom was invited to come to church. she politely declined and i laughed.

ask questions

when i was baptized my mom was invited to ask questions and come to church. to this day my family continues to blow my mind with my faith.

Audio Bible

Audio Bibles or spoken Bible are Bibles that were recorded in audio format. They provide the listener the ability to listen to the Scriptures without being required to look directly at written text. Benefits of audio Bibles are that they allow blind people personal access to the scriptures, and anybody can engage in other tasks while listening to the recordings which frees up time in the day to do other things. With this extra time, the listener can increase exposure to the Bible. History: The first audio Bible (KJV in English language) was recorded and narrated by Alexander Scourby in the 1950s for the American Foundation of the Blind. It was first recorded on long play records, then 8-track player, cassette tape. The Bible in cassette tape was 72-hours long, and it took 72 cassette tapes to record the entire audio Bible. From then on other audio Bibles were recorded on CDs, DVDs and other media devices.

Playaway

Playaway is a brand of portable media players designed for circulation in libraries by Findaway World, LLC, based in Solon, Ohio. The format is used in institutional lending, such as in public and school libraries. Playaway's library website states that it is currently available in over 25,000 schools and libraries. The format is used in military libraries and gives troops access to digital media overseas, where they might not have access to electricity to otherwise read or use a computer. Playaway Light: Playaway Light is a solid-state prerecorded audio player introduced in 2005 and redesigned in 2016. About the size of a deck of playing cards and weighing 2 ounces, it can store up to 80 hours of audio. As of March 2010, the audiobooks are all produced in high definition audio. The digital content (audiobook or music compilation) is preloaded at the factory and cannot be changed or copied by the end user. A 3.5 mm stereo jack provides output to earphones or an external amplifier. Playaway Light was specifically designed to use most commonly available cassette adaptors and FM transmitters. Power is provided by a changeable 1.5V AAA cell, which the manufacturer claims allows it to operate approximately 20 hours before battery depletion, 30 hours for the newer versions. There are approximately 15,000 titles on Playaway, generally priced in-line with the publisher's suggested library pricing for the CD equivalent. As of 2013, the newest Playaway versions come complete with HD Audio and high-definition sound. These new units enable users to lock the keypad and slow down reading speed. In 2016, Playaway added a backlit LCD screen with more details and simplified the button layout. Playaway Launchpad: Playaway Launchpad is a modified android tablet pre-loaded with games and other educational apps. Each tablet comes pre-loaded with several apps that have a shared subject. They come in either Orange (for Children) and Black (for Adult and Teens). There is no way for end users to add or remove apps. Playaway View: Playaway View is a portable video player. Content is pre-loaded and cannot be modified by the end user. Selections include popular movies and TV shows for kids and adults, documentaries and educational content.

pain

my back hurts due to my illness. i think my joints are sore and i can't go 1 night without being sore. i woke up took a pain killer, went back to bed, woke up later and my back was still sore.

anxiety

i've got horrible anxiety as well as being sick. i'm of course going to work on my speech but that won't take away my fear of public speaking. i'm scared since it's midterms. i'm stressed since i'm going to school and yet i'm loving it.

meet my dad

the host of the Halloween party i went to on Saturday met my dad, something he wanted to do.

midterms

it's midterms this week. we're speeding thru the fall semester. i'm so happy since it's 1/2 way thru

give a talk

i nearly dodged a bullet for giving a talk but i don't mind if i give 1. i don't like public speaking but if it's in church as well as with friends maybe.

Alvar Larsson

Alvar Larsson was a Swedish boy who disappeared in 1967. Alvar and his family lived at a farm called Sundslätt at the southeast part of the island Sirkö in Åsnen, one of the largest lakes in Småland. He left his house on a Sunday morning to take a walk and bring in some wood, leaving no traces behind. In 1982, more than fifteen years after the disappearance, his cranium was found on a small island 6 km away. The disappearance attracted a lot of media coverage at the time and many theories as to what happened have been put forward. Thomas Quick has confessed to the crime, but has recanted all his confessions. Disappearance and search: On the morning of April 16, 1967, Alvar was woken up at half past seven by his mother. He ate a bun, drank a glass of fruit juice and dressed in his everyday clothes. Before breakfast and a visit to the church later that morning, Alvar wanted to go for a walk. His mother let him go and told him to bring in wood as he returned. No-one has reported that they've seen him since. By the time it was too late for Alvar to eat breakfast, get dressed and leave for church, his mother phoned the nearest neighbours asking about Alvar, but no-one had seen him. Alvar's father phoned the nearest neighbour and the two men searched the farm for the boy. Later, all the neighbours were asked to join the search. A constable named Emanuelsson was asked to start a search for Alvar as he was only five kilometers away at the time. The initial search party consisted of the family, neighbours, two police officers, a privately owned Alsatian dog and the home defence. The search went on into the night without result. In the early morning, Harald contacted the police and informed them that Alvar had not returned, and yet another search soon started. In the afternoon, fifty servicemen from the army infantry regiment I 11 in Växjö joined. During the following week, more people arrived to aid the search, and the lake was searched by the use of boats. A police helicopter was also flown in from Stockholm at the Tuesday. At most, 150 persons were in the search party at the same time. Theories- Run away: Initially the main theory was that thirteen-year-old Alvar had run away. However, it is hard to explain why Alvar would not have dressed up more with heavier shoes, eaten breakfast, brought his money and/or used his bicycle if he had planned to leave. A boy of Alvar's age had been seen north of Kalmar, in Påskallavik, but he could later be identified. This was also the case for a boy who had gotten a ride by a truck driver, a boy that had been seen spending the Sunday night at the postal station in Rottne, and other boys that had been spotted hitch-hiking in the area. Accident: That Alvar would have been alive during the week-long search and later died is dismissed by most sources. If he had died in an accident, it would most likely have happened early Sunday, and the location of his death would have been the lake. It is just short of a kilometre from Sundslätt to the lake, and Alvar is speculated to have suddenly decided to row by boat. During the searches and investigations, all the boats in the lake were checked, but one is said to have been forgotten by its owner due to its bad state. That Alvar could not swim suggests he would not have entered a boat, but if he had, his lack of ability to swim could have become fatal. It is said that the fact that Alvar's clogs have not surfaced at the waterside, as opposed to many other clogs, suggests that he did not drown in the lake. Crime: The first theories involving a crime were suggested on the Monday, and these ideas seemed more plausible as time passed. The police received several tips about persons who had acted suspiciously, all of which could be rejected. The theory was that Alvar would have gone to the cellar to smoke and that someone would have passed and convinced him to follow them. Grave-opening: In 1978, more than ten years after the disappearance, a grave was opened. A woman had told the police of how a relative of hers had told her of how he'd killed a boy in Småland in 1967 and how he'd hid the body near the deserted summer house for two years. The man would then have moved the body to the bottom of a grave, prepared for a relative of his, where he'd covered it with spruce twigs. Although he had been celebrating the 50th anniversary of his wedding on the day Alvar disappeared and had been working the night before, the grave was opened. In front of a large press gathering, the coffin was lifted out and nothing was found under it. Finding of the skull: In November 1982, three hunters had rowed to Harö, a small island, to train their dogs. In a bay they had found a human skull. Realizing that the teeth had fillings and thus could not be an archeological finding, the men contacted the police. The police immediately assumed that the skull belonged to Alvar and using his dental record, this theory could be confirmed. The island was searched in detail but the only other findings were two rowing boats. The owners soon reported to the police and it could be excluded that Alvar would have used any of the boats to get to the island. Although there was a big hole in the back of the skull, experts could not determine whether it had received a fatal blow or whether the damage had been caused by the weather in the years that had passed since the boy's death. The skull of Alvar has been buried alongside of the boy's father and any crime involved with the disappearance has been barred under the statute of limitations.

Rodney Alcala

Rodney James Alcala is a convicted rapist and serial killer. He was sentenced to death in California in 2010 for five murders committed in that state between 1977 and 1979. In 2013, he received an additional sentence of 25 years to life after pleading guilty to two homicides committed in New York in 1971 and 1977. His true victim count remains unknown, and could be much higher. Prosecutors said that Alcala "toyed" with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, then waiting until they revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing them. One police detective described Alcala as "a killing machine", and others have compared him with Ted Bundy. A homicide investigator familiar with the evidence speculates that he could have murdered as many as 50 women, while other estimates have run as high as 130. Alcala compiled a collection of more than 1,000 photographs of women and teenage boys, many in sexually explicit poses. In 2016, he was charged with the 1977 murder of a woman identified in one of his photos. He is known to have assaulted one other photographic subject, and police have speculated that others could be rape or murder victims as well. He is sometimes called the "Dating Game Killer" because of his 1978 appearance on the television show The Dating Game in the midst of his murder spree. Early life and education: Alcala was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor in San Antonio, Texas, to Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. In 1951, his father moved the family to Mexico. After he abandoned them three years later, his mother moved Rodney and his siblings to suburban Los Angeles when he was about 11 years old. He joined the U.S. Army in 1960, at age 17, where he served as a clerk. In 1964, after what was described as a "nervous breakdown", during which he went AWOL and hitchhiked from Fort Bragg to his mother's house, he was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder by a military psychiatrist and discharged on medical grounds. Other diagnoses later proposed by various psychiatric experts at his trials included narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, and (from homicide expert Vernon Geberth) malignant narcissistic personality disorder with psychopathy and sexual sadism comorbidities. After leaving the Army, Alcala graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts and later studied film under Roman Polanski at New York University. Early criminal history: Alcala committed his first known crime in 1968: A motorist in Los Angeles called police after watching him lure an eight-year-old girl named Tali Shapiro into his Hollywood apartment. The girl was found alive, raped and beaten with a steel bar, but Alcala had fled. To evade the resulting arrest warrant he left the state and enrolled in the NYU film school, using the name "John Berger". In 1971, he obtained a counseling job at a New Hampshire arts camp for children using a slightly different alias, "John Burger". In June 1971, Cornelia Michel Crilley, a 23-year-old Trans World Airlines flight attendant, was found raped and strangled in her Manhattan apartment. Her murder would remain unsolved for 40 years. The FBI added Alcala to its list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in early 1971; a few months later, two children attending the arts camp noticed his photo on an FBI poster at the post office. Alcala was arrested and extradited to California. By then, Tali Shapiro's parents had relocated their entire family to Mexico and refused to allow her to testify at Alcala's trial. Unable to convict him of rape and attempted murder without their primary witness, prosecutors were forced to permit Alcala to plead guilty to a lesser charge of assault. He was paroled after 34 months, in 1974, under the "indeterminate sentencing" program popular at the time, which allowed parole boards to release offenders as soon as they demonstrated evidence of rehabilitation. Less than two months after his release, he was re-arrested after assaulting a 13-year-old girl identified in court records as "Julie J.", who had accepted what she thought would be a ride to school. Once again, he was paroled after serving two years of an "indeterminate sentence". In 1977, after Alcala's second release, his Los Angeles parole officer took the unusual step of permitting a repeat offender—and known flight risk—to travel to New York City. NYPD cold-case investigators now believe that a week after arriving in Manhattan, Alcala killed Ellen Jane Hover, 23, daughter of the owner of the popular Hollywood nightclub Ciro's and goddaughter of Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. Her remains were found buried on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate in Westchester County. In 1978, Alcala worked for a short time at the Los Angeles Times as a typesetter, and was interviewed by members of the Hillside Strangler task force as part of their investigation of known sex offenders. Although Alcala was ruled out as the Hillside Strangler, he was arrested and served a brief sentence for marijuana possession. During this period, Alcala convinced hundreds of young men and women that he was a professional fashion photographer, and photographed them for his "portfolio." A Times co-worker later recalled that Alcala shared his photos with workmates. "I thought it was weird, but I was young, I didn’t know anything," she said. "When I asked why he took the photos, he said their moms asked him to. I remember the girls were naked." "He said he was a professional, so in my mind I was being a model for him," said a woman who allowed Alcala to photograph her in 1979. The portfolio also included "... spread after spread of naked teenage boys," she said. Most of the photos are sexually explicit, and most remain unidentified. Police fear that some of the subjects may be additional cold-case victims. In 1979, according to later trial testimony, Alcala knocked unconscious and raped 15-year-old Monique Hoyt while she was posing for photographs. Dating Game appearance: In 1978, despite his status as a convicted rapist and registered sex offender, Alcala was accepted as a contestant on The Dating Game. By then he had already killed at least two women in California and two others in New York. Host Jim Lange introduced him as a "successful photographer who got his start when his father found him in the darkroom at the age of 13, fully developed. Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling." Actor Jed Mills, who competed against Alcala as "Bachelor #2", later described him as a "very strange guy" with "bizarre opinions". Alcala won the contest, and a date with "bachelorette" Cheryl Bradshaw, who subsequently refused to go out with him, according to published reports, because she found him "creepy". Criminal profiler Pat Brown, noting that Alcala killed Robin Samsoe and at least two other women after his Dating Game appearance, speculated that Bradshaw's rejection might have been an exacerbating factor. "One wonders what that did in his mind", Brown said. "That is something he would not take too well. Serial killers don't understand the rejection. They think that something is wrong with that girl: 'She played me. She played hard to get.'" Samsoe murder and first two trials: Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl from Huntington Beach, disappeared somewhere between the beach and her ballet class on June 20, 1979. Her decomposing body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills. Samsoe's friends told police that a stranger had approached them on the beach, asking to take their pictures. Detectives circulated a sketch of the photographer, and Alcala's parole officer recognized him. During a search of Alcala's mother's house in Monterey Park, police found a rental receipt for a storage locker in Seattle; in the locker, they found Samsoe's earrings. Alcala was arrested in late 1979 and held without bail. In 1980 he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for Samsoe's murder, but the verdict was overturned by the California Supreme Court because jurors had been improperly informed of his prior sex crimes. In 1986, after a second trial virtually identical to the first except for omission of the prior criminal record testimony, he was again convicted and sentenced to death. A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel nullified the second conviction, in part because a witness was not allowed to support Alcala's contention that the park ranger who found Samsoe's body had been "hypnotized by police investigators". Additional victims: While preparing their third prosecution in 2003, Orange County investigators learned that Alcala's DNA, sampled under a new state law (over his objections), matched semen left at the rape-murder scenes of two women in Los Angeles. Additional evidence, including another cold case DNA match in 2004, led to Alcala's indictment for the murders of four additional women: Jill Barcomb, 18, a New York runaway found "rolled up like a ball" in a Los Angeles ravine in 1977, and originally thought to have been a victim of the Hillside Strangler; Georgia Wixted, 27, bludgeoned in her Malibu apartment in 1977; Charlotte Lamb, 31, raped, strangled, and left in the laundry room of an El Segundo apartment complex in 1978; and Jill Parenteau, 21, killed in her Burbank apartment in 1979. All of the bodies were found "posed...in carefully chosen positions". Another pair of earrings found in Alcala's Seattle storage locker matched Lamb's DNA. During his incarceration between the second and third trials, Alcala wrote and self-published a book, You, the Jury, in which he claimed innocence in the Samsoe case and suggested a different suspect. He also filed two lawsuits against the California penal system, for a slip-and-fall incident and for refusing to provide him a low-fat diet. Third (joined) trial: In 2003 prosecutors entered a motion to join the Samsoe charges with those of the four newly discovered victims. Alcala's attorneys contested it; as one of them explained, "If you’re a juror and you hear one murder case, you may be able to have reasonable doubt. But it’s very hard to say you have reasonable doubt on all five, especially when four of the five aren’t alleged by eyewitnesses but are proven by DNA matches." In 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled in the prosecution's favor, and in February 2010 Alcala stood trial on the five joined charges. For the third trial Alcala elected to act as his own attorney. He took the stand in his own defense, and for five hours played the roles of both interrogator and witness, asking himself questions (addressing himself as "Mr. Alcala" in a deeper-than-normal voice), and then answering them. During this bizarre self-questioning and answering session he told jurors, often in a rambling monotone, that he was at Knott's Berry Farm applying for a job as a photographer at the time Samsoe was kidnapped. He showed the jury a portion of his 1978 appearance on The Dating Game in an attempt to prove that the earrings found in his Seattle locker were his, not Samsoe's. Jed Mills, the actor who competed against Alcala on the show, told a reporter that earrings were not yet a socially acceptable accoutrement for men in 1978. "I had never seen a man with an earring in his ear", he said. "I would have noticed them on him". Alcala made no significant attempt to dispute the four added charges, other than to assert that he could not remember killing any of the women. As part of his closing argument, he played the portion of the Arlo Guthrie song "Alice's Restaurant" in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist that he wants to "kill". After less than two days' deliberation the jury convicted him on all five counts of first-degree murder. A surprise witness during the penalty phase of the trial was Tali Shapiro, Alcala's first known victim. Psychiatrist Richard Rappaport, the only defense witness, testified that Alcala's borderline personality disorder could explain his testimony that he had no memory of committing the murders. The prosecutor argued that Alcala was a "sexual predator" who "knew what he was doing was wrong and didn't care". In March 2010 Alcala was sentenced to death for a third time. Unidentified photographs: In March 2010, the Huntington Beach and New York City Police Departments released 120 of Alcala's photographs and sought the public's help in identifying them, in the hope of determining if any of the women and children he photographed were additional victims. Approximately 900 additional photos could not be made public, police said, because they were too sexually explicit. In the first few weeks, police reported that approximately 21 women had come forward to identify themselves, and "at least six families" said they believed they recognized loved ones who "disappeared years ago and were never found". None of the photos were unequivocally connected to a missing person case or unsolved murder until 2013 when a family member recognized the photo of Christine Thornton, 28, whose body was found in Wyoming in 1982. As of September 2016, 110 of the original photos remain posted online, and police continue to solicit the public's help with further identifications. Additional associations, charges, and convictions- New York State: After his 2010 conviction, New York authorities announced that they would no longer pursue Alcala because of his status as a convict awaiting execution. Nevertheless, in January 2011, a Manhattan grand jury indicted him for the murders of Cornelia Crilley, the TWA flight attendant, and Ellen Hover, the Ciro's heiress, in 1971 and 1977, respectively. In June 2012 he was extradited to New York, where he initially entered not guilty pleas on both counts; but in December he changed both pleas to guilty, citing a desire to return to California to pursue appeals of his death penalty conviction. On January 7, 2013, a Manhattan judge sentenced Alcala to an additional 25 years to life. (The death penalty has not been an option in New York State since 2007.) Washington State: In 2010, Seattle police named Alcala as a "person of interest" in the unsolved murders of Antoinette Wittaker, 13, in July 1977, and Joyce Gaunt, 17, in February 1978. Alcala rented the Seattle-area storage locker, in which investigators later found jewelry belonging to two of his California victims, in 1979. Other cold cases were reportedly targeted for reinvestigation in California, New York, New Hampshire, and Arizona. San Francisco: In March 2011, investigators in Marin County, California, north of San Francisco, announced that they were "confident" that Alcala was responsible for the 1977 murder of 19-year-old Pamela Jean Lambson, who disappeared after making a trip to Fisherman's Wharf to meet a man who had offered to photograph her. Her battered, naked body was subsequently found in Marin County near a hiking trail. With no fingerprints or usable DNA, charges are unlikely to be filed, but police claimed that there is sufficient evidence to convince them that Alcala committed the crime. Wyoming: In September 2016, Alcala was charged with the murder of 28-year-old Christine Ruth Thornton, who disappeared in 1977. In 2013, a relative recognized her as the subject of one of Alcala's photos made public by Huntington Beach PD and NYPD. Her body was found in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, in 1982, but was not identified until 2015 when DNA supplied by Thornton's relatives matched tissue samples from her remains. Alcala admitted taking the photo, but not to killing the woman, who was approximately six months' pregnant at the time of her death. Thornton is the first alleged murder victim linked to the Alcala photos made public in 2010. The 73-year-old Alcala was reportedly "too ill" to make the journey from California to Wyoming to stand trial on the new charges; he remains in California State Prison, Corcoran, pending further appeals of his death sentences.

Halloween parties

i'm going to a Halloween party tonight as Dracula. i love going as something scary. tomorrow i'll use the "Dracula" dress as my church outfit since it's modest and cute.

John Smith (murderer)

John David Smith III is an American murderer convicted of killing his first wife and also believed to have murdered his second. Skull fragments found in a locker owned by him belong to a third, unidentified, woman, and a photograph found in his possession of an unidentified woman is the basis of an ongoing "Jane Doe" inquiry. He is the subject of the television movie Murder on Pleasant Drive, an episode of Cold Case Files and the books Stranger in my Bed by Michael Fleeman and My Sister Is Missing: Bringing a Killer to Justice" by Sherrie Gladden-Davis. The case was also featured on Medical Detectives, Forensic Files season 9, episode 19: Deadly Matrimony, and Who The Bleep Did I Marry season 2, episode 5: The Third Mrs. Smith. Smith married Janice Hartman on June 30, 1970 when they were both 19. The marriage was troubled; Janice's brother said that Smith was abusive from the first. Hartman left Smith in 1974 and returned to Ohio intending to divorce him. A few days later she disappeared. Soon after, Smith's brother Michael observed him building a narrow box which he claimed was for Janice's belongings. In 1979 their grandfather discovered the box and called Michael, who found inside it a dismembered corpse with rainbow hair which he believed to be Janice Hartman. He told John, who took the box away. Smith married his second wife Betty Fran Gladden Smith, in March 1990. While confined to her home by an injury, she disappeared from West Windsor Township, New Jersey on October 4, 1991. Michael Smith kept his secret until 1999, when told the FBI about the box. Inquiries with law enforcement officials in Ohio and Indiana produced the box and remains, which had been found in 1980 by highway workers in an Indiana field. Smith was arrested in October 2000 in Escondido, California, where he was living with his third wife. He was convicted in July 2001 of the murder of Janice Hartman and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. His first parole date was in 2011. He unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 2002. The family of Janice Hartman sought civil damages against Smith's grandfather and brother for their alleged involvement in covering up Smith's crime for over twenty years, but the claims were unsuccessful. Smith remains incarcerated at Marion Correctional Institution.

Dawson murder case

The Dawson family, a family of seven (parents Carnell and Angela, and five children), were all murdered in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, on October 16, 2002. After Angela had repeatedly alerted police to drug dealing, assault, and other crime in her East Baltimore neighborhood of Oliver, the entire family died after their home was firebombed. A neighbor, Darrell L. Brooks — once a page in the Baltimore City Council chamber — pleaded guilty to the crimes and was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. At the time of the attack, Brooks was on probation but had been left unsupervised. After repeated vandalism of their home, the Dawsons survived a first arson attempt on October 3, 2002, only to succumb to the second. The outcry over the magnitude of the crime was only matched by the frustration expressed by many residents who simply could not believe that city officials, who were aware of the escalating violence, had been unable to protect the family. City officials defended their actions, saying an offer to relocate the family was refused. The tragedy underscored the failure in attempts to encourage residents of Baltimore to stand up to drug dealing and of the city to provide protection to those who did. In 2005, relatives of the Dawson family filed suit against the city, state and various agencies. They alleged that despite the launch of the "Believe Campaign" in 2002 (which encouraged residents to supply information about drug dealers) there were insufficient resources to protect witnesses who did come forward. The lawsuit was later dismissed, a ruling which was later upheld in an appeal to the Maryland Court of Appeals. Numerous efforts to reclaim and rebuild Oliver in the name of the Dawson family have been undertaken by politicians, activists and ordinary citizens. Mayor (and later Governor of Maryland) Martin O'Malley, U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, State Senator Nathaniel McFadden and the action group known as Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) have worked in individual and collective ways to ensure the Dawson family a lasting public memory. The house where the Dawsons died reopened in April 2007 as the Dawson Safe Haven Community Center.

Lululemon murder

The Lululemon murder was a 2011 fatal violent assault by one coworker on another committed at the Lululemon Athletica store in the Bethesda Row shopping district. In November 2011, Brittany Norwood was convicted of the first-degree murder of a coworker, Jayna Murray, in the Bethesda, Maryland, Lululemon Athletica store where they both worked. Prosecutors said that in March 2011, Norwood lured Murray back to the store after closing, then attacked her, inflicting over 300 injuries, including head trauma and stab wounds. Murray died in the store's back hallway, after which Norwood staged a crime scene to claim that intruders had raped both women and killed Murray. The prosecution was barred from introducing evidence that Murray had accused Norwood of shoplifting. The defense argued for a conviction of second-degree murder, claiming the attack was not pre-meditated. The case received intense media coverage and was commonly referred to as the "Lululemon murder". In January 2012, Norwood was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. In a published opinion on April 29, 2015, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland rebuffed Norwood's request for a new trial, effectively ending Norwood's direct appeal options. Media portrayals: The Lululemon murder case is featured in a season nine (2012) episode of the American true crime television series Snapped. The case is also featured in a season one (2016) episode of the docu-crime series Criminals at Work. It is also featured in Episode 31 of the podcast My Favorite Murder.

awesome

i'm going to keep my fingers crossed for an awesome weekend despite being semi-unwell. i'm feeling much better compared to Tuesday. granted i'm still hacking up both my lungs and am on a ton of medication. i'm at least able to breathe thru my nose somewhat. i'll still need a ton of medication for my lungs and to suppress my coughing.