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If a guy, who’s cheating on his wife, goes online searching for answers to “how to get away with murder,” and “how to vanish and never be found,” and then, the clincher… "can a polygraph be skewed,” what do you think is on his mind? Then, this guy’s wife disappears. What do you think happened? Stephen Capaldi, 57, of Sellersville, Pennsylvania, is expected to plead guilty soon to charges of third-degree murder, tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse. Stephen’s wife went missing for a couple of months last year, until Stephen led police to parts of her body in a wooded area near Philadelphia International Airport, last week. Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said Stephen strangled his wife, Elizabeth, while she slept in their bed. He used a pillow to smother her, too. Once she was dead, Stephen took the body down to the basement, where he cut it up, best he could and started dumping her body in several spots, including out by the airport. Weintraub said other parts of Elizabeth’s body were discovered, with Stephen’s help as part of a plea deal, buried along the Delaware River. More of her remains were found in a dumpster. Nobody can say yet for sure why he did it, but prosecutors can prove, they say, that Stephen was in the midst of a six-month affair when he decided to eliminate Elizabeth from the equation. What was it about his mistress that led Stephen to murder his wife? According to a grand jury report obtained by Law & Crime, Elizabeth didn’t share Stephen’s dream of opening a comic book store. But his mistress did, and to Stephen that made the difference between life and death for Elizabeth. “If I was a flapper with pretty legs, I never would have been convicted and given the death penalty. Well, I'll die with my boots on, an' in full health. An' that's more'n most of you old coots'll be able to boast on." --Eva Dugan You aren't going to believe what happened the day Eva Dugan died. Click here and start reading now. Murder By Design — A Shocking True Crime Story Jade Janks, a 39-year-old interior designer in California is on trial for her life, at least the possibility of spending the rest of her days in a prison cell. Although she’s pleaded “not guilty,” prosecutors say Jade, because she found nude photos of herself on her stepfather’s computer killed the man and then tossed his body out with the trash in front of the Solana Beach, California home Jade shared with the victim,Thomas Merriman. Jade made no secret of the fact, that she was torn apart by discovering her stepdad had been hoarding nude photos of her and her friends for decades, since she was a teenager. “When I went to clean in his office area, I'm wiping things down, I bumped the mouse, and it shook the screen awake. There's a picture of female breasts on the screen. I have a beauty mark on my chest, those are my breasts," Jade told the jury. "It was the most violating, awful gut-wrenching feeling ever. I felt sick, I felt I couldn't even touch my own skin.” Then the jury was handed a packet of what looked like thumbnail photos, KFMB-TV reported. One juror was seen shaking her head, looking at the pictures. San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Jorge DelPortillo told the jury in his opening statement, perhaps playing on Jade’s occupation, the death of Thomas Merriman was not an accident. “This was murder by design,” said DelPortillo. During Jade’s trial in Vista Superior Court. DelPortillo said Jade, who was planning to take care of Merriman, after a recent hospital stay, fed him an overdose of sleeping pills with the intent to kill the 64-year-old man. As proof, DelPortillo offered a stream of text messages he said Jade sent to a friend, Adam Siplyak. In the first, she wrote, “I just dosed the hell out of him. Stopping for whiskey then at Dixieland to stall. LMK.” In another text, Jade wrote, “He’s waking. I really don’t want to be the one to do this.” That was followed by “I am about club him on the head as he is waking up.” Referring to the soon-to-be-late Mr. Merriman, Jade wrote “He is very aware now and I am on my own.” And then, “I can’t carry him alone and I can’t keep a kicking body in my trunk.” DelPortillo said Merriman was drugged with an overdose of Ambien, strangled, and suffocated before Jade decided to leave Merriman’s body outside the house and cover the corpse with boxes, blankets and other trash. Police discovered Merriman’s body in January 2021 after a second friend Jade asked for help, called 911. But wait a minute. We need to get Jade’s side of the story; her account of Merriman’s death, don’t you think? She told the jury deciding her fate, Dec. 17, 2022, that her stepdad died before she had a chance to talk to him about the nude photos. Jade testified, the San Diego Tribune reported, that Merriman was alive when she picked him up from a care facility where he was being rehabbed after a fall, and drove Thomas to her house, on New Year’s Eve. On the way to their place, Jade said they stopped at a store to buy a bottle of whiskey for Thomas. He used that to wash down some pain pills, she said, and passed out. After that, there was no way she could get him out of the SUV, Jade said, and that’s when she started texting a friend for help. But no one responded so she decided to leave Merriman in the vehicle to sleep it off. Jade claimed this wasn’t the first time that had happened. But when Jade checked on him, still in the SUV the next morning, New Year’s Day, Merriman was stone-cold dead, She says he was killed by a self-administered mix of pills and whiskey. Jade tried to get Merriman out of her SUV and into the house they shared, but dropped Merriman in the driveway. When she couldn’t move his corpse another inch, Jade decided to leave Merriman where he fell and cover him up with blankets, trash, and empty boxes. Before getting back in the SUV to drive away, Jade promised a couple of neighbors that she’d be back to clean up the mess. Of course, they had no idea Merriman was lying dead as a doornail, ready to go out with the garbage. So, here’s what you would have to decide if you were sitting on their jury. Is Jade lying? Could Merriman’s death been the result of his mixing booze and pills? Or did Jade murder her step dad “by design?” The jury went with "guilty." It took the jury about a day of deliberations to convict Jada of first-degree murder. As this was written, she was waiting for a sentencing date in April. Chances are, she'll get a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. As always, thanks for reading, Rod

Anna Marie Choudhary admits strangling her sister's boyfriend, John McGuire, in 2019. Still, she says her father, Larry Paul McClure Sr., told her to do it. Forced her to do the killing, in fact. But wait. There's more. John McGuire was smashed over the head with a wine bottle, injected with a batch of lousy meth that failed to crystalize, tortured, and only then, Anna choked the life out of him. Three months later, Anna, of Boone, North Carolina, says her sister, Amanda, and father were married. Surprised? No. Turns out Amanda and daddy had had an incestuous relationship for a long time. Oh. And did I forget to mention that McGuire was murdered on or about February 15, 2019? That's right — Valentine's Day. Believe it or not, guilt got to Larry. He wrote a letter to West Virginia State Police to report the torture and murder of John McGuire. Troopers and a forensic team pulled John's body from a grave dug into the backyard of a home in Skygusty, West Virginia, on September 24 of that year. Although Anna, during her sentencing hearing in January, said it was all her father's idea, Larry told state police detectives his daughter and future wife, Amanda, was the operation's ringleader. Seriously? "I cannot tell you why Amanda wanted John McGuire dead," Larry McClure wrote, then alleging that Amanda was spending McGuire's monthly Social Security checks. "I am asking for this to be over and not waisting [sic} the taxpayers money and hurting the family members on both sides of this. John McGuires family and my family." Anna pled guilty to a second-degree murder charge, January 28, 2021, and is looking at spending the next 40 years in prison. Same for her sister, Daddy's blushing bride, Amanda. She pled to second-degree too and will do 40 years in a prison cell. As for Daddy Dearest, Larry Paul McClure Sr. of Pendleton, Kentucky, he'll do life in prison without parole on a charge of first-degree murder. But as Larry wrote in his letter to the West Virginia State Police, there's no reason to feel sorry for him (as if you would)… "All I can do is hope for mercy on this, but my sentence on this really does not matter because I am old and in bad health. I will never live to see the parole board in (15) years anyway and that is OK … "I will say I am sorry for my part in this crime to both my family and John McGuire's family." Won't You Be My Neighbor: A Shocking True Crime Story What a nice guy, this fellow named Chad Mason, in Clearwater, Florida. A real buddy-buddy, he agrees to take his friend’s labradoodle for a walk on a quiet Friday morning. Then, suddenly, everything, and I mean everything, goes wrong. For some God only knows why reason, Chad starts having sex with the labradoodle. Talk about f-ing the pooch! Chad’s raping the poor dog right out in front of God and every neighbor in the hood. We’re talking broad frickin’ daylight! Well, one of these neighbors decides they’ve seen enough and runs up to Chad. Tells him point blank to get his thing out of the poor labradoodle. Chad complies quickly and takes off running. Where’s he go? Church, that’s where. Chad makes a beeline for the Northwood Presbyterian Church, and wouldn’t you know it, his day gets worse. Chad, running like a dog rapist making his getaway, runs into a Christmas nativity scene, smashing it to the ground. Of course. How appropriate, right? Then he wrecks several potted plants out in front of the church. Does he stop there? Come on. You should know by now there’s no quit in Chad. He runs again and destroys a mailbox because, why not? Chad tries to steal a car. You’ve probably guessed by now that he doesn’t get away with the car. Cops show up and arrest Chad. He’s booked, and a few hours later, Chad’s out on bail, back in the ’hood, promising he will show up for his next court hearing. Of course, this is all “allegedly.” Chad is innocent until proven guilty. Of course. Backpacker Gets Five Years For Killing Sex Worker: A Shocking True Crime Story Tobias Pick had sex with Jingai Zhang once before, but the second time was different, and there will never be a third. Tobias, a German backpacking through Tasmania, would never have paid Jingai for sex this second time if it hadn’t been for a fight with his girlfriend. But Tobias and his woman did argue, so he went to Jingai for sexual solace. The first time they did the dirty dead for cash, Tobias says Jingai wanted him to choke her, erotic asphyxiation in the sex manuals. Tobias says he refused but said he’d do it the second time. In a 50 Shades of Grey defense, Jingai, Tobias says, wanted him to chock him with one hand at first while they were having sex but then told him to get behind her and use her dress. Wrap it around my throat and choke me, she told me, Tobias claims. So he did it. And Jingai died. Chocked to death. Her husband, who had no idea Jingai was a sex worker or had a boyfriend, found her dead body. Tobias was arrested on a murder charge but convicted of manslaughter. He’ll do no more than five years in prison. “If I was a flapper with pretty legs, I never would have been convicted and given the death penalty. Well, I’ll die with my boots on an’ in full health. An’ that’s more’n most of you old coots’ll be able to boast on.” --Eva Dugan Click here start reading this amazing, shocking, true crime story!

(Diane Cusick and Richard Cottingham from a 1980 mugshot.) Diane Cusick, on Feb. 15, 1968, told her family she was going to the Green Acres Mall, in Nassau County, New York, to buy dancing shoes. Hours later, at approximately 10:30 p.m., her parents became concerned that their 23-year-old daughter had not returned home. So, they drove to the shopping center and found Diane's Plymouth Valiant in the mall’s parking lot. Fearing the worst, they looked inside that vehicle, and made the horrifying discovery of their daughter's body. Her corpse sat in the backseat of the car. An adhesive band was over her mouth, and her hands were bound. Diane had been strangled to death. She was pronounced deceased at 1:40 a.m. on February 16, 1968. One of America's most prolific serial killers, Richard Cottingham, confessed on December 5, 2022, to killing Diane in 1968, and also admitted killing four other women. Cottingham, 76 years old at the time of this writing, appeared to be wearing a medical gown when he confessed to the crimes via a remote feed from New Jersey. He is said to be in poor health and will die in prison. The only way Cottingham is going to be sprung from the New Jersey prison that’s is home is if God decides he needs to be elsewhere. Cottingham’s doing a sentence of life without parole. So, maybe, he decided it was time for what amounts to a deathbed confession. Cottingham became known as the Torso Killer because of the gruesome way he butchered the victims' bodies. He started killing young women and girls in 1967 and didn't stop until 1980. So far, police say he slaughtered at least 17 in New York and New Jersey. That's how many the cops know about. Cottingham bragged in 2009 that he'd committed at least 80 and as many as 100 "perfect murders" across the USA. All of the victims were female. In 2014, again, Cottingham started confessing. Or maybe he was bragging. Whatever. He told a New Jersey Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective that he killed three teenage girls between 1968 and 1969. They were: Jacalyn (Jackie) Harp was only 13 when Cottingham ambushed the child as she walked home from school band practice on July 17, 1968. She was strangled to death with the leather strap of her school bag. Irene Blase, 18, vanished on April 7, 1968. Her body was discovered face down in four feet of water nine the Saddle River near Hackensack, New Jersey. She'd been strangled to death, maybe with the chain of her crucifix. Denise Falasca, a 15-year-old, was abducted in Emerson, New Jersey, on July 14, 1969. The next day, she was found in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, beside a road next to a cemetery.  A medical examiner said the young girl was strangled to death with a cord or maybe the chain of her crucifix. On December 5, 2022, the list of his confessions grew longer. "In the case of Diane Cusick, her family has waited nearly 55 years for someone to be held accountable for her death," Nassau County District t Attorney Anne Donnelly told reporters." This has been one of the most emotional days we have ever had in the Nassau County District Attorney's Office." In addition to the murder of Diane Cusick, Cottingham confessed to killing 21-year-old Mary Beth Heinz. She disappeared on May 5, 1972. Her body was discovered in a creek near Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York. The 21-year-old woman was face-down in a muddy stream in a wooded area on Maine Avenue, just west of Peninsula Boulevard. Like most of Cottingham's victims, Mary Beth had been strangled to death. She also suffered multiple contusions and abrasions of the face and neck. The young woman, who grew up in Mineola, was working as a mother's helper in Bellmore at the time of her murder. After Cottingham's confession, her sister, Jeanne Heinz, told reporters, "Honestly, I never imagined her case would be resolved.” Cottingham also admitted via the remote feed that he strangled Laverne Moye to death. Her body was discovered on July 20, 1972, in the same area as the body of Mary Beth Heinz. An 11-year-old boy discovered the woman’s corpse in the creek along Maine Avenue. Moye, a 23-year-old woman from St. Albans, Queens, was strangled. The young woman was a mother to two children and was separated from her husband. "There's been some dark days behind us, but today," her son, John Moye, said, "the sun shines brightly because justice has been served.” The investigation into the murder of 18-year-old Marita Rosado Nieves was also closed on December 5 because of one of Cottingham's confessions. Marita was strangled to death on or about December 27, 1973. Cottingham left her body near a bus stop at Jones Beach, New York. The 18-year-old was strangled to death. Park maintenance workers found her body covered in plastic bags and wrapped in a gray blanket. The remains were left in thick grass on the north side of Ocean Parkway, in a bus loading area adjacent to the East Bathhouse. Nieves was originally from Puerto Rico and lived in Manhattan before her murder. Cottingham also confessed to killing 33-year-old Sheila Heiman, who was found beaten to death on July 20, 1973, in North Woodmere, New York. Heiman's husband left the house that morning to go to a nearby department store, and when he returned, he discovered his wife dead in the bathroom. It was a vicious attack. The 33-year-old mother of three suffered multiple lacerations to her skull, a fractured jaw, and a lacerated jugular vein. This case is even more tragic because Sheila's husband had been considered a possible suspect in her death. He died in 2004 without finding out who killed Sheila or having his name cleared. His daughter, Randi Childs, said of her father, "he was a kind and generous man who loved our mother deeply and who spent too many years living in the shadow of his wife's murder. There's no reason why he should have been suspected. My poor dad lived with that until the day he died." “If I was a flapper with pretty legs, I never would have been convicted and given the death penalty. Well, I'll die with my boots on, an' in full health. An' that's more'n most of you old coots'll be able to boast on." Eva Dugan Start reading now...

(Bobby Lee and Thomas) A 28-year-old man looking for gender reassignment surgery stumbled across a website offering free castrations, operated by “the EnuchMaker and the EM Crew." Shady? Well, the price was right, at least right enough for this guy out of Virginia. After registering to get into the program, the man flew from Virginia to Dallas, where he met 53-year-old Bobby Lee Allen and his 42-year-old husband, Thomas Evans Gates. Bobby Lee and Thomas drove their new best friend to a small cabin in the woods of Oklahoma, where the 28-year-old who wanted nothing more than to become a woman, soon found himself naked, lying on a table. While he was wide awake, apart from getting some injections near his genitals to deaden the pain, Bobby Lee and Thomas spent two hours slicing off the Virginian’s testicles. After the surgery, the medical pair told their patient they were not actually doctors. NO? They were really cannibals ready to feast on his family jewels. Have you done this before? The patient asked, looking up with a combination of wonder, surprise, and dread. You bet, proclaimed Bobby Lee and Thomas. They excitedly related tales of doing the same to other guys for close to 15 years. In fact, they boasted that six more patients were on the way to their little cabin in the woods. The next day — that is correct, the Virginian spent the night in the cabin — the patient/slash victim was bleeding so severely Bobby Lee, and Thomas rushed him to a local hospital. That was a concession on their part. The pair had warned the man if there was a medical complication, there would be no ER nor morgue in his future. They’d just dump his body in the woods. But, thinking better of that, Bobby Lee and Thomas took their patient to a hospital with orders to tell the doctors that he’d cut off his own testicles — either by accident or on purpose, that was up to him. Instead, the Virginian told the medical staff that he’d been set upon by two cannibals who’d invited him to dinner, only to find out his testicles would be the main course. Wow. The LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office was called, deputies responded. After an interview with the Virginian, the deputies went out to the cannibal’s castration cabin. Inside, the officers found the table and the medical instruments just as the now-trans man had described the scene. But the most grizzly discovery of all came when the deputies opened a bedroom —that’s right, bedroom — freezer. Inside, they found a plastic bag containing testicles. Now Bobby Lee —who tithes $267 a month to a group called the Oratory of Mystical Sacraments — and Thomas face a long list of felony and misdemeanor charges. What does LeFlore County Sheriff Rodney Derryberry think of this? "I can't say it's cult activity," the sheriff told reporters. "It is something that we have never in my career run across in this part of the country. It is borderline some type of activity. ... We know there's a lot of rumors out there, but at this time, there's no danger to the public." While awaiting trial in August 2021, Thomas wrote a letter to the judge in his case pleading with permission to just go home to his family in Texas. He promised to snitch out his husband, Bobby Lee, if only the judge would let him out. Thomas and Bobby Lee both wound up with plea bargains. Bobby Lee was sentenced on Aug. 31, 2021, to two consecutive one-year sentences for failure to bury a dead human and possession of dangers drugs without a prescription. But that wasn’t his only punishment. Bobby Lee was also sentenced to a five year stretch in Oklahoma for distribution of a dangerous substance, a four-year sentence for practicing medicine and surgery without a license, and 13 months for conspiracy to commit surgery without a license. Thomas was sentenced to three concurrent 334-day sentences for failure to bury a dead human and two counts of possession. With credit for time served, he was released from LeFlore County jail, in September 2021, and presumably went home to his family in Texas. The Murder of Kelsey Berreth: A Shocking True Crime Story A young woman vanishes on Thanksgiving Day 2018. The FBI is afraid they’ll have to do a deal with the devil to find her. Click here, start reading now...

It's a warm Spring day -- June 2, 1899, to be exact -- when Butch Cassidy's gang bursts into Soda Springs, Idaho. They'd held up the Overland Flyer of the Union Pacific Railroad a few days ago, and it hadn't gone well. One of the gang has been shot. Slumped over in a saddle on his horse, barely alive, the bandit's bleeding badly, but not so bad that his comrades would think about leaving him behind. They need a doctor, fast. With Butch in the lead, the bandits rode hard and fast into Soda Springs, looking for one man, a doctor, whose reputation is known throughout this part of the West. It won't be hard to find the sawbones they need. Butch and the gang are no strangers to Soda Springs. It's become one of their favorite locales to hide out after a bank or train robbery. Once in Soda Springs, they burst into Dr. Ellis Kackley's office, stick a gun in his face, and demand that he treat their wounded buddy. He might have a gun in his face, but Ellis doesn't flinch. This is a guy from Nashville, Tennessee, who headed west straight from medical school and carved out a place for himself in Soda Springs before there was much of a town here. And, this sure as hell isn't the first time Doc Kackley has looked down the barrel of a loaded a six-shooter with an outlaw's sweaty finger on the trigger. He just looks the gunman in the eye and moves the barrel away with one finger. Ellis says he'll treat the outlaw just as he would anyone who was injured. "But I won't do it with a gun in my face," Doc Kackley says. Butch Cassidy comes forward, sizes up Ellis, thinks for a moment, and finally says, "Come with us." The outlaws make a path for Doc Kackley and Butch, together they go to the wounded outlaw. Ellis takes a look at the bleeding teenager and sees he needs a lot more than a patch and a shot of whiskey. This guy's hurting. His chances are about 50-50 as near as Doc Kackley can tell. They wait until nightfall, and then, under cover of darkness, Ellis and the gang decide to move the wounded bandit into an abandoned church near Freedom, Wyoming. It's a hard, nighttime ride. Sixty-two miles of rough terrain, pitch black, a tough hour on horseback even for guys like these who are accustomed to the worst life in the West has to offer. Miraculously, the kid who's been shot at least twice survives the ride. Now, he is laid out on a dirty table. A few candles are flickering. His life is in Doc Kackley's hands. Then, with Butch and his boys breathing down his neck. Ellis looks back over his shoulder and asks everyone to stand back. "Or better yet, get the hell out of here and let me work." Nothing about this night would be easy. The light isn't right for surgery. Hell, it's not even a good light for reading, "if any of these guys could read," Ellis mutters to himself. Everybody in the old church had a six-shooter in his holster and most were also holding shotguns or Winchesters. Doc Kackley was unarmed. He knew he was safe, at least for the time being. But if anything went wrong, well, Ida and their boy would be on their own. Thank heavens the bandit's out cold. Ellis has to dig deep into his back to find the bullets that threaten the young man's life. "Good God," Ellis mutters, “you're just a kid. Couldn't you find a better way to spend your days." Doc Kackley knows his life depends on the success of this operation as much as the kid going under the knife. Nervous, yes, but it isn't the first time he's operated under conditions this bad. Ellis removes two slugs from the boy and patches him up the best he can. Butch and his boys come into what passed for an operating room. Ellis says the patient will live, but he can't be moved for several weeks. The outlaws wonder how they can get food to him. Doc Kackley, of course, has an answer. He says they can wear his wife's clothes. "Ride through town in a wagon dressed as a woman, nobody will bother you." Butch Cassidy, laughs, grunts, and nods his approval. And for the next several weeks, a member of the Cassidy gang — dressed in one of Ellis' wife Ida's dresses — rides out to the old church in Freedom with food and medicine for their buddy. Doc Kackley sneaks out at night to check on his patient. Eventually, the bandit recovers—the Cassidy gang leaves. However, everyone knows the best way to keep a secret amongst three people is for two of them to be dead. So it's no surprise that word of Doc Kackley aiding and abetting the murderous Butch Cassidy gang leaks out. The local sheriff is faced with a real dilemma. Doc Kackley is one of the most loved men in town. He and his wife, Ida Kackley, have delivered hundreds of babies in this small town. Before he died in 1943, Doc Kackley birthed more than four-thousand babies in Soda Springs. So, even though everyone believes Doc Kackley helped Butch Cassidy, how is the sheriff going to find a jury willing to put Ellis in jail? "There's hardly a soul in town who wasn't brought into this world by Ellis," the sheriff explains weeks later to a newspaper reporter from out of town. "Besides," the sheriff tells the reporter, "what he did is understandable. The SOB's always had a problem with authority." (Yeah, Doc Kackley. One of my ancestors. Hope you liked the story, someday I might tell you about another Kackley who served as Stonewall Jackson's bodyguard, or guy named Benjamin Kackley who served under Gen. Benedict Arnold. -- Rod) Now this is fiction, but I think it's a hell of a good story. PI Ron Delaney’s prized Corvette has been smashed by a speeding blonde, he’s fallen in love with a woman half his age and now the Russian mob’s after him. Empty Minute is a hard-boiled murder mystery — a crime action-thriller about a private investigator and his promise to uncover the truth — no matter how much it hurts. Empty Minute: A Murder Mystery. Click here and read now…

I woke up this morning to the news that six people were slain inside a Walmart store in Chesapeake, Virginia, before the accused gunman killed himself. As I write this, the “why” of this story is still in question. However, several news outlets report the mass murderer was a “disgruntled employee.” UPDATE: 11.23.22 @ 1:28 PM EST: AP is reporting the gunman who killed six people in a Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart was a store manager. An employee, Briana Tyler, tells Associated Press, that she and other members of the overnight stocking crew were gathered in the break room for a team meeting about an hour before the store closed. Their team leader, Briana says, told the team that they had a light night ahead, and suddenly the manager opened fire. “It is by the grace of God that a bullet missed me,” Briana said. “I saw the smoke leaving the gun, and I literally watched bodies drop. It was crazy.” Not only is this story breaking the morning before Thanksgiving, but it follows Monday night’s mass murder inside a Colorado Springs bar that caters to the LGBTQ community. Five people were killed and 17 wounded before two club patrons wrestled the shooter to the floor. Add to this last week’s quadruple homicide that claimed the lives of four University of Idaho students. Not only is this the story of another tragic mass murder, but it is also a brutal homicide without a suspect or a motive. In other words, we have no idea why this happened or who did it. All we know now is four students were stabbed to death while they slept. And, of course, the Idaho mass murder followed by only a couple of days, the story of three University of Virginia football players shot to death on a UVA bus. For this story, the alleged shooter is in custody. But so far, I have not seen any reporting on why he might have pulled the trigger. I have no answers as to why we’ve seen such an outbreak of violence this month, but I ask, “What the hell is going on here?” One more note. This is the point in my blog posts where I show a link to buy one of my books. Today, I just can’t do that. Instead, I will only add that anyone with information about Moscow, Idaho, murders is asked to call 208-883-7180 or go to tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.

(Gay Gibson) It's 2:36 a.m. on the morning of October 19, 1947. There's trouble in Cabin 126 of the luxury cruise ship, the Durban Castle sailing through the shark-infested waters off Africa's Ivory Coast on its way to London. An actress just off a starring role with a Johannesburg, South Africa, stock company, Eileen Isabella Ronnie ‘Gay’ Gibson, (pictured above) is staying in that cabin. More than one man on board this ship would love to spend the night in her bed. Hours ago, the vivacious twenty-one-year-old, who liked to go by her stage name, 'Gay,' had a great time with a long line of gentlemen buying her drinks in exchange for a dance. Gay finally retired for the night sometime after midnight. But now, two night-watchmen are startled by lights flashing from Cabin 126. One is red, which calls for a steward; the other is green, meaning a stewardess is needed. One of the watchmen knocks at the door of 126. No answer. He looks at his partner, shrugs, and pushes open the cabin door, about two inches, only to have it slam back in his face. But he has time to see the face of a man in the Gay's cabin, none other than one of the deck stewards, James Camb. So these two watchmen push back harder, forcing the door open. After all, they know something is wrong. The red and green lights are flashing. These two muscular men will shove this door open to ensure Gay Gibson is okay. Right? Wrong, I am afraid. The two are flummoxed. Not knowing what to do next, the men wait for Camb to come out. He does not, but the red and green lights go out after about ten minutes. Whatever was wrong in Cabin 126 must be okay now, the watchmen decide, and they return to their patrol, leaving Camb inside Gay's cabin. Five hours later, a stewardess, Eileen Field, taps at the door of Cabin 126. There's no answer, so she gently pushes the door open. Immediately the stewardess knows something is terribly wrong. The porthole is open, the bed is unmade, and she sees several bloodstains on the sheets. A black silk frock hangs from a peg, swaying back and forth with the ship's roll over the Atlantic Ocean's waves. A suitcase is open at the foot of the bed. In a corner, Ellen spots Gay's pajamas and dressing gown, not where the actress usually kept her night clothes. Eileen isn't sure what's happened, but she knows something is wrong and runs to find the ship's chief steward. Soon the ship's passengers and crews hear messages over the public address system's loudspeakers asking Gay to report to the closest member of the Durban Caste crew. There's no response. One of the crew members says he remembers seeing the actress smoking a cigarette at about one a.m., leaning over the railing. He warned her that she might get splashed by the sea but never thought she could have gone over that rail. Now a rumor sweeps the ship, as passengers and crew agree that Gay must have fallen overboard. Captain A.G.V. Patey turns the steamship around and begins a search for Gay, hoping against hope that they will find the young woman alive on the waves. But, the effort is in vain, so Patey gets the Durban Castle back on course for home, London. Once he learns that Camb had been spotted in Gay's cabin, Patey questions the deck steward. The captain knows that Camb has always been a womanizer. James Camb loves women, and women love to be around him. He bragged to anyone who'd listen that he slept with at least one female passenger on every cruise. However, Camb assures Captain Patey he was never in Gay's cabin and claims the watchmen must have been mistaken. However, he also tells the captain that he had spoken with the young woman and Camb was afraid she might have been suicidal. "She told me about the men of the theatrical cast she was with," Camb says, "and there was a man named Charles she was crazy about." "And?" "And," Camb sighs, "she said, 'complications had set it.'" "Oh?" Camb moves closer to his superior officer and whispers, "So I asked her, 'does that mean you're going to have a baby?' Well, she said it was too soon to tell, but the problem was this 'Charles' was already married." Captain Patey steps back and looks over his tall, broad-shouldered deck steward. '"What are those scratches around your neck?" Camb puts his right hand on his neck, smiles sheepishly, and says, "Harsh towel, sir." Patey grunts and dismisses the man. Yet, the captain isn't satisfied. He speaks with Camb's roommate and discovers Camb was not in their cabin at one a.m., but five hours later, the deck steward was sleeping soundly in his bunk. No more is said about Gay's disappearance until the Durban Castle arrives at his home port. But as soon as the ship docks, two Scotland Yard detectives come aboard the Durban Castle. Under their questioning, Camb admits that he was in Gay's cabin. And more than that, he confesses they made love. "An intimacy, you could call it, took place," says Camb, and he rushes to add, "with her complete consent, of course." But, something went wrong, he says. "Suddenly, she clutched me and began foaming at the mouth," Camb says. He runs his fingers through his full head of hair. "Then, she was very still," he says in a hushed tone, "I felt for her heartbeat and couldn't find it." That's when the watchmen tried to open the door, Camb says, and he pushed it shut. Panicked and not knowing what to do, worried about losing his wife and child in England, Camb bolted the cabin door. "I went to work on the woman and tried to bring her back to life but had to give up. She was limp and lifeless. I could see it as no use. As far as I could tell, she was dead." Neither detective said a word. They were more than willing to let Camb do all of the talking. "So you see, I was horribly frightened," Camb says. He looks frantically from one detective to the other, seeking reassurance they understand the dilemma. "All I could think to do was to get rid of the body. And now this may sound cowardly and selfish, but…." The detectives lean forward. "But what?" "But," Camb takes a deep breath. "But all I could think about was myself, so I decided it would be best to make it look like she'd fallen overboard. The detectives knew a confession was coming. They were not disappointed. "I picked her body up and pushed it through the porthole." Camb drops his head into his hands. The detectives hear him mumble, "Her body fell into the sea." (James Camb) James Camb stood trial, arguing that while he knew pushing the woman's body out a porthole was a "beastly" thing, he did not murder Gay. Yet, Camb was convicted of Gay Gibson's murder and sentenced to death. However, before his execution could be carried out, the Home Secretary commuted all death sentences because Parliament was considering doing away with capital punishment. So, Camb did not hang for the murder of Eileen' Gay' Gibson. Instead, he served only eleven years in prison, claiming until his death that he did not murder the actress. Her body was never found. No one witnessed James Camb doing anything to her. He was convicted on circumstantial evidence, at best. Still, does it seem to you that justice was served? Camb did eleven years for the murder of Gay Gibson. Is that right? If your answer is 'no,' you agree with Winston Churchill. He said the House of Commons had "saved the life of a brutal lascivious murderer who thrust the poor girl he had raped and assaulted through a porthole of the ship to the sharks." Yet, Camb couldn't stay out of prison or away from females. He was released in 1959 but put back in a cell after being convicted of several assaults against young girls. He was rereleased in 1978 and died in July 1979 from heart failure. Gay Gibson's body was never found. November 2, 1945: On her way to a high school football game with friends, a fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after driving away with a man who says he needs a babysitter. The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping expert, an agent who helped bring John Dillinger down. Will that be enough to find the girl and her abductor? Agents chase the suspected kidnapper from California to Illinois and back again. Arrested in Los Angeles, he admits abducting the child. He also tells the FBI he killed the girl and threw her body into the Pacific Ocean. A search for her corpse proves fruitless. Then, when all hope is lost, authorities discover the skeleton of another young woman who's fallen victim to this madman. Ready for another twist? The wife of the man who made that discovery is found dead at the bottom of the cliff. During the accused killer's trial, women around the country fall in love with the handsome monster and literally break down the doors of a courthouse to get close to him. Wild enough for you? Wait. After the child's killer is convicted and sentenced to the gas chamber, a scientist shows up and says he can bring the murderer back from the dead. If the scientist is successful will the state of California have to kill this killer again? Or does Thomas McMonigle go free? After all, if dead, he's already served his sentence. The Murder of Thora Chamberlain: A Shocking True Crime Story: This is the wildest, most shocking, true crime story you've ever read. Start reading this now....

Forty years after she was murdered, there is finally justice for Cathleen Krauseneck. The Brighton, New York woman was discovered by local police officers, dead, killed by a “strike in the head with an ax while she slept,” according to a press release. Cathleen and her daughter were home alone at the time, investigators said. Her husband, James, had gone to work. Maybe somebody broke in, meaning to rob the place, but found Cathleen asleep in her bed. Police detectives said that was unlikely since jewelry and money were left in plain sight upstairs and downstairs. Cathleen’s purse was also found near her body. Of course, investigators reached out to the public and Cathleen’s neighbors. For a time, the Brighton P.D. received some tips. But eventually, new leads petered out, and the case went cold. The neighborhood, too, moved on, according to what one woman told the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper, just six months after Cathleen’s body was found. “We were talking the other day about how it (Cathleen’s murder) had not been solved,” she said. “I don’t think anybody will ever be caught.” After the murder, Cathleen’s husband, James, traveled several times to his hometown of St. Clair, Michigan, with their young daughter, Sara. For some reason, according to a Democrat and Chronicle newspaper report on July 18, 1982, the Brighton police never talked to James after he hired an attorney in Michigan. “When he went back to Michigan, the attorney said we couldn’t talk to him without a lawyer being present,” explained Brighton Police Chief Eugene Shaw. James Krauseneck also refused to talk to reporters in Brighton or anywhere else. His attorney said James would “prefer to be left alone like I think anybody else would in these circumstances.” However, James did provide hair and saliva samples to investigators. But, then, in 2015, Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley and investigators from her office re-opened the case. With the help of the Brighton Police Department, the FBI, the Monroe County, New York Crime Lab, and Dr. Michael Baden, they found the person who killed Cathleen. The killer? Maybe you’ve already guessed. The murderer who took Cathleen’s life was none other than her husband, James. Police said James took an ax from the couple’s garage and walked into their two-story colonial at 33 Del Rio Drive. Then he went to the master bedroom, where he used the weapon to kill his young wife. James was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on November 7. However, James, age 70, is going to prison, proclaiming his innocence. “I did not murder Cathy,” he said. “I loved Cathy with all my heart and with all my soul. I continue to be haunted by why someone would murder such a beautiful person.” And get this: the couple’s daughter, Sara, told the court after her father was sentenced that she is convinced of his innocence. Sara said that because her father was “convicted of a crime, he did not commit,” she has lost both parents. “The justice system has failed my parents, myself, and both sides of my family,” Sara Krauseneck Young said. “It has also failed this community.” Yet, Cathleen’s father, Robert Schlosser, said James brainwashed Sara. “For 40 years, we’ve lost her love,” Schlosser told the court. “We still love you, Sara, and always will.” He then said to James, “Jim, I hope you live to be 100 years old and enjoy your new home.” Wow. This is, indeed, a Shocking True Crime Story! (Sheriff Jim McDonald and convicted killer, Eva Dugan) Before I let you go, I want to say “Thanks” to Dan Zupansky for featuring me on a recent episode of his outstanding true crime podcast, “True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers.” We talked about my most recent book, “Kill. Bury. Forget. A Shocking True Crime Story.” Click here and listen for yourself. As always, thanks for reading! Rod

On Dec. 26, 1996, the Boulder Police Department received a 911 call concerning the possible kidnapping of a six-year-old girl. Later that day, the parents of JonBenet Ramsey — John and Patsy — received a ransom note demanding $118,000. Then a few hours later, police discovered the body of JonBenet. A garrote was around her neck, and duct tape covered her mouth. Nearly twenty-six years after her death, the Boulder Police Department has gone through 21,000 tips, letters, and emails. Investigators have traveled to nineteen states and interviewed more than 1,000 people. Boulder Police investigators have been assisted over the past quarter-century by the FBI, The District Attorney’s Office, Colorado’s Department of Public Safety, Colorado’s Bureau of Investigation, and several private DNA laboratories across America. But still, no one has any idea who killed JonBenet and left her beaten and strangled body inside her family’s Boulder, Colorado home. Next year, a new set of eyes will examine the homicide that shocked the world. Police Chief Maris Herold says the Colorado Cold Case Review Team will begin working alongside the Boulder Police Department in 2023. The CCRT is made up of professional investigators, along with analytical and forensic experts from across Colorado. “This crime has left a hole in the hearts of many, and we will never stop investigating until we find JonBenet’s killer,” Police Chief Maris Herold said. “That includes following up on every lead and working with our policing partners and DNA experts around the country to solve this tragic case. This investigation has always been and will continue to be a priority for the Boulder Police Department.” District Attorney Michael Dougherty concurred, adding, “The murder of JonBenet Ramsey is a terrible tragedy and sparked years of unanswered questions and theories. Our office has successfully prosecuted other cold case homicides and many murder cases. “In every one of those cases, it was the evidence that proved the defendant(s) guilty. Whether it is DNA or other evidence, more is needed to solve this murder. I appreciate the collaboration with CBI, the FBI, and the Boulder Police Department.” Herold and Dougherty also said they’re talking with several private DNA labs about the viability of continued testing of DNA recovered from the crime scene. The problem is that the amount of DNA evidence available for analysis is extremely small and complex, according to BPD Public Information Officer Dionne Waugh. So, they need to find a proven technology that can reliably test forensic samples consistent with those available in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. “Those discussions will continue,” according to a Boulder Police Department Press release. Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to contact the Boulder Police Department’s tip line at 303-441-1974, BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov, or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Eva Dugan needs to get out of Arizona as fast as the Dodge Coupe she’s riding in can take her across the state line. It’s January 1927. Flappers are everywhere, young women wearing short skirts, knee height, no less, and bobbed hair. At the same time, they listen to jazz music, smoke cigarettes and drink booze in public, have sex at petting parties whenever they want, and even drive automobiles. These young Gibson Girl wannabes are having the time of their lives. Eva Dugan thinks about that with a smirk on her face. She did all of that before these girls were born when Eva was a saloon singer during the Klondike gold rush. Those were the days. But now, she’s old, fat, and her voice is gone. And Eva is on the run with a boy named Jack, an unlikely pair drawn together not by love but by need. Why? Cuz A.J. Mathis is dead and buried, that’s why. Other men in Eva’s life have disappeared. Maybe everyone will forget about A.J. Mathis too. Maybe not. Here’s one guy who won’t — the last of the Cowboy Sheriffs in Arizona — Jim McDonald. He’s certain Eva killed A.J. and vows to “prove it on her” if it’s the last thing he does. Kill. Bury. Forget., A Shocking True Crime Story: the death of a chicken rancher, the woman accused of the crime, and the ‘last of the cowboy sheriffs’ who tracked her down. And, you are not going to believe what happened the day Eva Dugan died. Read More...

Here's a sneak peek at a new crime novel I am working on, another in the St. Isidore Collection. This one focuses on one of my favorite residents of St. Isidore: Bradford Glasscock, the town's only mortician. One Bradford Glasscock dreaded Saturday. It was then that the nine-year-old and his seven-year-old brother Samuel would have their hair cut by their father, St. Isidore's only mortician. It wasn’t so bad being the undertaker’s son. Bradford and Sam enjoyed a measure of respect because of it at St. Isidore Elementary. After all, how many other kids had dead bodies delivered to the back doors of their homes? Bradford and Sam were also the only kids at school who slept every night two floors over dead people. Ethan Glasscock’s customers spent their final days on Earth in the four-story building that housed the Glasscock family, the Glasscock Funeral Home and the Glasscock family’s customers. “The hearse is here,” Bradford whispered to Sam as both stood on their beds in their pajamas to see out to the driveway. “Another delivery,” Sam said. “Wonder who died tonight?” “And how?” “Was it murder, or a traffic accident?” “I don’t think so. We would have heard the police calls on the scanner.” “True.” “They probably just had a heart attack and died.” “Crap.” Bradford and Sam never missed a crime in St. Isidore. The family’s police scanner, which alerted them to tragedies that necessitated the transport of either the living or the dead, sometimes both, was never turned off. It provided critical communication for the business. And for the Glasscock's, death was all business. Glasscock Inc. included two companies: the Glasscock Funeral Home and the Glasscock Ambulance Company. Everyone in St.Isidore wound up in the Glasscock family home one way or another. They were either invited for dinner, or they were not. “If you die, you ride in our hearse,” Bradford told a new kid in school. “And if you are hurt you ride in our ambulance,” said Sam. “Either way, you’re coming over to our house,” said Bradford. “Yeah,” said Sam. “Dead or alive, everyone comes over to our house.” On the playground, that was usually enough to stop any new kid on the block from making fun of their last name. Ethan Glasscock made a good living as an undertaker, as did his father before him, and his father’s father before them both. However, Ethan still had a problem with money. It’s not that he didn’t have it. It’s just that he hated to spend it, like his father before him and his father’s father before them both. And, that’s why Bradford and Samuel hated Saturday, every Saturday. Ethan couldn’t tolerate spending money to send his sons to Al the barber, not when Ethan cut the hair of his customers every day. He cut male hair and styled female hair. Why should he pay Al to cut his kids’ hair? So every Saturday, Ethan trimmed the hair of the younger Glasscock’s, Bradford and Samuel. “We always hated it,” Bradford explained and Samuel nodded in agreement on the day they prepared their father for his final resting place, in the basement of the Glasscock Funeral Home. “We didn’t mind getting our hair cut by our father,” said Bradford to a reporter for the St. Isidore Gazette. “It was just that we always had to lay on our backs on the kitchen table while Dad cut our hair,” said Sam, “because none of his customers ever sat up.” Chapter Two of The Undertaker's Son is coming soon.... Sign up for the Crime Stories newsletter so you don't miss an installment! All she needs is a serial killer to make her dreams come true. Go Big or Go Dead 5-Star Rating (on 11-8-22) Read More now...

I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. But is it ever to early to read about Santa’s that kill? No! Of course not. First, did “naughty or nice" make any difference to a serial-killing Santa Claus in Canada? The answer is “nope!” Whatever the motive, Bruce McArthur, a landscaper in Toronto, Canada — who also worked as a shopping mall Santa during the Christmas season — left a grisly trail of evidence turning the stomachs of the most grizzled cops. Toronto Police investigators, helped by specially trained dogs, discovered body parts planted in garden planters and a ravine; all, allegedly, left behind by this serial killing shopping mall Santa Claus. The Toronto Star reported two weeks of digging in a ravine during early July 2017 resulted in the discovery of a body part a day, some as small as teeth and bone fragments. In all, they found eight bodies — each of them dismembered, mutilated, and stuffed into large potted plants. Detectives believe the body parts and pieces are the work of Bruce McArthur, a landscaper, who also worked as a shopping mall Santa during the Christmas season. McArthur was arrested in January 2018. One year later, he pled guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison. Twenty-five years will pass before McArthur has a chance of being paroled. All eight killings which occurred between 2010 and 2017 are all connected to Toronto's Gay Village neighborhood. One of the men who lived in their neighborhood at the time, Paul Ciantar, told CNN that Bruce was a very popular member of the community, and of course, no one could believe that he was a serial killer at heart. “They all said that they never would have suspected him,” Ciantar said. “He looks like Santa Claus. He looks harmless.” Is Bruce the only deadly Santa the world has ever seen? Of course not. There’s Aziz Yazdanpanah who is believed to have, while dressed as Santa, killed seven members of his family after they opened their Christmas presents. Yazdanpanah executed the women and children inside the family’s apartment in Dallas, Texas, then turned the gun open himself and took his own life. And then there’s the case of Bruce Pardo. The 45-year-old killed nine people including his ex-wife while dressed as Santa. Pardo went wild, emptying four handguns and a flame-thrower, at a Christmas Eve party. The former aerospace engineer later shot himself to death. How about one more? This is the story of a woman, Melissa Young. She wasn’t dressed as Santa, okay. But Young showed up at her next-door neighbor’s house and killed Alan Williamson on Christmas Day 2013. Motive? Alan had rejected a gift Melissa had given him, a pair of unisex trainers. (Eva Dugan: Her fellow inmates called her "Cheerful Eva.") Eva Dugan needs to get out of Arizona as fast as the Dodge Coupe she’s riding in can take her across the state line. It’s January 1927. Flappers are everywhere, young women wearing short skirts, knee height, no less, and bobbed hair. At the same time, they listen to jazz music, smoke cigarettes and drink booze in public, have sex at petting parties whenever they want, and even drive automobiles. These young Gibson Girl wannabes are having the time of their lives. Eva Dugan thinks about that with a smirk on her face. She did all of that before these girls were born when Eva was a saloon singer during the Klondike gold rush. Those were the days. But now, she’s old, fat, and her voice is gone. And Eva is on the run with a boy named Jack, an unlikely pair drawn together not by love but by need. Why? Cuz A.J. Mathis is dead and buried, that’s why. Other men in Eva’s life have disappeared. Maybe everyone will forget about A.J. Mathis too. Maybe not. Here’s one guy who won’t — the last of the Cowboy Sheriffs in Arizona — Jim McDonald. He’s certain Eva killed A.J. and vows to “prove it on her” if it’s the last thing he does. Kill. Bury. Forget., A Shocking True Crime Story: the death of a chicken rancher, the woman accused of the crime, and the ‘last of the cowboy sheriffs’ who tracked her down. And, what happened the day Eva Dugan died. Read More…

Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, among other nicknames, is probably the most famous serial rapist in the world. Not only a serial rapist, but DeAngelo was also a burglar and murderer. And, believe it or not, he was a police officer at one time. He committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and more than 100 burglaries in the 1970s and 1980s. DeAngelo was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to 13 murders. Marcelo Sajen of Argentina. From 191 through 2004, it’s believed he committed as many as 200 rapes. However, only 93 of the attacks have been proven by DNA evidence. Sajen attacked all of these women in one city, Cordoba, Argentina, where he made his living as a car thief. Sajen never faced trial. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the head to avoid arrest. Richard Huckle has been described as Britain’s worst, and at the age of 33, he was also Britain’’s youngest pedophile. He assaulted children in Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Laos, and possibly, India. It’s believed he attacked at least 200 babies and children from 2006-2014. Huckle was convicted and sentenced to 22 life terms in prison. However, he only served five years before being murdered inside the Full Sutton jail o in Yorkshire in 2019. Sunil Rastogi of India is suspected of sexually abusing more than 60 young girls. Police said he would target girls walking home from school. He was arrested in January 2017. Roger Abdelmassih was sentenced to 278 years in prison for 52 rapes in Brazil in 2009. He was accused of sexually abusing sedated patients. Bobby Joe Long was known as the “Classified Ad Rapist” in Florida, USA, because he met women through ads posted in several newspapers. After moving to the Tampa Bay area, Long murdered at least ten women. He was executed in 2019. Reinhard Sinaga is an Indonesian student in Manchester, England, who preyed on young heterosexual men. He was convicted on 136 counts of rape, 14 counts of sexual assault, eight counts of attempted rape, and one count of assault by penetration. Kevin Coe is another U.S. serial rapist show granted a nickname by the media. Known as the “South Hill Rapist,” this former Las Vegas radio announcer sexually assaulted at least 43 women in Spokane, Washington, by ramming his fist down their throats. He was sentenced to life in prison. Oleg Kosarev, a Russian, was known as the “Elevator” because he raped and robbed teenage girls in elevators. Sentenced to 20 years in prison for 40 such attacks in and near Moscow, Kosarev claimed to have raped 140 girls. Finally, on our list of Ten of the World’s Most Infamous Serial Rapists is another American, Vince Champ. A standup comedian, he raped at least eight women. When he was finished, Champ asked each of his victims to pray for him. Brooke was willing to do anything to keep her family together, even if it meant selling herself online. That’s why she hooked up with “Hard Mike” on Craigslist. All she asked for was $50. “Hard Mike” offered $120. How could Brooke turn that down? She Deserved Better: A Shocking True Crime Story of A Craigslist Killer is a tragic, heartbreaking, gripping story of an eighteen-year-old woman, eight months pregnant, who was ready to sacrifice everything for her family. Read More