Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Volume 1, Number 6: Two Hoaxes and a Spill

(Note: I originally posted this in August 2006 on a blog I had on Yahoo! GeoCities at that time.)

The reports that the murderer of JonBenet Ramsey was found have turned out to be too good to be true. John Mark Karr's DNA does not match the DNA found at the murder scene nearly 10 years ago. In all likelihood, Karr probably has no life and just wanted infamy and notoriety, and this is why he made up what MSNBC called a "lurid, grisly hoax" to tie himself to the murder. His "confession," however, had way too many holes in it (notably, he said he picked her up from school, but there was no school due to the holiday vacation).

But the truly horrifying news of the month comes from Cincinnati, Ohio:

On August 4, the foster parents of Marcus Fiesel, a disabled 3-year-old boy, wrapped him like a cocoon and left him for two days in a closet, where he died while they attended a family reunion in Kentucky, Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said.

"Marcus was wrapped in a blanket and wrapped in tape with his arms behind him--and this was not the first time it happened," Deters said in announcing additional indictments against Liz and David Carroll Jr. on August 29.

Marcus has been dead for over 10 days when Liz Carroll claimed he wandered away from her at a suburban park. Hundreds of volunteers joined authorities in the search for several days.

Authorities called off the official search on August 19. Liz Carroll pleaded for help finding Marcus at a news conference August 22 -- about the same time she and her husband were disposing of his body in a remote area of Brown County, Deters said.

The couple made several attempts to burn Marcus Fiesel's body. "They went back repeatedly to burn his body -- two or three times," Deters said.

A grand jury indicted the couple Monday on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment, and David Carroll, 35, on a charge of gross abuse of a corpse.

Tuesday's indictments included two counts each of inducing panic and one count each of making false alarms. Liz Carroll, 30, also was indicted on two counts of perjury for her testimony Monday to a grand jury, Deters said.

What's even worse, from what I've read elsewhere, the only reason the Carrolls even adopted Marcus in the first place was monetary--they got financial aid through a state program just for adopting him. Also, the foster care program that placed Marcus with the Carrolls is one that is more interested in placing children with foster parents as quickly as possible, with little or no regard to the quality or background of the foster parents.

Shocking news: Recently, a plane crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49 people (there is only one survivor--the co-pilot, who was flying the plane at the time of the crash and who is in critical condition). Based on recent findings from the investigation, this crash was the result of multiple factors, not the least of which was the plane taking off from the wrong runway. There was only one air traffic controller in the tower when (as per FAA rules) there should have been two; also, that controller only had two hours of sleep. The taxiways were recently redone and that might have played a part (it is not known if any of the crew had been familiar at all with the new taxiways, and they might have become disoriented, leading them to take the shorter, unlit Runway 22 rather than the one they should have taken, Runway 26, which was lit.)

I wish TV Land wouldn't jerk Benson around its schedule like it's been doing. When it started airing reruns of that show a couple of months ago, it was going to be on weekdays at 11pm; a couple of weeks later, it was 11:30pm; now, they'll air a block of reruns late on a certain night of the week (and it's not always the same night, even). It's ridiculous.


And finally, I got in to work late by 25 minutes because a gravel hauler overturned on the ramp from eastbound I-94 to westbound I-96. Two trailers fell off the ramp (one on each side of the freeway). I could have been stuck there for longer had I not been able to take a detour. Two people are injured--the driver of the gravel hauler and the driver of an SUV that was destroyed by a trailer that fell off the ramp. It's the worst accident I've personally ever seen.

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