As we reconvene in this chamber, the world will again witness the resilience and strength of our democracy. For even in the wake of unprecedented violence and vandalism at this Capitol, the elected representatives of the people of the United States have assembled again on the very same day to support and defend the constitution of the United States.
Sen. Mitch McConnell:
We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs or threats. We will not bow to lawlessness or intimidation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham:
I don't buy this. Enough's enough. We've got to end it. Vice President Pence, what they are asking you to do you won't do because you can't ... If you're a conservative, this is the most offensive concept in the world, that a single person could disenfranchise 155 million people. ...Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will be the president and vice president of the United States on January the 20th.
BREAKING: There have been discussions among cabinet members regarding potentially invoking the 25th Amendment, @margbrennan reports. However, it has NOT been formally presented to the Vice President by cabinet members. @CBSNews
~7:00 pm Twitter has removed three of Donald Trump's tweets, locked @RealDonaldTrump for 12 hours and has threatened to permanently suspend the account with any further violations.
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy. https://t.co/k6OkjNG3bM This means that the account of @realDonaldTrump will be locked for 12 hours following the removal of these Tweets. If the Tweets are not removed, the account will remain locked. Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.
~6:50pm:
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer says vote will resume at 8pm, per CNN via this tweet
NYT: About 2,700 D.C. National Guard and 650 Virginia National Guard troops — higher numbers than previously announced — will deploy in Washington on Wednesday night, a National Guard spokesman said Wednesday night.
~6:30pm: Pelosi: We have decided to resume tonight once crowds have cleared, per CNN. ~6:20pm: "Officials say the Capitol is secure after pro-Trump mob breached the building and forced lockdown" per Twitter ~6:10pm: Woman shot at Capitol building has reportedly died: https://twitter.com/Complex/status/1346955974872076289 ~6:00pm
Statement from George W. Bush: "I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement."
DC curfew is now legally in effect, lasts until 6am.
~5:35pm
Police seem to be successfully moving mob away from Capitol, per CNN footage
~5:15pm
@shomaristone (NBC DC): "Mob of Trump supporters swarm the media near the US Capitol. They yell what Trump frequently says, “the media is the enemy of the people.” They destroy equipment and chased out reporters. I’ve never seen anything like this in my 20 year career." (video)
Rep. Scalise (R-LA) tells Fox News he believes vote certification will resume tonight.
Fox News says things are "winding down", that the Secret Service and FBI have arrived to help, and that the ATF is searching the Capitol for remaining "protesters".
~5:00pm
"Congressional leaders are being evacuated from the Capitol complex and will be taken to Fort McNair, according to a federal law enforcement official. McNair is a nearby Army base in Washington, DC. The evacuation is still underway, the source said." Per CNN:
Riot police have arrived at US Capitol complex, per CNN and footage. Have been able to move mob away from building peacefully so far.
~4:50pm
CNN reports the crowd is thinning somewhat. DC curphew goes into effect at 6PM.
~4:30pm:
"Suspected pipe bomb found and rendered safe at the U.S. Capitol" per CNN via @BNONews
~4:20pm:
Trump: "It's time to go home" (in statement that also perpetuates lies about the election being stolen).
@roddreher: ABC reporting that even people normally in Trump's inner circle can't get through to him. They're worried. Reporting that Trump cabinet officials may resign out of disgust. @AnaCabrera: White House adviser tells @Acosta some aides around Trump are furious the president won't do more... but "he doesn't want to”
Calls on President Trump to go on TV now and "demand an end to this siege".
~4:00pm:
Security has cleared inside of rotunda and "starting to get our arms around it" but "not under control yet" per CNN
~3:50pm:
Multiple officers wounded with at least one transported to hospital; officers are "overwhelmed", per CNN
Entire DC National Guard has been activated, per CNN
"Pro-Trump Protester" breached speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, per CNN
"The vice-president has asked Trump supporters to leave the Capitol and stop the violence" per BBC. Pence: "This attack on our Capitol will not be tolerated and those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
~3:30pm:
@GovernorVA: Per the Mayor's request, I am sending members of the Virginia National Guard along with 200 Virginia State Troopers.
~3:25pm:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has requested National Guard assistance, per ABC
Windows have been smashed and protesters have breached rotunda of Capitol, per various sources
~2:55pm:
@tackettdc AP: Members of Congress inside House chamber told by police to put on gas masks after tear gas dispersed in Capitol Rotunda.
@byaaroncdavis WaPo: A source tells me The Defense Department has just denied a request by DC officials to deploy the National Guard to the US Capitol.
Gary Leon Ridgway confessed to 71 murders but was only prosecuted for 49. Who are these victims? What everyone has wrong about Ridgway part 3, follow up to 2 earlier pieces.
Hello everyone, for the last few months I have been creating long form write-ups on a variety of unsolved cases. If you are interested in other lengthy write ups you can find them on my profile- https://www.reddit.com/useQuirky-Moto. Also, huge shout out to everyone who voted for the earlier parts of this series in the Best of 2020 series contest. I am honored that so many of you remembered the post and took time to read it. Those posts can be found here. Background Serial killer Gary Ridgway confessed to 71 murders, but was only charged with 49. Of those 49, 3 victims are still Jane Does. Official victim counts place known victims at 52-55 women. The other 15 or so women are still unknown; their bodies undiscovered. But Ridgway and investigators place Ridgway’s body count realistically at 80-100 victims. Who are these people? Most of Ridgway's victims were killed in between 1982 and 1984 in the worst killing spree that the country had ever seen, with the murderer killing women and girls sometimes more than once a week. Ridgway continued murdering until at least 1998, but police believe he committed crimes until 2001 when he was arrested. Ridgeway claims that he started his killing spree in early 1982. He says does not remember killing anyone in the 1970s but admits that it is possible. Ridgway has only been charged with homicides if he both confessed and there was one or more pieces of evidence against him. For example, if he led investigators to a body he was charged with that murder and all the murders of the women he left in the same cluster. He has also been charged with other cases if there was circumstantial evidence, fiber evidence, paint chip evidence, or DNA. He has not been charged with the murders of women still missing or women whose cases cannot be linked to him in a corroborating way, which is why the confession list is so much longer than the charged list. Also please remember that mass murders are not known for their honesty and we have to take confessions with a grain of salt. For months I have been collecting reports of missing women from Washington and Oregon who could be victims of Ridgway. Some of this information was compiled and posted in my earlier write ups on Ridgway, but my research has slowly been growing. Today, I want to profile Ridgway’s unknown Jane Doe victims, women he has confessed to killing but who are still missing, victims the police believe fell victim to Ridgway but who were living Jane Does, and others who could be the 15-40 victims for whom no justice has been served. Terms used The scene- A term used by Bundy and LE to describe the people with high risk lifestyles those who are homeless, sex workers, exotic dancers, drug users, hitchhikers, and others who are down and out The Strip- An area of Pacific Highway South near the airport in extreme south Seattle known for the scene. Most GRK victims were last seen in this area. Aurora Avenue- An area of extreme north Seattle along Aurora Avenue North known for the scene. A handful of women disappeared from this area. Rainier Avenue and Central District- Neighborhoods in south Seattle near the strip. Usually regarded as cheaper places to live. A handful of women disappeared from here. Dating- A term used in literature to refer to soliciting prostitutes. Ridgway used this term as did many sex workers. I use this term below as that is what is described in GRK literature. I don’t use it to dull what was happening in these exchanges. NOTE- Just like in my other posts, I want this section to tell the women’s stories in a respectful way, but I was also wanted this section to be authentic and I don’t want to sugar coat any of these stories. For many of the victims there is very, very little information available. I think this is why sometimes victims appearances are mentioned as it sounds better to say “At age 21, she was a tall woman with thick red hair and a great smile” rather than she died at 21. Additionally, some of these victims’ stories are not very pleasant and a in a few cases information from family and friends is unflattering or downright negative. Rather than skip these women or pretend these things did not occur I chose to include them in the summaries below. I added as many positives as I could and tried (key word tried) to shy away from information solely about their appearances or criminal records but sometimes no other information is available. I hope everyone can understand that my intention is to remember these women and their lives in the best possible way while realizing that not everything is positive. I ask you for only respect down in the comments. Thank you. Unidentified Jane Doe B-10 was a murder victim who was found in 1984, near the remains of known victim, Cheryl Wims. She was a white female between the ages of 12 and 19. She most likely died in the summer of 1983. She may have had brown hair and was around 5’5’ and 120 lbs. She was likely left-handed. She had a healed injury to the front of the left side of her skull. She is not Rose Cole, Janel Peterson, Susan Cappel, Lisa Dickinson, Wendy Huggy, Kase Lee, Keli McGinnis, Anna Anderson, Kristi Vorak, Amy Matthews, Teresa Hammon, Cheryl Wyant, Denise Dorfman, Carol Edwards, Linda Jackson, Angela Meeker, Andria Bailey, Dean Peters, Joan Hall, Patricia LeBlanc, MaryJo Long, or Kerry Johnson. Jane Doe B-17’s bones were found twice. Some bones were found in 1984 and some more were found in 1986. She was most likely a white female, aged 14-19, around 5’4”- 5’8” and average weight, around 120-140 lbs. She most likely died in 1983. Ridgway said she died in Spring or Summer 1983. Isotope testing shows she is possibly from the Northern United states (Alaska, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota) or Canada. She is not Rose Cole, Janel Peterson, Susan Cappel, Lisa Dickinson, Wendy Huggy, Kase Lee, Keli McGinnis, Anna Anderson, Kristi Vorak, Linda Jackson, Andria Bailey, Joan Hall, Patricia LeBlanc, MaryJo Long, Carol Donn, Barbara Cotton, Pollyanne Carter or Kerry Johnson. Green River task force believes that these remains belong to Diana Munyon who disappeared from Mississippi in the early 1980s. Jane Doe B- 20 was a murder victim who was discovered in 2003 after Ridgway led investigators to her body. Her skull was not recovered so no composite can be made and no race can be determined. She died in between 1973-1993 but most likely died in the late 1970s. She was likely 13-24 years old. Ridgway says she was a white woman about 20 years old with brown or blonde shoulder length hair who he killed in Summer ’82 or ’83. He does not remember killing anyone in the 1970s but admits it is possible. Jane Doe B-20 is not Keli McGinnis, Andria Bailey, Cora McGuirk, Linda M. Adams, Misty Copsey, or Deborah Tomlinson. Links The following 3 women have been linked to Ridgway almost conclusively but are technically still missing. Ridgway has confessed to the following three women’s cases but without corroborating evidence or bodies he has not been charged. Kase Anne Lee was a petite, red-headed 16-year-old who lived in the same building as confirmed Green River victim, Terry Milligan. She was originally from Spokane and worked a few hours weekly at a 1 hour photo shop. She worked the streets near the airport. Her husband, Anthony “Pretty Tony” Lee, was even briefly looked at as the killer due to his background of violence and pimping out women. Kase left one evening at 11:30 pm to buy groceries and vanished into the night. For years, the only available photos of Kase (pronounced like Casey) were her mugshots, although it seems as if a non mugshot photo of her is now available. Her body has never been found. Patricia Osborn left her home on Aurora Avenue in extreme north Seattle to meet a date in October 1983. Earlier she had been heard arranging the date on the phone. Patricia’s family lived in Oregon. She had three arrests all in 1983 that they had no idea about. When she didn’t call home during the holidays, she was reported missing by her family. By that time, she had not been seen by anyone in over three months. Keli Kay McGinnis had a life one could call peculiar. She was born to a young mother who worked as a musician and the pair lived in apartments in the Seattle area. When Keli was a few years old her mother married a millionaire businessman, and the three lived in a two-million-dollar mansion on Queen Anne Hill. Keli and her parents owned horses, yachts, and nice cars. They took lavish trips and Keli loved her father, who was actually her step dad. A few years down the road her mother and step father split and the pair went back to living in apartments with her mom working long hours as a singer. It was a weird life for the now aged eleven-year-old McGinnis. Years later at age 15 Keli fell in love with a boy at school and became pregnant. Keli’s family did not approve of her African American boyfriend so the couple moved in together. Keli and her boyfriend traveled the west coast with Keli working the streets. Keli usually worked with her best friend, later Green River victim, Pammy Advent. Keli’s background gave her an edge in the business and she worked at fancy hotels and attracted wealthier johns. According to some of the women who worked with Keli, McGinnis was able to pull in 2-3x what they did on a typical night. Keli left her home one night in South Seattle to work but never came home. Her boyfriend called the police to report her missing. He was adamant Keli would never abandon their toddler daughter, who was later adopted out to a family when McGinnis never returned home. Her body has never been found, but Ridgway believes he killed her. The following three women are current or previous Jane Does who were arrested under false names before disappearing in Seattle, and are still not identified today. It is possible some or all of these women are Green River Victims. (this is a very confusing section so please bear with me.) Linda Louise Jackson was arrested in King County in the early 1980s using the alias Wylynda L. Wells. In 2012, King County authorities tried to contact Wylynda who they learned was actually Linda, to testify in a trial. When her family was tracked down, they reported they had not heard from Linda in “well over 10 years.” As it turns out Jackson has not been seen in King County (or anywhere else) since early 1983 but was never reported missing. If you know her whereabouts or associates please contact King county authorities. She is a native American female with brownish-black hair and brown eyes. A photo is provided below. Michelle has not been seen in King County since December 1980. She went by the first name Michelle but this may not be her legal name. She also had ties to the New York area. She appears to be African American with light to medium skin tone, shortish brown-black hair and brown eyes. If you know her whereabouts, legal name, or associates please contact King county authorities. Both women’s photos can be seen here: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/sheriff/about-us/enforcement/investigations/green-river.aspx Angie is a young woman who has possibly been missing since Summer 1983. She is only known as Angie, and she was a friend of victim Tammie Lilies. Angie was from the Marysville area and is described as a white female, 17 to 18 years of age at the time of contact, 5' 4" in height, 110 pounds, with curly shoulder length light brown hair and greenish-blue eyes. She's been described as "very pretty" and "a Barbie doll." She was wearing blue jeans when she was last seen. No photo is available. If you know her whereabouts, legal name, or associates please contact King county authorities. (I have wondered if she is Angie Girdner down below but descriptions don’t match up perfectly and authorities seem to doubt this. She is also possibly Angela Meeker from Tacoma) More information can be found here: https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/sheriff/about-us/enforcement/investigations/green-river.aspx The following women have been linked to Ridgway pretty conclusively and are known to be deceased but he has not been charged with their murders. In fact, he specifically denies killing the following three women. Amina Agisheff was a 36-year-old immigrant from Russia and a working mother of several children. She left her home and was waiting for the bus when she disappeared going to either visit her mother or coming home from visiting with her mother. She disappeared July 7th 1982. Agisheff’s body was found near North Bend in an area very close to other victims of Ridgway. Agisheff was found clothed or partially clothed, and her cause of death was a possible gunshot wound although this could not be conclusively proven. It is unknown if she was sexually assaulted. For years, Agisheff was considered to be the first Green River Victim due to where she was found even though she had no ties to the “scene” and was not known to use drugs or hitchhike. Ridgway always denies killing Agisheff, but as demonstrated above not all women killed by Ridgeway were part of the scene. However, Amina’s death varies significantly from Ridgway’s typical pattern. Theories: It is a coincidence that Amina’s body was found near other victims and she was the victim of another killer. She differed from the pattern because she was Ridgway’s first victim and his method was substantially different. She was not Ridgway’s first victim and varied from the typical because Ridgeway’s victims were more varied than initially thought. Some have speculated that Ridgway offered Amina a ride somewhere and she took it because she knew him, however tangentially. This has never been proved. Tammie Liles was from the Everett/Snohomish area north of Seattle. Tammie’s family last heard from her in 1982 and she was reporting missing in 1983. Friends or family believed that had contact with Tammie in May 1984 when she called and said she was living in Tacoma and was going to get married. The police think it is possible the girl on the phone wasn’t actually Tammie, or that her family was confused on the date of the call. Tammie was removed from the missing persons list only to be reported missing again, this time for good in 1988. At this point, Tammie who was known to work as a sex worker in Seattle was linked to the GRK but her body was not identified until 1998. She was not known to work anywhere in Oregon and it has been suggested she was killed in King county and transported to Oregon after death. (Her body was found in Oregon.) Tammie is listed on some lists as an official or unofficial/ unproven Green River Victim, on some lists as a possible victim while she is left off of other lists entirely. Angela Girdner went by the name Angie and was a straight A student at a private high school. As a teen, Angela fell in with the wrong crowd and ran away from home. She was reported missing in 1982 and died sometime that year or in early 1983. Her remains were found with Tammie Liles’ remains. Both girls were found close (within a mile) to the bodies of victims Denise Bush and Shirley Sherrill near Portland, Oregon. Police do not believe Angela ever travelled to Washington state making Angela the only victim who may have been both abducted and killed outside of the state of Washington. This may be why Ridgway denies involvement as his plea deal states he is eligible for death penalty if he committed crimes outside of King County. There is a theory that Tammie and Angela were killed by someone else and the placement of their bodies was a coincidence. The following women are missing or were found dead and may be Green River Victims but are not on the official list. Rhonda Louise Burse was 21 years old when she was last seen climbing into her car after her shift ended at the Flame Tavern where she worked as a dancer. Flame Tavern is located in Burien, Washington near SeaTac airport. Burse has never been seen again. Strangely, the Flame Tavern is also the last known sighting of another woman, Brenda Ball, who was killed by Ted Bundy only three years earlier. Due to the area and Ridgway’s victimology, some think Rhonda could be an early victim. Angela Mae Meeker was almost 14 when she disappeared in 1979. She was planning on going to the mall in Tacoma and then going to a birthday party when she vanished. Angela was seen later that evening at a party but never surfaced again. Angela ran away from home regularly and often hitchhiked around the Tacoma area. Angela’s parents believe she met with foul play when someone she hitched a ride with killed her. Angela Meeker is not Jane Doe B-10. Little information is available in the case. Andria Bailey was 15 or 16 when she went missing sometime in 1978 or 1979. The exact date of her disappearance is unknown. Andria lived with her grandmother in Spanaway, south of Seattle. Andria’s parents were in the military and lived in Germany. Andria was reported missing in 1989 when her mom called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saying that Andria had been missing for over 10 years. NCMEC called law enforcement. In 1995, someone (possibly NCMEC) called the Green River task force and gave them Andria’s name to compare to the does in the case. No one knows if Andria was involved in drugs, prostitution, or running away. Her grandmother cannot remember the last time she saw Andria or what she was doing. Apparently after Andria went missing her grandmother called her parents and Andria’s father flew to Washington state to look for her in the local area but she was never officially reported missing. Andria’s mother and grandmother have since passed away. In the one article available about this case, Andria’s relative submitted a DNA sample to match potential does. Little information is available. Linda M. Adams was only 15 years old when she was last seen in Yakima, Washington in 1978. Linda was a chronic runaway who was last seen walking down a road in June of 1978. She may have been hitchhiking. Linda was not reported missing until 2004 and it was actually the Green River task force who filed her report. Linda’s sister said they had tried to report Linda missing earlier but her status as a chronic runaway made the situation hard. I have submitted Linda as a possible match for all three of Ridgway’s unknown victims. I have since heard that Adams is not Jane Doe B-20. Louise Sanders was last heard from in February 1981. She called a friend to make lunch plans but then canceled those plans because she was meeting a “date.” She disappeared from downtown Seattle in 1981. Louise was 35 years old at the time but a hormonal disorder made her look like a teenager still. She was involved in prostitution in downtown Seattle at the time. Little information is available in her case. Diana Munyon ran away from home in Mississippi in 1981. Her family last heard from her in May 1982 when she called from Fontana, California. She was only 16 years old at the time. Her family contacted the Green River Task force years later, both due to her background and because Diana bears a resemblance to one of the Jane Does Ridgway plead guilty to murdering. Her case is being investigated by Seattle authorities. Little information is available. Kristi Vorak left her foster home in Tacoma, Washington in October 1982 age 13. After leaving home she may have been seen at a bus depot in downtown Seattle. Kristi did not have a history of running away or prostitution but she did frequent areas of Seattle and Tacoma known to be part of the scene. Kristi’s mom thinks it is possible Kristi is a transient in the Seattle area or left to start a new life but law enforcement believes she met with foul play and is a possible Green River victim Little information is available in her case. Patricia Ann LeBlanc was 15 when she ran away in 1983. Patti had a record for solicitation and in August 1983 was arrested and sent to a youth shelter. Four days later the youth shelter took a field trip to the Seattle Center (a museum where the Space Needle is at) and she ran away and disappeared. Patti’s foster mom said that Patti ran away from whatever living situation she was put in, but Patti still called her foster mom often. Those phone calls stopped in August 1983. Patti may have an unspecified medical condition. Little information is available in her case. Pollyanne Jean Carter was last seen leaving a friend’s home in Graham, Washington near Tacoma. She had called her parents and said she was headed home, but Pollyanne ran away often and frequented the city of Tacoma. After her disappearance her sister told law enforcement that Pollyanne frequently did sex work in Tacoma, something her parents did not know. She was last seen in 1984 at age 15. Diane Nguyen Robbins left her home in the Eastern Washington town of Kennewick to travel to Seattle in Summer 1985 at age 13. Diane had no history of prostitution but had recently began hanging out with an older woman named Molly A. Purdin, aged 21. Molly and Diane went to Seattle and Diane was reported as a runaway when she did not return home. Molly and Diane were last seen in Seattle or Bellevue on June 18th. Molly was found murdered a month later in north King County but there was no sign of Diane. Law enforcement believes Diane and Molly’s disappearances were due to a serial killer but have not specified Ridgway. Snohomish PD is handling the case and says both cases are considered cold. Molly sometimes went by Molly Purdin-Clary. She lived in Kennewick, Washington before going missing. Little information is available. Virginia Rambus was a Seattle woman who went missing at age 19 from south Seattle, Washington in 1985. Virginia left her apartment to visit a coworker who lived in the same complex. They were planning on going to a party together in the Rainier neighborhood, but Virginia never made it to her friend’s unit. At the time of her disappearance, serial killer Jesse Pratt also lived in her complex. He is the prime suspect in her disappearance. Virginia had no links to prostitution or drugs and held down a steady professional job. Her case is included in this piece only because of where she lived and the time period she disappeared. Doris Mulhern went missing from the SeaTac strip in 1987 when she was 21 years old. She and her boyfriend traveled all around the country; they were originally from Michigan. Both lived “transient, high-risk” lifestyles. Mulhern’s boyfriend took her to the mall and he never saw her again. The last time she was seen, she was walking down the SeaTac strip. Margaret Diaz was 31 when she vanished from Tacoma in 1988. Margaret had a high-risk lifestyle and frequently worked in the Hilltop area of Tacoma. She moved around a lot but tried to keep in contact with her three kids regularly. That contact stopped in 1988 and she has been missing ever since. Deborah Yvonne Wims sister of Cheryl Wims was last seen shopping on the SeaTac strip in 1990. She worked the strip in 1990 and disappeared when she was 31 years old. Her car was found parked on Pacific Highway south but there was no Deborah. Little information is available in her case. Her family believes she is a victim of Ridgway. Darci Warde was 16 years old in 1990. She was located by police in Seattle who returned to her parents- she had been reported missing previously. She immediately ran away again and vanished. Darci had links to prostitution. Law enforcement believes Darci’s disappearance was due to a serial killer but have not specified Ridgway. Little information is available in her case. Cora McGuirk was 22 in July 1991. She was the young mother of three who worked at a gift shop and was an enrolled student at the University of Washington. Cora went from being a typical working mother and student to suddenly dropping out of sight for one-two days at a time. Cora asked her aunt to look after her children in case anything bad happened to her, something that worried her aunt. The pieces fell into place when Cora brought home a new boyfriend who was using hard drugs. It is unknown if Cora was using but her aunt thought it was a likely explanation for her behavior. Cora left her children with her aunt and said she would be gone for a bit. She never returned and her abandoned car was found parked on Aurora Avenue north. Cora’s first priority was always her children even in those last few chaotic months of her life she made sure her kids had a safe place to be. Her family does not think she disappeared of her own accord. Cora’s aunt adopted and raised her three children, the oldest of which, Martell Webster, grew up to play professional basketball for the Portland Trailblazers. He was 4 when he last saw his mother. Helen Tucker was last seen in Tacoma in 1994 when she went to the police station to report that a John had beat her up. This was the last time anyone ever saw the 27 year old. Helen struggled with addiction and homelessness but she was regularly in contact with her family and her young child who was being raised by a family friend. Tucker was first reported missing in 2000, after family members realized that no one had formally reported her missing. Her case was originally given to the Green River task force who ruled out Ridgway and then returned the file to the Tacoma PD. New investigators report that while they believe Tucker died at the hands of a separate predator, Ridgway cannot be conclusively ruled out. Tami Faye Kowalchuk was only 17 when she was last heard from in December 1999. Like Hunter,Kowalchuk was from Tacoma and struggled with addiction to methamphetamine and often turned to sex work in order to make money. In 1999, she told her mother she was going to travel the county with a long haul trucker, her mother reminded her that she had a court ordered curfew and that that wasn’t a wise idea. This was the last time Kowlachuk was ever heard from. Her mother still searches for her daughter today. Jennifer Mae Enyart age 16 had a life similar to Tami Faye. As a teen she began running away from home and was arrested on a few occasions. One day in 2000, she was arrested by Seattle police, who called her parents to pick her up. They drove to Seattle and retrieved their daughter but when they stopped for gas, Jennifer escaped the car and disappeared into downtown Tacoma. No one has heard from her since. Jennifer, Tami Faye, Helen, and two other later victims, Debra Ann Honey-Hooks, and Danielle Mouton are believed to be victims of the same serial predator who was stalking women with high risk lifestyles in Tacoma from 1994-2005. However, TPD have said that Ridgway cannot be ruled out as the killer of the three earliest victims. Cases with loose or former links to the Green River Killer. Some of these women are mentioned in one book or one source only. Some women’s names are believed to be aliases which is why information is sparse. My research has yielded little information on several of the women below. Cherry Greenman was last known to be alive in September 1976 when she was released from the Douglas County jail in Waterville, Washington at age 20. Cherry was reportedly a “free spirit” who hitchhiked and wandered throughout the United States. Those who knew her reported that she would lose contact with loved ones for months to years at a time, so it would not surprise them if she was alive for years after her last known sighting. However, they believe she would have called her family eventually. She was not reported missing until 2004. One source says she has been ruled out as a Ridgway victim but other sources say she cannot be ruled out. Greenman is also a possible victim of Rodney Alcala. I have submitted Greenman as a possible match for Jane Doe B-20. Leann Virginia Wilcox died in late 1981. She fits the Ridgway profile to a tee, and was found near other dump sites but DNA on her body belongs to an unknown man, not Ridgway. Initially on the Green River list, Wilcox’s case is no longer considered a Ridgway murder, but he cannot be 100% ruled out. Theresa Kline died in 1982. She was in her 20s at the time and was known to hitchhike. Initially on the Green River list, Kline’s case is no longer considered a Green River homicide. Little information is available. My research has yielded little information on Theresa’s case, her death may not be a murder and her name may be an alias. Debra Kay King disappeared from Tacoma in July 1982 when she was only 24. Little information is available in her case but foul play is suspected. My research has yielded little information on Debra’s case, her name may be an alias. Laronda Marie Bronson disappeared November 19, 1982 from Portland, Oregon. The 18-year-old was last seen at a bus stop. Laronda had ties to prostitution in both Washington and Oregon and the King County Sherriff’s office is the investigating agency in her case. For reasons unknown, sources say she is known to be a Green River victim, although she is technically missing. Trina Deanne Hunter died in 1982. Initially on the Green River list, Hunter’s case is no longer considered a Green River murder. Little information is available. Kimberly Ann Reames Larson disappeared from the SeaTac strip in 1983. Her body was found the next day. (This info is available in only one book on Ridgway- no other information is available.) My research has yielded little information on Kimberly’s case, her name may be an alias. Tonya Lee Clemmons disappeared from the SeaTac area in 1983 but was not reported missing for a year. Tonya’s aunt said that Tonya always called, especially on holidays but the phone calls stopped in 1983. Tonya did not have a record for prostitution but she frequented areas known for sex work such as the SeaTac strip. Kimberly Yvette Hill of Portland was last seen getting into a hatchback car with Washington license plates. Kimberly was a sex worker and was only 19 years old. Her body was found dumped the next day. Her 1984 murder is still unsolved. Kathleen Arita was a 38-year-old computer operator at Boeing. She was last seen in May 1984, leaving her home in Renton. Her body was later found near the Star Lake road Green River dump site. She had been strangled. In general, she is not considered a Green River victim but the placement of her body is suspicious. Jacqueline L. Sexton a Portland native who worked as a sex worker, disappeared in December 1984. Her body was found 3 days later. (This info is available in only one book on Ridgway- no other information is available.) My research has yielded little information on Sexton’s case, her name may be an alias. Rose Marie Kurran was a 16-year-old from the Bellingham area. Rose was known to hitchhike. She was last seen on Pacific Highway south in 1987. Her body was later found near SeaTac airport. She had been strangled. Her family described her as an animal lover and a free spirit. Some sources say she is a known GRK victim. Kimberly Delange was last seen at a Puyallup shopping center in 1988. Her body was later found in Enumclaw, near the body of later victim Anna Chebetnoy. Little information is available in her case. Kerry Anne Walker of Renton, disappeared in 1988 after walking away from her home on Rainier avenue. Her body was found later in South King county. She was 15 years old. Little information is available. My research has yielded little information on Walker’s case, her name may be an alias. Shannon L. Pease, 15 was found dead in the Lakewood area of Tacoma in 1988. She was last seen in an area known for prostitution. Little information is available. My research has yielded little information on Shannon’s case, her name may be an alias. Robyn Kenworthy, 20 called her mom from Aurora Avenue one night and said she was coming home and was going to try to kick heroin for good. Robyn, who worked as a dancer, never made it home. Robyn was found dead from an undetermined cause later in a wooded area of Snohomish county in 1988. Ridgway is a suspect in her case. Jennifer Burnetto, 32 had also fallen prey to addiction. Jennifer worked the streets of Tacoma in 1988. She was found dead from stab wounds in Snohomish county near the body of Robyn Kenworthy. Ridgway is a suspect in her case. Tracey Wooten washed up on a beach in Tacoma at age 26 in 1990. Tracey had a history of drug use and sex work. Tragically, Law Enforcement has been unable to find any friends or family. My research has yielded little information on Tracey’s case, her name may be an alias. Anna Lee Chebetnoy was last seen at a Puyallup shopping center in 1990, the same one Kim Delange disappeared from. Her body was later found in Enumclaw, only 100 feet from Kim Delange’s body. Ridgway was known to leave bodies in Enumclaw in the past. Little information is available in her case. Tia Hicks was a 20-year-old who struggled with addiction and worked the streets of Aurora Ave. north in Seattle. Tia was found dead from an undetermined cause in a car in 1991. There is a suspect in her murder, if she was murdered. Her death is still a mystery. Heather Marie Kinchen disappeared in 1991. She was living in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood when she disappeared at age 14. The Florida girl’s remains were found in July 1991 in North Bend, Washington. Little information is available. Sarah Marshlene Habakangas disappeared in 1991. She was working on the Pacific Highway south when she was last seen at age 17. Her remains were found in July 1991 in North Bend, Washington. Little information is available. Nicole French aged 19 disappeared in 1992. She was good friends with Sarah Habakangas. Her remains were found in North Bend, Washington near the remains of Heather Kinchen and Sarah Habakangas. Little information is available. Sue Ellen Walker was 32 years old in 1992. She was believed to be living in Seattle but had no permanent address and was transient. She was not reported missing for several years. Little information is available in her case. Lisa Karen Sheer age 32, went missing from Auburn, Washington in 1994 near somewhere Ridgway was known to frequent. Sheer has a long history of dropping out of sight for extensive periods of time. It appears that she may have been transient. Very little is known about Sheer, and no one has heard from her since 1994. Tukwila Jane Doe: In January 1997 contractors in Tukwila, Washington were digging to build a new house when they uncovered human bones. Only known as Tukwila Jane Doe, this person was determined to be an adult female of unknown race and age. A full skeleton was not found. Due to the placement and location of the body investigators believe Tukwila Jane Doe may be a victim of Ridgway. The skeleton's postmortem interval is unknown at this time. The body was found wearing one tube sock and a blue hair barrette. Near the body there was a blue cloth, nylon type underwear W/ "JC Penny" & "Long" on the waistband, a red nylon type cloth, a brown & tan cloth, lace bikini-cut underwear, and some cloth with green, orange and blue stripes. The Doe is not Dagmar Linton. Anitra Renee Mulwee was last seen at a New Year’s Eve party in 2000/2001, but she never made it home to Tacoma. Anitra’s body was found a few weeks later near a former dump spot of the GRK. Despite the location of the body, there is no evidence that Anitra’s death was a homicide. Anitra did have ties to the scene as she had several drug and alcohol related offenses in her background. That particular dumping spot had been discovered by investigators years earlier, meaning that if Anitra was a victim of Ridgway, he would have dumped her body in place regularly surveilled by law enforcement, something he was not known to do. Little information is available in her case. Conclusion Even though Gary Ridgway was arrested almost 20 years ago, the aftermath of his crimes live on. King County Sheriff's Office still has a unit assigned to the Green River homicides and they're asking for information and tips which could help solve some of these mysteries which still haunt King County almost two decades later. They also encourage those whose relatives may have gone missing in the 1970s, 80s, 90s to contact them especially if they lived or worked in the area where Ridgway was known to operate. For years, many citizens did not know they could report their loved ones missing if their loved ones left of their own accord and were adults. Because of this misconception many people who may be victims of Ridgway or other predators have never been reported missing. You have a relative or friend who matches this description I would encourage you to contact the Green River Task Force at 206-263-2130 or email at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). What do you think? Are any of the women profiled victims of Gary Ridgway? Sources Green River Running Red by Ann Rule The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I hunt for the Green River Killer by Bob Keppel and William Birnes The Search for the Green River Killer: The True Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer by Carlton Smith and Tomas Guillen https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19920727&slug=1504298 http://charleyproject.org/case/keli-kay-mcginness https://unidentified.wikia.org/wiki/Green_River_victims https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/sheriff/about-us/enforcement/investigations/green-river.aspx http://www.seattlemag.com/article/remembering-victims-green-river-killer https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19911121&slug=1318612 https://www.q13fox.com/news/vanished-search-for-5-women-missing-in-tacoma-includes-possibility-of-serial-predator
Let me tell you about Sam, the most pedantic and overanalyzing fucker that I’ve ever had the misfortune of playing with. I’m changing his IRL name but not the name of his character, because this is a homebrew and if he somehow sees this he’ll know I’m talking about him anyways, as I’m going to go into lots of specifics. Be forewarned that this is going to be extremely long since I’m going to basically recount the entire campaign so far, but mainly I need to get this off my chest so I can let it go. Somewhat shorter TL;DR at the bottom. So. To understand the story, you’ll need a bit of background. This campaign started a couple months ago and is 100% on Discord and Roll20. I was invited by a friend I met in a Pathfinder server that we both later left for various reasons, but kept in touch on and off for a while. He and the rest of the players all know each other IRL and live in California. I live in Minnesota, so two hours ahead of them, which is relevant. As mentioned, this was a homebrew campaign. The DM gave us a ton of information about the world, where we were starting, and other such background info. Basically, the BBEG is called the Overlord, ten years ago he put up magical elemental barriers around all of the cities and stationed Death Knights in each city to... do something. Keep the peace and intimidate everyone, I guess. His motives are still unclear to us. Anyway. Our characters were basically tasked with starting and leading a resistance against him, killing the Death Knights and freeing the cities one by one. We started off in a pretty small and poor city in the mountains that was walled off by a wind barrier. I made a changeling rogue named Arilies who worked as a bartender at the only tavern in town for a former thief turned mastermind dwarf (Hammerspike), who also essentially raised me. No one but him and a couple other NPCs knew I was a changeling. Sam made a storytelling bard named Jean, but he’s one of those players who can’t separate themselves from their character, so Jean had practically no characterization and his background didn’t matter. In all respects, he was Sam. We also had four other people in our group (not counting the DM), which worried me because I had never been in that large of a group before and I was worried it would cause sessions to run long, which was bad for me because as previously stated, I was two hours ahead of them, our games are on Sundays, and I get up early for work. But the number of players was not the cause of game sessions running long. Now, my memory of the first few sessions is a bit hazy because they were months ago and a lot has happened since then, but I will do my best to recount the relevant events. I’m also mainly going to refer to this person as their character’s name except when making a distinction between the two, since Jean is just a mouthpiece for Sam. I missed the first session for reasons now forgotten, but during the second session I immediately began to get annoying vibes from Jean. During the previous session he had gone out into the woods to search for an important NPC because he misinterpreted a note that Hammerspike gave him and missed curfew, meaning he had to stay out there all night, avoiding the Death Knight’s mysterious guards and pretty much not getting any sleep. In the morning, my character and one other went out to find him and bring him back to town, as well as gather information about where the important NPC was. Once back in town, Jean started essentially ragging on Hammerspike to my character, saying things like ‘he can’t be trusted’ and ‘he sent me out into the woods alone after dark,’ etc etc, and Arilies basically yelled at him that he didn’t understand Hammerspike’s note and it was his own fault, and that Hammerspike was trying to start a resistance to save the world. Jean basically said I was being lied to until the DM interjected and said I was right and the note told him to go to the tavern to discuss the situation and rescue of the important NPC, not to go rescue the NPC immediately. The campaign gets rolling and while we’re talking about what we learned in the forest, a boulder smashes through the tavern’s front window and a bunch of guards rush through. We start the fight and Jean, out of nowhere, starts talking about siege weaponry, its range, and its reloading time, getting increasingly more insistent that the enemies must have a trebuchet or something and we should be ready for another attack, even though we’re in the middle of town and there aren’t any trebuchets in sight. Some dudes just hurled a big rock through the window, and the DM has to shut him down again. So next session, we need to go confront the Death Knight, which means getting through a big locked gate, crossing a bridge, and storming his castle. Jean immediately starts talking about the labor required to build the castle, where they sourced the stones from, how long t would have taken to build the castle, and just a bunch of other completely irrelevant shit. Once we manage to get him back on track to the problem of getting through the gate, which the DM basically gives us a bomb for, it’s another (at least) 30 minute discussion about if we should use the bomb, are there other ways into the castle, what about the guards, etc, until the DM shuts him down and basically says ‘trust me, this is the intro act, I’m not going to throw complicated puzzles at you or give you bad options just yet.’ So we wind up just blowing open the gate and going through, encountering no guards (which was weird). We solve the puzzle in the castle, defeat the Death Knight, and rescue the important NPC with little hassle. Now we need to choose which city to go to next. There are two options: go to a city with a big cavern in the middle of it, or go to a city surrounded by fire. Both of these problems are getting worse (cavern widening, fire barrier encroaching on the city), and we spend a good hour or so talking about which to go to. And when I say “we,” I mean Jean does 50% of the talking and the other 50% is split between the other five players and DM. Jean argues about how we’re going to get past the fire barrier and how it’s impossible and seems to me that he had a very defeatist attitude of ‘we can’t get past it so we shouldn’t try.’ Eventually I got tired of him dragging the conversation on way longer than it had any right to be and said ‘let’s just go to the fire city and if we can’t get past the barrier we’ll turn around and go to the other one,’ which was amenable to Jean. So we go there and of course our DM gives us a way through the fire barrier. The city is on a big river, which the barrier extends out over, but there’s an underwater tunnel we can swim through to get underneath it, guided by an NPC. We get into the city, fight the main antagonists who teleport away after taking some damage, and the local bar owner tells us that that means they’ll be out of commission for 24 hours. Still, Jean argues that we can’t stay at the inn because what if they come back and kill us, etc, and the DM has to shut him down again by explicitly telling him that he set up a situation where we wouldn’t have to worry about being in danger overnight. He drops it and we move on to discussing what to do. There’s a castle by the river that we assume the Death Knight is in, so Arilies volunteers to go scout it overnight, to which Jean makes some snide remarks about how everyone supports Arilies going to scout out the castle but when he went out at night to go scouting everyone was mad at him. I ignored it and no one else responded, but I am thoroughly annoyed with him at this point. Also at some point he directly asked about my character’s gender to which I replied that Arilies is vague about it and doesn’t correct anyone regardless of what pronouns/genders they refer to him as. (I assumed this conversation was out-of-character.) During roleplays and in session, I switch up Arilies’ pronouns constantly to keep it ambiguous. Technically they’re agender but don’t really define themselves as such, and just doesn’t talk about it. By this point I’ve privately talked to the DM about Jean and how much overthinking and assuming he does, causing the sessions to drag on four hours longer than necessary, and how that directly affects me because I’m two hours ahead of everyone else and need to go to bed at a reasonable time to get up for work in the morning. The DM said he’d talk to Jean about it and he toned it down for a session at some point before reverting to his old ways. Out-of-session in a private roleplay with the DM, Arilies goes and scouts the place, taking the face of one of the villagers to not draw suspicion, and sees that the castle is completely surrounded by hundreds of guards. I return to the bar and bang the hot tiefling bartender (which was a ‘fade to black’ thing in the private roleplay) and fall asleep in his room, which is in a hallway behind the bar (aka I’d have to walk past the bar in the morning to get back up to my room). During the next session only three players were able to attend, so the DM said it would be a shorter session just in the tavern. It was not a shorter session because Jean was there and things kind of came to a head between us. It started out with Jean and another character at the bar while mine still slept in the bartender’s room, only waking in a panic when the bartender came in to get me up. (Bartender is male, Arilies is presenting androgynous/masculine.) Arilies hurriedly dresses while I all but die of embarrassment roleplaying this out with the DM and rushes out to the main area. I intended this to be a funny moment, but in a stunning display of meta gaming that Jean claims he doesn’t do, Jean said something along the lines of ‘well we know that Arilies can change gender, so-’ before I cut him off and basically yelled at him that ‘he does not know that Arilies is a changeling’ because it is a huge character beat for Arilies to reveal that she’s a changeling to the group because of a lot of past trauma surrounding her race and she has a hard time trusting people etc etc, so I didn’t want that moment to be ruined by Jean’s stupid meta gaming and taking a clearly out of character conversation and applying it to in character knowledge. So the DM broke us up, said that Jean doesn’t know about Arilies’ shapeshifting, and the funny moment was thoroughly ruined as Arilies rushed up to his room to make himself presentable. Arilies went back down to the bar and we started talking about options for tackling the antagonists from the previous day (the Fire Twins), talking about the intel Arilies got about the castle, and talking to the bar owner who has his ear to the ground. He tells us that there’s an underground sewer way that goes right to the castle and that he has a scouting raven that will go look at the guard situation at the castle during the day. So we start talking about ways to approach the castle and/or deal with the Fire Twins, and Jean starts talking about evacuating the entire city via the underwater tunnel we used to bypass the barrier and that two of us almost didn’t make it through. Now, this wouldn’t work for numerous reasons: it would be obvious, the Death Knight would probably stop us and there would be civilian casualties, there’s no practical way to evacuate people through this tunnel, where would they go, etc etc, all of which Arilies argued in one way or another. As a side point, Arilies grew up in this city which the rest of the part does not know at this point, so she is extremely reticent to putting the townspeople in danger if it’s avoidable. Jean would not let this point go so I basically had to yell at him that we are not going to risk the lives of the townspeople and we’ll need to find some other way to lure out the Twins/Death Knight. Jean finally relented and we moved onto the next topic. Oh boy. This is where it really gets off the rails. Jean turns to the tiefling bartender and starts asking if his demon ancestor could help us, to which Arilies calls him racist. Now, this was a very bad choice on my part and I acknowledge that. My reasoning was that Arilies likes the bartender way more than Jean, and from previous campaigns I as the player know that some tieflings really despise their demon ancestry and it may be a sensitive subject, so I was going off that to... try and make a joke? I guess? I don’t know what I was trying to do honestly, I was still full of adrenaline from arguing with him and I made a bad call. But that ground the entire session to a halt. Sam immediately got super offended and the DM paused the session to talk about what just happened. I don’t remember a lot of the conversation, but from what Sam said, it was clear that he thought that I, Lava the player, was calling him, Sam the player, racist, which was not at all what I meant. I acknowledged that I made a bad call, apologized, and retracted the statement, which the DM supported and retconned it so it canonically didn’t happen. This brought to light that Jean was just a mouthpiece for Sam and had very little characterization. The other player in the session (who knew Sam IRL) even piped up and said that there really wasn’t anything separating Jean from Sam. Throughout the whole campaign thus far, Sam hasn’t engaged in very much roleplaying, only what was absolutely necessary/the bare minimum, and didn’t do a single thing that defined him as a bard. Whereas on the other hand, I am all for roleplaying. I love it, both in session and out of session, and Arilies is extremely distinct from me, so I didn’t realize that when Arilies called Jean racist, he took that as Lava calling Sam racist. Again, which I apologized for and retconned and to this day am ashamed by it, but it opened up an important conversation where a lot of things were laid out on the metaphorical table. The DM told Sam to stop overthinking everything and bringing in ideas that the DM hasn’t even hinted at. The DM said that if he wanted the bartender’s demon ancestor to be in the game, he would have had the bartender talk about his ancestor at some point. Again trying to reign in Jean’s overthinking and assumptions about the world. The session ended there. The next day I messaged Sam privately to once again apologize and explain my thinking, and express my frustrations with his playstyle, including that it directly affects me when he drags on conversations for way longer than necessary because he’s thinking about wholly irrelevant details that don’t matter because I’m two hours ahead of them and have work early in the morning. We go back and forth for a while in an amicable fashion, but he doesn’t really apologize for anything and even compares me to Donald Trump since he said I acted maliciously and turned to insulting him when I started losing an argument, just like the (then President) does. Which. No. I wasn’t malicious, I made a bad call and repeatedly apologized for it and retconned it, which he also said he doesn’t believe in retconning?? So luckily he talked to the DM, who confirmed it was retconned and didn’t happen, and I expressed my utter disgust at being compared to Donnie T and how it was more insulting than anything he’s done so far. Which he also never apologized for. But the conversation ended amicably enough with me saying that I thought Jean and Arilies mending the rift between them would be a pivotal character moment for her learning to trust others and that I hope we could be friends, to which he expressed his doubt on the latter and didn’t really say anything on the former. The next session started and we decided to investigate the sewers leading to the castle. There’s a combat encounter where Jean expresses disdain about not being able to do more, but not much else happens with him. We get back to the tavern and decide to go fight the Fire Twins. During that conversation Arilies reveals to the party that he grew up in this city and knows one of the Twins (the other Twin said her name previously - Syldi) and is going to try and confront her during the encounter. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to think of where to confront them, how to get their attention, what to do, etc. Jean of course tries to think of numerous ways to incapacitate them, including tying them up, laying a trap for them, or throwing water on them, which he keeps coming back to and is obsessed with the idea of dousing them in water, even though they’re not literally on fire and just use fire magic. He also said something about taking their wand away and the DM had to correct him and say that neither of them use wands, one has a sword and one a bow that they fire flaming arrows from. Anyway I finally get the party moving towards the area that we fought them previously. We’d been keeping track of the hours until they “respawn” (remember, they had a 24 hour cooldown after teleporting away that we learned from the bar owner) and should have gotten there with plenty of time to prepare, but on our way we ran into them. Surprise! So the rest of the party fights the dude with the sword while Arilies rushes to confront her friend from the past (and lover, but the party doesn’t know that). This is when Arilies revealed that they’re a changeling by changing back into the person that she was while living in the city. She managed to break Syldi’s mind control and they had a long conversation about the Overlord and Death Knights (surprise, she was one), to which Jean thankfully waited a while before jumping in to. Then the Overlord showed up, cast something that pinned everyone to the ground, and Jean immediately started to try everything and anything to get at him, even though none of us could move, and basically derailed the Overlord’s speech until he just teleported himself and Syldiaway. After the session the DM told me that he had planned on revealing more but everyone was talking over everyone and trying to do stuff that wouldn’t work and he didn’t get a chance to make them listen, which I was annoyed about. We returned to the tavern and the session ended. Between sessions I roleplayed a couple conversations between Arilies, the bartender, and some other player characters basically talking about being a changeling and do they hate her, etc, and drinking heavily because of what happened to Syldi. The next session started with the next morning. Arilies and one other character were very hungover, and Jean’s assholery was ramped up to eleven. The session started with our hungover goblin character and Jean at the bar, and our goliath character coming up behind the goblin and clapping loudly behind his head to startle him. He got startled and swung at the goliath, who caught his hand and no damage was done to either character. They kind of laughed it off and sat down to have breakfast. But not Jean. Oh no. He would not let it go. He was chiding them because ‘he can’t have his teammates at each others’ throats’ and he can’t have infighting, why are they fighting, etc. The goliath apologized to the goblin and everything was cool. Right? No, of course not. Jean would not fucking drop it. At this point Arilies comes downstairs, very hungover, and Jean tries to drag Arilies into the situation to chide the other two, but Arilies dismisses it because I really didn’t want to argue with Jean again. So then Jean starts shaming Arilies and the goblin for ‘being sloshed’ this early in the morning, apparently not understanding that we’re not drunk, we’re hungover, and basically starts shaming us for drinking and ‘wasting magic.’ Which. The DM said our hangovers would fade in a couple hours, we didn’t need magical cures, but Jean kept bringing it up about ‘wasting magic’ or some shit. I don’t know what he was on about, but I kind of snapped at him that Arilies had a damn good reason to drink the night before. Eventually this gets dropped and the session moves on to Jean talking about confronting the Overlord and how can we defeat him when he can teleport anywhere and kill us instantly, or wipe out a whole town, or something along those lines. He also brings up the god/demon he made a pact with, which is literally just a wild assumption. We don’t know anything about the Overlord at this point, much less IF he made a pact with someone. We spend a stupid amount of time talking about something that literally doesn’t matter at this point in the campaign (we’re level 4). Jean doesn’t seem to grasp that the Overlord won’t just teleport in and kill us, because he had ample opportunity to do that already and he hasn’t, plus that would make for a really shitty campaign. He’s basically saying that because the Overlord can do all of this stuff, we shouldn’t even try to continue or something. I don’t know, but he seemed very defeatist. Finally we get around to the task at hand, which is dealing with some fanatics in the town who worshipped the Fire Twins as gods or something. We agree on trying to talk to them first because we don’t want to just roll up and murder a bunch of misguided civilians, and I try to encourage Jean to lead the encounter because he’s a bard and ‘this is what he does, right? Talk to people?’ But Jean tosses out the idea that Arilies could transform into Syldi and get them to step down, which Arilies gives her reluctant acceptance (he doesn’t turn into people she knows and he doesn’t like Jean just casually outing him as a changeling to the entire bar), but the bar owner said that he already spread the word that the Twins died, so that plan wouldn’t work. Jean still insisted Arilies be the point person for talking to people. At some point he starts questioning what we can do about the situation since we’re leaving the town soon and won’t be around to continue to talk to them. The bar owner says not to worry about it, he’ll take care of the fallout (aka the DM dropping a direct hint to not worry about it and move on), but Jean will not. Fucking. Drop it. He keeps talking about scenarios and stuff that the DM has all but directly told him to ignore/it’s not a problem, but he will not stop talking. He also brings up that if we remove the fire barrier (which we now have the ability to do), how will the city defend itself from outside threats? Can we just make a hole in the barrier for people to pass through? To which again, the bar owner says that they’ll be able to defend the city and Jean immediately asks how they plan to do that, they don’t have a militia, etc etc just inane bullshit. At this point it was around 8 pm my time and I was really annoyed: two and a half hours into the session and we weren’t even past breakfast. I wound up blowing up at him, saying just that and how I needed to go to bed in an houhour and a half or so since I had work early the next morning, and if Arilies is going to be the lynchpin for the encounter then we’d have to stop in the middle. The DM called for a 15 minute break just then, which I was annoyed at initially but ultimately appreciated, and he pulled Sam into a private call that went for half an hour, lol. I joked with the others that it would probably be an hour until they were back. When they did come back, the DM had us go to the part of town where the fanatics were and then break until the next session, which I ultimately really appreciated because it gave me time to plan what Arilies would say & do and it turned out really cool. But between sessions Sam posted an extremely insulting message in our discord server basically insulting the campaign, calling the Overlord stupid, and rage quitting. He’d been insulting the Overlord and Death Knights pretty much the entire campaign, calling them and their motivations stupid, and we all kind of ignored him. He would repeatedly question and insult the DM’s decisions, world building, map, lore, NPCs, and make wild assumptions about literally everything, then build wild scenarios in “intel reports” he would send to the group between sessions. I don’t think anyone except myself even looked at them, and literally none of them were ever relevant to later sessions. He also expressed regret about building a social skills character since he misunderstood what a “resistance campaign” would entail, and said somewhat saltily that if he had known what the campaign would be like he would have just built a “mallet” character instead. A couple sessions have since gone by and the game is much improved, to the point that our DM directly called out at the end of last session how much smoother and quicker the sessions were going than the ones from a month ago. He didn’t name-drop Sam, but it was heavily implied his absence was the reason why. TL;DR:
Player creates a storytelling bard that he doesn’t roleplay as a bard at all (he barely roleplays at all in a roleplay-moderate campaign)
He questions the DM at almost every turn
He makes wild assumptions about the campaign that are literally never correct
He goes on long tangents talking about barely-irrelevant or wholly irrelevant details
He insults the campaign, worldbuilding, and villain motivations
He overthinks everything and drags out conversations because of it for literally hours. (This is bad for me because I’m 2 hours ahead of them and our games are on Sundays, and I have work early in the morning)
TLDR: Lockdown is Trump's failure, not Murphy's--it is our burden to bear, but also our fault as a community, and our task to fix. (Some initial edits: I'm sorry, as I'm getting some hatemail: This is an impulsive rant/vent at 5 am that I didn't expect blowing up. I realize this post insults some people and I'm sorry. Some of my words aren't really tactful or diplomatic in a time of tension and division. I realize that calling people names in this post or being belittling isn't a very good way to communicate, so I wanted to put this here as a recognition of this. That being said, a lot of people need some mental health help right now and to stop with the conspiracies. I really want people to heal; mentally, physically, spiritually. I don't want to fight, as I've been doing it for four years and I am tired. I am totally willing to try to communicate and will do my best. This post was a bit of an impulsive, half-dazed, super-long shower-thought. I didn't edit anything out because, well...I feel I have more integrity this way. Despite this, I feel like Trump is a monster who weaponized his supporters, and the Anti-Intellectualism Movement, against us and science. Also, I have been a veterinary technician for 18 years, am on the path to becoming an RN, and am by no means an expert in any of this. This is only my opinion. Thanks for your time. Far too many in NJ are condemning the Governor for his actions. I'm not entirely in agreement with this. I appreciate the fact that the Governor made certain our hospitals were not overrun; keeping more people from dying as a result of the initial outbreak of the virus. I believe that--as someone who is in healthcare and is compelled to live under science--without strict lockdown--our state wouldn't have survived the way it did. Hurt but intact. Lockdown is only necessary if our people cannot mitigate the virus themselves and, unfortunately--when we learned how entrenched the virus was in America already--we weren't able to control it ourselves. We were passed that point. In a crisis, under attack, by an alien invader. You are so fucking lucky to be living in the most densely populated area in the country...run by a Democrat...no matter who it was. Could you imagine if it were Republican control right now? Do you think there would be mask mandates? Do you think they would test at these levels? Do you think there would be an app to download? My Father lives in TN and fears for his life daily, surrounded by imbeciles who don't wear masks, don't believe in the virus, while they are dying in droves. All I am asking is for you to realize you are lucky to live in NJ right now during this pandemic and to maybe give Murphy's team some credit. We needed strict lockdowns in order to develop further information regarding the virus. We needed to learn that it isn't easily spread through fomite. We needed to say "NO TO EVERYTHING!" so that we could figure out a multi-tiered plan to reopen, from least risk to greatest risk. We had to say "NO FISHING" until we could produce the plan indicating "NO CHARTER FISHING, but going fishing with your friends is fine." Epidemiology is complex. Having to control millions of people is complex. Shortly after lockdown, the hospital my friend works at as an ER Doctor had to add another freezer truck outside of their morgue due to the overwhelming number of deaths. If we didn't shut down, it would have been three...four...five...more. Thankfully, we were shocked into realization and we began mitigating the virus ourselves in collaboration with the state. We are only rising now because we have become fatigued and many of us no longer care. It is also apparent that a large amount of Americans are stupid, selfish people. Those who would have fought the initial shutdown were shocked into submission because it happened so fast--and now they have done their "research" and have become inspired by the terribly infantile, anti-scientific mismanagement of this pandemic by the Trump administration--to rebel in ways that are threatening NJ as a whole. Threatening you and your loved ones. Murphy doesn't want us to fall as a state...that is highly illogical to think. He isn't trying to declare martial law to inject your unborn babies with a microchip vaccine and fuck your Grandma. He isn't trying to start a War on Brunch, you rotten minded imbeciles. He is trying to keep us alive. And he is dealing with a lot of complex factors that I know I wouldn't be able to handle in his shoes. The only real problem, outside of a pandemic, in this whole scenario, is that we aren't being helped by the Federal administration in power. We aren't keeping these businesses up or helping to stimulate our smaller economy on a Federal level like we would major corporate interests. If we lived in a society that wasn't just capitalism run amok, we would have safety nets to make this entire pandemic less difficult. But without a scientific, empathetic administration...we look to those directly above to blame because we feel powerless. Stop blaming Murphy. We aren't worse because of him. We are alive because of him. Injured, but alive. And if we lockdown again...it is going to suck and we will lose places we love, and people will go broke, but it isn't his fault. The Federal government should be supporting our small businesses now more than ever, but they decided to use supporting the people, or not, as a way to get votes. I don't blame Murphy for what comes next. I trust science. I blame the Trump administration and those that follow him that are persisting the virus due to politics by not wearing masks and pretending it is the flu, and I blame those that are having large gatherings despite the pandemic. I blame the Southern states for thinking religion would save them over science. I blame sad, selfish, idiotic people that can't wear their masks properly during work or elsewhere. I blame the virus itself. But I blame the administration the most...for not acting or caring. When it comes down to it, it is Trump's failure and our burden. If we didn't do what we did initially, I can't imagine the impact. If we don't consider locking down again (if it isn't still on the table!), then NJ is going to be consumed by this and many, many people will die. The answer is in social protection and relief during this pandemic, not in blaming those utilizing science to try and curb it. I empathize with people losing money and their businesses. Truly I do. I can't imagine that and I am thankful, though scared, to work in healthcare. But...that isn't Murphy's fault. It is Trump's for not helping and on us for not mitigating the virus where we can. We did well for a very long time. That drop was our success as a whole. This increase was going to come and now it is our time to prove we can deal with it ourselves. But I don't think that will happen. We cannot trust our herd mentality to not blame Murphy just because we can't find someone else, or to follow the protocols recommended when we should be seasoned vets now. I would support another lockdown if it was necessary. In a civilized society, the government would step in to keep everyone afloat and maintain our economy. Lockdown would be so much less stressful for everyone if this was the case. Help likely isn't going to happen until January. We are on our own and doing the best we can. A 10 pm curfew for bars is a worthy sacrifice. All people do after 10 pm in bars is get smashed, loud, project, get closer, lose inhibition. If that minute change keeps someone from killing their Grandma, that is pretty worth it. If that minute change keeps us from going into a complete lockdown, that is worth it. I feel that this wave is worse than the initial outbreak in the vastness of its spread this time. Luckily, we are better prepared to treat the virus but...not if our healthcare system gets overwhelmed again. I know someone by a degree of separation that has died from it this time. I'm seeing more people I know testing positive. It likely won't be as crippling as the initial wave, but a lot rides on us being smart. This isn't Murphy's fault. It is Trump's incompetence. It is the Trump Cult of anti-social anti-intellectualism. It is OUR fault, as well, for being so goddamn selfish. Let's direct our anger appropriately. Murphy is not, and will not be perfect and I recognize that. But fuck...we are still better off than a lot of the country and he deserves that acknowledgment from New Jersey. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Now let's help each other out and fight to stay alive. Be safe. Be smart. Wear a mask. Don't gather in large groups. Respect others. Let's get through this NJ! Also...this: https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/11/10/americans-support-covid-19-lockdowns Also, fuck these people: https://www.pix11.com/news/coronavirus/despite-2nd-coronavirus-wave-in-nj-60-arent-cooperating-with-contact-tracing-doh-commissioner (Edit: Thank you for the awards guys! I didn't expect this. Thank you. I also wanted to say thank you to those giving me sources for other mistakes made of Murphy's during the pandemic. I like the information but still believe the situation could have been far worse if we followed GOP, Trump, or Anti-Intellectualism logic. Also, I understand that Murphy made a huge mistake at the beginning of the pandemic by believing long-term health facilities were able to control an infectious disease like an isolation unit in a hospital. It was stupid. And cost lives. But where were these people supposed to go, as mentioned in the below comments? I believe he will hold that as the worst thing he did during the pandemic. And we should too. I'm for him being held accountable for that too, but when in leadership, small ideas have big consequences. If we had a Federal plan from a competent administration--we could have had the infrastructure to take care of people before our first case. But you vote Trump. Murphy made sure that...if you got into a car accident during the pandemic...you had a hospital to go to that could take you in, because we locked down and made sure they weren't fully overrun. He cost people their lives and saved the lives of many more. He has blood on his hands too, I agree, but the main issue here is that our government isn't helping--and 1/2 of Americans don't believe in Science! Conspiracy theories do not help anything. It doesn't help your mind, your health, or the world. Get off social media and take a chill with trying to connect strings to the Democratic Illuminati Cabal run by Hillary Clinton and Bill Gates trying to kill old people. I promise you it will do no good for you. Stop building your own narrative.)
I am 27 years old, make $145,000, normally live in NYC, and work as a software engineer/artist.
I feel like I should preface my MD with a bit of background on my life as it currently stands so there’s a little more info about some of the things I write about (somewhat unconventional "career") – tl;dr: I am currently in Germany but my residence is in NYC, where I will return in a few short weeks. I started off working full-time as a software developer out of school, and eventually quit my job to go freelance as an artist a couple years ago, because it was becoming a very viable career for me (as opposed to a side hustle.) So for 3 years, I had a very steady monthly income, and then the past ~2 years have been way more varied in terms of income, but I was generally making much less than before. When COVID hit, arts jobs effectively went away (as we knew them), and my partner (who is also an artist) and I made the decision ~mid-2020 to give up our lease in the city (NYC) until the arts returned properly. I spent some time with my parents, and he went back to his home country (Germany), where I eventually joined him late last year after they opened up the borders to long-term partners. We’re lucky that during this time, we’ve managed to keep up virtual gigs due to our skillsets. A few months ago, I also started a full-time job as a software engineer (remotely), and have been working full-time for only about 4 months, which means my income has drastically changed recently. I figured: I'm not sure when arts jobs are going to come back properly, and I might as well make use of my degree (computer science) and past job experience and save up as much money as possible in the interim. I’ll be returning to NYC in a few weeks and aim to do another MD again once I’m settled so I can do a comparison of what my spending habits are like between the two places.
Section Zero: Background
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it? Absolutely. My parents are both immigrants and set those expectations really high for me in terms of excelling academically and going to college (it was never remotely in the “plan” growing up not to go to college.) I’ve only got a bachelor’s degree (haven’t pursued anything beyond it), but I was so lucky that my parents were able to pay for it. Did you worry about money growing up? My parents shielded a lot of those conversations from me and my siblings, so to be honest, I didn’t really worry about it. Now, I understand that there were a lot of moments where my parents were indeed worried about money, but I was relatively sheltered from it. At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net? Yes, I have a financial safety net in the sense that if it really came down to it, my parents could bail me out of a generally sticky situation. I haven't had to fall back on it (yet). When I graduated college, I became truly financially responsible for myself, though I did work all throughout college. Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain. No.
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance (and how you got there): $103,455 – maxed out my 401k at my first job, the minute I could start contributing, and when I went freelance, I maxed out contributions to a Roth IRA every year. Most of that is in a robo-advisor account. Equity: N/A Investment account balance: $80,822 – all in a robo-advisor account. Savings account balance: $119,463 – I’m very seriously thinking about potentially buying a place in NYC and might want to use most/some of this for a down payment. Checking account balance: $5,103 – because my income is quite variable (or at least it was before I got a full-time job again), I manually transfer money every ~2 weeks or so depending on how much I’m getting, so that my balance generally sits around $5k. Credit card debt: N/A, pay off every month Student loan debt: N/A, super, super grateful that my parents covered my college education. Anything else that's applicable to you: In general, my SO and I split bills/utilities/pet expenses down the middle.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: 2015-2018: First job (software.) Salary started at $105,000/year, and by the time I left, I was making $120,000/year. From 2016-2018 I was also freelancing as an artist on the side. 2019: My first full year as a freelancer, made ~$70,000 that year according to Mint. 2020: Freelance for most of the year, and then started the full-time job ($145k/year salary) very late 2020. According to Mint, I took in $110,000. During the first 9 months of 2020, I was doing a myriad of different things: part-time software work, part-time teaching work, random virtual gigs. Main Job Monthly Take Home: $8,203.98 / month. I contribute $100/month pre-tax into my HSA, and am allowed to contribute to my 401k starting next month (which I will max out.) Side Gig Monthly Take Home: This amount varies quite a lot depending on the month. I have a couple of side gigs (as mentioned before, I am still taking gigs as an artist – the time difference actually bodes well for me). Teach online course: $2000 / month. I teach an online course for a university (don’t want to give any more specifics in case it’s easily identifiable…). The monthly income changes based on my class size each semester, but this is what I can expect this semester. Gigs: ~$4,500 this month
Section Three: Expenses
Rent this month: $129.50 for 1/2 our storage unit in NYC + $390 for 1/2 rent of our apartment = $519.50. This will (significantly) change once I go back to NYC...! Retirement contribution: As mentioned above, everything I get basically funnels into my individual brokerage acct so that my checking sits at ~$5k at all times. Not really counting it here so as not to double count, just noting. Donations: I try to contribute ~10% of my monthly post-tax income to donate to causes I care about. Since my income is varied each month, this amount also varies – I expect ~$14,000 this month so I will donate $1400. Recurring contributions include $100/month to the ACLU, $100/month to Doctors Without Borders, $50/month to the Working Families Party, and $27.50/month to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In general I try to support friends' small businesses/side hustles, political causes that mean a lot to me, and arts funds. Utilities: included in rent Cellphone: $15/month, part of my family’s family plan Subscriptions: $12.99/mo Dropbox, $1.99/mo Google Drive, $12.99/mo Hulu, $7/mo Patreon, $9.99/mo Spotify, $119/year Amazon Prime. I’m on my family’s Netflix account, and they’re on my Hulu account. Petexpenses: ~$30/mo for food/litter Creditcard: $450/year fee, Chase Sapphire Reserve. I do get a $150 credit back on purchases throughout the year through this card.
Section Four: Money Diary
I live with my long-term partner (referred to as D), and our roommate (referred to as C). Though I am temporarily living in Germany, my residence is still in the USA and for my full-time job, I am working east coast hours (I am 6 hours ahead). All the times below are German time; all currency has been converted from Euros. Tuesday (TOTAL SPENT: $0) 9:00 am - We are moving a new couch into our apartment, from my roommate’s dad’s house. D and C arrive in the van, couch in tow, and we start the day by reenacting that one scene in FRIENDS up and down the stairs. 11:00 am - I catch up on emails from last night and get some ducks in a row for a virtual concert I’m on the production team for. These days it’s all virtual gigs because of COVID, and I’m grateful to have the work. On the plus side, I have my mornings completely free because everyone in the US is sleeping, so I can take my time to answer emails. 11:30 am - Practice. I’ve got a gig that I need to put in the work for in a few weeks, and I really enjoy the ritual of just having this time to myself to actually "hone my craft" (...or whatever). 12:30 pm - I start to grade papers for my teaching job. This is easily the most time consuming part of that job, and probably the least exciting aspect too. The first omen of days to come: the internet is completely shitting the bed. It’s been somewhat of a recurring problem the past few weeks, and apparently we can’t upgrade for a myriad of reasons related to old European cities and living in the middle of them. Both D and I are worried about how we can get work done, because all our work is virtual to a high degree (for both of our gig work, we are constantly needing to upload large-ish files to Google Drive or Dropbox – and for my software work, everything of course is online, not to mention Zoom meetings.) 1:45 pm - Make myself a stir fry for lunch with leftover groceries ($0). 3:30 pm - It’s the first day of (software) work after a long weekend – I try to log on, but the internet still isn’t recovering. I’m beginning to lose my cool since this has been a recurring and somewhat unsolvable problem. Somehow I make it through the 10am standup meeting we have, but the rest of this time is spent freaking out about what we’re going to do about our living situation. 4:45 pm - We make a plan to move D’s setup to his parents’ place (~30 mins away), and pack up things. His dad picks us up and we head over together and set up shop in the basement of his parents’ place, still not really sure what we’re going to do about our living situation. 7:00 pm - I have a very short “Zoom rehearsal” for a virtual gig, reviewing some music for a remote recording session. 7:30 pm - We have dinner with D’s parents – Abendbrot (“evening bread”). Bread, various cold cuts, and cheese – it’s a German staple for “I don’t want to cook” evenings. ($0) 12:00 am - I have a short Zoom production meeting for a gig that I have coming up. It’s late over here, but luckily the meeting doesn’t last long, and I’m in bed by 1 am. Wednesday (TOTAL SPENT: $44.14) 9:00 am - Couldn’t sleep well last night (I imagine due to the stress.) I wake up still feeling stressed, but get myself some granola from D’s parents’ kitchen, and do my morning ritual of answering emails and continuing to grade papers. 12:00 pm - We head back to our apartment in the city, and I continue to grade papers from there. The internet is working slightly better now, but it’s completely unreliable, so we know we have to make a plan for getting work done consistently. I continue to grade papers. 1:30 pm - D and I pick up lunch from a health food place that is very, very expensive, but makes food that makes us feel healthy and more energetic. I get a “Salmon Buddha Bowl”. We put on an episode of the Office to decompress. ($18) 3:00 pm - I do a short, 25-minute HIIT workout in another attempt to decompress. It sort of works! 4:00 - I start (software) work for the day. My roommate’s mom has kindly let me work in her office for a few hours in the afternoon, where the WiFi is abundant and fast, and the office is conveniently located very close to our apartment. I’m able to get a lot of work done and feel significantly less stressed. 7:30 - I pick up some groceries – enough for the next few days ($26.14) – and head back to our apartment before the 8 pm curfew hits. 8:00 pm - The internet at our place unfortunately still doesn’t work. At this rate it’s safe to assume that we can never depend on it working reliably, and need to find another solution. I have a slight freakout, and D manages to calm me down, and we both resolve that we will figure out a solution tomorrow. 8:30 pm - I make myself some Chinese comfort food for dinner (eggs/tomato dish) with some rice. ($0) 9:30 pm - My roommate C gives me the key to his office space in the city and I head out, slightly nervous that I will be stopped by the police (~7 mins walking distance). Luckily nobody stops me and I’m able to get there and continue working. 11:00 pm - I give a short online seminar about working in the arts for a university, which lifts my spirits because everyone is really enthusiastic, and it reminds me to be hopeful about when the arts eventually return full-swing. Thursday (TOTAL SPENT: $2.92) 9:30 am - Wake up, dick around for a little bit (looking at random apartments for sale that I can’t afford on Streeteasy, looking at memes on Instagram, playing with our cat…), eventually shower and get dressed 10:20 am - I’ve fallen behind on grading papers because of the internet stress issues, so I finish up the remaining ones right now. 11:30 am - I do some work on the aforementioned virtual concert I’m on the production team for – recording some material, getting the spreadsheet in order – all things I can do without the internet. 1:00 pm - I make myself a salad for lunch, accompanied by some bread and cheese ($0). 1:45 pm - D has made his parents’ place his official office space, so he’s been there since the morning. I am going to work from there today as well, so I head over on the tram with a single-ride ticket. ($2.92) 3 pm - Thursday is my teaching day, so I teach my first of two sections for the day. It’s hard to engage people over Zoom, but the class is generally lively and successful and I’m happy with the enthusiasm some of my students seem to display so early in the semester. 4 pm - Software work begins for the day with our daily 10 am standup meeting. 8 pm - I take a short break to have dinner with D’s parents and D (Abendbrot again – $0) 11:30 pm - I teach my second section of the day, similar to the first. 12:30 am - I’m upset that I couldn’t figure out a bug that was bothering me for the better half of the evening, so I stay up for a while figuring it out. Eventually I do figure it out, and feel extremely happy about it. There are few things in life more satisfying than quashing a bug. 3:00 am - This is when I actually go to sleep. Somehow I’m not able to fall asleep the past few days – I watch a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother to try to decompress a little bit. I don’t even really know why that’s my go-to comfort show right now (a lot of the humor didn’t really age well) – but I feel that part of me feels very nostalgic for my life back in NYC, and this is a lighthearted reminder of that. Friday (TOTAL SPENT: $0) 10:00 am - I went to sleep really late last night, so I accordingly get up late as well. Granola and almond milk (a sort of fake Müsli) for breakfast. 11:30 am - More email answering and some more work on the virtual concert. 1:30 pm - D’s mom has made an awesome curry for lunch, and she gives me some. ($0) 3:30 pm - I start my (software) work day, a bit more relaxed than I have been in the days before. 6:15 pm - A short, 20-minute meeting with another member of the production team for the virtual concert. It’s a really successful meeting and I feel really glad that this person on the production team is organized, calm, and communicative! 7:30 pm - We decide we won’t stay another evening at D’s parents’ house, so his father drives us back into the city before curfew. We’ve heard from our roommate that the Wifi seems to be working again so I decide to take a chance and see if I can work the rest of the evening from there. 9:00 pm - My roommate, D, and I have a homemade bolognese dinner made from some of the groceries I’d picked up a few nights ago ($0). We are all really exhausted, but D and I are also really glad that we seem to have found a solution to our wifi issue. We spend a lot of the dinner hypothesizing about the erratic nature of the internet. We know that in general, on weekends and on evenings, it seems to work fairly well, so we eventually conclude that there’s some sort of relationship between the German work day, and the internet availability in this apartment. Saturday (TOTAL SPENT: $74.32) 9:30 am - We wake up slowly. D decided to head to his parents’ place to work for most of the day, so he’s out the door by around 10am. I, on the other hand, loaf around for a while (it’s the weekend!), make myself a smoothie (bananas, almond milk, chia seeds, nuts, and a bit of frozen fruit) for breakfast, and watch the latest episode of the Bachelor (sue me, I’m a die-hard Bachelor Nation member.) 12:30 pm - I do some more work for the virtual concert, but not in a particularly focused manner. 3:30 pm - Whoops, I haven’t gone outside yet. I make a short grocery run to buy some TP and paper towels while listening to a podcast about the Bachelor episode I just watched. I don’t know what it is, but somehow I like listening to people snark over an inane reality show. ($6.95) 4:00 pm - I make myself a REALLY late lunch – salad with bread + cheese ($0) 4:30 pm - My roommate, D, and I had planned to have a nice home-cooked dinner this evening, and we’ve gotten really into making craft cocktails. I myself am really partial to gin cocktails, so I run to the liquor store and pick up a bottle. ($42.37) 5:00 pm - Lots of loafing around – since the internet is working, I watch some more TV, putz around a bit… Hey, it’s the weekend, cut me some slack. :-) (Yes, I should be practicing.) During this time, we reschedule our roommate dinner to tomorrow evening because D made a plan to play cards (online) with some friends. 7:30 pm - I was going to cook myself some mapo tofu this evening since I had the time, but it’s begun to rain and I realize I need to just get some food before curfew hits. I go to the local Chinese restaurant and pick up some mapo tofu there, along with a pork dish for D. ($25) 8:30 pm - I FaceTime a friend of mine who is on the same time zone as me, and we decide to watch a movie together (remotely, of course.) We land on Wolf of Wall Street, which I haven’t seen, but he has. I make a gin sour for myself and we have a lovely time watching the movie and snarking over late-stage capitalism. Of course, it’s three hours long, so by the time it eventually finishes, I’m off for bed. Sunday (TOTAL SPENT: $8.52) 9:00 am - D and I wake up. He’s off to his parents’ house again to do some work (the freelancer life!) 10:00 am - I’ve made a plan to go on a hike with a friend and his girlfriend. We meet by a coffee shop, and take a lovely walk through the forest together, stopping for a croissant and a tea on the way back ($5.60). 12:30 pm - I head to D’s parents’ house on the tram, where we are having our weekly Sunday lunch together. It’s a really lovely ritual that we’ve kept since he moved back to his hometown this year, and even though we’ve seen them quite a lot this past week, it still feels like its own separate thing. ($2.92) 2 pm - We have a virtual church gig later today, so D and I rehearse together to make sure we, uh, know what we're doing and all. 4:15 pm - We do the church gig. The sermon is about the recent inauguration, and it really touches me. Afterwards, I answer some emails and putz around while D plays some video games. 7:30 pm - D’s dad drops us off back in the city again, before curfew hits. 9:00 pm - We have our roommate dinner in the evening – an Ottolenghi cauliflower recipe, with some potatoes and a lovely beetroot hummus. My roommate has bought the groceries for the evening. Afterwards, I make some cocktails and we also drink some wine (it is quite a debaucherous evening!) Monday (TOTAL SPENT: $29.21) 9:00 am - Wake up, answer emails (D is again off to his parents’ place), and I do some more work for the virtual concert. There’s some recording work that I also get done for another virtual production that I’m on as well. 10:15 am - I walk to the grocery store and pick up some groceries for the next few days ($29.21) 11:30 am - Back home, I make myself a smoothie and continue the music work I’ve been doing. 1:00 pm - I make myself a Greek salad for lunch with some bread and cheese (are we sensing a pattern here?) and attempt to watch some TV, but because it’s Monday during the day, the internet is just not working. Ah well. I manage to still get some music work done without the internet. 2:15 pm - I do a 25-minute HIIT workout. I really need to get a proper workout routine back in my body after being completely thrown off last week. 3:30 pm - My roommate’s mom has once again kindly offered up her office space for the afternoon, so I head there and start my software work for the day. 8:30 pm - Slightly past curfew, but I walk back home. My roommate and D were going to pick up some döner for dinner, but they were too late, so we improvise something with egg noodles and everything else in the house currently. 9:30 pm - I don’t have any more video meetings for the day and the internet is working well enough for me to work on my software work, so I’m able to finish up work for the day and head to bed around 12:45 am. Total Spending
Food
$147.63
Public Transit
$5.84
TOTAL:
$153.47
Section 5: Reflection
This was such a great exercise for me. I would say that it was atypical in some ways because of the amount of time we spent at my partner’s parents’ place, which meant we were often eating their food. Otherwise, though, because of COVID, we’re not spending a ton on anything besides groceries and the occasional takeout, and our COL is significantly lower than in NYC. The internet situation did put me in a really bad headspace for most of the week. The whole ordeal (changing the location of where I work every day) really made me ache for "home" mostly because I feel like I've been living in a limbo for the past year, and I want to go back to a life where I at least feel rooted somewhere. I'm really curious to see the difference when I'm back in the city as well. Mainly I want to shout out the fact that I have loved reading money diaries for the past few months – a resounding YES to women talking about money. It's been so interesting reading other people's different backgrounds, and it also makes me recognize a great deal of privilege I have, and have grown up with financially (especially not having to deal with student loan debt). Thanks for having me!
EXTENSIVE write up on the murder of Mackenzie Cowell, 17-year-old high school student killed in Washington State. Was Christopher Scott Wilson convicted of her murder for the crime of being weird in a small town? And is the real murderer walking free? Part 1 of 2
Hello everyone, for the last few months I have been creating long form write-ups on a variety of unsolved cases. If you are interested in other lengthy write ups you can find them on my profile- https://www.reddit.com/useQuirky-Moto. The crime I want to discuss today was committed in Wenatchee, Washington a medium sized town in the middle of Washington state. As a Washingtonian, this case has always stuck with me as I rememberwhen it happened so vividly. I remember my grandma driving all around town in search of the last taser which she purchased at a sporting store. The clerk told her it was the last one in stock and that he had never sold so many tasers, firearms, and pepper sprays in his life. It really was one of the crimes that shook an entire region and changed how people lived. But first, let’s talk about the area. If you are not interested skip until The Crime section. The area Wenatchee is a town of 30,000 people in dead center of Washington state. It is not near anyfreeways meaning that it is not necessarily small, but it isn't close to any large population centers. The closest freeway access is 40 miles to the south east and the high desert is devoid of any large population centers for 100 miles in any direction, Seattle to the west, Spokane to the east and Tri Cities to the south are all in equal distance from Wenatchee. The whole county, Chelan County (pronounced SHUH-lan), boasts only 5 incorporated towns. Wenatchee- 30,000, Chelan- 3000, Cashmere-3000, Entiat- 1000, and Leavenworth- 1900. Wenatchee sits on the banks of the mighty Columbia River. The city is on a county line, split into two townships, Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, population 9,000. As mentioned before Wenatchee is the largest city in ovver a hundred miles. It is home to the region’s only sizable hospital, only animal shelter, only shoe store, etc. It is the seat of an area know as North Central Washington or NCW as the locals call it, a map of which can be found here. The paper, the Wenatchee World, available in both English and Spanish, covers a whopping four counties. In this isolated area a murder was all that was talked about for months, not even in town, but in all four surrounding counties. The paper and radio stations reported on it constantly and everyone in town had connections to the crimes. It really was one of those stories that changed a whole community and unfortunately that didn’t change with a trial and a conviction. Demographics of Wenatchee show that the town is about 70% white and 30% Hispanic/Latino of any race. However, due to the agricultural nature of the region, seasonal constantly move in and out of the area so the real split is more like 50/50 between white Americans and those with Latin American origin. The school district for example is over 50% “Latino.” The Crime Mackenzie Cowell was born in 1992 to Wendy and Reid Cowell, the youngest of their three children. The young family spent their time living in and around the Wenatchee Valley. When Mackenzie was 7, her parents had a tempestuous divorce, which resulted in restraining orders against each other. Despite the rocky relationship both Reid and Wendy shared custody of their children with Mackenzie splitting her time between her two parents. Mackenzie was a girly girl but she also an athlete who was busy, ambitious, and hard working. After starting high school life at Cashmere High School, she transferred to the Wenatchee School District when her mom moved into town, despite living most of her time at father's house in Orondo, Washington. Mackenzie joined the Applettes dance team at the high school. Her dad explained that Mackenzie was interested in makeup, hair care, and clothes. She spent most of her time dancing. She was part of two dance studios outside of her school dance team and she could often be seen working out at the gym. At age 16 Mackenzie started seeing Joaquin Villasano, a young man from nearby Pateros. Joaquin was 18 or 19 years old at the time. At the time of her disappearance, the two had been together for almost two years. In 2010 Mackenzie was a senior in high school and also part of a vocational program where she could get high school credits for getting training in a job. Mackenzie attended school from approximately 7:30 a.m. to noon, and then finished her day the Academy of Hair Design where she was in class from noon till 5 pm. The Academy of Hair Design was in downtown Wenatchee, 5-minute drive from Wenatchee High School. There is a city-owned public parking lot directly behind the beauty school. The school had two routes for graduation. The students were either adults who attended school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or were high schoolers were in the ½ day vocational program. The students were also split into first-year and second-year classes although they were sometimes lumped together for certain lessons (Source). On February 9th, 2010 17-year-old Mackenzie Cowell left home at approximately 7:15 a.m. and drove to school in her red Grand Prix sedan. She attended class and then went to the Academy of Hair Design for the rest of her day. Reid Cowell was expecting her home after class at 5 p.m. The two had dinner plans and Reid was planning on making teriyaki burgers with his daughter that night. Mackenzie was at the beauty school at about 3 p.m. when she asked a classmate if she needed to sign out of the building if she was only going to be gone for 15 minutes. This is the last known conversation that Mackenzie ever had (Source). Classmates assumed that Mackenzie was leaving to go get coffee at Auto Mocha, a drive-through coffee stand she frequented several days per week (Source). The stand was only a four-minute drive from beauty school. Security footage shows Mackenzie walking to her car at 3:01 p.m. holding her purse. Nothing seems amiss. She starts the car and drives away (Source). At this time Mackenzie calls a phone number that she had never called before. It was a landline number to a residence in East Wenatchee. She did not get through to this number and the family who lived at the residence had a generic voicemail message, not a personalized one. Mackenzie rapidly called this number five more times but never got through. (Later investigation showed that this family did not know Mackenzie. Mackenzie had never called them before and the family was determined to not be involved in Mackenzie's subsequent disappearance as they were all at work that day and had no connection to Cowell.) Despite this it is obvious that Mackenzie was trying to contact someone at this time). The calls were in such rapid succession that some investigators thought it was possibly a “butt dial” (Source). According to investigators, this was the only strange activity on Mackenzie’s phone in the week leading up to Feb. 9th. All her other texts and calls were to known numbers. She was not taking to anyone new or different than usual. One minute later at 3:02 pm Mackenzie's car is seen on a traffic camera heading west on Kittitas Avenue, toward the coffee stand and pretty much everything else in Wenatchee (Source)..) According to baristas, Mackenzie never made it to the stand that day. 3:15 pm came and went but Mackenzie did not return to class. Mackenzie sent her last text at 3:26 p.m. The message was to her boyfriend and said simply “hey.” The last incoming activity on Mackenzie's phone came from her boyfriend Joaquin at 3:42 p.m. He responded “hey”. This is the last usage Mackenzie’s phone, which was odd for the teen who sent over 200 text messages per day on my maroon colored EnV flip phone. At 5:42 p.m. her phone “pinged” again and it is presumed that this is when the phone was turned off (Source). Classes ended at the Academy at 5 p.m. but Mackenzie never returned to the building. At approximately 5:40 p.m. Reid called his daughter to inquire about her whereabouts as he expected her home already but her phone went straight to voicemail. He called her several more times over the next couple of hours but got no response. Panic began to set in when Mackenzie’s 8 p.m. weekday curfew passed without word from Mackenzie. At this point Reid made a couple of calls including to Joaquin Villasano. Joaquin revealed that he had not heard from Mackenzie since 3:30 p.m. Reid called a couple of Mackenzie’s friends but no one had heard from her (Source). At around 8 p.m. a rancher five miles south of Wenatchee in the Pitcher Canyon area called the police to report that a red sedan had been abandoned near his driveway. He said he had first noticed it around 7 pm. The Pitcher Canyon area is pretty remote. While there are people who live in the area it's mostly empty and spread out. Pitcher Canyon Road itself is a dead-end and the pavement quickly morphs into a dirt track. A little before 10 p.m. an officer came to the area to inspect the abandoned car. He ran the license plate and called the car's owner, Reid Cowell. Reid explained that not only was the car missing, his daughter was missing as well. Inside the car was Mackenzie's purse, her gym bag, and some clothes. Her keys, debit card, and cell phone were missing. There was only one set of footprints in the snow leading away from the car. It appeared that someone parked the car, got out, locked it, and walked away back towards Wenatchee. A search was immediately launched in the area once it was evident that Mackenzie was a missing person and not just a teenager who had stayed out too late. Joaquin, Reid, and Reid’s girlfriend arrived at the scene to begin looking for the teen. For the next several days a helicopter searched the vicinity under the impression that Mackenzie was nearby. A bloodhound was brought to the area but the k-9 officer was unable to find Mackenzie’s scent anywhere but the car. (Source). People who lived in Pitcher Canyon were interviewed and three people recalled seeing similar occurrence. In between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., three independent witnesses recalled seeing a thin man with dark hair and a dark coat walking down Pitcher Canyon Road away from the car and towards Wenatchee (Source). The sight was odd as you don't typically see people walking on rural roads in the winter time miles away from town. One report says that the man walking down the road was white, but most reports do not note this. Meanwhile, Mackenzie's phone records were obtained, coworkers were interviewed, alibis were checked. Preliminary investigation showed that Joaquin, Reid, Wendy, and Reid’s girlfriend were all at work when the car was abandoned, but they weren’t cleared just yet. For 4 days, no trace of Mackenzie was found. Reid and Wendy had their restraining orders removed so that they could work together to search for their daughter (Source). On February 13th, 000222010 a homeowner was strolling the beach on the Columbia River at an area called Crescent Bar when she saw a woman in the water. She called police. The body belonged to Mackenzie Cowell. Mackenzie was determined to have died on February 9th at around 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. right after she went missing. She had no drugs or alcohol in her system, she had not been sexually assaulted, and she was found still clothed and her beauty school uniform. The autopsy reported that Mackenzie had been strangled, hit in the head, and then had her throat slashed. Post-mortem someone had tried to dismember her by cutting her off her arm but was unsuccessful. The murder weapon, a kitchen knife, was found stuck in Mackenzie's shoulder. One report says she had duct tape on her mouth. Near her body was found an additional length of duct tape and a plastic bag. Some other small items were collected but they were determined to not be related. Mackenzie's missing items such as her keys, her debit card, and her phone were not with the body. Mackenzie had been placed partially in the water of the Columbia River on the shoreline 50 feet in front of a vacant home (Source). Crescent Bar is more than 20 miles east of Wenatchee, the opposite direction from Pitcher Canyon. It is a vacation spot along the river with only a few hundred residents at best. There is no gas station or grocery store in Crescent Bar. One later report mentioned that a second kitchen knife, which had been purchased at Wenatchee’s Stan’s Merry Mart, was also near the body, but it is unknown if this knife held any evidentiary value. Police did not want to release all evidence to the public so they kept this information about the second knife close to their chest in order to weed out false confessions. This lead was released only when the case had gone cold. The public was asked to call the task force if they knew someone who owned that particular set or had thrown it out in the days following the murder. Several pieces of evidence were sent the State Crime Lab in Cheney in order to be tested. Scientists found nothing of evidence on the plastic bag near Mackenzie's body however, they did find blood on the length of duct tape found near the scene, as well as trace amounts of DNA from two unknown males. They also found DNA from three males on the knife. Swabs from Mackenzie's car were taken and an unknown male DNA profile was found on her steering wheel. There was also unknown male DNA profile on her left-hand fingernail. It is unclear if all these DNA samples came from different men, or if there was some overlap, but most sources seem to operate under the impression that these were all different contributors. No female DNA was found at the crime scene other than Mackenzie’s. A multi-agency task force was formed with the sole intention of solving this crime, the vastest the area had ever seen. Initially Mackenzie's boyfriend and family members were looked at as suspects. Within a couple of months Joaquin, Reid, Wendy, and Mackenzie's brothers had all been “cleared 100%.” Police interviewed 750 people and collected DNA swabs from 50 (Source). I could find no indication that Joaquin and Mackenzie's family had been DNA swabbed, but I'm assuming that they had. Mackenzie's boyfriend and her parents were ruled out via alibi, phone records, and witness statements which place them elsewhere at the time of Mackenzie's disappearance and murder. Joaquin as well as Mackenzie's parents were at work all day on the day of Mackenzie disappearance and their whereabouts can be confirmed with co-worker sightings, and phone records (Source). Joaquin Villasano was a polygraphed on two different occasions. According to one documentary Joaquin said he failed one question on the test which was, “do you know who killed to Mackenzie?” Despite failing that question on the lie detector police have always reiterated that Joaquin has been “cleared 100%” and that his alibi is “rock solid.” They've confirmed the same thing with Mackenzie's brothers and Mackenzie's parents (Source). Suspicion then turned to Mackenzie's mother's boyfriend a man named Joey Fisher. Joey Fisher has a somewhat storied life and a minor criminal history, but most importanly Mackenzie and Joey hated each other with the two getting into a huge argument just the day before. Mackenzie allegedly told her mother that it was either “him or me.” But like the others Joey Fisher had a rock-solid alibi of being at work miles away on February 9th (Source). I know Joey was looked at pretty seriously as I remember that they completely ripped apart his house in Wenatchee and took loads of things away for testing. I had a friend who lived nearby and remember getting a call when it was happening. Additionally, these initial male suspects in the case, Joaquin, Reid, and Joey did not match the description of the man seen walking away from Mackenzie's car. Both Reid and Joey were light-complected men with blond or reddish gray hair which did not match the witness sightings. Joaquin on the other hand was not white or thin. Of course, it goes without saying that eyewitness testimony is spotty at best and that sundown was at 5:14 pm, so the witnesses did not necessarily see this man in the good light. But the point still stands that three independent people saw a man which they all described similarly (Source). Investigators attempted to use cell phone data to figure out where Mackenzie was after she was seen leaving the Academy of Hair Design. The local paper reported that Mackenzie’s last text was sent from an area right near the Columbia River called the Orondo Street boat launch. This area is a pretty deserted area during the winter time. The boat launch is in a waterfront park but it is not near the playground or picnic areas and is instead on the edge of the park near some industrial buildings. Investigators seem to be under the impression that Mackenzie was texting Joaquin from the parking lot of the boat launch. They got this information from Mackenzie's cell phone carrier, Verizon, who said that Mackenzie was at the boat launch with “90% certainty”. Police canvassed the area and interviewed as many people as they could regarding if they had seen Mackenzie or her car in the area at the time, but no one had. Many speculated that Mackenzie must have been meeting someone there. But when Mackenzie's car was last seen on the traffic camera, she was actually traveling away from the boat launch (Source). With obvious suspects ruled out and the boat launch canvas a bust, investigators felt that they were at a dead end, when a police informant named Liz Reid came forward. In court documents she is referred to as CI1002. The following story from Liz Reid was not reported on at all in local media until after an arrest had come in this case so while police apparently chased down this lead for months, it was not common knowledge in town at the time. Liz Reid was a self-proclaimed pill popper, prescription shopper who also had a past of selling drugs almost as much as she was doing them. Liz called police and claimed that she knew who committed this awful crime. Two local drug dealers her acquaintances Emmanuel “Buddha” Cerros and Sam Cuevas killed Mackenzie in a case of mistaken identity. Liz claimed that these men thought Mackenzie was an informant from the drug world and decided to kill her to “shut that b**** up.” They told Liz some information on the crime that have not been released to the media yet, such as Mackenzie being both strangled and slashed, but police said that this information had already been reported on in the paper. Affidavits and documents unsealed before the eventual court date, show that one of Mackenzie’s coworkers reported to police that right before she disappeared, Mackenzie said she was “going out back to meet some guys from Tacoma” and to “make plans for later this evening.” Mackenzie said she was going to the parking lot to talk to these men. Liz Reid claimed that after this conversation, four men overpowered Mackenzie and got into her car. They drove her car away but some of the men followed in another car, a green Jeep Cherokee. Reid said two of these attackers were Cuevas and Cerros. A third man has his name redacted or removed from the documents, and the fourth man is left unnamed. Reid claimed that one of the men reached in to Mackenzie's car in order to grab her. If this part of the story is true, it is unclear where this happened, as security footage shows Mackenzie getting into her car alone. There's no green Jeep Cherokee, no men grabbing her, and no other people visible in her car. Liz claimed that two of the men, Cerros and Cuevas, then took Mackenzie to a bluff overlooking Crescent Bar where they choked her twice, as she didn't die the first time and then put her body in the river (source). Liz even said that there was a snuff film of the killing and that she had seen it. For months, this lead was tracked down. Police looked for the snuff film and repeatedly interviewed both Cerros and Cuevas. Cuevas had one charge of conspiracy to deliver illegal drugs, but Cerros has a very long rap sheet. Like Reid he liked using prescription pills, heroin, and methadone. He also had charges for selling all of these substances in front of an elementary school, weapons charges, and another accusation of using and selling drugs in front of his own children resulting in custody issues. I can find no indication that either men had violent crimes in their pasts, but it is obvious that all three of these people had their own demons. Police tapped Cerros’s and Cuevas’ phones and Liz called the men repeatedly in order to get them to incriminate themselves, but nothing incriminating was ever said or recorded. Law enforcement even went as far as to buy Cerros’ green Jeep when he put it up for sale in 2010, but no evidence was found, except a brown hair that was never DNA tested. At one point on the phone, Cuevas told Liz Reid go to Crescent Bar to retrieve a ring. Liz believed that the ring was Mackenzie’s. Liz led law enforcement to a secluded bluff, where the group discovered a silver ring. Liz claims that the ring matched a selfie Mackenzie had taken. Police took the ring and tested it but no DNA was found on the ring and Mackenzie’s boyfriend, her family, and some of her friends could not identify the ring as hers (Source). Cigarettes at the bluff were collected and the DNA on the butts matched Sam Cuevas, but no other evidence was found (source). It is unclear how close this bluff is the area where the victim was discovered. Within a few months police had determined that both Cerros and Cuevas had alibis as both were working jobs at the time. Neither man’s phone showed that he had been in Crescent bar or Quincy at the time of Mackenzie’s death or disappearance and again work records showed that both men were at work in Wenatchee (Source). Sometime in the summer of 2010, Liz recanted her story claiming that she felt threatened by law enforcement, and then claimed that there was no snuff film. She later recontacted in police and said that her story was true but that there was no snuff film. She now claims that snuff film does exist. The strange circumstantial evidence aside, Reid’s story was disregarded and the police moved on to other leads. Other law enforcement agencies such as the DEA have reported that in past cases Liz has been a reliable witness who has helped them take down four narcotic traffickers in Seattle and the surrounding cities. Once again at a dead end, the task force looked through old leads when they got a letter from yet another police informant named Theo Keyes. Keyes was in prison in Oregon for exposing himself to drive through baristas. Theo had lived in Wenatchee in the past and while in jail he wrote the task force a letter explaining that an old friend of his, Chris Wilson, who was attending the Academy of Hair Design with Mackenzie had a fascination with “death, dead bodies, and serial killers.” He reported that he never thought much of it until realize that Mackenzie and Wilson were going to the same hair school. He then reported that Wilson had once choked one of their friends, Shawna Novak, at a party. Wilson then unexpectedly released Novak and acted like the incident never happened. Novak was confused and left the party. Keyes also explained that Wilson had worked at two area funeral homes that had been fired from one of them due to inappropriate behavior. Investigators interviewed Shawna Novak who explained that Theo Keyes’ story was accurate and that Wilson had choked her once at a party only a few weeks before Mackenzie’s death. Novak also explained that she had convinced herself that it was just a really strange headlock hug, and that perhaps Wilson didn't mean to choke her. But she said that the situation was odd nonetheless. Early in 2010, before Mackenzie went missing, Novak allegedly told her mother that if she ever went missing, Chris Wilson was probably to blame. Unfortunately, Novak has a history of crime and psychiatric disorders. Police were worried that she would not make a good trial witness. Some looking into Keyes shows that like Liz Reid and Shawna Novak, he's had a storied past. He's had a couple of convictions for various small crimes, such as harassment, before being convicted of exposing himself. He also had psychiatric issues, claiming online that he is both bipolar and schizoaffective but that he dislikes being put in a box and often goes off of his medication (Source). Police have admitted that Keyes also provided several other tips earlier in the investigation, but that the tips had not panned out. Due to his background of sex crimes, Theo Keyes’ DNA was checked against the DNA left at crime scene, and investigators determined Keyes was not a contributor to any of the DNA. Despite these two disorders and criminal background, Keyes’ story was backed up by Novak and others at the party so his story was taken seriously. When going through their notes from early on in the investigation police realized that an anonymous tipster, who said she worked at the Hair Academy, reported that Wilson told her that he liked working at the funeral home because he “got to cut people up (Source).” These two pieces of information in hand, police decided to take a harder look at Chris Wilson. Christopher Scott Wilson was an odd duck to say in the least. Born in Bellevue, Washington to a single mother Chris Wilson spent the first couple years of his life living in the suburbs of Seattle where his grandfather was police chief of a town called Issaquah. Chris took after his mother in many ways, like her he was artistic and marched the beat of his own drum. Chris's mother, Kathleen Zornes, was a flight attendant, business owner, and hair stylist who never settled down for long. In the early 1980s when Chris was a toddler, Kathleen married a man named Rick Wilson who adopted the boy as his own. Soon the couple had another son but tragically Rick Wilson passed away in an accident. According to Zornes it was at this point that Chris became interested in working in the funeral industry after seeing his father's body. Chris spent his teenage years in Chelan, Washington about 30 miles from Wenatchee. It’s unclear if Chris went to Chelan high school but if my memory serves me correct, he was actually homeschooled for part or all of the time. In Chelan his mother owned a skateboard and bike shop and Chris spent most of his free time skateboarding and becoming part of that lifestyle. In his early twenties he joined the military but was medically discharged and always said he disliked that part of his life. He tried living in other states but always made his way back to Central Washington never quite sure of how to fit in. At the time of Mackenzie’s murder, Wilson was 29 years old and had no criminal record (Source). Interviews with workers and students at The Academy of Hair Design revealed that some women found Chris creepy, dark, or intimidating. Others said he was simply artsy and strange. TO BE CONTINUED... Full list of sources in part 2 https://www.cbsnews.com/video/secrets-of-the-river-1/
Tourists/Visitors/New Residents: Q&A Thread for the week of February 07
This is the place to ask questions if you are visiting or moving to Amsterdam. This post is refreshed every week. Please feel free to repost in subsequent weeks.
READ THIS CAREFULLY ON PENALTY OF BEING IGNORED OR BANNED:
We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Here are some frequently asked questions.
What are the rules on curfew? You should not be outside your home from 21.00 to 04.30. You may be outside if you are walking your dog, are responding to an emergency, or have a declaration from your employer that you need to be outside. Before you go outside, you must fill outthis form. Delivery of food is possible. Can I travel to the Netherlands? If you have an EU/EEA passport, an EU/EEA residence card, or are reuniting with a family member, yes. Otherwise, no. If you hold a UK passport and were not already covered under the Withdrawal Agreement, you have no right to enter the country as you are not a member of the EU or the EEA. Should I travel to the Netherlands? Unless you live here or you were already on the way here for a job or study, no. We will not be kind to you for asking about holiday visits during this pandemic. When will it be safe to visit? The current guidance says not to book any travel until mid-March, but this guidance was given before the Netherlands went to a more-severe lockdown in response to the severity of the English variant. We do not have more insight beyond this. You should reasonably expect that life will still be limited in some way into the late summer, once we have widespread vaccine distribution to the general population. I have a holiday planned in the near future, should I cancel it? Yes. I have a layover in the airport. Can I come see Amsterdam? No. Stay in the airport. What are the rules on quarantining? Visitors from most countries are asked to self-quarantine for ten days. You can read the regularly updated list at https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/tackling-new-coronavirus-in-the-netherlands/travel-and-holidays/self-quarantine and https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/tackling-new-coronavirus-in-the-netherlands/travel-and-holidays/visiting-the-netherlands I believe that I am special and the rules don't apply to me. Can you help me avoid the restrictions on travel, curfew, and quarantining? Fuck around and find out. Are stores open? Essential stores only. Are restaurants and bars open? No. Takeaway is permitted. Are coffeeshops open? Yes, to take away only, and they close at 8 pm. I'm coming sometime in the distant future, after it's safe. Can I get advice? We look forward to having you when travel is safe. Until then you should take the time to read ourworld-famous wiki, which has the answers to most questions. You should read it before you ask any questions. Please know that we cannot help you with where to find good deals on lodging, because we live here. Also, lodging is always expensive in Amsterdam, and there are no secret deals that we know about.You will get banned for asking how to find hard drugs. You may ask about marijuana, but you might get better advice from the experts at /AmsterdamEnts. I'm coming for work/my family/my partnesome other reason that is permitted and is not a holiday. Can I ask questions? Please do! If your question relates to finding a job, you should let us know your nationality as this is highly relevant to the answers you will get. Will I be banned for denying the existence of the virus, denying the efficacy of basic protective measures, or publicly declaring my intent to ignore the rules? Yes. Fuck around and find out.
Tourists/Visitors/New Residents: Q&A Thread for the week of January 31
This is the place to ask questions if you are visiting or moving to Amsterdam. This post is refreshed every week. Please feel free to repost in subsequent weeks.
READ THIS CAREFULLY ON PENALTY OF BEING IGNORED OR BANNED:
We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Here are some frequently asked questions.
What are the rules on curfew? You should not be outside your home from 21.00 to 04.30. You may be outside if you are walking your dog, are responding to an emergency, or have a declaration from your employer that you need to be outside. Before you go outside, you must fill outthis form. Delivery of food is possible. Can I travel to the Netherlands? If you have an EU/EEA passport, an EU/EEA residence card, or are reuniting with a family member, yes. Otherwise, no. If you hold a UK passport and were not already covered under the Withdrawal Agreement, you have no right to enter the country as you are not a member of the EU or the EEA. Should I travel to the Netherlands? Unless you live here or you were already on the way here for a job or study, no. We will not be kind to you for asking about holiday visits during this pandemic. When will it be safe to visit? The current guidance says not to book any travel until mid-March, but this guidance was given before the Netherlands went to a more-severe lockdown in response to the severity of the English variant. We do not have more insight beyond this. You should reasonably expect that life will still be limited in some way into the late summer, once we have widespread vaccine distribution to the general population. I have a holiday planned in the near future, should I cancel it? Yes. I have a layover in the airport. Can I come see Amsterdam? No. Stay in the airport. What are the rules on quarantining? Visitors from most countries are asked to self-quarantine for ten days. You can read the regularly updated list at https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/tackling-new-coronavirus-in-the-netherlands/travel-and-holidays/self-quarantine and https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/tackling-new-coronavirus-in-the-netherlands/travel-and-holidays/visiting-the-netherlands I believe that I am special and the rules don't apply to me. Can you help me avoid the restrictions on travel, curfew, and quarantining? Fuck around and find out. Are stores open? Essential stores only. Are restaurants and bars open? No. Takeaway is permitted. Are coffeeshops open? Yes, to take away only, and they close at 8 pm. I'm coming sometime in the distant future, after it's safe. Can I get advice? We look forward to having you when travel is safe. Until then you should take the time to read ourworld-famous wiki, which has the answers to most questions. You should read it before you ask any questions. Please know that we cannot help you with where to find good deals on lodging, because we live here. Also, lodging is always expensive in Amsterdam, and there are no secret deals that we know about.You will get banned for asking how to find hard drugs. You may ask about marijuana, but you might get better advice from the experts at /AmsterdamEnts. I'm coming for work/my family/my partnesome other reason that is permitted and is not a holiday. Can I ask questions? Please do! If your question relates to finding a job, you should let us know your nationality as this is highly relevant to the answers you will get. Will I be banned for denying the existence of the virus, denying the efficacy of basic protective measures, or publicly declaring my intent to ignore the rules? Yes. Fuck around and find out.
Last night at 10:30 PM - 12:00 AM, I was out for a walk. I live in a town with no curfew in place so I don't believe that can excuse these experiences. It started as such: At around 10:00 PM, I had a sudden urge to just go outside for a walk. This isn't the first time this has happened as I have literally heard a voice in my head saying "Take a walk." over and over again on multiple occasions since I was 9 years old, always at night time. This time it was simply a feeling and urge though, not a voice. So, I got my laptop, gathered together a playlist of music, and went out for a walk. Immediately after leaving my house a slight, but not too noticeable, feeling of paranoia kicked in. I ignored it and headed to my first destination - that being the playground about 3 blocks away from me. Along the walk, I did feel some strange feelings which we'll go into more depth about later of isolation and fear. But, I continued, telling myself that fear is what sets humans back from having beautiful experiences. I arrived at the playground and sat on a bench for a few minutes, being relatively calm. Not too many noticeable things there. After sitting for around 7 minutes, I got up and began back home - but had another destination in mind. The destination was the hill which overlooked my town and the next over, and a bit of the Atlantic. As I neared my house, I made the decision that I was going to the hill, so I passed my house and turned to go down the main road. Here's where things begin to get a little strange. Keep in mind that I live in a normally busy town with cars going through all day and night. As I'm walking down the main road that cars usually are traversing down, I see absolutely no cars passing by me on the road. None. A strange feeling of paranoia began rising in me as I made my way downtown, a feeling which I will touch on later. As I arrived downtown where the road split into a roundabout, there still were no cars. Not even on the main roundabout. I took off my headphones momentarily, and I heard nothing. I mean literally nothing. It was completely silent except for the flowing of the river which was near me. Not even the sound of the cars on the highway in the distance was present. This got me a little weirded out, but I kept going. As I crossed the road, I looked at the big Christmas tree that my town had. The white wooden fencing around it, the white lights, the benches surrounding it, all felt very strangely familiar, yet mildly uncomfortable. The feelings of paranoia began to rise, but I had not yet distinguished what they were about. I made my way up the road and turned onto the road which would lead me up to the top of the hill. The feelings of paranoia kept rising as I got closer to the top of the hill, and about halfway up to the top I was able to distinguish finally what the paranoia was about - it was about being completely alone. I realized in that moment that I, from what I could tell, was completely alone. I began to feel like the reality I was experiencing wasn't even my reality, that something was wrong, that I might have shifted realities. The feelings of paranoia worsened as I got closer to the top of the hill. Eventually, I reached the point where the street lamps cut off, and only the dim blue moonlight lit the road in front of me, which it did quite well. This is when I heard a voice in the back of my head say "There's no saving him now". I ignored this voice again on the notion that fear is what causes humans to not have beautiful experiences. The feelings of paranoia were very noticeably high at this point as I made my way down the dimly lit road to the viewing point. The viewing point was surrounded by a forest, but part of which had been cleared into flat land so that people can play with their dogs and not have to navigate their way through woods to get to the viewing point. I walked up the couple of stairs that lead to this plain which was completely illuminated by the moon and turned to the right to see the viewing point. The feelings of paranoia now were slightly lowered because of the beautiful sight, but were still there. I walked over to the bench which overlooked the view and sat down on it. As I sat there, I noticed something. There no birds. In fact, it was still completely silent - there was nothing but the occasional wind. No cars could be heard, nothing. This, I found, was extremely unusual, even for a winter night. For the moment though, I ignored this and kept looking at the view. It was beautiful, but something about it felt strangely familiar yet slightly uncomfortable, like the tree. As I observed the sky, I took note of how the sky looked somewhat like a dome - and I began pondering to myself, "What if none of this is real? What if all of this is made just for me?". I sat on these questions for a bit before pulling out my laptop to change a few songs. This is when things started to get very strange. As I pulled out my laptop the paranoia shot back up immediately, and it was now extremely noticeable to the point where it was bothering me. At this point, strangely, both my headphones and laptop died despite both of them being relatively well charged. Just after this, I got an immediate sensation in my body of panic. Every muscle in my body was screaming at me "You need to leave NOW, you're in severe danger". Nothing caused this sensation, I wasn't hearing or seeing anything, in fact as I said it was completely silent. This is when I took note that there weren't any cars in the distance either. You could see 2 towns over with this view yet I saw no cars passing at all. The absence of the cars and the birds, and all sounds, now were contributing to the paranoia. The paranoia, speaking of, was now overwhelming as I scrambled to bag up my things, my body still screaming at me to leave immediately. I no longer had the sensation of being alone but the sensation of being chased/watched. I quickly zipped up my bag with my laptop and headphones and ran out of the viewing spot and onto the road, where I ran from the viewing spot, the panic still stabbing at me, feeling like I might cry from it. I nearly slipped, and that's when I began to just slow down and walk, as I noticed that the further I got from the viewing spot, the calmer I began to get. I made my way down to the road which would lead me back down downtown and back home, when I looked behind me. I saw nothing, but the feeling of "Don't go back there or something will happen" was there, and noticeable. Funny thing is, after leaving the hill area, I started seeing cars and people. Downtown was no longer completely empty, and I could hear cars in the distance. Thoughts were running wildly through my mind as I made my way back downtown. A theory I had is that I may have shifted realities to one where I was completely alone, and that if I had stayed there, I would've permanently been shifted to that reality. The walk back home no longer felt alone, it felt normal, as my day walks did. It felt like I was at home. That's when I took notice that when I was walking downtown, that was one of the many things that felt off. It was that it felt like I wasn't in my own reality. Everything about it was off. What do you guys think is the explanation?
Rutte: curfew maybe a little later, but not after 9 p.m. christophercloutier 1 min ago. If you want to effectively introduce curfew, it must start somewhere between 8:00 PM and 9:00 PM. Prime Minister Rutte said this in the parliamentary debate about the corona measures. The curfew had been in effect overnight in Pennsylvania's largest city after unrest triggered by Monday's fatal police shooting of 27-year-old Walter Wallace, which was captured on video posted to ... No, a curfew of 9:00 PM is not a good idea for people under the age of seventeen, because they have evening jobs. It would be very hard for young people if they could not work because they had to be home by 9:00. High school basketball games are not even done by 9:00. The 9 p.m. curfew continues as peaceful demonstrations in support of George Floyd during the day have turned to an opportunity for criminals to take advantage at night, police say. By: Wale Aliyu, Boston 25 News Updated: November 27, 2020 - 9:14 PM NASHUA, New Hampshire — When Massachusetts implemented a 9:30 p.m. curfew, there were ripple effects. Nashua is now looking at copying the curfew because it is seeing an influx of people coming from the Bay State. PORTLAND (WGME) – Governor Janet Mills says she's lifting the 9 p.m. curfew on many Maine businesses Monday because of a downward trend in coronavirus cases. MPs set to vote to bring in a curfew from 9pm after a full day’s debate. Justice minister Ferd Grapperhaus and GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver during the debate. Photo: Bart Maat ANP. A majority of MPs are set to back the government’s plan to bring in a curfew this weekend, but only if the starting time is moved up to 9pm. There will be a curfew: from Saturday you are no longer allowed on the street after 9 p.m. Jan 22, 2021 Covid 19 , News , Nightlife The curfew starts this Saturday and will apply from 9:00 PM to 4:30 AM. "Since night curfew is already in effect in the city, all kinds of celebrations on the night of December 31 are prohibited. If police come across any such activity after 9:00 pm, appropriate action, including registration of FIR, will be taken against violators," Patel told reporters. 6. Teenage curfew laws create unnecessary conflicts with today's youth and police. When Owens' commanding officer in 2016 began the shift that would lead to curfew patrols, his advice was simple: "Happy hunting." During the first 13 minutes after the curfew was instituted that night, there were four teens under arrest.
