Major Crimes and True Crime

The solved case of  Shannon Melendi . Shannon Denise Melendi was born on October 20, 1974 in Miami, Florida to parents Yvonne & Luis Melendi. Friends & family described her as being social, outgoing, hardworking, goal-oriented, and athletic. She had plans & dreams of serving in the Navy and going to law school to have a career in politics, hoping to be on the Supreme Court someday. After graduating from Southwest High School in 1992, she received a scholarship to attend Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia to study political science & Spanish. During her freshman year of college, she was hired by the Carter Center in Atlanta and also worked part time as a scorekeeper at a softball field in Decatur, Georgia. She continued working both jobs in her sophomore year. March 26, 1994, should’ve been a typical Saturday for 19 year old Shannon. She attended the softball game and kept score throughout the morning until 12:40 that...

Martin Gurule escape death row  During Turkey Day dinner on November 26th, 1998, Gurule and 6 other men on death row hid out in a recreation room. Before they left their cells for the Thanksgiving dinner, the 7 doomed to die inmates placed cushions and sheets in their beds to fool the prison guards. They also colored their prison uniforms darker so that they would be less visible to the eye at night. After the cells were locked for the night, the group broke through a door to the rec yard and then through a fence. Once inside the main prison yard, they managed to scale to the rooftop of a building and waited until it was pitch black out. A little after midnight, guards at a post spotted the escapees climbing, they sounded the alarm and began firing bullets. Gurule’s 6 co-escapees gave up, but Gurule didn’t. He was determined to get away with a capital “D.”He then ran 100 feet over a track of land, scaled a barbed-wire fence, ran an additional 70 feet across a clear...

An unsung Native American actor,  Sheldon Peters Wolfchild.  He is a full-blooded Lakota born in 1946 in Minnesota, and he grew up on the Lower Sioux Reservation. He is the youngest of eight children and the son of professional bantamweight boxer "Indian" Ernie Peters. He attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Ray-Vogue School of   Design (Chicago) from 1965–1969. He was then drafted into the U.S. military in 1969. He served in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star After returning from Vietnam, he worked at Walt Disney Studios as an artistic consultant—helping develop displays for Walt Disney World and various productions, and exhibited with Disney in art shows. He moved to Hawaii in 1976, attended the University of Hawaii, and then became a featured actor on Sesame Street (1977–1980), appearing with Buffy Sainte-Marie and their son, Dakota Starblanket. He and Buffy Sainte-Marie were briefly married in th...

The woman you see in the photo was named Geraldine Largay, and she was a 66 year old lady who loved hiking In April 2013, Geraldine, along with her 42-year-old husband George, and her friend Jane Lee, took on the Appalachian Trail for a hike. The trail is about 3,510 km long, making it the third longest hiking trail in the US. A large portion of the trail is located in the middle of the wilderness. Due to a sudden family emergency on June 30, Jane Lee had to abandon the hike. Unfortunately, Geraldine made the tragic decision to continue alone despite her poor sense of direction. Her friend herself later said that when they were together, Geraldine had risked getting lost several times. Furthermore, the Appalachian Trail can be difficult even for experienced hikers. In fact, her husband George was not aware that Geraldine was not ready for such a difficult trail. Things were going well for Geraldine until June 22nd when she arrived at the Poplar Ridge shelter i...

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, Houston and the surrounding areas welcomed the refugees with open arms. They got free apartments, clothes, food, furniture, money…and we were happy to help. My family and I lived in Pasadena, Tx, and Randy Sylvester Sr moved into our complex. We’d see the kids playing at the pool, the playground, and at Crenshaw Park across the street. Sylvester senior would chat up my husband at the mailbox, bragging about how he didn’t have to work, how he had TWO free apartments, how he’d gotten a new Suburban, etc, and did my husband know where he could buy pot? We didn’t care for Senior much, but the kids were sweet. Then, after Father’s Day in June, they went missing. I didn’t know until we got a knock on our apartment door; the police asking if we’d seen the kids. My husband and I talked to them, and I looked around. There were people and cops everywhere…at the other apartment buildings, searching the mailbox are...

The thing that happened to Gary Ridgway, a.k.a. The Green River Killer Gary Ridgway — a man known as the ‘Green River Valley Killer’, suspected of killing at least 49 women, but whose real body count may exceed 90 — turned 75 years old today. Having been born on February 18, 1949, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ridgway grew up in a household where both parents — in particular, his mother — were known to get into many violent arguments, which they would then take out on their children in one capacity or another. This high-stress level — which Ridgway experienced both at home and at school — triggered many bed-wetting episodes until he was thirteen. These incidents would result in his mother delivering a wave of scoldings and beatings before washing down his genitals. Gary Ridgway as a child holding his pet feline According to his later interviews, Ridgway developed an extreme form of ambivalence against his mother — becoming so fond of her that he began thinking of her in a sexual way, yet al...

Langford, Victoria: Eighteen-year-old Kimberly Proctor was friends with the same small group of friends as Kruse Wellwood (16) and Cameron Moffat (17). They all attended Pacific Secondary School in the small town of Langford, BC. Kimberly Proctor. (Photo Source: ctvnew.ca) Kimberly had briefly dated a boy named Zach who was also part of the group, but like many teenage relationships, their relationship was very short-lived. Kimberly was heartbroken and would find solace chatting online with Kruse and Cameron. During one of these chats, Cameron confessed that he liked her; however, Kimberly politely said she wasn’t interested. Her heart still belonged to Zach. Kimberly did start to get closer to Kruse though. They started talking online and on the phone nightly. In addition, the two started dating, but only for a very short time before Kimberly broke it off in a text message to him. She still wasn't over Zach yet and didn't see how that was fair to Kruse. This ange...

The Disappearance of Katelin Akens On December 5, 2015, Katelin Michelle Akens went missing from Springfield, Virginia. The last person believed to see her is her former stepfather, James Branton. Almost five years later, Katelin remains missing with few leads. (image: Patch.com) Katelin lived with her fiancee in Arizona and went home to Spotsylvania, Virginia, in December 2015 to visit her family. Little did they know this was the last time they would see her. Katelin’s mother, Lisa, entrusted Branton, her ex-husband and Katelin’s former stepfather to take her daughter to the airport. At approximately 1:52 p.m., Branton text messaged Lisa that Katelin had been dropped off at Regan National Airport and a few minutes later, Katelin text messaged her mother that her phone was low on battery and couldn’t talk. Nothing about this seemed suspicious, but, Katelin’s fiancee, Amber received a text message from her phone saying that she’s not coming home and something had come ...

The Mcdonald’s Boys A case remembered by many in the country with a borderline boogeyman reputation, two 12-year old boys, Toh Hong Huat and Keh Chin Ann, went missing without a trace. All that remained of them were their school books and bags which were found under a tree. They were dubbed ‘The Mcdonald’s Boys’ by the press after the fast-food chain offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who had any information on the whereabouts of the boys, and their missing posters were placed in the chain’s outlets throughout the country. Despite the cash reward, and an extensive police search, no trace of the boys have been found. Many theories emerged, from abduction to murder, but with no evidence to prove any of their credibility, the case remains open. One of the most solid theories is that the boys were kidnapped by a syndicate, had their limbs chopped off, and made to beg on the streets of a foreign country. This theory gained even more credence after a Singaporean on holiday...