MEDUSA

I have always been intrigued by Greek Mythology. Join me as I dive into how Medusa came to be and who she Really was.

Legend actually states that Medusa was once a beautiful, avowed priestess of Athena who was cursed for breaking her vow of celibacy. She is in actually not even considered a goddess or Olympian although some variations of her legend say that she cosorted with one.

As legend goes, when Medusa had an affair with the sea god Poseidon, Athena cursed Medusa, turning her into a hideous hag, her hair a mess of writhing snakes and her skin a greenish hue. Anyone who locked eyes with Medusa would turn to stone.

Medusa was one of three Gorgon sisters, the only one who was not immortal. It is believed that she was born at sea. As legend has it, as a result of lying with Poseidon, she gave birth to Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor, the hero of the golden sword.

When Medusa is depicted in art, usually only her head is shown. She has a broad face, sometimes with tusks, and snakes for hair. In some images, she has fangs, a forked tongue and bulging eyes. While she is usually depicted as being ugly, one myth states that it was her great beauty that paralyzed all her observers.

The image of Medusa was thought to be protective. Famous artists have been inspired by Medusa and the heroic Perseus story: Leonardo da Vinci, Benvenuto, Cellini, Peter Paul Rubens, Pablo Piccao, and many others.

Medusa’s snake head is instantly recognizable in pop culture: Clash of the Titans (1981 and 2010). She appears as a character in TV, books, cartoons, video gamaes, and role playing games (usually as the antagonist). Medusa’s character has been memorialized in songs by UB40, Annie Lennox, and the band Anthrax.

Medusa is killed by the hero Perseus, the son of Zeus. In order for Perseus to avoid the vision that would turn him to stone, he uses his sheild to look at Medusa’s reflection and then is able to cut her head off.

Just as Medusa had always intrigued me, ancient Greek Mythology was the inspiration for many in our past history.

There is no telling where your inspiration from day to day may come from and who may inspire it.

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Voices, Past, Present, and Future wants to take you on a journey by providing you with the stories that may have long been forgotten, are yet to be, and one’s that may be happening today. I invite you to join me in this journey.

An Unintentional Disappearance

On September 23, 2016, a night out drinking with friends in Bury St. Edmunds, Corrie McKeague drove his car into town with intentions of leaving the car there overnight. On September 24, McKeague was asked to leave the Flex nightclub on St. Andrews St. by the doorman for being too drunk. This separated him from his friends. The doorman reported that he had chatted with McKeague afterward on the street and that McKeague was “no trouble”.

Between the hours of 1:15 am and 1:30 am he was in the Mama Mia’s takeaway restaurant. At 3:25 am McKeague was on Brentgovel Street, seen by cameras walking into the “Horseshoe area” where there were a number of wheelie bins. There was no footage of McKeague ever leaving that area. There was footage that suggested McKeague had slept in a doorway briefly before moving on.

McKeague’s mother stated on October 3, 2016 that her son had never walked back to Honington, where the RAF Regiment he had joined in 2013 was posted. He was a Senior Aircraftman gunner and medic on the squadron. His mother stated that all the things McKeague had done, leaving on his own, getting food and sleeping for a short while, were all things that he had done in the past. It is not believed that he walked back to the base which was 10 miles north along minor unclassified roads.

McKeague had the weekend off and was not reported missing until September 26, which was the following Monday, when he didn’t report for work. On the morning of McKeague’s disappearance, his mobile phone had moved from Bury St Edmunds to Barton Mills, which was 12 miles to the north west. The phone data indicated this journey took 28 minutes, meaning it could not have traveled that far on foot. The phone was either switched off at 8 am, ran out of battery, or was damaged and was not found.

Investigators searched several areas close to RAF Honington, which would have been McKeague’s supposed route back to base. Investigators had wondered if someone had given McKeague a ride as he was walking back to base. His mother had stated that he would have accepted the lift, as he would offer it had he been driving and saw someone walking on their own. His mother appealed to anyone who might have given him a lift to come forward, even if something had happened along the way.

In October, a bin lorry was seized. It was said it contained the mobile phone but inquiries led to nothing. The interesting part in this case was that it was noted that the bin lorry weighed only 33 lbs. and McKeague could not have been in the bin lorry as he weighed 200 lbs.

In December of 2016, McKeague’s mother went on record stating that authorities were not handling the invesigation properly. An appeal fund raised money in Corrie McKeague name and by the end of December 2016 his mother was considering hiring a private investigator to pursue other avenues because she believed the police had failed to follow some of them.

In January of 2017, the back of a cell phone was found close to where the last signal from McKeague’s phone had been detected. The part contained no essential components that would make it possible to link the phone with the disappearance so no further analysis would be conducted. Police did however, state that they were examining McKeague’s activities on swinger sites. His family had provided the police with his username for at least one of the sites.

In February of 2017, the police would start looking at the landfills, with the theory that McKeague had slept in a bin lorry in the Horseshoe area and had been crushed to death when the bin lorry collected the contents of the night and had been transported to the landfill site. The family did not believe this theory. After coming up empty the police announced they would be concentrating their efforts on the incinerated wastes.

On September 21, 2017, images of four people caught on camera who could have been witnesses to the disappearance were released. On March 26, 2018 the police announced that the search for Corrie McKeague would wind down as there stood to be “no realistic lines of inquiry left”. McKeague’s mother had brought about unique pressures to the force when she suggested, on a talk show, that what was cited about the weight carried in the bin lorry was inconsistent or someone manipulated the data, and the other possibility was that someone was lying to the police.

In January of 2017, April Oliver, age 21, had announced she was pregnant with McKeague’s baby. She nor McKeague had been aware of the pregnancy at the time of his disappearance. McKeague’s father released a statement to a local tabloid that his son had committed suicide because of the pressures of fatherhood, but the rest of the family refuted this as the first text notifying McKeagan of the pregnancy wasn’t until after the disappearance. His father later released a statement that his son’s remains were in the Suffolk waste disposal system somewhere but that they are essentially irretrievable. He acknowledged his son was prone to to sleeping in and on top of bins and that his body was in the bin that had been taken to the landfill on the morning of September 24, 2016.

His mother stated that she would continue to look for answers, that the coroner had not released a death certificate, as he was still presumed missing rather than dead.

In November 2020 it was announced that a full inquest would be conducted into Corrie McKeague’s death. The inquest began on March 7, 2022 and ended on March 22, 2022. It was concluded that Corrie McKeagan had indeed died after climbing into a commercial waste bin, that was then tipped into a waste lorry. Jurors said he died about 4:20 BST, in Bury St Edmunds, as a result of “compression asphyxia in association with multiple injuries.

Corrie McKeagan’s death was contributed to by impaired judgement due to alcohol consumption.

Who took this baby?

For those of you joining Voices, past, present, and future, I want to bring to you the kidnapping of Madeleine McCann. This story has gripped headlines everywhere, and I bring it to you today.

Madeleine was born May 12, 2003; she has been missing for 14 years, 10 months and 20 days. Her parents: Gerry and Kate McCann.

Madeleine, her parents, her twin siblings, along with a group of family friends along with their children were on vacation from the United Kingdom. Madeleine and the twins had been left asleep in the ground-floor apartment while the rest of the group dined in a restaurant 180 ft away. The parents had checked on the children throughout the night until about an hour an a half later her mother Kate, discovered that Madeleine was missing.

A misinterpretation of DNA analysis over the following weeks led Portugal police to believe that Madeleine had died in an accident in the apartment and that her parents covered it up. Madeleine’s parents were given “suspect” status in September of 2007, which was lifted when the case was archived in July 2008 for lack of evidence by the Portugal attorney general.

Madeleine’s parents continued the investigation on their own using private detectives. Scotland Yard opened up its own investigation as well in 2011, Operation Grange. The senior investigating officer announced he was treating Madeleine’s disappearance as an act created by a criminal, most likely a planned abduction or a burglary that had gone wrong.

A man was seen carrying a child toward the beach on the night that Madeleine went missing and Scotland Yard released images of men that they wanted to track down, which shorly after, caused Portuguese authorities decided to reopen their case. This was in 2013.

Police in the German city, Braunschweig, in June of 2020, stated there was a new suspect in Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, a pedophile named Christian Bruckner. In October of 2021, German prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters stated that he was convince this man abducted Madeleine and murdered her. The German prosecutors are hoping to be able to bring charges against this man this year, 2022.

What is horrifying to me, as a mother, besides having the heartache of my child being missing is that this family was subjected to some very intense scrutiny and allegations about their involvement in their child’s disappearance and death, especially in that of the tabloids and on Twitter. In 2008, the McCann family and their friends received damages and apologies from Express Newspapers, and then in 2011 the McCann’s testified before the Leveson Inquiry into the British press’ misconduct, lending support for some tighter press regulations. This story, much like that of Princess Diana’s death attracted international interest and saturated coverage in the UK.

In 2010, the Gamble report had examined how several upon several agencies had become involved in the case of Madeleine’s disappearance. Gamble criticized the lack of coordination. He said that everyone had wanted to help, and some had wanted to be seen to help which created a sense of chaos, competition hampering the inquiry and thus causing resentment among Portuguese police. Gamble recommended a renewed cooperation and that all relevant information be shared between the British and Portuguese authorities.

The Operation Grange team had tens of thousands documents translated, had released an age progression image of Madeleine, investigated over 8,000 potential sightings, and by 2015, they had taken over 1338 statements, collected 1,027 exhibits, and investigated 650 sex offenders and 60 persons of interest. They had to scale back the number of investigators in 2015 down to four. Home Security approved some additional funding in 2016 and again more money was funded in 2017 and again in 2019 bringing the total amount funded to 11.75 million dollars. In June of 2019, the British governement stated that it would fund Operation Grange until March of 2020.

In January and May of 2007 there had been a drastic increase in the number of local burglaries, including two that had taken place in the McCann’s block in the seventeen days prior to Madeleine’s disappearane. Inn 2017, just before the tenth anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, the burglary angle had been dismissed, but not entirely ruled out.

In 2013, when readin over the evidence, they concluded that it did appear to be a planned abduction. Several witnesses described men hanging around the apartment Madeleine and her family had been staying in just days before and on the day of her disappearance.

While regarded as highly unlikely, the police did have another theory, that Madeleine, almost four-years-old at the time, had left the apartment in search of her parents, and had been abducted by a passerby, or possibly fell into one of the construction sites that were nearby. According to Madeleine’s mother, she would have had to open the unlocked patio doors, close the curtains behind her, close the door again, open and close the child gate which was at the top of the stairs, and then open and close the gate that led to the street.

This is alot of work for a three almost four year-old-child to do, when if she was like any other child wanting her mother at night, she would have yelled out for her waking the other children. (Just my own thoughts)

The idea of this story struck home for me. My daughter and I were talking yesterday about the “date” she took my young grandson’s on, one of the stops being a recreation center, so that the boys could play on the playground. To her surprise, she was the only parent on that playground watching her children and the other children on that playground. In one instance, a little girl had fallen and gotten hurt and my daughter offered to clean her up. The young girls older sister, maybe only by a year or two, said no thank you. My daughter offered to help her find the mother and the girls replied that their mother was on the other side of the complex.

To each their own; I will not tell someone else how to parent, but in the case you cannot be with your child, is it not wise to make sure those kids are being watched by a security guard patrolling the area? (Just a thought) I would never want to be a parent of a missing child.

My heart goes out to the McCann family and Voices, past, present, and future, hope that this little girls disappearance gets solved soon and someone is brought to justice.

Thanks for joining me and if you have comments regarding todays post or any others, please, leave a comment in the comment section.

If You Tell

If You Tell, is a book written by Gregg Olsen. I recently recommended this book to my daughter after reading it myself. This is a true crime novel about several murders committed my Michelle Knotek and her husband.

This book is a true story of murder, family secrets, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood, published in 2019. I will not tell you all the details surrounding each murder, as I want you to read this unputdownable book yourself but I will give you a rundown of the murders that took place.

Michelle Knotek is an American convicted murderer from Raymond, Washington. Convicted in 2004 of second degree murder and manslaughter, she is serving a 22 year sentence in prison. Her husband David Knoteck after serving a would-be sentence of 15 years was parololed in 2016 after serving 13 of those 15 years. The crimes of Michelle Knotek and her husband David made national headlines due to the horrendous allegations of abuse and torture that took place.

One of the Knotek murders was that of Kathy Loreno, a hairdresser who met Michelle Knotek and became fast friends. After having an argument with family Loreno moves out of her home and in with the Knotek’s where she suffered unimaginable abuse. In 1994, Loreno is reported missing by her family. When the Knotek’s were interviewed they maintained that Loreno ran away with a truck driver and moved to Hawaii, stating that they were in regular contact with Loreno, but after a private investigator is hired by Loreno’s brother, that would be the farthest thing from the truth.

Michelle Knotek’s nephew, Shane Watson, born 1975 in Tacoma, moves in with the Knotek’s around 1988, only to vanish too. The initial claim the Knotek’s give is that Watson ran away to Alaska to work on a fishing boat. Later, David Knotek will admit to what actually happened to Watson and his role in it.

Ronald Woodworth, a local man who moved in with the Knotek’s in 2001, like Kathy Loreno and Shane Watson will be subjected to severe physical abuse. In 2003, Woodworth will go missing, and David Knotek buries his body on the propery after his wife Michelle Knotek tells him Woodworth committed suicide, which is far from what actually happens.

The Pacific County Deputy Prosecutor stated that Michelle Knotek showed “extreme indifference for human life”. Through plea negotiations, the Knotek’s will plead guilty to lesser charges in 2004. Michelle Knotek entered an Alford Plea, which means she did not admit responsibility but acknowledged the prosecutor’s case against her.

This completely seemed unreal to me that she was able to do this.

Michelle Knotek would later try to have her convictions overturned, but through all of God’s graces, this was denied by the Washington Court of Appeals.

Michelle Knotek’s children, Tori, Nikki and Sam, reported their mother after the ordered killing of their cousin Shane Watson. These girls reached out to Gregg Olsen in 2017 and asked him to write this book about their mother for one simple reason, They want to stop her from killing again.

Michelle Knotek, now 65-years-old is set to be released from prison in June 2022. Michelle Knotek’s children want to remindd people what a monster their mother is and to warn about her release this year. This book recounts the absolute horrible abuse these girls endured and the people who thought themselves to be Michelle Knotek’s friends.

I urge you to buy the book or go to a library and pick it up and read it, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you for joining Voices, past, present and future. Please let me know what you think of my site and if there are changes you would like to see in the comment section of my website.

“How did he know someone was trying to kill him?”

With a fatal blow to the stomach, Blair Adams, 31-years-old, a Canadian resident leaves a cold case in our midst. Voices past, present, and future brings to you the bizzare details surrounding this man’s death.

Found dead in the parking lot of a Knoxville, Tennessee hotel surrounded by nearly $4,000 dollars worth of mixed Canadian, American, and German currency, Blair Adams is discovered. What we find most mysterious are the events that occurred in the days before he died.

Blair had been acting very strange, claiming that people were trying to kill him. He had traveled thousands of miles before ending up in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to his family he had began suffering from mood swings and having trouble sleeping. His mother had asked him what was wrong and he had stateted that he could not tell her about it.

On July 5, 1996, he took all the money out of his savings along with thousands of dollars in jewelry, gold, and platinum; and then on July 7 he tried to cross the Canadian-American border but was denied because him being a single man with a large amount of money, he fit the description of a drug trafficker.

The following day Blair goes to his work and quits and then that afternoon, he buys a $1600 round-trip airline ticket from Vancouver to Frankfurt, Germany. After purchasing the ticket he goes to a friends house and says that he needs to get across the border because somone was trying to kill him; the friend replies that he is unable to help him.

On July 9th Blair returns his ticket, rents a car, unable to cross the border, goes to Seattle. He leaves his rental car at the airport and buys a one-way ticket to Washington, D.C., which investigators find strange because it costs twice as much as the round-trip ticket did.

After arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 10, he rents a white Toyota and goes to Knoxville, Tennessee. Not knowing anyone in the area, investigators find this to be strange. Blair arrives at a gas station at 5:30 pm telling the attendant that his rental car won’t start, and the attendant tells him it’s because he has the wrong keys, so then Blair is stranded in Knoxville. A mechanic takes Blair to a hotel, who makes a lasting impression on the manager.

The hotel manager stated that Blair acted nervous, walking in and out of the hotel lobby a total of five times before he ever got a room, and then afterwards he goes out of the hotel and is never seen again, his body turning up 12 hours later.

Blair’s body was found about half a mile hotel, naked from the waist down. There were several strange clues found at the scene where Blair Adams was found. His pants had been removed in a pulling motion and were turned inside out along with his socks. His shoes were off and his shirt had been ripped open. Along with the money that surrounded Blair, a fanny pack was found filled with the gold, jewelry, and platinum next to him. The strangest clue was the rental car key that Blair had lost hours earlier.

The weapon used to provide Blair Adams this deadly blow to his stomach was possibly a club or crowbar, and it had also sliced his forehead open. Blair had put up a fight, the killer pulling locks of hair from Blair’s head and Blair had defensive wounds on his hands. Blair Adams managed to have one long strand of hair in his hand, that investigators believed to belong to his killer. Some of Blair’s injuries seemed to indicate that he had been sexually assaulted.

The night before Blair Adam’s death he was seen with an unidentified male at several restaurants in Knoxville. A composite sketch was made but it is unknow if this man had anything to do with Blair Adam’s murder.

There are many speculations surrounding his murder. The one that seemed to have been imaginary to family and friends about Blair was the one that came to be true. Someone indeed was trying to kill him.

At first it was suspected a robbery had gone wrong, but with the money and jewels not being taken it threw that theory out the window. Then there was the theory it could have possibly been drug related, but there was nothing to support that theory either. The investigators looked into the theory that he may have been killed by a postitute or pimp, but no evidence was found that he had ever used a prostitute.

Blair Adam’s mother later revealed that Blair had traveled to the American South to attend the Olympics and that he also had been previously involved in a romantic relationshi with a male roommate. This could suggest to authorities Blair’s death was the result of a homosexual encounter gone wrong. It is not known why she never told the investgators about the information before.

What do you believe happened to Blair Adams? What theories do you have? Let us know by replying in the comment section. Thank you for checking in with Voices, past, present, and future. If there are stories you would like to read more about or if there are other kinds of stories out there that tickle your fancy, let us know. My goal is to provide you with the content that keeps you coming back for more.

Cipher

June 30, 1999; 41-year-old Ricky McCormick was found in a cornfield in West Alton Missouri. McCormick’s body had been decomposing in the cornfield for several days prior to being discovered and authorities had to use fingerprints to make a postive ID. Even after autopsy and toxicology, the rate of decomposition made it difficult for medical examiners to determine the cause of death.

The area where McCormick was found was used several times to dump murder victims before. With this in consideration, investigators classified McCormick’s death a homicide. His body was found 15 miles from his residence even though he didn’t own a car and public transportation did not service the area where his body was found.

Inside Ricky McCormick’s front pocket were two pages of hand written notes containing a complex cipher. McCormick was a high school dropout, and according to a family member he didn’t write in code and he couldn’t spell anything, only scribble. These notes consisted of 30 lines; seemingly random letters and numbers. Some of this code contains parenthesis, while other parts of it are circled.

McCormick alternated between staying with family and living on the streets. He was semi-employed at a gas station. He had been collecting disability at the time of his death, suffering from heart and lung ailments. He was an ex-con and his criminal record consisted of a handful of misdemeanors plus he had done a stint in prison for statutory rape.

A former girlfriend of McCormick stated that he sporadically traveled by bus to Florida where he acted as a drug courier for drug runners, shuttling marijuanna back to Missouri.

There have been many conflicting reports about McCormick’s mental condition. While he was awaiting tril for statutory rape, his public defender believed McCormick to be suffering from a mental illness or defect. He was tested by a local psychologis who found him to be mentally competent to stand trial.

Though McCormick was never diagnosed with any sort of mental condition, he was considered to be street smart with an active imagination, and also possessed a naive, childlike attitude towards the world.

McCormick’s girlfriend stated that a few days before his death, after he had returned from a drug smuggling job in Florida, he was shaken and anxious. He had gone to several hospitals for treatment of chest pain and asthma in the days befor his death. Some investigators believed he had been looking for a safe place to stay, believing that his life was in jeopardy.

In a 2011 statement by the FBI, “Breaking the code could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of his homicide.” The Cryptanalysis and Racketeerin Records Unit exhausted its resources in trying to crack the cipher.

Members of McCormick’s family and other people believe the notes found in McCormick’s pocket were nonsensical script of a mentally disabled person, and other members of his family claim that Ricky McCormick had been writing in code since he was a boy. Experts, including that of the FBI agent in charge of the case, assert that the notes are authentic.

There are indications that the notes were personal in nature; small details in the handwriting, like the circles around potions of the code, could make it appear to be a to-do list. According to the FBI, the greatest challenge in the case is that McCormick possibly only intended for the notes to be read by himself. There are other possiblilities, one being that McCormick did not write the code, that the drug dealers he was working for had written it for him, or that he had been transporting the cipher from one place to another and was unaware of its meaning.

The FBI had dedicated an entire website to this case and has invited ameteur codebreakers to try and solve the cipher, as it may contain information that will help catch Ricky McCormick’s killer.

Are you a decoder? Are you willing to try and decipher the code? Let us know what you find here at Voices, past, present, and future.

Vacations

Voices of the past, present, and future is traveling home from a much needed and enjoyable vacation.

I did manage to finish a book I had been reading, One by One by Freida McFadden. This book was absolutely amazing and had I not had the usual business of my days at home I would have finished it in just a day. This is absolutely a book I recommend. It had so many twists and turns and a surprise ending.

We managed to go to the beach for the weekend and it was nice because it’s just before all the spring breakers decide to come and walking elbow to elbow trying to get inside a store to look wasn’t a factor. I sat on the beach for a while today, getting mentally prepared for what I need to get back to at home.

The seagulls were flying right in front of your face and you almost wondered if they would land on your head a time or two.

I am hoping that I will be able to return home feeling a bit rejuvenated and continue the book I have been writing and of coarse bring to you content you can enjoy as well as look forward to.

Thank you for staying with Voices past, present, and future!

“Beth Doe” who was she?

Voices of the past brings to you anoth gripping tale of an unidentified woman. While I sit on the balcony of the hotel I am staying at, for a much needed day away from home and all that it brings, overlooking the beach, I think of all of these eople and these cases that I bring to you in which these people never get to go home again, and their lives and names are taken from them in an instant.

This is the story of “Beth Doe”.

On December 20,1976, under a bridge on I-80 in Cabon COunty, Pennsylvania, Three suitcases were found with the remains of a pregnant woman, between the ages of 16 and 22-years old. The woman had been strangled, shot and then completely dismembered. What is even more disturbing is that inside one of these suitcases were also the remains of her unborn baby.

Written on one of the missing woman’s hands were numbers. This turned out to be the only clue ploice would have. They were unsure if the numbers represented a license plate or not.

In 2014 with new technologies, experts composed a DNA profile of this woman. It detemined that she is from Eastern or Central Europe. The woman was bured underthe name “Beth Doe:

Beth Doe’s case created national attention. On March 31, 2021 , they officially announced that the victgim in this case was that of 15-year-old Evelyn Colon of Jersey City, New Jersey. The identity of her alleged killer was also made public when charges were filed, to be that of Luis Sierra.

When Evelyn Colon’s body was discovered she was carrying a nine-month-old fetus and she had been sexually assaulted. The gunshot wound she sustained had been done postmortum. It is believed that teses suitcases had bbbbbeen thrown out of a vehicle traveling west. Likely the intention being to land in the water below , to lessen the chances of being found. Two of these suitcases had landed in the woods, 20-ft from the river, and the third, which contained the head and the fetus was found on the river bank.

These suitcases had fallen 300 feet which caused two of the suitcases toopen and the body parts to emerge., leaving the head, fetus, and the two halves of the torso exposed.

During the investigation 12 women had been excluded as a possible victim. The Pennsylvania State Police, in September 2019, announced a possible connection between “Beth Doe” and that of Madeline “Maggie” Cruz. The police recieved at tip from an individual who had gone to shcool with Cruz and saw the resemblance to the reconstructions of “Beth Doe”.

Madeline Cruz had spent time in the Massachusetts citites of Lenox and Framingham. While in Framingham she resided with a foster family. At approximately 16-years-old, in 1974, she had run away to Tarrytown with her foster sister, who returned after a week.

In the summer of 1976, she called a friend asking for money, claiming she was pregnant. Evelyn Colon was never heard from again until the media reported the potential link to “Beth Doe”. Madeline Cruz has been confirmed alive and well by the police and has been elliminated as a potential identity for Beth Doe.

Familial DNA was eventually used and led the investigators to Luis Colon Jr., Evelyn’s nephew. His identity was released on March 31, 2021. Luis Sierra was charged with Evelyn’s murder at the age of 63. He was residing in Ozone Park, New York at the time of his arrest.

At the time of Evelyn’s murder, she was dating Sierra, who was also the father of her unborn child. Because of her pregnancy, Evelyn’s parents had allowed her to move into an apartment with Sierra.

On one particular day, Evelyn had contacted her mother stating that she wasn’t feeling well for her mother to bring her soup. When her mother arrived no one was there and neighbors told Evelyn’s family that they had moved away.

In 1977, the Colon family received a letter, written in Spanish, stamped from Connecticut, stating that Evelyn had given birth to a baby boy and not to worry. It also stated that Evelyn would contact them if she needed anything.

The Colon family did not initially report Evelyn missing because they had believed her to be safe with Sierra. After a few years of no contact, they attempted to report her disappearance, but due to the letter, the police refused to file a report. By the time Evelyn Colon was identified, both her parents had died.

I look out at all these kids with their parents, and I think of my own at home, safe and sound. I only wish they could have identified who “Beth Doe” was sooner to give the parents some peace.

Thank You for joining Voices of the Past and Present on the journey to discovering who “Beth Doe” truly was.

UFO? NO, Then What Is It?

In order to keep your brains in the “What If” state, Voices of the Past brings you a bizzare story of UFO and a pilot on a training flight.

Frederick Valentich, on Octoher 21, 1978, left Melbourne, Australia beginning a 125-mile training flight to King’s Island, in a single engine Cessna. It is reported that at 7:06 pm he made radio contact with air traffic controllers inquiring if there were any other aircraft known to be flying in the area.

The answer Melbourne received was “No”. This answer was confirmed again during odd communication that followed. Just seven minutes later all radio contact was lost and Melbourne was never heard from again.

Now during this puzzling exchange between Valentich and air traffic control, he claimed that he saw something flying near him. He was asked to cofirm that it was an aircraft, and Valenich said he could not do that. He made this statement several times.

Valentich described the object as having at least four lights and one green light; he described it as being cigar-shaped and was all shiny on the outside. What is strange about thiscase is that there were numerous UFO or strange light sightings in the King’s Island and Bass Strait areas on the night that Frederick Valentich disappeared.

The last transmission that air traffic control received from Valentich was, “It is not an aircraft”. Extensive searches had been conducted but Valentich nor the Cessna were ever found.

You may not believe in UFO’s or the idea of Extraterrestrials but what happened to Frederick Valentich?

Let us know your thoughts here at Voices of the Past.