Aftermath
BACKSTREET BOYS PRESUMED DEAD
Fans of the missing boyband cling to hope, as
searchers shift efforts from rescue to recovery
ROSEBURG, O.R. – The
search for the missing members of the pop music group The Backstreet Boys is no
longer being considered a rescue mission.
“At this point, we’re just hoping to recover any remains,” said Douglas
County Sheriff John Hanson.
In a statement released
Monday morning, Hanson added that evidence recovered from the area near
Interstate 5, where the Backstreet Boys’ tour bus was found abandoned last
week, suggests foul play. Although
Hanson would not elaborate on what that evidence was, an unnamed source reports
that a cell phone belonging to one of the Boys was found by a volunteer in the
search party. The iPhone, capable of
taking pictures and recording video, may contain clues as to the fate of its
owner and his companions.
The Backstreet Boys were
reported missing last Tuesday, after failing to show up for a concert in
Seattle. The group had last performed
the previous night in Sacramento, one of fifty shows scheduled for a summer
tour that celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the group’s formation and
reunited its five members: Nick Carter,
33, AJ McLean, 35, Brian Littrell, 38, Howie Dorough, 39, and Kevin Richardson,
42, who left the group in 2006.
Fans around the world were
shocked and devastated to learn of the group’s sudden disappearance. Prayer chains swept across social media
sites, with users from hundreds of different countries logging on to share
their concerns in a variety of languages.
Supporters closer to home showed up in droves to help with the search
efforts, which continued over the weekend.
Despite the grim prospects for finding all five men alive after six days
in the wilderness, the fans refuse to give up hope. “We’re just going to keep praying,” said
Laura Fisher, a longtime fan who came from Canada to join the search
party. “We won’t stop looking until our
Boys are found.”
Article published in the Los Angeles Times, 16 July
2013
STRANGE SIGHTING
Woman reports seeing ape-like creature along rural
roadside
CANYONVILLE, O.R. – Cheryl
Winters, 62, says she was just enjoying a Sunday drive through the country,
when an animal ran out in front of her car.
Winters slammed on her brakes to avoid hitting the animal, which she
says escaped the encounter unharmed and quickly disappeared into the woods on
the other side of the road. Close
encounters and near misses (as well as the occasional hit) with wild animals
are a common occurrence among motorists living in rural areas, but what makes
this one remarkable is the type of animal involved. This was no ordinary raccoon, opossum, or
deer; according to Winters, it was an ape.
“I didn’t get a good look at it, but from what I could tell, it looked
like a chimpanzee or maybe an orangutan, only its coat had more of a greenish
tint than a reddish color,” Winters described, when reporting the strange
animal she nearly struck with her car this past Sunday, while driving eastbound
on County Highway 1 outside Canyonville.
Canyonville lies just
north of Canyon Creek Forest State Park, which is home to a wide variety of
wildlife. However, there are no species
of ape or monkey native to Oregon. Jeff
Tiller, a park ranger at Canyon Creek Forest State Park, believes Winters must
have simply misidentified the animal she saw.
“What she saw was probably a dog or possibly a bear. We certainly don’t have any apes in the park,
and no zoos in the area have reported any of their animals missing. Then again,” Tiller joked, “this is Sasquatch
territory, so stranger things have been sighted.”
Could a cousin of Bigfoot
really be monkeying around in Douglas County, or is this just a case of
mistaken identity? No matter what the
experts have to say, Winters stands by her story. “It may have only been for a second, but I
know what I saw. And it wasn’t a dog or
a bear.”
Article published in the Douglas County News
Review, 17 July 2013
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