#2399~Another one:

1989 Lori Ann Auker disappears from a parking lot

Lori Ann Auker, a 19-year-old pet shop worker, disappears from Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. After failing to show up for work, her car was found the next day in the parking lot of the Susquehanna Mall where The Pet Place was located. Police had no clues as to what had happened to her when she arrived at the mall that morning.

Robert Auker, Lori Ann's husband, was the natural suspect; the two were in the midst of a custody fight at the time of her disappearance and he had recently taken out a life insurance policy on her. Still, even after Lori Ann's body was found with multiple stab wounds two and a half weeks after her disappearance, police did not have enough evidence to charge Robert Auker with the murder.

Finally, it dawned on investigators that there might be some photographic evidence of the crime. A bank's automatic teller machine at the mall had a video camera that captured the part of the parking lot where Lori Ann's car was located. However, there were problems with the tape. First, the camera only shot a couple of frames every 10 seconds. Also, the videotape had been reused so often that it was almost completely worn out.

FBI forensic experts carefully viewed the tape and were able to identify a single frame that captured Lori Ann getting into what was identified as a Chevrolet Celebrity made between 1982 and 1985. This was a critical piece of information, because Robert Auker had been using his father's 1984 Celebrity on the day of Lori Ann's disappearance.

Still, forensic scientists wanted to recreate the video scene to be sure that it was the same car. But Robert Auker's father had sold the car the day after Lori Ann's disappearance. After tracking the car through several owners, investigators found that the car had been bought by a Pennsylvania state trooper. They then managed to recreate the ATM camera video to prove to the jury that the cars were identical. Also, despite the car's many subsequent owners, hairs found in the car matched those of Lori Ann Auker and her pet cat.

Robert Auker was convicted of murder in March 1992 and sentenced to death.

#2400~One more:

1844 Morse sends historic telegram

On this day in 1844, Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse code and the electric telegraph, sent the first electric telegraph message in the United States. Thanks to a grant from Congress, Morse had established an experimental telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. To open the line, he wired his historic message, "What hath God wrought?"

#2401

#2402

Hope everybody has a great weekend

2403

It's my Friday . . . off to the shower and clean like a madman before work so the week's FOUR sets of visitors don't realize we're slobs.

2404

Actually, I'm not a slob but the S/O's habits are rubbing off on me. He's out of town for the week so I'll see if I can get caught up on cleaning before his return. Then I'll crack the whip so he'll stop being such a clutterbug.

Yes, my life is THIS exciting!! :)

Because she was under me with that reply? LOL

#2406

#2407
You could have started a list of X Planes :)

2408...

Yes dadaist.. you could say that. ;) LOL

Sure I always go back and read all the prior posts

#2409

#2410

#2411

I just read in MacAddict that for the Mac version of the Sims, when you buy a Sims character a computer and let him sit down to play with it, holding down 3 keys will cause it to start up with a Macintosh chime. While the tone of that chime has changed from 1984 to today, ever since they were able to get it to sound multiple notes in a chime (instead of a single note ding) they've all been the same chord: C Minor.

"Weird Al" Yankovic released the CD "Poodle Hat" on May 20th, 2003. It has 12 tracks, with 5 parodies of others' works, one 'polka' collection of songs (a trademark of his), and 6 original numbers. It's also a multi-media CD.

WARNING: Multi-media portion requires QuickTime 6 - if you have a QuickTime 4 or QuickTime 5 professional Key, it will NO LONGER WORK. You can cancel the installation, but you won't get to see anything either.

#2412

2413

I can't wait for all the partying to commence when friends and family arrive! Woohoooooooooo!

#2414