It’s been a wet week. Almost five inches of rain so far, and it’s still coming down.
I spent Thursday and Friday helping Bear’s Bookstore with their move. She found a new location about half a mile down the road from her current store, and it’s double her current square footage. The old store is half of a house, and it’s cute, but it’s only barely big enough for her needs. The new store is 1,800 square feet, and it’s wide open, having most recently served as a Taekwondo dojo.
We made 4 trips down Thursday with my 4×10 trailer, and five Friday with my trailer and two pickup trucks. We’d planned to move more Saturday, but it started raining almost as soon as we got the first load on the trailer, so we called it a day early on.
The forecast is calling for morning rain Sunday, but Monday is supposed to be clear, and we’ll have a bigger trailer, too.
Be sure to follow Bear’s Bookstore on Facebook or on Bookshop.org.
Speaking of Facebook
A writing friend of mine lost her entire Facebook account this week, for no apparent reason. She just woke up to find it deleted. Her appeal went nowhere.
She’d had the account for 17 years.
Countless photos and memories. Documentation of her healing journey from sexual abuse.
She lost her business account, too. No explanation.
Take the time to back up your Meta accounts.
Go to https://accountscenter.facebook.com/, and click Your information and permissions. My export goes back to 2005 – 21 years of data. I know some of those photos and thoughts don’t exist anywhere else. I’m going to take the time save off my Instagram accounts, too.
Cold Case Arrest
I’ve mentioned in the past that one of the underlying problems with wrongful convictions is that the bad guy usually gets away with the crime, because by the time cops reopen those files, the trail has grown articly cold.
Texas just broke one of those cases this week.
In September 1986, 16-year-old Deanna Ogg was murdered near Porter, Texas. Investigators later arrested 21-year-old Roy Criner. He was originally charged with murder, then that charge was downgraded to aggravated sexual assault. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1997, the vaginal and rectal swabs from Ms. Ogg were submitted for more advanced testing than had originally been available. The testing showed that the sperm did not come from Mr. Criner, though the prosecution suggested either that he’d worn a condom, or simply hadn’t ejaculated. Subsequent forensic testing on the swabs and a cigarette butt found at the scene again eliminated Mr. Criner as the source of the DNA. He was finally released in August of 2000.
This week, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bobby Charles Taylor, Sr., after forensic genetic genealogy testing identified him. Wanted on an unrelated warrant, he was eventually located in Mexico. He was extradited back to Texas this week.
It’s not often that cold cases like this get closed. Most of the time, the cases stay cold because evidence got lost, witnesses died, and investigators retired. The advantage this time was that DNA-containing evidence was properly preserved and was available as newer testing and investigative methods were developed.
Justice was served for Deanna Ogg, and for Roy Criner.
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