The Unlovely Truth

Digging into a family search is no longer just for families tracing their own ancestry. It’s now a crime fighting tool, used by experts in the fast-growing field of forensic genealogy. I’m really going to be geeking...

I didn’t know that it takes about four pounds of pressure to pull the trigger on a 9 mm handgun, did you? I read that that’s like the pressure in a firm handshake. That’s not all that much, especially when someone is...

Murder by poisoning has been a popular method of getting rid of someone for centuries. As life insurance policies became more commonplace, arsenic was given the nickname “the inheritance powder”. And who else would...

Most people in Lincoln, Illinois, didn’t lock their doors in the 1970’s. They weren’t worried about murderers roaming around. Mike Hartnett and his wife arrived in town to work at Lincoln College, a private junior...

Jim Duckett was a lot of things to a lot of people - father, son, brother, uncle, friend, horse lover, good listener, veteran and more. That’s why it’s so hard to understand how he came to be tied to a chair in his...

Capital punishment is a hotly debated topic among Christians, and rightly so. Both the old and new testaments talk about it being within the government’s rights. But let me know if you are aware of any verses that...

Early release programs for convicted felons are controversial, and always have been. It’s a delicate balance to try to alleviate prison overcrowding yet keep the public safe. Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, and Robert...

What are you supposed to do when your plans go horribly wrong? You can give up and make the best of how things have turned out, or you can dig in and keep trying. That’s what our four would-be bank robbers from last...

Imagine looking into the window of your favorite clothing store and seeing the hottest new fashions lying there in a heap. You can’t picture how they’d look on you the way you can when those stylish top and bottoms...

Tanya and John Skelton were in the midst of a bitter divorce as Thanksgiving neared in 2010. Tanya had sole custody of their sons, ages 5, 7, and 9, but let the boys visit her estranged husband for the holiday. It was...

Famous unsolved murders get a lot of attention. Think about how often you see media articles about JonBenet Ramsey, The Zodiac Killer, or the Black Dahlia. In his book “A Long Walk Home”, award-winning journalist Joe...

Keeping kids safe from predators is something that I hope is on everyone’s radar - but sometimes we don’t correctly judge who is a threat to our kids and who isn’t. The Jerry Sandusky scandal and Penn State football’s...