Free Republic

More than four decades since law enforcement found the remains of a young woman on the side of a Texas highway, her remains have been identified, Bastrop County Sheriff's Office announced at a news conference on Thursday. The woman was found in Elgin, Texas, when law enforcement was driving by. She was wearing a white shirt with red neck trim and dark blue jeans, according to DNA Solves, which helps crowdfund identification investigations. Her name was Kathy Ann Smith. She was just 22 years old, almost 23, at the time of her murder, the sheriff's office said. Investigators at the...

One of the victims was critically injured in the shooting that unfolded early Tuesday outside an H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas, police said. A man has been arrested after two Texas cheerleaders were shot, one critically, after one of them mistakenly got into the wrong car, according to police and the owner of the gym where they trained. Officers in Elgin, about 25 miles northeast of Austin, responded to reports of shots fired outside an H-E-B supermarket around 12:15 a.m. local time (1:15 a.m. ET) Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release. "Information suggests that an altercation...

For 64 days, Kevin Smith had shut down the Liberty Tree Tavern to comply with government orders. Now he was cleaning and disinfecting and removing stools to cut seating by three-quarters as he prepared to reopen the bar. Plexiglass screens had gone up at the supermarket checkout. His neighbors in Elgin, Texas, were still wearing masks outside, even after it was no longer mandated by the county. He did not think such a response was necessary, he said, and he wanted to push back. "Sorry, no mask allowed," read the poster taped to the front door of his bar Friday....

On March 21 Mary Jo Schnell was at Burnidge Forest Preserve along Coombs Road when she found a string of paw prints 3 inches wide... The Elgin-area reports started at Thanksgiving time in 2008. Deer hunter Pat Crawford had set up a motion-activated trail camera in the back woods of Charles MacArthur's tree nursery along Plank Road west of Route 20. When he checked the film, he discovered one smudgy, underexposed picture of a beefy, catlike animal. Another caller said he had been driving to work and had seen the corpse of a large brown animal along Route 47 on...

Archaeologists have uncovered a small - but vital - clue to the use of a chariot in Moray. The piece for a horse harness was found during the latest dig at an Iron Age site at Birnie, near Elgin. Dr Fraser Hunter, of the National Museums of Scotland, said it was further evidence of the high status of its inhabitants. Excavations would have been unlikely at Birnie if not for the discovery of Roman coins 10 years ago. Glass beads that may have been made at Culbin Sands, near Nairn, in the Highlands, a dagger and quern stones for making...

A 52 year old man in Elgin, Illinois was taken by surprise after a prostitute he hired through a website turned out to be his own wife of the past 19 years. The man had been using the site for some months to hire prostitutes and meet them for sex at motels in neighboring areas. Last weekend, the man told his wife he was going out drinking with work colleagues, when in reality he was traveling to a motel on the outskirts of town. Upon checking into the motel the man used his phone to access his regular website used...

It's possible Illinois is about to come down with a statewide case of Seasonal Affected Disorder. The season is construction, which an old joke says is one of two in Illinois. The disorder is the continuing one in Springfield, where the ongoing budget crisis is about to shut down road projects during the height of that season. And the affected are everyone from officials who work to put needed projects together, to the drivers who have to negotiate construction zones and torn up streets. In Aurora, workers last week got the barriers and cones out to reduce Farnsworth Avenue, near...

A 12-year-old boy was in a coma over the weekend after being severely beaten by another student at a northwest suburban middle school Friday. Kenyon Woods Middle School Principal Lisa Olsem said the young boy was “assaulted by another student” just before noon. He suffered severe injuries and was taken to Presence St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin before being transferred to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. {SNIP} At the Elgin school district meeting Monday night, the student board member wore green, a symbol officials say is meant to represent hope. Others throughout the district wore the color in...

A prominent Islamic leader who was previously arrested in the alleged sexual abuse of an employee now faces additional charges after he was formally indicted. Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, an imam who founded the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, appeared in court Wednesday, where an indictment was read charging him with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual abuse, attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse, unlawful restraint and aggravated battery. Saleem, 75, had previously been charged with criminal sexual abuse and aggravated battery. more at link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/crime/ct-elgin-imam-new-charges-met-20150325-story.html

Reports that federal agents were looking for evidence of child pornography when they seized computers from the Elgin district office of former state Rep. Keith Farnham shocked local officials who said the lawmaker was well-liked and active in the community. "I couldn't even fathom it. I was stunned," said former Elgin Mayor Ed Schock, adding that Farnham always worked on the city's behalf. Farnham has not been accused of any crime. Federal agents were searching for documents "pertaining to the possession, receipt or distribution of child pornography" as well as computer files, copies and negatives of child pornography or any...

e day after a Democrat Illinois lawmaker cruised to victory in his party’s primary Tuesday, he gave up his seat in the wake of a child pornography raid. State Rep. Keith Farnham stepped down from representing Elgin, a city about 35 miles northwest of Chicago, days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided his home and his state office in Springfield. Items that were seized included the laptop computer Farnham used on the House floor, The Associated Press reported. The search warrant sought material that “in any format and medium concerning minors visually depicted while engaged in sexually explicit conduct,”...

This was filmed in Elgin, Illinois about 40 miles from Chicago. I assume it's for the NATO summit this week as a security measure.

Eighteen-year-old Guillermo Pineda, of Elgin, and a group of his friends were on the 800 block of Arthur Drive late Monday shortly before 11 p.m. — just a few blocks from Pineda’s home. Around the same time, Donald Rattanavong, 57, looked out his window and saw a group of teenagers near his car, which was parked on the street. Rattanavong, armed with a small caliber handgun walked outside and yelled at the teens before firing multiple shots, Elgin police said. Advertisement One of those bullets struck Pineda, of the 1100 block of Iroquois Drive. Pineda died at Sherman Hospital Monday...

ELGIN) An Elgin High School teacher stabbed by a student Friday morning has been released from the hospital, according to a statement from Elgin School District U46. Carolyn Gilbert, a family and consumer sciences teacher, was stabbed by a 16-year-old male student with a steak knife four times in the back of her neck and once near her eye, according to witnesses. Elgin High School staff confirmed Saturday that Gilbert lost her eye as a result of the attack. The male student, whose name has not been released, entered the teacher’s empty first-floor classroom at 11:15 a.m. shortly after the...

Sausage is the secret to the oldest 'cue restaurant in state By Kitty Crider AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Wednesday, May 30, 2007 ELGIN — Twice a week for 42 years, cotton gin owner Jimmy Sybert has made the 32-mile round trip from Taylor to Southside Market & Barbeque here for what he considers the best sausage around. "I used to order a yard of it," he says, extending his arms to a 36-inch length. Now, he has cut back to 18 inches or so of the juicy fresh beef sausage. But why drive to Elgin for lunch? Taylor is known for its...

Minutemen met by peaceful protesters MICHAEL R. SCHMIDT / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Demonstrators protest outside The Centre of Elgin on Saturday, where the Illinois Minutemen group held its "No Amnesty" meeting. MICHAEL R. SCHMIDT / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Special police tactical vehicles park along Fulton Street in anticipation of possible trouble during protests outside the Illinois Minutemen's meeting Saturday at The Centre of Elgin. ELGIN — With the police a notable but not overwhelming presence, a meeting of the Illinois chapter of the Minuteman Project came off without a hitch Saturday afternoon, while not far away, a mixed but mainly Hispanic crowd...

Dispute between Greece, England resumes with Olympics Games With the Olympic Games soon to open in Athens, one of the more bitter rivalries in history is set to resume, and it doesn't involve parallel bars or water polo. The Greek government is spending tens of millions of dollars on a museum atop the Acropolis in hopes that Britain will choose this occasion to return the Elgin Marbles, the elaborate sets of sculptures pried off the Parthenon and shipped to London two centuries ago. The British, unsurprisingly, have not complied. To understand why the sculptures mean so much to both...