The Skeleton Key Chronicles

12 hours ago

Today would have been Christine Chubbuck’s 82nd birthday. And more than 50 years later, what happened during her live television news program remains one of the most unbelievable moments in broadcasting history.

Christine was just 29 years old and working as an up-and-coming journalist in Sarasota, Florida, where she hosted a local morning program called Suncoast Digest. She was serious about her work and especially interested in community issues and local stories. But by the summer of 1974, she was growing frustrated with the station's push toward more sensational television news topocs. And that becomes a pretty important part of what happened next.

On the morning of July 15th, Christine arrived at the station and asked to do something unusual. Instead of opening Suncoast Digest with an interview, she wanted to begin with a monologue. A few minutes into the live program, she stated her case about the direction the station had taken followed by the station quickly cut away from the broadcast. What happened on air that day stunned her coworkers and the people watching at home. As for Christine, she was taken by ambulance and she passed away later that day.

Once investigators took a look at the case, they quickly determined Christine had planned that morning carefully. The script she prepared didn’t end with her own part of the broadcast. Christine had also prepared for what would happen afterward. Her script continued beyond the portion she planned to read herself and included a news story for the person who would take over the program.

Written in the third person, it hauntingly identified Christine by name and reported what had happened to her that morning, including that she had been taken from the station by ambulance.
In other words, Christine had written the news story about herself that she expected someone else to read after she was gone.

Christine Chubbuck 🕯
August 24, 1944 ~ July 15, 1974

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

18 hours ago

The nearly weeklong search for Karen Solomon has come to an end, six days after her husband, longtime Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon, was found deceased inside their Massachusetts home.

Two employees of Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital made the discovery around midday Monday while walking in a wooded area near the facility. Worcester Police say they are confident the woman they located is Karen, although formal identification is still pending through the medical examiner.

Karen, 58, had been the focus of a massive search since last Tuesday morning. Surveillance footage released during the week appeared to show her walking in the Coes Pond area shortly after police responded to the couple’s Wildwood Avenue home. Investigators spent much of the following days searching Coes Pond and the surrounding area with help from numerous local, state and federal agencies.

By Friday, authorities had issued a warrant for Karen as the search continued through the weekend. Monday’s discovery came in the same general area where investigators had spent much of the past week searching.

Karen had spent years advocating for police officers, other first responders and their families. She co-founded First H.E.L.P., an organization focused on first-responder mental health, and authored two books about the experiences of people working in law enforcement.

Her husband Kurt, 57, had served with the Worcester Police Department for 31 years.

The Solomon family released a statement Monday thanking the many agencies and first responders who participated in the search, saying the past week had left their family “heartbroken and rudderless.”

The investigation into what happened to Kurt remains ongoing, while formal identification of the woman believed to be Karen is still pending through the medical examiner.

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The Skeleton Key Chronicles

21 hours ago

A case going to trial this week here in the greater Cincinnati area began after Google detected concerning activity tied to an online account last summer and eventually grew to include more than 50 charges involving a woman and her former boyfriend.

Erica Grove and her former boyfriend, Tony McCollister, both 43, are at the center of the case. Grove is facing 24 counts and McCollister 30, and I’m going to leave the specifics of those 54 counts to the links below rather than spelling them out here.
The whole thing started last June when Google reported the account to NCMEC and provided information that included an IP address. Authorities followed that information to McCollister, and as they continued looking into what was going on, the case eventually expanded to include Grove.

Grove has pleaded not guilty, and her attorney has pushed back on the case against her, saying that she was being coerced by McCollister. McCollister has also pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

There is also a somewhat unusual backstory regarding McCollister. Back in 2015,, he appeared on the A&E reality show called "Neighbors with Benefits", alongside his then-wife, Diana which followed several suburban Cincinnati couples who were part of the swinger lifestyle. The show didn't stick around for long, as A&E pulled it after just two episodes.

Grove, however, wasn't part of the show and didn't begin dating McCollister until years later. Now, Grove will have the chance to make her case before as her trial begins this week in a Warren County courtroom. She has opted for a bench trial.

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