Word on the Street: Juan Gonzales Murder Gang Related?
The body found near Woodruff has been positively identified as Juan Luis Tafoya-Gonzales. Cause of death hasn’t been released but authorities believe foul play may be involved. A tipster told me that a rumor is going around the “migrant” community that this was gang related, either a gang hit or initiation.
There are apparently several gangs active in the state now that target mainly Latinos including MS-13. This rumor might just be gang members using the news to scare people they’re shaking down.
Rotten Reporting: WYFF Says “Half Naked Girl Found with Man She Met Online”
But that title neglects to inform you that the “girl” was a 14-year-old child who was being molested by a pervert. At least in this case they put that in the first paragraph, but even there it seems like an after thought.
25-year-old Randall Duffell from Alabama met a 14-year-old girl online a few weeks ago. He groomed her and started up a sexual relationship with the child. WYFF has a long comedy of errors style report on how he got caught but the only thing important in this story is that the 25-year-old pedophile was caught with a child with no pants on in his vehicle.
Call me old fashioned but I think the title of an article should reflect the main point. Duffell wasn’t caught with a “girl” because frankly in South Carolina it’s legal (unfortunately) to have sex with a girl 16 and up. At 39 I tend to refer to anyone under 25 as a “girl” but they aren’t children. Duffell was caught with a child. He is a child molester. WYFF avoids pointing out that truth. Why?
I have a theory about that. It’s the same reason when a 22-year-old was caught making obscene phone calls to a 14-year-old and her mother WYFF titled the story Man Accused Of Sexy Phone Calls To Minor. You know, because there’s nothing sexier than adults making obscene phone calls to children.
Seems to me someone at WYFF has some unconventional views as to the morality of adults preying sexually on children.
Scrappers Stealing Grave Vases in Woodruff
Bronze vases, left on the graves as a memorial by grieving loved ones, are being stolen in Woodruff by what are no doubt thieves who are lured by the promise of quick cash for scrap metal due to rising commodity prices. From Fox Carolina:
WOODRUFF, S.C. — Thieves are robbing from the dead and investigators are trying to track them down.
A manager with the Greenhaven Cemetery in Woodruff noticed several missing bronze vases and called deputies.
For family members and friends, the cemetery is a final resting place for those they love. But some bold grave robbers disturbed the grounds and ripped the vases from grave markers.
“It didn’t surprise me a whole lot,” said Jean Hunter. She said that type of low-down crime has happened before at the cemetery — to her mother’s grave. “About a year, or so, ago, her vase was stolen. They replaced it for us,” she said.
So, when she heard more thieves hit the cemetery, she got in her car and drove there.
Bronze and Brass have really been a small timer market. Bronze has usually been worth about $2/lb depending on the scrap yard and circumstance. However the primary ingredient in bronze, copper, is just retreating off 4-month highs and speculators are expecting the metal to surge in the coming months due to increased industrial demand. Scrap metal dealers may be in a buying mood for all sorts of scrap in anticipation of a run on metals by governments, industry and speculators.
Loan Officer in South Carolina in Embezzlement Case
Schemes like this are one of the reason the housing market collapsed. This woman was embezzling money by playing around with the mortgages and home equity credt lines of friends and family who used her bank. She thus had motive to pass out loans to people regardless of their ability to pay and the borrowers, who were friends of hers, had leverage to black mail her into giving them even more credit since it’s unlikely they wouldn’t have known what she was up to.
United States Attorney Bill Nettles announced that Kimberly O. McAbee of Woodruff, S.C., has been sentenced in federal court in Greenville, S.C., for embezzling bank funds, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 656. Senior United States District Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr. sentenced McAbee to 24 months’ imprisonment. Evidence presented at the change of plea hearing established that from 1988 until December 2009, McAbee worked at Arthur State Bank in Woodruff, S.C.
Starting in about November 2006 and continuing into December 2009, McAbee embezzled approximately $520,000 through the manipulation of home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and mortgage loans held by family members and friends at Arthur State Bank. In an effort to hide her activities, McAbee accessed the bank’s expense and Freddie Mac accounts to move funds around to conceal the theft.
Anyone want to guess how many of those mortgages are sub-prime?
Crack is a Hell of a Drug
Just ask Kenneth Ray Rice, who just received a 25 year sentence for a robbery spree that ended with police finding him hiding in a dumpster. If that’s not a great metaphor for drug addiction, I don’t know what is. Prosecutors say Rice committed the crimes to support his crack habit.
That Trey Gowdy is having his office pull out all the law and order stops these days while he’s running for congress. Not that I’m saying the two are connected…
But I almost hope he doesn’t win because his office is fighting crime the right way. We need you here Gowdy!