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AMERICANALMANAC (Lynn Jenkins) - Skeletal remains found in North Carolina woods in 1977 identified as 15-year-old Maryland runaway Thu Sep 10 19:57:49 2026

Nearly half a century after skeletal remains turned up in the woods outside a North Carolina tire plant, state investigators used advanced DNA testing to put a name to the dead, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from home in Maryland and never came back. North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation announced this week that […] The post Skeletal remains found in North Carolina woods in 1977 identified as 15-year-old Maryland runaway appeared first on American Almanac .

Nearly half a century after skeletal remains turned up in the woods outside a North Carolina tire plant, state investigators used advanced DNA testing to put a name to the dead, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from home in Maryland and never came back. North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigation announced this week that remains discovered on December 29, 1977, belong to Cindy Marcell Blizzard, a teenager from Monkton, Maryland, who left home in the spring of that year. The SBI is treating her death as a homicide. No arrests have been made, and the cause of death remains unknown. The remains, skeletal by the time they were found, lay in woods near a Firestone tire manufacturing plant in Wilson County, a rural area roughly 60 miles east…Open

AMERICANALMANAC (Ken Jacobs) - Skeleton in a jar: archaeologists piece together a young Roman's final moments in Bulgaria Thu Sep 10 18:27:01 2026

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed the skeleton of a young man who climbed into a storage jar to hide from attackers roughly 1,600 years ago, and never climbed out. Professor Lyudmil Vagalinski of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery on August 10, after his team dug through layers of construction debris at the […] The post Skeleton in a jar: archaeologists piece together a young Roman's final moments in Bulgaria appeared first on American Almanac .

Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed the skeleton of a young man who climbed into a storage jar to hide from attackers roughly 1,600 years ago, and never climbed out. Professor Lyudmil Vagalinski of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery on August 10, after his team dug through layers of construction debris at the ancient Roman city of Deultum. Inside a burned-out defensive tower at the city's western gate, they found the lower half of a massive clay storage jar, and, crouched within it, the remains of a young man who had been sealed beneath a replacement floor for sixteen centuries. The find offers a grim, human-scale window into the collapse of Roman order along the empire's eastern frontier. Deultum, one of only…Open

AMERICANALMANAC (Alex Tanzer) - DNA breakthrough revives 33-year-old Texas murder case of mother who vanished on Labor Day weekend Wed Sep 9 18:36:19 2026

Three law enforcement agencies are now actively investigating the 1993 killing of Shelley Watkins after a forensic DNA advance cracked open a cold case that went dormant when a corruption scandal derailed the original prosecution. Shelley Watkins was 35 years old, a mother of two small girls, one four, one just 18 months, when she […] The post DNA breakthrough revives 33-year-old Texas murder case of mother who vanished on Labor Day weekend appeared first on American Almanac .

Three law enforcement agencies are now actively investigating the 1993 killing of Shelley Watkins after a forensic DNA advance cracked open a cold case that went dormant when a corruption scandal derailed the original prosecution. Shelley Watkins was 35 years old, a mother of two small girls, one four, one just 18 months, when she disappeared from her home in Corsicana, Texas, on the night of September 6, 1993. Seven days later, fishermen pulled her body from the Trinity River. She had been struck at least eight times in the back of the head, bore a ligature mark on her throat, and was wrapped in plastic, bound with duct tape, and weighed down with two concrete cinder blocks. For more than three decades, no one has been held accountable.…Open

YOUTUBE (NewsNation) - Idaho murders case: Kohberger appeal and new Netflix documentary raise questions | Backscroll Wed Sep 9 18:29:06 2026

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A NewsNation compilation exploring Kohberger’s new lawyer, his effort to reverse his guilty plea and the timing of the Netflix documentary.

AMERICANALMANAC (Sadie Smith) - Flea market 'fox head' turns out to be one of two known Tasmanian Tiger specimens on Earth Wed Sep 9 00:20:56 2026

A British antique collector paid $85,000 for a taxidermied head mislabeled as a fox, then confirmed through X-ray and CT scans that it belonged to a Tasmanian Tiger, an apex predator extinct since 1936. James Cranfield, a 38-year-old natural history relics dealer who specializes in collecting unusual fox heads, was scrolling an auction site when […] The post Flea market 'fox head' turns out to be one of two known Tasmanian Tiger specimens on Earth appeared first on American Almanac .

A British antique collector paid $85,000 for a taxidermied head mislabeled as a fox, then confirmed through X-ray and CT scans that it belonged to a Tasmanian Tiger, an apex predator extinct since 1936. James Cranfield, a 38-year-old natural history relics dealer who specializes in collecting unusual fox heads, was scrolling an auction site when he spotted a listing for a "19th century fox head" consigned to Auctioneum, an auction house in Bristol, England. The image stopped him cold. The proportions were wrong. The teeth were wrong. Cranfield counted eight upper incisors in the photograph, two more than any fox has ever carried. He believed he was looking at the head of a thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger, a carnivorous…Open

YOUTUBE (NewsNation) - 'We can't jump to conclusions': CeCe Moore on possible new leads from DNA in Murdaugh murders Wed Aug 26 18:31:38 2026

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Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore talks about Alex Murdaugh’s defense and its hope unknown DNA evidence could lead investigators to another possible suspect in the murders of Murdaugh’s wife and son. Watch this full episode of "The Truth of the Matter": https://youtu.be/qdLgNZexpwo #AlexMurdaugh #truecrime #investigation

YOUTUBE (NewsNation) - 'They will attempt to create a 'SNP' profile: CeCe Moore on DNA found under Maggie Murdaugh's nails Tue Aug 25 19:11:56 2026

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Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore talks about unknown male DNA found under murder victim Maggie Murdaugh’s fingernails and how a “SNP” DNA profile of that evidence could help investigators. A “SNP” profile looks at small DNA differences between people to help identify ancestry, disease risks or physical traits. Watch this full episode of "The Truth of the Matter": https://youtu.be/qdLgNZexpwo #AlexMurdaugh #truecrime #MaggieMurdaugh

YOUTUBE (NewsNation) - They could find DNA not previously detected: CeCe Moore on how officials could crack Guthrie case Mon Aug 24 19:21:21 2026

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Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore talks about how additional DNA testing on evidence found in Nancy Guthrie’s Tucson home could turn up a profile of a suspect that wasn’t previously detected. Watch this full episode of "The Truth of the Matter": https://youtu.be/qdLgNZexpwo #NancyGuthrie #DNAtesting #truecrime

AMERICANALMANAC (Charles McAdams) - Melting Swiss glacier surrenders bodies of two Belgian climbers missing since 1992 Mon Aug 24 18:17:34 2026

DNA testing has confirmed that two bodies found on a fast-shrinking glacier in southern Switzerland belong to a pair of Belgian mountaineers who vanished 34 years ago, the latest case of retreating ice giving up the dead. A hiker crossing the Trift Glacier on July 26 spotted the remains and alerted authorities. Wallis Police launched […] The post Melting Swiss glacier surrenders bodies of two Belgian climbers missing since 1992 appeared first on American Almanac .

DNA testing has confirmed that two bodies found on a fast-shrinking glacier in southern Switzerland belong to a pair of Belgian mountaineers who vanished 34 years ago, the latest case of retreating ice giving up the dead. A hiker crossing the Trift Glacier on July 26 spotted the remains and alerted authorities. Wallis Police launched a recovery operation and transported the bodies to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Wallis Hospital in Sion, where scientists ran DNA comparisons against records of long-missing climbers. The results were conclusive. Wallis Police confirmed the identities in a statement: "A direct comparison of DNA profiles conclusively established that the individuals were two mountaineers who had been missing in the…Open