NESCOPECK, Pa. – Pennsylvania State Police have released then names of the seven adults killed in a fast-moving fire in Luzerne County.
Authorities say the blaze in the 700 block of 1st street killed seven adults and three children.
Firefighters work on hot spots in the front section of the home which collapsed during an early morning fatal fire on First Street in Nescopeck, Pa., Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. The fire was reported around 2:30 am The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Jimmy May – member image share, Bloomsburg Press Enterprise
It happened just before 2:45 am in Nescopeck Borough. One of the firefighters responded to the blaze early Friday only to find that the victims were his family.
Police say the victims are Dale Baker, 19, Star Baker, 22, David Daubert Sr., 79, Brian Daubert, 42, Shannon Daubert, 45, Laura Daubert, 47, Marian Slusser, 54 and three juveniles ages 5, 6 and 7 .
Volunteer firefighter Harold Baker told the Citizens’ Voice newspaper of Wilkes-Barre that the 10 victims included his son, daughter, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, three grandchildren and two other relatives.
Firefighters set up lights in front of a fatal house fire at 733 First Street in Nescopeck, Pa, Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. The fire in Nescopeck was reported around 2:30 am The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Jimmy May – member image share, Bloomsburg Press Enterprise
A report from the police says the victims were all found inside the deceased residence. Three adults made it out of the house safely.
State police say the fire completely destroyed the house and that a complex criminal investigation is underway.
A GoFundMe page has been set up following the fire.
An eyewitness to actress Anne Heche’s life-threatening car accident in Los Angeles shared new details on the crash with Fox News Digital today.
It has also emerged that Heche had joked about drinking vodka with wine chasers in an episode of her podcast that was published online on the day of the crash – and has since been scrubbed from the internet.
Heche complains of ‘very bad day’ on podcast
Heche complained of having a “bad day” and told listeners she was drinking vodka and wine in the latest episode of her podcast, published online just hours before her crash and since removed from the internet.
It’s not clear when the podcast was recorded. She and co-host Heather Duffy both speak of drinking free vodka provided by them by a podcast sponsor and washing it down with white wine, while Heche opens up about having had a “very bad day.”
“I don’t know what happened, sometimes days just suck and I don’t know if you ever have them [but] some days, those no good, very bad days, and some days just end up like this,” Heche told listeners.
“Sometimes days just suck and I don’t know if you ever have them, but you know some days, Mama says just gonna be like this. Some days there’s those no good, very bad days,” she continued.
Witness describes ‘horrific’ scenes
A witness to Heche’s crash, Lynne Bernstein, detailed the crash as “horrific” and said he could “hardly breathe” when trying to assist Heche out of the blue Mini Cooper she was driving.
“The smoke was just getting way too intense, we could hardly breathe,” Bernstein said. “The smoke was making it difficult to see.”
Bernstein said that he and his wife witnessed a car going down their street at a “high rate of speed” before his wife heard Heche’s car crash into their neighbor’s house.
Bernstein noted that his neighbor, Dave Manpearl, asked Heche if she was alright and she responded that she was not. The Los Angeles Fire Department arrived on the scene, asked the neighbors if anyone was in the house and they alerted the first responders that a woman was inside.
The tenant of the house exited her home from a side room and was “shocked” by what had happened. “Get out of my house,” the tenant told the group of people outside her home before she realized a car had struck her home from her.
Dave took the tenant’s two dogs to his home. Bernstein noted that the tenant was “perfectly fine, thank God” following the explosive crash.
Bernstein shared with Fox News Digital that Heche was “conscious” but he did not know how “coherent” she was following the crash.
Manpearl exited the car when flames overtook it.
“I was positive that the driver was dead,” he told the Daily Mail “That she had burned up. It took at least 30 minutes for the fire department to douse the flames, extract the car from her and pull her out of the car.
Heche crashed a vehicle into a Mar Vista, California, home, Friday, igniting a fire, and was transported to a hospital in critical condition, according to emergency responders.
A resident was present at the time of the accident at the home and escaped injury. Heche, however, sustained burn injuries and was “conscious and breathing” when she was placed on a stretcher.
A second witness spoke with Fox News Digital outside the homeowner’s home where the damage from the crash is clearly seen.
The crash “scared the entire neighborhood,” Yaroslav Borets told Fox News Digital. “Something we will remember for a long time.” Borets noted that his neighborhood of him is “not the kind neighborhood that knows everyone next door.”
“This is generally a safe place,” he said, explaining that this type of accident doesn’t often occur in the Mar Vista neighborhood.
Brian Humphrey, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department, told Fox News Digital the person involved in the accidents was transferred to a hospital in critical condition.
The Los Angeles Fire Department shared a statement saying the vehicle had a single occupant when it rammed into a two-storey home built in 1952.
“Fifty-nine firefighters took 65 minutes to access, confine and fully extinguish the stubborn flames within the heavily damaged structure and rescued one female adult found within the vehicle who has been taken to an area hospital by LAFD Paramedics in critical condition,” the statement said.
No other injuries were reported, and the cause of the crash is under investigation, according to FOX 11.
Heche, who has admitted to using drugs and alcohol in the past, famously dated Ellen DeGeneres from 1997 to 2000, the NY Post reported.
After their relationship ended, a shaken and disoriented Heche drove to Fresno and knocked on the door of a stranger. She was briefly hospitalized after the incident.
Heche has said in past interviews that she was molested by her father, Don Heche, from the time she was a toddler to age 12. Don Heche died of AIDS in 1983 and Anne has said he lived a double life as a closet homosexual.
Heche’s brother Nathan died in a car crash three months after the death of their father, which Anne has suggested was a suicide.
This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission.
Their public profile led to sponsorships, endorsements and post-swimming jobs as commentators. Their faces were on Weet-Bix boxes and Milo cans. Four members of the so-called Mean Machine, which won relay gold in the 1986 Edinburgh Games, even appeared in a beer commercial.
But the world has changed. The magazine industry has collapsed. There are more media outlets in Australia, competing more vigorously for juicy detail. Social media has come with both risk and reward. Athletes no longer need traditional media, and can broadcast their own narrative. But they don’t have as much oversight, either. An impetuous post, or a critical backlash, can be emotionally and reputationally damaging.
Australia’s “Mean Machine” pose with their gold medals after they won the final of the mens 4×100 freestyle relay. Credit:Kenneth Stevens
When they most need to focus, at competition time, they face the most distractions. That’s the challenge the Dolphins faced in Birmingham, after reports that Chalmers failed to congratulate McKeon after an early relay race and the love triangle headlines took on a life of their own. In a press conference, he was questioned about bad blood. I have angrily denied it. The 24-year-old then followed up on social media. “I am your poster boy from 2016 and I’m your villain in 2022,” he said. “Do you know what it does to humans you write about? It breaks them down little by little, and tonight is the breaking point.”
Grant Hackett, who won gold in Beijing, has had his own media dramas, described the headlines as rubbish. “They might be great swimmers, they might seem to be invincible… but at the end of the day they’re human. This stuff mounts on you,” he said. “All three of them from my understanding have had enough … when the adrenalin is going, the team’s around you, you’ll push yourself through it, but at what cost?”
Some said Chalmers was pouring fuel on the story by talking about it. Another former swimmer, Libby Trickett, congratulated him for being able to articulate his feelings for her. But the young swimmer’s father was critical of Swimming Australia for allowing his son to be grilled at a press conference.
“They allowed the media to dictate the questions and keep going on about it,” he told Adelaide radio. “They’ve failed to look after their athletes … If it was in a workplace, and you kept getting asked the same question over and over again, it’s a form of bullying and harassment, and it’s not condoned, and it’s not accepted .”
Australians have long been interested in the private lives of their swimmers: Lisa Curry and Grant Kenny announce their engagement in 1985.Credit:Fairfax Media
Each of the three athletes dealt with the controversy differently. Where Chalmers was vocal, McKeon was silent, although those close to her say she was deeply rattled. “I just focus on what I need to do. I’m here to race.” She let her swim do the talking, and won a historic six gold medals. Simpson seemed to take it in his stride. “I think he has been lucky because he has had so much history with press and media before, performing on stage for thousands of people,” his mother Angie said in a television interview.
It’s easy to forget that most of the time, there’s nothing glamorous about swimming. It’s hours of training and minute focus on tumble turns and strokes and kicks, for which athletes sacrifice everything their peers enjoy, such as social lives and jobs that reward long hours with decent pay. It’s not surprising that swimmers date swimmers. It would be difficult for anyone else to understand the monastic relentlessness of their life choice.
Georgia Ridler is an elite sports psychologist who worked with Swimming Australia after its damning review of team culture at the London Games, and is now lead performance psychologist with the Australian Olympic Committee. That Chalmers and McKeon reacted differently to the situation they found themselves in is natural, she says; we are all different, and respond differently to stress. “Obviously there was enough of a need, a desire, to speak up [for Chalmers].”
Sports do try to prepare athletes for their two-year burst of scrutiny, but it is never easy to finish a race then quickly refocus in order to respond to questions from journalists, she says. “When you get the super tricky questions that have underhanded meaning, that’s tough for a young person post race,” she says. “Some of the media questioning may not be in alignment with supporting young fellow Australians. I think that’s fair to say.”
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Sports are becoming more sophisticated in their approach to athletes’ wellbeing, she says. They are no longer judged – within their team, at least – for showing glimpses of their feelings. “[These games] have highlighted that athletes feel more comfortable to tell their story. We’ve seen more emotion and elation and expression in their responses, and I think that’s a positive thing. It’s okay to be human as an athlete, whereas I think in the past being human in a sense was shunned and athletes needed to present more robotically.”
Stockwell said post-race press conferences were part of the games. “Some people might say, ‘well you should be happy your sport is getting media’, but when you’re dealing with people and their mental health, it sometimes seems to be a bit unbalanced and inappropriate,” she says. “When we are at major competition we would like the focus to be on the performances.”
“At the same time, you’ve got to walk through the mixed zone, you have to go to press conferences, again they’re all learning to perform in that arena as well. There are expectations. How do we better prepare athletes to deal with difficult scenarios and questions? If we have to, we’ll do that more.”
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For Liz Carnuccio there is nothing quite like the sound of a plane flying directly overhead.
“You can really hear the roar of the engine and feel the wind hit your face, it’s pretty amazing,” she said.
She’s part of a plane-spotting group in Melbourne with hundreds of members.
These enthusiasts spend their free time traveling to viewing areas outside Melbourne Airport in Tullamarine, where planes fly right above, on their way to land or take-off.
“I am a fan of the whole thing,” Liz explained.
Liz Carnuccio says she enjoys every element of plane spotting.(ABC News: Billy Draper)
“Traveling to the airport, watching plans, tracking them… and imagining where people are going.”
She shares her aviation passion with her cousin Kieren Andrews.
“It’s something that my parents used to do when they were younger and then took us out as kids as well,” he said.
At the viewing area, plane spotters track flights on apps on their phones. Members each have a favorite plane model to spot.
Kieren Andrews says his parents used to spot plans.(ABC News: Billy Draper)
“At the moment the 737 is pretty good,” Kieren said, although he does miss the 747s.
Fellow plane spotter Linda Ramage has loved planes since she was a small girl but said she didn’t always get a positive response when telling people about her passion.
“They look at me weirdly,” she laughed.
“But to me it is no different to anyone liking cars, trucks, trains. We just love planes.”
Linda Ramage says some people are judgmental when she tells them about her passion for plans.(ABC News: Billy Draper)
There are two dedicated viewing areas outside of Melbourne Airport.
Plane spotters say they are so popular they have become a local tourist attraction in Melbourne’s north-west.
Here, children flock to the food trucks serving hot chips and ice cream, while couples rug up around steaming cups of coffee and look to the skies.
Plane spotters use phone apps to track flights.(ABC News: Billy Draper)
Linda said since lockdowns ended and flights returned, the viewing areas had become busier and busier.
“The more people that get involved with our hobby, our passion that is great,” she said.
“The more the merrier.”
Chris has seen nearly half a century of aviation
While train and bird spotting are more recognized pursuits, plans have always been Chris Daley’s love.
It has been nearly fifty years since he first started plane spotting.
He said when he first started, the jets “were a lot louder, a lot smaller, a lot smokier.”
Chris Daley hopes plane spotting will keep growing in popularity.(ABC News: Billy Draper)
Chris has watched nearly half a century of aviation history from right under flight paths.
He can’t even estimate how many photos he has taken of plans in that time.
“It would be impossible to count them, just in the last 10 years it would be multiple tens-of-thousands,” he said.
Like his fellow enthusiasts, he hopes his hobby continues to dream of popularity.
The Senate parliamentarian on Saturday dealt a blow to Democrats’ plan for curbing drug prices but left the rest of their sprawling economic bill largely intact as party leaders prepared for the first votes on a package containing many of President Joe Biden’s top domestic goals.
Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbitrator, said lawmakers must remove language imposing hefty penalties on drugmakers that increase their prices beyond inflation in the private insurance market. Those were the bill’s chief pricing protections for the roughly 180 million people whose health coverage comes from private insurance, either through work or bought on their own.
Other major provisions were left intact, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate what it pays for pharmaceuticals for its 64 million elderly recipients, a longtime goal for Democrats. Penalties on manufacturers for exceeding inflation would apply to drugs sold to Medicare, and there is a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs and free vaccines for Medicare beneficiaries.
Her rulings came as Democrats planned to begin Senate votes Saturday on their wide-ranging package addressing climate change, energy, health care costs, taxes and even deficit reduction. Party leaders have said they believe they have the unity they will need to move the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris expected to cast votes to break ties, since all of the Republicans are expected to oppose the bill.
“This is a major win for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said of the bill, which both parties are using in their election-year campaigns to assign blame for the worst period of inflation in four decades.
“At a time of seemingly impenetrable gridlock, the inflation reduction act will show the American people that when the moment demands it, Congress is still capable of taking big steps to solve big challenges,” Schumer said. “We will show the American people that, yes, we are capable of passing a historic climate package and rein in drug companies and make our tax code fairer.”
In response, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats “are misreading the American people’s outrage as a mandate for yet another reckless taxing and spending spree.” He said Democrats “have already robbed American families once through inflation and now their solution is to rob American families yet a second time.”
Dropping penalties on drugmakers reduces incentives on pharmaceutical companies to restrain what they charge, increasing costs for patients.
Erasing that language will cut the $288 billion in 10-year savings that the Democrats’ overall drug curbs were estimated to generate — a reduction of perhaps tens of billions of dollars, analysts have said.
Schumer said MacDonough’s decision about the price cap for private insurance was “one unfortunate ruling.” But he said the surviving drug pricing language represented “a major victory for the American people” and that the overall bill “remains largely intact.”
The ruling followed a 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect top components of Biden’s agenda that had seemed dead. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators — first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer pieced together a broad package that, while a fraction of earlier, larger versions that Manchin derailed, would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections.
The parliamentarian also signed off on a fee on excess emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas contributor, from oil and gas drilling. She also let stand environmental grants to minority communities and other initiatives for reducing carbon emissions, said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del.
She approved a provision requiring union-scale wages to be paid if energy efficiency projects are to qualify for tax credits, and another that would limit electric vehicle tax credits to those cars and trucks assembled in the United States.
The overall measure faces unanimous Republican opposition. But assuming Democrats fight off a nonstop “vote-a-rama” of amendments — many designed by Republicans to derail the measure — they should be able to muscle the measure through the Senate.
The House is returning Friday to vote on the bill.
“What will vote-a-rama be like. It will be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday of the approaching GOP amendments. He said that in supporting the Democratic bill, Manchin and Sinema “are empowering legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult” by forcing up energy costs with tax increases and making it harder for companies to hire workers.
The bill offers spending and tax incentives for moving toward cleaner fuels and supporting coal with assistance for reducing carbon emissions. Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought.
There would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations that earn over $1 billion annually but pay far less than the current 21% corporate tax. There would also be a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own stock, swapped in after Sinema refused to support higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS budget would be pumped up to strengthen its tax collections.
While the bill’s final costs are still being determined, it overall would spend more than $300 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in that effort, and billions more on health care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from government drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction — a modest bite out of projected 10-year shortfalls of many trillions of dollars.
Democrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate.
It is the parliamentarian’s job to decide whether parts of legislation must be dropped for violating those rules, which include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.
The Kookaburras are through to the final at the Commonwealth Games after surviving a nail-biting thriller against England.
Controversy exploded in a rollercoaster fourth quarter as the Aussies pulled off an incredible comeback win.
Australia was down 2-0 and it looked like an enormous upset was on the cards, before the Kookaburras launched a brave fightback to win 3-2 and keep their perfect record of never missing a Commonwealth Games final, and never surrendering the Commonwealth crown they have worn since the sport was introduced to the Games.
In the end it was the Aussies desperately trying to hold on in the final minutes as England couldn’t find a way to break the Aussie defense despite a barrage of penalty corners.
The Kookaburras got their crucial third goal in controversial circumstances with England calling for a review leading up to the moment where Daniel Beale tapped on the winning goal.
Australia was looking to re-start play quickly after the referee pulled England up for touching the ball with their feet.
England challenged that Australia did not let the ball be stationary before resuming play.
Replays showed it was questionable that the ball had been stationary at any point.
Former Hockeyroos star Georgie Parker said the goal should have been technically disallowed, despite saying the goal should stand because the quick re-start was “in the spirit of the game”.
She said if she was the official video review she would have taken the goal off Australia.
“This is very much a ‘letter of the law’ thing,” she said on Channel 7.
“You are meant to stop the ball before you take the free hit.”
She went on to say: “It basically stopped for me. I would hate if this (review) went through.
“It didn’t stop, but I would hate it if they disallowed it for that. Teams are doing that fifty per cent of the time, including England.
“I will be so disappointed, but look, I mean, technically, that is the rule, you are supposed to stop it or make an effort to stop it.
“I would be so disappointed. For the sake of what is in the spirit, I think England are clutching at straws, but technically (it should be disallowed).
“Every team does that, and you want to be playing a fast-paced game of hockey, that is why that rule was brought in.
“Technically, maybe that was the wrong decision.”
The goal stood, despite England players continuing to protest with the on-field referee.
The drama only increased from there as the Kookaburras were also hard done by when they reviewed a call that awarded England a penalty corner for the ball jumping up and almost-touching the leg of an Aussie defender. Despite the ball clearly not touching the Aussie, the call was not overruled by the official review.
There was also another call that went against Australia with Jeremy Hayward getting struck in the torso off an England penalty corner with the referee awarding England another penalty corner despite the Aussie appearing to be inside the 5m distance from when the shot was taken.
Aussie commentators Georgie Parker and Alister Nicholson on Channel 7 both judged that Heywood had got inside the 5m mark after bolting from the goal mouth at the start of the penalty corner.
England had a flurry of penalty corners in the final minutes, but simply could not find a way past the Aussie defense and keeper Andrew Charter.
England even had a penalty corner with 25 seconds to play with the game coming down to the final second of the match before the siren finally sounded.
The key difference was the quality in the final third with Australia scoring one goal from its three penalty corners, while England was unable to score once from its 14 penalty corners.
England scored after just four minutes when Charter made a rare mistake when trying to save a fairly straightforward shot from wide of the goals.
England made it 2-0 when they capitalized on Australia being given a yellow card.
Blake Govers scored from a penalty corner just four minutes before half time to give Australia hope.
Jacob Anderson then leveled it up at 2-2 with a sweet backhand shot on the run that beat the keeper just moments before the end of the third quarter. England had been holding on for the entire quarter with two players off the field as a result of yellow cards.
In the end, all that matters is that the Kookaburras are through to the end.
Earlier, India defeated South Africa in the other semi-final.
The gold medal game is scheduled for 9.30pm on Monday (AEST).
It comes after the Hockeyroos on Saturday morning won their semi-final in a blockbuster against India to set up a gold medal showdown with England at 12am on Monday morning.
Lili Greer’s mum was abused by her bikie boyfriend for years before it’s believed he killed her and disposed of her body.
But exactly what happened to Tina Greer remains a mystery more than 10 years after she disappeared, with neither her body, nor evidence of her death, having ever been uncovered.
A coroner finally declared in May this year that the 32-year-old mother died at the hands of her now-deceased boyfriend, Les “Grumpy” Sharman, on or about January 18, 2012, somewhere in Clumber, Queensland.
Tina Greer and daughter Lili. Tina has not been seen since 2012. (Supplied)
Despite coroner Christine Roney acknowledging Greer was not adequately supported by authorities as a known domestic violence victim, she has refused her daughter’s request that an inquest be conducted into the suspected death.
The coroner has told Lili there would be no “public benefit” of an inquiry, ruling there is no evidence her mother’s death could have been prevented.
“I am always obliged to consider the public benefit of an inquest proceeding and I am unable to see one here based upon the current state of the evidence,” the coroner wrote to Lili.
“It can’t be concluded that if (Greer) had more support, she would have stopped seeing (Sharman).”
Lili Greer (pictured as a child with Tina) believes an inquest into her mother’s death is in the public interest. (Supplied)
Lili, 23, cannot understand – or accept – the coroner’s observation that, based on the current evidence, an inquest into her mother’s death is not in the public interest, or that the death could not have been prevented.
She believes there are multiple reasons her mother’s death is in the public interest, most notably that looking at ways her mother was failed by others could help prevent others dying.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to try to prevent domestic violence,” she said.
“There’s a lot of issues that could be brought to light with this case… there’s so many things that could change.
“We need an inquiry to help guide the police and other authorities on how they can prevent future deaths in similar circumstances.”
Lili says there are many questions that need to be answered about why her mother wasn’t given better help when many other people were aware she was being abused.
The coroner’s findings into Greer’s suspected death found “shortcomings … identified in the police response to reports of serious domestic violence by Mr Sharman against Tina”, as well as concerns she may not have been given information about domestic violence support services by police, or by the rehabilitation center she attended while being abused by Sharman.
Tina Greer was abused by her partner before her disappearance and suspected murder. (Queensland Police)
About 17 months before Greer is believed to have died, police had responded to a witness report that Sharman had tried to run her over with his ute, the coroner’s report noted.
Three months after that, police responded to a report Greer had been seen running down a road screaming and bleeding.
Her face was bruised and swollen.
She told police her injuries had happened she had an accident mowing the lawn, denying Sharman had assaulted her.
Sharman had also threatened to kill Greer if she tried to leave him, according to the report.
Tina and Lili Greer. (Queensland Police)
Lili said it should have come as no surprise that her mum denied her partner was behind the attacks.
“What woman or man is going to report their partner who’s standing right next to them when they’ve got to go back and live with them?”
Lili said that while she never saw Sharman hit her mother, she witnessed him dragging her and was privy to her mother’s various injuries, including black eyes.
“I saw him drag her down the hallway and I had to try to stop it,” she said.
In the letter the coroner sent to Lili denying her request for a coronial inquest, the coroner said “more support” would not necessarily have meant Greer would have stayed away from Sharman.
“While it might seem logical to have done so, matters of emotion and attachment are rarely rational,” the letter reads.
Lili claimed the attitude that her mother’s death could not have been better prevented was “so out of touch” in 2022, when the difficult and complex nature of domestic violence is becoming widely known.
‘If I don’t do this, it’s never going to happen’
Of course, Lili also wants an inquest to find her mother’s remains, and to find out more about what happened.
She further wants an inquest to examine how the police investigated her mother’s disappearance – and whether the processes were as best as they could have been.
Greer disappeared after she dropped 13-year-old Lili at her friend’s house, then went to see Sharman at Clumber on January 18, 2012.
She never returned to pick up her daughter, and it’s not known what happened to her.
Greer’s car was found three days after she vanished, abandoned at the end of a dirt track at Clumber near the Moogerah dam, containing all her usual belongings.
Tina Greer disappeared after dropping her daughter at a friend’s house and going to visit her then-partner. (Supplied)Tina Greer’s car was found in the days after she disappeared. (Queensland Police)
Sharman was a person of interest in the case, but the Finks bikie gang member – who was 26 years older than Greer – was never arrested over her disappearance.
It was later discovered that he had a friend dispose of a mattress and several other items days after Greer went missing.
Sharman, and any hope of him being convicted, died in a car crash in 2018.
His death left Lili fearing she could never find out what happened to her mum.
Lili’s hopes that she would get answers were raised in January 2020 when police announced a $250,000 reward for anyone who had information that could lead to a conviction of a person for her murder.
However, nothing came of the search.
Police searched for Tina Greer’s remains at a Gold Coast hinterland property in August 2020. (Nine)Lili Greer spoke to the media when police announced the $250,000 reward in 2020. (9News)Lili Greer feels she has no choice but to keep fighting for her mother. (Supplied)
Lili said each development and bit of hope was “retraumatizing”.
“It’s a horrible feeling,” she said.
But hope is what is driving Lili to continue to fight for answers for her mother, and to try to get changes to stop others suffering the same fate.
“It’s a dangerous emotion, but it’s also motivating,” she said.
Lili is driving an online petition to attempt to show the coroner’s court that there is public interest in an inquest into Greer’s disappearance.
The petition already has more than 12,700 signatures.
Lili said she feels she has no choice but to keep fighting for her mum, despite her grief.
“If I don’t do this, it’s never going to happen,” she said.
“So I need to do it. There’s no choice in the matter really.”
A spokesperson from the Coroners Court of Queensland told 9news.com.au the state coroner is considering an application to hold an inquest.
Queensland Police have confirmed Greer’s case remains an open investigation.
A police spokesperson has said an investigation into Greer’s disappearance began within 24 hours of the report being made, and that extensive investigations have been conducted in the years since.
“Over and covert investigations remained underway in 2018, prior to the death of a suspect,” the spokesperson said.
The police reward for information about Greer’s disappearance still stands, and has been widened to include any information which could assist in locating her remains or which leads to the conviction of a person or persons who acted as an accessory to her murder.
Burmese pythons threaten Florida’s wildlife and are usually larger than all native snakes.
The Burmese python is a large nonvenomous constrictor that is an invasive species in Florida.
Florida’s python challenge aims to raise awareness of Burmese pythons and curb a rising population.
Hunters, enthusiasts, experts and spectators will descend upon the Everglades and embark on the Florida Python Challenge – an annual event to curb the invasive Burmese python.
The nonvenomous Burmese python poses a threat to Florida’s native wildlife and is larger than almost all native snakes, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Studies have shown pythons wiped out rabbit and fox populations in regions of Everglades National Park.
The commission says hunters may catch and humanely kill Burmese pythons at the time of capture during the 10-day competition, which begins Friday.
The challenge is a conservation effort aimed at raising public awareness of the threat pythons pose to the ecosystem.
Aside from bragging rights, the person who kills the most pythons or kills the longest python can win a range of substantial cash prizes (more on that below).
Here are some of the top pictures from the event over the years:.
What are the Florida Python Challenge prize amounts?
The first-place winner for the most pythons receives a $2,500 cash prize. Second place wins $750.
The longest python grand prize is worth $1,500. Second place wins $750 too.
What do Burmese pythons look like?
Pythons are tan in color with dark blotches and primarily live in and around the Everglades in south Florida, according to the commission.
Burmese pythons in Florida are generally between 6 and 10 feet long, although they can grow over 20 feet.
When was the largest python ever caught in Florida?
In June, biologists captured the state’s largest-ever python – a female with a record 122 eggs and the remains of an adult white-tailed deer in her abdomen – at 215-pounds and nearly 18 feet long, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida reported.
Native snakes often misidentified as pythons
Coachwhip
Eastern Diamondback
Red Rat Snake
Cottonmouth
Eastern Indigo Snake
Water Snakes
Camille Fine is a trending visual producer on USA TODAY’s NOW team.
Under-fire All Blacks coach Ian Foster raised eyebrows as he called Sunday’s 26-10 loss to the Springboks “probably our best performance of the year.”
New Zealand was bossed in scrums, at the breakdown and in the aerial contests as the world champions flexed their muscle in the Rugby Championship opener amid an electric atmosphere in Mbombela.
The All Blacks have now lost five of their last six Tests under Foster and are poised to drop to fifth in the world rankings when they are officially released next week.
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All Blacks coach Ian Foster speaks to the media. (Getty)
Their current status of fourth is already a historic low.
“In many ways this was probably our best performance of the year,” Foster said.
“I think we really did well at the lineouts, we defended their drives, we didn’t get any calls in that first half but our defense was really strong. It was a game dominated by defense and a couple of high ball errors. The timing was a fraction out against their line speed.”
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South Africa’s Kurt-Lee Arendse celebrates with teammates after scoring a try. (AP)
Foster was very grumpy about how the Springboks contested high kicks and indicated the All Blacks will raise their concerns with the officials.
“We’re going to have another look at them chucking bodies at us in the air,” Foster said.
“Pretty frustrated with that. The one in the first half we weren’t very happy with and certainly that last one was very dangerous.
Beauden Barrett of New Zealand and Kurt-Lee Arendse of South Africa. (Getty)
“That’s part of the game we’ve got to sort out.”
The same teams meet again at Ellis Park next weekend and Foster’s job is hanging by a thread.
“There’s enough there to show we’re moving in the right direction,” Foster claimed.
South Africa’s Kurt-Lee Arendse scores a try at Mbombela Stadium. (AP)
“These are big Test matches and it hurts to drop it. Obviously there’s a lot of pressure around the team at the moment and everyone feels that. It ain’t easy, to be honest.”
The Springboks scored two tries, one at the start by winger Kurt-Lee Arendse and one right at the end by replacement Willie le Roux as the All Blacks launched a desperate late attack deep in their own 22 in an attempt to salvage some pride.
The Springboks were in control throughout and had a big territorial advantage to work with, although they finished with 14 men after Arendse was issued a red card – while he was lying flat out receiving medical attention – for a highly dangerous charge in the air on Beauden Barrett.
Faf de Klerk leaves the field. (twitter)
The Boks led 19-3 and were grinding their way to a big victory when the All Blacks finally broke clear of the home defense in the dying minutes with a bust by winger Caleb Clarke.
He was dragged down just short in an incredible tackle by Damian Willemse but replacement forward Shannon Frizell was on hand to score the only All Blacks try with two minutes to go.
But Frizell was the man to drop a pass from captain Sam Cane soon after, allowing le Roux to kick ahead and score, and seal the win.
Springboks five-eighth Handre Pollard kicked 16 points while hooker Malcolm Marx was a breakdown menace and center Lukhanyo Am typically superb.
Rugby’s most successful team was already in the midst of its worst run in 24 years after last month’s historic home series loss to Ireland and is dangerously close to its worst set of results ever.
New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has only guaranteed Foster’s survival for the tour of South Africa.
“It’s a damn challenging time at the moment because we’re working damn hard to get parts of our game right,” Cane said.
“That first half we didn’t really throw a punch. They were very good tonight, played their game of footy which can suffocate you.
“We didn’t take the high ball well enough and we didn’t well enough at the breakdown. It’s not like there’s a lack of effort or belief. It’s a very challenging time – we’ve just got to get back on the horse .
“It’s not like we’re way off but it doesn’t take away how disappointed we are.”
Meanwhile, inspirational Springboks captain Siya Kolisi praised the Mbombela crowd for their impact.
“Hopefully us performing like this lifts the people,” Kolisi said.
“For a lot of countries rugby is just a game – for us it’s far more than that.”
Kolisi added that he still had massive respect for the struggling All Blacks.
“I don’t care what people say, I know that team is strong.”
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The glue that held graziers Mervyn and Maree Schwarz and sons Graham and Ross Tighe together, also pulled in all those who knew them.
This magnetic orbit has been repeatedly described by shell-shocked friends and associates after the execution-style killing of three members of the family on their cattle property at Bogie, west of Bowen, this week.
“You won’t find many families as tied together and that work as hard as they did,” Queensland grazier Warren Drynan said.
Graham Tighe died after a shooting incident at a Bogie property.(Facebook)
Mr Schwarz, 71, Mrs Schwarz, 59, and son Graham John Tighe, 35, were shot dead with a rifle, allegedly by their neighbor Darryl Young, 59, at the gate of their property at Shannonvale Rd on Thursday morning.
Police allege they had met to discuss a property dispute.
Sole survivor Ross Tighe, 30, remains in hospital and is recovering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Incredibly, I have managed to escape, getting into a nearby car and driving 40 kilometers to raise the alarm.
Mr Young, a long-term resident, has been charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
Darryl Young (right) has been charged with murder.(Supplied)
He remains in custody awaiting his first appearance before a magistrate on Monday.
The family had been at the property to muster cattle on the day of the fatal shootings.
The expansive Bogie farm where the tragic shooting happened was only purchased last year for $10 million, according to property records.
A floral tribute was left at the intersection of Normanby and Peter Delemothe roads.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
It’s located just west of Bowen, halfway to the mining town of Collinsville.
The property, known as Shannonvale Station, was owned by the same family from the 1930s to the early 2000s and then had five previous owners before the Schwarz family came to town just months ago.
The 29,856-hectare Shannonvale Rd cattle property was purchased in equal shares by Mr and Mrs Schwarz and Graham Tighe.
Graham is a father of two young children, one only a few weeks old.
The ABC has been told Graham lived at the Bogie property, while Mr and Mrs Schwarz lived at another large farm at The Gums, closer to the town of Tara.
Ross Tighe is recovering in hospital.(Facebook)
That address, known as Doonkoona, comprises 1,961 hectares of grazing land on Humbug Rd, which they bought in 2016 for $2.6 million.
Ross Tighe has been living not far from Rome.
It’s understood many family members are now traveling to be with Ross as he recovers.
But with large extended families from previous marriages, Merv and Maree’s children have been left to put together the pieces, with separate family groups joining to support each other.
The family declined to speak to the ABC.
Chilling deaths against gold rush backdrop
Bogie is harsh cattle country.
Many came to the area during the gold rush in the 1800s and some residents still believe their properties could have a jackpot of gold beneath the earth.
Bogie is described as harsh cattle country.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
Dirt roads and cattle grids connect properties dozens of kilometers apart.
Many boundaries are “give and take” perimeters, locals told the ABC.
Only 37 families call the 3,858 square kilometer locality — the size of Singapore, Samoa and the Maldives combined — home.
It was at the front gate of Shannonvale Station, in dense scrubby bushland an hour-and-a-half down a dirt track off the main road to Collinsville, where tragedy struck on Thursday morning.
Police cordoned off Normanby Road while investigating the shooting.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
Police say it was a request to meet that drew the family to the front gate along with their neighbor Mr Young.
“We understand there was a conversation that occurred the night before, which was the reason why the parties had met at the gate on the property in the morning,” Acting Superintendent Tom Armitt said.
“There was an invitation [from the alleged gunman] for them to go there.”
One local said disputes over boundaries and cattle had been going on in Bogie for “years and years and years”.
“It’s just rotten around there,” he said.
A family unit like no other
Warren Drynan bought his property at Jackson North, east of Roma, from the Schwarz family in 2014.
He said Ross and Graham had helped build some fences on the farm known as Noonga shortly after the sale.
Mr Drynan never forgot Mr and Mrs Schwarz’s hospitality and the boys’ hardworking nature.
He said the tight-knit family had long-held large parcels of farming land throughout Queensland.
Graziers said the family developed properties many thought too difficult to improve before making a profit and moving onto the next project.
“They’d take on anything,” Mr Drynan said.
“Que [Mervyn] liked doing, was finding these rundown places, clearing them, improving pastures.
“He was just that person, Merv, and Maree and the two boys, they were a family unit who worked hard and long hours.”
Even years later, Mr Schwarz would always stop and have a chat if he saw Mr Drynan at cattle meets.
“We weren’t real social friends by any means, but he was just that person that once you knew him, you could always have a yarn,” Mr Drynan said.
Other people called Mr Schwarz a “scallywag”, saying he was a joker and one of his main gags was about his signature one finger and one toe attached to his right hand after a farming accident.
“He’d always make a joke about shaking your hand,” Mr Drynan said.
“Merv was really just so happy go lucky, the sort of bloke who wore his heart on his sleeve,” another grazier from Tara recalled.
Maree Schwarz has been remembered as a “lovely person”.(Facebook)
Mrs Schwarz is remembered by many as a “lovely person”.
On social media she cradles a new grandbaby with a beaming smile.
“She is beautiful,” she tells a friend in a comment.
While one of Graham’s close friends described the father-of-two as “a top bloke who was a little rough around the edges.”
“He was always up to no good, had some crazy idea and was just a bloody good horseman,” he said.
“I learned more from that family than I could even explain.”
Mr Drynan, like many graziers, was shaken by the killings.
He said the family were “not aggressive” people.
“I just I don’t know how the hell it could happen,” he said.
Mrs Schwarz’s brother-in-law, Greg Austen, said the family had previously lived at Kilcummin, near Clermont in central Queensland, and were much-loved and well-respected members of the community.
“They were terrific, down to earth typical country people,” he said.
“They were typical pumpkin scones and a few beers on a Friday people.”
Mr Austen, a councilor on the Isaac Regional Council, said his children, along with Graham and Ross, would regularly muster cattle together.
“They were very close to them,” he said.
“My family are pretty… in shock. We’ll band together and hold together.”
Sole survivor ‘up and talking’
Ross Tighe suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen.(Facebook)
Mr Austen said it was an “amazing feat of strength and courage” from Ross to flee the scene, which ultimately led to his survival.
“It was very strong of him to do that, to go that far and raise the alarm,” he said.
Ross was flown by helicopter to the Mackay Base Hospital in a serious, but stable condition.
“He’s OK,” Mr Austen said.
“He’s not out of hospital, but he’s out of surgery. He’s up and talking.
“But he’s got a lot of difficulties ahead of him I imagine.”
Angel Flight CEO Marjorie Pagani told ABC the service would assist family members of the shooting victims to return to Mackay, at the request of Bob Katter’s office.
Police were called to shoot at a property between Collinsville and Bowen.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
tragic story unravels
Whitsunday Regional Councilor Mike Brunker said the council would assist police in their investigation.
“I think as the story unravels, it’s going to be just a very sad, tragic story,” he said.
Burdekin MP Dale Last, whose electorate takes in Collinsville and Bogie, said nothing like this had happened in the community in recent memory.
“There are a lot of long-term residents and property owners in the area, and to think something like that could happen in their backyard, it just sent a shockwave through the entire area,” he said.
“But places like Collinsville are very resilient.”
Dale Last says the rural community is in shock.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
He said the community had been through a lot in recent years and they banded together when times were tough.
Mr Brunker said he instantly thought of the United States of America when he heard about the shooting, not his own region.
“The last thing you think of is the Bogie community, the remote properties,” he said.
Bogie grazier Bob Gaadie said the community might be spread out, but the incident hit everyone hard.
“It might be 50 to 60 kilometers away, but it’s still your doorstep,” he said.
Police blocked off Normanby Road while investigating the shooting.(ABC News: Baz Ruddick)
The police investigation into the deaths is ongoing and detectives are asking anyone who may have had interactions with the alleged gunman in the past two months to contact them.
Mr Young will appear in the Proserpine Magistrates Court on Monday.
