If there is something

New information in Hailey Buzbee murder investigation

Investigators for the FBI and the Hocking County Sheriff spent Monday searching a rental property on Walnut Dowler Road in Hocking County, Ohio. Forensic evidence was recovered leading investigators to believe a crime was committed there.

According to Hocking County Sheriff Lanny North, “They found some forensic evidence which they feel might be linked to a crime scene, to a death. Until it is examined by the lab, they can’t be exactly sure what it is.”

Authorities with Columbus Police indicated they believe the murder of Hailey Buzbee occurred at the rental property location.

On Sunday, Tyler Thomas led FBI and local investigators to a location where Hailey Buzbee’s remains were discovered. The body of Hailey Buzbee was buried near a trailhead in Wayne National Forest in Perry County, Ohio.

After an autopsy by the Licking County Coroner’s Office, a report was sent to the Perry County Coroner for release of the findings.

The Hocking County Sheriff’s timeline shows Hailey Buzbee was reported missing on January 6 and Tyler Thomas was identified as a suspect in her disappearance. On January 16, Buzbee was tracked to Columbus. Columbus Police questioned Thomas who admitted he picked her up in Fishers, Indiana, but dropped her off in western Ohio. Police determined he lied about dropping Buzbee off. On January 20, Thomas was tracked to a rental in Hocking County. The Hocking County Sheriff and the FBI searched the Hocking County rental. On Sunday, Thomas led investigators to Buzbee’s remains. On Monday, the Hocking County rental was searched again and more evidence was discovered.

Authorities say Tyler Thomas and Haley Buzbee stayed at his Victorian Village home before later spending time at the short term rental in Logan, Ohio.

While aspects of the timeline are becoming clearer, specific dates and locations are still very much a mystery. It appears investigators zeroed in on Tyler Thomas almost immediately. Given the information that the two spent a duration of time at two different locations, was Hailey still alive while investigators searched for her? Investigators have stated that they believe Busbee died within days after her disappearance. Of course this is speculation, but could the initial questioning of Thomas have led to him taking Buzbee from the Hunter Avenue house to the short term rental in Logan?

Also, another big question looms for me. Regardless of whether the 39-year-old Tyler Thomas dropped Hailey Buzbee off in western Ohio, why isn’t an older man transporting a missing minor across state lines grounds for an extended round of questioning in the Columbus Police Department interrogation room? Am I taking crazy pills here? Why was this not grounds to detain him or charge him with something?

Anyway, before I get too far afield here, we don’t know what investigators knew and when they knew it, and when and how they confronted Tyler Thomas. Hopefully we’ll get those answers soon.

Sources:

Columbus Dispatch

WRTV Indianapolis

ABC 6 Columbus

10WBNS Columbus

Body of missing Indiana teen found in Ohio

The Indianapolis Star is reporting the body of missing Indiana teenager, Hailey Buzbee, has been located in Perry County, Ohio. The 17-year-old Fishers, Indiana resident and Hamilton Southeastern High School student was last seen by her parents on January 5.

Tyler Thomas, a 39-year-old Columbus, Ohio, person of interest in her death, is being held in the Franklin County, Ohio, jail on charges of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. Reports say Thomas was released into the custody of the FBI on February 1 and led authorities to Buzbee’s body.

Investigators believe Thomas met Buzbee through an online gaming platform. After luring Buzbee from her home, he drove her to his residence in Columbus and also held her at a rental in Hocking County. A search of Thomas’s phone revealed several sexually explicit videos and photographs of Buzbee.

Hailey Buzbee’s father posted a statement to Facebook. “Hailey was a smart, beautiful, kind, and caring young lady with a bright future. She had a deep love for her family and holds a very special place in so many hearts.

Our family is devastated. We want the community and others to know that we are so thankful for the support we received. It’s been tremendous and gave us the hope and strength we needed during our darkest hours.

Please continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we move forward and thank you for all the love you have shown our precious Hailey.”

While Tyler Thomas has yet to be charged with murder, it is clear from the contents of his phone and his knowledge of the location of Buzbee’s body that he knows a great deal about what happened to her. More information will emerge and it would come as little surprise if he is eventually charged with her murder.

According to an article in The Columbus Dispatch, Thomas’s lawyer, Sam Shamansky, said his client “maintains he didn’t kill Buzbee,” and Shamansky “thinks a charge of abuse of a corpse may be more appropriate.”

“We don’t want anybody conflating our cooperation with any admission of guilt relating to her cause of death,” Shamansky said.

If any of that is true, Tyler Thomas has a hell of a lot of explaining to do. It is already known that he lied to detectives when confronted with information that his vehicle was identified in the area of Buzbee’s home. He told detectives that he dropped off Buzbee along the side of the road in western Ohio.

Whether or not Buzbee left her home voluntarily to meet Thomas, how is it not a crime when a 39-year-old man, unknown to the family and without the family’s consent, transports a minor across state lines?

Per USA Today, “Officials spoke with Thomas within a few days of Buzbee’s disappearance.”

Reports have also stated that authorities believe Buzbee died within days after her disappearance.

At the present, we have a very incomplete picture of the events surrounding this terrible crime, let alone the timeline on which they occurred. Obviously, citizens have rights that should not be infringed upon, and there are other investigative issues of which the public is not yet aware, but it is hard to wrap one’s head around the fact that a 39-year-old man admitted early on that he transported a missing teen from Indiana to Ohio and dropped her off alongside the road. Is that not enough to warrant an arrest?

I hope we end up getting the complete picture here. Because parents deserve to know what they’re up against. And everyone from lawmakers to law enforcement to gaming and social media platforms need to learn to do a better job protecting our kids from online predators.

Local man crushes New Year’s fitness goals in record time

A mere two weeks into 2026 and local resident Dave Webb is already on the verge of accomplishing his New Year’s fitness resolutions, cutting in half the amount of time it took him to shape up in 2025.

“Yeah, I set some pretty ambitious goals this year, and I’d have to say I’m about a workout or two away from busting out the new me,” Webb boasted. “Last year, it took me almost the entire month of January to achieve this level of transformation. Anyway, I should be able to drop my membership before the free trial expires.”

Indeed, fitness centers across the country are already seeing the tsunami of new sign ups begin to subside as these January gym rats hang up their shorts and check another New Year’s resolution off their list.

“I feel great. I increased my explosiveness, enhanced my mobility, and improved my endurance in only five workouts. Now I’m able to use the bathroom, fix a snack and refresh my beverage all during the span of one TV timeout,” said Tim Thomas, trial member at Rapid Fitness. “Plus this bicep work has enabled me to step up to a larger beer mug. I’m chuggin like I’m in my twenties again!”

“We’re just cranking out healthy people right and left,” said fitness trainer Craig Braun. “We’re all about rapid results. It’s amazing what you can do with two weeks and a burning desire for a new you.”

Christmas decorations attract scrutiny

A Fishers area man is facing the possibility of hefty fines today after his outdoor Christmas decorations were deemed to be in noncompliance with his neighborhood association’s bylaws.

Jeff Ross has been ordered to pay $500 for multiple violations ranging from a Santa that is too large to excessive and obtrusive lighting displays.

“My Santa is over eight feet tall, which is a violation, and my lighting display exceeds the number of lights allowable per square foot. Also, there seems to be an issue with the frequency with which the lights twinkle,” Ross said.

“Residents’ holiday light displays shall not exceed 12 bulbs per square foot and shall not dim or change colors more than once every three seconds,” the community’s bylaws state.

Having exhausted all his appeals, Ross has resigned himself to paying the fine and removing the offending decorations.

“They came and deflated my Santa yesterday, and they snipped the wiring on several strands of lights. I mean, I get it that they have their rules, but did they need to slice up Santa with a Stanley knife? The kids are pretty traumatized,” Ross said.

Asked for comment, the neighborhood association issued a statement: “We’re looking into the excessive force complaint leveled against our compliance officer. We strongly condemn violence in all its forms. If we determine that the rights of the jolly old elf were violated, we will take appropriate action.”

Things “Heard” in The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald cultivates a tension between an individual’s authenticity, the perception they project and the perception floated by others via rumor and gossip. No means of deriving the truth about someone is presented as any more reliable, all convey elements of truth and falsehood. Gatsby projects an image of himself that appears entirely constructed, but as Nick finds out, the construct itself and the motivation behind it reveal a lot about the authentic Jay Gatsby.

Early in the story, characters discover truth and authenticity by believing what they “heard.” When Nick goes to visit his cousin Daisy, she tells him, “We heard you were engaged to a girl out West.” Nick quashes the rumor, but Daisy persists. “But we heard it….We heard it from three people so it must be true.”

In his thoughts, Nick sarcastically equates these rumors with an official notice of engagement, but maintains he won’t be “rumored into marriage.” It’s an acknowledgement of the power of rumor and public perception to make things true that have virtually no basis in reality. Gatsby himself wields this power to mesmerize and enchant Long Island society folk while trying to capture the object of his desire, Daisy.

Nick gets an earful of things heard from his hosts, Daisy and Tom, who lay bare the dysfunction present in their lives. First Daisy fills him in on the “family secret” concerning the butler’s nose. Then Nick is thrown off guard by Jordan’s prying into the secrets of Tom and Daisy’s marriage. While Tom can be heard inside the house taking a call from his mistress, Jordan eavesdrops, leaning “forward, unashamed, trying to hear….’Don’t talk. I want to hear what happens,’” she says. The whole scene culminates in an anxious and uncomfortable moment when the truth of what is known, the illusion of what is portrayed, and the confusion of rumor become entangled and loom over the party like a neurotic gloom.

Regarding his meeting Jordan, Nick remembers he “had heard some story of her too, a critical, unpleasant story, but what it was I had forgotten long ago.” This unpleasant story will shape the way Nick thinks of Jordan for the rest of their time together, preventing him from committing to her, even as he appears to fall for her.

In the next chapter, Tom invites Nick along to partake in his secret life, treating Nick’s inclusion like it’s the most natural thing in the world, and rendering the whole charade with Daisy and Jordan a mere fact of married life. Like Gatsby, Tom maintains his own outward illusion, exhibiting a life of wealth, privilege and domesticity while concealing a tawdry affair with the mechanic’s wife and slumming it with her friends in the city.

Then there are the things people have heard about Gatsby, that he is a bootlegger and that he had once killed a man. It becomes clear to Nick that among the elites of Long Island it is assumed that the image one puts forward is a false representation, and the real truth can be found in the rumors whispered at parties or laid out in scandal rags. Few people are who they seem and Gatsby represents the biggest mystery of them all. At some level, it is assumed by the inhabitants of this world that wealth can buy virtue, so the virtue put on display must constitute a fiction. Gatsby represents a new force emerging in this society that holds a mirror up to the false virtue of the old world money elite and exposes it as a fiction. His background as an outsider and an interloper reveals that all these old world social customs are just a pretense, a posturing the old money elites engage in to claim moral superiority over those who represent a threat to their status.

Gatsby at 100: “Romantic Readiness”

At the outset of The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway reveals what he most admired about Jay Gatsby “was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person….” Of course, at many points during the course of the story, Gatsby’s romantic illusions are met with a mixture of disbelief and mild amusement by Nick. Gatsby’s “gift for hope” and “romantic readiness” is seen as a character flaw, a naive hindrance to fitting in among the East’s leading elites. Yet, time and again, Gatsby’s visions manifest themselves in ways that not only serve his purpose, but are met with great enthusiasm by those around him. The people around Gatsby become willing players in the romantic drama he’s staging. Nick, despite his momentary reservations, becomes the most willing participant of all, sticking with Gatsby until the end, even when others have fled or forgotten him. In this way, the people who attend Gatsby’s parties, who inhabit his romantic illusion, are his own creation. They, too, possess a sort of romantic readiness that finds its reality in the gayety and riotousness of the parties Gatsby throws and the thrilling mystery he represents. They are drawn like moths to the light of his romantic vision, but soon disperse when that vision is extinguished.

According to Nick, Gatsby possesses “some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life….” Gatsby is the embodiment of this emerging American trait. The rules and norms of the old social order are on the decline. It is no longer the case that a person is born into life circumstances and a social rank from which he cannot transcend. Gatsby can dream a future and he can make it happen. In order to win back the love of Daisy, Gatsby mimics the elites into whose orbit he has positioned himself. But Gatsby’s production lacks authenticity. It is, in many respects, an artificial representation of old money status and materialism. Those who represent the old order, like Tom Buchanan, do not possess a “romantic readiness,” or a “sensitivity to the promises of life.” They inhabit the pinnacle of life’s promise and are not dazzled by Gatsby’s flashy stage production. Tom represents a cold, impenetrable reality in opposition to Gatsby’s grand, romantic aspirations, and he takes extreme diabolical pleasure in exposing the artifice of Jay Gatsby.

Rash of leaf blower thefts reported

Investigators arrested a man they believe is responsible for a rash of leaf blower thefts in this normally crime-free neighborhood of Paw Paw, Michigan.

Reports of the thefts first emerged a couple weeks ago when homeowners went to undertake the annual ritual of removing fallen leaves from their lawns only to discover that the leaf blowers were missing from their garages.

After weeks of investigation, detectives zeroed in on a man who had been making a number of disparaging comments about leaf blowers in neighborhood Facebook groups.

Joseph Brickman, age 62 of Paw Paw, wrote in one thread that the sound of leaf blowers “wheezing throughout the neighborhood” was driving him crazy and that he intended “to do something about it.” However, no one paid any attention to Mr. Brickman because no one ever paid any attention to Mr. Brickman.

Brickman commented that the near constant noise of 2-stroke engines revving was like “living next to a go-kart track.” He also compared the sound to a moose call and complained that he worked nights and couldn’t get any sleep during the day as a “cacophony of lonely moose” made it impossible for him to get any peace.

Investigators became even more suspicious of Brickman when they observed him silently using a rake to gather his leaves into piles. After questioning Brickman, he allowed them to search his garage where they discovered dozens of leaf blowers stashed under a tarp. Brickman explained that he’d acquired the devices over the years, but they all “broke down because they’re pieces of junk.”

Eventually, authorities were able to trace the leaf blowers back to their owners and now the decibel level in the neighborhood has returned to normal.

Halloween undergoes months of intense whiteboarding

On the eve of Halloween, a group of youngsters in Munster feel they are finally ready for the festivities to get underway after months of intense whiteboarding and strategizing.

Topics of concern for the myriad whiteboard sessions included costume selection and preparation, neighborhood selection and route scouting, a comprehensive review of previous trick or treat experiences, and development of a candy rating system designed to maximize accumulation of the most desirable treats.

“We really whiteboarded the shit out this Halloween,” said ten-year-old Preston Metcalfe. “Halloween only comes once a year, so our approach has been that we cannot afford to leave a single stone unturned when it comes to raking in a candy harvest that is second to none. I mean, I need this Halloween booty to get me through until Christmas.”

Metcalfe explained that in the past too much time has been wasted in neighborhoods where there is low participation and trick or treaters are forced to cover too much distance between participating households. So Metcalfe and his team identified five “hotzones” in town where they feel the candy is most plentiful and accessible.

Additionally, the team’s rating system has prioritized houses that have traditionally handed out the biggest and tastiest treats while downgrading dwellings that put an emphasis on healthy or eco-friendly snacks.

“We spent months poring over data to come up with our map. Additionally, we’ve already walked the route several times, identifying areas of concern and making appropriate adjustments. If all goes well, this will be the most bountiful Halloween ever,” Metcalfe said.

Washed up NFL QBs deployed to streets of American cities

In an effort to combat the chaos brewing in America’s largest cities, federal officials are considering deploying former NFL quarterbacks and intoxicated sports announcers to the nation’s streets to quell disorder.

“We just want to get them out there and try to turn down the temperature a little bit,” one official noted.

Over the weekend, former Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez was out patrolling the streets of Indianapolis, Indiana, hunting for ne’er-do-wells, when he encountered an individual he thought was attempting to steal used cooking oil from a downtown hotel.

Sanchez confronted the man and body slammed the 69-year-old in an alley behind the hotel. It turns out the man was a legitimate grease truck driver who was authorized to remove the grease from the hotel.

“Mr. Sanchez trusted his instincts on this one and turned out to be wrong, but you got to like his spunk and desire to sniff out the bad guys,” the official said.

Police noted that prior to his encounter with the grease truck driver, Mr. Sanchez had altercations with two sanitation workers and a document shredder, who all abandoned their suspicious activity when confronted by Sanchez.

As Sanchez lay in bed this morning feeling like he’d been sacked by a Mack Truck, he remarked to reporters that he wished he was better at avoiding trouble than he was at evading defenses.