Category: Top News Stories

Emergency responders rushed to the scene on Colonial Parkway this past Thursday morning, October 6 around 9:23 AM only to find an older trailer home totally engulfed. Sadly, authorities believe Fred Schilling of Devine perished in the fire. Within minutes the entire home was gone
“The home was engulfed when we arrive on scene, and no rescue attempt was possible,” stated Lieutenant Chris Andrews. “Multiple fire departments responded quickly, and were able to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring homes. Unfortunately, a man believed to be 73-year-old Fred Schilling perished in the fire.”
Shilling lived in the home for years on Colonial Parkway across from the cemetery.
According to family members Fred was always helping someone out. He enjoyed telling jokes to make people laugh and stopping to help people in need. Fred was a welder by trade, loved motorcycles and the outdoors, and enjoyed landscaping as well. His smile and kind heart will be missed by those who knew him.
“The Bexar County Fire Marshall was contacted and conducted an investigation, but their report is not available at this time. The remains were transferred to Lockhart, Texas for autopsy and identification,” Andrews said.

By Kayleen Holder
Editor
Texas man Steve Kruse was just walking around, looking for fossils like he’s done for years when he found something truly astounding, a fossilized pre-historic monster estimated to be 80 million years old and 30-40 feet in length (based on the massive head and vertebrae that have already been excavated). The Mosasaur, which ruled the seas during the Cretaceous period, will now be one of the highlights of a museum in Dallas.

“The jawbone alone was about 4 feet long and took two strong people to carry,” Kruse said. “Words can’t describe the excitement. Hunting, finding, and excavating this mosasaur was an awesome experience. I felt like Indiana Jones and Dr. Grant all in one summer!”
Kruse and his family live in Brenham, TX, but after a good rain, he often makes the five-hour trip up to the North Sulfur River, which is “the most prolific fossil hunting site in Texas”, he says.
“The first thing I do is look for footprints. If someone has beat me to that spot, I move to the next. The North Sulphur River Valley has lots of easy access to its riverbed and tributaries. In May this year, I chose a small tributary that I haven’t been to before and had the best day ever,” Kruse said. “The river has fantastic run off, so it is very dry most of the time. When it rains flood waters rise very quickly and drain quickly, exposing a whole new layer of fossils.”
Right away, that fateful day this past May 20, he found a few vertabrae and broken rib pieces of what looked like a mosasuar.
“It is a rare event to find an articulated specimen….If not collected, the next rain will move it, bury it or break it. Excited from a successful hunt, the day passed by quickly. I realized that if I went back the way I came, I would be navigating in the dark. I chose to hike up the next tributary in hopes that it would get me to the road faster.”
That was “the best decision ever!” Kruse recalled.
“About 100 yards in, I found a large vertebrae sitting on the creek bed. The size alone made me excited, but then I became doubly excited when I noticed it did not have the usual wear of being tumbled downstream. It was wonderfully pristine. (I knew it couldn’t have floated too far.) I continued up the winding stream and found another vertebra in similar, excellent condition,” Kruse said.
“On the very next bend, I saw it!” he exclaimed. “There was fossilized bone coming out about two feet up the creek wall. I knew immediately what I found. I started celebrating, climbed out of the channel and up the nearest hill for cell phone reception. My wife and I discussed what to do next. Our son Jack chiming in that he wanted me to dig it out and bring it home. I said, ‘This is about a 40 foot mosasaur! Where would we put it?’ A fossil this big needs a bigger home, so I called Mike Polcyn at Southern Methodist University, the “Michael Jordan” of Paleontology.”
He put Kruse in touch with Ron Tykowski, the Director of the Perot Museum in Dallas. They soon assembled a crew and started excavating. It was 100 degrees, he said, but it was well worth it.
“The museum crew came ready to dig. The creek wall overburden was removed, exposing the fossil bearing layer. Then, the desired bones were meticulously brushed, marked and plastered. The entire excavation process took several days. Currently, the bones are available to view behind the glass of the Fossil Prep Lab in the Perot Museum.
Kruse explains, in Texas, laws allow you to hike any navigable waterways, which makes fossil hunting at the NSR truly great.
“So you can park on a bridge and hike up and down the North Sulfur river bed as far as you like. It is one of the few places you can do surface collection. If you find a dinosaur fossil, you can keep it,” Kruse adds.
Kruse’s love for dinosaurs and fossil hunting began as a young boy at Granny’s house.
“When I was little, Granny wanted to keep me and my older brother busy,” Kruse said. “So, she told us that there were dinosaur bones in the alley and we could go dig them up. We never found anything in that alley, but we were excited at the idea. I continued looking in the ground, mostly finding minerals, fossilized wood and crinoid stems. It was years later when I found a place I could go to find fossilized bone, the North Sulfur River.”
October 15, 2022 is the next annual Fossil Day at the new Ladonia Fossil Park.
“There will be displays of local fossil finds, food and drinks. This is a wonderful event for fossil hunting amateurs to learn from enthusiasts that have been hunting the river for decades,” Kruse says.
Time is of the essence however.
“Officials recently decided to dam it the North Sulfur River and turn the western half into a lake, so we only have a year and a half left to find the fossils that are there,” Kruse stated.
It can be hard to tell what is what when hunting fossils, Kruse says, and attending the Fossil Day is a great way to learn how.
“The river can really tumble and wear down a bone. Some pieces barely look like what they were. Mosasaurs were abundant, each having more than 100 vertebrae. Vertebrae are rather easy to tell because it is mostly cylinder, one end is concave with the other end convex,” Kruse said.
Finding a complete skeleton is not very common, but that’s exactly what experts are hoping to find at the site of Kruse’s discovery as the dig continues.
“The skull was found in the cliff wall with enough pieces to indicate that the rest of the skeleton went back into the hill. The days of summer were hot to excavate, so the Trinity River Authority and Perot Museum made plans to come back with a crew and large machinery when the weather is cooler this fall,” Kruse said.

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Devine Acres Farm is celebrating its 20th season this year. They now have 50+ activities including live music Saturdays and Sundays, groovy goat races, a trick cowboy show, gigantic jump pad, fishing, hayrides great food/drinks and TONS & TONS of pumpkins this October. New this year are the hilarious “Groovy Goat Races” and a renovated Silo where you can visit Santa and Mrs. Claus this year.
The Ken and Debi Capps family shared a little about how it all began: “In 2002 we picked up our little family of six, purchased 45 acres and moved back to our hometown. Although we had no farming experience, it seemed the perfect place to raise our children.
We were looking for a good use for our land and a way to supplement our teaching salaries, so the research began… We discovered that you can grow Christmas trees in Texas! Who knew? We quickly joined a tree growers association, learned all we could and planted our first 200 seedlings. Three years later we had some small (but lovely) trees ready to sell!
The pumpkin patch was our next adventure. We brought in some pumpkins and created some activities that we thought families would enjoy!”

The family farm soon became the most magical place in Devine, celebrating Christmas, Halloween and Easter each year.
“The fall season really took off! People enjoy being on a REAL working farm and the Christmas trees sure make a beautiful backdrop for the fall season!” Mr. and Mrs. Capps added.
“Eventually we became full time farmers and added field trips and a spring Easter season. Over the past twenty years we have grown our family from six to fourteen, grown thousands of Christmas trees, hauled in tons of pumpkins and hidden a zillion Easter eggs! All while adding buildings, lots of activities, live entertainment and yummy food and drink options. As you can imagine, all of these “additions” meant we needed more help! We have added many staff members over the years that we refer to as our farm family.
Come see us this fall and find out what’s new this year! We have brought in and are renovating an old silo. Why? Santa needed a permanent place to call home while on the farm, and we needed something very unique to celebrate our 20th season. Silo + celebration = SILOBRATION! We cannot wait for your family to visit Santa’s Silo this Christmas and enjoy a magical and memorable experience! But for now, you just might find Mrs. Claus on the farm this fall getting the silo all set up! After all, it’s always Christmas at Devine Acres Farm.
We want to thank all of our farm friends for your loyalty and allowing us to be a part of your family’s precious memories and time. We are still here because of all of you! Our goal has, and will always be, to create a family friendly atmosphere where memories can be made while enjoying God’s beautiful creation!”
Farm admission is $14 online or $18 at the gate. Ages 2 and under are free!

The number of pursuits, bailouts, and crashes continue to mount in Medina County, and especially our small communities that are in close proximity to major thoroughfares.
According to authorities, eleven people bailed out on Bright St. right beside the Community Center in downtown Devine this past Friday, September 30th.
This bailout happened around 4:45 pm shortly before the council meeting nextdoor. DPS, county deputies, and Devine PD all assisted at the scene.
This photo was taken about an hour later as officers, deputies and troopers held several people in handcuffs, seen sitting and laying on the sidewalk.
It is believed that the DPS pursuit originated from Frio County, and a black Sedan was seen being towed away from the scene.
When they got notified of the pursuit, local officers were able to set up at four corners in Devine to block off the intersection for the safety of other drivers, so the suspects turned off on College instead before bailing out on Bright St.

This was one of many pursuits that came through our area this week. Devine PD assisted with 3 this past week.
Lytle PD reported assisting with 4 pursuits (Thursday, Friday and two on Saturday), three of which were suspected human smuggling operations.
The fourth pursuit, on Saturday, October 1 resulted in a crash on Main Street at the intersection in front of Lytle City Hall. The DPS-initiated pursuit happened around 9 AM and thankfully there were no serious injuries reported when the suspect’s vehicle collided with two other vehicles at that intersection.
High speed pursuits through our cities are becoming all too common, and Lytle Police Chief Richie Priest warns drivers to beware of your surroundings.
“I have never seen so many pursuits and incidents involving human smuggling in my 30+ year career as a peace officer,” Chief Priest said.
“I would suggest being extra careful at intersections, even if you have a green light,” Priest adds. “If you have your radio blaring, not paying attention or you are jabber jawing on the phone you may not hear the sirens or see the lights. Remember – the emergency vehicles will be behind the suspect. So by the time you see them it may be too late. That’s why you need to be very observant when you are driving.”
Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown and his team are also dealing with smuggling operations day in and day out.
When asked for a comment, Sheriff Brown points to the current US Administration and stated that he is beyond frustrated at “the invasion of Illegal Aliens, (zero from Mexico), the deaths, the destruction of private property, and the open invitation to come.”
There have been several crashes in the past few months, including at least two human smuggling pursuits with fatalities and several hospitalizations that we know of (one in Hondo this September and 1 near Devine). And many more close calls as high speed pursuits come off the highways and detour through busy downtown streets.

The third District Judge, Judge Steven C. Hilbig, 454th Judicial District, has ordered a DISMISSAL in favor of Tomas “Tommy” Ramirez of Devine, a local attorney and Justice of the Peace Pct.4, over election fraud complaints by the Texas Attorney General Office (OAG).
Ramirez could be “unsuspended” and be back on the bench within the next few days or weeks just like last January 6, 2022 when Judge Powell, also of the 454th Judicial District Court, granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss the information and complaint brought against him by the OAG.
The first dismissal by a Judge was in Bandera in 2021.
Tommy Ramirez won the March 2022 primary and was re-elected to his position as Pct. 4 Medina County Judge by Medina County Precinct 4 voters, beating out two other opponents. An appointed Judge has been sitting by assignment as JP 4 while the indictments were underway.
The Court’s Advisory to the Parties (March 14, 2022) by Judge Hilbig and his Order Dismissing Indictment (signed Sept. 30,2022) are as follows and helps explain some of the complex details.

ADD Courts advisory here
ADD Order dismissing indictment here