Monday, November 25
2:42 AM – 19700 Blk. IH 35 – Officers discovered an open door and secured it while performing a business check.
12:05 PM – Lytle PD – Officer spoke to a male regarding equipment left at John’s Small Engine Repair about two years ago, the location is now out of business.
2:20 PM – Assist Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office – 700 Blk. Las Palomas Dr. – Officers responded outside the city limits of Lytle for a report of a missing 3-year-old female and a 4-year-old male. The children were located at a neighbor’s house.
6:33 PM – 15300 Blk. Main St. – Officers responded to an unwanted customer who left the area before the officer’s arrival.
6:40 PM – 14600 Blk. FM 2790 – Officers responded but could not locate the female.
9:32 PM – 19300 McDonald St. – Officers responded to unlock an Isuzu Rodeo, but the vehicle left before the arrival.
10:49 PM – 19800 Blk. IH 35 – Officers responded to a male and female refusing to leave, resulting in a verbal disturbance. The pair left the area before the officer’s arrival.
Tuesday, November 26
6:10 PM – 15200 Blk. Rodeo St. – Officer responded to a 911 hangup but was unable to locate the caller.
4:08 PM – 15000 Blk. Main St. – Officer took a report that a male that an envelope containing $2,400 was either misplaced or taken from his vehicle.
10:18 PM – 19900 Blk. FM 3175 – Officers responded to a dispute with a consumer who was dropped off at the facility.
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MVSWCD Poster & Essay Contests
The Medina Valley Soil & Water Conservation District in conjunction with the Texas State Soil & Water Conservation Board is sponsoring Poster and Essay Contests for school age children residing in Medina County. The theme of this year’s contest is “Home is Where the Habitat Is”.
The Poster Contest is open to students 12 years old and younger. Students 13 to 18 years old may enter the Essay Contest. A monetary award will be presented to the first and second place winners who will also advance to the TSSWCD Area II Awards competition. The sponsoring teacher will also receive a monetary award for promoting conservation education. For more contest details, refer to the contest flyers available at the MVSWCD office or on the Facebook page @mvswcd.
All entries must be postmarked, requested for pick up, or brought to the MVSWCD office by December 29, 2023. The address is Medina Valley SWCD, 257 Hwy 173 Ste. A, Hondo, TX 78861. Winners will be selected and notified in January 2025. For more information, contact Janet Zerr at (830)426-2521 ext. 3301 or by email at janet.zerr@tx.nacdnet.net
Answering Bible Questions with Bible Answers
Question: What does Justification mean?
Answer: According to the Bible justification is the process of making one right or acquitting one of guilt before God. The Bible says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Justification is a legal term, declaring that someone is in right standing with God. In the Old Testament this meant keeping the law that God had given to His people, like the Ten Commandments, but no one could keep the whole law on their own. This is why Romans 3:28 says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” All through the New Testament we read that the only way to be right before God is by faith and not by works. There won’t be one person who makes it to heaven because they did good works. The only way to be saved and go to heaven is to have faith. Faith in what? Faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Ephesians 2:8-9. Galatians 2:16. We must believe that Jesus died on the cross for all mankind’s sin, that He was buried, and rose again to life three days later. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. If we believe what Jesus said, then we won’t be condemned before God we’ll be justified or made right before God. John 5:24. The reason we need to be justified, is because without believing in Jesus we’re still lost in our sins. Romans 3:23. We must choose to accept God’s free gift of salvation. Romans 6:23. God sent Jesus so that lost, sinful people could be saved and spend eternity with Him in heaven. John 3:16-17. Romans 5:8-9. If you haven’t been justified already, you can be today by asking Jesus to save you and forgive you of your sins. Romans 10:13.
Breakfast with Baby Jesus
Dec. 14 at Devine First UMC
This Christmas come eat breakfast with Baby Jesus on Saturday, December 14th from 9 to 11:30 am at the Devine First United Methodist Church fellowship hall located at 212 W. Benton Ave, Devine.
There is a $5 charge for a picture with Baby Jesus, breakfast, crafts and cookie decorating with Santa and Mrs. Claus.
If you have questions please call (830) 663-3185.
High School Students Solve Cold Case Murder
“It’s murder by numbers, one, two, three. It’s as easy to learn as your ABC’s.”Song by The Police
Alex Campbell is a high school teacher in the small town of Elizabethton, Tennessee. In the spring of 2018, he presented his Sociology class with an idea for a class project. And it all began with an unsolved 40-year-old murder case and a potential serial killer that was never caught.
Proposing that they study sociological profiling through cold case murder, Mr. Campbell at first had the students focus on a young girl whose unidentified body had been found in their community in the early 1980s. As teacher and students dug into the details of that initial case, they discovered a pattern of murders that had occurred predominately in the 1980s in Tennessee and neighboring states. And the victims had one thing in common. They all had red hair.
To aid in their project, Mr. Campbell reached out to a friend and retired FBI agent. He connected him with another agent whose specialty was behavioral analysis. This agent was a criminal profiler, and his name was Scott Barker. He gladly offered to help the class. The students learned from him and got to work.
They began by studying murderers, specifically serial killers. Students learned how to identify related murders through the criminal’s M.O. (Modus Operandi – a criminal’s habitual way of operating), signature (unique patterns or behaviors used), time frame (when the crimes were committed), and geography (the locations of the crimes). They found 14 redheaded victims whose bodies were discovered between 1978 and 1992 in six different states – Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Building a profile of the victims, it appeared six were connected. Students began referring to them as the six sisters. All were unidentified except for one.
Students soon began gathering evidence and built a case file. They poured over old newspaper articles, spoke with investigators, interviewed retired detectives, and began online sleuthing. They held a press conference drawing attention to their efforts in an attempt to identify the victims. The student’s work brought renewed interest from the public and law enforcement. Over the course of the semester, the students were able to identify all six sisters.
Students then began working on a profile of the killer. Dubbing him the Bible Belt Strangler, they compiled a list of suspected attributes. He was assumed to be a male Caucasian (serial killers statistically strike within their own race – all the victims were white), 5’ 9” to 6’ 2”, 180-270 lbs., raised in an unstable home with an absent father and domineering mother, right-handed, heterosexual, with an IQ above 100. It was also determined that the killer was likely a truck driver because all the victims had been dumped along the interstate, most off of I-75 and I-40 in multiple states.
As an interesting side note – in doing their research, the students discovered a change in trucking privacy regulations that they believed may have benefited their killer. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, deregulated the trucking industry. It gave truckers more autonomy over the information they reported meaning routes and schedules were less monitored.
Publicity in this case sparked renewed attention by law enforcement officials. And the case broke wide open when overlooked DNA evidence from one of the victims identified her killer as Jerry Leon Johns, a Tennessee truck driver. Mr. Campbell’s students had found the killer! Amazingly he fit every one of the 17 points in the criminal profile the students had created.
Jerry Johns died in prison in 2015. He had been incarcerated, serving a 73-year sentence for the assault and attempted murder of another woman in 1985. Although yet unproven, it is believed that Jerry Johns is responsible for the murders of all the student’s six redheaded sisters.
As a continuation of their project, Mr. Campbell’s students compiled their findings and produced a ten-episode podcast entitled Murder 101. It has been ranked in the top 10 crime podcasts for some time now. You can find Murder 101 on Spotify, Audible, Apple, and more. You can also listen to the podcast on YouTube. It is a fascinating true crime story. Rumor has it that a movie is soon to come. © 2024 Jody Dyer
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Come Helpo Place US Flags at Devine’s Cemeteries on Pearl Harbor Day
Volunteers needed Dec. 7 @ 9:30 am & Dec. 14 @ 11 am
Remember * Honor * Teach
For three years now, the Current Events Club and WAA volunteers remember Pearl Harbor Day by placing US flags on every veteran grave in both St. Joseph and Devine Evergreen cemeteries. At 9:30 this Saturday morning, meet them at the beautiful oak that canopies both cemeteries (between St. Jo’s and Evergreen’s main gates). Bring a screwdriver to help place the flag staffs in the ground without breaking them. We don’t have any flags to spare, and the drought has made the ground dry and hard! Walking shoes and long pants advised…stickers! We will also have our drawing after flags have been placed!
Flag placement on Pearl Harbor Day is the final step in preparing for our National Wreaths Across America Day, which takes place on December 14th at 11:00 a.m. Contact Linda Kreinhop @713-746-7504 or kreinhopld@gmail.com; Martha Wall @ 210-213-5620 or mwalldev@gmail.com; Glenda Allen @ 210-630-2763 or Barbara Moore @ 210-863-7607 for more information about either event. To sponsor wreaths, go online at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/TX1147P. Your support helps our community provide a live balsam wreath for every identified veteran in our cemeteries. With almost 700 veterans’ graves, volunteers are needed! Stay as long as you can and bring a friend to share these days and serve together. Look for our WAA banner on the Evergreen Cemetery fence.
Pictured this week are This past Saturday, they were there to place yellow yard stakes at veteran graves in Evergreen’s Section 5. There were two “missing” graves – over time sand and grass covered these flat military gravestones and had to be cleared before adding the stake. The “findagrave” app helped this crew, as well as dogged determination! By this Saturday, 15 sections will have volunteers doing this very same work. The stakes are an important step, insuring volunteers know where to place US flags and ultimately, on Ceremony Day, the wreaths. Thank you to dedicated club members and volunteers!
If your organization or group would like to help in the set-up on ceremony day, contact one of the women mentioned in the opening paragraph. WAA’s 2024 theme: LIVE WITH PURPOSE! Join in to remember those who served during WWII, honor our veterans, and come together as community.
St. Joseph’s Christian Mothers annual Christmas luncheon
Devine Food Pantry Seeking Homes for Extra Food
Devine Food Pantry is seeking to locate people in our community who can use the extra bread, pastries, vegetables, fruit we receive. When we have an over-abundance, we would like to get it into the hands of those who need it.
These items will be available as long as supplies exist on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 11:00-1:00. Come to the dock and make your request of the volunteer workers there. If the door is shut, give is good knock.
These items will also be available as long as supplies exist on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 11:00 and 1:00. Come in through the front door and ask for Karen about getting “extra food.” She will direct you how to receive the food you are requesting based on our supplies at the time.
Sara Louise Hicks
May 13, 1931 — October 30, 2024
Sara Louise Hicks passed on October 30, 2024, at the age of 93 at her home.
For over 55 years, she lived in Devine, Texas with her husband, Howard R. Hicks. Sara was a long-time Certified Public Accountant. Encouraged by her husband, she opened her own office in Devine in the mid-1960s at a time when female business owners were uncommon. Sara’s office ladies were lifelong friends, including Tereasa Baker, Edanna Park, Katherine Briscoe, Martha Zabel, Sandy Joplin, Wanda Gardner, and other semi-closeted rabble rousers. She also enjoyed working with sharp business minds like Frank Coyne, Joe Briscoe, Frank and Bill Bain, Doug Semlinger, and Kim Aaron. During the mid-1960s, Sara and Howard joined the 1st Baptist Church, where she served as treasurer for decades. Sara was a founding director of the State Bank of Texas, now the Devine branch of American Momentum Bank. Always a lady, she had high ethics and meticulous accounting that she either cultivated in or mandated of her colleagues and clients.
Sara Lynn was born in 1931 to Marcella Lynn (Brown) and Carlton Trimble. Although they divorced, each married a kind spouse, Tom Brown and Minerva Trimble, and provided Sara with half siblings: Barbara and Mike Brown, and Robert and Richard Trimble.
Sara met Howard in 1956 when he visited her church in Odessa (possibly wife scouting). Although Sara worried she might be an old maid at 24, Howard proposed within the month. After marriage, Howard encouraged Sara to complete her college degree and later built and expanded-expanded–and expanded her CPA office. They had 3 daughters–Linda, Martha, and Beth. During tax season, Olivia Munoz (Fraga) helped with childcare and became a beloved family member, as did her future husband, Ray Fraga. For her children, Sara encouraged education, making your own money, and honesty. She had a gentle sense of humor and was loving, wise, and capable of listening through endless cups of tea. She always had a novel at hand and a well-used library card. She was a true feminist and a champion of self-reliance even as she modeled a partnership marriage. In 2004, Sara and Howard lost their youngest daughter, Beth, to a criminal act by a still-unknown perpetrator. We take solace from believing Sara, Howard, and Beth are together.
Margaret “Peggy” Elizabeth Beens
Margaret “Peggy” Elizabeth Been Lewis, 82, of Lytle, Texas, passed away peacefully on November 26, 2024. She was born on September 15, 1942, in San Antonio, Texas, to the late David Lee Been and Margaret Louise Roeper Been.
A proud graduate of Lytle High School (Class of 1961), Peggy went on to earn her nursing degree from the Baptist Memorial School of Nursing, a career in which she found deep fulfillment. Over the years, she worked as a hospital nurse, a psychiatric nurse, and ultimately retired as a beloved school nurse in Lytle, touching the lives of countless students and families.
Peggy had a deep love for the simple pleasures of life, especially the beauty of the Texas countryside. She enjoyed spending time fishing, antique shopping, and decorating her home with items that told stories and added warmth. She was also a talented pianist and loved playing classical music. Peggy’s spirit was one of kindness, generosity, and a deep commitment to her family and community.
She was preceded in death by her parents, by her husband, Leonard L. Lewis Jr.; her son, Dr. David Cos; and her brothers, David “Tommie” Been, Michael Allen Been, John Timothy Been, and William Lee Been.