Police Report On Loud Sound Heard On Campus

Campus police have finished their investigation into the loud boom that occurred over the campus last Wednesday, stating that the source of the noise was a high-altitude explosion of a weather balloon filled with hydrogen gas. The boom, which rattled windows and knocked items from shelves, was heard at 12:48 p.m. all around campus and caused some students to panic. Eighty-three calls to 911 were made from campus phones and many people worried about a terrorist attack.

“The cause of the noise was an explosion that occurred at altitude overhead, maybe as high as 3000 feet up,” stated investigating officer Stephen Durant. “The balloon had been released by the ETU Astrophysics department as part of research into the upper atmosphere. Apparently, static or some kind of natural phenomenon set off the hydrogen in the balloon. Due to the distance, by the time the sound reached the ground, the fireball had dissipated and there was nothing to see. The weather balloon and the experiment that it carried were incinerated, resulting in no debris.”

Calls to the ETU Astrophysics department were not answered. Still, officer Durant believes the matter is settled.

“As far as we’re concerned, the case is closed. We aren’t going to look into this any more.”

Two Missing After Noodling in Lake Greystone

Two men are missing after a day of fishing and noodling on Lake Greystone, and a third is currently being investigated by the Sheriff’s Department for possibly having played a role in the disappearances.

Last Saturday, Clay Matthews and Peter Johnson, were fishing on Lake Greystone when they met Dr. Robert Newhouse, an itenerate professor from Massachusetts, and apparently took him noodling east of Dale Island.

Noodling is the practice of finding holes under the water and placing your arm into it hoping that a large catfish, usually a flatheads, will bite down on the arm, and can be fought to the surface by the fisherman.

“Noodling is a dangerous practice,” according to Golan County Gamewarden Jim Bohay.  “You could just as easily stick your arm into a nest of water mocassins, or disturb an alligator.  Some of those catfish weigh as much as seventy pounds and it is not unknown for noodlers to break their arms, or even be drowned due to this unorthodox practice.”

Local authorities are dredging the area for the bodies of Clay Matthews and Dr. Robert Newhouse, but the bodies have not yet been found.  Divers have been brought in from Houston, and it is hoped that the bodies will soon be recovered.

“The area where the accident happened is not very deep, but there is a channel that runs to a deeper part of the lake with enough flow that the bodies could have been carried further out into the lake,” Bohay explained. “We will find them.”

The Sheriff’s Department is also investigating possible foul play in the case, as “there are questions about what really happened out there that day,”  according to Sheriff Butch Anderson.  Sheriff Anderson stated that Peter Johnson is a “person of interest” in this case and “his story is being investigated.”

“First, though, it is absolutely essential that the bodies of these men be recovered for their families to have closure and to be certain as to what actually happened out there last weekend.”

This article is taken from our upcoming Anthology: Buried Tales of Pinebox and is from One That Got Away, by Preston P. DuBoseA fishing trip on Lake Greystone takes a turn for the strange when best friends Clay and Pete find a body in the water. Things get even more interesting when the body turns out to still be alive!

Preston Dubose is President of 12 to Midnight and he grew up in Pinebox, Texas…or at least someplace similar. His writing credits for the Pinebox setting include Brainwashed and Bloodlines. He is a Christian, a Freemason, a husband, and a father. His blog can be found at flametoad.com.

Head Discovered

A woman’s head was discovered in a drainage ditch off Cane Bottom Road in Pinebox by several boys who were playing in the area.

Pinebox Police Detective David West stated that the head belonged to “Francis Bucknell, who has been missing since last Saturday, and whose body was discovered last week near the railroad line in southern Golan County.”

It is unknown how or why the head was discovered over two miles from where the body was found.  The Sheriff’s Department is working with the Pinebox Police Department in this investigation.  Detective West is treating this as a murder case, though there is still a chance it was some sort of wild animal attack.

Francis Bucknell was a sophomore student at East Texas University and was a Forestry major.  She often hiked in the Thicket and left the dorms last Saturday Morning and did not return.

Her roommate, Jenny Knowls, reported that Francis was fascinated by the legend of the Piney Devil and various Bigfoot sightings, and spent many weekends hiking and camping in the Thicket hoping to spot one, or to find evidence of one.

Her body was discovered near the railroad tracks in southern Golan County on Sunday, but remained unidentified until her head was discovered on Tuesday.

The Pinebox Police Department and the Golan County Sheriff’s Department is asking for anyone with information about this case to contact them immediately at 1-800-555-HELP (4357).

This article is inspired by a story from our upcoming anthology, Buried Tales of Pinebox.  The story, by David Wellington, brings unique twists that follow a local Sheriff’s deputy as he struggles with a horrific murder and a fateful decision that will change his life forever.  Look for it this summer.

David Wellington is the author of seven novels. His zombie novels “Monster Island”, “Monster Nation” and “Monster Planet”(Thunder’s Mouth Press) form a complete trilogy. He has also written a series of vampire novels including (so far) “Thirteen Bullets”, “Ninety-Nine Coffins”, “Vampire Zero” and “Twenty-Three Hours” (Three Rivers Press). As an undergraduate he attended Syracuse University; in 1996 he received an MFA in Creative Writing from Penn State; and in 2006 he received an MLS from the Pratt Institute. Mr. Wellington currently resides in New York City with his wife Elisabeth and their dog Mary. Mr. Wellington got his start in publishing in an interesting way. In 2004 he began serializing his horror fiction online, posting short chapters of a novel three times a week on a friend’s blog. The book was written in “real-time”; that is, each chapter was conceived, outlined, researched, composed and edited within twenty-four hours of its initial posting. By word of mouth readers learned of the project and returned to watch the story evolve. Response to the project was so great that in 2004 Thunder’s Mouth Press approached Mr. Wellington about publishing “Monster Island” as a print book. The novel has been featured in Rue Morgue, Fangoria, and the New York Times. For more information please visit www.davidwellington.net.

Electrical Failures Across ETU Cause Confusion

photo by: Scott Mason

photo by: Scott Mason

On Sunday May 3rd at 1:12 PM, all clocks around ETU simultaneously stopped. While all classroom and lecture hall clocks are set to keep time with the campus’ central security system, students have reported that alarm clocks, computer clocks and in some cases even wristwatches had stopped for nearly seven minutes before resuming their proper pace.

Additionally, power to the Applied Sciences building was also lost at approximately 1:12 causing the building’s automatic doors to hold shut. While there were no classes being held on Sunday,  twenty-six students and faculty members were inside the building when it shut down, three of whom were trapped inside one of the elevators. “You don’t think the worst part about being in an elevator will be how long it seems to take to get out,” notes student Jessica Fuller who was trapped within an elevator car. “I mean, we couldn’t have been in there for more than a few minutes, but it seemed like hours passed before power kicked back on.”

The Pinebox Department of Power and Water performed a routine investigation of the building’s power systems and there seemed to be no permanent damage or evidence of tampering. The actual cause of the power failure is presently unknown.

Missing 14 Year Old Found Safe

Missing teenager Lateesha Wilson was found unharmed in nearby Cavalas, TX after a two week manhunt. An Amber Alert was issued for the missing girl 15 days ago when her mother reported that she never came home from school. The investigation quickly focused on a secret online relationship she had been having with someone claiming to be a 15 year old boy from Oklahoma. Police were forced to admit that that line of investigation had run dry four days later when it was clear that the boy was real and there was no evidence to indicate that they had met in person.

Volunteers with Texas Equine Rescue searching areas of the Big Thicket and boaters on Lake Greystone recently paused their efforts until more information might arise that would help them narrow their searches. The family never gave up hope and continued to canvass the area with photos of their missing daughter.

Wilson walked into the Cavalas dollar store wearing the same clothes as on the day of her disappearance. Her family says that their daughter is healthy and apparently unharmed. So far the teen has claimed amnesia, not even realizing that two weeks had passed. She has been unable to explain to authorities her whereabouts or how she ended up in Cavalas.

At a press conference earlier today, Golan County Sheriff Butch Anderson said “We’re just glad to have Lateesha back safe and sound. Now that she’s home where she belongs, there’s plenty of time to figure out whether this was a runaway case or something else.”

Yellow Crazy Ant Makes Officials Crazy with Confusion

photo by: Wikipedia

photo by: Wikipedia

Pinebox Elementary was temporarily evacuated yesterday afternoon because an unusual pest was discovered on the grounds. Yellow crazy ants, normally found in Australia, were found in the west end parking lot.

The yellow crazy ants, named for their erratic movements when disturbed, were seen and identified by Jennifer Lanhert a botany student at ETU.

“I was digging through my purse when I caught movement near my shoe. I have never seen any pests like that around here — and I grew up here.” Jennifer Lanhert stated. “In studying plants I have always looked also to the critters that affect plant life; I knew this one was unusual.”

Yellow crazy ants are one of the largest invasive ant species in the world, but are not often found in the United States. While these ants do not sting or bite, they protect themselves by spraying a formic acid. This acid is powerful enough to cause blindness in adults and especially in children.

Officials are unsure of where these particular ants came from but agree it might be possible it was deliberately planted on school grounds. Pest control and officials will continue to sweep not only the grounds of Pinebox Elementary but the surrounding areas for more evidence.