Free Republic

Almost a month after Harley Dilly disappeared on his way to school, police believe the Port Clinton, Ohio, boy’s body has been found in a chimney. “This is not the outcome anyone wanted, but … we have some closure for the family,” Port Clinton Police Chief Robert Hickman said Tuesday. Harley, 14, was last seen on Dec. 20 in Port Clinton as he left for school between 6 and 7 a.m., police said. At least 75 law enforcement agencies have scoured more than 150 acres with helicopters, trained dogs and search-and-rescue teams, Port Clinton police said. During another sweep of...

-snip- Family members say Maddux was bright and doing well in school and not sure why he went into the cabin. -snip

According to Riverside County officials, the 35-year-old woman, who was not identified, tried to enter the Woodcrest, Calif., home where her ex-boyfriend and three children live through the front door early Saturday morning, but it was locked. So she climbed on the roof, stripped off her clothes and tried to shimmy down the chimney. Shortly before 5 a.m., her estranged boyfriend, Tony Hernandez, said he heard the woman crying for help.

Deputies responded to a home in the 1900 block of Woodside Drive (map) at 5:45 a.m. after a caller reported that the woman had been stuck in the chimney, about 8 feet from the top, for two hours, said Capt. Renee Ferguson of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. The county Fire Department’s urban search and rescue team was called to the scene. Photos posted on Twitter by the department showed firefighters on the roof of the house as they worked to reach the woman, who was conscious during the rescue. The flue was lubricated with dish soap before she was...

Nicholas Wieme loved making short films when he was growing up in a small town in Minnesota, a theatrical passion that would lead him to Chicago. On Wednesday evening, the 23-year-old climbed onto the roof of the InterContinental Chicago hotel, with its famed onion-shaped dome, to take photographs when the night went terribly wrong. Wieme fell into a smokestack and became wedged, beginning an elaborate, hourslong rescue attempt by firefighters that ultimately proved futile.

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — An 8-year-old boy desperate for a drink tried to get into a neighbor's home by sliding down the chimney, but got stuck for more than four hours, authorities said. West Valley City police Sgt. Robert Hamilton said the thirsty boy climbed a tree to get onto the home's roof, then slid down the chimney feet first on Friday. The boy made it 30 feet down the chimney before he became wedged between the basement and main floor. [snip] Because of the narrowness of the chimney, as well as its twists and turns, rescuers could not...

ABBEVILLE, La. — The narrow, brick chimney of a Louisiana bank became his tomb for 27 years and now Joseph Schexnider will be laid to rest Sunday in a proper grave with a proper farewell by his family. Still, his brother Robert wonders, how did he wind up in that chimney? Didn't anyone hear any cries for help? Was it a robbery attempt gone awry, an accident or something more sinister?... [snip] "Everybody has an opinion," said Lt. David Hardy, chief of investigations for the Abbeville Police Department. "But no one has evidence to say one way or another." If...

The fate of a man who went missing 27 years ago was revealed when renovators found a skeleton wedged in the chimney of an historic bank building. The remains were found in May in an Abbeville, La., building when construction workers began restoring it. They were recently identified as Joseph Schexnider, who vanished in 1984 before a court appearance on charges of stealing a car, according to CNN. Schexnider, then 22, was presumed to have run away, as he had many times before.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – A doctor involved in an "on-again, off-again" relationship apparently tried to force her way into her boyfriend's home by sliding down the chimney, police said Tuesday. Her decomposing body was found there three days later. Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, first tried to get into the house with a shovel, then climbed a ladder to the roof last Wednesday night, removed the chimney cap and slid feet first down the flue, Bakersfield police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said. While she was trying to break in, the man she was pursuing escaped unnoticed from another exit "to avoid a confrontation,"...

Germans give chimney sweeps the brush-off By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 26/12/2005) In his top hat, white tie and brass-buttoned uniform, and dangling a brush on a chain over his shoulder, Erhard Feller might have walked off the set of a film about Victorian England. But the 51-year-old chimney sweep is a vibrant part of working life in modern Berlin and the uniform is standard for him and his 8,000 colleagues across Germany. Even though most German chimneys are too thin for Santa Claus to squeeze into, Christmas is still the busiest time of year for Mr Feller, who...

As commonly happens, I found this image looking for something else. If you go here, you can see a bigger version (FR won't let me crosslink directly to Wikipedia). The really interesting article (with accompanying high-resolution video links) is here or at the source link: Action, Camera... LightsNew deep-sea “light post” illuminates the ocean's perpetual night (WHOI/Oceanus) Note that the "Christmas Tree" is from the Lost City vent field in the Atlantic (Mid-ocean Ridge). The source link is to the Wikipedia article about "Lost City". The video is from a vent field on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A human skeleton found in the chimney of an abandoned South Los Angeles building last week was probably there for two years, authorities said Monday. The remains belonged to a young black male between the ages of 13 and 19 and there were no signs of trauma to the body, county coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey said. A forensic anthropologist examined the skeleton on Monday and determined the time of death to be about two years ago. Children discovered the remains Friday while looking for a ball on the roof of a building near Main and 89th...

A burglar decides to pass by the chimney... and remains wedged Thursday December 12, 2002 - 0h54 GMT SAN DIEGO (the United States), 11 déc (AFP) - a 19 year old young man, who wanted to burglarize offices with San Ysidro, close to San Diego (southern of California), chose to enter by the chimney where it was found wedged, the head in bottom, during more than five hours, one learned from police source. "the young man plunged the head the first, before realizing that the chimney was stopped at the base by metal racks", towards 1HOO of the morning...

<p>SANTA ANA, Calif.(AP) - A 22-year-old man stuck in a chimney on church property told officers he wasn't there to sweep, but to worship.</p> <p>The transient, whose name was withheld by police, was found Tuesday night with his feet touching the fireplace floor but his torso stuck in the flue.</p>