Next thing the NY Slimes will be MISquoting us on the front page.
Posted on 07/15/2004 8:26:56 PM PDT by kristinn
While investigators continue to be tight-lipped regarding the investigation into the death of an Argonia teen, news of the death and circumstances surrounding it are reaching far and wide.
Jacob "Jake" Allen, 19, was found dead during the early morning hours of July 5 after being struck by a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe train on Bluff Road near Milan.
News reports from Kansas City to Houston, Texas, are reporting details about the death.
Investigators have steadfastly refused comment on any of the details that the Associated Press reported last week it had confirmed. But it is the Internet that has fueled much of the skeptical speculation surround the death of Allen. A search of the Internet shows dozens of postings related to Allen's death.
Sumner County Sheriff Gerald Gilkey said this morning that there was nothing new to report on the case.
Kansascitychannel.com reports a BNSF crew told investigators they thought the object lying on the railroad tracks looked like a traffic cone someone had thrown onto the line. The members of the train crew asked each other, "What is that?"
The Web site reports that they certainly didn't think it was a human being. It was the sound of the impact. It didn't sound like it came from a traffic cone. The train screeched to a stop. Its crew searched the tracks.
The most vocal postings regarding Allen's death were found at freerepublic.com, a Web site dedicated to news and activism. Those sharing information at the site are known as "freepers."
"What a sick, sick, sad world," one person writes after learning of Allen's death.
"What a nightmare. And almost certainly, in a small town place like that, it will turn out to be a person or persons the victim knew well," a mother writes.
The Web site reports BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg saying: "I grew up in rural America. You still tend to think of it as a place where there are still solid values and people look out for one another and care for one another -- and this flies in the face of that, this shocks that sentiment."
"God bless this poor boy's family!" another writes. "I can't imagine what the parents are going through."
"And God bless the locomotive crew," one message reads. "There wasn't a thing in the world they could do to stop the tragedy, but they will still have to live with it."
It was a train crew that found what is being reported as "the nude body of Allen, lying more than 10 feet from the tracks. His black sweatshirt and red sweat pants were found further down the line."
The 19-year-old -- who in May graduated as Argonia High School's valedictorian -- had apparently been tied with baling wire to the tracks, some news sources report.
Some of the details of that night were first reported by the Mid-America News Network, based on an unnamed source at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The Associated Press says it has since confirmed those details and pieced the rest of the story together through various railroad and law enforcement sources connected with the case.
Allen's family has declined comment.
Eleven postings at the free.republic site simply say, in reference to Allen's death: "I'm speechless."
Many "freepers" postings speculate as to the other possible causes, conspiracies or motives in Allen's death. Others talk about a case in Arkansas in 1987 when two teens accidentally witnessed a drug transaction and were killed in a similar manor as Allen.
Ping to the posters that are quoted in this article.
Wellington, if I'm not mistaken, is a very small town about half-way between Wichita and the Oklahoma state line. I doubt any "official" sources would give them the time of day no matter the question.
That still-unresolved case, which winds its way from the Arkansas railroad tracks to Gov. Bill Clinton's favorite coroner and his own mother Virginia Kelley (an anesthesiologist of dubious qualification), is detailed in The Boys on The Tracks, by Mara Leveritt.
TBOTT would make a great "conservative" movie, the flip side of fast-and-loose "true stories" like Erin Brockovich or Oliver Stone's JFK, but as far as I know, no one's made a serious attempt to make it.
an anesthesiologist of dubious qualification)
I believe she was a nurse-anesthetist.
Next thing the NY Slimes will quoting us on the front page.
I heard that Sen. Kerry is going to fake a heart attack so that Hitlary can save the country from Dick Cheney. Any of you NY Times lurkers can quote me.
That's a dangerous floor plan, even if it is roomy and palatial.
Thanks for the ping!
It is a small paper with no doubt a small staff, though I am surprised something as glaring as that was missed.
It is a bit odd, but the angle appears to be on how it hit national news and online discussion forums.
They already covered local reaction I am sure; this has been in the news for about a week.
The authorities are being very tight-lipped about this....just aren't saying squat. The reporter probably decided to hit the web to get reaction online and stumbled upon us.
I think if the reporter was a Freeper, he would have mentioned Clinton in the story's conclusion.
Is the Wellington Daily News a FReeper paper?
thanks for the ping....
Thanks to the reporter to that took some time to do their job and getting the orginal story reported.
Thanks for the ping. I bet this reporter is a freeper now.
That's because they chose a thread that didn't start out with the usual sick jokes...
Next thing the NY Slimes will be MISquoting us on the front page.
Here's the latest from the Wellington Daily News:
Death probe: News release expected on Monday
On Monday, the Sumner County Sheriffs Department is expected to release more information regarding the investigation into the suspicious death of Jacob "Jake" Allen.
The Argonia teenager was found dead during the early morning hours of July 5 after being struck by a Burlington Northern-Santa Fe train on Bluff Road near Milan, on Monday.
Sumner County Sheriff Gerald Gilkey said a press release will be released to area media outlets Monday after he has a chance to talk with investigators today.
Gilkey said he is pleased to be able "to speed up the projection of when we will release more information."
Gilkey would not say this morning what that press release will entail.
A Wichita television station was reporting Thursday that friends and relatives have been collecting personal items believed to belong to Allen and giving them to authorities.
Gilkey told the Wellington Daily News many friends and family members of Allen have been bringing in items from the tracks for investigators.
Gilkey said, "Being on the railroad tracks is against the law. Trespassing on railroad property is a crime."
http://www.wgtndailynews.com/articles/2004/07/16/news/news1.txt
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