I have all the ingredients to make a meatloaf for tomorrow but the problem is I don’t have a loaf pan and don’t know what else I could put it in. I have some pyrex dishes and a cookie sheet, could I use either of these instead, or do I have to buy a loaf pan? Any help would be appreciated
I use a powder that pours extremely easily, to the point where there's powder all over the work surface by the time I finish a session. I digitally weigh every charge as it is very easy to over or underload each case because the powder is so fine. Our of frustration, I grabbed a plastic condiment bottle, the kind that comes empty to put homemade sauces in, and used it to pour every charge into the scale pan, then topped it off with a trickler if needed. Much less mess then before, more precise control of the pour, and I think an even faster process (not that I'm looking for speed). I handload pistol rounds on an old Lyman Spartan single stage press, am thrilled with the range performance of True Blue powder for both 9 mm and 38 special, and load 50-200 rounds per session. Tell me why the bottle is a bad idea, or is this a secret in the reloading world that I tripped across? (There is nothing on the interwebs about this that I could find.)
My dad's secret recipe for Whole Steamed Fish (蒸鱼)! With Lunar New Year around the corner, Steamed Fish is a MUST for traditional Chinese holidays and feasts. It's also really easy - something my parents make 3-4 times a week. Recipe inside!
Recently, I took it upon myself to document my dad's recipes gleaned over his incredible 50 years as a Chinese chef. Steamed Fish was at the top of the list of his recipes I wanted to preserve. This dish is steeped in tradition and good luck, and I'm extremely grateful to get to document how my dad does it and to share it with our community :) This post will cover:
How to select, clean, & prepare a fish for steaming
My dad's secret sauce (and background on some key ingredients)
All about timing and signs of undercooking / overcooking
Why is Whole Steamed Fish so important for Chinese holidays?
In Chinese tradition, fish is intertwined with many sayings and superstitions of good fortune and abundance. Even though my parents didn't have much meat growing up, this is one of the dishes my parents always ate on Lunar New Year's eve and other festivities. Especially with auspicious foods, Chinese superstition involves a lot of creative word-play. The word for "fish", yùh 鱼 in Cantonese, sounds like the word for "surplus", yùh 余. Just to name a few phrases that my parents shared with us:
nìhn nìhn yáuh yùh 年年有余 - A phrase that means that there will be a surplus every year, an abundance of wealth, food, and etc.
mòuh yùh bāt sìhng yin 无鱼不成宴 - A phrase that roughly means, "no fish, no feast"
Whole Fish vs Fish Fillets
This same exact recipe and technique works with fish fillets (subtract 2-4 minutes in the steamer, depending on the cut and the type of fish). However, if you're making this in line with a traditional Chinese celebration, make sure you get a whole fish. Especially for Lunar New Year, it's important that the fish is not missing anything. Having a complete fish on the dinner / prayer table is considered "yùhn méih 完美", which means perfect, consummate. My parents will also pan fry a whole fish and place it on the table where we bai sun (pray). They talk about it more in the video, but it's also important that this fish has scales. This fish is traditionally prepared on Lunar New Year's eve, and meant to be eaten after the New Year.
On Buying Fish
This recipe works with lots of different types of fish, and my parents elaborate on their favorites during our sit-down meal in our video. In general, you should try to buy fish that’s in season, since it will generally be fresher and cheaper. It’s also important to at least be aware of how we can support sustainable methods and sources of fish. While it might not always be feasible to shop in this way, as consumers, an easy way to do our part is by making sure we vote with our wallets. Monterey Bay Aquarium in California runs a free website called “Seafood Watch” which has a ton of recommendations on how to choose and purchase seafood in ways that have the least environmental impact.
On Dried Mandarin Orange Peels
This is one of the ingredients my dad always uses for fish to help combat some of the sometimes off-putting "fishy" taste. Also known as "chenpi", this is a fragrant ingredient in Chinese cooking and medicine, believed to regulate our chi. My dad uses these for a lot of dishes outside of steamed spare ribs - soups, steamed fish, medicines, and etc. He has a huge stockpile that he's been building for over 15 years. According to my dad, the district of Xinhui in China makes the best damn peels the world has ever seen. This is their biggest export and a large economic driver for the famous district. If you like eating mandarin oranges, you can just save the peels and leave them outside to dry in the sun for 2-3 days. They should snap in half pretty easily when dry. Store them in a bag in cool, dry place.
On Ground Bean Sauce
For ground bean sauce, it might get confusing since there are a few different types of Asian bean sauces out there. In Cantonese, we call it “mihn sih jeung 面豉酱” or "mòh yùhn sih 磨原豉", but most brands call it “Ground Bean Sauce” in English. This sauce is made with ground up fermented yellow soybeans, and is packed with umami flavors.
The Recipe
Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Main Ingredients
1 lb tilapia (more on this later - recipe works with most fish.)
0.50 oz ginger
3 pieces green onion
dried mandarin orange peel (to taste. optional but recommended. rehydrate in water for 5 minutes before cutting.)
dried chili pepper (optional, minced, to taste)
3 pieces cilantro (for garnish)
2 tbsp corn oil
Additional Flavor
1 tbsp ground bean sauce
0.50 tbsp light soy sauce
white pepper (just a dash of pepper)
0.50 tsp salt
chicken bouillon (optional)
0.50 tsp cornstarch
0.50 tbsp olive oil
sesame oil (added at the end, to taste)
Step 1 - Clean fish & prepare other ingredients
While we mainly focused on fish preparation in our video, it goes without saying that you should wash your green onions, cilantro before using them. Aside from fish prep, here's what you will likely need to do:
Peel ginger
Wash cilantro, green onion
Rehydrate orange peel in warm water for 5 minutes
Generally speaking, when you buy fish from the market, most of the gutting and de-scaling has already been done for you (or someone can do it for you before you check out.) My dad still prefers to do some additional prep work:
Cut away the belly fat - this helps reduce the fishy taste
Scrape away the dried blood from the bones - if you're in the US, your fish has most likely already been frozen when you buy it. This leads to some blood drying in the fish cavity, which my dad and most restaurants like to scrape off so that the fish is less "fishy" and more white when it's done cooking
Cut into the back - this helps the fish cook more evenly by increasing the surface area that the steam can reach, especially if it's a thick piece of fish.
If you do need to remove the fish scales on your own, my dad showed us 3 methods:
Using a fish scale remover tool
Scraping it with a chef knife (my dad's preferred method)
Placing the fish in a plastic bag, and scraping it with your fingernails (the least messy method)
Step 2 - Cut and mince ingredients
Traditionally, aside from the fish, the core ingredients are ginger (0.50 oz) and green onion (3 pieces). For the ginger, we'll be cutting them into slices, strips, and then mincing them into small bits. For the green onions, we'll be cutting the shoots into little circles (for the sauce), and we'll be cutting the stems into little strips (see video) for the garnish. We'll also be mincing small amounts of our rehydrated mandarin orange peel and dried chili pepper (). We'll be using cilantro but we don't need to do anything to it.
Step 3 - Prepare sauce
To a bowl, we'll add our minced ginger and chopped green onion shoots (not the stems), and:
ground bean sauce (1 tbsp)
light soy sauce (0.50 tbsp)
a dash of white pepper
salt (0.50 tsp)
chicken bouillon (to taste, optional)
sugar
cornstarch (0.50 tsp)
olive oil (0.50 tbsp)
We'll mix it for 20-30 seconds.
Step 4 - Prepare fish & wok for steaming
We'll need a few items to steam:
A wok or something to steam in
A plate that fits the fish we're making (usually my dad and most Chinese restaurants use large elliptical plates)
A steamer rack to elevate the plate. You can also cut part of a can so it becomes a ring, or roll up several sheets of aluminum foil into a thick ring.
Before we start steaming, we'll need to:
Take a spoon and lather half of the sauce inside the fish cavity, and the rest of it on top of the fish.
Bring enough water to a boil in the wok so that the water will just barely touch the bottom of the plate when it rests on top of the steamer rack.
The water needs to be boiling before we start steaming. Note: Many other recipes involve sticking ginger and other things in the fish cavity before steaming. This is effectively the same thing but with more flavor.
Step 5 - Steam fish
Once the water is boiling, carefully transfer the plate of fish on top of the steamer rack, and cover the wok. You may need to do some trial and error, but on my dad's setup at home, he's steaming this tilapia (1 lb) for about 12 minutes + 1 minute for extra sanitation. Some notes on timing and cues:
You'll know when it's done when the eyes turn white (they're black at first)
You can stick a chopstick into the thickest part of fish to know if it's done. It should be fairly tender as you poke through.
The meat should separate easily from the bones.
My dad said there's no magic formula for timing based on weight (watch the video - he laughed at me when I asked lol), but 12 minutes is a good starting point. You can adjust up and down by 60 seconds depending on the size and type of fish. If it's overcooked, the meat will be too tough. The skin may also break. If it's undercooked, then there will be blood / red juices in the meat (which my dad said some people prefer, actually.) In this case, you can still steam it again for another 1-3 minutes, or cover it and zap it in the microwave. For heat transfer, the main variable is how much water you're steaming with and how big your steaming vessel is.
Usually, at a typical boiling point, water doesn't heat past 100 C / 212 F, regardless of how intense your stove is.
This is one of the differences of steaming at a restaurant vs at home - the more water and bigger the vessel, the better.
Step 6 - Heat oil, add garnish
We'll start heating corn oil (2 tbsp) in a pan until it's shimmering (ripples should start forming across the surface). Carefully remove the plate from the wok, and add the green onion strips along the top of the fish. Once the oil is hot enough, pour it onto the fish. You should hear a nice sizzle. Then add the cilantro (3 pieces), and some sesame oil to taste.
Step 7 - Remove bones & serve
Removing the bones from a fish is one of my dad's skills that I've always wanted to document. He always does it so gracefully, and especially for big feasts, you can always make out a subtle, proud grin on his face as he removes the bones and serves his guests. This is more clear and narrated in the video, and it varies slightly from fish to fish. But in essence, you'll:
Cut along the middle of the fish to expose the spine
Break the spine away from the head and tail, and set it aside. (Chinese OGs like my dad usually eat the meat off of the spine.)
Remove bones along the sides of the fish.
If you're following tradition, leave the head and tail on the plate. If you have squeamish guests, you can cover the head with garnish.
There will still be some stray bones, so just remind yourself and your guests to eat carefully. (My mom accidentally swallowed a fish bone as a kid, and had to slowly drink vinegar for hours to dissolve it.) -----
Our why
I've always wanted to honor my parents and capture the hundreds of recipes that my dad's perfected over 50 years as a Chinese chef. I want to celebrate their legacy and epic journey of making something of themselves here in America, and pass it down to our kids. Thanks for reading! Hope you all love the recipes :)
How do you stop moisture from reaching the base, when baking a cheesecake in a water bath?
So a few minutes ago, I was reminded of why I stopped baking cheesecakes all those years ago: every single time, the top of the cheesecake looks immaculate, but the base gets all soggy. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong - I line the inside (sides and bottom) of the tin with greaseproof; I double line the outside of the tin with high quality foil, and I even was careful to tuck in all the straggly bits of foil - just under the outside lip of the tin - to keep it tight; aaaaand I only filled the tray with water half way up the baking tin. Even after all that, the base is soggy. What am I doing wrong?
EXTENSIVE write up on the murder of Mackenzie Cowell, 17-year-old high school student killed in Washington State. Was Christopher Scott Wilson convicted of her murder for the crime of being weird in a small town? And is the real murderer walking free? Part 2 of 2
Even though he was nearly 30 years old Chris Wilson always told people that he didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up but he dreamed of being a guitarist in a band. He had a hard time holding down jobs and never worked in one place for very long. In his late twenties his mom bought a hair salon in Wenatchee and Chris decided to start attending the Academy of Hair Design in order to maybe follow in her footsteps. Throughout his life Chris had a number relationships what different women some serious, some casual. He had even been engaged a time or two. One woman he dated on-again-off-again was named Tessa Shuyleman (Source). We will get more to her later. Descriptions of Chris vary widely depending on who you ask, most people will tell you he liked being different. For years he dyed his hair black, occasionally wore eyeliner, chose to wear clothes that were “punk” or “goth”. Most people will also tell you that Chris Wilson was interested in things dark and macabre. He was obsessed with a show called Dexter which is about a serial killer. He was also interested in dark art and movies. He enjoyed talking about death, and serial killers and most of his time on the internet was spent on serial killer forums. Of course, Chris's friends always have stressed that he wasn't evil; he was just different and had unusual interests. Researching serial killers and liking shows like Dexter after all isn't really that unique. Wilson also sports a tattoo Hannibal Lecter on his forearm. He had been fired from at least one funeral home in Wenatchee due to “inappropriate” behavior that made his boss uncomfortable. Chris's former boss has never elaborated on this statement claiming it was not his place to talk about these things outside of court (source). However, another manager at the funeral home described Chris as an excellent employee (source). One woman who worked with Chris at Academy of Hair Design described him as “intimidating but not physically intimidating.” Other coworkers and neighbors remember Chris as artsy but was otherwise a typical guy (Source). At one point Chris Wilson lived in Ellensburg, Washington and worked at a Goodwill in town. According to some sources, one night his manager discovered him rifling through the dumpster at Goodwill in order to take home a mannequin with him. (Some reports say it was a paper statue.) He told his co-workers that this was for his art. He took the mannequin home, dismembered it and painted it like he murdered body, then shared pictures of this artwork online (Source). Friends of Chris said that he found the mannequin already painted. They claim that he called the police and then photographed the limbs for his art (source). It appears that a police report was made so Chris’s friends may have the more accurate account of this particular event. Wilson told another acquaintance that he strangled a woman to death with a belt in a hotel in Ellensburg (Source). Police said they have no evidence that a murder like this had ever occurred. One classmate interviewed reported that on Halloween The Academy of Hair Design was having a contest. Students were allowed to do a hair and makeup on a mannequin head however they liked, in a type of dress up competition. Wilson took a straight razor to his mannequin’s face and peeled the skin off, something that disturbed her deeply. Others though have said they didn't think it was that weird as it was for a Halloween game (Source). Wilson's love of Dexter, his tattoo, and the mannequin incident were not allowed to be brought up during trial the information was prejudicial rather than probative, but they are all important parts if the story. Chris Wilson's odd behavior aside, law enforcement began looking into Chris's movements on the days around Mackenzie’s disappearance. Security footage showed that Chris Wilson left the Academy of Hair Design within 72 seconds of Mackenzie leaving (Source). He was shown walking across the parking lot at approximately 3:02 p.m. It was also determined that Wilson left through a different door than Mackenzie, which would explain why no one seemed to remember him leaving right after her. In the video, he slinks near the alley rather than walking across the lot (Source). As far as I can remember the Academy of Hair Design was rather open inside, so I think other students would have been able to see Mackenzie from wherever they were in the school, meaning Chris could probably see that Mackenzie left the building. In February 2012, Chris lived in a studio in a building called the Burke Hill apartments. The tenement is across from the courthouse in a sketchy area of town, adjacent to a bail bonds business. The building is on Orondo Street only a few blocks from Academy of Hair Design. When Mackenzie car was last seen, it was actually headed towards Chris Wilson's apartment, which was the opposite direction from the Orondo boat launch. Verizon Wireless was asked if it was possible that Mackenzie's last text messages were sent from Chris Wilson's apartment rather than the Orondo boat launch. When they reviewed the data, they admitted that it was just as likely that Mackenzie was in the vicinity of the Burke Hill apartments, rather than the boat launch (Source). Chris never returned to the Academy of Hair Design that day after leaving at 3:02 p.m. His whereabouts for the rest of the day are unknown and he doesn't have an alibi. His mother claims that at one point he swung by her house to pick up a plate of cupcakes, but it doesn't appear that Chris stayed with her for any amount of time (Source). Chris’s phone went unanswered from 3:30-3:50 pm (source). What we do know is that Chris Wilson had a car, but that a little before 4 p.m. he called his friend asking to borrow this friend's car. His friend said that he could borrow the car until 5 p.m., Chris said he needed the car for a longer but his friend told him that wasn't an option. Chris may have borrowed the car and returned it at 5:15 p.m. Chris’s defense attorneys claim that Chris did not end up actually using the car, and say that video surveillance shows that the car never left its spot in the parking lot (Source). Unfortunately, I could find no other information on this discrepancy, but we do know that Chris did ask to borrow the car on the afternoon of February 9th. From 3:02 pm forward on February 9th, Wilson was in regular phone and text contact with his ex-girlfriend Tessa Shuyleman. Shuyleman and he talked 8 different times in between 3:30 and 6 pm. Shuyleman’s phone records revealed that she was also in contact with her current boyfriend who lived in Quincy, Washington only three miles from Crescent Bar. Tessa called her current boyfriend twice around 6 pm, and then also called him at 9 pm in a panicked state. She said “something really, really bad has happened” and then “please pray for me.” The man thought the request was odd as he described Tessa as “anti-religion.” He could not remember the exact day of this conversation but he believed it to be February 9th or 10th. Phone records showed that the time of the phone calls most likely happened on the 9th. Phone records demonstrated that this 9 pm call as well as another call Tessa made around 10 pm “may have originated in the Quincy area.” Another ex-boyfriend of Shuyleman reported that Tessa came to his home to pick up some things, sometime between Feb. 9th and 13th. He described her as agitated and fidgety. She stayed with him for about twenty minutes but left the residence without collecting any of her things (Source). Additionally, Chris matched the description of the man seen walking down Pitcher Canyon Road, although this description could fit a lot of men in the area. School records show that in the days following the discovery of Mackenzie’s body Wilson was rarely at school, leaving for no reason at all or simply not attending (Source). Chris Wilson was not on anyone's radar until the summer of 2010 when police began re-looking at leads and then finally received the letter from Theo Keyes. In August Wilson, along with other people who worked at the Academy of Hair Design, were interviewed by police. Later that month police got a warrant to DNA test students at the Academy thus obtaining Chris Wilson's DNA. Court documents say that Wilson gave his DNA willingly. Wilson's profile was sent to the crime lab. Wilson did not match the DNA in Mackenzie’s car, fingernail, or on the murder weapon, but his DNA was consistent with the one of the male profiles found on the duct tape at Crescent Bar. With this information police asked Wilson to come down to the station again to be interviewed. Law enforcement agents asked him if he had ever been to Crescent bar. Wilson denied this and was promptly placed under arrest for the murder of Mackenzie Cowell (Source). Detective John Kruse claimed that at this point, Chris looked at him blankly with no emotion on his face, and didn’t deny the accusation instead saying “I think I need a lawyer.” (Source). Soon Chris Wilson's strange behavior and hobbies we're common knowledge among the people of Wenatchee. Pictures showed that he went to Mackenzie's funeral (Source). Chris Wilson claimed he did not know Mackenzie and had never talked to her before, although he did admit that he knew who she was. Subsequent interviews with the people who worked at the Academy of Hair Design revealed this wasn't exactly true. Many people remember Mackenzie talking to Chris. One person even described a relationship or friendship developing between the two. One woman claimed that Chris Wilson had told her that he found the Mackenzie “hot” (source). Adversely, Chris's mother claims that Mackenzie and Chris we're not friends on Facebook or Myspace even though they both used those websites. She also claimed Chris and Mackenzie never talked on their cell phones (Source), which is far as I can tell is accurate. Chris's friends stated that while Chris talked about some people he worked with at Academy of Hair Design, they never remember him mentioning Mackenzie (Source). After his arrest police looked at Chris's cell phone records and his computer. They also located his car in Spokane, Washington which he had sold in April 2010 (Source). LE thoroughly searched the apartment he was living in which was the basement of Salon Couture, a building which his mother owned. Police ripped apart the apartment not realizing that this was not the apartment Chris was living in at the time of Mackenzie's disappearance and murder. They reported to the newspaper that luminol test showed blood in the stairwell. The blood was sent to the crime lab, which revealed that the blood did not belong to Mackenzie. One woman who worked at the salon recalled that when the salon was being painted a painter had cut his hand in the stairwell (Source). The blood was not connected to the case and police instead got a warrant to search the studio that Chris was living at in the Burke Hill apartments months earlier. Chris had vacated his apartment in June of 2010. On Chris's computer police found some strange photographs as well as two strange videos. The photograph, which is not publicly available, is allegedly of Tessa Shuyleman laying on the floor of Chris's apartment posing as if she is dead on top of a brownish stain. Tessa gave two different explanations of this photo. In one explanation Tessa said that she had passed out drunk in Chris's apartment where he snapped the photo (Source). Another time she said that Chris and asked her to lie on the ground and then he took a photo. Tessa also said that she had no memory of anything that happened from February 9th to 13th and that she was not involved in the disappearance of Mackenzie. The videos featuring both Tessa and Chris we're taken on June 26th and June 30th. They feature someone carrying around a camera and videotaping parts of the empty apartment. On the video from June 26th a brown reddish stain can be seen on the carpet. Right before the video ends, the videographer zooms directly in this stain, before going to the bathtub panning around the bathtub and then cutting off. In the June 30th film which is very similar, Chris and Tessa can be heard talking. Chris says “does it look clean in here?” and Tessa says, “clean for…? clean considering what's…. happening? Yes I think it's clean” and then zooms in again on the exact same part of the carpet but now the stain is barely visible (Source)(Source). Chris said he made the videos in order to show his landlord so that he could get his deposit back. He also said the stain on the carpet was from a party when someone had knocked over bong water. He said the stain smelled really bad so he cleaned it with Simply Green and got the stain out (Source). Some of Chris’s supporters say that the video shows nothing at all but others say the video is very damning, especially the remarks that Tessa makes. When police entered the apartment and sprayed the area with luminol, the stain lit up. The carpet and carpet pad were cut away and sent to the State Crime Lab. The piece of carpet was very small, only a few inches square (Source). The State Crime Lab was able to determine that the stain was blood that belonged to Mackenzie Cowell (Source). This piece of evidence was the nail in Chris Wilson's coffin. The DA charged Wilson with second-degree murder. The town of Wenatchee was shocked, bit by bit everyone's stories, memories, and recollections about Chris Wilson we're on the front page of the newspaper every day. Chris was arrested in October 2010 with his case would not go to trial until 2012. In early court documents Chris is represented by a public defender Keith Howard, who was once awarded one of the best lawyers in Washington State. Howard explained in court documents that the DNA found on the duct tape was not a complete profile and that the DNA sequence matched thousands of white men, perhaps even dozens of them in Washington State. He also pointed out the fact that Chris Wilson's DNA was not found on the murder weapon nor was there any evidence that Mackenzie had been in his car or that he had been in her car. After all the DNA from Mackenzie's car didn't match Chris Wilson either. Further, there was a second male DNA profile on the duct tape that was someone else entirely. Judge Bridges allocated $10,000 worth of public funds for the DNA to be retested at a private facility in Ohio before going to trial. Howard also discovered one of the DNA profiles found on the murder weapon belonged to a fingerprint analyst at the crime lab in Cheney. He also discovered that the second profile found on the knife could not rule out a deputy who arrived at the crime scene. Howard pointed out how sloppy this made investigators look and reminded the public that the DNA evidence was not as cut-and-dry as it seemed. For example, the profile on the duct tape was a y-str profile. It was not complete and could match one in 2700 males. This particular profile is most common among white men, and excludes all women. One in every 1,047 Caucasian men have this particular sequence, and it would be most common among Chris Wilson's relatives (Source). Chris Wilson however, had no male relatives living in the area as he was not a Wenatchee native. Chris’ biological father is unknown. His siblings do not share his y-str DNA as they have a different father than Chris. Early on in my research did the math, and this profile could have belonged to approximately 7-14 people in Wenatchee- more if you include the outlying areas. While is it is not 100% matchable to Chris Wilson, it is a pretty good indicator when coupled with other evidence. Everyone thought the case with the DNA evidence was a slam dunk, but then Chelan County district attorney did something that shocked everyone. He offered Chris Wilson a plea deal. 6 1/2 years for manslaughter if he would only plead guilty (Source). The move astonished the community. Chris Wilson rejected the deal saying he wanted to go to trial so that the truth could come out. Preliminary hearings were held with Chris Wilson's new attorney John Henry Browne, a very prestigious lawyer out of Seattle. Browne has defended some famous criminals such as Ted Bundy and the Colton Harris Moore- the Barefoot Bandit. Browne planned on calling Liz Reid to the stand and throwing suspicion at suspects like Cerros, Cuevas, Joaquin Villasano, and Joey Fisher. He argued that all of these men had motive which his client Chris Wilson did not have (Source). Browne also defended some people in 1995 during what was dubbed the Wenatchee Witch Hunt (Source). Many of us in the true crime community have heard of satanic panic. In the 1980s and 90s teachers, daycare workers, and others that worked with children were accused all across the country of participating in ritualistic abuse of children. There was a variety of very huge trials and scandals. One of the last major satanic panic scandals occurred in 1994 and 1995 and was dubbed the Wenatchee Witch Hunt. All in all, over 40 people were arrested for ritualistic child abuse in the Wenatchee Valley many of them daycare workers, preschool teachers, and Sunday school supervisors. Eventually, all of these trials ended in mistrial, overturned convictions, and acquittals. I This phenomenon is a perfect picture the issues that can arise when people let emotions cloud their judgment, coupled with bad psychological advice, and a misunderstanding of how to interview children. Early on some people were convicted and sadly convections fell along class lines, with wealthier accused typically hiring good lawyers and being acquitted while poor defendants with no options more likely to be convicted. Eventually the state acquitted all of these defendants but several people involved in the Witch Hunt were able to keep their jobs in the Wenatchee Police Department and the DA’s office, including the DA himself (Source). Because of this history John Henry Browne was planning on pushing for the idea that Mackenzie's blood had been planted and Chris Wilson's apartment. And he was planning on using the story of the Wenatchee Witch Hunt to show the jury that law enforcement in the area could not be trusted (Source). Browne’s strategy was a bold one. Many people had a hard time believing that police would collect blood from Mackenzie with the purpose of planting it in the apartment of someone who wasn't even on their radar when they collected the blood. This also assumes that police somehow knew that there was a stain in Chris Wilson's apartment that he would videotape and that they would be able to collect for evidence. Others have wondered why the police would try to frame someone with no criminal past and only vague connections to Mackenzie, when they could have easily framed someone like Buddha Cerros who had a very long criminal record. Police also were in possession of Buddha’s car, so planting evidence wouldn’t have been challenging. Browne has also pointed out the sloppiness of the investigation. Of the three male DNA profiles collected from knife at the scene, one, possibly two, of the three profiles on the knife were determined to have belonged to law enforcement. One belonged to a finger print analyst at the state crime lab near Spokane. Another sample was a partial profile could not exclude one deputy who responded to the crime scene. The third profile is still unknown. Law enforcement has said that while there are steps to avoid contamination, it actually happens often, which is why the DNA of all analysts and officers is kept on file. Police also admitted to moving Mackenzie’s body from the river onto the shore without waiting for a forensics unit. They expressed fear that the body would float away due to dam fluctuations if it was not moved. However, in this event some evidence may have been moved, lost, or damaged (source). Browne also spearheaded the idea that Chris might have been arrested for being weird in a small town. Like many people, Browne was also troubled by the apparent lack of motive that Chris had for killing Mackenzie. Right before trial a change of venue was requested by the defense. While that was being decided many pieces of evidence and information from Chris’ life were ruled inadmissible at trial (Source). Shawna Novak’s testimony along with some of Chris’s "weird" interests were to be supressed. As jury selection got underway, approximately 85% of potential jurors admitted that they already thought Chris Wilson was guilty. A similar number of jurors have followed the case and knew about suppressed evidence (Source). On the day before trial was set to begin, Chris Wilson entered a plea of guilty for Mackenzie's manslaughter and requested the DA's previous deal of six years. The DA countered with a 14-year sentence in exchange for a signed document that said Chris had caused the death of Mackenzie Cowell. Wilson took the plea looking miserable the whole time, and was sentenced to 14 years, with the possibility of getting out in 10 with good behavior. Browne explained to media outlets that sometimes defendants have to do what's best for them which is sometimes taking a plea deal even if they're innocent (Source). As soon as Chris Wilson was placed into prison he immediately tried to go back on his guilty plea and once again claimed he was innocent. Wilson seemed to think that if he did this he would get an immediate retrial or some sort of appeals process but this was not the case and today he is still sitting in Clallam Correctional Facility in Washington State (Source). When the media asked why DA Riesen would offer such a lenient sentence for Wilson, he said that the reasons were two-fold. First, he felt that the jury would want a motive for the crime and he felt he and his team could not provide one, except for that maybe Chris Wilson was interested in becoming a serial killer himself, which is a pretty far-fetched idea. The other issue was is that while Mackenzie's DNA was in Chris's apartment the DA said he had no proof that Chris was there when it happened or that he caused Mackenzie to bleed. This coupled with the fact that his DNA was not on the murder weapon made him feel like his case was not as strong as the people Wenatchee seemed to think it was (Source). There are still many unanswered questions about this case. Chris has maintained his innocence since the moment he was placed into prison. He says he regrets many things about his life especially his Hannibal Lecter tattoo which biased the public against him (Source). The biggest question many have is motive. According to all sources Chris and Mackenzie did not really know each other that well. There were no problems between them, they did not run in the same circles, they were not similar ages, were not in the same “grade” at the Academy, and they apparently did not talk to each other online or on the phone. Mackenzie was not sexually assaulted which doesn't necessarily rule out a sexual motive but it does make things a lot stranger. Further, there's still the question of the unknown DNA on the knife, on the victim’s fingernails, and in her car. These things seem the point to the fact that Chris Wilson must have had an accomplice. But who is he? I discovered one article which claimed that two inmates at the county jail were involved in the crime, although I could find no more detail on this matter (Source). Others including Chris's attorneys have pointed out that Cowell's jugular was cut (Source). Injuries like these produce massive amounts of blood. If Mackenzie was killed in Chris's apartment why was there only a very small patch of blood on his carpet? Some have speculated that Chris may have laid down plastic in his apartment like on the TV show Dexter in order to make his clean up easier. But this would mean that the crime was planned out in advance and it would produce additional evidence such as the bloody plastic sheets. There's also the question of how Chris got Mackenzie into his apartment in broad daylight. Did he invite her up? Mackenzie was an athlete who regularly worked out. At 5’8” she was only a few inches shorter than Chris, who would have had to get her body from his second-floor apartment to his car which was parked on the street, without anyone realizing that he was carrying a bleeding, full grown woman. This further implies that he must have had an accomplice. Police have always theorized that Schuyleman was his accomplice but Tessa was ruled out as being a contributor of any of the DNA in the case. Further, her car was searched but nothing was found. Because of this her charge of aiding and abetting a criminal was dropped. Tessa legally changed her first and last name and moved out of the area as soon as the sentencing concluded. She was never charged with any crime. In the years since this crime the 48 Hours episode and places like Web Sleuths and Reddit have allowed doubt to be thrown on Chris Wilson's conviction. Ever since John Henry Browne pioneered the idea that Wenatchee police are corrupt and planted Mackenzie's blood, people have questioned the validity of the other evidence in the case. I know I was a bit skeptical of police after hearing this but when I started doing my research, I realized the police might be able to plant physical evidence, but they cannot plant circumstantial evidence, and there was a good amount of circumstantial evidence that points to Wilson as the perpetrator. I am very perturbed by the lack of motive and by the four unknown male DNA profiles, one on Mackenzie's steering wheel, the duct tape, her fingernails, and the other on the murder weapon as it makes me feel like there's much more to the story and that murderers are potentially walking free. It was a surreal experience to have everyone in the area so convinced of Wilson’s guilt in 2012, only to have everyone start questioning their convictions after the 2014 CBS special revealed new or different information only a few years later. Wilson supporters online have even wondered if homophobia is to blame for Wilson's arrest. Chris Wilson was definitely different, his dyed hair and penchant for eyeliner apparently made some people assume that he was gay even though he describes himself as heterosexual. Also he was one of only 3 male students at the hair academy (source). Personally, I have always found this a bit of a stretch as Wilson's on-again-off-again girlfriend was arrested with him, but I will not rule it out as I am sure Wilson has been on the receiving end of some not-so-nice comments especially in a small town like Wenatchee. I don't mean to say that a homophobia does not happen, but I don't think it was Chris's dyed hair that made people view him suspiciously rather, it was his odd behavior and frankly disturbing interests. For this I would say that his weird behavior is more to blame than homophobia. A lot of men dye their hair, but few dismember and paint mannequins like murder victims. At the end of the day, homophobia was the least of Chris Wilson’s worries. Others have pointed to Liz Reed’s testimony and a question why Reid’s story was thrown out while Keyes’ story was believed. When asked why DA Gary Reisen trusted Keyes rather than Reid, Reisen said that Keyes’ story had merit. Not only did party goers back up his account of the choking incident, DNA confirmed Keyes’ suspicions about Wilson. Reid said that Liz’s story about Cuevas and Cerros is nothing but “blatant hearsay.” “Show me one thing that connects Cuevas to this crime,” says Risen, “One thing. There is nothing.” Many locals are still skeptical of Buddha Cerros and Sam Cuevas. I remember at one point Buddha was working at a grocery store or convenience store and people would always side-eye him. Buddha has always said he is not involved and Liz Reid is someone who likes to ruin other people's lives. Sadly, Sam Cuevas has passed away but it appears that he did not get into any more legal trouble after his first run-in with the law. Cerros has always denied involvement and says that he's not a violent person and that he is trying his best to live an honest life, but as of 2020 Buddha was in prison yet again for heroin charge. Other Things A few things I wanted to mention but could not find a place for are theories for motive as well as Wilson’s lack of denial. Amateur detectives have long wondered what Chris Wilson’s motive was for the crime. My mom for example, has always speculated that Chris offered to sell Mackenzie drugs or even alcohol, which prompted her to meet Chris. Obviously, Cowell thought this would be a quick encounter and for whatever reason the exchange went sour and ended with Mackenzie’s death. I can find no indication that either Chris or Mackenzie used drugs, but this would explain why Mackenzie went to meet Chris and why she possibly entered his apartment willingly. It also explains that while Chris and Mackenzie left at around the same time, but they were trying to look like they weren't leaving together. Another theory is that Chris met up with Mackenzie and made a sexual advance that she rebuffed, ending in murder. A third theory is that Mackenzie knew that Chris was doing something unsavory at work (such as selling drugs or stealing money) and she threatened to tell. This could have led to an altercation. An alternative theory is that Chris Wilson was a burgeoning serial killer who simply wanted to commit a murder. Finally, some have wondered if Chris Wilson worked with Cerros and Cuevas to kill Mackenzie although it doesn’t seem like there is any evidence the men knew each other together. I do not mean to accuse Mackenzie of being a drug user or imply any other negative behavior as there's really no evidence for any of these theories, but I did want to mention them in the name of being thorough. Another thing that deserves a mention in this piece is Chris Wilson’s lack of denial. Although Chris has maintained his innocence since landing in prison, audio and video interviews with him show something interesting. Whenever Chris is asked if he killed Mackenzie or hurt Mackenzie or was involved in Mackenzie's murder, he doesn't really deny it. Instead, he answers with a question such as, “where did you hear that?” or “who is saying that about me?” It is a little bit odd to me as it seems like he deflects questions does not answer them head-on. Like many things in this case this fact alone does not feel guilt or innocence, but it is part the story that I wanted to include. Timeline
Mackenzie left the Academy of Hair Design at 208 S. Wenatchee Avenue at 3 pm, asking a classmate if she had to sign out if she was only going to be gone 15 minutes. Mackenzie left the area on foot and walked to her car in a lot behind the salon. Classmates assumed that she was leaving to get coffee at her favorite stand, a place called Auto Mocha which was only a five-minute drive away.
3:01 pm surveillance video shows Mackenzie walking to her car, getting in, and driving away.
3:02 pm Chris Wilson seen on surveillance video exiting the salon and driving away within one minute of Mackenzie leaving. Chris left the salon out a different door so no one initially remembered him leaving right after her.
~3:02 pm security video shows Mackenzie’s car driving west on Kittitas St. towards Chris Wilson’s apartment
3:26 pm Mackenzie texts her boyfriend “hey”
3:02-3:33 Wilson texts Shuyleman 4 times
3:33-3:50 pm, Wilson does not answer his phone
3:42 pm Joaquin Villasano texts back “hey” This is the last activity on her phone.
~3:50 pm Chris Wilson calls his friend and asks to borrow his car at 4 pm, despite having his own car.
4-5:15 pm Chris borrows friend’s car (possibly)
4:04 - 4:08 pm Chris calls Shuyleman and is one the phone for 4 minutes
4:36 and 5:03 p.m. Chris calls Shuyleman 4 times- one minute each time
5:42 pm Mackenzie’s phone “pings” presumably when it is shut off.
~ 4:30-5:30 pm Mackenzie’s car is abandoned in Pitcher Canyon. A man walking away from the car who vaguely resembles Chris Wilson, seen by three locals walking down the road toward town
5:40 pm Reid Cowell calls Mackenzie- her phone goes straight to voicemail. He continues to call.
~6 pm Shuyleman calls her boyfriend who lives in Crescent Bar twice, it does not appear that he answered
8 pm a rancher calls police to report that a red sedan has been abandoned near his driveway since at least 7 pm
9:10 pm Shuyleman calls her boyfriend in a panicked state and says “something really bad has happened” and then “please pray for me.” The call may have come from the Quincy area.
A little before 10 pm a police officer is dispatched to assess the abandoned car, he runs the plate and calls the owner, Reid Cowell, who explains that his daughter is missing.
10 pm Reid Cowell and Mackenzie’s boyfriend Joaquin arrive at the scene. The car is empty but Mackenzie’s purse and her gym bag full of clothes are in the car. Only her phone and keys are missing. There are only one set of footprints in the snow; they lead away from the car towards the road.
Shuyleman and Wilson called and texted “several times” between 10:35 p.m. and 11:09 p.m.
February 13th 1 pm a body is found floating in the Columbia River. Two days later it is identified as Mackenzie Cowell
[SELL][US to US/INTL] Colourpop, Stila, Huda Beauty, KVD, Natasha Denona, Too Faced, Tarte, Dose of Colors, ABH. Help me declutter!
SHIPPING: Starts at $3.50 and goes up depending on weight and location. US only, please! I can ship internationally and bubble wrap the heck out of it, but at cost and at your own risk as I'm pretty sure USPS international doesn't include insurance. Please make sure your address in PayPal is correct as this will be the one I ship to. :) *PLEASE PROVIDE YOUR ZIP CODE WITH YOUR PAYPAL EMAIL WHEN PMING ME TO PURCHASE FOR MOST ACCURATE SHIPPING COST.\*
*Paypal G&S only, please. I will send you an invoice after you provide me with your paypal email via DM. Please keep all pricing discussion to the comments, as per the rules. Smoke-free home. I have multiple cats + a dog, but my makeup is stored in my vanity.
If you change your mind, please just let me know rather than ghosting me. Invoices due upon receipt. I would prefer not to hold items. I work 8-5 during the week so please be patient with me as far as responses go during those times and late at night. (I am in EST time zone.)
All items are from my personal collection. I am not looking to swap at this time. I try my best to price fairly so please do not lowball me :)
Eyes:
Ace Beaute single glimmer eyeshadows, all BNNU, $3 each:
Stila Glitter and Glow Highlighter in "Kitten" - BNNU - $15 123
Stila Hide and Chic foundation in shade "Light/Medium 2" - used one pump - $20 12
Stila "Shine Bright" Heaven's Dew highlighter palette - brand new but middle shade touched inside of lid. $20 123
Studio Makeup Loose Luminous Blush - used once, I didn't shut the twist lid that keeps it from piling up in the container by accident so warning: there is a good amount sitting on top of the plastic within the container - $5 12
Victoria's Secret petal scrub in "Bombshell" scent - used once - $6 12
Wander Beauty Lift Off Purifying and Brightening Peel Off Mask - swatched - $8 12
ETC:
Marble print AOA large magnetic z palette - BNNU - $412
Makeup Print AOA large magnetic z palette - BNNU - $412
Unicorn Print AOA large magnetic z palette - BNNU - $412
Overtone Pastel Red conditioner (regular size 8oz + 2oz travel size) - selling as a bundle only - I think the big one is new, but we'll say each used 1x. - $20 12
I Ordered Contact Lenses From The Dark Web. It Was The Worst Decision I Ever Made
A few months ago, my best friend Jeremy called and asked if he could come over. He told me about this crazy new side of the internet that he had found. I had absolutely no idea what he was taking about. He was always up to something mischievous though. Even as an adult, he still had the enthusiasm of a child when he became excited. Because of that, it was always hard to tell him no. I could tell that this seemed important to him, so I told him to just come over and show me what the hell he was talking about. He came over to my house later that same day. He showed up with a flash drive. He was so excited, he didn’t even take off his shoes. He ran over to my already open laptop that was sitting on my living room table and immediately plugged the flash drive in. He had that obnoxious smile across his face. It was the same the smile he made when we were kids. The same taunting grin he made right before we were about to do something our parents would be furious about. “So much for saying hello! You really should knock first. What if I was naked?!” My voice was playful. “Shut up, and come sit down. Oh, and I’m sorry for just barging in like that.” He said just as playfully. “Whatever. You’re definitely not sorry. Im going to go make us some tea and I’ll be right out.” I smiled as I walked away. Around ten minutes later, I came back in with two mugs full of freshly brewed tea. I sat the tea down on the table in front of my couch and sat down next to Jeremy. I looked over at my laptop. My eyes immediately fixated on the screen. The flash drive contained a whole different operating system. I watched my laptop boot up and start running an operating system I had never even seen before. My eyes then shot their gaze at Jeremy. “What the hell is this? Is this going to mess up my computer? You know I can’t afford another one if this one breaks. Most importantly, I need it for school. All of my schoolwork is on there. You-“ My voice was sharp, but before I could finish talking he cut me off. “You worry too much. Just relax. I tested it out on my computer, and everything went fine. Just wait for it to boot up. Your computer will return to normal once I power it down and remove the flash drive.” His voice had a reassuring tone. “Yeah, whatever. Fine.” I said reluctantly. After about ten more minutes of us just sitting there watching this foreign operating system load, it finally finished. The Home Screen was a sold shade of blue, and there were only two icons. One was a web browser. The other one was some sort of VPN. In the corner was a search bar. I tried typing all kinds of words in it, but nothing came up. Eventually after I was done clicking around, Jeremy took over the controls. He opened up a web browser. It was a search engine I had never seen before. Actually, it was a search engine I had never even heard of. I watched him manically type in random numbers and letters into the search engine. Before I could even ask what he was doing, he hit enter and a Wikipedia page came up. Towards the middle of page was a list of links. They all had different names. “The Credit Card Company, Guns Are Great, and The One Stop Shop” were names of some of the links. Most links had extremely illegal titles and definitely lead to illegal activities. Some of them were just down right disgusting and disturbing. I’d rather not go into detail about those links. Jeremy quickly identified what he was looking for. It was a link called “The Gore Store”. He was always into that kind of stuff. I never understood why. Gore was just fascinating to him. I myself could not say the same. It had to have been fake anyways, right? I just wanted to get it over with, so I sat quietly and waited for the page to load. Once it loaded, my screen was filled with obscene imagine of mutilated bodies. There were videos of different people getting killed in different ways. It was insanely graphic. He showed me two thirty second clips before I had to run to the bathroom. I could hear Jeremy’s laughter as I viscously gagged over my toilet. When I came out of the bathroom, the gore page was gone, and he was back on the Wikipedia page. I watched his eyes dart around the screen. It looked like he was trying to find something in particular. Before if I could ask what he was doing, he let out an “Ah hah!” “What is it? I’m not sure if this whole dark web thing is for me. Maybe we should just turn it off. Wha-“ Before I could even finish my sentence, he cut me off again. “Look what I found. It’s pretty cool. I think you’ll actually like it.” He said confidently. I reluctantly agreed and sat back down on the couch beside him. The computer curser was hovered over a link simply named “Eyes”. I was convinced it was about to be the most nauseating thing in the world. I pictured dangling eyeballs or blood filled eye sockets. It had to be something along those lines. He could tell I was unprepared, and he immediately clicked the button after I gave a slight nod of approval. I was not expecting what I saw. They were eyes alright, normal eyes. It looked like a business page for selling contacts. It appeared professional, and there was nothing strange about it. Except for the fact that this seemingly normal business page was on the dark web. I had a look through their selection and ended up asking Jeremy to buy me a pair. He already had the correct form of currency in some sort of account. He thought it was funny, of course, and bought them without a second thought. I thanked him and we talked about what they were going to look like. We were both excited. After Jeremy left that night, he took the flash drive with him. He explained that he was going away on a business trip and wouldn’t be back for a week or two. He said that he sent the package directly to my house, but to call him if there was any delivery issues. The estimated arrival date was 3 weeks from that time anyways. I figured he would be back by then. That way we could experience unboxing them and me struggling to put them in, together. He did find the website and pay for them after all. Two days later, I was surprised when I opened my front door to get the mail and saw a package at my front door. I quickly got my mail and took the package inside. I remember thinking these couldn’t be the contacts. It was way too early. I grabbed a box cutter from the kitchen and started to slice open the package. There they were. The bright green contacts that had a slight blue fade were in that little box. They were beautiful. I know I told Jeremy that I would wait, but I was too excited. I took them out of the box and soaked them in the contact solution that came with the package. I looked in the mirror at my dark brown eyes while the contacts sat in the solution. I smiled at the fact that my eyes were about to be a completely different color, even if it was only temporarily. I always wanted brighter eyes. I had never put in contacts before, so I expected it be quite tricky for my first try. To my surprise, I put both of them in with quite ease. It’s safe to say I gave myself a pat on the back. I was thoroughly impressed, it was like I had been doing it all of my life. They slid right into place and didn’t budge or slide at all. After looking in the mirror for who knows how long, I decided to call Jeremy and tell him about it. He didn’t answer. I figured he was probably working, and he would eventually call me back. When he didn’t pick up, I looked back into the mirror, stunned by my new eye color. I started taking pictures to update my social platforms. My self esteem skyrocketed. When I was done obsessing over my new contacts, I decided I should probably make dinner. I lived by myself, and I always made way too much food. I’d use the left overs for lunch, so it never really went to waste. That night I decided to make a whole lasagna. It was one of my favorite meals, and I figured I could give some to my elderly neighbor as well. I put a pot of water on the stove to bring it to a boil. As I was pulling out the noodles, something caught my eye. It was like a quick shadow flew by my peripheral vision. I stopped and looked around, but I saw nothing. I remember thinking it was strange, but not uncommon. I thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me. I finished prepping and lined the cooked noodles on a sheet of aluminum foil. I opened up a package of raw meat to cook in an already hot pan. As I went to open the meat, I glanced over at the noodles. This time I was looking straight at them. A wave of horror washed over my face. The noodles had turned into maggots. They were squirming all over the aluminum foil. I watched as some of them wiggled themselves off of the counter. Each time one hit the ground I flinched. They were big. They were about as big as the top part of a pointer finger. I grabbed the broom and the garbage can and swept them all into the garbage. I took it outside to the garbage bin immediately. After that, I had completely lost my appetite. I decided I needed to take a bath to try to calm down and recollect my thoughts. I made some tea, lit some candles, and filled the bathtub. I slowly got into the bath as the hot water touched my skin. It was quiet, and peaceful. I finally had time to think. I closed my eyes and let my head rest against the back of the tub. “What just happened? I’m definitely not seeing things. Those maggots were real. How in the world did my freshly boiled noodles turn into maggots. It doesn’t make sense” I whispered my thoughts aloud. When I opened my eyes to gaze at the relaxing set up I had put together, I jumped out of the water. The bath water was a deep shade of red now, and every candle I had lit had went out. I quickly wrapped myself in a towel and turned the main light on. The candles weren’t lit, but the water was clear again. I didn’t care. I wasn’t going back in there. I dried myself off and put on fresh clothes. I went back into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair before bed. I turned on the sink and grabbed my toothbrush. Right before I started brushing my teeth, I looked up into the mirror. I felt a knot form in my stomach. I was holding the toothbrush in my mouth, but my reflection wasn’t. I watched my reflection sway back and forth. The closer I leaned in, the farther my reflection would back up. It giggled as I watched my own reflection tear out my eyeballs. My reflection’s eyes were dangling so low that they touched it’s mouth. It licked one of the eyeballs, and one of contacts flipped on it’s tongue. It started to chew it like it was food. Each chew sounded like broken pieces of plastic. I watching blood start to fall from my reflection’s eyes. I couldn’t take anymore. I washed out my mouth and ran back into my bedroom. I sat down at my vanity and tried to take out the contacts without looking into the mirror. I thought they’d be easy to remove since they were so easy to put in. I was wrong. No matter what I did they wouldn’t budge. Not even a little bit. I tried pinching it, moving it, pushing and sliding it. Nothing. After thirty minutes of nothing but severely irritating my eye, I gave up. I straightened by beck from my bent over position and looked in my vanity mirror. My reflection was laughing at me. I covered all of the mirrors in my house until I could figure out some way to get these things out of my eyes. They were a pretty natural color, so if I went out in public nobody would even notice I had contacts stuck in my eyes. I was also skeptical to call a doctor at the time considering I received these contacts from the dark web. I decided to try and rationalize things. I realized I sure didn’t want to sleep with them in, so I’d have to stay awake as long as possible until I found a solution. I went into my living room to watch TV. It was the only place in the house where I couldn’t see myself in some way. My house looked slightly abandoned. I had blankets draped over anything that could cause a reflection. I leaned forward to grab the remote which had fallen on the floor. Upon picking it up, I felt a sharp pain throughout my entire hand. I immediately dropped the remote and looked at my aching palm. Every inch of my hand was riddled in cuts. I watched the blood drip from my hand onto the floor. I looked down to find the remote on the ground still. The buttons stuck out and came to a sharp point. They were sharper than a newly opened razor. I kicked the remote as hard as I could. I heard it crash against the wall and hit the floor. With my head in hands, I heard the television turn on. It was playing a show I couldn’t recognize. I lifted my head and looked towards the television. It was me. I was on my own television. The quality was grainy, but I could make out what was happening. The television showed me walking across the street from the local grocery store. On my way across the road, a huge truck came at full speed. In a blink of an eye, the truck hit me, and I watched my lifeless body drag against the sidewalk. Then it turned back off. I didn’t know what to do. I was scrambling around trying to figure something out. I ended up calling Jeremy. He seemed a bit confused, and honestly it didn’t even sound like he believed me. It’s like he thought I was joking around. He ended up just hanging up on me, thinking I was pranking him. When I hung up my phone, I slammed it down on my hallway floor. I had been sitting there ever since the television situation. Tears filled my eyes as I heard my phone vibrate against the wooden floor. I picked up my phone and saw it was a text message from an unknown number. “Go o u t s i d e.” Is all it read. I tried calling the number back. Of course that didn’t work, considering there was no number to begin with. The Caller ID just said “Unknown”. At this point I was trying everything. What more did I have to lose? I walked past my kitchen and glanced over at the bowl of fruit I kept on the counter. They were all black and rotten. I didn’t stop though. I just wanted to make it to my front door. I didn’t plan on actually fully going outside, but a peak wouldn’t hurt. At least that’s what I thought. Before I could put my hand on the doorknob, someone started knocking. “Package delivery.” The voice was deep and foreign. I opened up my door just a tad, and there stood the delivery man. His eyes were wide, really wide. They looked dry like he hadn’t blinked in hours. He had slash wounds across his entire face and down his neck. He was incredibly lanky and tall. He reached out his arms to hand me the package, and I realized he was missing 6 fingers. The wounds looked incredibly fresh. Blood soiled the entire box. “Just leave it. I’ll get it.” I said quickly. I slammed the door in his face and locked every single door in my house that led to the outside. Once I was sure he was gone, I quickly grabbed the package and pulled it in the house. Everything around me was slowly decaying, even the people outside. I eventually made my way back to my room. My stairs were now littered with nails sticking directly upwards. I tried to avoid as many as I could, but I still stabbed the bottom of my feet multiple times. There were countless bloody holes in my feet. I left a crimson trail wherever I walked. I walked into the bathroom that was connected to bedroom once more. I pulled off the cover and looked at myself again. This time, my reflection was still laughing, but pieces of flesh dangled from different areas of my face. My neck was snapped and I had noose around my neck. My tongue salivated black looking tar and my eyes were now completely hollowed out. I haven’t slept in three days. I’m afraid to go to sleep. What if I wake up and my entire house is embedded in barbed wire? What if my floor is completely made out of shards of glass? What if everything around me turns into an ultimate death trap? I’m absolutely terrified. I’m not taking any chances. Especially since I brought the box inside. I ended up opening it. There was another box inside. This box was slightly cleaner, but had a message scratched along the top. It was barely legible, but it read: “Open to find out when your untimely demise will fall upon you. Clock’s ticking.” Again, I figured I had nothing to lose, so I opened the second box. This time the box contained a handwritten note. “Not all eyes are meant to be a prize. The contacts you contain will show the other side. You can live with this vision or choose your demise. I left you a gift, now you can decide.” I’ve been sitting here for hours now. All of my food is maggot infested and moldy. I need to go to the grocery store, but I keep looking at the gift that sat below the note. I never really thought this would ever be an appropriate gift for anyone, but I can’t help but gaze at this already tied noose. I knew going on the dark web was a bad idea.
EXTENSIVE write up on the murder of Mackenzie Cowell, 17-year-old high school student killed in Washington State. Was Christopher Scott Wilson convicted of her murder for the crime of being weird in a small town? And is the real murderer walking free? Part 1 of 2
Hello everyone, for the last few months I have been creating long form write-ups on a variety of unsolved cases. If you are interested in other lengthy write ups you can find them on my profile- https://www.reddit.com/useQuirky-Moto. The crime I want to discuss today was committed in Wenatchee, Washington a medium sized town in the middle of Washington state. As a Washingtonian, this case has always stuck with me as I rememberwhen it happened so vividly. I remember my grandma driving all around town in search of the last taser which she purchased at a sporting store. The clerk told her it was the last one in stock and that he had never sold so many tasers, firearms, and pepper sprays in his life. It really was one of the crimes that shook an entire region and changed how people lived. But first, let’s talk about the area. If you are not interested skip until The Crime section. The area Wenatchee is a town of 30,000 people in dead center of Washington state. It is not near anyfreeways meaning that it is not necessarily small, but it isn't close to any large population centers. The closest freeway access is 40 miles to the south east and the high desert is devoid of any large population centers for 100 miles in any direction, Seattle to the west, Spokane to the east and Tri Cities to the south are all in equal distance from Wenatchee. The whole county, Chelan County (pronounced SHUH-lan), boasts only 5 incorporated towns. Wenatchee- 30,000, Chelan- 3000, Cashmere-3000, Entiat- 1000, and Leavenworth- 1900. Wenatchee sits on the banks of the mighty Columbia River. The city is on a county line, split into two townships, Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, population 9,000. As mentioned before Wenatchee is the largest city in ovver a hundred miles. It is home to the region’s only sizable hospital, only animal shelter, only shoe store, etc. It is the seat of an area know as North Central Washington or NCW as the locals call it, a map of which can be found here. The paper, the Wenatchee World, available in both English and Spanish, covers a whopping four counties. In this isolated area a murder was all that was talked about for months, not even in town, but in all four surrounding counties. The paper and radio stations reported on it constantly and everyone in town had connections to the crimes. It really was one of those stories that changed a whole community and unfortunately that didn’t change with a trial and a conviction. Demographics of Wenatchee show that the town is about 70% white and 30% Hispanic/Latino of any race. However, due to the agricultural nature of the region, seasonal constantly move in and out of the area so the real split is more like 50/50 between white Americans and those with Latin American origin. The school district for example is over 50% “Latino.” The Crime Mackenzie Cowell was born in 1992 to Wendy and Reid Cowell, the youngest of their three children. The young family spent their time living in and around the Wenatchee Valley. When Mackenzie was 7, her parents had a tempestuous divorce, which resulted in restraining orders against each other. Despite the rocky relationship both Reid and Wendy shared custody of their children with Mackenzie splitting her time between her two parents. Mackenzie was a girly girl but she also an athlete who was busy, ambitious, and hard working. After starting high school life at Cashmere High School, she transferred to the Wenatchee School District when her mom moved into town, despite living most of her time at father's house in Orondo, Washington. Mackenzie joined the Applettes dance team at the high school. Her dad explained that Mackenzie was interested in makeup, hair care, and clothes. She spent most of her time dancing. She was part of two dance studios outside of her school dance team and she could often be seen working out at the gym. At age 16 Mackenzie started seeing Joaquin Villasano, a young man from nearby Pateros. Joaquin was 18 or 19 years old at the time. At the time of her disappearance, the two had been together for almost two years. In 2010 Mackenzie was a senior in high school and also part of a vocational program where she could get high school credits for getting training in a job. Mackenzie attended school from approximately 7:30 a.m. to noon, and then finished her day the Academy of Hair Design where she was in class from noon till 5 pm. The Academy of Hair Design was in downtown Wenatchee, 5-minute drive from Wenatchee High School. There is a city-owned public parking lot directly behind the beauty school. The school had two routes for graduation. The students were either adults who attended school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or were high schoolers were in the ½ day vocational program. The students were also split into first-year and second-year classes although they were sometimes lumped together for certain lessons (Source). On February 9th, 2010 17-year-old Mackenzie Cowell left home at approximately 7:15 a.m. and drove to school in her red Grand Prix sedan. She attended class and then went to the Academy of Hair Design for the rest of her day. Reid Cowell was expecting her home after class at 5 p.m. The two had dinner plans and Reid was planning on making teriyaki burgers with his daughter that night. Mackenzie was at the beauty school at about 3 p.m. when she asked a classmate if she needed to sign out of the building if she was only going to be gone for 15 minutes. This is the last known conversation that Mackenzie ever had (Source). Classmates assumed that Mackenzie was leaving to go get coffee at Auto Mocha, a drive-through coffee stand she frequented several days per week (Source). The stand was only a four-minute drive from beauty school. Security footage shows Mackenzie walking to her car at 3:01 p.m. holding her purse. Nothing seems amiss. She starts the car and drives away (Source). At this time Mackenzie calls a phone number that she had never called before. It was a landline number to a residence in East Wenatchee. She did not get through to this number and the family who lived at the residence had a generic voicemail message, not a personalized one. Mackenzie rapidly called this number five more times but never got through. (Later investigation showed that this family did not know Mackenzie. Mackenzie had never called them before and the family was determined to not be involved in Mackenzie's subsequent disappearance as they were all at work that day and had no connection to Cowell.) Despite this it is obvious that Mackenzie was trying to contact someone at this time). The calls were in such rapid succession that some investigators thought it was possibly a “butt dial” (Source). According to investigators, this was the only strange activity on Mackenzie’s phone in the week leading up to Feb. 9th. All her other texts and calls were to known numbers. She was not taking to anyone new or different than usual. One minute later at 3:02 pm Mackenzie's car is seen on a traffic camera heading west on Kittitas Avenue, toward the coffee stand and pretty much everything else in Wenatchee (Source)..) According to baristas, Mackenzie never made it to the stand that day. 3:15 pm came and went but Mackenzie did not return to class. Mackenzie sent her last text at 3:26 p.m. The message was to her boyfriend and said simply “hey.” The last incoming activity on Mackenzie's phone came from her boyfriend Joaquin at 3:42 p.m. He responded “hey”. This is the last usage Mackenzie’s phone, which was odd for the teen who sent over 200 text messages per day on my maroon colored EnV flip phone. At 5:42 p.m. her phone “pinged” again and it is presumed that this is when the phone was turned off (Source). Classes ended at the Academy at 5 p.m. but Mackenzie never returned to the building. At approximately 5:40 p.m. Reid called his daughter to inquire about her whereabouts as he expected her home already but her phone went straight to voicemail. He called her several more times over the next couple of hours but got no response. Panic began to set in when Mackenzie’s 8 p.m. weekday curfew passed without word from Mackenzie. At this point Reid made a couple of calls including to Joaquin Villasano. Joaquin revealed that he had not heard from Mackenzie since 3:30 p.m. Reid called a couple of Mackenzie’s friends but no one had heard from her (Source). At around 8 p.m. a rancher five miles south of Wenatchee in the Pitcher Canyon area called the police to report that a red sedan had been abandoned near his driveway. He said he had first noticed it around 7 pm. The Pitcher Canyon area is pretty remote. While there are people who live in the area it's mostly empty and spread out. Pitcher Canyon Road itself is a dead-end and the pavement quickly morphs into a dirt track. A little before 10 p.m. an officer came to the area to inspect the abandoned car. He ran the license plate and called the car's owner, Reid Cowell. Reid explained that not only was the car missing, his daughter was missing as well. Inside the car was Mackenzie's purse, her gym bag, and some clothes. Her keys, debit card, and cell phone were missing. There was only one set of footprints in the snow leading away from the car. It appeared that someone parked the car, got out, locked it, and walked away back towards Wenatchee. A search was immediately launched in the area once it was evident that Mackenzie was a missing person and not just a teenager who had stayed out too late. Joaquin, Reid, and Reid’s girlfriend arrived at the scene to begin looking for the teen. For the next several days a helicopter searched the vicinity under the impression that Mackenzie was nearby. A bloodhound was brought to the area but the k-9 officer was unable to find Mackenzie’s scent anywhere but the car. (Source). People who lived in Pitcher Canyon were interviewed and three people recalled seeing similar occurrence. In between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., three independent witnesses recalled seeing a thin man with dark hair and a dark coat walking down Pitcher Canyon Road away from the car and towards Wenatchee (Source). The sight was odd as you don't typically see people walking on rural roads in the winter time miles away from town. One report says that the man walking down the road was white, but most reports do not note this. Meanwhile, Mackenzie's phone records were obtained, coworkers were interviewed, alibis were checked. Preliminary investigation showed that Joaquin, Reid, Wendy, and Reid’s girlfriend were all at work when the car was abandoned, but they weren’t cleared just yet. For 4 days, no trace of Mackenzie was found. Reid and Wendy had their restraining orders removed so that they could work together to search for their daughter (Source). On February 13th, 000222010 a homeowner was strolling the beach on the Columbia River at an area called Crescent Bar when she saw a woman in the water. She called police. The body belonged to Mackenzie Cowell. Mackenzie was determined to have died on February 9th at around 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. right after she went missing. She had no drugs or alcohol in her system, she had not been sexually assaulted, and she was found still clothed and her beauty school uniform. The autopsy reported that Mackenzie had been strangled, hit in the head, and then had her throat slashed. Post-mortem someone had tried to dismember her by cutting her off her arm but was unsuccessful. The murder weapon, a kitchen knife, was found stuck in Mackenzie's shoulder. One report says she had duct tape on her mouth. Near her body was found an additional length of duct tape and a plastic bag. Some other small items were collected but they were determined to not be related. Mackenzie's missing items such as her keys, her debit card, and her phone were not with the body. Mackenzie had been placed partially in the water of the Columbia River on the shoreline 50 feet in front of a vacant home (Source). Crescent Bar is more than 20 miles east of Wenatchee, the opposite direction from Pitcher Canyon. It is a vacation spot along the river with only a few hundred residents at best. There is no gas station or grocery store in Crescent Bar. One later report mentioned that a second kitchen knife, which had been purchased at Wenatchee’s Stan’s Merry Mart, was also near the body, but it is unknown if this knife held any evidentiary value. Police did not want to release all evidence to the public so they kept this information about the second knife close to their chest in order to weed out false confessions. This lead was released only when the case had gone cold. The public was asked to call the task force if they knew someone who owned that particular set or had thrown it out in the days following the murder. Several pieces of evidence were sent the State Crime Lab in Cheney in order to be tested. Scientists found nothing of evidence on the plastic bag near Mackenzie's body however, they did find blood on the length of duct tape found near the scene, as well as trace amounts of DNA from two unknown males. They also found DNA from three males on the knife. Swabs from Mackenzie's car were taken and an unknown male DNA profile was found on her steering wheel. There was also unknown male DNA profile on her left-hand fingernail. It is unclear if all these DNA samples came from different men, or if there was some overlap, but most sources seem to operate under the impression that these were all different contributors. No female DNA was found at the crime scene other than Mackenzie’s. A multi-agency task force was formed with the sole intention of solving this crime, the vastest the area had ever seen. Initially Mackenzie's boyfriend and family members were looked at as suspects. Within a couple of months Joaquin, Reid, Wendy, and Mackenzie's brothers had all been “cleared 100%.” Police interviewed 750 people and collected DNA swabs from 50 (Source). I could find no indication that Joaquin and Mackenzie's family had been DNA swabbed, but I'm assuming that they had. Mackenzie's boyfriend and her parents were ruled out via alibi, phone records, and witness statements which place them elsewhere at the time of Mackenzie's disappearance and murder. Joaquin as well as Mackenzie's parents were at work all day on the day of Mackenzie disappearance and their whereabouts can be confirmed with co-worker sightings, and phone records (Source). Joaquin Villasano was a polygraphed on two different occasions. According to one documentary Joaquin said he failed one question on the test which was, “do you know who killed to Mackenzie?” Despite failing that question on the lie detector police have always reiterated that Joaquin has been “cleared 100%” and that his alibi is “rock solid.” They've confirmed the same thing with Mackenzie's brothers and Mackenzie's parents (Source). Suspicion then turned to Mackenzie's mother's boyfriend a man named Joey Fisher. Joey Fisher has a somewhat storied life and a minor criminal history, but most importanly Mackenzie and Joey hated each other with the two getting into a huge argument just the day before. Mackenzie allegedly told her mother that it was either “him or me.” But like the others Joey Fisher had a rock-solid alibi of being at work miles away on February 9th (Source). I know Joey was looked at pretty seriously as I remember that they completely ripped apart his house in Wenatchee and took loads of things away for testing. I had a friend who lived nearby and remember getting a call when it was happening. Additionally, these initial male suspects in the case, Joaquin, Reid, and Joey did not match the description of the man seen walking away from Mackenzie's car. Both Reid and Joey were light-complected men with blond or reddish gray hair which did not match the witness sightings. Joaquin on the other hand was not white or thin. Of course, it goes without saying that eyewitness testimony is spotty at best and that sundown was at 5:14 pm, so the witnesses did not necessarily see this man in the good light. But the point still stands that three independent people saw a man which they all described similarly (Source). Investigators attempted to use cell phone data to figure out where Mackenzie was after she was seen leaving the Academy of Hair Design. The local paper reported that Mackenzie’s last text was sent from an area right near the Columbia River called the Orondo Street boat launch. This area is a pretty deserted area during the winter time. The boat launch is in a waterfront park but it is not near the playground or picnic areas and is instead on the edge of the park near some industrial buildings. Investigators seem to be under the impression that Mackenzie was texting Joaquin from the parking lot of the boat launch. They got this information from Mackenzie's cell phone carrier, Verizon, who said that Mackenzie was at the boat launch with “90% certainty”. Police canvassed the area and interviewed as many people as they could regarding if they had seen Mackenzie or her car in the area at the time, but no one had. Many speculated that Mackenzie must have been meeting someone there. But when Mackenzie's car was last seen on the traffic camera, she was actually traveling away from the boat launch (Source). With obvious suspects ruled out and the boat launch canvas a bust, investigators felt that they were at a dead end, when a police informant named Liz Reid came forward. In court documents she is referred to as CI1002. The following story from Liz Reid was not reported on at all in local media until after an arrest had come in this case so while police apparently chased down this lead for months, it was not common knowledge in town at the time. Liz Reid was a self-proclaimed pill popper, prescription shopper who also had a past of selling drugs almost as much as she was doing them. Liz called police and claimed that she knew who committed this awful crime. Two local drug dealers her acquaintances Emmanuel “Buddha” Cerros and Sam Cuevas killed Mackenzie in a case of mistaken identity. Liz claimed that these men thought Mackenzie was an informant from the drug world and decided to kill her to “shut that b**** up.” They told Liz some information on the crime that have not been released to the media yet, such as Mackenzie being both strangled and slashed, but police said that this information had already been reported on in the paper. Affidavits and documents unsealed before the eventual court date, show that one of Mackenzie’s coworkers reported to police that right before she disappeared, Mackenzie said she was “going out back to meet some guys from Tacoma” and to “make plans for later this evening.” Mackenzie said she was going to the parking lot to talk to these men. Liz Reid claimed that after this conversation, four men overpowered Mackenzie and got into her car. They drove her car away but some of the men followed in another car, a green Jeep Cherokee. Reid said two of these attackers were Cuevas and Cerros. A third man has his name redacted or removed from the documents, and the fourth man is left unnamed. Reid claimed that one of the men reached in to Mackenzie's car in order to grab her. If this part of the story is true, it is unclear where this happened, as security footage shows Mackenzie getting into her car alone. There's no green Jeep Cherokee, no men grabbing her, and no other people visible in her car. Liz claimed that two of the men, Cerros and Cuevas, then took Mackenzie to a bluff overlooking Crescent Bar where they choked her twice, as she didn't die the first time and then put her body in the river (source). Liz even said that there was a snuff film of the killing and that she had seen it. For months, this lead was tracked down. Police looked for the snuff film and repeatedly interviewed both Cerros and Cuevas. Cuevas had one charge of conspiracy to deliver illegal drugs, but Cerros has a very long rap sheet. Like Reid he liked using prescription pills, heroin, and methadone. He also had charges for selling all of these substances in front of an elementary school, weapons charges, and another accusation of using and selling drugs in front of his own children resulting in custody issues. I can find no indication that either men had violent crimes in their pasts, but it is obvious that all three of these people had their own demons. Police tapped Cerros’s and Cuevas’ phones and Liz called the men repeatedly in order to get them to incriminate themselves, but nothing incriminating was ever said or recorded. Law enforcement even went as far as to buy Cerros’ green Jeep when he put it up for sale in 2010, but no evidence was found, except a brown hair that was never DNA tested. At one point on the phone, Cuevas told Liz Reid go to Crescent Bar to retrieve a ring. Liz believed that the ring was Mackenzie’s. Liz led law enforcement to a secluded bluff, where the group discovered a silver ring. Liz claims that the ring matched a selfie Mackenzie had taken. Police took the ring and tested it but no DNA was found on the ring and Mackenzie’s boyfriend, her family, and some of her friends could not identify the ring as hers (Source). Cigarettes at the bluff were collected and the DNA on the butts matched Sam Cuevas, but no other evidence was found (source). It is unclear how close this bluff is the area where the victim was discovered. Within a few months police had determined that both Cerros and Cuevas had alibis as both were working jobs at the time. Neither man’s phone showed that he had been in Crescent bar or Quincy at the time of Mackenzie’s death or disappearance and again work records showed that both men were at work in Wenatchee (Source). Sometime in the summer of 2010, Liz recanted her story claiming that she felt threatened by law enforcement, and then claimed that there was no snuff film. She later recontacted in police and said that her story was true but that there was no snuff film. She now claims that snuff film does exist. The strange circumstantial evidence aside, Reid’s story was disregarded and the police moved on to other leads. Other law enforcement agencies such as the DEA have reported that in past cases Liz has been a reliable witness who has helped them take down four narcotic traffickers in Seattle and the surrounding cities. Once again at a dead end, the task force looked through old leads when they got a letter from yet another police informant named Theo Keyes. Keyes was in prison in Oregon for exposing himself to drive through baristas. Theo had lived in Wenatchee in the past and while in jail he wrote the task force a letter explaining that an old friend of his, Chris Wilson, who was attending the Academy of Hair Design with Mackenzie had a fascination with “death, dead bodies, and serial killers.” He reported that he never thought much of it until realize that Mackenzie and Wilson were going to the same hair school. He then reported that Wilson had once choked one of their friends, Shawna Novak, at a party. Wilson then unexpectedly released Novak and acted like the incident never happened. Novak was confused and left the party. Keyes also explained that Wilson had worked at two area funeral homes that had been fired from one of them due to inappropriate behavior. Investigators interviewed Shawna Novak who explained that Theo Keyes’ story was accurate and that Wilson had choked her once at a party only a few weeks before Mackenzie’s death. Novak also explained that she had convinced herself that it was just a really strange headlock hug, and that perhaps Wilson didn't mean to choke her. But she said that the situation was odd nonetheless. Early in 2010, before Mackenzie went missing, Novak allegedly told her mother that if she ever went missing, Chris Wilson was probably to blame. Unfortunately, Novak has a history of crime and psychiatric disorders. Police were worried that she would not make a good trial witness. Some looking into Keyes shows that like Liz Reid and Shawna Novak, he's had a storied past. He's had a couple of convictions for various small crimes, such as harassment, before being convicted of exposing himself. He also had psychiatric issues, claiming online that he is both bipolar and schizoaffective but that he dislikes being put in a box and often goes off of his medication (Source). Police have admitted that Keyes also provided several other tips earlier in the investigation, but that the tips had not panned out. Due to his background of sex crimes, Theo Keyes’ DNA was checked against the DNA left at crime scene, and investigators determined Keyes was not a contributor to any of the DNA. Despite these two disorders and criminal background, Keyes’ story was backed up by Novak and others at the party so his story was taken seriously. When going through their notes from early on in the investigation police realized that an anonymous tipster, who said she worked at the Hair Academy, reported that Wilson told her that he liked working at the funeral home because he “got to cut people up (Source).” These two pieces of information in hand, police decided to take a harder look at Chris Wilson. Christopher Scott Wilson was an odd duck to say in the least. Born in Bellevue, Washington to a single mother Chris Wilson spent the first couple years of his life living in the suburbs of Seattle where his grandfather was police chief of a town called Issaquah. Chris took after his mother in many ways, like her he was artistic and marched the beat of his own drum. Chris's mother, Kathleen Zornes, was a flight attendant, business owner, and hair stylist who never settled down for long. In the early 1980s when Chris was a toddler, Kathleen married a man named Rick Wilson who adopted the boy as his own. Soon the couple had another son but tragically Rick Wilson passed away in an accident. According to Zornes it was at this point that Chris became interested in working in the funeral industry after seeing his father's body. Chris spent his teenage years in Chelan, Washington about 30 miles from Wenatchee. It’s unclear if Chris went to Chelan high school but if my memory serves me correct, he was actually homeschooled for part or all of the time. In Chelan his mother owned a skateboard and bike shop and Chris spent most of his free time skateboarding and becoming part of that lifestyle. In his early twenties he joined the military but was medically discharged and always said he disliked that part of his life. He tried living in other states but always made his way back to Central Washington never quite sure of how to fit in. At the time of Mackenzie’s murder, Wilson was 29 years old and had no criminal record (Source). Interviews with workers and students at The Academy of Hair Design revealed that some women found Chris creepy, dark, or intimidating. Others said he was simply artsy and strange. TO BE CONTINUED... Full list of sources in part 2 https://www.cbsnews.com/video/secrets-of-the-river-1/
[Sell][US] Wide range of items from drugstore to high end! New items added, prices dropped! Tom Ford, By Terry, Charlotte Tilbury, RBR, Lime Crime, Lorac, WNW, Milani, PF, Too Faced, UD, Burberry, Becca, Nars, NYX and more!
[Sell] [US]
Shipping I will ship within a week. Please let me know if you need the products sooner. Shipping is a flat $5 regardless of order size! ($4 if you're only purchasing one light item like a lipstick, brush, or non-palette complexion item)
$5 min order please.
Paypal G&S. I will pay the fees!
I will go in order of timestamps and move on after 1 hour if I don't hear back.
Covid free home. We are very careful and tested regularly.
Selling only please. Open to reasonable offers.
Eye and Face Palettes
Becca Apres Ski Glow Face Palette, mostly swatched, one color used 1-2x, $20 (MSRP: $54) Ski
Charlotte Tilbury Instant look in a Palette, Smokey Eye Beauty, $45 (MSRP: $75), one color used 3x, the rest just swatched. Instant look
Kat von D Saint and Sinner Palette, used 1-2x, most colors just swatched, $45 (MSRP: $64) Saint & Sinner
Kylie Take me on Vacation, $15, lightly used no dips, please see photos, with box and brush Kylie
SOLD * Sephora Vintage Filter Palette $13 (MSRP $28), used 2-3x, some colors just swatched vintage filter SOLD * Lime Crime Venus III palette, $20 (MSRP: $38) swatched, plastic still on mirror and protective sheet still on shadows Venus III SOLD * Lime Crime Venus Palette $20 (MSRP: $38) Venus, Aura and Divine used a few times (no dips), the rest of the colors have only been swatched, tiny chip in the color shell (please see photo). Take both Venus palettes for $35
Lorac Pirates of the Caribbean palette, used 2-3x, $20 (MSRP $52) Lorac, eyeliner not included.
Nars Narsissit Palette, $25, (MSRP: $65), swatched, outer mirror still has sticker, includes the colors Goulue, Laguna, and Paloma Narsissit
Nars Narssisst Cheek Palette in Wanted I, $25, swatched, (MSRP: $59), includes the colors: Unlimited, Kingpin, Buzzes, Bumpy Ride, Notorious, and Crave Wanted I
Smashbox Light it up trio $10 (MSRP: $54), used <5x Light it up
Colourpop pressed eyeshadow, swatched, $2 each. Left to right: Take the lead, Bel Air, Wake up Call. Will ship with original colourpop packaging (+ bubble wrap) to protect the shadows Colourpop
MAC Spellbinder Shadow in Mysterious Influence, used 2x, $5 (MSRP $25) Spellbinder
Nyx Jumbo Eye Pencil in milk (BN, still in plastic) $1 NYX
Estee Lauder Pure Color Envy Lipstick in Tumultuous Pink, swatched, full size but in sample (lighter) packaging, $5 (MSRP is $32 with retail packaging) Estee Lauder
Record Keeping for Rifle (or pistol) for new reloaders
Some help for new reloaders – Rifle – some beginning tips
Buy the Lyman 48th, 49th, or 50th Edition. Read it. Re-read it. Take notes. Can you use the Hornady or Lee? Sure. Just get one and read it.
Watch this video. He is the not the only reloading rifle guy out there, but he has solid know how and experience. Notice that there are 2.5K up votes and 40 down votes. No matter what you do, now matter how well you do it, no matter how much you try to help others, there’s always some know-it-all a$$-wipe who just has to chime and provide that one tiny little detail. Sure, read the negative quotes. Evaluate if they are worth considering. Most of the time, they are just people who do it differently but think that it’s their job to correct everyone else. But sometimes, they bring up a fantastic point. For the video:
**Edit**: from u/Beaster123: here is another video series. I have not watched it. But happy to past any great recommendation. a. Look at his bench. It is organized. Clean. And setup for each activity. b. Room is well lit. He is not. He’s sober. Don’t drink and load. c. NO ignition sources. d. He does not use an automated press. You can. They are awesome. But it is proof you don't need an auto press to start out. e. Eachactivity is only that activity. He does not multitask. He does not work on his Karmann Ghia or Bitchin’ Camaro at the same time. f. He is not in a hurry. g. He only has the powder that he is loading anywhere nearby. He is not trying to be clever or tricky by loading 3 different powders at the same time. h. He has a log book. i. He has some great equipment. I want to try the Henderson Precision case prep tool. I also a real German optic. That will have to wait.
Notice that his storage for fired brass is low tech. You don’t have to spend lots of money on containers.
Notice that he labels freakin’ everything. You cannot over document. If you pay attention, you learn that he has 9x fired brass. 9 times. He’s fired that brass 9 times.
Annealing. Learn how to do it. But don’t do it where you store your powder. I personally leave the inside of the house, go to the porch, and anneal there. Powder stays inside, stored, and far away. [Edit] from u/BonsaiDiver here's an annealing video.
Who taught me: a previous military precision shooter that did the hush hush stuff. He has taught me what he was taught. Are there other ways? Of course. Should you use my way? If you want to. My point is that I found someone whose job it was to put lead on target, had serious consequences for missing, and did so in real world environments. He’s so old school that he still only uses the powder they used – IMR 4895. Can he shoot? Maybe…if decapitating a mosquito at 400 meters is shooting, then yes.
Why am I sharing? Because I want new people to enjoy. Filter out the trolls. Filter out the guy who is angry because his wife left him 20 years ago. And, for the love of God, take the information you get off the internet and cross check it with other info. All the loading 'recipes' I use are directly from the powder manufacturer.
What’s my contribution? A link. With some information. I have a g00gle sheet (spreadsheet) that I use for rifle. It’s simple. It’s easy, and you can customize it as much as you like. Is everything on it? No. Should there be more on it? If you want it. Is everything on the sheet absolutely necessary? For me, sure. For you, maybe. Use what you like, discard the rest. Disclaimer: I don't know everything. If you want to criticize, please do so in a way that helps others improve. Top Bar Next Bar Example load Data Visualization If you look at the sheet, start with the very top portion that is darker green. Notice that I have bullet name, manufacturer, weight, brass head stamp, number of times fired, my catalogue number, and how did I load the powder (hand or machine). Look at the next row, the lighter green. I number my bullets. I use a permanent marker to label 1, 2, 3, etc. In case I spill the box. Yes, I learned the hard way. I measure the bullet length with calipers. I also measure the ogive of the bullet. Why measure the length of the bullet? To look for any significant variation. Waste of time? Maybe for you. But I want to know how consistent is this batch. If you use plastic/polymer tipped bullets, like Hornady's SST, you may have tip deformation. The tip can be compressed, bent, nicked, or missing. That's why I measure at the ogive for bullet seating depth and COL. Notice , directly below the Bullet Length Column, there are some calculations. The spread, difference b/t min and max bullet length is 0.0340 inches. Is that significant? 3 one hundredths of an inch? Yes, if you are shooting beyond 1000 meters. No if you are sighting in a new optic. But these differences are from the polymer tips being bent, compressed, or messed up. Since the polymer tip doesn't touch the lands of the barrel, it's not significant for getting rounds on paper. The ogive, in this example, is AFTER i have seated the bullet. I am not measuring ogive of loose bullets. Before/AfteAfter Fired Head Stamp (HS) measurement. I often buy once fired brass. Or I pick up range brass from someone who bought a new box and is leaving on the ground. Let's say that Elrod Flowbee got a new AR10 for Christmas. He also got 4 boxes of PMC 308 Bronze. He goes to the range. Fires his .308 PMC brass. It mostly flies over to my station. I ask if he's going to pick it up. He says no, he doesn't need it. I pick it up. It's been fired once. From and AR style rifle. I will measure it when I get home. Often for an AR, the headspace can grow +7 thousandths of an inch. After the brass has been decapped, cleaned, it is ready for annealing. If the brass only grew .002" of an inch, I may not anneal it. If it has grown .008", I will anneal it. Why? Because to full length (FL) resize the brass, I am really working the brass when I reduce it .008" to SAMMI spec of 0.00." If it is going to be fired a 3rd or more time, I anneal every time. Do you have to anneal every time. No. I do. Why? B/c the guy who taught me does his every time. When I can shoot, under pressure, at 800 meters some guy running through the jungle, with my .308, I'll start my own methodology. Until then, I'll take the advice of my teacher. Do you have to? No. Never said you did. Just telling what is in my process. Guy in video does not anneal every time. After the FL resize of the brass, I will measure, trim to spec, and set aside. At some point, I will measure the COL of the brass. It SHOULD be 2.005" for .308. Is 2.0055 ok? Sure. What about 2.0045" ? Sure. My goal is uniformity. So that I can have consistency. But for plinking rounds, who cares. But when I sight in my optic, I want something +/- .005". But that's just me. You can allow much wider tolerances. Why do I measure grain weight of my brass. Again, this is from my teacher. Do you have to? No. In fact, brass's primary measurement should be volume. From batch to batch, there are differences from each manufacturer in their own brass. Let me explain my teacher's rational. Let's say I am using my Lake City 14 brass. (LC14). I bought it from a guy on Reddit. I don't know if the 200 pieces I have are from the same batch of the 10 million made. Probably. So, the brass should be the same weight and have the same case volume. Great, easy way to measure is with powder. Or water volume if you want to go off the rails on the Rain Man OCD train. If the cases have more than 3.5 grains difference, I want to check something. I want to check neck thickness. If the neck thickness is significantly different on one piece from the others, I have to determine if I want to use it. But isn't that absurd? Do the long range shooters do this? What about every person on the internet who wants to comment on this? Don't know. Don't care. The neck thickness, if significantly different on the same round, means that when I seat a bullet, the neck tension won't be even. The bullet may (often) not be concentric with the case. Or worse, the bullet may be off center from the lands/grooves. Now, at 65,000 psi, I am sending a bullet down a barrel at 2100 fps. The friction on one side will of the projectile will be alternatingly different on each side as it travels down the barrel. Can I use the Hornady Concentricity tool? Of course. This may be the difference, at 100 meters, of my hitting a Mesozoic size pig in the neck close enough to snap it's neck or to drift just enough that it goes off point of aim and the trophy P-Rex runs off for 300 yards. And my fat ass is not going to chase a wounded, pissed off, 450lb black pig at night. That's the wife's job. She's the tracker. Or, if the neck tension is unequal, the bullet may seat deeper than I want. This will matter only in long range shooting. It will not matter in Texas Style deer hunting where the deer is shot at petting zoo ranges while eating from a feeder...namely 40 yards with my 300 Win Mag 220gr ELD . Blam. Bullet didn't have time to barely leave the barrel before slamming, at 3000 fps into a 145 lb doe. Thank God for that Schmidt & Bender Exos scope. Je suis Nimrod. Moving on, you'll see the expected velocity. That's the published speed. I am going to chronograph. If I get too much or too little velocity, I have something wrong. The sheet itself is setup with the formula randbetween(2100,2199) so as to fill out the charts. When I get the actual velocities, I will input to each cell and compare. If my speeds have spreads of 20 fp/s or less, then I am higher than John Denver in the Rocky Mountains with sunshine on my shoulder. If it is 90 or more fp/s between Max and Min, then I need to work on my reloading quality. My teacher gets his to less than 10 fp/s. Have I done that? Hell no. Edit: Not everyone is a spreadsheet jockey. The formula of 'randbetween' gives you some randomly generated numbers between a lower, 2100 in this case, and an upper limit. My upper limit is 2199. You may see something funky when you use the sheet. Anytime you enter any data anywhere on the sheet, the random numbers will change in your column with randbetween. This is normal. Ignore it. You have not seduced the pooch. The whole purpose of randbetween is to generate numbers so the chart will populate. When you fill in your actual velocities, the formula will disappear and the charts will reflect your actual data.) Notes on the sheet: Go to the link. Save a copy. Rename to your rifle round. This can even be used for ladder loads. Once you fill in the data, the charts will begin auto populating. You should not need to change anything. Except on the gauge charts. If you double click on the chart, the settings will come up. You can change the red, yellow, green limits to match your preferences. FAQ:
Why not use a notebook? B/c I lose them. I haven't lost g00gle yet.
Can't I just buy brass from Hornady or Lapua and be done with it? Yes. If you can find it.
What is annealing? It returns brittle metal to a more malleable state.
How do I anneal? G00gle.
What if I want to use an autoloader press? You should.
How do you measure neck tension? Go here. Or accurateshooter.com. Simple: measure the diameter of your ready-to-load case necks, then load 'em & measure the necks again. Loaded dimension minus unloaded dimension = neck tension.
Wait, what the hell is neck tension? Take a wild guess.
Do I need to measure and adjust neck tension? Not if you don't shoot past 300 meters. Give or take.
What is hand measuring? It's when I take a 1/4th teaspoon measuring spoon and dip into the powder and then drop into the pan. With IMR-4895, every 2 individual grains is equal to .02 grains. But my scale doesn't really register .01 grains. When I am doing a ladder load, I am looking for consistency.
Can't you just used the automated powder dispensers like the man in the video? Sure. I am sure he is a better reloader, better shot, and better human being than me. But my teacher showed me this. so that's what I do.
Isn't it stupid just to do something the way someone else has always done it? Maybe. When I can out shoot him, then I'll get all creative. Until then, I'll remain padawan to Yoda.
Why do you have "Actual grain weight thrown?" Because my Hornady Auto dispenser is +/- .1 grains. That means that 1.18 is the same as 1.11. Does this matter for pistol? Not usually. But for really hot loads, let's say you are using 800-X, then 1.11 versus 1.18 is very different. But mostly, I want to have an idea what my auto dispenser does on AVERAGE. Does it normally throw Titegroup high and HP-38 low? Or what about IMR 4895? Is 35.0 grains of IMR 4895 the same as 35.9? Maybe not that big a deal in .308 with 8 grains still available before I reach max load. But the more uniform I am, the more everything is exactly alike helps me to rule out certain things.
From Fragile, 1971 Cans And Brahms is, um… Well… It sure is something. In 1971, Yes had just taken on a new member in their keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Rick was a perfect fit for the band, being more open to experimentation than their previous keyboardist Tony Kaye - but Rick came at a price. Well, he himself didn't, but every one of his keyboards certainly cost a pretty penny. As such, the band needed to rush out an album to get their debts paid by year's end. The resulting album was Fragile, and it ended up being one of their most successful records despite its release schedule. This success, however, most certainly can't be chalked up to the 'band member' tracks. You see, while Yes had a few band-written tracks ready to go, it wasn't enough - and they needed the album out quickly. Their solution? Each band member would write one song of their own, usually focusing on their selected instrument, and record it with the band. A fairly smart solution, especially since it doubled as a way to display each member's talents to the new audiences. Unfortunately, this idea didn't pan out as well as they would have hoped due to the quality of the songs. And in my opinion, nowhere is that more evident than with Wakeman's own piece, Cans And Brahms. Well, I say his own, but in reality Wakeman wasn't allowed to write any material for Fragile due to already being signed as a solo artist to A&M Records. In fact, he had an original piece ready to go for the band - humorously titled Handle With Care - but due to said contractual issues it later became the song Catherine Of Aragorn from his solo album The Six Wives Of Henry VIII. So, instead of the awesome keyboard wizardry from Catherine Of Aragorn, we have the lame, completely unremarkable Cans And Brahms. On first inspection, one has to ask - what the heck is a Brahm? Well, Brahms would be referring to Johannes Brahms. This piece, in fact, is a cover of the third movement of Mr. Brahms' fourth symphony. It's not a cover in the sense of Yes' other, incredibly creative covers, either - it's a note for note performance of the piece, with each keyboard performing the part of an orchestral instrument. Now we're already off to a less-than-stellar start by directly transcribing a piece meant for orchestra onto keyboards - but the thing is that the keyboards used don't even fit the instruments. He used an electric piano in place of strings, for Christ's sake! The keyboards all end up sounding fake, like they're made out of plastic. As for displaying his talents? Hardly. When I think of Rick Wakeman, I think of improvised solos that steal the whole show. There's no solos to be found here, though - everything is rigid, and exact to the sheet music. At least with their other boring songs, I can give them points for actually making the song. In essence, this song is not interesting to listen to. Maybe if I squint my ears a little bit, I can hear something enjoyable, but no matter how hard I try I can't justify putting it any higher. It doesn't do anything to make me want to put it on, and it's just all-around lifeless. The original movement sounded triumphant and happy, but this? I'm just happy for it to be over. It's less than two minutes long, and cuts out the majority of the source, so luckily you won't have to listen to it for long… but in general, I just end up skipping this one.
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