Are the Skeletal Remains Discovered Washed Up on a Beach Near East River in Queens, NY That of Missing Avonte Oquendo?

14 year old Avonte Oquendo has been missing since October 4, 2013. Avonte Oquendo, who is nonverbal and has autism, was last seen October 4 walking past a security guard and out of the Riverview School in Long Island City, Queens. Avonte was wearing a gray striped shirt, black jeans and black sneakers on the last day he was seen alive. There have been numerous searches for the missing boy that have come up empty. Now the police have made a grisly discovery as partial skeletal remains were found Thursday washed ashore in Queens near the White Stone Bridge. According to police accounts, the skeletal remains of a left arm were found by a teen girl on the waterfront near Hermon A. MacNeil Park in College Point at around 7:30 p.m. Also found at the scene was a dark colored pair of size-5½ sneakers, that are similar to the ones that were described as the one’s that Avonte Oquendo was wearing when he went missing. The remains have been sent to the medical examiners office. The family of Avonte Oquendo has also been notified of the discovery; however, there has been no official identification yet.

Facebook: Bring Avonte Home

Cops are investigating whether an arm and legs found near a Queens shoreline Thursday are those of missing teen Avonte Oquendo, a police source said.

The human limbs were found near Powell’s Cove Blvd. and Endeavor Place in College Point about 7 p.m., police sources said. A sneaker also was found, sources added, but they could not say whether it belongs to the autistic 14-year-old boy, who went missing more than three months ago.

Facebook: Bring Avonte Home.

NY Post: Cops investigate human remains for link to missing autistic boy.

“We found the arm and it’s been here a while because it’s skeletal,” a police source said. “But where there’s an arm, there’s a body.”

Also found was a dark-colored pair of size-5½ sneakers, according to law-enforcement sources.

The sneakers match the description of the ones that Avonte, 14, was wearing when he went missing on Oct. 4 from a school in Long Island City.

The 14-year-old girl who initially discovered the arm wrote about the discovery on social media before alerting authorities, a police source said.

UPDATE I: Human remains found in Queens; Avonte Oquendo family notified:

The remains were removed to the Queens County Morgue as Harbor Patrol divers and helicopters searched the cold, dark waters for additional body parts. The tide quickly came in and the search had to be suspended, but it resumed at daybreak.

The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death. No positive identification has been made, but police have been in contact with the Oquendo family.

For more updates, others opinions and to provide your own, go to Scared Monkeys Missing Perons Forum: Avonte Oquendo.

Russell Johnson, The Professor from ‘Gilligan’s Island’ Passes Aaway at the Age of 89

Long before there was MacGyver making a bomb out of some paperclips, rope and a can of Sterno, there was the Professor who made radio’s from coconuts and twine and washing machines from bamboo. Sadly, Russell Johnson, better known as the professor on the iconic TV sitcom ‘Gilligan’s Island’ has died at the age of 89.  The professor died at his home in Washington, with his wife, Connie and their daughter, Kimberly, were at his side. According to reports he died of natural causes.

How I loved this show. Sadly, only Tina Louise and Dawn Wells are the only surviving “Gilligan’s Island” cast members. OK, how many of you knew that the professors name on Gilligan’s Island was Roy Hinkley? Furthermore, how many of you knew that before becoming an actor, Russell Johnson served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Johnson was on a B-24 Liberator when it was shot down during a bombing raid over the Philippines in 1945.

Actor Russell Johnson, best known as Professor in the 1960s TV sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” died Thursday, his agent said. Johnson was 89.

Johnson played the iconic role of Professor Roy Hinkley, whose scientific schemes to get the castaways rescued were always foiled by Gilligan’s bumbling.

He died at his home in Washington, where he lived with his wife, Connie. She and their daughter, Kimberly, were at his side, said agent Mike Eisenstadt. Johnson is also survived by a stepson, Court, and a grandson, he said.

Johnson worked up until his death, signing autographs over the holidays, said Eisenstadt. He called Johnson’s death “unexpected.”

The chief deputy coroner in Kitsap County, Washington, told CNN that Johnson died from natural causes.

Johnson was “just a positive and nice guy” who always treated people with respect, his agent said.

The long acting career of Russell Johnson.

Russell Johnson discusses the cast of “Gilligan’s Island” and the chemistry of the cast … “It worked”. Yes it Did!

NY Times Obit:

Russell David Johnson was born on Nov. 10, 1924, near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the oldest of six children. His father died when Russell was not yet 10, and his mother sent him and two brothers to Girard College, then a school for poor orphan boys, in Philadelphia, where he finished high school. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, winning a Purple Heart, and after his discharge studied on the G.I. Bill at the Actors’ Laboratory in Hollywood.

His first film role was in a 1952 drama about fraternity hazing, “For Men Only,” in which he played a sadistic fraternity leader; that led to a contract with Universal-International, which led to roles in a series of movies, mostly westerns (including “Law and Order,” in which he played Ronald Reagan’s no-good brother) and science fiction films, including “It Came From Outer Space.”

From The Moderate Voice comes the following tidbit from the professor where every warm blooded male would have to just shake their head in approval:

 As the Professor he was often asked why he couldn’t repair the boat.

His stock response was “If you were stranded on a desert island with Ginger and Mary Ann would *you* fix the boat ?”

I always figured the professor never fixed the boat or figured a way off the island because he was never given any billing in the first years of the show and just was referred to, along with Dawn Wells, as “the rest”. Rest in Peace Russell Johnson. Thanks for the smiles.

55 Year Old Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird Missing Since 1/10/14 in Millington, NJ in Long Hill Township

55 year old David Bird has been missing since Saturday, January 10 2014 in Long Hill Township, New Jersey. David Bird was last seen around 4 p.m. on Saturday, when he left his house to take a walk. He never returned. Bird is an avid hiker and police believe he may have fallen through thin ice during his walk. Police have searched the Passaic River and many tributaries near where Bird is presumed to have walked. Bird is a reporter for the Wallstreet journal . Bird suffers from liver disease and requires medication. Search dogs, state police helicopters and ground searchers have been looking for David Bird. Bird is a Wall Street Journal reporter who covers energy markets for the Journal, has worked for Dow Jones for more than 20 years.

David Bird is 6’01″, 200 pounds. He has gray hair, blue eyes and a fair complextion. He is partially balding and has a gray goatee. Bird is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

He was last seen at his residence in Long Hill Township, in Morris County. He was wearing a red jacket, blue jeans, sneakers and glasses.

He regularly walks the trails in Hick’s Tract in Millington, NJ.

David Bird Long Hill Township Police Department

 MAP of area in which David Bird went missing

The police said that Mr. Bird’s wife told them her husband started walking Saturday on Long Hill Road, near a wooded path he liked called Hicks Trail.

View Larger Map

UPDATE I: Missing Wall Street Journal Reporter’s Credit Card Was Reportedly Used In Mexico.

Now this is a rather bizarre circumstance in the case of missing David Bird. According to numerous reports, the missing Wall Street Journal reporters credit card was used in Mexico. Either this is an erroneous story, Bird may have met with a worse fate than just falling through some ice, or he has shopped at Target recently and is a victim of identity theft. However, strange in deed if true.

A 55-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter went missing in New Jersey on Saturday, and sources tell NBC News that his credit card was used in Mexico on Wednesday night.

Bird’s family thinks his disappearance may be tied to his reporting on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, according to NBC.

Bird covers energy markets for the Journal and wrote about OPEC often, but it’s unclear why his family believes his disappearance might be tied to his coverage.

UPDATE II: Authorities Comb New Jersey Woodland in Hunt for Missing Reporter.

Chief Michael Mazzeo of the Long Hill police said on Thursday that at this point no criminality was suspected. Chief Mazzeo said the search initially focused on the trails and paths Mr. Bird was known to wander and has turned to a treacherous area of swamp along the Passaic River.

“We have searched every tract of land possible in our township,” he said. “Now we’re checking outlying areas off-road that he may have used as a cut through.”

The rural area where he disappeared includes the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and people do get lost in and around the 7,768-acre preserve. Last week alone, he was among three people reported missing in town. He is the only one yet to be found, Chief Mazzeo said.

If anyone has any information regarding the whereabouts of David Bird, please contact the Long Hill Township Police Department at (908) 647-1800 or the NJSP Missing Persons Unit at (800) 709-7090.

Ann Coulter Responds to MSNBC’s Ed Schultz’ Challenge that Republicans are Afraid of Him with … “Invite Me on Your Show, You Lying P*ssy”

Looks like the ball is now in Ed Schultz’s court …

Following MSNBC’s Ed Schultz’s comment from ‘The Ed Show’ where he said, “Republicans, they’re afraid of me. They don’t want to talk to me,” the never at a loss for words Ann Coulter responded via Twitter with the following … “Invite me on your show, you lying p*ssy”. Well how about them apples? So the real question is whether Schultz will put his will have the CO-JONES to actually invite Ann Coulter on his show and face the intellectual and fiery wrath  of one of our favorite conservatives?

The answer is, if MSNBC actually wants some ratings they would do it in a heart beat. However, if they want Ed to be reduced to a puddle of goo, they might think otherwise. However, I would not hold your breathe on this one to happen.

From Newsbusters:

These MSNBC hosts like Rachel and Ed love posing as macho Republican-slayers, with Rachel repeatedly begging Republican senators to please, please, please come on her show (because she’s such a formidable debater, you see), and now Schultz boasting that Republicans are terrified of him! We quake in our boots!

I’ve been begging to come on their shows for years now, but they’re all apparently too afraid of a 99 lb girl. (Or any conservative who can put 2 sentences together — Hey! Somebody get Todd Harris on the line!)

Moreover, I don’t care that they’re all a bunch of pussies at MSNBC, but cut the B.S. posturing when you won’t allow any non-retarded conservative on your airwaves.

Missing U.S. Soldier Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Captured in Afghanistan in June 2009 and Held Captive by Taliban-aligned Haqqani Network in Pakistan Seen Alive in Recently Dated VIDEO

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been missing since June of 2009 when he was captured and taken prisoner by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Pakistan. Bergdahl was 23 years old when he was captured after finishing a guard shift at a combat outpost in southeastern Paktika province. Now a VIDEO has surfaced obtained by the US military that is dated December 2013 that shows American prisoner of war, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

The U.S. military has obtained new video apparently made by those holding the lone American prisoner of war, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

A U.S. military official told CNN the clip shows the Wood Valley, Idaho, native in diminished health from the effects of close to five years in captivity.

He was seized in Afghanistan in June 2009 and is believed held by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Pakistan, the official said.

The so-called proof-of-life video, the first of him in nearly three years, has a reference to December 14, 2013.

Stars & Stripes – DOD has new video of US soldier held captive since 2009.

The so-called “proof of life” video of Bergdahl, 27, appears to have been made recently, said the official, who would not specify exactly when the material was received or how it was obtained.

“Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has been gone far too long, and we continue to call for and work toward his safe and immediate release,” said Cmdr. Elissa J. Smith. “We cannot discuss all the details of our efforts, but there should be no doubt that on a daily basis — using our military, intelligence and diplomatic tools — we try to see Sgt. Bergdahl returned home safely. Our hearts are with the Bergdahl family.”

CNN: Missing U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl seen in video