Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

By Mariam El Hasan
May 24, 2009

Remember when history came to life in the hilarious movie Night at the Museum? Well, guess what? The sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian, will be opening in theaters May 22, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend. The movie is rated PG.

Scholastic News visited the set where the sequel was filmed in Vancouver, Canada, last summer to get the scoop on this upcoming summer blockbuster.

In the movie, artifacts from The Museum of Natural History in New York are moved to the Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. while the New York museum is closed for renovation.

All the artifacts that came to life in the first movie will again take center stage in the sequel. This time, they will be joined by aviator Amelia Earhart, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, inventor Albert Einstein, Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible, and plenty more.

Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, the museum security guard. Amy Adams plays Amelia Earhart. (You might remember her as “Princess Giselle” from the Disney movie Enchanted.)

And do you recall the mischievous monkey named Dexter from the first movie? Well, this go around Dexter befriends the space monkey from the Air and Space Museum. The two of them join forces to double the trouble!

Visiting the Set

On the set in Vancouver, reporters talked to the actors and director. Scholastic News asked Ben Stiller about the craziest job he has ever held.

The director, Shawn Levy, grinned mischievously and rubbed the palms of his hands together like a movie villain when he heard the question.

“Yes… Do tell,” he said in anticipation of Stiller’s answer.

“Well, I never really had any crazy jobs,” Stiller said. “I just had bad jobs. Probably the worst job I had was as a waiter. I was really bad at it.”

Amy Adams was asked who she identified more with, her character Princess Giselle from Enchanted or her character Amelia Earhart from Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.

She thought about it for a moment and said that there’s a part of her that always feels like a princess. In the end, however, she decided on the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
 
“I would have to say that I identify more with Amelia Earhart,” she concluded.
 
Art Director Claude Pare gave reporters a tour of the set. He and his art team did an amazing job recreating the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, the second most popular of the Smithsonian Institute’s 19 museums and galleries. Everything looks exactly like the originals in the actual museum.

The institute was founded in 1846 to increase and spread knowledge about science, history, and culture. The museums have collected more than 136 million items from around the word and outer space, ranging from Lincoln’s top hat to Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from the movie Wizard of Oz to moon rocks.

Scholastic News asked Pare what he would put in the Smithsonian if given the opportunity.

“I would like to take all the information I’ve gathered to prepare this film and all the other films that I’ve made in my life and put it in the box so that people could come and look at it and share it,” he said.

Here’s something for you to think about as you head for the theater to see this movie: If you could put any of your prized belongings on display in the Smithsonian, what would it be and why?

 

Source: Scholastic News Online

Memorial Day Poem

By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
May 24, 2009

 

While looking for stories to honor those who have gave their lives on Memorial Day. I came across this poem. That I think shows the true meaning of this special day. It was written by Cadet Major Kelly Strong Air Force Junior ROTC Homestead Senior High School Homestead, Florida 1988.

I hope you will enjoy it. We would like to hear from you on how this poem affected you if it did. You could reach me at dan@youngchronicle.com

 

A wonderful Poem…For Memorial Day and every day…

I watched the flag pass by one day.
It fluttered in the breeze.
A young marine saluted it,
and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform
so young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert.
He’d stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil?
How many mothers’ tears?

How many pilots’ planes shot down?
How many died at sea?
How many foxholes were soldiers’ graves?
No, freedom is not free.

I heard the sound of taps one night,
When everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times
That taps had meant “Amen,”
When a flag had draped a coffin
Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea
Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom is not free.

Source: Navy For Moms

Importance Play in Early Childhood

By Maya Pillai
May 18, 2009

 

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” – An old proverb

Playing is a much needed activity in the early childhood. You may have come across a child playing and you are sure he is having a fun time. However, there is more to the picture than meets the eye. The reason is that “play” is the building block of a child’s intellectual skills. The parents should realize that through play, their child develops social skills, problem solving skills and also interpersonal skills.

Parents should ensure that their child plays with other children. This is important because it helps in the emotional and social development and also in learning skills such as negotiation. By playing with the children of their own age group, a child learns lessons in sharing and give and take. You could rightly say, play is an integral part of learning.

A child is born with an innate talent and an urge to learn new things through exploration. For instance, when a toddler starts to walk, he would not like to be carried around. He wants to walk. As a child grows, as a parent you should instill new skills and also teach him/her new things through play. This is when play becomes an important activity in early childhood.

Importance of Play in Early Childhood

Play is important in early childhood because it helps prepare a child for school. Engaging in play activities helps to nurture social and language skills. When a child engages himself/herself in hands-on play activities at home, it helps to refine his listening and reasoning skills. There are many multi-sensory play activities that teach a child to understand and learn through touch, sight and sound.

Play is important in early childhood because it helps in the physical development of the child. Obesity is a common problem among children today. Engaging in outdoor games helps in preventing childhood obesity. Outdoor games also help to nurture and co-ordinate the sensory-motor development of a child.

Singing along with your child or engaging in play activities involving rhyming words enhances the language learning. Experts opine, it is necessary to nurture oral language skills in the early years of childhood than teaching word recognition and letter sounds. As a parent, you need to understand that talking to your child would enable him/her to pick up the language quickly. Apart from engaging in talking, singing songs, reciting poems and story telling would enhance language skills in a child.

Play helps to hone math skills in a child. Children grasp the concepts of math at an early stage. As a parent, it is your responsibility to develop this skill by engaging them in play activities such as counting the number of objects in a sack, teaching them relationships like short and long, big and small, less and more and so on.

Through play, children not only learn many new skills, but also develop self-esteem. One thing worth mentioning is, parents must learn to respect the interests of their children and let them take the lead while playing. Play helps in developing a healthy and long-lasting relationship between a child and his/her parents. It also helps the parents to gain an insight into the thought process of their child.

Source: Buzzle.com

May No Soldier Go Unloved

By Thomas Anthony Longo
World Voice News
May 23, 2009

Sometimes, a book comes along that shatters all your expectations and breaks every mold and routine that you use to approach the act of reviewing.

Most of the time when one reviews books, there is a requirement of a certain pedigree; being well read and educated to a certain level, or an ability to discern art in the midst of routine and rhetoric. Often, the reviewing of books is a tedious matter with little reward for the effort. Most of the time it is the practice of reviewers to keep the purely personal out of their reviews. It is in fact the hallmark of an objective review. Sometimes, a book comes along that shatters all your expectations and breaks every mold and routine that you use to approach the act of reviewing.
Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved” is such a book.

When I first picked up this book I had no idea what was in store for me. I knew generally that it was about a volunteer organization that helped out soldiers in the field. As a political writer, who was disgusted at the attempt of the Democrat party to pull funding from the troops, I looked forward to it. I had no idea how quickly it would strip away all hint of ideology and preconception.

By the time I was ten pages into this book I had forgotten all about political squabbles. By the time I was thirteen pages into this book, I was crying like a baby. Without a doubt, this book makes one thing crystal clear. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, whether you oppose the war or support it, the soldiers who fight in foreign lands on our behalf do believe in their mission. If we do not support them and if we do not go the extra mile to help them to complete their mission, then we are not Americans at all.

It’s true that most of the soldiers in Iraq believe in the cause that they fight for, but that’s not the mission I speak of. I speak of each and every soldier’s drive to do their part and return home safely. I speak of the mission of each member of the military to keep their family back home safe and provided for. In this, I speak of the personal mission of each soldier. This is something that Patti Patton Bader has hit upon, and it’s not surprising that her epiphany and everything that followed became a national movement.

As one reads Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved,” the deep emotion caused by the speed of a single idea, that spreads into a power to move mountains, is overwhelming.   It is difficult to believe that such just happen. Certainly, the snowball effect as one mother’s courage and commitment spread to those around her and mushroom into a national campaign to help soldiers in the field, must be the result of divine intervention.

In many ways, Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved” is more than just the story of one woman’s fight to help her son in a foreign land. It’s more than a chronicle of how sending a few boxes of cookies metamorphed into airlifts of goods on the grand scale. It is a demonstration, once again, that the actions of one person can have a dramatic effect in the world we live in.

Many of the pages of Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved” are devoted to letters back home from the soldiers who are receiving the largess of their adopted “angels.” Of course, the heartfelt thanks is moving, but no less so than the desire to tell the anonymous donors about the things that they are doing and explain how their selfless gifts helped to make life in an unbearable place, more bearable.

There are letters of commendation from officers in all branches of the service, but none of the letters reproduced in Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved” are as moving and as heartfelt as the letters of those relatives of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

A book of this kind defies a traditional review, and cries out for something more. In the process of requesting a review copy of Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved,” I received a copy of an email from Patti to Jeff Bader by accident. She had seen my request and wrote a quick not to Jeff to tell him that she thought my request was “important.”

How unimportant I am cannot be more evident. I can write this review, and I can do everything I know how to do to publicize Soldiers’ Angels, and get the word out about the good work that they are doing, but it can never be anything but laughably insignificant when compared to the mountains moved by one woman with faith and a will.

I’m not important, Patti. This review is not important. What you are doing and what Soldiers’ Angels is doing.

These things are the very definition of important.

Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved” is something else too, it’s a paean of love and admiration from a husband to his wife-a validation of an effort well undertaken and a life well lived. I cannot recommend enough that you buy and read Soldiers’ Angels-“May No Soldier Go Unloved,”  nor can I encourage you to become involved with the organization with more enthusiasm.

Please, visit the Soldiers’ Angels organization at their web site.

Adopt a soldier. Spend your money. Spend your time. Do anything that you can to help. If ever there was an organization worthy of American generosity, this is that organization.

Source: Soldiers Angel

7 Hints for Kids in Childcare

By Claire Lerner
May 18, 2009

What parents can do to smooth the transition between caregivers for their toddlers.

Q. We are moving and will be switching childcare centers. How can we help our 18-month-old son say goodbye to his current teacher (someone he adores) and transition to the new center?

A. Transitions can be hard for young children, especially toddlers who are, by nature, not fond of change. Being sensitive to the fact that this will be difficult for him, especially because he will also be dealing with the house move, is the most important first step.

Toddlers don’t have a firm grasp on time, so don’t start talking about the change in childcare until a week or two before the change will take place. Talking about the center change too far in advance may just create more anxiety. In addition, while 18-month-olds do understand a lot, and certainly understand more than they can actually say, they can’t begin to fully comprehend complex ideas such as making this kind of social transition by words alone.

Here are some ways to help him accept the change:

1. Ask your child’s current teacher to write some brief notes about your son to share with his new caregiver. Some important issues to cover would be: how he handles transitions (does she do anything special to help with this?); what his routines are for naptimes and mealtimes; how to comfort him; and what his favorite toys, books, and activities are. Sharing this information with your son’s new caregiver helps to ensure some consistency in his life during a period of great changes and can ease the transition into a new childcare setting.

2. Read books with him about making changes. Hearing about the similar experiences of others can be a powerful way for young children to make sense of their own situation and may help them feel less alone.

3. Create ways to help your child remember and hold on to the old center in his mind. Take photos of the teacher, the room, the playground, his friends, his favorite toys, and create a memory book for him to look at.

 

More Ways to Smooth Childcare Transitions

4. Ask his teacher if there is something special she can give to your son — such as a cuddly stuffed animal — that he can take to the new center for comfort when he needs it. This kind of transitional object can help your son hold his old caregiver in his mind and provide the comfort he needs to adapt to his new setting. While some parents worry that these remembrances from the old center will be more upsetting and interfere with the transition, in fact, such keepsakes are very important. They help children remember and honor their experience in a special place. They also give children permission to express their feelings of loss and sadness, which is key to helping them move on and adapt to what comes next.

5. Have a special goodbye ritual for his last day. You can bring in his favorite snack or music tape and have a small party to celebrate his time there. Marking partings like this is important for helping children say goodbye.

6. If possible, take him to see the new childcare center several times before he makes the actual transition. Let him explore the room where he will be cared for and meet the caregivers.

7. During the first week in the new center, stay with him for an hour or two each morning. Gradually decrease the time you stay until you simply drop him off by the end of the week. He will take his cues from you; if you interact warmly with the new teachers and other children, he will know that the new center is a good and trusted place.

Taking a thoughtful and incremental approach will help your son successfully adjust to his new childcare setting. It will also help him learn how to cope with future changes as he grows.

Claire Lerner, LCSW, is a child development specialist at Zero to Three, a national nonprofit promoting the healthy development of babies and toddlers (zerotothree.org).

Originally published in American Baby magazine, July 2005

Source: Parents

Grandchildren Need Work

by Adair Lara
May 18, 2009

Painting a room gives one grandmother a break from the playground grind.
Okay, I do take my grandkids to the playground, where I push them on the swings beside all the parents who push children with one hand while manipulating their Black Berrys with the other.

Fresh air exercise, all that I get it.

But I don’t like playgrounds. They’re made-up worlds with weird spongy stuff underfoot and too many things to duck under. And the slides nowadays are more like long polished downward oozes than slides, as the fun-spoilers have made sure no one goes too fast on them.

My thinking is this: Instead of my following the kids to Kid land, why don’t they follow me to Adult land? It’s a much more interesting place, and they’ll live in it eventually anyway, so why not take an excursion there now? My dad took me to building sites with him and to this day, I can pound a nail straight, not to mention I still love the heavenly smell of freshly cut two-by-fours.

So when I was asked to take the two grandkids for the day a couple of Mondays ago, I didn’t let the fact that I was painting an apartment that day stop me. (It was a day off from school – “teacher training.”)

Off we went in my Jetta, which was filled with drop cloths, paint rollers, the girls, and the dog, to the apartment I was getting ready to rent out after finally dislodging my ex-son-in-law from it by getting him to move in with my son.

The girls were dubious at first about the idea of a day spent “learning to paint.”

“I already paint at my school every single morning,” 3-year-old Maggie pointed out.

“Is it work like cleaning my room? Because I hate cleaning my room,” 5-year-old Ryan chimed in.

It took only five minutes at the small three-bedroom to change their minds. Maggie was dazzled by the idea of painting an entire wall. Ryan found a tiny paint roller her own size and plunged it into the tan paint the three of us had compromised on as a color for the bedroom. The girls used their best Dora the Explorer Spanish – they believe they’re fluent – to chat with and fire questions at Carlos and Joel, the men from El Salvador I hired to do some additional work on the apartment. “Dónde hola buenas dias!”

The girls that morning had elected to wear their red velvet Christmas dresses, a choice I always approve because velvet blocks the San Francisco wind so well. They scorned my offer of their dad’s T-shirts to keep the paint off, on the grounds that the shirts would cover up the pretty dresses.

What an educational day! Ryan learned about primer, and about wiping the brush on the edge of the paint can before aiming it at the wall. Maggie learned that it’s better to put your paint roller together before you dunk it in paint, and also that, when you’re finally persuaded to take off your red velvet Christmas dress, it’s best to take off your green plastic gloves dripping with Bronco Beige first. I learned that Bronco Beige will not come out of red velvet, and that a rag and Windex will get most of the paint out of a wall-to-wall carpet, but not off an antique armoire.

All in all, it was a great day, and I did not have to go to the park, play “store,” assemble tiny plastic corrals, or pretend ten times in a row to be getting a puppy who looked like Maggie out of the pound. (We keep a cardboard box in the closet for just that purpose.)

When the kids, the dog, and I returned home in the late afternoon, we were tired and happy, filled with the satisfaction of a job if not well done, then at least eagerly attempted. Mom got to work all day, where I imagine she Googled the best approaches for getting Bronco Beige out of little girls’ hair.

 Source: Grand Parents

 

 

Incredible Journey comes to an End

By Dante A. Ciampaglia
May 22, 2009

For seven days, the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis was a kind of interstellar repair shop. Astronauts aboard the shuttle pulled the Hubble Space Telescope out of its orbit and brought it into the cargo bay for some much-needed repairs and upgrades.

They added new cameras. They replaced gyroscopes. They repaired equipment that stopped working years ago.

It was the fifth and final Hubble repair mission. The installation of all this new and refurbished equipment gave Hubble a new lease on life. Scientists expect Hubble will remain operational for at least five more years, thanks to the astronauts. Without them, Hubble would have stopped working much sooner.

After five spacewalks and more than 36 hours outside the shuttle, astronauts finished servicing Hubble.

On Tuesday, Atlantis astronaut Megan McArthur used the shuttle’s robotic arm to lift Hubble out of the cargo bay. The robot arm let go of Hubble, and Hubble floated back into its place, 350 miles above Earth.

“There are folks who thought we couldn’t do this,” lead flight director Tony Ceccacci said. “They told us ‘You’re too aggressive.’ I don’t want to say ‘We told you so,’ but we told you so.”

The astronauts worked on parts of Hubble that were never meant to be accessed in outer space. Thanks to special tools, they were able to work on delicate equipment in their big, bulky space suits, with little trouble.

There was one piece of Hubble that did pose a problem, though.

During one of their spacewalks, astronauts needed to access Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph camera. To reach it, they had to remove a handrail. But a bolt attaching the rail to the telescope wouldn’t come off.

They used every tool in their kit to remove the bolt. Nothing worked. Finally, they used good old-fashioned brute force, and ripped the handrail off.

The stuck handrail was frustrating for the astronauts. But in the end it was a small problem on an otherwise “incredible journey,” according to Atlantis commander Scott Altman.

“It’s amazing to look back at how hard things looked a couple of times-more difficult than I ever expected,” Altman said. “And then to overcome and wind up with everything done in the way that it was-we were very successful.”

With their mission over, the Atlantis crew is preparing for their return home. They were scheduled to return to Earth Friday. But bad weather in Florida forced NASA to postpone their return trip until Saturday.

Meanwhile, scientists on Earth are anxious to put the upgraded Hubble to use. The new equipment will allow researchers to look 13.2 billion light years into space. That’s farther than ever before.

“I truly believe this is a very important moment in human history, and I think it’s an important moment for science,” Hubble project scientist David Leckrone said. “Just using what Hubble’s already done as a starting point, it’s unimaginable that we won’t go dramatically further than that.”

All of the new equipment and cameras should be ready for use by late summer. Hubble should start sending data and images sometime in September.

Source: Scholastic News Online

White House Locks out Kindergarteners for Steelers!

By Anne Reynolds
May 22, 2009

Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment.

The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out.

“We were going to the White House, but we couldn’t get in so I felt sad,” 5-year-old Cameron Stine said.

Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president’s event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn’t come in.

“I was angry cause they were disappointed,” parent and chaperone Paty Stine said.

The Steelers and the Obama administration used their time together to create 3,000 care packages for U.S. troops as part of a Wounded Warriors initiative.

A lot of preparing had gone into the trip. Conway Elementary teachers had been planning the trip for months, each child paid $20 for a seat on the chartered bus, and names were submitted to the White House for clearance.

Parents say they tried to make it on time, but their chartered buses hit heavy traffic that slowed them down substantially. They thought they were supposed to show up by 10:15, but they say they arrived at 10:25 instead, and couldn’t get in.

“The person who headed this White House trip up came out and said, ‘I’m sorry, the White House tour’s off.’ There were a lot of crying kids,” parent Barbara Stine said.

The White House tells a slightly different story. A spokesperson said the group was actually supposed to be there at 9:30, but they held the gates for the group until 10:30, 15 minutes longer than they told the group, but when they still hadn’t arrived, they had to draw the line.

Paty Stine said the White House staff should have made an exception. She feels the kindergarteners were snubbed for the Steelers.

“Here we have President Obama and his administration saying, ‘Here we are for the common, middle class people,’ and here he is not letting 150 5- and 6-year-olds into the White House because he’s throwing a lunch for a bunch of grown millionaires,” Stine said.

Thursday night the White House released this statement: “The President and First Lady are dedicated to opening the doors of the White House to the public, and it is unfortunate to see young people miss a tour. The visitor’s office is already working to reschedule the group.”

Parents say it’s probably too late. The school year ends in a few weeks and they doubt the tour can be made up in that time.

Source: NBC News

47 Million-year-old Fossil Public Debut

By Laura Leigh Davidson
May 21, 2009

 

Scientists unveiled a 47-million-year-old primate fossil at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on Tuesday. Scientists say it is “the most complete primate fossil ever found.”

Dr. Jorn Hurum of the University of Oslo in Norway led the team of scientists who studied the small monkeylike female. Hurum nicknamed her “Ida,” after his own 6-year-old daughter.

Hurum’s team thinks she may be a distant ancestor of monkeys, apes, and humans. That means that studying Ida could tell scientists more about how modern human beings developed.

Ida was found in an area of Germany that is rich with ancient fossils, called the Messel Pit.

Ida is so well-preserved that impressions of her fur are still clear. Scientists also found evidence of food where her stomach would have been. The animal’s last meal was fruit and leaves.

Hurum’s team says Ida has many humanlike characteristics. She has opposable thumbs and fingernails instead of claws. X-rays show both baby and adult teeth. She had eyes that faced forward, which allowed her to see in three-dimensions and judge distance.

Scientists believe Ida was about 9 months old when she died.

Ida’s debut has sparked a lot of debate among scientists. They have different opinions about how closely linked she is to the prehuman animals that evolved after her.

One thing scientists do agree on is the quality of the fossil primate.

“There’s certainly a lot more information about this individual than probably any other fossil primate that’s ever been recovered,” said primate expert Dr. John Fleagle. (Fleagle is not a part of the research team that has been studying Ida.)

Hurum says there is much more to learn from the 47-million-year-old fossil.

“She tells so many stories,” Hurum told reporters on Tuesday. “We have just started the research on this fabulous specimen.”

Since her big debut on Tuesday, Ida has returned to her permanent home at the University of Oslo Natural History Museum in Norway. But a plaster version of the fossil has become a part of the “Extreme Mammals” exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The History Channel will air a documentary about Ida called The Link, on Monday, May 25. You can learn more about Ida online at

Source: Scholastic News Online

 

Cold Case Heats Up Part One

By FBI/PIO
May 19, 2009

The innocent face of 8-year-old April Tinsley is projected from a large screen in front of the conference room as about 50 law enforcement officials-including a special team from the FBI-begin their meeting.

April’s picture was a powerful reminder of why the group had gathered: on Good Friday 21 years ago, the young girl was abducted from her neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana and then raped and murdered. Her killer is still at large.

The meeting at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Virginia took place because state and local Indiana law enforcement officers-who remain dedicated to solving the case-have asked for help from our Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, known as CARD.

CARD Teams were created three years ago to bring together a variety of experts in child abduction cases who could quickly respond on the ground to help local authorities with time-sensitive investigations.

Team members include:

a. Personnel from our Behavioral Analysis Unit, who profile offenders’ personality traits and possible motives;

b. Agents and analysts from our Crimes Against Children Unit;

c. Coordinators from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime

d. Representatives from the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (VICAP).

CARD consists of 48 members organized into 10 teams in five regions around the country. Since the program’s creation, teams have deployed 38 times and aided in the recovery of 18 children.

As the name suggests, CARD Teams respond rapidly in cases of non-family abductions, ransom abductions, and the mysterious disappearances of children. But CARD also works cold cases, such as the April Tinsley murder. And as team members discovered, there is enough evidence-including notes, pictures, and DNA left by the killer years after the murder-to make investigators hopeful they can break the case.

It was a chilly Friday afternoon in 1988 when April was abducted walking home from a friend’s house. Her body was found three days later about 20 miles away in a rural area dotted with Amish farms.

Despite an intensive search, police were unable to find her killer. Two years later, a message written in pencil or crayon appeared on a barn door not far from where April’s body had been discovered. The writer claimed responsibility for the murder.

Then, in the spring of 2004, four notes appeared at various residences in the Fort Wayne area-several placed on bicycles that young girls had left in their yards-believed to be written by the killer. The notes, all on lined yellow paper, were placed inside baggies along with used condoms or Polaroid pictures of the killer’s body. Several of the notes referred to April Tinsley.

During the spring of 2004, the killer left four similar notes at residences in the Fort Wayne area.

Since those 2004 notes, the killer has not been heard from. But he has left a trail of evidence that the CARD Team hopes to exploit during its deployment to Fort Wayne, tentatively scheduled for later this spring. Investigators believe the case is “highly solvable,” and after 21 years, their desire to bring April Tinsley’s killer to justice is stronger than ever.

We need your help.

Contact your FBI

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