Snowboarder killed in avalanche on Colorado mountain
A snowboarder was killed Monday after getting caught in an avalanche on a Colorado mountain.
The incident occurred around 1 p.m. near Winter Park in an area known as Nitro Chutes when four snowboarders were near Berthoud Pass, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said. Two of the riders were able to stay above the surface but the other two were buried by snow and debris.
The unburied riders found their covered companions but one, a 44-year-old man, was not breathing when he was recovered. He was declared dead after life-saving efforts were unsuccessful.
The Colorado Avalanche Information Center said another rider-triggered avalanche had occurred earlier that day in the same spot.
“This exact aspect and elevation have been the bullseye location for avalanches since the beginning of the month,” it reported.
“This is a tragic reminder that you can trigger a dangerous avalanche on many wind-loaded slopes steeper than about 30 degrees.”
The fatality was the first avalanche-related death in Colorado of the 2022-23 season. Seven people were killed during the 2021-22 season, including two skiers, a snowboarder and four snowshoers.
The identity of the victim of Monday’s avalanche has not been released.
—New York Daily News
Florida man, 41, impregnated a 13-year-old, cops say. He blames the rape on voodoo
A West Palm Beach, Florida, man accused of the incestuous rape and impregnation of a 13-year-old child didn’t deny the charge, authorities say.
“...during a post-Miranda interview with (41-year-old Jean Innocent), he stated that he believes VOODOO caused him” to rape the girl, according to an arrest report by West Palm Beach police investigators.
Innocent remains in Palm Beach County Jail, charged with one count of incest, one count of impregnation of a child and two counts of sexual battery of a child in familial or custodial care. His bond is $28,000.
On Dec. 19, the girl went to St. Mary’s Medical Center saying she felt abdominal pains. The arrest report said it was there that St. Mary’s hospital staff found the victim’s pains stemmed from her being about six weeks pregnant.
She said Innocent began sexually abusing her over the summer. His most recent abuse of her, she noted, was in November. Her tears, she added, stopped Innocent from full insertion. She recalled him saying “never mind” before leaving the room.
During a call between the girl and Innocent with police listening on her end, the report details her describing to Innocent how she had been throwing up and that the hospital would give her a pregnancy test. Innocent “told her to say no and began making up a story to tell about a relationship with a boy named ‘Semen.’”
He later said, per the report, that “he believes his pre-ejaculation could have caused her to become pregnant.”
After blaming voodoo, according to the report, Innocent admitted to raping the girl twice, in September and November.
—Miami Herald
Family used Find My iPhone to locate relative who crashed 200 feet below highway
LOS ANGELES — A woman who went missing after leaving a Christmas gathering with family was located 200 feet below Highway 18 in a mountainous area north of San Bernardino only after relatives used the Find My iPhone feature to spot her, fire officials said.
The unidentified woman is believed to have crashed sometime overnight after leaving her family's Christmas Day gathering. The crash went unreported for hours, with the woman inside the car and the wreck out of the view of drivers on the highway.
On Monday, San Bernardino County Fire officials said in a Facebook post, her family became concerned when they couldn't get in touch with her the following morning.
Relatives activated the Find My iPhone feature to track her down, eventually leading them to Highway 18, just north of 40th Street, near the San Bernardino community of North Park, fire officials said. Once relatives spotted the vehicle down in the brush, they called 911 for help.
Paramedic crews responded and reached the vehicle, which was found on its side.
Firefighters used urban search and rescue equipment to raise the woman up to the road, where an ambulance took her to a nearby trauma center. The woman inside suffered serious injuries, fire officials said. Her condition was not immediately known.
—Los Angeles Times
‘Exceptionally rare’ find proves these dinosaurs were not picky eaters, researchers say
An “unusual” fossil revealed that a small, carnivorous dinosaur consumed mammals, demystifying the diet of the long-extinct creature, researchers said.
An intact mammal foot was spotted inside the rib cage of a fossilized Microraptor zhaoianus, a feathered dinosaur, according to a study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology and an accompanying news release.
“At first, I couldn’t believe it. There was a tiny rodent-like mammal foot about a centimeter long perfectly preserved inside a Microraptor skeleton,” Hans Larsson, McGill University professor and co-author of the study, wrote in the release. “These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long extinct animals – and they are exceptionally rare.”
Larsson made the discovery while perusing a Chinese museum’s collection.
There are only 20 other documented cases of discernible food being found inside carnivorous dinosaur skeletons, researchers said.
The Microraptor, one of the smallest known dinosaur species, had wings on all four limbs and was only about the size of a crow, according to researchers. It was first discovered in northern China about 20 years ago.
The creature, which roamed the Earth about 125 million years ago, only weighed about 2 pounds and may have been capable of flying, according to the Natural History Museum in the U.K.
The new find suggests that the feathered creature was not a picky eater, researchers said.
“Knowing that Microraptor was a generalist carnivore puts a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked and a possible insight into the success of these small, feathered dinosaurs,” Larsson stated.
Generalist carnivores help stabilize ecosystems because they prey on multiple species that might have different population sizes at different times, researchers said.
—The Charlotte Observer
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