TRUE CRIME

Candice Parchment was only 15 years-old when she vanished from her family’s Forest Park, Georgia home on April 28th, 2010. According to her mother, Candice voluntarily left the home that evening. Once Candice’s mother reported her missing, she was classified as a runaway. Although Candice left the home on her own accord, her family and friends still worried about her–especially since Candice had gone through a traumatic experience in January 2010, two months before her disappearance. On an afternoon in early January, Candice called her mother and asked her to come pick her up at an abandoned house in Forest Park. Once Candice’s mother found her, Candice ran to the car and said that she had almost been raped by two older boys. Candice’s mother begged her daughter to reveal the identity of her attackers, but Candice refused.

When Candice went missing in late April 2010, it was initially unclear if the January 2010 assault and her disappearance were related. While Candice’s mother was inevitably concerned about the January incident, it appeared Candice had voluntarily left the home in April. Candice’s loved ones feared for her safety, but continued to hold out hope that she would return home alive. Unfortunately, in December 2010, the case took an unexpected turn when human remains were found underneath an old mattress in a wooded area near Candice’s home. Investigators immediately suspected the remains belonged to Candice, and those suspicions were confirmed just a day later. At that point, it was clear Candice had been murdered–she was reportedly stabbed and strangled to death. However, police did not have any identified suspects or persons of interest.

Candice’s case seemed to go cold in the months that followed. In October 2011, Candice’s mother eventually decided to move to a different home. While packing up some of Candice’s items, her mother stumbled upon a diary that Candice had been keeping in the months leading up to her disappearance. Inside the diary, Candice’s mother found the lead she had been praying for: the identities of the men who attacked Candice in January 2010.

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

One of the online resale groups called «The great mall of the Islamic state» where ISIL fighters could buy women or children had up to 754 members. This is still happening with more than 3,000 Ezidi women and children.

Jason Allen and Lindsay Cutshall appeared to be the picture perfect couple. The pair worked as counselors at a Christian summer camp called Rock-N-Water, located in El Dorado County, California. They were passionate about their jobs, as well as their faith. the outdoors. Family and friends were elated when Cutshall and Allen became engaged in 2002. The highly anticipated wedding day was scheduled to take place in the fall of 2004.

Summer was winding down to an end. The happy couple decided to enjoy the last few days by taking a trip for some sightseeing. They said goodbye to their friends at Rock-N-Waters on August 13th, and then hit the road in their old Ford Tempa. This would become the final moment with their friends. On Wednesday August 18th, 2004 a helicopter was flying over Fish Head Beach of Jenner, California in search a man who was reported to be stranded on some rocks. As the pilot canvassed the area, he noticed two people in sleeping bags lying on the sand. He became alarmed when they did made no response to the loud whirling of the helicopter’s blades. Quickly, he alerted his coworkers at the sheriff’s department about the potential deaths.

The sleeping bags belonged to Jason Allen and his fiancée, Lindsay. Both had been shot in the head at close range with a Marlin .45-caliber gun. Jason was twenty-six, and Lindsay was twenty-two years old. Due to the state of the bodies, it was believed that the couple had been dead for several days. Credit card record would line up with this. The last reported use of Cutshall’s credit card was at a popular tourist attraction in San Francisco on Saturday, August 14th. Additionally, witnesses claimed to have seen the couple looking for a motel to stay in that evening. It is believed that once they were unable to find any open rooms the couple opted to camp out on Fish Head Beach. It was a remote area, one that did not permit campers, and it was unlikely that they had not planned to stay there more than just that night. Although the exact timing of death was not determined, investigators believed that Jason and Lindsday had been shot in their sleep during the last hours of August 14th or early on Sunday, August 15th.

As they began to investigate the scene, authorities were unable to find any clues that would point to a motive for murder. Neither of the victims had been sexually assaulted or physically harmed outside of the fatal gunshot wounds. Robbery was quickly removed, as all of Allen’s and Cutshall’s possessions had remained with them, including their camping gear and Lindsay’s diamond cross necklace. There was little physical evidence left behind as well. Gun shells that should have been left behind by the murder weapon were appeared to have been picked up by the killer.

Despite the investigators’ best efforts, the case went cold. Hope was renewed in the summer of 2009 when a man was brought into questioning. Joseph Burgess, a drifter, was a suspect in another murder case, this one taking place in the 1970’s. A young, Christian couple had been shot to death while they slept. Their bodies were also found on the beach. The case bore strikingly similar details to the double homicide on Fish Head Beach. After Burgress was apprehended by authorities in New Mexico, detectives working on Allen Cutshall’s murder case flew out to see if they were able to dredge out any more similarities from the suspect himself. Burgress was ultimately ruled out as a suspect after passing a polygraph test.

In March of 2017 investigators believed they had located another suspect. Just as it was with Joseph Burgess, this man was already in jail and had a history in violence. Shaun Gallon had recently been arrested on the suspicion of killing his own brother when he received a letter asking if he would talk about his possible knowledge in the Fish Head Murders. Gallon sent a reply saying that he was ready to talk. According the sheriff’s department, through tips from Gallon himself, investigators were able to find evidence that linked him directly to the crime. This evidence will not be made public until the preliminary hearing. In 2018 Gallon was formally charged in the murders of Jason Allen, Lindsay Cutshall, and Shamus Gallon, his younger brother. Additionally, he was given a charge of attempt of murder for attempted to send and set off a bomb in 2004. Gallon has plead not guilty, and is awaiting trial.

Jael Hamblen (20) and her infant son, Joel, pictured together in May 2014. At the time this picture taken, Jael and her son were living in Anchorage, Alaska with her roommate, Kendra White (32), and Kendra’s two children.

On the morning of October 11th, 2014, Jael and Kendra left their children with Kendra’s mother for the weekend. Jael then spent the afternoon shopping with her best friend’s mother before meeting up with Kendra at TGI Friday’s for dinner. Lissa Lake, the woman who Jael went shopping with, said that Jael was in a great mood in the afternoon. However, according to Kendra, Jael’s mood had changed for the worse by the time they met for dinner. A guy she was interested in had let her know he wasn’t. Kendra suggested that Jael should go out and have fun to cheer herself up, but Jael ended up returning home after dinner. Kendra said that she last saw Jael return to her room after a shower at 10pm.

Around 10:30am on the following morning, Kendra texted Jael from her bedroom about going to a movie together. Jael did not reply. At noon, after her knocks went unanswered, Kendra entered Jael’s bedroom and found that it was empty. Kendra thought Jael had decided to go out the previous night and initially did not worry about her. At 2:02pm, Kendra texted the following the Jael: “Hey where are you? I didn’t even realize u left the house.” Once again, Jael did not reply. Kendra tried texting Jael once again at 3:45pm, stating: “I haven’t heard from you all day what’s the deal?” That text also went unanswered. Additionally, all calls to Jael’s phone went straight to voicemail. Sometime between 10pm on October 11th and 12pm on October 12th, Jael vanished without a trace. She was reported missing by her mother on October 14th, 2014.

Five months later, in March 2015, hikers found Jael’s purse buried in the snow along a trail in Chugiak, Alaska. Her social security card and cell phone were among the contents of the purse. Investigators say that it is unlikely that Jael placed the purse there herself, as the weather on the night she disappeared was below freezing, and she didn’t enjoy hiking. After analyzing Jael’s phone, investigators revealed that Jael never actually received the texts that Kendra sent her on the afternoon of October 12th. This means that the phone was shut off or the battery had died by the time the texts were sent. There has been no activity on Jael’s phone since the morning of October 12th.

Cassie Compton (15) has been missing since September 14th, 2014. The day she vanished, Cassie spent most of her day with her best friend/boyfriend Hunter Smith at his mother Tracey Snyder’s home. Cassie had actually spent most of her weekend with Hunter and his mother. The previous day, Hunter picked Cassie up around 1:30pm at her home in Stuggart, Arkansas; where she lived with her mother Judy Compton and her mother’s fiancé Brandon Rhodes. Cassie and Hunter then went to a demolition derby in DeWitt with his family. Afterwards, Cassie spent the night at the Snyder home and spent the entire next day there as well.

Hunter dropped Cassie back off at her house around 6:25pm that evening. He noted that he saw Cassie’s mother’s fiancé Brandon standing out in front of the home, and that Cassie and Brandon made no attempt to talk to each other as Cassie walked past him. According to Cassie’s mother Judy, Cassie left the home again around 6:55pm after telling announcing that she would be back soon. She has never been seen or heard from again.

After Cassie was reported missing, Hunter’s mother Tracey told both investigators and news outlets that things were “weird” for Cassie at home, which is why she often spent time at Tracey’s home. Both Tracey and Hunter noted that Cassie seemed “unusually quiet” on the day she disappeared as well. Additionally, Cassie’s half-sister Kimberly Compton alluded to Cassie having a secret that she thinks lead to her disappearance. On October 17th, 2014, Kimberly wrote the following to Cassie on Facebook: “Baby girl I’m putting the pieces together daily. I have a feeling I know what happened to you. Tonight I broke my silence and told your secret. I love you and I only told because I hoped it would help. I love you baby sister. STAY STRONG and remember you are loved. I know someone has taken you and I will find out who. I WILL help you if you reach out to me baby girl. You are beautiful you are smart and most of all you are important to many people”. There has since been very little information on the ‘secret’ and/or if it had anything to do with Cassie’s disappearance.

Cassie’s mother Judy and her fiancé Brandon were initially considered persons of interest in the case. Early on into the search, Judy and Brandon had their phones seized and searched but they were eventually returned and it is unclear if any significant evidence was found. Judy’s car was searched as well. Many rumors have gone around about Brandon’s behavior towards Cassie and Judy’s other children, however none of these rumors have been confirmed. Judy reportedly ended her relationship with Brandon about a month after Cassie’s disappearance, and then later told news reporters that Brandon was controlling and that she believed Cassie would come home if she knew that Brandon was out of the picture.

Matthew Phelps (28) and Lauren Hugelmaier (29) were married for a little under a year when Matthew stabbed Lauren to death in their North Carolina home on September 1st, 2017. Matthew, an aspiring pastor, claims that he has no recollection of the stabbing. He told police that he took too much cough syrup before bed, and when he awoke in the middle of the night, Lauren was dead. In his 911 call, Matthew is heard saying “I had a dream, and then I turn on the lights and she’s dead on the floor. I have blood all over me, and there’s a bloody knife on the bed, and I think I did it.”

Investigators were suspicious of Matthew’s story from the get-go. The cough syrup that Matthew allegedly took before the incident is called Coricidin HBP Cold and Cough. Hallucinations are listed as a side effect of the medicine, however, there is no other evidence to suggest that Coricidin is associated with violent behavior. Investigators also say they have found evidence that suggests Lauren’s death was premeditated, but they have not yet elaborated on said evidence. Matthew was arrested shortly after the incident.

Kristian Burnstad (32) has been missing since February 7th, 2017. According to his parents, Kristian was at their home in Enumclaw, Washington on February 6th–a day prior to vanishing. There was apparently an “altercation” between Kristian and his parents, but the details of that altercation have not been revealed. However, his parents said that he was “not in good condition” at that time and angrily left the home afterwards.

A few hours later, Kristian’s parents said that he returned to their home to grab a few belongings and then left again. A friend apparently drove Kristian back to his parent’s home the following day around 1:30pm and then dropped him off. Unfortunately, Kristian never made it inside his parent’s house and has never been seen or heard from again. A few days later, Kristian’s mother said that she found his belongings scattered around their property.

Friends of Kristian have said that he was a well-known drug user, but was clean at the time of his disappearance. One particular friend stated that she thought Kristian was at odds with his parents prior to vanishing, and that his parents were ashamed of having a son that abused drugs. Some have accused Kristian’s parents of not being involved in the search for their son whatsoever. Kristian’s parents have said they are devastated by their son’s disappearance, and they deny these claims. 

25 year-old Abby Roberts (pictured left) and her boyfriend 27 year-old Philip Johnson (pictured right) were last seen together on September 29th, 2012. The couple left their Las Vegas, Nevada home in an unregistered black Chevrolet Cruze on that day and never returned. Both Abby and Philip worked at the US Post Office near McCarran International Airport, and they were reported missing on October 9th, 2012, after their loved ones were notified that they both stopped showing up for work.

Abby has not been since September 29th, 2012. Philip, on the other hand, showed up at his mother’s house in Torrance, California a few days later, on October 3rd, 2012. Philip and Abby had not yet been reported missing at that time, so Philip’s mother did not think anything was amiss. Philip drove to his mother’s house in Abby’s car and brought his and Abby’s two month-old son, as well as an older son from a previous relationship. He left the children with his mother and then never returned. Abby’s car was later found abandoned in Compton, California. There was no sign of Abby or Philip at the scene.

Investigators found no signs of foul play Abby and Philip’s home in Las Vegas. Despite this, Abby’s family still believes that Philip might have harmed her. Her family members told police that Abby had been contemplating leaving Philip because he had been unfaithful to her. Philip has never been officially been named as a suspect, and both he and Abby remain missing today.