Mother of Two Children Who Were Found Decapitated in Their Bedrooms Arrested and Charged with Murder

Nearly a year after two of her children were found fatally stabbed and decapitated in their bedrooms in Lancaster, California, a mother has been arrested and charged in connection with their murder, law enforcement announced.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday announced that 44-year-old Natalie Brothwell had been taken into custody at her home in Tucson, Arizona and charged with two counts of murder and two counts of felony child endangerment in the deaths of her 12-year-old son Maurice Taylor Jr. and 13-year-old daughter Maliaka Taylor.

Brothwell’s husband, 35-year-old Maurice Jewel Taylor Sr., who is also the father of the slain children, was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and two counts of child abuse under circumstances or conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death in December 2020. He was also accused of forcing the couple’s two youngest children to look at the mutilated bodies of their slain brother and sister. Taylor Sr. currently remains in custody in California after a judge set his bond at $4.2 million.

The sheriff’s office did not make clear what role Brothwell is accused of playing in the children’s deaths.

Police responded to a call about a possible gas leak at the couple’s home located in the 45000 block of Century Circle in Lancaster on the morning of Dec. 4, 2020 and found a grisly scene.

According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, prosecutors have alleged that Taylor Sr. on Nov. 29, 2020 fatally stabbed and then decapitated his two eldest children in separate bedrooms. Investigators claim he then kept the bodies inside the home for five days and made his youngest sons, ages eight and nine, look at the remains several times. The two surviving children were then allegedly locked in their rooms without food.

Taylor Sr. had been working as a personal trainer, with several of his clients taking his classes over Zoom, the LA Times reported.. Those clients became worried about a possible gas leak in the home when he did not contact them regarding a scheduled training session.

After finding the children’s bodies, which were described as having “lacerations and stab wounds,” police placed Taylor Sr. under arrest. They reportedly had to forcibly remove him from the home in handcuffs and strapped to a stretcher.

The LA Times further reported that Brothwell was in the house when police arrived. She questioned her but was not taken into custody, according to a statement from Lt. Brandon Dean of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an email from Law&Crime inquiring about what new developments or information led to Brothwell being arrested.

Brothwell is currently being held at the Pima County Jail in Arizona and is awaiting extradition back to California.

Authorities have asked that anyone who may have information relevant to the case to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.

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September 30, 2021 1

Cave Closed for 40,000 Years Could Hold the Key to the Lives of Neanderthals

The discovery of a chamber at least 40,000 years old in a Gibraltar cave previously inhabited by Neanderthals could lead to groundbreaking new finds about their lifestyles, according to researchers.

Archaeologists from the Gibraltar National Museum have been working since 2012 to find potential chambers and passages blocked by sediment in Vanguard Cave — part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Gorham’s Cave Complex.

Last month, they found the 13-meter (42-foot) deep chamber at the back of the cave, along with a number of discoveries including lynx, hyaena and griffon vulture remains, as well as scratch marks on the walls made by an unidentified carnivore.

Clive Finlayson, director and chief scientist at the Gibraltar National Museum, told CNN Tuesday the most impressive find was perhaps a large whelk, or a marine mollusc, because it suggested the newly discovered parts of the cave had been inhabited by Neanderthals.

“The whelk is at the back of that cave… it’s probably about 20 meters from the beach,” he said. “Somebody took that whelk in there… over 40,000 years ago. So that’s already given me a hint that people have been in there, which is not perhaps too surprising. Those people, because of the age, can only be Neanderthals.”

Neanderthals, heavily built Stone Age hominins that disappeared about 40,000 years ago, lived in Europe long before Homo sapiens arrived.

Finlayson said the team had also found the milk tooth of a Neanderthal around 4 years old, and hypothesized that they could have been dragged into the cave by a hyaena.

Entering the cave for the first time gave Finlayson “goosebumps,” he said, adding it was one of the most exciting discoveries of his career — unique for the quality of the preservation and the possibilities of new information it presented.

“How many times in your life are you going to find something that nobody’s been into for 40,000 years? It only comes once in your lifetime, I think.”

Evidence of an earthquake around 4,000 years ago was also visible due to a change in ice formations, with a previously formed ice curtain cut off and stalagmites growing under it.

The discovery is only the first stage of a long excavation, and Finlayson told CNN the chamber was only the roof of the cave, with a great deal of work remaining to uncover the rest of it.

“As we dig, it’s only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger,” he said. “So the chances are we have an enormous cave there. And as we go down there may even be so passages. So it’s extremely exciting.”

Finlayson said the remaining work would take decades if not longer, and that he hoped to use technology to take DNA samples from the sediment and uncover more clues of Neanderthal lifestyles, including burial rituals — and potentially find footprints too.

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Original Article: Cave chamber closed for 40,000 years could hold the key to the lives of Neanderthals (msn.com)

September 30, 2021 0

Former Ballerina and Her Husband are Accused of Sexually Abusing Young Dancers

Former Boston Ballet star Dusty Button and her husband, Mitchell Taylor Button, are accused of sexually abusing several dancers, including a minor, according to a federal lawsuit.

Taylor Button was accused over the summer but an updated complaint filed on Thursday also named his wife.

Dusty Button was a ballerina for the Boston Ballet from 2012 to 2017, according to the company, and has since then cultivated a large Instagram following by highlighting her coveted international workshops, master classes and dance numbers.

A complaint filed in July in the US District Court in Nevada claimed Taylor Button “has exploited his position of power and influence in the dance world to sexually abuse young dancers across the country.”

After Taylor Button moved to dismiss the lawsuit and denied the allegations in court filings, an updated complaint filed with the court last week named both Dusty Button and her husband as defendants in the abuse.

At least five dancers, some of whom were mentored by Taylor Button, and Dusty Button at times, say he sexually abused them, at times with his wife’s participation, court documents show.

What the dancers allege

Boston Ballet dancer Sage Humphries and dancer Gina Menichino filed the initial complaint against Taylor Button, alleging that he manipulated and groomed them for sexual assault for years.

Menichino took dance lessons from Taylor Button when she was 13, according to the complaint.

Taylor Button allegedly sexually assaulted Menichino on two occasions in 2010 when they were sharing a blanket while watching a movie with other dance students, according to the complaint.

When Taylor Button traveled out of state, he “would continue to communicate with Gina, including by sending and soliciting sexually explicit photos and videos,” said the complaint.

“We look forward to clearing both of their names in court,” attorney Marc John Randazza, who represents the Buttons, told CNN. “We are not trying this matter in the press.”

Randazza filed a motion to dismiss the case denying the allegations, citing Nevada’s statute of limitations, court documents show.

Randazza also said allegations made in the complaint “were written to make the press interested in this case and to enflame the anger of anyone who reads the Complaint,” his motion said.

A judge denied Randazza’s motion to toss the case since it was directed at the original complaint. Other accusers had stepped forward since the motion was filed.

“Our position remains the same,” Randazza told CNN regarding his motion to dismiss.

The lawsuit alleges that on multiple occasions, Dusty Button held down Humphries so she could not move while her husband penetrated her without her consent.

According to the lawsuit, the Buttons engaged in sex trafficking because they enticed Humphries “to cross state lines with the Buttons by using threats, intimidation, and the pretense that they would help further her career and professional development, in exchange for engaging in sex acts.”

Another dancer, identified as Jane Doe 100, was a minor in the care of the Buttons when they allegedly sexually assaulted her in “a room that had a mattress on the floor and an arsenal of guns hanging on the wall,” the complaint said.

“Boston Ballet supports Sage Humphries who is bravely coming forward, sharing her experience to protect others, and seeking accountability and justice,” the dance company said in a statement, but declined to comment specifically on the pending litigation.

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Original Article: Dusty Button, former Boston ballerina, and her husband are accused of sexually abusing young dancers, according to a federal lawsuit (msn.com)

September 30, 2021 0

Deputy Who Helped Saved an Infant from a Drug Overdose, Recalls Harrowing Incident

A sheriff’s deputy in Pennsylvania is being hailed as a hero for helping to save the life of a baby who was suffering from an apparent drug overdose in Harrisburg. Dauphin County Deputy Sheriff Tyler Bream recounted his actions in the heat of the moment — and his anger in the aftermath — in an interview earlier this week with WHTM’s Mark Hall. © Provided by Law & Crime tyler bream on saving a child from a drug overdose

Bream, a father of a 2-year-old son, was at the end of a shift on Sept. 23 when he had to spring into action and save an infant who was suffering from a drug overdose.

“My partner actually had the Narcan in his pocket,” Bream said. “You could see the child was pale, the tongue was rolled back in his throat, and it was — it was limp. No more time to spare.”

The deputy said this was the first time he administered Narcan in the field.

“I was definitely shaking,” Bream said.

“I was mad, I was extremely mad,” the three-year veteran added, describing his emotions upon returning to the sheriff’s office. “I just don’t understand how that child had no say in what it was doing.”

Bream said he hugged his son when he got home.

“I hug him because I couldn’t imagine putting my son through that, let alone someone else putting both of their children in that type of situation,” he said. As noted by Bream, the child he helped save that day wasn’t the only one who was put at risk. A 2-year-old sibling was also reportedly taken to the hospital for ingesting what was described as packets of heroin/fentanyl.

The children were reportedly with their mother Khelsea Frick at the time.

Frick has been arrested and charged for allegedly endangering the welfare of a child. From Harrisburg Police:

On Thursday September 23rd 2021, at about 3:30pm, the Harrisburg Police were in the area of 2nd and Market Streets when they were alerted to an unresponsive baby (7 months old) at the intersection. The baby was in the presence of it’s mother and two year old sibling. Upon rendering medical attention to the baby one of the officers noticed a foreign object inside of the babies mouth. Upon removing the object the officer immediately identified the object as a small packet commonly used for storing narcotics (most commonly heroin/fentanyl). The baby was immediately rushed to a local hospital for advanced medical care, where Narcan would be administered, and the baby would later be determined to be in stable condition. The two year old was also transported to a local hospital, where it was later determined that they had also ingested multiple packets of suspected heroin/fentanyl. The mother of the baby and two year old, Khelsea Frick of Harrisburg, was charged with multiple criminal charges as a result of the investigation, which is ongoing at this time.

Harrisburg police said that a warrant was also issued for the arrest of Tyler Darnell Norman.

“Tyler Norman is wanted in connection to a child endangering case where a 7 month old baby, and two year old toddler, were found to have ingested packages of suspected heroin/fentanyl,” authorities said.

“Thanks to the quick actions of Harrisburg CIty PD Detectives, Deputy Sheriff Tyler Bream and Deputy Alex Lherisson, an 8 month old infant and 2 year old toddler are still alive,” Sheriff Nicholas Chimienti Jr. said in a Facebook post. “No way should we refer to these people as ‘Parents’ of these kids, nor refer to them as the ‘Mother/Father.’ The DEVIL himself could not come up with words to describe the people who were responsible for the well being and care of these kids.”

“These are great stories when the ‘Sheepdogs’ protect those who cannot protect themselves. Wishing a speedy recovery to these children as Hbg. Hospital Doctors and Nurses continue to save lives everyday,” he added.

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The post ‘I Was Mad, I Was Extremely Mad’: Pa. Deputy, a Father Who Helped Saved an Infant from a Drug Overdose, Recalls Harrowing Incident first appeared on Law & Crime.

September 30, 2021 0

Kamala Harris’ office reportedly irked with The View following COVID incident

Vice President Kamala Harris’ office has been left frustrated and vexed following a disastrous stint on The View last week, during which co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Ava Navarro were revealed to have tested positive for COVID-19 moments before Harris was scheduled to appear, CNN reports according to people familiar with the matter.

The vice president’s staff reportedly didn’t learn the truth of what was happening until Hostin and Navarro were abruptly pulled from set, per CNN. Harris’ team had required all hosts to take a PCR test within 24 hours of the interview, and had been led the night before to believe those tests had come back negative.

Of course, the calamaity that ensued on-air did not follow suit, leaving team VP “puzzled and seeking answers about what happened,” reports CNN. One person familiar with the matter said The View “has not been forthcoming” with Harris’ staff, who are “deeply concerned.”

Following their positive results, both Hostin and Navarro tested negative three subsequent times, writes CNN.

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Kamala Harris’ office reportedly irked with The View following COVID incident (msn.com)

September 30, 2021 1

‘Please don’t yell at my kids today’: Mom confronts bus driver who allegedly makes her kids cry every day

A viral TikTok video shows a mom confronting a bus driver who allegedly makes her kids cry every day. In the video, she gets yelled at by the bus driver herself.

TikToker @cassahfrass1, who seems to go by Cassah and is based in Tennessee, filmed and posted the video to TikTok on Tuesday, with the caption: “The school can’t do anything, they come home crying every day.”

As the bus lands at the pickup spot, the overlay text reads: “This bus driver makes my kids cry every day.”

She tells her kids she loves them as they board the school bus. Then, she tells the Washington County school bus driver, who is handing face masks to the children, “Please don’t yell at my kids today.”

The driver says “I don’t yell at your kids” in response.

“No, I do not; you shut your mouth,” she then tells the concerned parent, pointing at her.

“Who do you think you are?” the mom asks.

“Who do you think you are?” the driver volleys right back to her.

“I’m asking you not to yell at my kids,” the mom says.

“How dare you tell me not to yell at your kids,” the bus driver says.

The mom tells her that her children “cry every day.”

The bus driver then drives off, but not before seemingly flipping the mom off on her way out.

Many viewers speculated that the driver does yell at the children considering how she spoke to the mother.

One wrote, “She definitely yells at the kids.” Another wrote, “She screamed at you immediately; no doubt in my mind she yells at those poor babies.”

Many suggested she “call the school board or school bus department. They will do something about it. Poor babies.”

And many others wondered why the mother did not take the children to school herself (not a luxury everyone has), versus subjecting them to the bus driver’s alleged abuse.

Cassah posted a response on Wednesday, in which she alleged a litany of offenses by the driver. She says the driver told her daughter that her mom is an “a**hole” and pushed one of her children around on the bus. She says she “should’ve yanked them off the bus.” However, she says she was asked by the management of the bus drivers to have her kids continue to ride the bus so that they could “monitor” the driver’s actions.

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The post ‘Please don’t yell at my kids today’: Mom confronts bus driver who allegedly makes her kids cry every day appeared first on The Daily Dot.

September 30, 2021 2

UFO Sighting Turns Out to Be Chinese Rocket

Queensland and NSW residents took to social media to share eerie clips of a white disc-shaped object, speculating whether aliens had dropped by to catch the latest goings-on of Planet Earth.

But it turns out the aliens aren’t coming to save us from lockdown any time soon. Astrophysicist Brad Tucker has said the sighting was actually the plume of a Chinese rocket – the Long March 3B.

“The plume is like exhaust, gas coming out during launch of the rocket,” Dr. Tucker explained. “Sometimes, if it happens in the evening, you can see the stranger shape and sight.”

The rocket was launched from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center the Sept. 27, the day of the sightings. It is rumored to be transporting into orbit a new generation of navigation satellite which broadcasts in 4K and 8K.

“Sightings like this can be rare and surprising – given their weird shape and the way they move in the sky,” Dr. Tucker said.

“However, as many rocket launches happen – this was actually China’s second launch of the day, they are becoming more and more common.”

The satellite was reportedly launched in preparation for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

The “sighting” comes after experts weighed in on the existence of aliens earlier this year, with University of Southern Queensland Astrobiologist Jonti Horner saying the answer was a “definite yes.”

Speaking to The Conversation in June, Professor Horner said these other life forms may be too far away for us to ever make contact, which makes finding proof “astonishingly hard.”

September 29, 2021 0

Woman Claims She Has Threesomes With God And Her Husband

A Christian OnlyFans model says she has regular ‘threesomes’ with God, while claiming that it’s best sex she’s ever had.

Nita Marie is from Colorado, US and revealed that she and her partner like to ‘invite’ the Lord to join them in bed.

The 45-year-old also says she does it with God at least ‘twice a week’.

Although the Lord Almighty has never appeared ‘physically’, Nita says she can feel his presence while getting it on with her husband.

She said: “When you invite God to be a part of sex you change the act from something purely physical to something sacred and spiritual.

“I’ve been asking Him to join me and my husband since the very first time we made love.

“There is nothing more fulfilling or satisfying than when you experience God’s love for you while pleasuring your partner.”

She’s previously made the headlines because of her OnlyFans career, saying that God told her to ‘carry on stripping’.

Speaking about how she invites God into her bed, Nita explains that while it may sound odd to non-believers, she simply says a prayer and then feels God in the space around her.

Her husband, not named for privacy reasons, isn’t always aware of the divine third party’s presence either.

Nita added: “I say a prayer in my head or out loud, it makes no difference.

“My husband doesn’t always know when I ask God to be a part of our lovemaking – he would never mind though.

“The best way to explain what it’s like experiencing God while having sex is a feeling of pure love and fulfilment.

“Sometimes I set an intention for something I want to manifest into my life before I have sex and by asking God to be present, it means you’re more likely to be able to manifest that dream into reality.”

The mum-of-two, who shares content with her one million Instagram followers (@nitamariecoaching), also claims including God in her lovemaking improves her orgasms.

She went on to say: “Whenever I feel him with us it’s always the best sex, so intense and full of passion and love.

“I don’t ask God to join me and my husband every time we have sex but at least twice a week.

“Everyone should try inviting god into their lovemaking at least once, you’ll be opening yourself up to experiencing heaven.”

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Original Article: https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-woman-claims-she-has-threesomes-with-god-and-her-husband-20210928

September 29, 2021 2

We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan

There was a moment in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan when it became clear why President Joe Biden decided to get the troops out of there as quickly as possible.

It came when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained why he and the other chiefs—the top officers of the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines—all agreed that we needed to pull out by Aug. 31.

The Doha agreement, which President Trump had signed with the Taliban in early 2020 (with no participation by the Afghan government), required a total withdrawal of foreign forces. If U.S. troops had stayed beyond August, Milley said, the Taliban would have resumed the fighting, and, in order to stave off the attacks, “we would have needed 30,000 troops” and would have suffered “many casualties.”

And yet, as Milley also testified on Tuesday, he, the chiefs, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and other military officers advised Biden to keep 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the Aug. 31 deadline. The difference is that those troops wouldn’t be attached to any “military mission.” Instead, they would “transition” to a “diplomatic mission.”

However, it is extremely unlikely that the Taliban would have observed the semantic distinction. In their eyes, 2,500 U.S. troops would be seen as 2,500 U.S. troops, regardless of whether their mission was officially said to be “military” or “diplomatic.” Therefore, the Taliban would resume fighting, as Milley said they would, and Biden would then have been faced with a horrendous choice—to pull out while under attack or send in another 30,000 troops.

Some historical-psychological perspective is worth noting. In the first nine months of Barack Obama’s presidency, the generals were pushing for a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan—an increase of 40,000 troops—and a shift to a counterinsurgency (aka “nation-building”) strategy.

Biden, who was then vice president, was alone in suggesting an increase of just 10,000 troops, to be used solely for training the Afghan army and for fighting terrorists along the Afghan-Pakistani border. As Obama recalls in his memoir, Biden urged the new and relatively inexperienced president not to be “boxed in” by the generals. Give them 40,000 troops now, and in 18 months, they’ll say they need another 40,000 to win the war. As Obama later acknowledged, Biden was right.

And so, as Milley was advising President Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, even while acknowledging that another 30,000 might be needed if the Taliban resumed fighting, it’s easy to imagine Biden thinking, “They’re trying to box me in, just like they did before, just like they’ve always done since the Vietnam War,” which was raging when Biden first entered the Senate in 1973 and has shaped his views on war and peace ever since.

Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of Central Command, both acknowledged at the hearing that the U.S. military was flying blind through much of its 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history.

The officers of the day tried to mold the Afghan army in their own image, making them too dependent on U.S. technology and support, so that once we withdrew, collapse was inevitable. Milley also noted that he and the other officers paid too little attention to Afghan culture and to the corrosive effects of the Afghan government’s corruption and lack of popular legitimacy.

So, Biden might well have been thinking, why should he pay attention to anything these guys had to say on the war in Afghanistan, which they’ve been wrong about from the very beginning?

Biden made several missteps, some of them disastrous, in the pace and sequence of the withdrawal. Most of all, he should have pulled out all the spies, contractors, U.S. citizens, and Afghan helpers before pulling out all the troops. But on the big picture, he was right, and the generals, as they now grudgingly admit, were wrong.

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Original Article: We Now Know Why Biden Was in a Hurry to Exit Afghanistan (msn.com)

September 29, 2021 4

Disney worker says married men hit on her when she played Tinker Bell

A former Disney worker revealed that married men used to hit on her when she was in character as Tinker Bell in a viral TikTok video.

Sarah Daniels, @sarahdanielstv on the platform, was responding to a question from a viewer, who asked: “How many Dads end up hitting on you BECAUSE you’re the character? As opposed to because you’re an attractive woman?”

In her TikTok bio, Daniels says she is an “ex-Disney princess.”

“I feel like if dudes are going to be creeps and hit on you, they’re going to hit on you whether you’re a character or not,” Daniels says in response.

“But there were many moments, especially as Tinker Bell, where I had married men hand me keys to their hotel room and tell me where they were staying,” the former Disney cast member continues.

Daniels is a TikToker with over 50,000 followers. She often answers questions about what it’s like to play a Disney princess in Disneyland. Her videos center around topics like “Do the costumes smell” and “How heavy is Ariel’s fin?”

Accumulating over 355,000 views and 34,000 likes in a matter of five days, the Tinker Bell video is one of her most popular videos.

Many of the 172 comments question why Tinker Bell, in particular, is sexualized and slam the men in question.

“Ok… so like why is it always Tinkerbell?? Cause when I’d cosplay her… THE HORROR STORIES,” one commenter said.

“So messed up that they go to a place for CHILDREN with CHILDREN around and act like this,” says @Raz.

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The post ‘I had married men hand me keys to their hotel room’: Ex-Disney worker says married men hit on her when she played Tinker Bell appeared first on The Daily Dot.

September 29, 2021 0