‘Tragic accident' as 13 year-old boy dies falling from Memorial Day float
The teen in question was one of several people riding on a trailer pulled by a Ford F-150 pickup truck as part of the parade to remember America's servicemen and women in the town of Green on Monday morning when he fell from the front of the platform and was crushed by its rear tires, according to the Summit County Sheriff's Office.
He sustained severe injuries and was raced to Akron Children's Hospital by the Green Fire Department, who were already on the scene, only to be pronounced dead on arrival, the emergency services said in a statement of their own.
The boy has not been named but is understood to be from North Canton.
The sheriff's office said the incident remains under investigation and offered its 'sincere condolences and prayers' to the boy's family.
'We didn't really know what was going on and then word got to us through a friend of ours that there was an accident,' one attendee told a local ABC News affiliate.
'It was just instant sorrow, it just… really, kind of, deflated the joy of the situation, you know? It's just sad.'
Rocco Yeargin, the town's mayor, said: 'Our hearts go out to the family at this time of terrible loss, we look to support them as a Green community any way that we can.
'Our school district has reached out to the school district of North Canton to offer counselors that will be in action to help their students walk through this issue.'
The North Canton City Schools District said in its own statement: 'We are deeply saddened to have been informed of the passing of one of our North Canton City Schools students.
'There is no greater tragedy than the death of a young person, and we offer our sincere condolences and support to the family.
'Our crisis management team is taking action and will provide counselors and support to students and staff throughout the district grieving this tragic loss.
'To respect the privacy of the family and the ongoing Summit County Sheriff's Office investigation, that is all the information we have to share at this time.'
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Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
My Cousin And I Exchanged Thousands Of Texts Before She Died — But I Never Asked The 1 Question I Should Have
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I remembered how much Tarlie wanted to live for her parents and herself. She told me her two big fears were her own suffering before death and the suffering of her mother and father. 'Odds are I will die in the coming year of a long, excruciating death, leaving two miserable parents behind,' she had texted. As I sat outside in the dimming summer light, alive in the world that no longer held my beloved cousin, I wept and agonized over how to respond to my aunt. 'Crying for your loss and Uncle Jim's,' I wrote. 'You're such an amazing mom. Thank you for raising such an incredible human being. I love her so much and will all my life.' It was fitting Aunt Lisa's and my first words together after Tarlie's death were via text messages. In the years after her diagnosis, Tarlie and I sent each other more than 850 pages of texts. Our phone calls often lasted up to two hours, which was a time commitment we couldn't always make, but we could text from anywhere at any time. We texted when Tarlie found an unusual lump on her stomach while traveling with her mom in Madagascar, more than four years after her initial diagnosis. We texted a few weeks later after a doctor told her the melanoma had advanced to stage IV, the final stage. We texted as she waited in an airport security line a few days later, flying from her home in New York City to her Indiana hometown to tell her parents in person. Later, we texted as she lay in a hospital bed struggling to breathe through the side effects of immunotherapy, waiting to see if she'd need to be intubated. 'If I die, I want to just die and not know it,' she wrote before pulling through that particular time. But even though Tarlie and I talked frequently about her potentially dying young, I sometimes felt like a hypocrite. Intellectually, I knew she could die. She had asked me to sit on the phone with her several times while she opened terrifying test results. I understood the realities of her prognosis. 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As she pulled the dress over her head, I realized there are only a few other people whom I have helped zip into dresses. As a child, my mother in her loose, floral dresses for church. As an adult, my own daughter. A handful of close friends. And now Aunt Lisa. 'I think it's a little too loose. It's losing your waist a bit,' I said. 'I don't think I have a waist anymore.' We both laughed. Then Aunt Lisa took down a dark navy bubble dress with a pattern of white flecks. 'What about this?' She put it on and stepped in front of her mirror. When she turned around and asked me what I thought, she looked more like Tarlie's mother than ever. The same bright smile, smooth nose and sense of style. A woman of extraordinary grace and power who fiercely loved her daughter into life and then beyond it. Related: It's been three years since Tarlie died. After Tarlie's body was composted, Aunt Lisa took the fertile soil to build a garden in front of her home and filled it with native plants that draw butterflies and bees to pollinate the land that raised her daughter. She lovingly tends it all year round. On what would have been Tarlie's 34th birthday, her close friends wished her a happy birthday in the WhatsApp group that Tarlie created years ago to update us on the cancer's progression. We stay in community with each other and the earth she loved. It would make her happy to know that we try to live the values that meant so much to her. I never asked Tarlie what she wanted me to do if she died young. But as we texted and talked from a Madagascar hotel to a New York hospital bed, she was teaching herself and me how to live with the despair and hope of an uncertain future. To be afraid of the pain but remain present with the ones we love. To be overwhelmed by a mixture of agonizing grief and boundless gratitude for that miraculous love. To keep showing up for the ones left behind. To live in ways that honor the courage and compassion Tarlie brought to the world. Virgie Townsend is the award-winning author of the short story collection 'Because We Were Christian Girls,' inspired by her own experiences growing up and leaving Christian fundamentalism. She has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Sun Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and other outlets. You can find her online at Do you have a compelling personal story you'd like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we're looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@ Related... My Husband Died Abroad. As I Boarded The Plane Home, A Flight Attendant's Innocent Comment Broke Me. After My Wife Died, I Found A 4-Word Text Message In Her Phone That Hit Me Like A Sledgehammer I Was Devastated When The Love Of My Life Died. 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Buzz Feed
4 days ago
- Buzz Feed
36 Jaw-Dropping Stories About Impossible In-Laws
Reddit user u/fuzzyloulou recently posed the question: "Married people of Reddit, what's something you just hate about your in-laws?" "Hate" is a pretty strong word, but most people responded with some genuine grievances they have with their in-laws' behavior. BuzzFeed Community members also chimed in with some gripes of their own. Here's what people shared: "We have more money than my MIL, and she is so jealous of my husband's success. She'll make fun of our vacations, say she'd never live in a 'snobby' place, wouldn't work as a corporate exec, or drive cars that weren't made in America. We don't put anything on Facebook or anywhere else. I guess his sister tells her? But she always posts about how her son thinks he is so great. You know what? He fucking is. Sorry, he came from broke ass, miserable people and made a success of himself. You'd think she'd be proud of him. It's all envy disguised as disdain. What mother gets mad when her kid does well in life?" "My MIL? I love her; she's great. My FIL? He cheated on my MIL with her sister, and still sees said sister every week while somehow still remaining married to my MIL. He bought himself and the sister a new car while my MIL drives a 20-year-old F-150. When he's home, all he does is drink Budweiser from 11:00 a.m. on and watch TV. And, he complains about everyone else in the family. He doesn't come to his grandkids' birthday parties, and instead just hands us cash to go buy something and to say it's from him. On several occasions, he's been at nice dinners and gotten drunk and belligerent to the point of embarrassing everyone with him." "The way they travel. They constantly need to overpack, shop for stuff to take home, etc.. It always results in half a dozen overweight suitcases and carry-ons that they then ALWAYS have to reorganize to handle the weight. They ALWAYS expect everyone in the group to pack light to accommodate in case they have to dump their stuff on you. I hate it, and it ticks me off every time." "When we go to my in-laws, we never leave the house. We sit in the den, watch TV 12 hours a day, and listen to my FIL crap on anything and everything he sees on the idiot box. We finally told them that the condition for our coming was to turn off Fox News. It's not just because he's 84 and a grumpy old man. He's been doing this for the past 30 years. Everybody and everything is 'stupid,' except for him. It's just this constant stream of negativity. My MIL isn't much better. She will sit there and talk about everybody else under the sun and how foolish those people are. I've started leaving for a couple of hours for a sanity break. I have to demand that my children go visit them once a year." "My MIL treats her son like a baby. She also says things like, 'No one can love you like I love you,' and seems to assume I'm just using her son for money and childcare…because she was like that when raising her kids. Other than that, she's a super funny and charismatic person. I try to give her the benefit of the doubt, as she's just a protective mom, but I can say I will not be treating my children or in-laws like that." "My MIL asked my husband's whole family to wear crosses to our wedding so it wouldn't be 'godless and satanic.' Why? Because my mother was officiating. She stalks my 11-year-old stepdaughter, who is no contact with said MIL due to extreme panic attacks whenever she has to see her grandmother. gave me an individually wrapped dish sponge for Christmas last year." "My MIL isn't too nice to the kids. Granted, she has 15 grandkids, but you can tell which ones she likes which she likes less. My kids are in the middle." "My in-laws are terrible with money. They filed for bankruptcy and then decided not to make some payments. So my husband and I took over their finances and put them on a budget to make ends meet. Are they grateful? Nope!! When we tell them they don't have money to go out to eat, we get told that we don't care about them. It got so bad that we've told them not to talk to us anymore. We manage the finances, but any communication to us has to go through one of my husband's siblings." "Their concept of time. They're all always shamelessly late to everything. And, they act like it's a cardinal sin to be early. They think they're 'early' if they stroll in just in the nick of time. For example, I've told them, 'We have to be there at 7:00, and it's a 20-minute drive, so we should leave by 6:35 at the latest. So, you need to be at our house at 6:30 so we can load the car.' 'Why so early? I'll be at your house at 6:45.' Then, they show up at 6:55 and can't understand why I'm angry. And, we get to where we're supposed to be at 7:15, and they can't understand why everyone there is mad. At least my husband has gotten better about it. He still hates to be anywhere early, but he plans and takes steps to be on time, not late." "My former MIL was always on the selfish side and 100% had her favorites. She went out of her way to tell me she took a religious oath a long time ago to prevent her children from marrying people of MY religion, but she was okay with it since I'm not practicing. Fast forward many years, sadly, our only child passed away from childhood cancer, and my mother passed less than a year later. The upcoming Mother's Day was the first for me without either my child or my mother, so I was a wreck. I'm a motherless child and a childless mother, but she had to play it up that SHE was more distraught because of the loss of her grandchild than I was over both, so that she could get my husband's attention. She is a miserable woman who can't stand not being the center of attention." "They have four kids, and the only boy is their favorite. They ignore their daughters, which includes my wife. The heartbreak she feels every time they blow her off to go spend more time with their son is gut-wrenching. They took him to Vegas on her birthday two years in a row." "The way they come over to my house unannounced. They just show up, then get mad at me for being in the shower or not at home because I'm running errands. I know I'm a stay-at-home mom, but dang, I still have to go run errands outside the house. I also don't like the way they insist they can have our baby whenever they please, without our permission." "My in-laws are racist, and I'm Mexican. They've never made comments directed towards me specifically, but they have made comments about Mexican immigrants. My parents are immigrants, and my in-laws know this. I stopped going to any event with them, and thankfully, they moved out of state. My partner spends holidays with them, and I stay and enjoy the holidays with my family. I haven't seen them in two years." "My FIL called my wife and her three sisters 'whores' all while standing in MY house. Reason, you ask? They all got married outside of the Catholic faith. We haven't spoken in six years. Best six years of my life." "My MIL is the cheapest woman I have ever met. I have hundreds of stories and examples. Last Christmas, she gave me a can of nuts from Goodwill. She said she didn't feel comfortable getting us a wedding gift. She won a cruise to Alaska and took our son, which was very sweet, but she refused to pay for anything during the trip. They ate sandwiches in the room and spent most days walking around Juneau. He wanted to come home on day two. I have fixed things, helped her move, mowed her lawn, and done a dozen other things. She has never once bought dinner as a thank you or to celebrate a special event. Years ago, we had a bad time and asked if we could live in her house for two months. She insisted on charging us rent. She has missed funerals and weddings because she will not pay for travel or a hotel. I will stop now because I could go on forever." "I'm pretty sure my MIL has never heard the word 'no.' Apparently, I introduced it to her because she thinks she can just announce she wants to visit or say she wants this or that, and expects everyone to comply. Here I came along and was like, NOPE! Safe to say we don't have a great relationship and have moved away from her TWICE!" "The gossiping about us to anyone who will listen. And, the guilt trips. Every single guilt trip tactic to get us to drag our family of four across the country to go see them. Also, they were absolute trash parents to my husband. They both allowed physical, mental, and verbal abuse to run rampant, and now have the audacity to expect a relationship with their adult child." "Where to start? They are racist bigots who, despite only being Christmas Christians who haven't been to church in 40 years, didn't like their son marrying a Jew. We bought their house over 20 years ago, and my MIL has not said anything nice about anything we've changed, as though it should have been kept a shrine to her style. They moved away years ago and have only visited their son maybe three times. They made a trip to the state once without telling him because they were visiting his uncle and didn't visit their son. And when we first bought the house, I, a Jew, did my best to host a festive Christmas for them, only to be told they wouldn't return for Christmas ever again because it 'wasn't what they were expecting.' I could go on for hours with examples." "My MIL still blames me for moving her daughter away and can't believe we moved for better economic opportunities 11 years ago. She will call my wife and cry almost every other night about how she doesn't know how much time she has left, and she refuses to visit, even when we offer to pay the travel expenses. She puts on this poor-me sob story every time we visit. My GOD, just STFU!" "How critical they are of my partner. He is loving, kind, smart, and unique. Nothing he ever does will ever be enough for them. As a result, he has major anxiety and perfectionist issues. He's hard on himself and constantly apologizes for minor things. I wish he knew how awesome he is. For this reason, I've chewed out both his dad and mom, but they were clueless. What issues? If things were different, I'd love to be close to them, but I see how dysfunctional they are and am totally okay with zero contact." "Mine used my wedding as their own personal photoshoot, often taking their son/my groom away to snap family pictures. They then posted all the pictures of themselves in the group chat, and only one of me, which was just of my back at the altar. They also managed to get a photo of just the groom cutting the cake alone, without me in the photo, though we were obviously standing close together. I don't think they were malicious; they're just very self-centered people with zero social awareness." "The number one thing is that they are drama vampires. They can't live without it. Everything is about them; if it isn't, it will be soon. They are cartoonishly childish, and it's as ridiculous as it is sad. I feel terrible for my spouse and her siblings. Every family get-together is a mess. Number two is that they can't make a plan without overcomplicating the ever-loving crap out of it, which my wife has inherited." "I judge my step-MIL because she posts EVERYTHING on Facebook. I swear she can't take a poop without posting." "They are good people, but also the pickiest eaters I have ever met. It has to be genetic. Their entire diet consists of Rice-A-Roni, overcooked, baked chicken, and Ragu pasta. They will not venture out and try anything that they deem too 'exotic' or potentially mildly spicy. For example, chicken tacos sound too wild for them. It has to be Taco Bell-style ground beef." "I get along great with my MIL and FIL as individual people and have close relationships with both, but good god, they have a horrible relationship. It's really awkward sometimes. I have no idea how or why they are still together. They literally hate each other. Early in our relationship, I attempted to gently inquire about what I had observed after getting to know my wife's parents a bit. Before I even finished asking, she casually said, 'Yeah, they should have divorced a long, long time ago. We (her siblings) all think they need to give it up.'" "How fake they are. They just care about their image and how they appear to others. Very little, if anything, is genuine about them." "I absolutely love my in-laws, but compared to my family, they are REALLY loud. Like, instead of taking turns talking, they just talk louder over each other until someone listens. I leave with a headache, including when I sneak to an empty room for peace." "The constant criticism. I married their only son, and nothing I do is good enough. My house is never clean enough, my 1-year-old doesn't 'behave,' and my cooking sucks. The passive aggressiveness is so overwhelming." "My husband's mother and two sisters really went out of their way to make me feel unwanted and disliked early in our marriage. They judged me, gave me the cold shoulder, and criticized everything I did. Joke's on them. My husband and I have been married for 30 years. So, I learned a lesson: Screw the naysayers. Haters gonna hate." "They are terrible with money and have tried to drag my immediate family down with them. I've had to stop acting like an ATM for them, and they're resentful that we won't support their BS anymore." "My MIL refuses to discuss anything that bothers her. She just goes dead silent for a moment, then pivots to a different subject." "My step-MIL could definitely be represented here. She's a piece of work. She's a teacher but literally hates children; all she does is complain about her horrible students, who are kindergarten kids. And often she treats the grandkids like she would rather be anywhere else but with them. She also has some really bizarre hang-ups about my husband's mom. My FIL and MIL divorced almost 30 years ago, and yet, step-MIL felt it necessary to bring up during my recent baby shower that she and FIL had now been married longer than he and MIL. She did this out loud to other people while my saint of a MIL was no more than three feet away. Why would that even matter?! She's an odd bird." "My in-laws are very nice people, but they have two things that really bug me. They have never-ending visits, and they do this with their entire family. I don't want to have house guests for two weeks. Second, they don't help at all when they visit. You used a cup, and you just saw me load the dishwasher? Put the cup in the dishwasher, not the sink. My son is autistic and has been known to get out of the house. Just keep an eye on him if I step away for a minute. Don't tell me he left the house and just sit there. When he was a baby, no one ever offered to feed him, change a diaper, or even give me a break to nap and just play with him. It's exhausting." "My wife's dad is a very 'I'm right, you're wrong' kind of person. If he's not right, he refuses to admit it and will just leave and not speak to you for a long time. Then, he'll show back up and act like nothing happened." "I adore my FIL and step-MIL. They are supportive, welcoming, and fun. They are both really Type A and 'super planners,' which can sometimes be a little irritating, but we have a huge family, and their organization makes for seamless and enjoyable family gatherings. I love my MIL, but she is not the most pleasant person to be around. She is very passive-aggressive and is one of those people who always wants to be miserable. When we get together, she spends most of the time complaining about how her sons never want to see her. She also recruits them to do things for her (which they would happily do) by implying that they owe her because 'I gave birth to you!' It's just exhausting." And: "There's nothing I really hate about my in-laws, but my MIL occasionally says some things that give me pause when she's in the room. For example, she wished me a happy birthday recently, to which I casually replied, 'Just another trip around the sun.' My comment resulted in a 20-minute lecture about how the sun actually orbits the Earth, based on her visual observation of it rising in the east and setting in the west every day. I often wonder how much of my partner's childhood trauma is a direct result of her mother's 'unusual' beliefs." What's the most frustrating thing your in-laws do? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form. Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Miami Herald
Federal grand jury charges Florida Keys boat captain in a 2022 parasailing death
A federal grand jury charged a Florida Keys boat captain with the death of an Illinois woman who was killed after the parasail she and two children were attached to slammed into the Old Seven Mile Bridge on Memorial Day in 2022. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged 52-year-old Daniel Couch with one count of seaman's manslaughter following the Aug. 7 indictment. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted. Couch was at the helm of a 31-foot boat owned by Lighthouse Parasail out of the Middle Keys city of Marathon, towing Supraja Alaparthi, 33, her 10-year-old son and her 9-year old nephew, who were tethered to a parasail harness several feet in the air behind the vessel around 5 p.m. May 30, 2022. READ MORE: Family of mom whose parasail hit Florida Keys' Old Seven Mile Bridge takes new action A strong storm gust snagged the parasail making it difficult for Couch and his mate to lower Alaparthi and the children, investigators say. The 'pegged' parasail also risked dragging the boat, investigators said. It was Couch's next move that proved fatal and landed him in trouble with the law. Instead of steering the boat side to side and employing other options in which experts say were appropriate to lessen the wind underneath the parasail, Couch took a knife and cut the cable that attached the boat to the harness. He thought the move would cause Alaparthi and the boys to drop to the ocean surface so he could pick them up. Instead, the wind dragged the parasail with the family in tow for miles before they crashed into the iconic span that connects Knights Key in Marathon with Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. READ MORE: Captain cut parasailing cable before mom and kids slammed into Keys bridge, police say Alaparthi was pronounced dead at a nearby restaurant that rescuers used as a staging area. Her son suffered minor injuries, and her nephew was seriously injured. Florida Fish and Wlidlife Conservation Commission investigators said Couch did not maneuver his boat under the bridge to try to release the family after they hit the span and were trapped in the parasail. Instead, a flats fishing guide who watched the situation unfold sped his boat to the bridge to rescue the woman and children. His two charter passengers performed CPR on Alaparthi and the seriously injured child as the guide took them to paramedics waiting at the restaurant. READ MORE: Boat driver charged in deadly parasailing crash into a Florida Keys bridge The Monroe County State Attorney's Office charged Couch with manslaughter in September 2022. Though he has pleaded not guilty, that case is still pending, said Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield. In the FWC report that led to the state charge, invistigators noted the National Weather Service forecasted high winds, heavy rains and thunderstorms just before Couch took the family out on the water that day. It was not immediately known Monday whether Couch was in custody. Information about his legal representation in the federal case was not immediately available.
