‘Bittersweet': Local highway dedicated to Marine killed at military base
The lasting tribute is a testament to how the family of the young serviceman turned their shock and anger over the way he died into a quiet campaign for recognition of his service.
Relatives said when Austin Schwenk, a 2022 graduate of Riverside High School in Painesville Township, enlisted in the Marine Corps, it was the realization of a lifelong dream as he followed in the footsteps of his hero, his father.
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But for Austin's family, the dream became a nightmare when they were notified by the USMC in October 2023 that the 19-year-old Lance Corporal had been shot to death by a fellow Marine in the barracks at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. It was the same Marine base where Austin was born in 2004.
'If you get lost in the war, that's one thing, but to have another Marine walk into your room and shoot you, uncalled for, uncalled for, never ever in a million years. The safest place in the world should have been at Camp Lejeune,' his grandmother, Virginia Gorg, said.
Austin's family was overcome with grief when his remains were returned to the Greater Cleveland Area.
They were touched by the way his hometown saluted their loved one during an emotional procession and at his funeral, but they said the heartbreaking pain remains.
'It's like a hole, we all have a piece of our life missing and we can never replace it,' his grandmother said.
The Marine who killed him, Corporal Jesse Thomas Bopp, accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to eight years in prison but never revealed why he took Austin's life.
'It would be nice to have that closure, that he would have to be forced to tell us why he did this, why he thought he could get away with it or whatever it was,' said Gorg.
Schwenk's family decided to channel their anger and sadness and find a way to pay tribute to the 19-year-old.
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On Thursday, a stretch of Route 44 near the Route 20/Painesville exit, was dedicated by the state of Ohio as the Lance Corporal Austin B. Schwenk Memorial Highway.
'It's heartwarming and bittersweet all at the same time, It just means that we're thankful that he's being remembered for what he gave and he gave it all,' his grandmother said.
The family said it is comforting to know that for generations to come, Northeast Ohioans will drive by the memorial sign and ask, 'Who was Austin Schwenk?'
Austin's grandmother said she believes he would be proud of the permanent salute from his hometown.
'The reason it rained today was because he was sending tears from Heaven so we didn't have to cry, but that didn't work,' she said as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
20 Shocking Things People Discovered About Someone They "Knew Well," Which Will Leave You FLOORED
Reddit user _Walking_Detriment_ asked the community, "What's the most shocking thing you found out about someone you know?" Welp, people revealed some pretty unhinged secrets that their family, friends, and close acquaintances thought they could hide. But ultimately, the cat got out of the bag. So, here are some pretty wild, shocking, and dark things people discovered about someone they knew: Note: Some submissions were pulled from this Reddit thread by user u/skadarski. Warning: Some submissions include topics of violence and domestic abuse. Please proceed with caution. 1."I worked with an ex-Marine closely for years. On my last day, I asked him to help me with something, and he said, 'Oh, sure, ask the guy with one leg.' I told him he was full of shit, and he took a hammer and hit his shin, to which I heard metal. Thinking it was a joke, I asked him to lift his pants. SURE ENOUGH, THIS MAN HAD ONE LEG, AND I NEVER KNEW." —u/otis722 2."My wife died two years ago at the young age of 49. A week after her passing, I decided to go through her personal devices to see if there were any other friends or family that needed to be contacted. What I found instead was that my wife had been chasing after other men during our entire 12 years together. When she met me, she had a side boyfriend that she was crushing on, but his life was too much of a mess for her to seriously consider him as a suitor (she was a single mom with two kids, and needed stability). But she loved the attention he showered her with, constantly begging her for sex. And there were other men that she met online. In total, I was up to six boyfriends she had during the time of our relationship. I stopped digging because each new boyfriend discovery absolutely destroyed me." "It did explain, however, why our relationship stalled after we moved in together. She became disinterested in growing deeper in a relationship with me, and was doing the minimum to keep stringing me along because I was paying the bills for her and her kids. And because I genuinely loved her, I was always hoping things would eventually get better between us. But things were never going to get better — only worse, because she was actively sabotaging our chances." —u/workerbee223 Related: 3."We found out AT THE FUNERAL that my wife's grandpa had a second family. There was a group of people huddling around his widow (she was 90 at the time) that no one recognized. They were chatting it up with grandma for quite some time, and eventually, my wife's dad and aunt asked them to leave. There were kids, adults, and seniors in this group — multiple generations of people. My mother-in-law finally fessed up and said they were his 'other family.' Jaws hit the floor, and it was really weird for the rest of the ceremony. They also tried to 'claim' some of his stuff afterwards. I had to watch my grandma's house like a hawk because they would snoop around and try to say things like 'he would want us to have this.'" —u/slaptac 4."In the mid-'90s, I came home from my honeymoon to find a card in my front door from the FBI. My neighbor across the hall popped out and asked if everything was okay because there were a bunch of cops looking for me. It turned out my best friend of five years, who I thought moved away to be with his girlfriend, was seducing women around the country and robbing them, draining their bank accounts, and vanishing. He even stole their cars, drove to his next target city, and either sold the car to a chop shop or ditched it. He left a jacket behind at one of his victims' houses, and it had my name and phone number in his pocket. I went to the federal building in downtown Chicago, answered all of their questions, and convinced them I had no knowledge of any of this. After a few hours, I agreed to let them know if I ever heard from him." "About six months later, he called me out of the blue. He said he was back in Chicago, and he tried to sell me some stereo equipment. I asked to hang out, and he was suspicious. Eventually, I convinced him to go play paintball with me as long as I paid. I called the guy from the FBI whose card I still had, said I was playing paintball with him on a Saturday, and he said, 'Thanks, we'll keep in touch.' Saturday morning came around. After playing paintball for a few hours, we saw two black SUVs pull into the parking lot. My friend thought nothing of it, but it was definitely conspicuous. Here's the kicker: two of the guys we played paintball with turned to my friend and addressed him by his full name (damn, we were shooting paintballs back and forth with these dudes for three hours!). They took him away in the SUVs, and I acted surprised. I never heard from the FBI again. He spent six years in prison. My wife never liked him, and I despised him for what he was doing and was pissed he tried to sell me someone's stuff." —u/Apprehensive_Book520 5."I had recently graduated as a therapist working in a forensic clinic. We were interviewing interns for their placement (part of a graduate program). This was an important interview because a lot of our clinical staff, including me, were hired out of an internship. A lot of the applicants were from the same graduate school that I went to, so I knew a lot of these people personally. One of the applicants was a guy with whom I had a bunch of classes. He was taking the program part-time, so he had been in the program when I started and was still there when I graduated. We had maybe five classes together. I knew him as a very smart, but also very sarcastic, middle-aged guy. I knew he worked as a hairdresser outside of class at his boyfriend's salon, which caused him to be very popular amongst our class for his propensity to give free haircuts." "He gave a great interview, and I was pretty sure he was going to be the guy we hired. But we still had to get the basic background checks back. When we did, as it would turn out, he had committed aggravated assault and a homicide when he was 18, spent two decades incarcerated, and was on lifetime probation. He did his time, and I'm sure right now he's an excellent therapist. But because we worked in a forensics clinic and do state regulation, we couldn't hire anyone on probation/parole on the clinical team." —u/ConneryFTW 6."I found out as an adult that my stepdad (who had been around since I was seven years old) did time in prison for murder. Two decades before he met my mom, he walked in on a man having sex with his then-wife. Clearly, it didn't end well for the other guy. He did three years in prison because of the nature of the crime, and the laws in Texas being lenient on that type of stuff." —u/On-A-Plain187 Related: 7."My mother has a somewhat strange belief that after death, a person must be buried 'whole.' Decades ago, when my grandma had to have her leg amputated because of diabetes, my mother dug a hole behind our house and stored the amputated leg there. I believe it didn't rot due to formalin or something similar. When my grandmother died, my mother took that leg and placed it in her coffin. Due to the coffin's design, no one noticed her real leg was there. Everyone likely assumed it was a prosthetic leg. My mother told me this after several years, and I am still grossed out by it to this day." —u/Magician_Moogle 8."I found out a guy I knew faked a limp so he could get sympathy discounts at the movie theater..." —u/BitterStudy607 9."I have childhood friends who discovered after their dad's death (the kids were adults by then) that their dad had fraudulently taken out full powers of attorney on them. He refinanced his house in their names, and never paid any taxes." —u/Damn_Dog_Inappropes 10."The guy who put the roof on my parents' house and came out and did some repairs and whatnot around their home turned out to be a legit hitman. Years before he was a roofer, he was hired to murder a couple. Then he ended up murdering the people who hired him to do the hit. I believe he eventually confessed to killing four people total, but authorities suspected it could've been more. I kind of vaguely remember the guy. Of course, my dad was like, 'Nice fellow and a good handyman — hate to lose him!'" —u/CalmCatine Related: 11."I worked with two different people at two different places. They both ended up going to prison for making counterfeit US money. Both workplaces were printing companies. I had replaced the first guy, who had been demoted for not being a good leader/supervisor. When the Secret Service approached his mobile home, he stuffed hoards of bills in PLASTIC trash bags and tried to make his escape by running through the woods. These tore multiple holes in the bags, leaving a scattering of counterfeit bills trailing behind him through the forest before his inevitable capture." "I am the one who promoted the second guy to run the scanner on the third shift, back when high-end scanners were a quarter of a million dollars and complex. Only highly-skilled operators could get the best results…he scanned the bills, made the plates and ran the press, all on Saturday nights when production was closed." —u/TurtleRockDuane 12."I found out that my aunt's first husband wasn't killed in a car accident while visiting family overseas like I was told when I was younger. He was in witness protection because he had pissed off some affiliates of an Irish cartel. My aunt even thought he was dead. After four years, the authorities got in touch with her saying that he had been alive, but he was eventually killed by the men he was hiding from. They sent his body back to be buried in the US." —u/RosemaryGoez 13."I know of the girl who was married to my uncle (my dad's brother). They were divorced before I was born. She became a foster parent and was big into exotic animals. She tried to 'trade' one of her adopted kids for a monkey. It was all over the news. I saw it and was like, 'That's messed up.' Then, my aunt called me and asked me about the story, and then told me who it was." —u/UnicornFarts84 14."I worked with a guy in the mid-'80s who killed his best friend. They were drinking at a bar and somehow got into an argument (I was told they were as tight as they could be). The guy punched his best friend. The guy fell, hit his head, and died. He was lucky and somehow got work release. His father picked him up from prison every morning and came to take him back when our shift was over. l always wondered what happened to him and when he was fully released." —u/namvet67 15."I'm sure I'm not the only '70s kid who found this out, but my mom revealed that she and my dad had an 'open marriage.' The kind where he said: 'I'm going to fuck other women, and you can fuck these friends of mine — let me have my fun, or I'm out of here.' Apparently, what followed was three bad years together, as my dad tried to convince my mom to participate in swinging, orgies, a poly relationship — the works. And my mom, who was barely 22 with two babies, went along with all of it to keep him happy and 'save their marriage.'" "It also explains why I was confused that my dad came home with random women. I thought they were my mom's friends, but they really, really weren't." —u/brainisonfire 16."My father told me that my mom (a teacher) used to steal the money for school trips where she worked. For some twisted reason, she moved my sister and me to the same school. I never understood why the other teachers were so bitter towards us. Apparently, there was a big scandal between the teachers, but we had no idea — the worst years of my life, finally explained." —u/nnaralia Related: 17."After my grandmother died, we found out she'd been married before my grandfather, and had four kids. When she and the first guy decided to split, they just dumped the kids off at an orphanage and went their separate ways. She then married my grandpa, had another family, and just never mentioned the fact that she had four other kids. Apparently, my grandpa knew the whole time and never said anything about it either." —u/PersonMcNugget 18."My mom suffered from cancer, and one night, while she was on strong medication for pain, she grabbed my arm and told me, 'I know the truth about your college letters. You didn't get rejected — you got accepted, and that's why you didn't go.'" —u/Captainbuttsreads 19."My mom attempted to miscarry me so she wouldn't have to get an abortion. She is now very jealous that I am leading the life she always wanted (educated, childless, and climbing the corporate ladder), and frequently takes it out on me in passive-aggressive ways. I'm just glad the drinking and drugs she did while she was pregnant didn't seem to have a lasting impact on me (other than maybe the fact that I black out quickly when drinking)." —u/thraelen finally, "About 25 years ago, one of my friends was killed in a house fire. He had been rooming with another friend at their mother's house. Our friend group thought that the fire was just an unfortunate accident for a couple of weeks. The surviving friend even stayed at my house, where all of our friend group kept hugging and comforting him as he weaved heroic stories. He tried getting his mom out of the house first and then tried his best to go back in for our friend, but by then, the flames and smoke were just too bad. Then one day, the police showed up and arrested him." "They also made me and my husband go to the station for questioning since we were letting the dude stay with us. We were questioned for HOURS about the friend, the fire, and what we knew about how the fire started. I'm not sure if they were trying to tag us as accomplices or just trying to piece everything together. Thankfully, it was clear that we were innocent and knew only what our 'friend' had told us. As it turned out, our 'good' friend and his mom decided to burn their house down for the insurance money. They thought having a 'best friend in the whole world' die in that fire would sell the story better. They straight-up murdered our very good friend and committed arson for what would have been about $20,000 in their pockets after the mortgage was paid off. Luckily for the murderous bastard, he was not able (or willing) to post bond, and he stayed in jail, where he currently still rots. Had he bonded out, I truly do not think he would have survived our friend group. We were a pretty vindictive bunch back then." —u/Skippy_T_Magificent Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Solve the daily Crossword
Buzz Feed
6 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
20 Shocking Secrets People Kept From Family Friends
Reddit user _Walking_Detriment_ asked the community, "What's the most shocking thing you found out about someone you know?" Welp, people revealed some pretty unhinged secrets that their family, friends, and close acquaintances thought they could hide. But ultimately, the cat got out of the bag. So, here are some pretty wild, shocking, and dark things people discovered about someone they knew: "I worked with an ex-Marine closely for years. On my last day, I asked him to help me with something, and he said, 'Oh, sure, ask the guy with one leg.' I told him he was full of shit, and he took a hammer and hit his shin, to which I heard metal. Thinking it was a joke, I asked him to lift his pants. SURE ENOUGH, THIS MAN HAD ONE LEG, AND I NEVER KNEW." "My wife died two years ago at the young age of 49. A week after her passing, I decided to go through her personal devices to see if there were any other friends or family that needed to be contacted. What I found instead was that my wife had been chasing after other men during our entire 12 years together. When she met me, she had a side boyfriend that she was crushing on, but his life was too much of a mess for her to seriously consider him as a suitor (she was a single mom with two kids, and needed stability). But she loved the attention he showered her with, constantly begging her for sex. And there were other men that she met online. In total, I was up to six boyfriends she had during the time of our relationship. I stopped digging because each new boyfriend discovery absolutely destroyed me." "We found out AT THE FUNERAL that my wife's grandpa had a second family. There was a group of people huddling around his widow (she was 90 at the time) that no one recognized. They were chatting it up with grandma for quite some time, and eventually, my wife's dad and aunt asked them to leave. There were kids, adults, and seniors in this group — multiple generations of people. My mother-in-law finally fessed up and said they were his 'other family.' Jaws hit the floor, and it was really weird for the rest of the ceremony. They also tried to 'claim' some of his stuff afterwards. I had to watch my grandma's house like a hawk because they would snoop around and try to say things like 'he would want us to have this.'" "In the mid-'90s, I came home from my honeymoon to find a card in my front door from the FBI. My neighbor across the hall popped out and asked if everything was okay because there were a bunch of cops looking for me. It turned out my best friend of five years, who I thought moved away to be with his girlfriend, was seducing women around the country and robbing them, draining their bank accounts, and vanishing. He even stole their cars, drove to his next target city, and either sold the car to a chop shop or ditched it. He left a jacket behind at one of his victims' houses, and it had my name and phone number in his pocket. I went to the federal building in downtown Chicago, answered all of their questions, and convinced them I had no knowledge of any of this. After a few hours, I agreed to let them know if I ever heard from him." "I had recently graduated as a therapist working in a forensic clinic. We were interviewing interns for their placement (part of a graduate program). This was an important interview because a lot of our clinical staff, including me, were hired out of an internship. A lot of the applicants were from the same graduate school that I went to, so I knew a lot of these people personally. One of the applicants was a guy with whom I had a bunch of classes. He was taking the program part-time, so he had been in the program when I started and was still there when I graduated. We had maybe five classes together. I knew him as a very smart, but also very sarcastic, middle-aged guy. I knew he worked as a hairdresser outside of class at his boyfriend's salon, which caused him to be very popular amongst our class for his propensity to give free haircuts." "I found out as an adult that my stepdad (who had been around since I was seven years old) did time in prison for murder. Two decades before he met my mom, he walked in on a man having sex with his then-wife. Clearly, it didn't end well for the other guy. He did three years in prison because of the nature of the crime, and the laws in Texas being lenient on that type of stuff." "My mother has a somewhat strange belief that after death, a person must be buried 'whole.' Decades ago, when my grandma had to have her leg amputated because of diabetes, my mother dug a hole behind our house and stored the amputated leg there. I believe it didn't rot due to formalin or something similar. When my grandmother died, my mother took that leg and placed it in her coffin. Due to the coffin's design, no one noticed her real leg was there. Everyone likely assumed it was a prosthetic leg. My mother told me this after several years, and I am still grossed out by it to this day." "I found out a guy I knew faked a limp so he could get sympathy discounts at the movie theater..." "I have childhood friends who discovered after their dad's death (the kids were adults by then) that their dad had fraudulently taken out full powers of attorney on them. He refinanced his house in their names, and never paid any taxes." "The guy who put the roof on my parents' house and came out and did some repairs and whatnot around their home turned out to be a legit hitman. Years before he was a roofer, he was hired to murder a couple. Then he ended up murdering the people who hired him to do the hit. I believe he eventually confessed to killing four people total, but authorities suspected it could've been more. I kind of vaguely remember the guy. Of course, my dad was like, 'Nice fellow and a good handyman — hate to lose him!'" "I worked with two different people at two different places. They both ended up going to prison for making counterfeit US money. Both workplaces were printing companies. I had replaced the first guy, who had been demoted for not being a good leader/supervisor. When the Secret Service approached his mobile home, he stuffed hoards of bills in PLASTIC trash bags and tried to make his escape by running through the woods. These tore multiple holes in the bags, leaving a scattering of counterfeit bills trailing behind him through the forest before his inevitable capture." "I found out that my aunt's first husband wasn't killed in a car accident while visiting family overseas like I was told when I was younger. He was in witness protection because he had pissed off some affiliates of an Irish cartel. My aunt even thought he was dead. After four years, the authorities got in touch with her saying that he had been alive, but he was eventually killed by the men he was hiding from. They sent his body back to be buried in the US." "I know of the girl who was married to my uncle (my dad's brother). They were divorced before I was born. She became a foster parent and was big into exotic animals. She tried to 'trade' one of her adopted kids for a monkey. It was all over the news. I saw it and was like, 'That's messed up.' Then, my aunt called me and asked me about the story, and then told me who it was." "I worked with a guy in the mid-'80s who killed his best friend. They were drinking at a bar and somehow got into an argument (I was told they were as tight as they could be). The guy punched his best friend. The guy fell, hit his head, and died. He was lucky and somehow got work release. His father picked him up from prison every morning and came to take him back when our shift was over. l always wondered what happened to him and when he was fully released." "I'm sure I'm not the only '70s kid who found this out, but my mom revealed that she and my dad had an 'open marriage.' The kind where he said: 'I'm going to fuck other women, and you can fuck these friends of mine — let me have my fun, or I'm out of here.' Apparently, what followed was three bad years together, as my dad tried to convince my mom to participate in swinging, orgies, a poly relationship — the works. And my mom, who was barely 22 with two babies, went along with all of it to keep him happy and 'save their marriage.'" "My father told me that my mom (a teacher) used to steal the money for school trips where she worked. For some twisted reason, she moved my sister and me to the same school. I never understood why the other teachers were so bitter towards us. Apparently, there was a big scandal between the teachers, but we had no idea — the worst years of my life, finally explained." "After my grandmother died, we found out she'd been married before my grandfather, and had four kids. When she and the first guy decided to split, they just dumped the kids off at an orphanage and went their separate ways. She then married my grandpa, had another family, and just never mentioned the fact that she had four other kids. Apparently, my grandpa knew the whole time and never said anything about it either." "My mom suffered from cancer, and one night, while she was on strong medication for pain, she grabbed my arm and told me, 'I know the truth about your college letters. You didn't get rejected — you got accepted, and that's why you didn't go.'" "My mom attempted to miscarry me so she wouldn't have to get an abortion. She is now very jealous that I am leading the life she always wanted (educated, childless, and climbing the corporate ladder), and frequently takes it out on me in passive-aggressive ways. I'm just glad the drinking and drugs she did while she was pregnant didn't seem to have a lasting impact on me (other than maybe the fact that I black out quickly when drinking)." And finally, "About 25 years ago, one of my friends was killed in a house fire. He had been rooming with another friend at their mother's house. Our friend group thought that the fire was just an unfortunate accident for a couple of weeks. The surviving friend even stayed at my house, where all of our friend group kept hugging and comforting him as he weaved heroic stories. He tried getting his mom out of the house first and then tried his best to go back in for our friend, but by then, the flames and smoke were just too bad. Then one day, the police showed up and arrested him."
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Austin gun shop owner body-slams man on South Congress, claims self-defense
The Brief Austin gun shop owner body-slammed a man, claiming self-defense He was caught on camera after leaving a restaurant on South Congress AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin gun shop owner is claiming self-defense after body-slamming a man on South Congress. The man was caught on camera and spoke about what happened. What happened? The backstory Central Texas Gun Works Owner Michael Cargill has been going to Habana Restaurant in Austin for years, but his most recent visit took a violent turn. "I kind of turned and looked at him," Cargill said. "I guess the way I looked at him – he didn't like that." Cargill claims a man in the restaurant parking lot threatened him with a large knife. "He said he was going to flatten my tires, and I'm like, no you're not going to flatten tires," Cargill said. "He said well, I'm going to stab you instead." Cargill says he always carries a firearm but wanted to deescalate the situation by disarming the man and getting him away from the business. Moments later, Cargill body slammed the individual on South Congress Avenue, a moment he says he didn't realize was captured by another person outside the restaurant. Cargill says Austin police arrived shortly after, but the man had already left the scene. "If someone is trying to kill me, I have the right to protect myself and stop that immediate threat," Cargill said. Dig deeper Texas-based attorney Jeremy Rosenthal spoke to FOX 7 after watching the video Cargill posted to his social media. "By body slamming him, by assaulting him, I think he was well within his rights, assuming that's what happened," Rosenthal said. Cargill claims he told Austin police what happened, which led officers to go looking for the individual with no success and a report was ultimately not filed. "If they can't find them, they're going to move on to the next call," Cargill said. Despite the lack of a report, Rosenthal believes legal action could still be pursued by law enforcement. "You would think the state would be interested," Rosenthal said. "If there's a guy running around with a knife threatening random people, that's pretty scary." FOX 7 also asked Rosenthal if self-defense would still be in play if the man seen in the video was in fact retreating from Cargill. "It's all sort of happening at the same time and if there's a clear break in action to put it into movie terms, then yes, once the encounter is over, then you would think that would have a big legal impact here," Rosenthal said. "It's not clear that's what was happening." The Source Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Alec Nolan Solve the daily Crossword
