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Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell
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stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are
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so shocking that many are left wondering how is this
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even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,
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and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,
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dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so
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evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended
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for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm
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not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's
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kJ here. I'm back with another episode of Unspeakable. What's
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going on with you? How was your Easter? Mine was fantastic.
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I had so much fun and it was beautiful and
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I got to wear a new dress with pockets and
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we all know that's a big deal. I hope that
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you had a great one. I got to get some
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shout outs here to some people, and I'm going to
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start in I hope I say this right with Tumpka Alabama?
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Did I say that right? I sure hope. So that's
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where missus Holly Drew is and I want to say, hey,
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how are you doing, Holly over there in Alabama? As
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well as right here now, I know this young lady
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in shall met Louisiana. This is Nicole Hunt. How are
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you doing, Nicole? I know we spoke recently and you're
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a therapist if I recall correctly, And she gave me
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some feedback on one of my last episodes about I
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believe it was autism. I believe, but we had a
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great talk and I enjoyed getting to know her. And
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her spouse is also Coleman, so I have to say
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hello to Coleman. How are you if you're listening, And
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I just love y'all so much for supporting me and
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continue to support me. I talk cold years ago. Coleman
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was also my student of the year, so I didn't forget.
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And then I've got two people that did not give
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me locations, and that's okay. I'm still going to give
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you a shout out, and that's going to be Lacey
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Shelton and Bailey Garcia. How are y'all doing, guys? I
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hope you're doing fantastic. I'm thrilled to have you as
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a crime family member and supporting me, and so thank
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you so very much wherever you are in the world.
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But let's get started in today's episode. So last week
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I had the Dylan Roof case for you. If you
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haven't listened to that yet, go listen to it before
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you start this one, which was absolutely horrible in every way.
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And I mentioned at the beginning of that one that
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I was surprised at how two huge cases could be
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linked but in no way related. Well, today you're going
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to find out exactly what I meant by that. And
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I want to talk first about something called chaos theory.
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I don't know if you've heard of it, but I
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want to bring it up for you. So, chaos theory
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is a branch of mathematics, and it deals with complex
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systems that the behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes
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in the conditions and basically, really really small changes can
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give rise to strikingly great consequences. Is the overall process
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behind chaos theory. And I'm no math expert, and I
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never claimed to be, and I never will, but I
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would probably actually call myself a bonafide moron if it
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comes down to it when it comes to math. Don't
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ever depend on me if your life depends on math,
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but the concept makes sense to me in regards to
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the chaos theory, and it leads to my point in
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today's case, because Dylan Ruf's actions in the church set
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off a chain of events that one would probably argue
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falls straight into that chaos theory category. And it made
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me kind of think of the butterfly effect, if you've
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heard of that, where the idea there is that if
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there's a minute localized change in a complex system, it
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makes it a huge change down the way. There was
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a movie about it too, where small thing like a
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butterfly flapping its wings can cause a storm or something
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on the other side of the world. But that's kind
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of what I'm thinking about when I'm introing into the
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one for today, because in this case, what happened in
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South Carolina is forever gonna change the course of people's
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lives in Virginia. So come with me to Roanoke, Virginia.
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And this is home to the new station WDBJ seven,
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which covers everything from the morning commute to the arts
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to crime. It's all of it, and it's where people
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get their news. And it's funny to me how news
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reporters in your local area become people that you almost
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feel like you know them. And when I see sometimes
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local reporters out in the out in the wild. I
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stare at them for a second because I'm like, wait,
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I know them, and then I realize, no, I don't.
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I have no clue who they are in person. I
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just know them from TV and at least that's where
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it is where I'm from, Okay. I grew up locally
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with a station called WAFB, and I watched the news
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with my parents every single night as a kid, even
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if I didn't know what was going on, and the
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faces and the voices of those anchors were ones that
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I knew, and I almost felt like were my family
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in a weird way. I know that sound's cheesy, but
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it's like that's what we did every night, was we
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sat down and I trusted these people even as a child,
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to tell me what was going on. And I knew
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I could depend on people like George Cells and Donna Britt.
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If you're local, you'll know exactly who I'm referring to.
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And I recently, matter of fact, went to we have
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a friend she does a true crime podcast too, but
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Kieran Shalla, she's a local reporter, and I went to
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a launch party for her website recently Jimithy and I
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went and I saw a face that I had not
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seen in years, in a long time, and it was
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mister George Sells, who was this anchorman from the news.
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He was older and a little grayer, but when he
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opened his mouth that booming voice, I was starstruck because
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I just grew up with this man. And I asked
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him to take a picture and he greataciously agreed to
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do so. It made my night, and we talked for
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a while, and I was just so exciting because the
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young girl and me felt like I was seeing an
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old friend that I hadn't seen him forever. And Miss
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Donna Britt she recently passed away from als, but that
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was another woman that I just really adored. I loved her,
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and her passing genuinely hurt my heart because it was
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a woman that I felt like I known for so long.
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The truth is, I've never met her a day in
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my life, but that's how much she affected my life.
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And I say all of this to emphasize the role
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of the news in everybody's life in some capacity, and
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this rang true for local Roanoke reporter Alison Parker. So
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I think you would probably agree with me on this.
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But to be a reporter or to be on TV,
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you have to have some type of personality or good
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looks or something that people are attracted to that they
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trust you or they want to hear what you have
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to say. And Alison had it all in that respect. Now,
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she was young, she was twenty four years old, fresh face,
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super energetic. She had this little petite frame, small facial features,
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and she rocked what I like to call that reporter hair.
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Do y'all know what I'm talking about. Reporters have that
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perfect hair that kind of flips out on the ends.
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It's got the volume. Hers was blonde and it was
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shoulder lenks and it kind of flipped out on the ends.
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She's preppy looking, clean cut, thousand watts, smile, basically everything
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that a newsperson who you would want to trust would
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I guess look like on camera, Exactly what you would
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expect them to look like. And Alison, although young, she
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had worked her butt off all twenty four years of
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her life to make it where she was at the
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news table. She had a history of being a very
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self motivated person and that's how she had gotten to
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be so successful at such a young age. And a
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little life info about her. I want to give you
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this because I want you to understand what a winner
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this girl was. She grew up in Collinsville, Virginia. She
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graduated from Martinsville High School in two thousand and nine.
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And while being an athlete, I'm not going to say
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that that's everything. I was an athlete, so I'm drawn
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to athletes. But while being an athlete isn't everything, what
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it does show or tell me is that there was
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motivation behind her, because you can't be an athlete if
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you're not competitive and you're not intrinsically motivated. Well, Ashley
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was a swimmer, and she was a really, really good
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one because she even won the Piedmont District Swimmer of
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the Year for her butterfly stroke. So she was pretty
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good at it, and the hours of practice and dedication
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in and out of the pool were evidenced by her
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success whenever she was in competition. But she was also
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incredibly smart. While she was still in high school, she
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was in a program for the academically gifted students and
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she got her completed her associate's degree while still in
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high school. So she was a winner on and off
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the field or the pool. However, you would say that.
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And her dad, his name's mister Andy. Her daddy's nickname
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for her was Scooter, and he knew that his Scooter
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was a nerd at heart, and I can appreciate that.
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I love that, and he would playfully poke fun at
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her for it, because she was a force of nature outwardly,
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but her bubbly personality was something that she led with.
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But looking inward, she totally had nerd tendencies. And I
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say that with total respect. I don't say that in
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an ugly way. She was part of the high school
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robotics team and she was in the band. So you
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want to talk about well rounded, the girl can do music,
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she can do academics, and she can swim, and she's
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an athlete, and she does robotics. The girl's got it
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going on. She played multiple instruments. She played the trumpet
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and the French horn in the jazz and in the
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concert band. So she was cultured too. I feel like
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she had a music appreciation more than probably the average Bearwood.
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But she was also a gymnast and very talented dancer.
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And her physical appearance looks like exactly what she would
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expect of a ballerina if you were watching one dance
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on stage. But that soft side was also well balanced
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with a girl who loved the outdoors because her main
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love was the river and kayaking is what she loved
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to do with her family. She was very close with
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her family and they were her number one fans. Her
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parents thought the world of her. She was their world.
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She also had an older brother named Drew, and Drew
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had as berger, so he had a different way about
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him and conducting his life. But something about the two
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of them, they just had the strongest bond and Alison
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got her brother like nobody else did, and the love
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that they had for each other was so deep, and
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she spent a lot of time and attention on him
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because she knew that he struggled socially at least he
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had some struggles. They could not as a family have
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been more proud of Alison when she then found out
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that she was accepted into the James Madison University School
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of Media, Arts and Design, and this was a dream
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come true for her because not only did she get
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to go to the school she wanted to go, but
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she also got to join in and become a member
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of Greek Life becoming a proud member of the Alpha
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Phi sorority. She wanted to help people and she had
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found a way to do so. We all know that
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Greek Life, you know, when I was younger, I don't
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think I would have ever joined Greek Life As an
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older person, I'm super proud for Greek Life people and
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the things that they do, and the money that they
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raise and the good things that they work towards. I
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don't think I was educated enough about it when I
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was younger as I am now that I'm older. And
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Alison joined in because of the good philanthropy that those
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groups could do. And then she also found a way
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to help by working as a calculus tutor for freshmen.
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So she's going to school working hard on her own
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doing all this philanthropy work, plus also working as a
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tutor for people that needed her help. And then in
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the summers, when she could have slacked off like the
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rest of us, she had even more things that she
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decided to do. She liked being out of school, I mean,
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there's no doubt about that, but she decided to work
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as an intern for the nighted Way during the summers.
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She was always putting her time to good use. And
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she was ecstatic to finally secure an internship at WDBJ
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seven News. Her daddy was so excited for her, and
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he said, Scooter, do you think you'll actually be on
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the air doing some news stories? Can you not see
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a daddy just so tickled about his little girl joining
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the news team, and she chuckled. He said, she laughed
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and said, no, daddy, I'm probably gonna be out there
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serving coffee or something to people. But whether she was
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doing a story or she was serving coffee, her daddy
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was beaming with pride that his baby girl was hired
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on at that news station. He believed in her and
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guess what the news station apparently did too, because, believe
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it or not, with little to no experience in news,
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they said, to hell with the coffee. They gave her
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six stories and they had her on camera before she