Get ready for your close up, coal region!… parts of the nation are watching.
From afar, this past week was filled with high strangeness across the globe.. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un’s summit ending abruptly just as tables were being set and food was being served for a lunch that would not occur.. At the same time the disputed region of Kashmir continued to embroil India and Pakistan into a conflict of words and bombs.. Lest we forget, they carry NUKES in their nations as well..
So while the world burned, towns across Northumberland and Schuylkill counties had a local mystery: Someone decided to fire pellet guns in dozens of businesses sometime around the witching hour early Thursday.. FROM WNEP REPORTING:
“You come into work first thing in the morning and it’s like, ‘oh my gosh,’ I mean why would somebody do that? What goes through someone’s mind – why would you want to hurt someone else?” said Peter Russo, owner of Roma Pizza.
10 miles away from Pottsville, in Ashland, the entire front window of Payne’s Flower Shop needed to be boarded up because of this shooting spree. Police in Ashland say eight total businesses were shot at in the borough.
“I’ve been here 12 years and nothing has happened like this. It’s very unusual,” said Fabrizio Manganiello of Fabrizio’s Pizza.
Fabrizio’s Pizza is another business dealing with the aftermath in Ashland, along with Smokin’ Joe’s Tobacco. Store owners Newswatch 16 spoke to say it’s going to cost around $1,000 to fix the broken glass and they’re shaken up.
It was around the same time that North Schuylkill area decided to have presentations to school children about MOMO, the famed internet legend that most people who knew about the meme figured died away long ago..
All in all, the image is just a sculpture from JAPAN.. but that never stopped a good urban legend.
From stories and comments posted on social media, many had mixed reactions. It would appear from some that children who were not aware of MOMO suddenly had become transfixed in fear over her appearance.
The whirlwind of news in the world and locally presented itself as a strange mixture of emotions by the end of the week… We knew we had problems–drugs, crime, poverty.. we knew that there were evil-doers online ready to mentally or physically harm…. but now these circumstances seemed more amplified.. more intense..
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On Thursday night, the area was suddenly thrust into the limelight of national news when Pottsville businessman, the well known Patrick Murphy of Murphy Jewelers, was found dead in New Orleans.. A cheap motel.. it appeared to those who knew about it early that he was killed…
News outlets were careful with their treatment.. Such a huge story for the area, such a noteworthy businessman for decades.. people had to treat this carefully until facts were confirmed. SKOOK NEWS did not even report on it until a full day later when true confirmation of the body was made — very respectable extreme caution in an age of 24/7 fast cycles..
This story was true and apparent… The fixture of Pottsville was gone.
Homicide by cutting, as the police termed it.
No word officially on what Pat Murphy was doing in New Orleans–besides the obvious tradition of Mardi Gras weekend being here.. And no word on why he ended up in a cheap motel in the Big Easy… But we can ascertain assumptions through background research.
The person of interest in the case, Megan Hall, or Magen Hall, was soon changed into a suspect.. as explained further by Coal Region Canary, Hall had an elicit and sordid history..
According to The New Orleans Advocate, Hall is wanted on second-degree murder charges. That carries a mandatory life sentence in Louisiana.
Also, the Advocate’s Matt Sledge reports Hall essentially spent her entire adult life as a prostitute. There is an arrest record dating back to 2011 in Tennessee. In 2012, she was brought in on her first prostitution charges. Her record follows a path from Tennessee to Texas and eventually, New Orleans.
Hall reportedly used to advertise her services on Backpage. That site was seized by federal authorities in 2018 after it was accused of being a means of promoting prostitution and sex trafficking.
On Friday, the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office confirmed that Patrick Murphy was the victim of a “homicide by cutting”. The murder occurred at the Empress Hotel, 1317 Ursulines Avenue, in New Orleans.
Entering into the discussion with this murder is the Empress Hotel — that in itself has its own history. It was featured on the Travel Channel at one point.. the local media in the big easy describes the owner of it as a “notorious slumlord..” The owner’s son appeared on New Orleans media to describe his hope that police soon catch up with the suspect.. According to James Brooks, filmed evidence was turned over to cops .. Scene on tape: Hall exiting the hotel room at 4am.
Brooks told media that “negotiations” were occurring on camera. She checked in. He paid. Real names were given..
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Since the majority of news broke, silence amongst law enforcement and a murder suspect still being on the loose has led to online speculation.. online arguments.. Commentary on stories in Northeast PA are praising Murphy and his history of philanthropy and generosity, while people in New Orleans are treating him like another customer of a prostitute that met his untimely demise.
War of words have developed on the suspect’s Facebook account..
Confusion and theories have been abounding..
The story of Pat Murphy’s murder has taken this local area by storm, but also has become a top story in New Orleans.. Two separate locations, not anywhere near similar to each other, now connected through crime and tragedy..
And maybe that’s the big picture of this story.. for decades fine coal region people, in the effort to stay safe and happy, silently closed their blinds at night.. they turned on the local news to see criminal activity and the drug crisis take over their streets, but zoned out at the context.. So many national scourges did not just occur out there, but here as well… and when it was too late–when business evaporated and homes become icons of past despair–people finally opened their eyes and pondered how this all happened..
The week of business shootings and a famous local business leader’s murder in a hotel 405 miles away now ends.. This weekend of rest is not for the weary.
Yes, the news happens out there.
But it happens here, too.
This week a lot of news happened to show that we, like so many other locations, have towns that dread sundown.
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RIP PATRICK MURPHY.
