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The last morning of Abigail Nicole Lahnan's short life begins peacefully.
It is March 23, 2005, a Wednesday.
Abby, who was born at Phoenix Baptist Hospital on November 28, 2003, awakens in her crib across the hall from her parents, Deanna and Patrick. The young family lives in a second-story unit at the Papago Park Apartments on Taylor Street in east Phoenix.
Phoenix Police Department
Both parents work long hours, Deanna for a Mesa real estate firm and Pat as a baggage handler at Sky Harbor International Airport. On his days off, Pat works out of his home for a local mortgage company.
Deanna feeds Abby a waffle, a banana and milk before leaving for a work-related class at 8:30 a.m. After that, she plans on heading to her job.
It's one of Pat's days off from his airport job.
Pat places Abby in her crib for a nap about 9:30, and closes her door behind him.
He takes a shower, and then goes to work on his computer.
Time slips away. About 11:30, Pat goes to check on Abby, who's been in her crib for going on two hours.
He opens the bedroom door.
Moments later, Pat starts to scream.
The last day of Abigail Rose Minor's short life also begins peacefully.
It is August 26, 2005, a Friday.
This Abigail was born October 24, 2002, at Thunderbird Samaritan Hospital, to Amy and Eric Natzel (they weren't married when Amy Minor bore her first child, named after the celebrated Beatles LP Abbey Road).
Eric is 26. Amy is 22, and just a few weeks from giving birth to her second child, who's going to be a boy.
The Natzels live in a two-bedroom unit at the Cactus Trail Apartments, near Interstate 17 and Deer Valley Road.
Amy Natzel works at a CVS pharmacy, where she's known as dependable and friendly. But her co-workers, friends and family know of her miserable home life.
Though she's pregnant, Amy looks dangerously underweight, and often seems depressed.
They blame Eric, her husband of two years.
Eric is unemployed, and he tends to Abbey while his wife works.
His idea of a perfect day is playing video games and smoking weed. His latest obsession is Metroids, a game in which alien predators suck the life out of their prey like leeches.
That's how Eric's in-laws view his relationship with their daughter. They consider him a self-centered boor with a hair-trigger temper.
Abbey awakens her father about 10:30 a.m. on the 26th. Dad and daughter shower together as Amy putters around. Amy serves Abbey a bowl of ramen noodles before leaving for work about 12:30 p.m.
Eric soon takes Abbey to a nearby park. But it's awfully hot; the high temperature in Phoenix will reach 109 degrees. Eric and Abbey soon return to the air-conditioned apartment.
By now, it's early afternoon, and Eric tells Abbey to go watch cartoons (Lilo & Stitch) in her room before napping. He loses track of time, saying later, "I was enthralled in the video game I was playing."
Amy phones him from work sometime after 5 p.m. She asks where Abbey is, that she'd like to say hello. He looks around the child's cluttered bedroom, but can't find her. Eric gets back on the phone and tells his wife.
Amy tells him to look in the bathroom. But Abbey isn't there, either.
She suggests that Eric look more carefully in Abbey's bedroom closet, where a cardboard toy box with a domed lid sits on the floor. Amy had seen Abbey playing in and around the box a day earlier, and knows how the colorful cartoon characters painted on it attract her little girl.
Eric returns to the phone and tells Amy there's a problem.
Abbey is choking, he tells his wife. Get home.
He hangs up and dials 911.
It's 5:37 p.m. A ceiling fan hangs from the middle of Abby Lahnan's bedroom. An electrical cord entwined with a decorative chain runs from the fan across the ceiling and down a wall to an outlet.
Abby's crib is up against that wall.
Pat Lahnan says later that Abby somehow pulled the cord into her crib in the shape of a noose. He will say he saw Abby's little head tangled in the "noose," and that she wasn't breathing. He'd freed her and pulled her out of the crib.
Pat doesn't think to call 911. In fact, he's not thinking at all.
He runs down the steps with Abby in his arms.
Oklahoma resident Shawna Rogers is sunbathing by the complex swimming pool. She's visiting her father, who lives at the complex.
A man holding a baby to his chest rushes toward Shawna shouting, "Oh my God! Help me!
"The lamp cord was around her neck!" he tells her. "She's not breathing!"
Someone calls 911 at 11:50 a.m. It comes in as a possible child drowning.
Shawna takes Abby and places her on a patch of grass near the pool. She performs CPR on the baby, but her efforts are futile.
Phoenix Fire Department paramedics pronounce Abby dead at the scene.
Someone covers the baby's body with a blue blanket.
Officer Steven Butler goes upstairs to the Lahnans' apartment.
Pat is sobbing on his living-room floor as a firefighter and a neighbor try to console him. He's called Deanna at work in Mesa, but about all he could get out is to come home, and that it's about Abby.
Butler asks everyone to leave what has become a crime scene. He leads Pat Lahnan to a vacant apartment that the complex manager has opened for authorities. The Lahnans' residence will remain locked until police get a search warrant from a judge, which will take a few hours.
Deanna Lahnan gets home and is led to the empty apartment, where she learns of her baby's death. Pat is there with her. Police officers and neighbors try to calm the couple, an impossible task.
Phoenix homicide detective Alex Femenia reports to the scene about 12:30 p.m. He arrives as three local television crews are pulling into the parking lot.
"We looking murder or what?" a breathless reporter asks the veteran detective, who shrugs and keeps moving.
Femenia's homicide sergeant, Pat Kotecki, tells him no one's sure yet if a crime has been committed.
At 1 p.m., the detectives gather around an officer under a shade tree for their briefing.
"The father is being very uncooperative with police right now," the officer tells them.
"The lack of cooperation might be because he's distraught," offers Sergeant Kotecki, always a cool head.
"So right now we're just assuming that a cord was wrapped around the baby's neck?" Femenia asks.
"Yeah," the officer says.
"Okay," Femenia says afterward, unhappy with how little solid information he's gotten. "I want to talk to the father downtown. Let's just consider this a homicide until we sort things out one way or the other."
"What else do we need?" Kotecki asks Femenia.
"Someone to calm Mom down, to schmooze her, get her on our side. She may have some info on hubby's past, if it goes that way."
Femenia tells the cop who will be driving Pat Lahnan to the police station to "low-key it. No cuffs, no judgments, just friendly and helpful."
The detective walks over to the blue blanket. He puts on surgical gloves and pulls back the blue blanket.
The baby is wearing a red pajama top, white socks and a diaper.
She's tiny.
Deep ligature marks are visible around her neck.
"Poor little thing," Femenia says.
The detective thinks aloud as he drives downtown for his interview with Pat Lahnan.
"I'm not sure where this is going," he says. "We don't have a story yet, no real description of the room, no nothing. But we'll figure it out. We have to."
Eric Natzel tells a 911 operator that his daughter Abbey isn't breathing. He seems to be crying.
"Abbey, can you hear me?" Eric asks her, as the operator calmly instructs him in CPR, telling him how to give her two mouthfuls of air.
Phoenix fire paramedics arrive and take over, but the little girl is dead, two months shy of her third birthday.
Eric tells a Phoenix officer at the apartment that he'd sent Abbey into her room for a nap about an hour before he called 911. He says he'd found her inside a closed toy box in a closet.
The paramedics transport Abbey's body to John C. Lincoln-Deer Valley Hospital.
Detective Michael Coddington gets to the hospital around 7 p.m.
He is directed to the emergency room, where Abbey's body has been taken. Coddington sees an abrasion on the child's forehead and small bruises above both eyes.
A doctor informs Coddington that he's also observed several fresh bruises on Abbey's back. The doctor says he questioned Eric Natzel about the injuries, and was told they'd resulted from "normal" falls.
Coddington introduces himself to Eric and Amy, and informs them that other detectives will want to speak with them. What he doesn't tell them is that those detectives work for the homicide unit.
Detective Jack Ballentine is assigned to head the investigation.
His longtime partner, Alex Femenia, also shows up at the hospital at 9 p.m. to assist.
Ballentine wants to interview Abbey's parents separately at the hospital, because it's a less-threatening environment than a police station. Afterward, he'll take a look at the Natzels' apartment.
First, the detective goes to examine Abbey's body. Besides the obvious bruising and abrasions all over her body, he sees that the back of her head is badly swollen.
Just before Eric is interviewed by Ballentine, he speaks briefly with a state Child Protective Services official there to offer assistance.
"Can you help me with my rent?" he asks the woman, who doesn't reply.
Now it's Ballentine's turn.
Alex Femenia apologizes to Pat Lahnan for having had to temporarily separate him from Deanna. You're not under arrest, he reminds Abby's father, and you can leave any time you want.
"Who do you live with?" the detective then asks Pat.
"My wife and daughter."
Pat describes how he'd found Abby entangled in the cord.
"She was hanging there," he says. "I don't know how it could have happened."
"I don't understand how . . . ," Femenia starts.
"I grabbed her," Pat interrupts. "I just freaked out. I picked her up to get her out of that noose. I didn't call 911. I was screaming. A lady did CPR on her. I don't know!"
"I want to get this straight," the detective says, his tone edgier now. "I'm having a hard time understanding how this cord got wrapped around your baby's neck."
Pat tries to explain how the cord had been behind a quilt tacked to the wall, and he just doesn't know how Abby had been able to get to it. But his thoughts and words are ever more disjointed.
"Did you get angry with Abby after your wife went to work?" the detective asks.
Femenia says, "I'm trying to picture what you're telling me, and I'm having a hard time understanding what you're saying, and I want you to think about it."
"I did not do this!" Pat blurts.
"Do what?" Femenia shoots back.
"Kill my daughter!"
Those words hang heavy in the cramped interrogation room.
The interview, however, elicits no admissions or revelations.
At 2:40 p.m., Femenia tells Pat that he's free to return to the apartment complex.
"I know this is the worst day of your life," the detective says, "but there will be people who will be there to support you. If you want to talk with me about anything that may have slipped your mind, you call, okay?"
Pat Lahnan nods.
Femenia returns to East Taylor Street, and immediately heads to the borrowed apartment. He asks Deanna Lahnan, who's sitting there with neighbors and friends, to join him in another room. The detective carries in chairs so they'll have somewhere to sit.
"He loved her," Deanna says of her husband's relationship with their daughter. "She's sort of been our world."
"Any way you figure this could have happened?" Femenia asks her.
"I keep thinking about this -- I don't know."
"Like you, we just want to know what happened," Femenia says, leaning forward. "I'm doing this for Abby. I'm not saying anybody did anything wrong, and I don't want to seem like I'm probing, but I am. It's my job."
Then, he adds: "If anybody tells you anything to shed light on this, call me, okay?"
That's one way of asking Deanna to snitch on Pat if the time comes.
Femenia steps outside, lights a Marlboro, and takes a deep drag.
"I got to see that crime scene," he says, for the umpteenth time.
Jack Ballentine reads Eric Natzel his Miranda warnings against self-incrimination at 10:38 p.m.
They are in a room at the Deer Valley hospital.
The dance about to begin is especially delicate. Ballentine is going to be sympathetic at first to Eric, who's just lost his child. But he wants to lock Eric into a story before he becomes confrontational (if it goes that way).
After the preliminaries, he asks Eric if he's had any run-ins with the law.
"When I was a minor, I had some anger issues," says Eric, a solidly built young man with dark, flashing eyes. "I've worked those out. I had some mishaps with marijuana."
Ballentine isn't aware yet of Eric's legal problems over the previous decade, including accusations of criminal damage, assault, and, in 2001, of threatening to kill his parents.
"Did Abbey have anger problems, like you?" Ballentine asks Eric about 15 minutes into the interview.
"When she fell, she'd scream and cry," Eric replies.
He says his daughter had come out of her bedroom about 4:30 p.m. and jumped on his chest while he was playing Metroids, demanding his attention.
Eric tells Ballentine that he'd ordered Abbey back to her room after she'd interrupted his video-game reverie.
"She was supposed to be taking a nap," he explains.
The next time he saw Abbey, Eric says, she was face-down in the toy box.
The detective pushes Eric to specify what time he last saw or heard Abbey.
"I don't know," Eric says. "I was enthralled in the video game I was playing."
He does recall that Amy had phoned him about 5 p.m., and asked "if the kid was still up, because she wanted to talk to her."
Eric says he looked inside the toy box at Amy's suggestion.
"When I found the kid, I told my wife on the phone, 'Hey, you need to come home. I found her in there,'" he says. "My wife thought I was joking because she knows I B.S. a lot . . . I don't think she thought it was as serious as it ends up being."
Eric's seemingly cavalier attitude is gnawing at Ballentine, though the detective continues to be courteous and impassive.
Eric insists that he never abused his daughter -- ever.
"My dad used to beat me up, so I don't [hit her]," he says. "I don't want to screw my kids up."
Eric suggests that Abbey was a "clumsy" baby, which might account for any bruises on her body.
"But other than that, there'd be no injuries on her," he volunteers.
Almost casually, Ballentine now mentions the injuries he'd seen on Abbey's body.
"Yeah, I noticed them, too," Eric says. "They weren't there this morning. I don't even remember seeing them when I picked her up [out of the toy box]."
Ballentine asks Eric to describe the box.
"In all honesty, I think she could have broke her way out of it," Eric says.
The detective notes the nasty cluster of bruises on Abbey's back.
"Black and blue ones?" Eric asks.
"Oh, gosh," Ballentine replies. "There's a ton. Her whole little back is pretty covered. Do you know how that happened?"
"Just little falls. Like I said, she's really clumsy."
Out of nowhere, the detective asks Eric, "You bathe her?"
"Yeah, she actually took a shower with me this morning."
Eric reiterates that he saw no bruises on Abbey's back, before, during or after the shower.
"In the autopsy, they can tell everything that's happened to a child," Ballentine says, moving the intensity level in the room up a notch. "I think it's gonna be pretty safe to say that they're going to say there's substantial [injuries]. And that concerns me quite a bit because there's really no explanation."
"Okay," is all Eric musters in response.
"This is your baby," the detective reminds him.
"I know. She meant the world to me."
Ballentine mentions his own two sons, telling Eric that "one thing I do know is anger with a child. I know how something can happen with a child and you can lose your temper.
"And what I'm telling you right here is, I know you did [lose your temper]."
"I do not ever lose my temper with my child," Eric replies, surprisingly calm under the circumstances. "I yell. And I will testify that I yell."
"I understand that. But you did something to your baby."
"No, I did not, sir."
"I think you did. Because there's no explanation for the injuries to that child."
"There's none," Eric says.
"And you understand that you're the only person there with her?"
"Yes," Eric says, adding he'll take a polygraph test to prove his innocence.
Changing direction, Eric points out that he's taken anger-management classes and undergone therapy for his problems.
"Usually if I get mad and I'm going to blow up, I don't touch people," he says. "I put holes in walls. Once in a while, I get too stressed."
"What stresses you?" Ballentine asks.
"Well, I'm an unemployed father. I don't make money. My wife pays all the bills. And it kind of gets to you, when you feel like a lowlife dad who can't support your wife and children."
Eric says his current mental-health treatment is from a "buddy who took psychology in college. He's cheap, he's free, and he kind of knows what he's there for."
Just before midnight, Ballentine allows Eric to return to family and friends, who are milling around outside the emergency room. The detective hooks up with Alex Femenia, who's just finished interviewing Amy's parents, Tom Minor and Faith Nyman, who are divorced.
Minor said he'd taken Abbey and Amy to dinner the previous night and "both of them looked beautiful."
Of Eric Natzel, he said, "He's never supported the family he made. All of my dreams have been shattered by a man who just won't go to work."
Amy's mother's assessment of Eric was equally precise: "He and I do not click. He's an abusive husband."
Faith Nyman described to Femenia how Eric once threatened to kill her after she confronted him about his mistreatment of Abbey, then a newborn:
"I saw him shake her, shake her! He was saying, 'Shut up, you fuckin' bitch. Shut up!' He was holding her by her arms. She wasn't quite three months old. He pushed her right down on the couch. I went and took her and told him he needed a break. He said he was going to slit my throat from ear to ear, that he'd done it before. I called 911 and got out of there."
Eric never was arrested in connection with that incident.
"In the beginning, Amy would run away from him a lot," Nyman told Femenia. "But she wouldn't admit that he ever hit her, though I'd seen bruises. You know how you have this horrible, horrible feeling hanging over you."
Ballentine and Femenia step outside to regroup for a moment with Sergeant Kotecki.
Ballentine speaks sadly of the toy box: "That was our little victim's coffin."
Just then, Eric Natzel's friends greet him about 25 yards from the cops. Within moments, he's laughing and carrying on with his pals.
"I know people deal with grief differently, but I'm not exactly seeing grief over there," Kotecki says, gesturing over at Eric. "I mean, his baby is lying dead right inside that door, and he's laughing? Shit."
Ballentine's interview of Amy Natzel begins just after midnight.
He's gentle with this fragile young woman, who insists throughout that Eric is a good dad.
Amy says she, too, saw the bruises on Abbey's head at the hospital. But she tries to explain them away by saying her daughter "falls all the time."
She insists she never saw her husband hit their daughter.
"But he's got a problem with anger," Ballentine replies. "That's my concern in all this."
"But he's never directed it at people," Amy tells him, a touch of desperation creeping into her voice.
"Let's be honest with each other here," the detective says. "[Eric] made it very clear to me that when he put her to bed today, she had no injuries on her. When he was sitting with her in that room over there, he realized she had significant injuries. And he has no idea how they got there. And I'm hoping it concerns you as much as it concerns me, because that's your baby. And he's made it clear that he's got a real problem with anger that's at times uncontrollable, and what I'm concerned about is that this baby suffered in death because there's far too many injuries on this child."
Amy says nothing.
"Would you protect him?" Ballentine asks her.
"I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened," she replies, not answering the question. "Maybe she fell and hit her head and passed out, I don't know. . . . Maybe she got stuck [in the toy box] and had a temper tantrum and couldn't get out."
"I have really grave concerns," Ballentine tells her at the end of the 20-minute interview. "I don't believe him -- at all."
"My kids are more important than my husband," Amy says in response. "If he had anything to do with this . . ."
Later, Amy leaves the hospital with her parents, and goes with her father to his home in Casa Grande. Eric leaves with his own parents.
At 5:30 p.m., Detective Femenia finally gets inside the Lahnan's apartment for the first time.
"This isn't like most of the places we usually see," he observes after stepping into the sunny kitchen.
What he means is that, unlike most residences turned crime scenes, this place is spotless. Clean baby bottles are lined up on a kitchen counter, clothes are neatly folded, and everything is bright and cheerful.
Notably, photographs of a joyous Abby are visible everywhere -- on the walls, in the hallway, even in the bathrooms.
The group of five -- three detectives, a crime-scene specialist and a sergeant -- enters Abby's bedroom.
Hauntingly, the electrical cord turned noose is still hanging in her crib, just as Pat Lahnan had tried to describe it to Femenia.
And it also appears that the cord had been tucked behind the bright quilt, and also behind a pillow apparently butted up against the quilt for even more security.
The there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I moment is palpable.
No one in the room believes that Pat fashioned the deadly noose, slipped his daughter into it, and murdered her.
"This could have been avoided easy," Femenia says, very quietly.
"Yeah," Detective Steve Orona adds. "Kids get into everything. Everyone knows that."
"Basically, they put the crib where it fit in the room," Pat Kotecki says. "It's just very tragic."
"I can't wait to get home to my baby," Detective Jason Schechterle says, speaking of his youngest of three children. "I'm gonna tell him, 'Listen up. You don't get to make me go through something like this.' These people were all about this baby."
Someone gestures to a framed poem tacked to a wall across from Abby's crib. It reads, in part:
It is the morning of your life and your dreams are just beginning.
May you touch fireflies and stars, dance with fairies, and talk to the man in the moon.
May you grow up with love and gracious hearts and people who care.
Welcome to the world, little one. It's been waiting for you.
Jack Ballentine knows in his bones that Eric Natzel is criminally responsible for Abbey Minor's death. But he also knows that proving it will take time.
The detective says it will come down to the science (autopsy findings, expert opinions) and to the unintentional admissions that Eric made in his interview, especially that he'd seen no injuries on Abbey before she died.
On August 27, Dr. John Hu performs an autopsy of Abbey at the county's Forensic Science Center in downtown Phoenix. Hu details the same bruises and abrasions on Abbey's body that the detectives saw at the hospital.
But he finds no evidence of internal organ injuries, bone fractures or what's known as "shaken baby syndrome." He concludes that the external injuries, while serious and extensive, didn't kill the little girl.
Hu's preliminary finding is that Abbey suffocated inside the little toy box, which had no breathing holes. He tells Ballentine that he doesn't have enough information to call the manner of death anything other than "undetermined," not a murder or accidental.
But the doctor doesn't file his official report for six months, in part because of his heavy workload at the morgue.
Jack Ballentine contacts Eric Natzel on August 28. The suspect agrees to come to the Phoenix Police Department the following day for his polygraph.
But on the 29th, a Mesa attorney tells the detective he's advised Eric not to take the test or to "cooperate" anymore with police.
Ballentine returns to the morgue later that day to oversee a disturbing, but necessary, experiment.
Another detective, Tom D'Aguanno, carries in the toy box in which Abbey died, setting it down on a stainless-steel slab. It seems incongruous, this colorful children's box in a room designed for examination of the dead.
The box is 19 inches long, 12 inches tall and 13 inches wide, and can be locked by two metal clasps attached to the lid.
Ballentine wants to see if Abbey, who was 36 inches long, could have fit into it. But even if she could fit, questions of how she wedged herself face-down into the box and then closed it on top of herself (remember, Eric told police it was shut when he found her) will remain.
As respectfully as possible, D'Aguanno and Gwen McNeil, who works at the morgue, squeeze Abbey's limp body into the toy box.
Ballentine says that the lightweight lid surely would have popped open if Abbey had tried to lift herself up, and if the latches weren't closed.
His working theory is that Eric Natzel forced Abbey down into the box after she'd interrupted his video game. He suspects Eric then beat his daughter, accounting for the many bruises on her back. The abrasions on her face likely came from her rubbing against the inside of the box.
"This case is tearing me up inside," Ballentine says as he walks back to the police station afterward.
The detective conducts many interviews over the next days, including one with Amy Natzel's supervisor at the pharmacy. The supervisor once had interviewed Eric for a job. But he says Eric cost himself any chance at getting hired when he claimed he saw nothing wrong with an employee stealing from an employer.
The supervisor refers to Amy as a longtime victim of "battered woman syndrome."
Ballentine also interviews one of Amy's best friends, who'd been married to Eric's brother and had experienced Eric's ill temper firsthand.
The friend claims she'd seen him hit Amy many times over the years.
Amy is blaming herself for Abbey's death and is depressed, the friend tells the detective.
On September 1, a judge grants Amy's petition for an order of protection against her husband, after she writes that "Eric is suspected of beating my daughter and I am afraid for myself."
Also on September 1, Eric Natzel's parents meet with Ballentine at the Phoenix police station. The Payson residents try to paint a picture of a loving son and father who never would hurt his little daughter.
Ballentine lets them prattle on a while before asking them about Eric's "attitude, his temper, that sort of thing." He tells them Eric has told him about his volatile temper and how he self-medicates with marijuana.
Alan Natzel says he doesn't know what the detective is talking about.
"Do you recognize he has an anger problem?" Ballentine asks.
The couple peeks at each other before Alan Natzel replies.
"He's had anger problems," Eric's father concedes, before adding that anger-management classes have helped their son.
Almost casually, Ballentine mentions a July 2000 Phoenix police report in which the Natzels accused Eric of threatening to kill them and torch their home.
Alan Natzel folds his arms.
"Don't get mad at me," Ballentine tells him. "Eric says he has anger problems and that he was abused by you."
"You know everything, don't you?" Margaret Natzel snarls at the detective, who remains impassive.
"All the fingers are pointing to him," Ballentine says, reviewing some of the circumstantial evidence against Eric.
"Sounds like you want to put him in jail right now," Alan Natzel says.
"I could have put him in jail a couple of days ago," Ballentine replies.
On September 8, Amy Natzel gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Eric isn't around for the birth. He and Amy haven't seen or spoken to each other since they left the hospital on the night Abbey died.
Detective Ballentine re-interviews Amy at the police station five days later. This time, she's far more revealing about her relationship with Eric than she'd been in their previous interaction at the hospital.
Weeping throughout, she recalls the awful phone call during which Eric found Abbey in the toy box.
Amy corroborates Eric's earlier statement that she'd asked Eric to look for Abbey in the toy box. And she repeats that she'd never seen Eric physically abuse Abbey.
"But he was verbally abusive with us all the time," Amy tells the detective. "He makes us feel like crap. He'd tell Abbey, 'I wish I never had you. You're such a pain in the ass.' It was his way or no way."
Ballentine asks Amy if Eric had ever hit her. She nods yes, and describes an incident at their apartment a few days before Abbey died.
"He was being an asshole, and I kicked him out of the house," Amy says. "He broke the door to get back in and grabbed me by the neck and hit me in the face. He told me he didn't need a job."
She says Eric told her at the hospital that Abbey had kept interrupting his video-game playing.
"He's very serious about his games," Amy says. "If he doesn't win, he gets very pissed off."
She says the last thing Eric said to her that night was, "'Don't let your parents convince you I did it.'"
Two days later, Amy returns to the police department for her polygraph test. One key question is, "Did you physically hurt Abigail on or about August 26th?"
Amy says she didn't.
The polygraph operator -- an employee of the Phoenix Police Department -- finds deception in that answer.
Shaken by the result, Amy vows later to Detective Ballentine that she'd never done more than spank Abbey. She says she can't recall if she'd even done that on August 26.
The test result doesn't seem to bother Ballentine, who's never held great stock in the machine's reliability. He wonders if the powerful guilt Amy carries for having stayed with Eric may have affected her response.
The detective still doesn't suspect her of anything more than having chosen the wrong husband.
Dr. Patip Keen, Maricopa County's medical examiner, conducts the autopsy of Abby Lahnan on March 28, 2005.
Keen finds nothing to suggest Abby had been physically mistreated.
He concludes that Abby "died a suffocation death secondary to ligature from an electrical cord that was near the crib. Manner of death is accident."
One sentence in the postmortem report sums up the heartbreaking nature of Abby's case: "Upon arrival, the body is attired in a pink jumpsuit, red shirt, white socks and disposable diaper."
It's the outfit she'd been wearing when her dad found her dead in the crib.
In his final police report on the case, Alex Femenia does not recommend prosecution of Abby's parents.
"At one point, I was starting to think that this dad had done something very bad," he says. "But we go where the facts take us. This was an accident, no doubt about it. These folks loved that baby. I just hope they can try to get a grip on their lives because it's not going to be easy. The next months are going to be treacherous for their relationship. I've seen it."
Months pass. The case against Eric Natzel remains in legal limbo.
One reason is that the medical examiner's postmortem report has been delayed by the volume of cases at the undermanned facility.
Finally, on February 6, Dr. John Hu issues his official report on the death of Abbey Minor. He concludes that Abbey did suffocate in the closed toy box, and that the manner of her death is "undetermined."
But Hu's conclusions about the other injuries on Abbey's body are chilling, and bode poorly for Eric Natzel. Hu says the multiple bruises and abrasions, while not fatal, had been intentionally inflicted by another person.
That defines child abuse.
Ballentine calls Hu for further explanation.
The doctor tells him it would have been physically impossible for Abbey to have inflicted the injuries to herself. He points out that many of the bruises are "clusters," especially in the middle of her back.
Hu's analysis is similar to the detective's suspicion that Eric pummeled Abbey after crunching her into the box.
Ballentine continues to move toward what he hopes is the next step -- an arrest of Eric Natzel. He works closely with the County Attorney's Office, talking to experts, trying to move the case along.
When Ballentine became a Phoenix cop in 1978, his mother gave him a wallet-size card depicting an illustration of St. Michael, patron saint of cops. Mary Ballentine passed away years ago, but her son still carries the laminated card with him.
It reads, "Pray for us [and] cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls."
Ballentine is hoping to arrest Eric Natzel on charges of first-degree felony murder. In Arizona, a person may be charged with that crime when the death stems from specific crimes such as robbery, rape, burglary, arson or, in Abbey's case, child abuse.
Eric has moved to Michigan, and still hasn't had contact with Amy since the night Abbey died.
Amy Minor is living with her infant son, Ian, at her mother's home in Glendale.
A few months ago, Faith Nyman created a little garden in the backyard in memory of her beloved granddaughter. A smiling photo of the little girl is surrounded by flowers, plants and electric butterflies that light up brightly at night.
Last week, Amy and Faith spent a moment together in Abbey's Garden thinking about their loss.
"She was our bright light," Abbey's grandmother says of the little girl. "She was a lot of fun, a good girl. She'll always be with us."
"The Case of the Two Abigails" is the fifth and final story in New Times' Murder City series. The series commenced after the Phoenix Police Department and its chief, Jack Harris, afforded New Times staff writer Paul Rubin unprecedented access to the inner workings of its homicide unit.
Rubin closely followed the C-32 squad, particularly detectives Jack Ballentine and Alex Femenia, for the entire calendar year of 2005. Rubin was at the scenes of 16 murders, two suicides, three accidental deaths and two deaths deemed of "undetermined" causes by the county medical examiner. Police arrested murder suspects in four of the six cases profiled in New Times' series.
The first story in the series ("The Case of the Grim Tweaker," February 2) centered on the May 10, 2005, slaying of 22-year veteran Phoenix police officer Dave Uribe. Police arrested two men, Donnie Delahanty and Christopher Wilson, on murder charges, and a third man, former state prison officer David York, for helping the accused killers hide and destroy key evidence.
York was sentenced last November to three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty.
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Wilson pleaded guilty last March 3 to second-degree murder. He faces a sentence of 10 to 22 years, and is expected to testify against accused triggerman Delahanty when the case goes to trial, possibly in 2007.
Shawn Drake, the onetime wine sommelier featured in the series' second story ("The Case of the Jealous Lover Boy," February 16), pleaded guilty April 14 to manslaughter. Earlier, Drake confessed to Detective Femenia that he had stabbed his lover and roommate to death at their central Phoenix home. He faces up to almost 19 years in prison when a judge sentences him on May 31.
A trial date has not been set for the two defendants featured in the third story ("The Case of the Fatal Femme," March 9). Samantha Somegustava and Richard Enos are charged with killing and robbing Gabe Cruz, 24, on a dirt road in far southwest Phoenix. Cruz had the misfortune of meeting Somegustava at a downtown Phoenix convenience store after finishing work on March 3, 2005. Prosecutors have announced they will seek the death penalty against the 23-year-old Laveen woman, who confessed to the murder during an interview with Detective Ballentine. Enos also faces charges of first-degree murder and robbery.
The fourth story ("The Case of the Wily Coyote," April 6) described the sad demise of 19-year-old Margarita Parada, a Mexican citizen murdered hours after entering this country illegally. Abelardo Jarquin-Lopez, charged last February with strangling her in a La Quinta motel off Interstate 17, is scheduled to go to trial early next year. A human smuggler, Jarquin-Lopez confessed to killing Parada after she'd rebuffed his sexual advances at the motel.


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EMU Australia
EMU Australia is a genuine Australian based brand dedicated to creating premium sheepskin and Merino wool products for our loyal customers around the world. EMU's head office and historic factory are located in the town of Geelong, just minutes away from Australia's rugged surf coast where the famous sheepskin boot story first began.
As a 'Naturally Australian' company EMU prides itself on using natural materials such as Australian Border Leicester Merino sheepskin in the construction of our beautiful footwear designs. Strong and resilient Australian Merino sheepskin is the unsurpassed fibre in the world and our location in the heart of Australia's prime wool growing district provides us with excellent access to the best quality Australian sheepskin available.
EMU's vision is and always will be, to remain as the best wool and sheepskin specialist company in the world. We continue to invest in the development of sheepskin technology and were the first brand in the world to develop water resistant sheepskin footwear designs for the International market. Every footwear style from EMU is crafted with passion and made to mould to the shape of your foot.
Welcome to Fall/Winter 2013
EMU Australia, the authentic Australian sheepskin and Merino wool specialist is pleased to launch its new Fall/Winter 2013 collection.
EMU prides itself on using natural materials such as Australian Sheepskin and Merino wool in the construction
of our beautiful apparel and accessory designs for our loyal customers around the world. The Fall/Winter 2013 apparel and accessories collection features a number of classic and convertible shapes that focus on complimenting the feminine lines of the body.
The premium quality materials of Sheepskin and Merino wool emphasise a luxurious and sophisticated look.
New fabric finishes of vintage washed leathers, sheer wool silk blends and multi pattern yarn knits, offer a new twist on the classic materials.

subset: commoncrawl


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WASHINGTON -- Whatever immigration deal might be claimed by labor and business, or by Democrats and Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is serving notice it has to go through him.
The tea party favorite made it clear over the weekend he has a make-or-break role for the most sweeping immigration changes in decades. It's a high-risk strategy that also puts his presidential ambitions on the line.
Four Republican senators are involved with Democrats in crafting a bipartisan bill that aims to secure the nation's borders, improve legal immigration and offer eventual citizenship to millions now in the United States illegally. But only Rubio has the conservative bona fides plus life-story credibility to help steer the bill through the Senate with strong support from the GOP, and give it a chance in the House, where conservative Republicans hold more sway.
More than anyone else, Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, could have the clout to hold off rebellion from conservative talk show hosts and a Republican base whose opposition helped kill immigration changes last time around, in 2007. And perhaps only Rubio could sink the entire effort just by walking away.
If the first-term senator decides against the bill, "that just takes all the oxygen out of the room," said Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "It may pass the Senate with Democrats' support . . . but that's not the kind of support you want out of the Senate if you expect passage out of the House."
With that unique status, Rubio is walking a fine line. He's helping negotiate the politically combustible legislation, which the bipartisan group is expected to unveil next week, while also taking care to maintain the conservative support that makes him so important to the process in the first place.
For Rubio, more so than the other Republicans involved -- Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- there's danger in a full-throated embrace of comprehensive immigration legislation. For some conservatives, it will always be toxic: It's a priority for Democrats and President Barack Obama that some foes see as granting amnesty to millions of lawbreakers.
But Rubio also could see the biggest political payoff. Helping shepherd a comprehensive immigration bill to passage could win support from Hispanic voters that could be critical if he runs for president in 2016. GOP nominee Mitt Romney's dismal showing among Hispanic and Asian voters last November helped seal his loss. Now McCain and many other Republicans warn that the GOP risks permanent minority status if it doesn't resolve the immigration issue.
"If he's the guy who helps navigate a reform package over the finish line in a way that brings conservatives along and makes Latinos happy, then his viability as a GOP candidate in 2016 goes way up," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a group that advocates a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
All of this helps explain Rubio's caution as the debate moves forward, an approach that was on display this past weekend.
As Graham and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) were appearing on Sunday talk shows to all but declare an immigration deal completed -- after a hard-won agreement between business and labor on a new low-skilled worker program -- Rubio was putting out a different message: Not so fast.
"Reports that the bipartisan group of eight senators have agreed on a legislative proposal are premature," Rubio said in a statement that caused some consternation among immigration advocates.
Obama spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the White House was encouraged by the positive comments over the weekend, but he was far from claiming victory. He wouldn't comment on Rubio's cautionary remarks.


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In early January, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying for Japan Airlines caught fire at Boston's Logan International Airport. Eight days later, another 787 flying for All Nippon Airlines had to make an emergency lading when batteries again showed signs of failure. These battery scares led to the grounding of Boeing's 50-plane Dreamliner fleet—a fleet that was supposed to represent the future of air travel, using 20 percent less fuel than similarly heavy planes.
Now, investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have determined the cause of the battery fire in the Japan Airlines 787, saying that the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the battery's cells leading to a thermal runaway which led to the other cells catching fire. The NTSB said that temperatures inside the battery exceeded 260 degrees Celsius (500 degrees Fahrenheit).
As Ars reported in January, the Dreamliner's lithium batteries had the potential to reach that state of thermal runaway—a situation that can turn a battery into a firebomb—at 140 degrees Celsius.
While the safety board was still trying to find the exact cause of the short circuit, the board criticized the process that the FAA and Boeing had used to approve the safety of the battery in the Dreamliner planes. According to the blog Frequent Business Traveler, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said that "assumptions used to certify the batteries must be reconsidered" and until then, the Dreamliner planes would not to return to passenger service. Hersman also commented that Boeing's tests of the battery had failed to find that a short circuit in one cell could become a problem in the other battery cells, which is exactly what had happened in January.
Beyond the obvious problem with firebomb-like situations on airplanes, the Dreamliner model also depends very heavily on electrical systems ("the plane's avionics are wired together with a derivative of 100 megabit Ethernet to reduce the amount of wiring and corresponding weight," reporter Sean Gallagher wrote). Frequent Business Traveler said that the Dreamliner uses electrical systems in "de-icing the wings, pressurizing the cabin, and operating hydraulic pumps," among other tasks.
The NTSB is continuing its investigation into the cause of the shorted circuit.


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The Central Connecticut men's basketball team can earn its 16th straight trip to the Northeast Conference Tournament with a win on the road at LIU Brooklyn tonight at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils are two games up on LIU in the standings for the final playoff spot.
What's Happening
The Blue Devils are trying to snap a two-game losing streak tonight at LIU Brooklyn. Tonight marks the second of three straight road games to end the regular season. Central is 4-9 on the road this season but has won two of their last three, including a win at Robert Morris and one at St. Francis Brooklyn.
Win and They're In, And Some Other Things...
Central is trying to qualify for its 16th straight Northeast Conference tournament, and can do so with a win tonight. A win over the Blackbirds gets the Blue Devils in as the #7 or #8 seed, depending on what others teams do tonight and Saturday. There are also several other ways the Blue Devils can make the tournament, including a loss to LIU, and a win over Sacred Heart, coupled with an LIU loss to Bryant on Saturday. However, if CCSU, FDU and LIU end up tied with 6-10 record, the Blue Devils would lose the tie-breaker and miss the tournament. The Blue Devils must finish at least 1-1 in their final two games to qualify for the tournament.
Series History - CCSU Leads 19-17
This is the 37th meeting between the two teams, the Blue Devils hold a 19-17 advantage in the series history and have won 12 of 21 and 15 of the last 26 overall meetings. The Blackbirds have won six straight meetings in the series, including the earlier meeting this year in Detrick Gym. Head coach Howie Dickenman is 15-13 all-time vs. the Blackbirds.
Last Time Out
Central trailed by as many as 21 in the second half, but climbed to within two before dropping a 68-65 decision on the road at Bryant on Saturday afternoon. Junior Kyle Vinales scored a team-high 18 points and added six assists as the Blue Devils lost their second straight. The Bulldogs built a 46-25 lead early in the second half. Central got as close as two twice, including 65-63, with 32 seconds left in the game. Following a Faronte Drakeford three, the Bulldogs hit one free-throw to push it to a 66-63 game and then called a timeout. On their next possession CCSU turned the ball over and were forced to foul the Bulldogs. Two free-throws made it 68-63 before a final basket from the Blue Devils cut the final score to 68-65.
Bench Scoring in the Last Five
Since the return and addition of junior Kyle Vinales the Blue Devil bench has been posting impressive numbers in the last five games for the Blue Devils. During those five games the CCSU bench has outscored the opponents' bench 170-47.
McMillan's Assists - 8th All-Time - Reaches 300
Junior Malcolm McMillan leads the team in assists with 92 through 27 games this season. He has 14 games with four or more assists, including 10 of the last 17 games. McMillan enters tonight's game with 315 career assists in 86 games played, an average of 3.7 assists per game in his career. His 315 assists put him eighth all-time in school history.
Vinales in Another Top-10
Junior Kyle Vinales cracked another career top-10 in program history last week. He now has 283 career assists, good for 10th place on the all-time list. He passed former Blue Devil Rick Mickens (266) two weeks ago.
An Elite Club
Junior Kyle Vinales has 1,462 career points, 283 assists and 101 career steals. Joining former Blue Devils Rick Mickens and Tristan Blackwood as the only players in school history to reach 1,400 points, 250 assists and 100 career steals.
Vinales Numbers
Junior Kyle Vinales has one career 40+ point game, eight 30+ point games, 36 at 20 or more and 62 in double-figures. He has scored in double-figures in 47 of his last 52 games.
Vinales More Than a Scorer
With all of the scoring notes for junior Kyle Vinales it's easy to miss his assist numbers. Vinales now has 283 career assists in 76 career games. He has two or more assists in 44 of his last 48 games, and 66 (out of 76) career games with at least two. He also has 53 games with 3+ assists, 37 games at 4+ and 24 games at 5+ assists.
15 Straight NEC Tourneys
The Blue Devils have qualified for 15 straight Northeast Conference men's basketball tournaments. That is the longest active streak in the conference. Central did not qualify for the tournament in its first year of membership, but has qualified each year since.
Dickenman in Overtime
The Blue Devils played the 29th overtime game under head coach Howie Dickenman vs. Fairleigh Dickinson on Feb. 8, 2014, and won for the 20th time (91-86). In his 18 seasons Dickenman is 20-9 in overtime games.
Central Connecticut in the Northeast Conference
Central Connecticut has posted a 139-93 record (.606) in NEC regular season play over the last 12 seasons (19-1 in 2001-02, 12-6 in 02-03, 9-9 in 03-04, 8-10 in 04-05, 13-5 in 05-06, 16-2 in 06-07, 10-8 in 07-08, 8-10 in 08-09, 9-9 in 09-10, 11-7 in 2010-11, 10-8 in 2011-12, 9-9 in 2012-13, and 5-9 in 2013-14). They are 79-38 (.685) at home and 60-55 (.517) on the road during that stretch.
History - 1,067 Wins
This season marks the 77th season of Blue Devil basketball. Central's first year of competition was the 1934-35 season under coach Harrison J. Kaiser, whom the athletic building is named after. Central carries an overall record of 1,067 wins and 836 losses for a .559 winning percentage.
Central and the Three-Point Shot - 526 Straight
Entering today's game, the Blue Devils have hit a three-point shot in 526 consecutive games (a school record). The last time CCSU did not hit a three-point shot was February 29, 1996 at the University of Missouri-KC in a 76-69 loss.
CCSU at LIU Brooklyn, 7 p.m.
RMU at FDU, 7 p.m.
SHU at Mount St. Mary's, 7 p.m.
SFU at Wagner, 7 p.m.
Bryant at SFBK, 7 p.m.
SFU at Mount St. Mary's, 2 p.m.
Bryant at LIU Brooklyn, 2 p.m.
CCSU at SHU, 3:30 p.m.
FDU at SFBK, 5 p.m.
RMU at Wagner, 6 p.m.


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Police warn of scam
South Lake Tahoe Police Department has warned residents of a scam.
Police were contacted Saturday regarding a possible fraud. A resident of South Lake Tahoe received a phone call from a male subject who identified himself as an agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency. The male told the resident he was investigating a mail order prescription purchase the resident had made in 2006. The resident was told to send/wire $1,000 to avoid being arrested on criminal charges for making an illegal prescription purchase via the internet. The resident called the police and did not send the money.
The DEA is aware of this scam and has posted a warning on the DEA website advising criminals are posing as DEA Agents and attempting to extort money from people who have purchased prescriptions via the internet. The impersonator tells the person they will take action, which includes arrest, if they don't pay a fine. The person is instructed to wire transfer money which is usually to an overseas account.
If anyone is ever contacted by someone who claims to be DEA Agent or any law enforcement officer and demands money or any other form of payment, it is a scam! Law enforcement officers will never contact anyone and demand money in exchange for their not being charged or arrested for a crime. Never give anyone your personal or financial information over the phone or e-mail unless you have verified who the person is and what company they work for.
Visit http://www.justice.com/dea for more information about this scam. If you have been the victim of this scam, contact the DEA at 1-877-792-2873 or notify your local law enforcement agency.
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December was wild, as usual. It also brought some seriously cold weather, which didn't last but totally killed most of my plants. And found me in the pasture on some random mornings with a hammer. Cows gotta drink water, right?
It also brought Cher's first buckle!
And we spent a whooooole lotta time working on this guy's hair.
And this photo basically made me laugh ALL MONTH LONG.
We spent some time out at Paw Paw's house playing in the hay...
...and taking pics of Clyde who was sold toward the end of the month to a very nice man who introduced him to eight girlfriends upon arrival at his new home.
We also snuggled some baby dairy cows...
...and fed tiny goats.
Santa came!!! And brought a tablet...
...and a bicycle.
He also brought Taylor a giant wheelbarrow for the barn and she was pretty thrilled about it, truth be told.
Nana and Boppy also came to exchange presents and brought this little one some dress up clothes. Tell me she's not adorable.
We spent a lot of time hanging around the house over the holidays because we knew majors' season would begin in January and be constant for 3.5 months. And it was wild. And crazy. And ushered in a really difficult period for my older girl. But that's another story for another time.
And - plot spoiler - yes, she survived. :-)


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Houston Wedding at Agave Road
Click here for the FULL wedding!
From the Bride… Our inspiration and theme for the wedding was inspired by our venue, Agave Road. Most of our guests were from out of state, so we really wanted to find a venue that showcased some of the beauty of Texas and the Southwest region and culture. The beautiful agave plants and flowers, the outdoor lighting at night, fireplace, the cute donkeys and emus on the property, stunning wooden doors and architecture all created this romantic "Old Mexico" atmosphere. Our vibrant colors of poppy, fuchsia and violet really shined against the background of Agave Road and could be seen throughout the wedding from the invitations and stamps, to the flowers, cake and bridal attire.
It was very important to me that we support artists or craftsmen who specialize in hand-made goods and small businesses throughout our wedding planning journey. Many of our special touches were purchased through Etsy or through up-and-coming graphic designers or freelancers. Some of these included our salt covenant egg for the ceremony, my necklace and bridesmaid earrings, the bow ties, custom wine labels, and the hand-painted ornaments. Those touches created special elements in our day, and we felt good supporting all of these talented artists!
The gorgeous poppy, violet and fuschia pom pom photo booth backdrop was created with love by my mom, step-dad and many family members. It was the perfect backdrop for some of our most favorite wedding photos of all time! The beautiful seating cards were assembled by hand by my maid of honor, step-mom and me. My MOH created the template and we spent a few days creating over 200 of these seven-layer flowers! The templates for the stickers on our welcome bags and cookie bags (favor) and cigar belly bands were also created by my MOH. Our family grew succulents to use as decoration throughout the reception. My dad created the reception table numbers, and the bridesmaids' earrings, bridal keshi pearl necklace and veil were all made by my step-mom, Lena.
It's hard to just choose one "favorite" memory of the day, but I have to say that I really enjoyed eating dinner with my husband at our sweetheart table and looking out into the reception and seeing our amazing family and treasured friends laughing, smiling and having a good time. We were able to enjoy our meal, relax and just BE HAPPY. The room was full of joy and beauty. It doesn't really get better than that! My grandparents were also celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary that weekend, and we were honored to have them at the wedding. We played the "Anniversary Song" in their honor. They danced all evening and we had such a blast, especially when they danced to Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back."
Wedding Photography: Carlea J Photography / Wedding Venue: Agave Road in Katy, Texas / Floral Design: Flora Bella Designs / Wedding Cakes: Edible Designs by Jessie / Anniversary Wine Bottle Labels:Sara Michelle Designs / Cookie Table Signs: Amy Phan / Cigar Rolling: Chip Hight / Salt Covenant Egg:Centered Ceramics / Korean Wedding Ducks: Taeyon / Wedding Dress: Kirstie Kelly Couture / Bride's Red Shoes: Kate Spade / Bride's White Shoes: Mia / Bride's Personalized Wedding Dress Patch: Monde Design / Bride's Hair Flower: Olini Floral / Bridal Hanger: Einspanner / Bride's Necklace, Bride's Veil + Bridesmaids' Earrings: Yelena's Bijoux (The Bride's Step-Mom) / Hair + Makeup: Thalio Beckham Artistry / Bridesmaids' Dresses: J.Crew / Groomsmen's Suits: Jos A. Bank / Groomsmen Bow Ties:CCADesign / Ushers' Ties: tuxandtulle


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"Buried," starring Ryan Reynolds as a kidnapping victim trapped in a small box underground, was the object of the first bidding war at this year's Sundance film festival, with Lionsgate coming out on top.
Reynolds plays a U.S. contractor working in Iraq who is taken hostage and awakens in a coffin with a cell phone and a lighter, in the film directed by Rodrigo Cortes.
Despite working steadily for the better part of a decade and appearing in blockbusters like last year's "The Proposal," Reynolds has yet to really find an audience. His supporting turn in "Adventureland" last year was really the only work for which he's been praised for anything other than being handsome and glibly charming.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
But the revelation of the "Buried" trailer last week caught people's attention, with the buzz culminating in the folks at Lionsgate pulling out their checkbook.


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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Apple Mint Salad and a GF BBQ Party!
I was invited to a virtual Gluten Free BBQ Party and so are you! Visit Kate at Gluten Free Gobsmacked to find out how you can participate and "come along" to the Gluten Free BBQ!!
For this event, I signed up for the letter "A." This meant that I would bring a food or dish that started with "A." Originally I wanted to make something with avocados, and I tried several things (other than salsa) but they didn't turn out so great.
So I decided to stick with something I know well! Apples! I love apples. Apples are a staple crop where I grew up in the mountains of VA, so I thought I'd make an apple salad.
Recently, Rachel from The Crispy Cook (formerly Meat Free Wheat Free) had a book giveaway and I won! She sent me a copy of Tassajara Cooking by Edward Espe Brown. I am thrilled with this cookbook! It is a wonderful book that focuses on simple and fresh methods for cooking and serving fruits and vegetables! Rachel had no idea how much I needed this cookbook!
I chose a quick apple salad recipe out of the book and adapted it to include a very simple, healthy, and delicious dressing! ('cause this southern gal has to add a dressing to EVERY salad. Just accept it! ;-)
I love the fresh mint pared with the sweet apples and sour grapefruit! This is not a combination I would have thought of on my own, but it's lovely. Michael doesn't like grapefruit, and next time I make this I may substitute an orange so he can enjoy it too!
Many thanks to Kate for organizing this wonderful gluten free blogging event! Make sure to visit Gluten Free Gobsmacked soon for a roundup of the Gluten Free BBQ 2008 !!
Apple Mint Salad
Adapted from Tassajara Cooking by Edward Espe Brown
2 large gala or granny smith apples, diced
1 large ruby red grapefruit, pared and diced
3-5 leaves fresh mint
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons greek yogurt
1 tablespoons honey
In a pretty glass serving dish mix chopped apples and diced grapefruit pieces.
"Chiffonade" your fresh mint by rolling the leaves together horizontally, like this. Then finely cut the roll into small slices, this will result in a chiffonade cut. Feelin' fancy now aren't you? Oh come on.. I know you do! (These pictures are courtesy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks!!)
Toss the chiffonaded mint into the apple and grapefruit.
In a small measuring cup mix together the orange juice, honey, and greek yogurt. Drizzle over the salad and toss to coat. Serve immediately or chill for several hours. This salad is delicious and refreshing either way!! Enjoy!
For a printer friendly version, click here.
7 comments:
- AnonymousJune 24, 2008 at 1:37 PM
Ooh, how refreshing.ReplyDelete
Somehow I missed the boat on this event- by the time I heard about it all the letters were taken. Sniff..
That looks delicious, Carrie. I bet the flavours were great together. :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 25, 2008 at 12:16 PM
It look's to good to be through I am definitely going to try thisReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 25, 2008 at 1:49 PM
That looks really good Carrie! and easy (even better!) Too bad I forgot to plant mint. I suppose I could still find some to stick outside in a pot. :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 27, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Sounds delish...and what a great list of Gluten Free links...will pass them along to a friend!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 27, 2008 at 11:13 AM
Sounds delish...and what a great list of Gluten Free links...will pass them along to a friend!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJuly 3, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Hi Carrie! I'm catching up on your last several posts- was offline during the big move north (the Triumph Dining book came in SOOO handy during our days on the road- thanks!). So I know I'm late to comment! We have four different varieties of mint growing right now- apple mint, banana mint, chocolate mint (yum!) and pineapple mint (I think) that I can't wait to try with this salad! I love doing a dressing of yogurt-lime juice-honey over whatever fruits I have on hand, but I'll definitely have to try this Greek yogurt- sounds intriguing!ReplyDelete
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License


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JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) Ryan Aplin broke his own Arkansas State record for passing touchdowns in a season and the Red Wolves captured their second straight Sun Belt Conference championship with a 45-0 victory over Middle Tennessee on Saturday.
Aplin completed 19 of 21 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns - giving him 22 TDs to break the mark of 21 he set last season.
Arkansas State (9-3, 7-1) and Middle Tennessee (8-4, 6-2) came into the game tied for first place in the conference, but this quickly turned into a mismatch as Aplin threw two TD passes and also rushed for a 4-yard score en route to a 35-0 halftime lead.
David Oku rushed for 102 yards and a TD for the Red Wolves, giving him 1,024 yards for the season. Arkansas State, which won its seventh straight, had 512 yards of offense to just 203 for the Blue Raiders.


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be spitting in(to) the wind(redirected from are spitting in the wind)
be spitting in(to) the wind
To be doing something totally pointless, fruitless, or futile; to be wasting one's time doing something that will not or cannot come to pass. To be perfectly honest, when I vote, I feel like I'm spitting in the wind, so I usually don't bother. If you're trying to lose weight without changing your diet, you're spitting into the wind.
be spitting in the wind
If someone is spitting in the wind, they are wasting their time by trying to do something which has little or no chance of success. As an approach to the problem, this is scarcely more than spitting in the wind.
spitting in (or into) the winda futile or pointless activity.
1996 Daily Telegraph Both the Church report and the atheist professor are spitting in the wind, of course, because the incoming tide of superstition has a long way to rise yet.


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Eva Longoria is months away from filming the series finale of "Desperate Housewives," but she admitted just thinking about the end of the long running ABC drama makes her emotional.
"I can't — you're going to make me cry already," Eva told AccessHollywood.com's Laura Saltman when asked about how she expects to feel on the last day of taping. "I can't even think about it. I mean, every episode that we're shooting now is a little sad, because we're like, 'Oh, another scene of all of us in the woods, another scene of all of us playing poker.' It's all emotional — every episode is emotional for all of us."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: 'Dancing' Contestant & Soap Star J.R. Martinez Over The Years
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
"Desperate Housewives" returns for its ninth and final season on Sunday at 9/8 C on ABC and as they prepare for the beginning of the end, Eva has so many memories she's fond of.
One, however, stands out the most.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Scenes From 'The X Factor': Season 1
"My favorite moment will always be the pilot, the first episode. And kind of that time, too, because it was such madness," she said. "We always have fond memories of that time, and I remember Helen Hunt telling me, 'There's nothing like the birth of a hit, so remember every moment… It's rare, you know, and we kind of hit the lottery, so it's bittersweet to me to be here and say goodbye."
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
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EDMONTON – Archbishop Richard Smith is concerned about the effects of "the tyranny of the tweet."
"There is this constant barrage of information that takes our attention and scatters it all over the place," Smith said May 14 in his annual breakfast session with local media.
Pope Benedict's message for World Communications Day, May 20, said "the Church needs to help people find safe havens of silence" in today's noisy world.
Smith picked up on that message and said he is concerned that the deluge of byte-sized communications today is making more difficult for people to relate meaningfully and discuss issues in a substantial way.
"I am wondering what it does to our ability to reflect and think deeply. That kind of reflection needs silence."
In his Communications Day message titled Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization, the pope said silence is essential to the New Evangelization.
The pope noted that profound thoughts can be expressed in concise phrases.
However, words, images and sounds need "a kind of eco-system . . . if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved," he said.


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Established in the last quarter of the 19th Century, the Asian section of Walnut Grove served Chinese and Japanese laborers. While most were boarded in barracks adjacent to the fields, hundreds of these immigrants would come to Walnut Grove on Sunday, their one day off, to conduct business, make purchases and relax. A terrible fire destroyed the Asian section of town in 1915, after which the Japanese established a separate community. Walnut Grove served as the center of social and economic life for many Japanese agricultural workers in the Delta region until 1942, when they were relocated to internment camps during World War II. After the 1915 fire, Japanese architects and contractors from around the state volunteered their services to rebuild. As a result, the Walnut Grove Japanese American Historic District was the only Japanese community (nihonmachi) in California designed and built by Japanese Americans. It consisted of boarding houses, bathhouses, barber shops, restaurants, saloons and pool halls for the largely male population. The buildings within the historic district are rare examples of vernacular Japanese American architectural design, and their simplicity reflects the preferences of Asians in their everyday lives, as opposed to the more elaborate style reserved for public buildings. The Walnut Grove nihonmachi experienced its greatest growth in the 1920's, when the agricultural market was booming and Japanese women finally immigrated to join their husbands. The community has remained undeveloped and unchanged since the 1940's, although most of the original occupants who returned after their internment did not stay longer than a few years. Two of the remaining five businesses were started before the 1915 fire, Kawamura's Barber Shop and Hayashi's Market are still operated by the original families.
While many of Locke and Walnut Grove's buildings remain unchanged, the composition of the towns' residents have become more diverse. Only a few Chinese and Japanese families live in their historic Walnut Grove neighborhoods while Locke faired better than other communities because of its close ethnic cohesion. The remaining historic districts afford unique insights into the Asian-American experience, which makes them a significant part in understanding the ethnic dimension of American life.
The Walnut Grove Japanese American and Chinese American Historic Districts are located in Walnut Grove, California. They both lie between River Road and Tyler Street and are divided by C Street, the Japanese District extends north to Winnie Street, the Chinese Distirct extends south to Bridge Street. The Locke Historic District is one mile north of Walnut Grove bounded off of River Road and is bounded by the Sacramento River, Locke Road., the Southern Pacific Railroad, and Levee Road.
National Asian-Pacific Heritage Month Home


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"Timely as well as timeless … Elegant, evocative, and elegaic."
—Boston Globe
"The 15 essays in My Reading Life should delight curious readers … [Conroy] is fun to read and debate."
—USA Today
"Pat Conroy doesn't just love books, he devours them. He doesn't just visit libraries and bookstores, he inhabits them. He doesn't enjoy language, he revels in it … [My Reading Life] is a rich, unabashedly self-critical and moving tribute to a writer's passion … Like Stephen King did in his remarkable On Writing, Conroy reminds us of his considerable talents for telling a story and arranging words."
—Associated Press
"In this marvelous blueprint for how to engage with all things literary, the goal is not only to get wet, but to fall deeply and madly in over our heads. With its heady mix of memoir, advice and out-and-out lust for the written word, My Reading Life asks how we could possibly settle for anything less."
—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"[Conroy's] fans will savor these 15 essays on the books and people that helped shape his long writing career … They lend themselves to being taken up separately, at leisure, and savored like a rich dessert."
—The Charlotte Observer
"My Reading Life extols the glories of books [and] offers heartfelt thanks to those who encouraged a passion that led [Conroy] to writing."
—The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
"In My Reading Life, we not only learn about many of Conroy's pivotal reading experiences, we see how he came together as a writer, and are entertained by a host of stories about unlikely heroes."
—Asheville Citizen-Times
"Conroy's legion of fans will doubtlessly bond with the author as he earnestly explores the role of books in providing him with inspiration and solace."
—Publishers Weekly
"What a delightful little book … with a punch far sturdier than its compact size might suggest … Try to resist rereading it!"
"Pat Conroy's writing contains a virtue now rare in most contemporary fiction: passion."
—Denver Post
"Reading Pat Conroy is like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel."
—Houston Chronicle