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Hannah Moody posted a video to her Instagram that morning as she set out into the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdal...
09/11/2026

Hannah Moody posted a video to her Instagram that morning as she set out into the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona, calling the climb toward Tom's Thumb a last hurrah before summer hit. By that afternoon the temperature was climbing past 100 degrees, and she would not come back down the trail.

She was 31, a fitness influencer and former bodybuilder with more than 45,000 followers who loved the outdoors and had hiked these trails many times.

She was supposed to meet a friend for lunch after the hike. When she never showed and no one could reach her, friends reported her missing that evening, around 7:50 p.m. Searchers found her car still in the trailhead parking lot and combed the area on foot, by drone and by helicopter into the night.

The next day, a Maricopa County Sheriff's air unit spotted her about 600 yards off the trail. There were no signs of foul play, and for a while her family had no idea what had taken her. She was young, strong and had no known medical condition that could explain it.

The answer came more than a month later. The medical examiner determined she died from environmental heat exposure, and ruled her death an accident. Friends said she was careful in the heat and had carried extra water that day.

Her mother offered words that every hiker might want to sit with. It does not matter how experienced you are or how good a shape you are in. Anything can happen.

Hannah died just nine days before what would have been her 32nd birthday.

What do you think it takes for even seasoned hikers to truly respect how fast extreme heat can turn dangerous?

In an industry built on constant reinvention, one of its rising stars has quietly decided to change nothing at all. Sadi...
09/11/2026

In an industry built on constant reinvention, one of its rising stars has quietly decided to change nothing at all. Sadie Sink, at 23, has never dyed her hair, never gotten a tattoo, and never even pierced her ears.

The Stranger Things actress, known worldwide as Max Mayfield, opened up about it in a Glamour cover interview. "I don't have any piercings or tattoos or anything. I like the idea of never doing anything," she said.

Her signature red hair is a big part of the choice. Like a lot of redheads, she has had a complicated relationship with it over the years. "Sometimes you're like, yes, I love my hair. It's the best thing ever. And then sometimes you're like, oh my God, I hate it," she admitted. But one message stuck with her from childhood. Never dye it. "So I never have, and I don't think I will," she said.

There is a practical side to it too. Keeping herself a blank slate gives her more freedom as a performer. When a role calls for a different look, she reaches for a wig rather than anything permanent, so nothing ever has to be covered up or explained away later.

She is also clear-eyed about the pressure that surrounds appearance in her line of work, noting how much people change their looks and how that expectation bleeds into acting. Her answer has been to stay recognizably herself.

Off screen, she describes her personal style as pretty safe now, favoring pieces that simply make her feel good, a shift from the bolder choices she leaned into a couple of years ago.

What do you think it says about someone to resist all that pressure and simply stay who they already are?

Her parents thought they would have more time. That is the sentence Mandi Sause keeps returning to, weeks after losing h...
09/10/2026

Her parents thought they would have more time. That is the sentence Mandi Sause keeps returning to, weeks after losing her 19-year-old daughter in Loganville, Georgia.

Izzy Sause was a scholarship soccer player headed to Georgia College, the kind of person who filled a room the moment she walked in. "She was everybody's friend. She lit up a room when she walked through a door," her mother said. Her motto was simple. Live every day to your fullest.

It all began with a single mole on her chest. In March of 2024, a dermatologist scraped it during a routine check and sent it off. The result came back as melanoma, and Izzy had no idea how fast it could move. It was just one mole, after all.

Within three months, surgery revealed the cancer had already reached her lymph nodes. Chemotherapy failed. By January of 2026, it had spread to her spine and brain, and she went through 15 radiation treatments over the summer.

Along the way, the family ran into a painful gap. Melanoma is treated as an older person's disease, so there was little research and few options for a teenager fighting it. "There's just not a lot of intel on children with melanoma," her father Chris said.

Izzy passed away in early September. She asked that no funeral be held, and her family plans a celebration of life instead. Even now, they are carrying her mission forward, pushing for more to be done for young people with this disease.

If you want to support them, the fundraiser is on GoFundMe under "4 Mara's Love for Izzy."

What do you think it would take to close the gap Izzy's family found in how young people with melanoma are treated?

The whole town of Moroni, Utah is grieving this week, wrapped around one father who has had to say goodbye twice in a ma...
09/10/2026

The whole town of Moroni, Utah is grieving this week, wrapped around one father who has had to say goodbye twice in a matter of days.

It began on an ordinary Tuesday morning near Dairy Lane, just before 8 a.m. Rebecca Hafen, 34, was walking along the shoulder of the road when she was struck by a vehicle. Investigators believe sun glare and limited visibility were the main factors, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

Rebecca was late in her pregnancy. She was rushed to a hospital, where doctors performed an emergency delivery to try to save her baby. She did not survive her injuries. Her newborn son was taken to the NICU, where his family held onto hope through the days that followed.

That hope did not hold. On Wednesday, the fundraiser supporting the family shared that the baby had died too. "Today, our family received more heartbreaking news. Tyson's sweet baby passed away," the update read. "The medical team did everything they could to care for him and give him a fighting chance."

Before he passed, Rebecca's husband Tyson and their children were able to hold the baby, love him and say goodbye. The family has found a sliver of comfort in one thought. "We find some comfort knowing that he is now with his mama, Rebecca," they wrote.

What remains is almost beyond words. A father of nine now facing life without his wife and their youngest child at the same time.

If you want to support them, the fundraiser is on GoFundMe under "Support Tyson Hafen and Family."

What would you want Tyson and his nine children to know as they hold each other through a loss this heavy?

For a generation of hockey fans, the game did not truly start until a man with a slicked-back mullet and a sharp suit le...
09/10/2026

For a generation of hockey fans, the game did not truly start until a man with a slicked-back mullet and a sharp suit leaned into the camera to break it all down. That voice has gone quiet. Barry Melrose has passed away at 70.

His wife, Cindy, shared the news with ESPN, the network where Melrose spent 27 years as one of the sport's most recognizable analysts. He had stepped away in 2023 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and he faced that final chapter with the same honesty he brought to everything.

Long before the broadcasts, Melrose was a rugged defenseman from Kelvington, Saskatchewan, grinding out an 11-year pro career across the NHL, AHL and WHA. But it was behind the bench that he first made his name. In his first season coaching the Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings, he took them all the way to the 1993 Stanley Cup Final.

What people loved was never just the resume. It was the humor, the candor and the everyman warmth that made watching him feel like talking hockey with a friend.

"His knowledge of the game was deep, his candor was refreshing, and his passion was unmistakable," ESPN said. "He always kept it interesting and he will be missed."

To those who worked beside him, the loss is personal. "Barry was my best friend at ESPN. A big brother figure of rock solid values," John Buccigross wrote.

He leaves behind Cindy and their sons, Tyrell and Adrien, along with a hockey world that felt like it knew him.

What is your favorite memory of Barry Melrose and the way he talked about the game he loved?

For years, Shane and Hannah Burcaw let millions of people into the small and honest moments of their marriage. This week...
09/10/2026

For years, Shane and Hannah Burcaw let millions of people into the small and honest moments of their marriage. This week they shared the one they had been holding close in private. They are going to be parents.

Known online as Squirmy and Grubs, the couple announced on September 8 that Hannah is 20 weeks pregnant and their first child is due in January. "We are beyond ecstatic to announce that we're expecting our first child this coming January," they wrote, sharing sonogram photos with their followers.

The news carries extra weight because of everything behind it. Shane, 34, has spinal muscular atrophy and uses a power wheelchair, and much of the couple's work has been spent gently correcting strangers who assumed the two of them could never be parents at all. They also went through several years of unsuccessful IVF before this pregnancy.

That history is exactly why they chose their words with such care. "After going through IVF unsuccessfully for many years, we understand all too well the difficulties that many people experience when trying to conceive, and how seeing announcements can feel," they wrote. "Our hearts go out to you."

So far the pregnancy has gone smoothly, and friends have spent the summer building custom modifications to help Shane hold and care for their baby once he or she arrives.

Rather than ask for gifts, the couple is fulfilling other families' baby registries to pass the joy along. They have also said they plan to be deliberate and intentional about what they choose to share about their child.

What do you think this baby will mean to a couple who spent years showing the world what their love could do?

It was an ordinary Saturday errand in Thornton, Colorado. Voss told his girlfriend, Kirsten DeVon, that he was heading t...
09/10/2026

It was an ordinary Saturday errand in Thornton, Colorado. Voss told his girlfriend, Kirsten DeVon, that he was heading to the store for camping supplies. That was the last time she heard his voice.

A traffic camera caught his white Toyota Tacoma passing through Westminster at 11:42 that morning. After that, nothing.

Kirsten did everything a person can do. She called police, posted his photo and license plate, and asked strangers to watch for a white truck with a Blue Leaf School sticker on the back window. She asked them to watch for Porter too, his 40-pound chocolate Lab, who was riding beside him.

Hundreds of people shared the post. They watched the roads. For a full day, an entire community held its breath together and hoped.

Then came the update no one wanted. Voss had been found deceased. Kirsten was the one notified first, early in the morning, and then she had to be the one to confirm it to everyone who had been praying for a different ending.

Behind every missing person post is a whole life. Voss worked at a preschool, a place where the children in his care knew him and loved him. His coworkers felt his loss as deeply as anyone.

A fellow teacher from that school has since started a fundraiser to support Kirsten through the days ahead. There is still no confirmed word on Porter.

Now the people who loved Voss are left holding a grief no one can prepare for, asking only that his family be treated with compassion in this moment.

What do you think it says about Voss that the children he cared for and the people beside him loved him so deeply?

He answered the calls no one else wanted to take for 20 years, a captain who made Firehouse 13 in Flour Bluff his second...
09/10/2026

He answered the calls no one else wanted to take for 20 years, a captain who made Firehouse 13 in Flour Bluff his second home. This week the Corpus Christi Fire Department is remembering the man behind that badge.

Retired Captain Arnold "Buddy" Atkinson gave 29 years to the department and the people of Corpus Christi, Texas. He came up through Stations 1, 10 and 11 before settling into the final and longest chapter of his career at Firehouse 13.

Across nearly three decades, he responded to countless emergencies, running toward fire, medical and rescue calls while most people were running the other way. Those who served beside him call it an honor to have shared a shift with him.

But the department says his mark went well past the calls. He was known for his leadership, his work ethic and the humor he brought to the firehouse. Over the years he mentored younger firefighters, shaping generations of CCFD personnel who came up under him.

Not long after he retired, Buddy was diagnosed with occupational cancer, an illness firefighters face at higher rates because of what they are exposed to on the job. He fought it over several months. Because the disease was tied to his work, his passing is recognized as a line of duty death.

"Rest easy, Captain. Your service, sacrifice, and legacy will never be forgotten," the department wrote.

Now the fire family he spent 29 years building is left to grieve one of its own. What do you think it means to the firefighters he mentored to carry a piece of Captain Atkinson forward in their own careers?

It was a Sunday evening on the Baldwin Beach Express, a stretch of road that runs between the coast and Mobile, when two...
09/10/2026

It was a Sunday evening on the Baldwin Beach Express, a stretch of road that runs between the coast and Mobile, when two people in one car had their lives cut short in a matter of seconds.

The crash happened around 7 p.m. on September 6, in Robertsdale, Alabama, between Fairground Road and East Silverhill Avenue. According to the Robertsdale Police Department, two vehicles collided head-on, forcing officers to shut down the road in both directions for hours.

The two who died were a couple. Braxton Freckman, 28, was from Spanish Fort. Kimberly Moody, 33, was from Mobile. They were traveling together in the same vehicle and were pronounced dead after the impact.

They were not the only ones caught in it. A man, a woman and an infant in the other vehicle were taken to a local hospital for treatment of their injuries.

Those who knew Braxton remember a kind and hardworking man. Kimberly is remembered as loving and devoted to the people around her. Two communities, Spanish Fort and Mobile, are now grieving them side by side.

Police say the crash remains under investigation, and no further details have been released. For the families left behind, the questions about how an ordinary evening drive ended this way are still unanswered.

What would you want the loved ones of Braxton and Kimberly to know as they face the days ahead?

This week she was supposed to be packing for a trip to Centerville, part of a visit her whole family had been looking fo...
09/09/2026

This week she was supposed to be packing for a trip to Centerville, part of a visit her whole family had been looking forward to. Instead, they are saying goodbye to Riley Grace Botto, who was 14 years old.

Riley, of Halifax, Massachusetts, was born on April 11, 2012, and passed away peacefully on August 14, 2026, after a long fight she met with remarkable determination. She was the cherished daughter of Ryan and Jill Botto.

The people who knew her describe a girl who was sweet, funny and kind, the kind of child who was always smiling and looking out for everyone around her.

Her life was stitched together from simple pleasures. Summers at the beach, especially in the Carolinas. Snuggling with her pets Beau, Peanut, Reese and Dougie. A weakness for pickles and a sweet tooth for ice cream and brownies.

She was a proud member of the Halifax Girls Softball team and an accomplished dancer of 10 years. In winter she skied. In summer she was on the water, paddleboarding, boating and swimming in her pool.

Her passing came through Tommy's Place, an organization that gives seriously ill children moments of comfort and fun. Riley was part of that family, and she was one of many. The group says it has now lost more than 50 children who stayed with them or were on their waiting list in just five years.

"Riley did not choose or deserve to be in this fight. She deserved to be a kid just like all of the other kids her age," the organization wrote.

The people who loved her have asked for one simple thing, prayers for Riley and for her mom and dad, Jill and Ryan. What do you think it means to a grieving family when strangers take a moment to hold their child in their thoughts?

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