Former Miss New Jerse Dies Week After Car Wreck

Miss New Jersey 2013, Cara McCollum, has passed away a week after being critically injured in a wreck Feb. 15.

Photo from SNJ Today website

The 24-year-old died Monday morning, Feb. 22. According to media reports, McCollum lost control of her Ford Mustang and ran off a New Jersey highway. Other information may be obtained at a Facebook page Prayers for Cara.


Cara McCollum was a news anchor at SNJ Today.

Noah and Nigel Among First Young People Lost

GULF COAST/NATION -- Noah Chamberlain and Nigel Poole are among the young people who have lost their lives during the start of 2016.



The country worried and then mourned with the Tennessee family of 2-year-old Noah Israel Chamberlain, who wandered away from his grandmother while they were on a hike. His body was found about a week later, on Jan. ???. Officials say Noah died of hypothermia, as temperatures dipped during the gigantic blizzard that hit the East Coast during the three-day weekend from Jan.


Nigel Poole of Gulfport was fatally wounded January 23 behind a home on 19th Street. A vigil was  held Wednesday night, Jan. 27, for the 16-year-old, who was allegedly shot by a 15-year-old.

Law enforcement determined that the body found in the vehicle of a missing Biloxi woman was indeed that of Tiffany Rae McDavid.  The 21-year-old had been employed with Winn-Dixie and Walmart.
Tiffany was seen Jan. 6 before she was reported missing Jan. 11. Her body was found Jan. 23  her parked car located in a wooded area near River Loop Drive in D'Iberville.

Twenty-three-year old Cordero "Cord" DeShaun Holmes died Jan. 16, 13 days before his January 28 birthday. He was born in Waterloo, Iowa, and moved to the Gulf Coast in 2002 with his family. They lived in Gulfport until Hurricane Katrina, then moved to Long Beach.


Cordero graduated from Long Beach High and Blue Cliff College, where he was a medical assistant major.

He was employed with Hood Lumber Yard in Wiggins. In his spare time, Cord enjoyed all sports, but especially football and fishing.
He is the son of Dianne Holmes and the late Rayfread Parker. He also is survived by fiancé Kaitlyn Bodie, his daughter Di'Asia and several siblings.

He attended the Gulfport Community of Christ and helped with their food pantry.



A 17-year old was killed Jan. 23 during a dispute with two customers at his father's gun shop in the Henleyfield community in Pearl River County.

Remembering the Young Lives Lost, Family and Community Togetherness

GULF COAST -- Lucretia Nix and parents of those young people who died in the terrorists attacks in Paris are a world away from each other but they feel the same devastating pain this year: the passing of a children.  Tbey were among the many young people who died in 2015.

During November, Nix and those families lost their children within days of each other. On Nov. 6, MJ Joseph and his father, Marshean Sr, died in a vehicle wreck while on their way to watch a football game. On Nov. 13, Muslim terrorists killed more than 128 people in four separate attacks in Paris, France. At least 90 of the victims included young people attending a concert at the Bataclan nightclub.

Six-year-old and Father Die in Circus Tent During Storm

LANCASTER, N.H. -- Annabelle Young and her father, 41-year-old Robert Young, are the two people who died during a circus performance as a severe storm hit the Lancaster area on Monday. 

Annabelle, 6, and her father lived in Concord, Vt.  Police said the two died of blunt force trauma, according to New Hampshire State Fire Marshall Bill Degnan. 

Sixty-mile-per-hour winds and hail ripped the tent apart and the poles holding the canvas fell as the tent collapsed. Some 32 other people were in injured and the spectators who were estimated to number about 100 people, according to law enforcement officials. 

It was the second tent death this week. A man in Chicago was killed when a concert tent collasped, also during a storm. 

Information obtained from:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/winds-60-mph-deadly-hampshire-circus-accident/story?id=32871007

Family, Friends, Fans Mourn Death of Bobbi Kristina Brown

ATLANTA -- Funeral arrangements for Bobbi Kristina Brown are expected to include services in Georgia,

where the 22-year had lived until Jan 31 this year when she was found face down and unresponsive in her bathtub at home in Roswell, and in New Jersey where she was born and her mother's family lives.

Brown, only daughter of famed singer-actress Whitney Houston and R&B singer Bobby Brown, passed away July 26 at a hospice, some six months after she was found in an incident similar to the bathtub death of Houston during February 2012.

(Photos: Bobbi Kristina Brown and her mother Whitney Houston at a Central Park concert; Bobbi Kristina)

"She is finally at peace in the arms of God," the Houston family told USA TODAY in a statement. "We want to again thank everyone for their tremendous amount of love and support during these last few months."

Bobby Brown released a statement through is lawyer, saying his daughter had fought to get well during the last several months.

"Krissy was and is an angel. I am completely numb at this time. My family must find a wa y to live with her in spirit and honor her memory. Our loss in unimaginable."

According to Wikipedia, Bobbi Kristina "Krissy" Brown was born on March 4, 1993, in Livingston, New Jersey, to Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown.^[2] Brown's family includes maternal grandmother Cissy Houston of The Drinkard Singers. Her mother's cousins are Dee Dee Warwick; Dionne Warwick, mother of Damon Elliott; and Leontyne Price. Her uncle is Gary Garland, her mother's half-brother.^[3] Through her father, Brown had five half-siblings: Landon, La'Princia, Robert "Bobby" Jr., Cassius,^[5] and Bodhi.^[6] Her godmother is gospel singer CeCe Winans.

Funeral services for Brown have been set for Saturday, Aug. 1,  at 11 am at St. James United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, Ga. Burial will be in New Jersey on Monday. Both services will be private.


Information obtained from:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/07/26/reports-bobbi-kristina-brown-has-died/22720273/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobbi_Kristina_Brown

Quarrel Leads to Death of 21-year-old Cousin

BILOXI, Miss. -- One cousin is dead and another in jail for murder following an argument and shooting that caused the death of the 21-year-old man.

Mark Anthony Fairley, 21, died of a gunshot wound to the head July 15, reportedly killed by his cousin, 26-year-old Chris Andre Fairley of Gulfport, according to Biloxi police. Chris Fairley has been charged with first-degree murder.

Also a Gulfport resident, Mark Fairley, was shot once in the head while he and his cousin, Chris Fairley, were involved Thursday in what police said was an ongoing quarrel. The argument and shooting occurred in the parking lot of the Iron Works Gym on Eisenhower Drive.

Information obtained from sunherald.com and wlox.com

Remembering Ja'Naya

GULFPORT, Miss. -- Today marks a year that 5-year-old JaNaya Thompson went missing after stepping outside to play on her front doorstep.

An Amber Alert and police, family and community searches continued into the night until the pre-schooler was found the next day in a trailer home on Whitney Street. The trailer is due north of the girl's former home.

The little girl had been molested, and was found hanging from the empty trailer's bathroom window July 17, 2014.

Evidence linked Alberto Garcia to the crime scene in the once-abandoned trailer, which is now occupied by a family who said they know the circumstances of the case but needed a place to live that was affordable for them.

Neighbors last year had wanted the mobile house destroyed.

The tragic death of Ja'Naya Thompson both shocked and united the Gulfport community and its city leaders.