The Sassy Gazette

Little Dickies, There are nights when a town goes to sleep and nothing changes. And then there are nights when someone steps outside, takes a short walk into the cold, and the story never comes back. This is one of those nights. This is the disappearance of Shelby Rhodes . The Man Behind the Missing Poster Before the alerts, the shares, and the frantic search along the riverbanks, Shelby Rhodes was a young man trying to build something out of his life. He was twenty six years old. Red hair. Red beard. A face that looked like it belonged in a music video or behind a microphone, not on a missing person flyer. Shelby was from the Monongahela and Monessen area, part of the old Mon Valley where the river has always been both lifeline and danger. Family described him as resilient, sensitive, and creative. He had been knocked down more than once in life, but he kept getting back up. Tha...

The Murder of Peggy Reber The Girl the System Left Behind ⚠️ Reader Discretion Advised The following case involves the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and includes references to sexual assault and extreme violence. Out of respect for the victim, graphic details are not presented in a sensational manner. However, the nature of the crime may still be distressing to some readers. Please take care while reading. Author’s Note Before we begin, let me be clear about something. There are three kinds of crimes I cannot abide in this world: crimes against children, crimes against animals, and crimes against people with intellectual disabilities. This case involves one of the worst of them. So we’re not here for spectacle. We’re here for the truth. Fourteen years old. A school portrait, a shy smile, and a life that should have stretched decades beyond this frame. Pegg...

Vanished Without a Trace: The Life and Disappearance of Andrea Knabel By RICHIE D MOWREY for The Sassy Gazette (The Gossip You Didn’t Know You Needed) She searched for the missing until she became one. Little Dickies, The Vanishing Andrea Michelle Knabel walked into the Louisville night in August 2019, phone in hand, emotions running high after a family argument. She had just left her sister’s house. She was supposed to be walking back to her mother’s place. It was not far. A short, familiar stretch of road. She never made it home. No confirmed sightings. No goodbye messages. No bank activity. No trace. Andrea Michelle Knabel searched for the missing until she became one. Before the Flyers Before the headlines and speculation, Andrea was simply a woman trying to rebuild her life. Born in 1982, she grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, the eldest of three sisters in a family that was close, complicated, and sometimes combustible. She earned a marketing degree fro...

When the Jail Door Blinked The Crimes, the Escape, and the Quiet Truth Beneath the Selenski Case By RICHIE D MOWREY for The Sassy Gazette (The Gossip You Didn’t Know You Needed) Little Dickies, Some stories sound like urban legends until you look closer and realize the dirt is real, the bodies are real, and the system meant to keep danger contained sometimes forgets to lock the window. The Hugo Selenski case is one of those stories. It has everything that turns a crime into a headline: bodies buried in a yard, a double murder, a suspected string of other victims, and a maximum-security escape using nothing but bedsheets and nerve. But under all that spectacle is something quieter. Something easier to overlook. Human lives that ended violently, and a truth we don’t say enough: A person’s past does not give anyone the right to end their future. The Paper Trail A Backyard...

Little Dickies, The Driftwood Killer Content Warning: This case involves sexual assault, arson, and acts of extreme cruelty before and after the murder. Some readers may find the material disturbing. Please take care while reading. Casefile Opener There’s nothing like a killer naming himself. What nerve. Most of them skulk in the shadows, praying the world never learns their names. But Brian David Steckel picked up a phone and introduced himself to the headlines. He called himself the Driftwood Killer . Like he was unveiling a brand instead of a body. Like murder was a marketing campaign. He wanted a legend. He wanted fear attached to a title. He wanted the world to remember the name he chose. But behind that nickname was a woman named Sandra Lee Long . And her story is the one that matters. Sandra Lee Long Sandra Lee Long, 29, whose life was stolen in September 1994. She fought back and that fight helped bring her killer to justice. Sandra wasn’t a headli...