Clues

The family of a missing 19-year-old East Baltimore woman is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts.In the meantime, they resumed their search.Yesterday, 15 to 20 family members and friends of Melissa Watkins searched the woods and neighborhoods near where police on Wednesday found the car she was using when she disappeared Monday. Watkins, of the 5000 block of Denview Ave., failed to return home after buying a full-length leather coat at a store in Mondawmin Mall in northwest Baltimore.

Archaeologists may have found remains of a barn or blacksmith shop from the days of Josiah Henson, a former slave whose autobiography was the inspiration for "Uncle Tom's Cabin," the Baltimore Sun reports. Here's an excerpt from Scott Dance's story about the dig in North Bethesda, Md.: "[A]rchaeologists with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Montgomery Parks and the PBS program "Time Team America" began exploring the Josiah Henson Special Park on Monday.

Appealing for help from the public, Baltimore County police have revealed new clues in the fatal stabbing of Olga Gregorian Sexton, a massage parlor employee found early Dec. 7 behind the front door of her townhouse in the first block of Hamlet Drive in Garrison.About 1 a.m., roughly an hour before the body was discovered by her husband, a credit card belonging to the 38-year-old victim was found near a NationsBank automated teller machine in the 700 block of Dulaney Valley Road in Towson, police said.

Benjamin H. Passey, assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Nature of Research : Passey was part of an international team that analyzed the diet of Australopithecus sediba , a human-like primate that lived 2 million to 3 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Researchers used a laser to vaporize bits of fossilized tooth enamel from two individuals that had been recovered. Using mass spectrometry, they detected in the vapor the chemical fingerprints of the foods consumed.

An article in yesterday's editions of The Sun reported inaccurate information about the shooting death May 28 of Marvin B. Cooper. Mr. Cooper was fatally wounded in Guilford -- a short distance from his Oakenshawe residence.The Sun regrets the errors.An army of police academy recruits descended on scenic Sherwood Gardens yesterday to comb the flower beds for clues in the slayings of an elderly couple whose Guilford home overlooks the popular city park.But the search yielded no clues in the deaths of Walter E. and Mary H. Loch, police said.

Baltimore County police, continuing to search for clues and a suspect in the shooting deaths of an elderly couple at their isolated ranch home, last night found the couple's missing candy-apple red Camaro.Police hope the car will provide clues in the slayings of John George Dietz Sr. and his wife, Lillian Ann, both 63. Police, who were called by a family friend, found their bodies about 1:45 a.m. yesterday. Each had been shot in the head and both were dressed in night clothes, police said.

All murder mystery fans, whether casual observers or dedicated sleuths, will find much to ponder in Bowie Community Theatre's current offering of BBC writer/producer Edward Taylor's 1992 "Murder by Misadventure. " They should also enjoy frequent chuckles while ferreting out clues. This mystery comedy traces what happens when TV crime writers Howard Kent and Paul Riggs face the end of their 10-year working partnership after having achieved success, winning awards and earning high fees.

EASTON -- In his vaunted autobiography, abolitionist and diplomat Frederick Douglass vividly describes life as a slave on a prominent Eastern Shore plantation, with a "great house" he recalled as an "elaborate exhibition of wealth, power and beauty." The imposing estate, by the waters of the Wye River near this Talbot County seat, still stands and is still home to the family who owned it when a young Douglass kept fireplaces stocked with wood. Listed as a national historic landmark, the Wye House, built in the late 1700s, has been studied for its clues to 18th- and 19th-century America.

The trees along the Abingdon trail basically looked identical yesterday, with bare, spindly limbs reaching toward the sky and summer coats of leaves long ago turned brown and dropped to the cold forest floor. It's a fairly simple task to tell one tree from another in the spring and summer, as leaves and buds offer plentiful hints of the lineage of each. But the hints are far fewer this time of year. Yesterday, a group of pint-size sleuths, accompanied by their bundled-up parents, set out to sort through the evidence in a program called "Winter Tree Mysteries" at the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center in Harford County.

Jerry Black is a beaten man. Although we're never told so outright, you can tell this within minutes of the opening of "The Pledge" through several clues: He begins the film talking to himself, his hair looks like a bed of nails and he's got a look on his face that's perpetually stuck halfway between wary and weary. Plus, he's played by Jack Nicholson, who in the good old days - before his full bore loony persona took over - specialized in playing characters who just aren't right for this world, and know it. Nicholson is terrific here, in a role that demands he act, rather than just be Jack.

At first, the video of a man being beaten and stripped in downtown Baltimore appeared to be just another tantalizing shock clip for the Internet. But in recent days, thanks to social media users as far away as California, it could prove instrumental in solving the case. Police have made no arrests in last month's attack, but they said tips were flooding in about the identity of the man shown punching a disoriented victim before others ripped off his clothes, took his belongings and humiliated him on the sidewalk outside a city courthouse.

All murder mystery fans, whether casual observers or dedicated sleuths, will find much to ponder in Bowie Community Theatre's current offering of BBC writer/producer Edward Taylor's 1992 "Murder by Misadventure. " They should also enjoy frequent chuckles while ferreting out clues. This mystery comedy traces what happens when TV crime writers Howard Kent and Paul Riggs face the end of their 10-year working partnership after having achieved success, winning awards and earning high fees.

Is there life elsewhere in the universe? It's a question that has long intrigued astronomers and science fiction buffs alike, and now the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has launched its most ambitious attempt yet to find the answer. Curiosity, NASA's 1-ton wheeled rover vehicle, blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday for the 346 million-mile journey to Mars, where it will spend two years roaming the Red Planet's surface in search of tell-tale organic compounds that could signal the presence of life there, either now or in the distant past.

Can we define greatness in wine? Or is something like wine so subjective as to defy qualification with regard to excellence? Many wine writers and critics associate longevity with greatness. In order to be considered great, a wine must be capable of aging. Now, age-ability is linked to four principal components: acid, alcohol, sugar and tannin. A wine must contain at least two of these four structural components in quantity to withstand the test of time. But just because a wine is built for the long haul does not necessarily make it great.

In reading the article "Relocation of district courthouse moves a step forward" ( Arbutus Times, Aug. 10), I was left with a question: What about the land at Spring Grove State Hospital Center? In these tight economic times, I wonder why our state leaders find it necessary to purchase land for over $2.5 million when the state already owns land that is underutilized, right across the street from the court's current location. I would think that our elected officials would consider it prudent to avoid unnecessary purchases, such as buying additional land, when other options are available.

Just after 2 a.m. April 17, Charlie Price realized that David Bayard, his close friend, had left the D.C. nightclub where they'd been partying for a friend's birthday. Where did he go? Price wondered, dialing Bayard's cell. Would he be able to get home? he thought, dialing again. The night was muddled by drinking, and Price can't remember whether they connected. Hours later, a detective told Price his friend had been killed. The 24-year-old University of Maryland graduate student was found dead about 7:30 a.m. in his car, which was parked near a McDonald's in Prince George's County, just a few miles from the club.

Because of production errors, two clues in yesterday's Sun Crossword did not reproduce properly. The clues were: 23-Across: "One more" and 56-Across: "Unfair." The Sun regrets the errors.

The Sun has received many requests to enlarge the two crossword puzzles in the Sunday Perspective section. To make that happen, the chess column will appear in the Saturday Today section beginning today (see Page 2D). Tomorrow, the Perspective section will feature larger grids and clues for the crossword puzzles.

The recent news articles regarding Andy Harris, who recently complained that he has to wait 30 days for his government-provided health insurance, are just another reminder for me of how are politicians are often greedy, self serving, and out of touch. Most employers in the U.S. make new employees wait 60 to 90 days to have health insurance. Federal government health insurance plans are more generous and the waiting period is shorter. Just another politician who doesn't have a clue! Bill Simmons, Baltimore

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has made bold choices in his running mates, picking a then-obscure Michael S. Steele in 2002 to become Maryland's first black lieutenant governor, and four years later tapping Kristen Cox, the first disabled woman to run for statewide office. With Steele now chairing the Republican National Committee and Cox a state official in Utah, Ehrlich is looking for a new partner for his third run for governor. He will have to name his running mate when he files the paperwork to make his candidacy official early next month.