Brenda Heist had dropped her children off at school in February of 2002 and then mysteriously disappeared; when she returned, there was a tragic reason as to why

Advertisement

A devoted mum vanished after dropping her children off at school – 11 years latern and after she had legally been declared dead, she re-appeared with a sinister explanation as to what had happened to her.

Brenda Heist was found alive in 2013, over a decade after she was last seen dropping her kids off at school in February of 2002. In the midst of a bitter divorce at the time, speculation had swarmed around her husband Lee.

Brenda’s friends and family gradually came to terms with her disappearance and were able to start to move on with their lives – until her sudden reappearance.

According to All That’s Interesting, Lee and Brenda Heist had lived a simple life in the town of Lititz, Pennsylvania. In 2002, their two children were 12 and eight, while Brenda held down a job as a bookkeeper at a nearby car dealership.

But behind closed doors, not all was what it seemed as Brenda and Lee’s marriage was breaking down.

In the midst of a bitter divorce, Brenda grew worried she would not have enough money to get by, taking a few days off work to look for somewhere to live.

The last time she was seen alive was on February 8, 2002, when she dropped her kids off at school and headed to a park. There, three strangers approached her, asking her what was wrong.

She opened up to them, and she says they then suggested she come with them hitch-hiking to Florida; a move she ultimately agreed to, without telling her family.

Over the next 11 years, Brenda’s family would hear nothing from her, after her worried loved ones reported her missing that evening.

Her car was found four days after the initial report, with Lee being pinned as a potential murder suspect. Eventually, officers dropped the case against him as a result of insufficient evidence in Brenda’s disappearance and after he passed a lie detector test.

Meanwhile, the family were left in shock as they had to move on without Brenda in their lives, with Lee now having to raise the kids as a single dad with no job. In 2010, after waiting a required seven years, Lee filed paperwork to declare Brenda as being legally dead.

He then remarried, seeming to move past the horror of what happened. Then in 2013, he got a phone call confirming that Brenda was still alive. She revealed her story, saying she had been living a double life for years around Florida as Kelsie Lyanne Smith.

She had even met another man and lived with him for seven years in his camper van.

Brenda, or Kelsie as she was now known made sure she only took work where she didn’t have to show ID, such as cleaning jobs, and didn’t stay in any work place for long. She also made sure she was only ever paid in cash.

It was when the man she was living with decided to move to Florida Keys and Brenda didn’t want to go with him that she moved in with her friend, Sondra Forrester, who she had also been cleaning for.

Advertisement

Sondra said: “She was such an awesome, nice housemate. She caused no trouble and my kids loved her.”

Brenda had told her friend that her husband had died and that she had never had children – both lies.

After some initial shock at the discovery, her family ultimately shunned her for her decision to walk out on them.

In the wake of her disappearance, her children said they had to endure incredible hardship, saying they lost everything as a result of their mum walking out on them.

“I can’t believe she would do that because she was a good mom,” daughter Morgan said in 2013. “She was great, but, I mean, I guess something happened. Something snapped in her. I’m not going to go down memory lane with her… I hope she respects the fact me and my brother aren’t ready to talk to her, and we both need to accept this and let time go on.”

Speaking to Dr Phil while in prison for offences including stealing a driver’s license in 2013, Brenda revealed all as to why she abandoned the family, admitting she was “ashamed” of what she had done. When asked about her motivations, she said: “I just thought it would be better if I wasn’t there.”

After spending several months in jail, Brenda was eventually released in November of 2013. She has not seen her family since she was released, instead moving home to Texas to be with her mother.

WARNING: GRAHPIC CONENT – Dean Corll lured dozens of teenage boys – with the help of two other teens – into his various properties in Texas before carrying out his heinous crimes

Advertisement

A seemingly mild-mannered electrician and army veteran hid a monstrous double life as a serial killer that would later earn him a chilling nickname.

Between 1970 and 1973 Dean Corll murdered at least 29 teenage boys in Texas, US.

He worked at his family’s candy business, handing out sweets to local kids – later being dubbed the ‘Candy Man’ killer – and would often lure his victims with alcohol or the promise of a party.

Shockingly, the sinister killer managed to acquire the help of two troubled teens – David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley – to help him entice his chosen victims to one of his many properties.

Once there, Corll would torture and rape the youngsters for days before either strangling or shooting them.

Advertisement

The disappearance of all the children went largely undetected for years, however, until August 8, 1973. One that day, Henley shot and killed Corll, who was aged 33, during an argument over the killing of two teens, who were friends of the accomplice.

He subsequently led the police to the shallow graves of a number of victims in boat sheds, along desolate beaches and in woods where Corll’s family had a lakeside log cabin.

The details of his boys’ final moments are stomach-churning and around a third of them remained unidentified until the 2000s even.

Authorities found some bodies with chewed genitals, plucked pubic hairs and glass rods inserted in urethras that had been smashed.

Elsewhere, objects had been inserted into rectums and one boy’s mouth was so wide open it was thought he may have screamed to death.

One victim’s severed genitals were also found beside the body inside a plastic bag.

The news of Corll’s depravity was so shocking that even the Vatican sent condolences and the Kremlin condemned the police’s “astounding inaction” at not recognising the killing spree, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Both Brooks and Henley were jailed for their parts in the deaths, each being sentenced to life in prison.

In 2020, Brooks died after contracting Covid and Henley remains the sole survivor of the mass murders. Last year, a documentary called ‘The Serial Killer’s Apprentice’ was released which shared new interviews with the now 69-year-old.

In it, the convicted murderer is questioned over the phone by Dr Katherine Ramsland, revealing his transformation from a manipulated teenager to a killer.

“I believe that I was originally taken over to Dean’s as a victim. What scares me is, did Dean recognise a fellow psychopath?” Henley admitted.

He went on to describe being groomed by Corll at 15-years-old and how the manipulation resulted in his participation in the killings. Henley has been eligible for parole since 1980 but has been denied each time, with the most recent on November 7, 2025.

A childhood friend of one of the victims, Billy Lawrence, told the Independent that Henley should “die” in prison. “They weren’t hoodlums. They weren’t out to get into trouble. They were just innocent young boys that got kidnapped,” said Debbie Stellas.

She went on: “Being murdered was one thing – but being tortured and then murdered was another,” before adding, “what was he gaining by participating in this sickness?”

The Repair Shop star Dominic Chinea has suffered a series of setbacks with his Land Rover restoration and VW Caddy restoration projects at his Cornwall workshop

The Repair Shop‘s engineering expert Dominic Chinea confessed “it’s getting worse and worse” as he revealed the latest developments in his Land Rover restoration project.

The engineering specialist has been painstakingly restoring a run-down 1957 Series 1 Land Rover that he discovered buried in a hedge close to his new home in Cornwall. He has described it as one of the most demanding projects he has ever undertaken, given that the chassis was completely rotten and the vehicle had been half-submerged in undergrowth for a number of years.

Dominic hasn’t exactly been blessed with good fortune during the rebuild. Just a few weeks ago, he acknowledged hitting a significant setback after accidentally causing damage to the Land Rover’s seat base while lifting the rear tub.

He revealed he was considering enlisting the help of Repair Shop colleague and upholstery specialist Sonnaz Nooranvary before the Land Rover could be deemed finished.

However, Dominic’s troubles with the Land Rover restoration aren’t his sole headache at present, as he has encountered a second mishap with his vintage VW Caddy.

The BBC star is something of a motoring enthusiast, with his impressive collection including a 1957 Porsche 356a, multiple Land Rovers (Series 1 and Defender 110), a 13-window VW camper, a 1958 VW split bus, and a 1936 BSA motorbike. Among the various vehicles currently being restored in Dominic’s new workshop is an early Eighties Volkswagen Caddy pickup.

Back in February, successive storms triggered a serious accident in his new workshop, inflicting considerable damage to the Mk1 Caddy. Dominic explained: “Previously, during the last storm, part of the roof flew off of the workshop and landed on the Caddy, smashed into the bonnet. It made a hole in the bonnet, dented the wing, and I was gutted.”

He went on to reveal that the reinforced concrete beams supporting his workshop’s structure are becoming increasingly deteriorated: “The steel rebar is getting rusty and swelling up and it’s breaking the concrete and a chunk of that has fallen off the roof.

“Of course, it’s landed on the windscreen of the Caddy and broken the windscreen.”

Dominic took responsibility for the incident, noting that he’d recently had work carried out to install a ramp into the workshop, and that vibrations from the machinery may have dislodged the loose lump of concrete. “That is my stupid fault,” he said. “I should have put something a board over [the cars] or moved them outside or something like that.”

Dominic admitted that following this latest setback he was on the verge of abandoning the pickup altogether: “I may well sell it because I haven’t really used it since I’ve been down here and I feel bad that the poor thing is just getting worse and worse whilst it’s here.”

He appealed to his followers, confessing he had little idea what the vehicle might fetch on the open market, saying: “Make me an offer.”

Our gardens can be a vital resource for hedgehogs, but today they often lack the natural shelter, resources and safe access between spaces to thrive.

There are plenty of simple things you can do to make yours a haven for these spiny visitors this spring, however, and our readers have lots of insight to share.

From tips on setting up feeding stations and houses to making your own and creating hedgehog highways – a small hole in a fence or other barriers for hedgehogs to pass through, connecting them to other green spaces – here’s advice that has actually worked in gardens up and down the country.

How to get started

If you’re not sure where to begin, the good news is that small, simple changes make a real difference.

Having noticed hedgehog droppings in their garden, Peter Cobbe and his wife, Shirley, from Kent, set up a hedgehog house and a protected feeding station last year. “It was an interesting exercise in ‘build it and they will come’,” he says.

After spending time reading about the lifecycle of hedgehogs and their needs, the couple made their garden more accessible by providing safe nesting material, removing hazards and cutting a 13cm square gap in their wooden gate.

“We have a large green and hedge area opposite our house with lots of trees,” explains Cobbe, which is attractive to these creatures who travel a mile or more every night.

Creating hedgehog highways lets them roam more freely, to find enough food and a mate.

It is important not to disturb hedgehogs, so Cobbe installed a Ring Wi-Fi camera to capture his spiky visitors, costing around £50.

Kevin Costner’s beloved film, adapted from W.P. Kinsella’s novel, is now streaming on Amazon Prime.

The film that helped propel a Hollywood icon to fame, a star-studded fantasy picture cherished by both audiences and critics alike, is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Based on the novel Shoeless Joe by WP Kinsella, it tells the fantastical tale of a farmer who builds a baseball diamond amongst his crops, allowing the spirits of long-departed baseball legends to gather and play.

Kevin Costner took on the central role of Iowa farmer Ray in the blockbuster Field of Dreams.

Joining him in the ghostly baseball narrative are Ray Liotta and Shoeless Joe Jackson, James Earl Jones as Terence Mann, Burt Lancaster in his final on-screen role as Doc Archibald Graham, and Amy Madigan as Annie.

Released in 1989 and helmed by director Phil Aiden Robinson, Field of Dreams was adapted from WP Kinsella’s celebrated novel Shoeless Joe.

Beyond its remarkable commercial triumph, the film also garnered widespread critical praise, reports the Express.

One critic wrote at the time: “A work so smartly written, so beautifully filmed, so perfectly acted, that it does the almost impossible trick of turning sentimentality into true emotion.”

The picture received three Academy Award nominations, encompassing Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

To this day, Field of Dreams maintains an impressive 88 per cent approval rating on the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

One reviewer says: “This is a story about passion, not just for baseball, but also a passion to do something with our one precious life even if people think it’s crazy.”

Another wrote: “It’s hard to imagine a cynicism so hardened that it won’t crumble at the sight of a lush green baseball field nestled into an Iowa cornfield and at this movie’s final inspiring scene of youth and innocence recaptured.”

Advertisement

While a third contributed: “Too idiosyncratic and witty merely to wallow in sentimentality, Field Of Dreams will surely stand as a classic update of what made Old Hollywood so magical. It’s still a wonderful life.”

The picture also holds a treasured position in the affections of enthusiasts.

One posted: “This film is pure magic! I have seen this movie probably a hundred times in my life.. I’ve just finished watching it again tonight and I still get the same feeling I got the first time I saw it.”

Another said: “One of the greatest films ever made. Men, get ready to cry. My favorite movies are ones that elicit an emotional response. “If you build it, he will come.””

Meanwhile, a third added: “This is still probably my favorite movie of all time after seeing it over 30 years ago. A lesson in the value of having faith and valuing family along with paying a homage to baseball when it truly was Americas pastime, it is sentimental nonsense in the best way, as Ray says to Terrence Mann when returning back to Iowa to after picking up Moonlight Graham, “It’s Perfect!””

Field of Dreams is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.

The pub hopes to “achieve a significantly improved rating” once it has been re-inspected

A Cambridgeshire pub has received a zero food hygiene rating after it was taken over by new landlords. The Railway Vue in Impington was inspected by the Food Standards Agency on Saturday, March 21, and was told improvements to the way the pub handled its hygiene were “necessary”.

The standards of the food handling such as the preparation, cooking, re-heating, cooling and storage processes were described as needing improvements. “Improvement necessary” was also highlighted in terms of the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building.

This relates to the ventilation, layout of the building, hand washing facilities, and pest control, which all help to “enable good food hygiene”. The management of food safety was rated as needing “urgent improvement”, which means systems and checks need to be in place to make sure all “food sold or served is safe to eat”.

There should also be evidence that “staff know about food safety”. The food safety officer must have “confidence that standards will be maintained in future”.

The Railway Vue, which is owned by the bar and pub operator Punch Pubs & Co, closed temporarily in September 2025 to undergo a £300K refurbishment. The pub welcomed back the community in October last year under new management.

Punch Pubs & Co Operations Manager, David Hill, said: “We take this matter extremely seriously. As a business, we expect all of our pubs to meet the highest standards of food safety and hygiene. Since the last inspection, we’ve been working closely with our Publican and their team to ensure all required improvements have been completed swiftly.

“The pub remains open and is operating safely. We are confident that the actions now in place will enable the pub to achieve a significantly improved rating upon re-inspection.”

To get more news and top stories delivered directly to your phone, join our new WhatsApp community. Click this link to receive your daily dose of CambridgeshireLive content.

We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice .

Ecommerce Business Park (UK) Ltd has submitted a proposal to Bolton Council to transform part of a warehousing unit on the Express Trading Estate, Stone Hill Road, Farnworth, into an indoor padel tennis centre.

The scheme would involve converting 1,776 square metres of the existing warehouse space and reorganising the car park layout.

Site plan (Image: Bolton Council)

A transport statement included with the application said peak usage times for the padel centre would complement the warehouse operations, with leisure demand in the evenings and at weekends.

The site, which includes a 4,110 square metre warehouse, currently accommodates around 25 vehicles on hardstanding areas, but the plans propose a formal layout with 57 spaces, up from the existing 43.

Up to 20 players could use the courts at any one time.

Highways analysis found no injury collisions on surrounding roads between 2020 and 2024 and concluded that the development would not create new risks.

The site is accessible via bus stops on Worsley Road and Westland Avenue, with services to Bolton, Salford, and Manchester.

The proposal aligns with regional planning policies that encourage the reuse of brownfield land and the promotion of active travel under the Greater Manchester “Places for Everyone” framework.

No impact on biodiversity is expected, with the applicant citing a “de minimis exemption” as no natural habitats would be affected.

If approved, the development would raise employment at the site from eight to 13 full-time equivalent jobs.

A decision on the application will be made by Bolton Council in due course.

Liverpool’s midfield has laboured this season but they could find a solution in the form of a player Jurgen Klopp was eager to bring to Anfield

Liverpool may be wrestling with numerous issues across the pitch this season, but there is one department that demands immediate attention this summer: their midfield. Arne Slot could go a long way towards addressing that concern by landing the club’s long-standing target, Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni.

The Dutch boss’s central axis was ruthlessly exposed by Manchester United during the Red Devils’ 3-2 victory at Old Trafford on Sunday. The national press dissected the United defeat, with the Reds’ midfield singled out for criticism over a shortage of quality.

Supporters have also voiced their opinions, and the overwhelming view is that Liverpool are missing intensity and bite in their engine room. While Slot’s team, driven by Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, cruised to the Premier League title last term, this campaign has seen Liverpool’s midfield frequently overrun and overpowered.

It seems a far cry from the Liverpool witnessed under Jurgen Klopp, equipped with the tireless, grafting attributes of Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho, which would suffocate rivals without allowing them a second to breathe.

Yet even with a midfield brimming with creativity and power, Klopp still set his sights on Tchouameni, which is precisely why the 26-year-old must remain a priority for Liverpool this summer. Tchouameni was strongly linked with a switch to Anfield back in 2022.

FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FB PAGE! Latest Reds news and more on our dedicated Facebook page

READ MORE: Liverpool flop Darwin Nunez reaches new transfer agreement after brutal axeREAD MORE: Jurgen Klopp reveals ‘changed persepctive’ as Liverpool icon prepares for new job

The midfielder had shone for Monaco throughout the 2021/22 campaign, and it was widely reported at the time that Klopp had even made a personal trip to France in a bid to seal the deal, while also reportedly holding phone conversations with the defensive midfielder.

Tchouameni ultimately opted for Madrid over Liverpool in a transfer worth up to £85million and even acknowledged that the Merseyside club had made their move for him.

“The first club to show interest in me was Liverpool,” Tchouameni told Le Parisien in November 2022. “There were discussions, but as soon as Real Madrid entered, my mind was made up. I didn’t hesitate for a second. I told my agent, take me to Real Madrid.”

Tchouameni undoubtedly remains a prized asset for Los Blancos right now. Yet with another change in the dugout looming, and the likes of Manchester City’s Rodri and Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez being touted with moves to the Spanish capital, the French international could find himself looking for a fresh challenge.

There is a compelling case for bringing a player of Tchouameni’s formidable physical profile to Anfield. He is commanding in the tackle, winning nearly 70 per cent of his duels this season, and a dominant aerial presence. He also boasts a passing accuracy of 91.4 per cent this season, according to FotMob.

The Frenchman would bring World Cup and Champions League-winning pedigree to a Liverpool midfield that appears exhausted. While Szoboszlai has impressed this season on the whole, Curtis Jones has found himself marginalised – and is entering the final 12 months of his deal.

Mac Allister has continually struggled this campaign as well, looking weary to put it mildly, while Florian Wirtz has laboured on the left and in the space behind the Reds’ forward line. Defensive midfield anchor Wataru Endo is a long-term casualty through injury and is expected to be sold this summer.

Ryan Gravenberch, who signed a new long-term contract this season, has also been unable to replicate last year’s impact. Yet the arrival of a genuine holding midfielder in Tchouameni could prove transformative for the Dutchman’s progression at Anfield.

It won’t be a straightforward deal for Liverpool to complete. Reports suggest that Madrid plan to offer the Frenchman a new long-term contract until 2031. They are also believed to be optimistic that he’ll stay at the Bernabeu, with two years left on his existing deal.

Manchester United and Arsenal are also understood to be keen, with any potential buyer expected to fork out around £80m. Yet it could be a more than worthwhile outlay to finally provide Slot with a dominant midfielder who can handle a Premier League that’s growing more physical by the game.

Join our LFC WhatsApp community and get all the latest LFC news, views, transfer gossip and more, as it happens We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

Advertisement

This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more

Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

The man took his tour operator to court

A German tourist who was on holiday in Greece has won a payout after being unable to get a sun lounger, because other holidaymakers had reserved them with towels. The man was given £850 after taking his tour operator to court.

A court in Hanover heard the man, who was on holiday with his family in 2024, got up at 6am and spent 20 minutes trying to find a sun lounger, but they had all been taken. He argued that the fact that the reservation system was allowed meant sunloungers were unusable.

The judge ruled the family of four was entitled to a refund on their package holiday, saying it was ‘defective’.

The man had paid €7,186 (£6,211) to take his wife and two children on holiday to the Greek island of Kos. He told the court his tour operator had failed to enforce the resort’s ban on reserving loungers, and did not confront guests.

He said his children had to lie on the floor. The tour operator had already agreed a £302 refund, but the court awarded a payout of £852.89.

The court said that while the tour operator did not run the hotel, it had an obligation to ensure there was a system in place to ensure a reasonable ratio of sunbeds to guests.

Sun lounger ‘wars’ are now a common factor of holidays in Europe with Brits abroad frequently filming queues and crowds of people trying to bag a sunbed at the start of the day, rushing across hotel leisure areas to find somewhere to spend the day close to the pool, bar or beach.

Hotel staff have also been filmed throwing towels off loungers to ensure they are not reserved.