Twenty Peaceful Minutes

Welcome to Twenty Peaceful Minutes (20PM) - a community website for Forney, Texas. In addition to this blog, 20PM is home to the Forney discussion forums, which you may reach by clicking the Forney discussion forum link or going to http://20pm.net/forums; also, considering signing up for email or newsreader (RSS feed) notifications of new posts to the 20PM blog!

Reminds Citizens Not to Leave Valuables in Automobiles

Thirteen victims suffered losses totaling $20,000 when their vehicles were broken into over a three to four night period earlier this month throughout the central Kaufman County area. Perhaps suspecting an organized ring of thieves, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office immediately launched an investigation, which was led by Sgt. Richard Widener.

The Sheriff’s Office announced the conclusion of this two week investigation earlier this week, which resulted in the arrest of six individuals on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity. Those arrested include Jason Byrne, 26; Michael Forney, 17; Casey Lumpkin, 17; Justin Elrod, 17; Johnny Hinton Jr., 17 and Michaelynn Schwed, 24. Byrne, Forney, Lumpkin and Schwed were connected to all 13 burglaries and are currently still in custody on a $40,000 bond. Investigators could only link Elrod and Hinton to one burglary and both have been released after posting a $5,000 bond.

Sgt. Widener stated that he would like to remind the public to not leave valuables in their car and always lock their car doors.

In addition to keeping valuables in a safe place and not your car, as well as locking your car doors, the importance of marking or engraving your valuables with an identifying number such as your driver’s license as well as recording the serial numbers of every valuable you own cannot be stressed enough - in this case, initial leads came after one of the suspects began pawning items at a pawn shop in Terrell. The easier it is to identify your stolen property, the easier it is to recover it - in one case, a Kaufman County homeowner was reunited with a stolen firearm over a decade after the theft occurred, when the firearm was recovered by law enforcement officers in another state and the serial number matched the stolen property report filed by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office.

Discuss this post in the Forney Discussion Forums.

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The entire Forney community is mourning the sudden loss of Chynna Zmolik, a junior at Forney High School; on Sunday evening, a community gathering to celebrate her life filled the auditorium at Forney High School as friends, loved ones and school administrators shared stories and remembrances of Chynna.

Forney High School continues to honor Chynna’s memory today, as the administrators at FHS have announced that FISD superintendent Dr. Darrell Brown has given FHS permission to dismiss all classes at FHS at 12:30PM on Wednesday so that students and faculty members who wish to attend Chynna’s funeral may do so. In addition, students who plan to attend the funeral will be allowed to wear their funeral attire to school, instead of their standard school uniform. Finally, a sack lunch will be provided for all students on Wednesday to ensure they have an opportunity to make it to the funeral after school is dismissed. Parents of students at Forney High School should reference the letter the school sent home with all FHS students today for more information and details.

Chynna’s obituary, including information about the memorial service, appear below. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in memory of Chynna to the SPCA (visit SPCA.org to make a donation, or go straight to the SPCA of Texas donation page).

Community members have been expressing their support for the Zmolik family and sense of sorrow over Chynna’s passing in the Forney discussion forum ever since a fellow FHS student posted the news of Chynna’s passing, and are encouraged to continue sharing thoughts and memories of Chynna.

Click read on, below, to read Chynna’s obituary and information about the memorial service this Wednesday. My prayers go out to the friends and family of Chynna; I cannot imagine what they are going through right now, but I hope that they know the entire Forney community is here to love and support them during this difficult time.
(Read on …)

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