Maine massacre suspect may have escaped in a boat; US Coast Guard joins the hunt



The U.S. Coast Guard joined the hunt for the prime suspect in the Lewiston, Maine, massacre after his car was found near a boat launch on the Androscoggin River, roughly 10 miles away from where 18 people were fatally shot and 13 were left grievously wounded.

The Lisbon Police Department discovered the 40-year-old suspect's white Subaru Wednesday just before 10 p.m. at the Pejepscot Boat Launch in Lisbon.

The suspect is believed to own at least two means of traveling upriver to Merrymeeting Bay and thence to the Kennebec River: a 15-foot Bayliner boat, which is now unaccounted for, and a 2019 Sea-Doo personal watercraft, reported the Messenger.

As of Thursday evening, a Coast Guard vessel with a five-man crew was patrolling the Kennebec River, which could ultimately take the suspect to at least Moosehead Lake, some 170 miles away.

Chief Petty Officer Ryan Smith, the officer in charge of Station Boothbay Harbor, told the Messsenger the Coast Guard crew is searching the entire river for the suspect, who authorities noted is "armed and dangerous." However, the crew was focusing in particular on the northern shore of the waterway, closer to the Androscoggin River.

The Daily Mail reported that earlier Thursday, Maine State Police aircraft also scoured parts of the area in search of the suspect.

Rick Gadden, a longtime neighbor of the suspect, told the Daily Mail, "If he can do that to innocent people there is obviously a chance he can come get us. ... He knows this area like the back of his hand; if he doesn't want to be found he won't. He's a hunter."

Richard Goddard, familiar with the suspect's family, told the Messenger, "This is his stomping ground. He grew up here. He knows every ledge to hide behind, every thicket," referencing Bowdoin, one of the areas where police were searching.

The suspected shooter is an Army reservist with an active military ID who recently lost his job at a recycling center. Documents reportedly circulated by law enforcement indicate the suspect was committed to a mental asylum for two weeks this summer and had reported "hearing voices and threats to shoot up" a military base.

Robert Louden, a retired chief hostage negotiator for the New York Police Department, suggested to NBC News that "from that parking area where he dumped his car, there's four distinct possibilities: He killed himself. He got on a boat and went down that little river that’s there. He went into another car or motorcycle or something that was waiting for him. Or there's a hiking trail. He could be in the woods someplace."

The Maine State Police indicated that as of noontime Thursday, over 350 law enforcement personnel from all over the state were involved in the search for the suspect.

The FBI and the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit are also attempting to locate the shooter, reported Fox News Digital.

Facing the prospect of an attempt on the part of the suspect to escape into Canada, authorities in the northern nation, which shares 18 official entry points with Maine, have issued an "Armed & Dangerous – Firearms lookout" alert, reported Newsweek.

Canadian police in the province of New Brunswick, which borders Maine, are also monitoring the situation. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police indicated they are "aware of the situation in Maine, and we are continuing to monitor it in collaboration with our law enforcement partners."

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Porsche apologizes after viewers notice it erased a historic Christian landmark from its new ad



Porsche elicited outrage over the weekend after keen observers recognized the company had edited a historic Christian landmark of its new advertisement. Although the German company has issued an apology and taken down the video, questions persist about the motivations behind the company's virtual iconoclasm.

The German company, owned by the Volkswagen Group, recently put out a video celebrating 60 "very fast years" of its signature two-door sports cars, the latest of which goes for over $290,000.

In the original iconoclastic version of the video — which has been rendered private on YouTube by the company but saved by one Twitter user — the car whizzes through the decades, years, and various locales, interrupted by the captions, "No matter how fast you move forward ... never forget where you come from."

Despite this plea to remember the past, viewers noticed that the company saw fit to erase one key piece of history from memory.

As the 911 speeds past the 25th Abril Bridge, which connects the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon to the municipality Almada, a pedestal can be seen in the background without its historic statue.

That 269-foot base has been holding up the iconic Cristo Rei ("Christ the King") statue since before the first Porsche 911 took to European asphalt.

After World War II — and the conclusion of Porsche's days manufacturing war machines for the Nazi Reich, likely with forced labor — Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon Don Manuel Gonçalves Cerejeira ordered this monument be made, taking inspiration from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The statue of Jesus Christ was intended as thanks to God for sparing Portugal from the ravages of the war, according to Lonely Planet.

Portugal.net indicated that the 92-foot statue and its 269-foot base were approved by Portuguese bishops in 1937. Construction began in 1946, and the monument was officially inaugurated in 1959.

It appears the marketing team at Porsche figured 2023 was an ideal time to virtually raze it.

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The erasure of the Christian symbol from the European car company's promotional footage has triggered fury online.

The Twitter account Wall Street Silver asked, "Why would they do that?"

Ricardo Regalla Dias Pinto, chief of staff for the right-wing Portuguese politician André Ventura, tweeted, "For me, @Porsche is not an option anymore!"

Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events, wrote, "They aren't hiding it anymore. They won't stop until Christ is erased from the world."

A Gays Against Groomers ambassador from Portugal wrote, "As a proud Lisboeta and a Christian, this is disgusting to me. If you don't like my country's culture, don't f***ing film there @Porsche."

Polish lawyer and politician Kacper Płażyński tweeted, "'Progressive Free World.' Well, @Porsche made a fortune from World War II and the supply of engines for German (slave-built) tanks. Hitler wanted to destroy Christianity. @Porsche sticks to his Nazi roots."

Płażyński appears to have been referencing how Adolf Hitler vowed by 1942 to "root out and destroy the influence of Christian Churches," deeming them "the evil that is gnawing our vitals," as reported by the Washington Post.

Hitler reportedly told the German politician Hermann Rauschning that he intended "to stamp out Christianity root and branch" and stated elsewhere, "We will wash off the Christian veneer and bring out a religion peculiar to our race."

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn noted in "Leftism" that the Nazis planned "for a total crushing of Christianity to be carried out after a victory which, fortunately, never came," stating on Feb. 2, 1942, that he would exterminate Christianity, referring to the religion as a "cultural scandal."

Concerning Porsche's latest scandal, a spokesman for the company told the Daily Mail, "In a previously uploaded version of the 911 S/T launch film, a landmark was removed. This was a mistake, and we apologise for any offence caused. The original film is online now."

The company told Fox Business in another statement, "In an early version of a film created in Europe, the Cristo Rei Statue does not appear. We are truly sorry and can fully understand the hurt this has caused. This film has been removed."

The Daily Mail indicated that this is hardly unprecedented.

For instance, in 2017, the German international retail chain Lidl, which has stores in the U.S., erased Christian symbols from packaging to remain "religiously neutral."

While woke corporations apparently seek to stealthily erase Christian culture, Western leftists have taken a less subtle approach in the streets.

Radicals tore down a downtown Los Angeles statue of Fr. Junípero Serra — recognized by Catholics as a saint — in 2020.

Another Serra statue was toppled in San Francisco the same year, along with several more religious statues of Christ and Mary.

BLM activist Shaun King called for the destruction of all statues depicting Jesus as white.

Many such statues have been destroyed amid a spate of North American church burnings.

Watch the original video here:

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Suspected cannibalistic murderer caught with 'suspicious meat' in luggage



Portuguese authorities arrested a man caught with "suspicious meat" in his luggage believed to be the human remains his alleged murder victim, Fox News and other outlets reported.

"He was wearing clothes with blood on them and had a package containing pieces of meat," a spokesman for the Portuguese Borders and Immigration Service told the Daily Mail.

Begoleã Mendes Fernandes, 26, is a Brazilian man who resides in the Netherlands. He flew from Amsterdam to Lisbon on February 28. He was on a layover in Lisbon on his way to Belo Horizonte in Brazil when authorities detained him.

Authorities initially held him at the border over concerns about the legality of an Italian ID card he presented. When Portuguese officials contacted the authorities in the Netherlands, they discovered he was wanted on suspicion of killing 21-year-old Alan Lopes in Amsterdam on February 26.

Police reportedly sent Fernandes to Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon to evaluate an injury to his hand.

"He was initially detained over suspicions he was traveling on falsified documents before it was subsequently discovered he was suspected of committing a homicide in the Netherlands the day before," the spokesman also told the outlet.

Fernandes was reportedly carrying a plastic bag with "pieces of meat" the police will analyze at a specialty lab. The Portuguese source Fox News cited declined to comment on the allegations of cannibalism.

The police suspect "cannibal practices" where involved, according to Portuguese newspaper JN cited by Fox News.

The alleged victim, Alan Lopes, was the "victim of a violent crime," Fox News reported. The Politie Eenheid Amsterdam found his body in the home he shared with his mother and sisters, who were not present the night of the murder.

"On Monday afternoon a 25-year-old man was arrested at the airport in Lisbon in collaboration with the Portuguese authorities and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee," said a spokesman for the Dutch police quoted by Daily Mail.

"The man is suspected of having been involved in the death of a 21-year-old man who was found in a home on Vegasstraat in North Amsterdam on the evening of Sunday February 26," the Dutch police spokesman also said.

Lopes might have given Fernandes shelter, as Fernandes was reportedly homeless before meeting Lopes, according to Fox News.

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