Each year for decades upon decades, The Sabine Index has published the many letters our local youngsters have penned to Santa Claus.
Each letter is generally submitted by a school teacher or parent.
For us at the paper, reading the many letters containing the wishes and wants of our local children are one of the first indications that this wonderful season is upon us.
We’d like to thank all of those who participate each year and sincerely hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Dear Santa, My name is Annalyse Chavez. This year I have been very good. What I would most want for Christmas this year is dinosaurs and a car for me, too. If your elves are not too busy, I would also like, really, a car. I promise to leave you some cookies and milk.
Dear Santa, My name is Maleah Dye. This year I have been a bit naughty. What I would want most for Christmas this year is chocolate kisses. If your elves are not too busy, I would also like Santa at my house. I promise to leave you some vegetables.
Dear Santa, My name is Cayleigh Freeman. This year I have been a bit naughty. What I would want most for Christmas this year is Christmas lights. If your elves are not too busy I would also like, deers, some circles, and a house. I promise to leave you some cookies and milk.
Dear Santa, My name is Chevy Garner. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a BB gun. If your elves are not too busy I would also like some toys and some bubblegum. I promise to leave you some bubblegum.
Dear Santa, My name is Reign Garner. This year I have been a bit naughty. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a Barbie. If your elves are not too busy I would also like some Christmas Barbie’s. I promise to leave you some chocolate.
Dear Santa, My name is Kingston Gates. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a nerf gun. If your elves are not too busy I would also like a big playset for dinosaurs. I promise to leave you some cookies and milk.
Dear Santa, My name is Isaiah Johnson. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a hat. If your elves are not too busy I would also like a hat and a meal from McDonald’s. I promise to leave you some chocolate.
Dear Santa, My name is Tay’Vion McCray. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is trick or treating. If your elves are not too busy I would also like a sucker and a hat. I promise to leave you some suckers.
Dear Santa, My name is Allison Miller. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is momma. If your elves are not too busy I would also like a Christmas tree and a teepee. I promise to leave you some cookies.
Dear Santa, My name is Ransen Preston. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a bar-b-q pit. If your elves are not too busy I would also like a big, big, big car. I promise to leave you some cookies.
Dear Santa, My name is Harley Puryear. This year I have been a bit naughty. What I would want most for Christmas this year is cars. If your elves are not too busy I would also like just cars. I promise to leave you some milk.
Dear Santa, My name is Heath Puryear. This year I have been a bit naughty. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a monster truck. If your elves are not too busy I would also like cars. I promise to leave you some milk.
Dear Santa, My name is Nevaeh Robinson. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is a Barbie house. If your elves are not too busy I would also like some toys. I promise to leave you some toys.
Dear Santa, My name is Brayleigh Turner. This year I have been very good. What I would want most for Christmas this year is Paw Patrol. If your elves are not too busy I would also like Cocomelon. I Merry Christmas to the dedicated readers of Observations! We wish you joy, warmth and delightful times with family and friends this holiday season. Here’s to another year of shared perspectives through our “news, views, facts and opinions.” As we remember the greatest gift every given – Jesus, through whom we can have a personal relationship with God, we wish all the best to you and yours this Christmas.
Sabine Sheriff Aaron Mitchell recently announced his office’s drug and gun arrests for the month of November 2023.
Arrested were: Harvey Isaiah Spikes, age 21, of Many - Warrant for: Possession of schedule I (Marijuana) and Possession of schedule II (Adderall).
Bond was set at $2,500, and he was released. Casey Tyne Smith, age 38, of Florien - Warrant for Possession of firearm by person convicted of certain felonies.
Bond was set at $10,000, and he remains in jail. Crystal Renee Campbell, age 34, of Zwolle - Possession of schedule II (Meth), Possession of drug paraphernalia and Failure to signal.
Bond was set at $3,000, and she bonded. David Albert Andries Jr., age 63, of Many - Possession with intent to distribute schedule II (Meth), Possession of drug paraphernalia and Warrant for two counts of Criminal conspiracy to distribute schedule II (Meth).
Total bonds were set at $20,000, and he bonded. Sarah Jones McLendon, age 47, of Florien - Warrant for: two counts of Distribution of schedule II (Meth) and two counts of Criminal conspiracy to distribute schedule II (Meth).
Bond was set at $30,000, and she remains in jail.
Brandi Owens, age 42, of Milam, TX - Possession of schedule I (Marijuana), Possession of schedule II (Meth), Possession of drug paraphernalia, Failure to register vehicle and Operating vehicle while license suspended.
Bond was set at $2,250, and she bonded.
(A special thank you to Sabine Det. D. W. Seegers for the above report.)
Sales tax collections in Sabine Parish for November were down by $283,257.57 over the same month in 2022, according to a report released by Sales Tax Administrator Wanda Rivers. Collections in November 2023 amounted to $2,321,724.00. The same month a year ago was $2,604,981.57.
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Well, we got a report recently that Bigfoot was seen around Fisher again. Bernice DuBose, who has been reporting sightings of the creature for a while, along with members of her family, told Observations that she saw it one evening last week. She said she saw it as she and her husband were going to Many and had to drive slowly because they were having car problems.
Ms. DuBose said they turned north on Hwy. 171, and the sun was down slightly. She looked over in the woods on the left side of the highway and saw it.
“I started screaming at my husband, ‘Bigfoot is in the trees!’” They turned around and went back, but he had already disappeared. She said he appeared to be seven to eight feet tall and had long, stringy hair. Continuing, she stated, “He had something in his hand. It looked big even from [where we were in] the car.”
Ms. DuBose said her son saw Bigfoot in the area of Lyddy Turnpike a couple of months ago. She said it chased her son, but he didn’t get a picture. She said they plan to purchase a trail camera. Other relatives have seen it, she related, and they said they can smell it because it has a bad odor.
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In a related matter, back in October, a person in western North Carolina found this 800 lb. rock that they said Bigfoot had tossed into a group of trees knocking them over. The person said the event took place several miles off a road back in the woods. Seems they’re everywhere.
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From KTBS-Shreveport: The investigation into the mysterious disappearance of Lester Rome - a Grand Isle bar owner whose skeletal remains weren’t identified until 35 years after they were found at the bottom of an abandoned well - took another turn Thursday, Dec. 7, when a Jefferson Parish grand jury handed up an indictment charging his former female companion with his murder.
Patricia Tito, 59, was charged with “either acting alone or in concert with an unindicted principal” to commit the second-degree murder of Lester Rome, court records said.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives who reopened the cold case suspect Tito was present for Rome’s slaying and, for more than three decades, kept those details from law enforcement and Rome’s worried family, according to a report in NOLA.com.
Tito is currently serving a 40-year sentence for manslaughter for the 2003 death of a Shreveport woman.