A benefit fundraiser will take place this weekend in Shelby, for a fallen firefighter’s family. Michael Collins, of Shelby, was killed in the line of duty while directing traffic at the scene of an accident on Interstate 80 on September 18th. Brian Anderson, Shelby Fire Chief, says Woodmen of the World are sponsoring the benefit. The Woodmen of the World’s marketing team has helped the Shelby Fire Department gather some of auction items as well.

The lunch will be held from 11-a.m to 2-p.m., Saturday. Anderson says the hamburgers will be grilled for a reason: He says Collins held a grill out for the firefighters at the station in Shelby, just a few hours before he responded to the accident scene, and later died.

The lunch is a free will donation at the Shelby Fire Hall. If you are unable to attend, a memorial fund has been set up at the Shelby County State Bank.

(courtesy Joel McCall at our sister station KNOD in Harlan)

The Page County Sheriff’s Department reports a woman from Pottawattamie County was arrested Monday in Shambaugh. 42-year old Jodie Marie Sherman, of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody at around 9:15-p.m., for allegedly violating a No Contact order. Sherman plead guilty to the charge Tuesday, and was sentenced to serve seven consecutive days in jail.

No injuries were reported following a car-versus-deer accident Wednesday, in Page County. Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports a 2005 Nissan Altima driven by 17-year old Marcus Allen Taylor, of Villisca, was traveling east on 130^th Street off of Highway 71, when a deer popped up out of a ditch.

The ensuing collision, which happened at around 7:05-p.m., caused about $3,000 damage to the vehicle.

Chad Lewis, author

An author who calls himself a “paranormal investigator” will give what promises to be a bone-chilling lecture in Iowa tonight (Friday) about some of the state’s unexplained mysteries and alleged hauntings. Chad Lewis has traveled all over Iowa, taking pictures, doing interviews, researching spooky incidents and trying to make sense of them. He’s compiled a book called, “The Iowa Road Guide to Haunted Locations.”  “When you hear stories of people being haunted by gypsies in Algona, you need to go there to see what they’re experiencing, see the atmosphere, see the conditions, and then come to your own conclusion as to whether or not they’re haunted,” Lewis says. “Traveling to these places is half the fun.” Several spots in Iowa are known for phantom hitchhikers, including near a certain cemetery in Estherville. Lewis says he talked with several people who’ve encountered a spirit-woman on the roadside.

“I even had a gentleman who said he gave her a ride and went to ask her where she was going and she had disappeared from his front seat,” Lewis says. “He was so convinced that she was real, he spent the next hour scouring the countryside looking for her, thinking she must have snuck out.” Lewis investigated the Ghost Train near Boone and the story of Kate Shelley Bridge. He’s also been to Iowa City and Council Bluffs to probe the tale of haunted “black angels” in city graveyards. “Legends have been brewing for decades that if you go there, sometimes you have to follow some of the conditions, like if you go there at midnight, the black angel will come to life and you’ll be cursed with bad luck,” Lewis says. “If you have a kiss in front of the angel, it will come to life and you’ll have bad luck.” He notes there are never predictions of good luck, like you’ll win the lottery, but it’s instead something like you’ll lose your sight or your life.

Of all the places he’s visited in Iowa, Lewis says only a few really gave him the heebee-jeebees, including a haunted bridge in rural Webster County, which was supposedly inhabited by a werewolf — though he didn’t actually see the creature.  “Another place that really creeped me out was the Villisca axe murder house in Villisca where eight members of a family and a couple guests were brutally killed with an axe,” Lewis says. “The case was never solved. Now, if you have a macabre sense of adventure, you can spend the night in the house where they were tragically murdered.” Lewis has a Masters of Science in Applied Psychology and has studied the paranormal for 14 years. His talk is scheduled for tonight at 7 o’clock at the State Historical Building in Des Moines. Learn more about the book at: “unexplainedresearch.com”

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)