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University of Alabama Student Dies in Camping Accident, Church Says

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University of Alabama Student Dies in Camping Accident, Church Says


Loved ones and the congregation of a local Catholic church are mourning the death of a University of Alabama student killed in a camping accident.

According to a post from Bama Catholic Campus Ministry, senior Malachi Crain died on Saturday in an accident while camping – the post did not share details of where or how the tragedy happened.

(Bama Catholic on Facebook)

(Bama Catholic on Facebook)

Crain was studying mathematics and computer science, according to his LinkedIn and a personal website. He was also heavily involved with the Bama Catholic ministry and served as Vice President of Liturgy last year.

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The young man “was known for his love of altar serving. He led a bible study and was discipling other men in our community for over two years,” they wrote.

A Rosary and group prayer is planned in Tuscaloosa Thursday, as is Crain’s funeral mass in Gnatt, South Carolina.

A memorial mass in Tuscaloosa is being planned at the Francis University Parish, but those details are still being worked out.

Our thoughts are with Crain’s family and friends and those who knew him here in Tuscaloosa and elsewhere.

Top Stories from the Tuscaloosa Thread (3/31 – 4/7)

11 of the Top Stories published by the Tuscaloosa Thread during the 12th week of 2025

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Gallery Credit: (Stephen Dethrage | Tuscaloosa Thread)





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Alabama

Married Alabama lunch lady, 41, sacked for having sex with student at her home: report

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Married Alabama lunch lady, 41, sacked for having sex with student at her home: report


A married Alabama lunch lady was reportedly sacked from her job after she was busted for — and later confessed to – allegedly having sex with a teen student whom she brought to her home on two occasions.

Amy Nicole Wigginton, 41, lost her cafeteria position at Lauderdale County High School in Rogersville after a unanimous vote by the district’s Board of Education on Wednesday, according to Times Daily.

The depraved worker was initially placed on administrative leave following her April 4 arrest, where she waived her rights and fessed up to the sick acts, WAAY TV reported.

Amy Nicole Wigginton, 41, is accused of having sex with a teenage student at her home. Lauderdale Co. Detention Center

Lauderdale County School District did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment. 

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Wigginton, who is married with children, according to her Facebook, told police she had sex with the male student on March 7 and 31, court documents obtained by the news outlet showed. 

Wigginton is married with children, according to her Facebook. Facebook/Amy Wigginton

The alleged sexual tryst took place at her family home in Rogersville, Times Daily reported, which also cited her as working in the school’s child nutrition program. 

Wigginton lost her cafeteria job following a unanimous vote Wednesday. Lauderdale County High School

Authorities did not specify the student’s age but noted in court documents that he is younger than 19. The age of consent is 16 in the Heart of Dixie. 

She was charged with two counts of a school employee engaging in a sex act with a student.

Wigginton reportedly fessed up to having sex with the student on two occasions in March. Facebook/Amy Wigginton

The alleged predator was booked at the Lauderdale County Detention Center on a $100,000 bond that she posted shortly after her arrest, court docs showed.

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Wigginton is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on June 23, the outlet reported.



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Eagles draft Alabama LB Jihaad Campbell with 31st overall pick, bringing the South Jersey native home

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Eagles draft Alabama LB Jihaad Campbell with 31st overall pick, bringing the South Jersey native home


Who says the Eagles don’t value linebackers?

In a year where they watched Zack Baun go from unheralded edge rusher into an All-Pro off-ball linebacker and rewarded him with a $51 million deal, the Eagles drafted Alabama linebacker and South Jersey native Jihaad Campbell 31st overall with the penultimate pick of the NFL draft’s first round Thursday night.

Campbell is the first off-ball linebacker the Eagles selected in the first round since Jerry Robinson in 1979. But Howie Roseman was quick to not put Campbell in a box when he met with reporters following the pick Thursday night.

“He can play inside, he can be an edge rusher, just really feel fortunate to bring him home back to Philly,” Roseman said.

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Roseman said Campbell was a top-10 player on the Eagles’ draft board. The Eagles moved up a spot to take him, sending pick No. 164 (fifth round) to Kansas City. The Eagles tried to move up to the mid-20s — to take Campbell, Roseman said — but did not strike a deal.

Campbell was arguably the top linebacker in the draft. He amassed 117 tackles, including five sacks, with Alabama this past season and was a second-team All-American, a good enough season to end with Campbell electing to forgo his final year of eligibility to enter the draft.

» READ MORE: Jihaad Campbell’s journey began at Timber Creek

Campbell grew up an Eagles fan and starred at Timber Creek Regional High School as a hybrid edge rusher and off-ball linebacker. He transferred to national powerhouse IMG Academy in Florida for his senior season before heading off to Alabama and the SEC. He originally committed to Clemson before reopening his recruitment.

Campbell went to Alabama as an edge rusher and eventually moved off the ball. The Eagles needed to add talent at linebacker alongside Baun. Nakobe Dean is recovering from a patellar tendon injury and is also in a contract year, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. is still unproven, Ben VanSumeren is also recovering from a knee injury and listed as a fullback, and Oren Burks left in free agency.

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That Campbell can fill a need there but also rush the quarterback from the edge is why the Eagles had him so high on their board.

“What’s really fun is those guys that have that versatility,” Roseman said, “who can go out on the edge and get pressure as a rusher. He’s got speed, he’s got power as an edge rusher, he was trained as an edge rusher, and then he’s got the versatility to play off the ball and blitz from depth and play in space, in pass coverage, as an off-ball linebacker. The things that you can do and keep all these players on the field. For us, we always want to improve the front seven and we view him as a front-seven player who’s got incredible versatility and a skill set to do both of those things.”

Roseman wouldn’t say which position coach Campbell would fall under, either concealing where the Eagles are projecting him or speaking to the reality that Campbell is a true hybrid. Campbell said he talked during the pre-draft process with Jeremiah Washburn, who coaches edge rushers.

Asked if he thought the Eagles envisioned him playing on the edge, Campbell said: “Being a dominant force for the defense. Putting me wherever and just finding different schemes for me to play and make an impact.”

Campbell just turned 21 in February.

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“You know he has upside to grow and get bigger and his frame is such that he can put on more weight and more strength,” Roseman said.

Campbell was mocked much higher than No. 31 in the draft, but he had shoulder surgery in March after suffering an injury in a bowl game. He also dealt with a knee injury. Roseman said the Eagles “do not have any long-term concerns” with Campbell’s health.

“We look at the draft as a long-term opportunity for our team,” he said. “We have a lot of confidence this guy is going to be here and play at a really high level for a long time.”

The Eagles ending up with Campbell, and a linebacker specifically, may come as somewhat of a surprise given their holes at edge rusher and interior defensive line. But Campbell has the ability to fill some of that need at edge rusher in the near- and long-term.

Seven of the first 16 picks Thursday were players who line up on the defensive front. The Eagles have an obvious need there with their numerous departures, but one by one, players who would seemingly be a target for the Eagles went off the board.

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The Eagles were obviously never going to be in play for Penn State’s Abdul Carter, a Philadelphia native, barring a major trade. But they were projected to be takers — either at 32 or via a trade up — for Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen, who ended up going 16th overall to Arizona and old friend Jonathan Gannon. Same with Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart, who went 17th to Cincinnati, and Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon.

The Eagles, who are loaded with picks in this draft and the 2026 draft, were trying to move up to a pick in the mid-20s. But they watched as Atlanta, which picked Georgia edge rusher Jalon Walker 15th, moved back into the first round to select Tennessee edge rusher James Pearce Jr. at pick No. 26.

The Ravens then selected Georgia safety Malaki Starks, another potential Eagles target, at No. 27. One pick later, Detroit selected Ohio State’s Tyleik Williams, the fifth defensive tackle to be taken in the first round, the most since six were picked in 2019.

That set up the Eagles to make a move up to take Campbell, a player whose versatility they coveted. Why move up one pick? The Eagles, Roseman said, wanted to make sure another team didn’t jump in and take Campbell.

“When you’re in a draft and you’re picking at the end of the first round and you have the opportunity to get a top-10 player on your board, a guy who can affect the quarterback, a guy who can affect the passing game, for us it was a no-brainer,” Roseman said.

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Alabama to execute a man who said he's guilty of rape and murder and deserves to die

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Alabama to execute a man who said he's guilty of rape and murder and deserves to die


MONTGOMERY, Ala. – An Alabama man is scheduled to be executed Thursday after dropping his appeals, saying he’s guilty of raping and murdering a woman in 2010 and he doesn’t want to keep “wasting everybody’s time” and money.

James Osgood, 55, will be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT at William Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, joining the approximately one in 10 people on death rows across America who have asked for their own executions.

A jury convicted Osgood of capital murder for the killing of Tracy Lynn Brown in Chilton County. Prosecutors said Osgood cut Brown’s throat after he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted her.

Osgood told The Associated Press that he wants to apologize to Brown’s family and that he dropped his appeals because, “I am guilty of murder.” In a letter to his lawyer explaining his decision to seek an execution date, he wrote that he’s tired and no longer feels like he’s “even existing.”

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“I’m a firm believer in, like I said in court, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I took a life so mine was forfeited. I don’t believe in sitting here and wasting everybody’s time and everybody’s money,” Osgood told the AP.

Brown was found dead in her home on Oct. 23, 2010. Prosecutors said Osgood admitted to police that he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted Brown, forcing her to perform sex acts, after discussing how they had fantasies about kidnapping and torturing someone. Then he cut her throat. His girlfriend, who was Brown’s cousin, was sentenced to life in prison.

“I can’t imagine anyone doing that to someone, even their worst enemy. I don’t know what kind of mind has that kind of thinking,” Jackie Wileman, Brown’s stepmother, told the judge at Osgood’s 2014 sentencing hearing.

In handing down the death sentence, the judge noted that Osgood had a difficult childhood that included sexual abuse, abandonment and a suicide attempt. But the judge also said that it was Osgood who cut Brown’s neck and stabbed her as she begged the couple not to hurt her.

Osgood said last week that he regrets all the “pain and suffering” he has caused Brown’s family, and his own.

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“I would like to say to the victim’s family, I apologize,” Osgood said. “I’m not going to ask their forgiveness because I know they can’t give it.” Only God can grant forgiveness, he said.

Osgood’s initial death sentence was thrown out by an appeals court ruling that jurors were given improper instructions. At his resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked to be executed, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.

The Death Penalty Information Center reported last year that 165 of the peo­ple executed since a moratorium on the death penalty ended in 1977 — a total that has since grown to more than 1650 people — asked to be put to death. The center also said that the overwhelming majority of these volunteers had histories of men­tal ill­ness, sub­stance abuse or suicidal ideation.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey made a rare move this year to grant clemency to another death row inmate, commuting the death sentence of Robin “Rocky” Myers to life in prison. The governor said there were enough questions about his guilt that she could not move forward with his execution. It was the only time Ivey has granted clemency, and the first time any Alabama governor commuted a death sentence since 1999.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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