Aug 17

Close to home: Utah crash spurs NH domestic violence survivor to share story

Jo Fonda’s estranged husband crashed plane into Amherst home in 2001

WMUR-TV – Amy Coveno – News Anchor/Reporter – Updated: 12:56 PM EDT Aug 14, 2018

 

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A Utah man crashed a plane into his own house this week, hours after he allegedly assaulted his wife, bringing back difficult memories for an Amherst woman of a similar tragedy nearly 17 years ago. The pilot, Duane Youd, died in the crash on Monday. His wife and child, who were in the home, survived, despite part of the home becoming engulfed in flames.

On Aug. 25, 2001, Jo Fonda‘s estranged husband flew their private plane into their Amherst home after Fonda filed for a restraining order against him. Fonda’s husband of 20 years died in the crash and destroyed nearly everything they owned, except for a single piece of pottery. “Similar situation where there was a restraining order that was served on my husband and within 12 hours, he had crashed our airplane into our home and burned it to the ground,” Fonda said.

Fonda said she was never physically abused, but her husband was a violent, controlling man. “The banging of a table, you know, the punching of a wall, the ripping off a phone off a wall,” Fonda said.

Fonda feels responsible, she said, to share her story of the warning signs and her strategy with other women who right now are afraid of their partners. She said it starts by getting out of the house. “That is the most dangerous time, right after someone is served a restraining order,” Fonda said.

Jo Fonda shared her story with WMUR.

Fonda said a phone call to a hotline saved her life. She had scrawled the number on a piece of scrap paper that she still has. “It said, ‘pathetic hotline.’ That’s how I felt about the need to reach out for help,” Fonda said.

Fonda’s message to the survivors in Utah is one of love and a shared sisterhood. “She should have never stayed in that house thinking that she was safe,” Fonda said. “My heart goes out to you and I’m so grateful that they did manage to stay safe. It’s a miracle in my mind.”

The memories are difficult to handle, but Fonda said she wants other victims of domestic violence to know that asking for help is what saved her life.

Anyone who is the victim of domestic violence is urged to call New Hampshire’s 24-hour hotline at 1-866-644-3574.

Other links: Glamour.com; The Telegraph

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Jul 14

Interview with Former YPG Volunteer Mike Fonda

July 12, 2017 – Mike Fonda describes his experience fighting with the YPG in Syria and the current efforts to raise awareness in the United States to gain support for the fight against ISIS.  

  

KDP arrests two YPG fighters from the US and puts them in the same prison cell with ISIS gangs

hqdefaultRobert Alleva and Michael Fonda, 2 internationalists from the US who came to Rojava to join the fight against ISIS, were arrested by KDP officials and put in the same prison cell with ISIS gangs.

Sunday, August 2, 2015 – News Desk – ANF

Robert Alleva and Michael Fonda, 2 internationalists from the US who came to Rojava to join the fight against ISIS, were arrested and put in the same prison cell with ISIS gangs by KDP officials. KDP officials arrested Robert Alleva, Michael Fonda, Alexandre de Ponte and Russian YPG fighter Semyonov as they were returning to their home countries.

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Photo: Militia fighters Ashley Dyball (front right) and American Mike Fonda (front centre). Gold Coast man Reece Harding (back, second from left) was killed in June. (Supplied: Mike Fonda)

Michael Fonda stated that he is from Centreville, Virginia, and his name in Rojava was Demhat Şirvan. Fonda fought in the US army in Iraq and wanted to join YPG in order to fight against ISIS and liberate Kurdish and Arab towns from ISIS occupation. After being released as a result of the diplomatic efforts of the American Embassy in Erbil, Fonda reported that KDP officials held them in the same prison cell with ISIS gangs for 23 days despite the fact that they had told the officials about their membership in YPG. Fonda ended his statements by criticizing the Turkish government’s collaboration with ISIS, and called upon KDP officials to treat better those who were fighting against ISIS.

Robert Alleva is another YPG fighter from the US, and stayed in Rojava for three months to fight against ISIS. Alleva stated that after their arrests, KDP officials told them that they would soon be sent home but the 4 foreign YPG fighters were kept in the same cell with ISIS gangs in a prison in Erbil for 23 days. Alleva said that KDP wanted to set up an example with their imprisonment, and called upon KDP to not treat foreign YPG fighters the way they had been treated. Alleva noted that YPG was composed of Kurds, Arabs, and Christians, and thanked the people of Rojava for their hospitality and struggle for humanity in the face of ISIS barbarism.

Other links: ABC Australia, National Post, YouTube, Crowdrise

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Apr 09

Spirit Airlines passengers battered in fight sue the carrier for continuing to serve alcohol to assailants, failure to protect them

By Nancy Dillon, New York Daily News, Thursday, April 7, 2016

An in-flight riot over a noisy boom box is causing more turbulence for Spirit Airlines. (March 9, 2016)  Three passengers involved in the cabin clash last month sued the carrier Thursday claiming it fueled the flap with copious amounts of alcohol and failed to protect them from injury.  The tail-end of the incident was filmed by other passengers, and wild video of women slapping and grabbing each other over seatbacks quickly went viral.

Gloria Allred announced a lawsuit against Spirit Airlines beside her clients, from left, Lisa Zampella, Tykisha Diadato and Danielle Fonda-Thomas, who were all involved in a fight on board the carrier’s plane.

Gloria Allred announced a lawsuit against Spirit Airlines beside her clients, from left, Lisa Zampella, Tykisha Diadato and Danielle Fonda-Thomas, who were all involved in a fight on board the carrier’s plane.

“I am upset that the Spirit Airlines failed to protect us, disregarded our safety, and instead continued to serve the women in front of us alcoholic beverages even though they were clearly intoxicated and behaving aggressively,” passenger and plaintiff Tykisha Diodato said in a statement Thursday.

Diodato and her friends — fellow plaintiffs Lisa Zampella and Danielle Fonda-Thomas — say they were on the March 9 flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles for a long-awaited vacation.  They claim three other female passengers seated near them got drunk during the flight, blared music from a blue tooth speaker for hours, sang loudly and stood and danced in the cabin, their lawyer Gloria Allred said at a press conference in New York.

When asked hours into the flight to lower the volume of the music, the rowdy passengers did so for a few minutes but then cranked the volume even higher, Allred said.  Shortly before landing, a female flight attendant who allegedly danced to the women’s music earlier in the flight returned and provided them with additional rounds of alcoholic beverages despite their aggressive behavior, the plaintiffs claim.

The tail-end of the incident was filmed by other passengers, and wild video of women slapping and grabbing each other over seatbacks quickly went viral.

The tail-end of the incident was filmed by other passengers, and wild video of women slapping and grabbing each other over seatbacks quickly went viral.

Upon touching down at LAX, the drunk women allegedly began shouting offensive and racist remarks and made the first move in the violent scuffle, Allred said.  “F–k white people!” they yelled, according to Allred.  “What are these f—ing people going to do?”  Allred said her clients were “offended by these racial remarks.”

“Ms. Fonda-Thomas politely informed them that their language was inappropriate in front of children. Unprovoked, one of the intoxicated female passengers stood up, turned around, and began to batter and assault Ms. Fonda-Thomas,” Allred said.  A second intoxicated passenger also began to attack Fonda-Thomas — and that’s when Diodato and Zampella rushed to her defense and also suffered physical injuries, Allred said.  “It was not a mutual combat situation as some have described in prior reports,” Allred said.

“Because there is a lawsuit we are not at liberty to describe the specifics of their injuries,” Allred told the Daily News when asked to elaborate on her client’s alleged physical trauma.  She said her clients are seeking compensatory and punitive damages at trial.  A Spirit spokesman denied the charges in a statement to The News.

Allred said her clients are seeking compensatory and punitive damages at from the airline at trial.

Allred said her clients are seeking compensatory and punitive damages at from the airline at trial.

“The flight had just landed at LAX and the flight attendants were in their jump seats as required by law. When the fight began, our flight attendants immediately moved to break it up. It is not our practice to over-serve alcohol to anyone,” Spirit spokesman Paul Berry said Thursday.

Fonda-Thomas called the experience a “nightmare.”  “On that flight we became victims to a very bad situation and negligence of the airline. It was the first time in my life that I felt unsafe on public transportation,” she said.

“The flight attendants failed to take control of the situation before it got to the point where we were physically attacked, humiliated, and escorted off the plane as if we were criminals.”  Zampella said the flight crew should have stopped serving the women and ensured a peaceful flight for all passengers.  “I fear for anyone who travels with this airline that obviously doesn’t take their passengers’ safety seriously,” she said in a statement.

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Jun 01

Forensic exam shows Texas woman committed suicide in Cherokee County by burning herself

Updated: May 29, 2015, By Jordan Aubey, Reporter

News release by CheroShannon Fondakee County Sheriff’s Office—

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and Kansas Bureau of Investigation have been investigating the death of 35 year-old Shannon Fonda since her body was discovered near Scammon on March 23rd, 2015.

After identifying Ms. Fonda, investigators made contact with her family in Texas, and learned it was not uncommon for her to leave home without notice for periods of time.

During the course of the investigation, detectives conducted numerous interviews documenting Ms. Fonda’s departure from Midland, Texas on March 14, 2015.  Based upon those interviews, surveillance video from several establishments Ms. Fonda stopped at along the way and financial records, authorities know that Ms. Fonda was traveling alone and ran out of money leaving her stranded in Cherokee County.

An autopsy on Ms. Fonda was conducted in Kansas City and it was noted that while she had non-life threatening cuts, which were consistent with self-inflicted injuries, her death was caused by severe burns to 90 % of her body.

Crime Scene Investigators collected numerous items at the scene and DNA testing along with other forensic examinations were conducted.  All testing, including DNA analysis on the gas can at the scene, showed Ms. Fonda was the only one who handled the gas can.

As a result of the investigation, Ms. Fonda’s death is being ruled a suicide.

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Nov 12

‘A labor of love for the Lord’ — Ship inspired by man’s faith in God finally sets sail

By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff – Nov. 11, 2013

Maine Boat 101

The schooner Beacon Won at the Front Street Shipyard in Belfast. The vessel that was built in Addison will travel to the Bahamas to be used as a charter boat this winter. It will make the voyage under engine power and will eventually be outfitted with two masts.

BELFAST, Maine — The stout, unfinished white boat, still without its mast and sails, looked a little out of place this week, moored as it was next to the multimillion-dollar superyachts of Front Street Shipyard.  The boat — named the Beacon Won — was a hub of activity Monday morning during a stability trial. It also looked like it might have a pretty good story to tell, and it does.

“When we bought the boat, it was really in a dilapidated condition,” Capt. Bruce Dunham said Monday. “We looked at the boat for five minutes, and said ‘no way.’ We did not need a project. We needed a boat. But we came back. We looked at the boat again, and we could not stand to see the boat die.”  At that point, the Beacon Won was nothing more than the hackmatack wooden skeleton, or ribs, of a 65-foot two-masted schooner, and a dream that seemed put on hold by the death of the man who had first dreamed of it.

Dino Fonda heard a message from God to build a ship back in 1986 when he and his wife, Cathy, were living in Venice, Fla. The couple traveled along the New England coast, searching for the right spot to build the boat, and they found it in the Addison Shipyard. They purchased the yard, and although Dino was not a trained boatbuilder, he had an engineering and building background and used books to help him with the tricky parts. He worked on the boat by hand for years while Cathy taught Spanish at Sumner Memorial High School.  “It was a labor of love for the Lord,” Cathy Fonda, now 70, said Monday.

When Dino died in 2003, his ship was not much more than a hull and a deck, and although it changed hands in 2005, for eight years it remained unfinished in Cathy’s dooryard. That changed in 2010, when Dunham and his wife, Sheila Young, read an ad in a marine industry magazine for a partially built schooner. They were in the market for a boat to use in their charter business in the Bahamas, which includes bringing kids on board for sailing adventures and Christian mission work.

Maine Boat 102

Boat owner and Capt. Bruce Dunham in the engine room of the schooner Beacon Won. They will motor to the Bahamas, making more stops along the way to finish the interior of the vessel. The plan is to put the two masts in place sometime next year, after the winter charter season.

The couple may not have needed a project, but they took one on, and still were smiling three years later as the ship neared completion. Volunteers from all over did much of the work to finish the Beacon Won, including carpenters from the Amish community of Lancaster County, Pa., who built the ship’s galley. One man who came to Maine to work on the boat had lost both his daughters in the 2006 Amish schoolhouse shooting.  “This boat has been built by a huge cluster of good people,” Dunham said. “We are very humbled by the communities of Belfast, Jonesport and Addison.”  He said that so far, finishing the Beacon Won has required an investment of about $550,000 in addition to the years of work. The 61-ton ship has been built to be stout and very solid, with 4,200 sheets of marine plywood, epoxy and fiberglass. Even though Dino Fonda was not trained as a boatbuilder, Dunham said that he built the hull strongly and well.

“He was a genius,” the captain said. “It had to be ordained, because he did everything himself.”  David Wyman, an independent naval architect and marine surveyor from Castine, directed clusters of people around the boat Monday morning, shifting weight from one side to another to make sure that it would be sufficiently stable.  “It’s been a fun project to be involved in,” he said. “She’s a great boat.”  Dunham, Young and their crew plan to leave Maine this weekend, after finishing sea trials this week. They will meander down the Atlantic coastline, stopping in communities along the way so schoolchildren can visit the Beacon Won. They’ll be in the Caribbean by January to start the winter charter season there.

Cathy Fonda, who is spry and cheerful, with a faith as solid as the boat her husband envisioned, has become part of the Beacon Won’s family. She said that while she’s delighted that the boat is out of her yard and on its way to doing important mission work, she’ll be sad to see it — and the people aboard — leave the state.  “I’m not going to like it, having to go [away] to get a hug,” she said after receiving a bone-cracking embrace from the ebullient Dunham.  “It’s just exciting,” Fonda said. “I’ve said all along, I think Dino’s watching us, and jumping up and down. At least, I pray he is.”

Volunteers finishing ship inspired by man’s faith in God

By Sharon Kiley Mack, BDN Staff – Oct. 09, 2011

ADDISON, Maine — There are times in everyone’s life when patterns emerge, or coincidences become too frequent, or disparate series of events are inexplicably linked. Some raise their eyebrows and call it chance, while others credit divine intervention.  Such is the story of a 65-foot two-masted wooden schooner being built in Addison by a band of volunteers who believe it was destiny that brought them together and their belief in God that will launch their vessel.

On a tiny patch of land at Pleasant River Bay, where the high tide threatens to float the ship even before it is ready, carpenters from Pennsylvania, Florida, Maine, Texas, Tennessee and the Bahamas are racing to finish The Beacon Won before winter. Capt. Bruce Dunham and his partner, Sheila Young, then plan to sail the schooner south, resting in Maryland and South Carolina, before continuing on to Nassau in the Caribbean.  The ship will become a Christian mission ship — replacing two smaller ships the couple have been using for 19 years — and will take teenagers and church groups on week-long excursions, able to accommodate 30 passengers and a crew of six.

The story of The Beacon Won actually began 25 years ago, in 1986, when Dino Fonda and his wife, Cathy, were living in Venice, Fla.  “For a year before we left Florida, Dino kept hearing the message [from God] to build a ship,” Cathy Fonda said Thursday. A devout Christian, Fonda said she never once questioned her husband’s belief. “So we left Florida looking for a place to build a ship. Little did we know then that we were going to build it for Bruce and Sheila.”

Dino-Fonda

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Dino Fonda is shown working on his schooner in Addison in June 1997.

The Fondas traveled in a tiny 25-foot travel trailer along the New England coast, searching for just the right spot. Eventually they came to Jonesport, Maine, and Fonda said her husband knew it was the place to stop. One day, shortly after that, the Fondas drove through Addison.  “Dino said he was told [by God] to take a left and look to the left,” Cathy Fonda said. “There at the end of the dike was a building with a sign — ‘Addison Shipyard’ — and a ‘for sale’ sign out front.” The couple bought the shipyard in 1988, moved their travel trailer to the site, and Dino began building his boat.  “I taught school at Sumner High School [in Sullivan] for 15 years,” Cathy said. “I made the money. He built the boat.”

Dino Fonda worked on the boat for years, by hand, by himself, using books to help him with the engineering. He worked every good weather day, sometimes all the way into December. He bought six truckloads of hackmatack, set up a portable sawmill and cut the wood for the boat’s skeleton — the foot-thick ribs, the braces, the decking. Destiny kept throwing him both challenges and inspiration: The detached shop burned down one year but somehow the ship and its blueprints survived the blaze; another year Dino was working in a metal building alongside the construction site when a windstorm blew the roof off the building and the sides collapsed. He was left standing inside, unhurt.

But Dino couldn’t overcome cancer and died in 2003, leaving his beloved ship, which he had named Moriah, incomplete — not much more than a hull and a deck. “People here were so sad when Dino couldn’t finish the boat,” Cathy said. It sat, abandoned, for two years. Cathy sold the boat in 2005 to Steve Pagels of Bar Harbor. He kept the boat at the Addison Shipyard, but after a brief attempt to finish it, Pagels also put it on the market.  For eight years, Cathy looked out her kitchen window every day at her husband’s unfinished dream.

A year ago, and 1,455 miles away in the Bahamas, Dunham and Young read a small advertisement in a marine industry magazine. “Partially built schooner. $80,000. Call,” was all that it said, Young recalled.  “We arrived here last October, looked at it for five minutes and ran away,” Dunham said. “There was so much work left to do.”

But as they were leaving Maine they said some power larger than themselves brought them back to Addison and they decided they needed to buy the boat.  Over the winter, Dunham reached out to his friend Paul Risk, an 89-year-old retired carpenter from Pennsylvania who had never even worked on a boat before, much less built one. Risk knew Dunham and Young through their work with Christian youth groups.

Risk landed in Addison this past July and immediately constructed a greenhouse-style structure to cover the unfinished ship.  “I’ve been in construction all my life and I am overwhelmed at the work that Dino did. I don’t know how he did this all by himself,” Risk said.  He began installing slabs of plywood, four sheets thick, over the ship’s ribs, which had been protected for more than 20 years by melted tar. As word of the project spread through the East Coast’s Christian communities, other volunteers began to arrive and youth groups became involved. Inquiries about helping out came from Tennessee, from Texas, from Maryland.

A bunkhouse was built above the workshop, recreational camper homes began arriving, Fonda opened her home for meals and Risk’s wife, Shirley, began cooking for everyone. Slowly, a wheelhouse was constructed. Fiberglass was installed on the deck. A retired U.S. Navy engineer arrived from Florida to line up the propeller shafts. Engines were installed.  Local workers fabricated fuel tanks, lifted engines, planed the hackmatack. Once Dunham and Young finished their summer mission season in the Bahamas, they came back to Maine on Sept. 21 to join the workers.  “As soon as we get her closed in, we’ll sail her out to warmer waters,” Young said.  “And I’ll be right on board,” Fonda said, adding that she might stay on the ship for a bit of an adventure.

Launching the ship after more than 25 years of dreaming will be bittersweet for Fonda. “But we will have come full circle, from Dino’s dream of a mission to a mission group. I swear Dino’s jumping up and down in heaven. God just keeps bringing people and skills and expertise together.”  “Not any one of us could do any of this,” Risk said. “But when you put us all together, it is amazing. It’s an awesome spirit of unity.”

Dunham, as captain, said working to complete the ship has been a “very humbling experience. It truly is a miracle.” While he works, Dunham wears Dino’s old ball cap and Dino’s work gloves remain hanging in the workshop. “In honor of him,” Dunham said.  Dunham and Young welcome all volunteers, regardless of skill level. For information, call Fonda at 483-4655.

About The Beacon Won

The Beacon Won is a 65-foot gaff-rigged schooner, double masted, with two 3208 Caterpillar naturally aspirated diesel engines.  It has five below-deck compartments separated by watertight walls and has a 5 to 6 foot draft. It has two passenger compartments below deck and an enclosed galley and dining/lounging area on deck.

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