The grieving parents of an 8-year-old girl who choked to death at her Texas elementary school have released distressing surveillance footage showing her desperate attempts to get help.

Adrian Thompson began choking during lunch at Velma Penny Elementary School in Lindale on April 15. Video released this week shows her waving her arms and signaling for assistance before running to the nurse’s office, where she turned blue and collapsed, CBS 19 reported.

Adrian’s parents made the footage public after investigators determined that her death was an accident and that “no criminal offense” had occurred. The family says that conclusion overlooks the school’s failure to respond while their daughter was visibly seeking help.

“If the camera footage that we were shown showed that once Adrian began choking and she got up for help and she went to the adult in charge and that they started all helping right away … I would still be devastated that Adrian passed away,” grieving mother Anna Thompson said.

“But that’s not what the camera footage shows. So, this is where we feel like people need to know about this,” she said.

The video shows Adrian leaving her lunch table at about 11:40 a.m. She appears to heave and cough into a napkin while walking through the cafeteria, holding her hands near her throat and visibly struggling.

“Adrian’s demeanor and actions appear to be those of someone coughing or choking,” Texas Rangers wrote in a report obtained by CBS 19.

Adrian approached a supervising employee and gestured toward her mouth. The staff member apparently believed the girl needed to vomit and directed her toward a trash can.

According to the police report, the employee asked Adrian whether she wanted to go to the restroom. Adrian nodded and quickly ran out of the cafeteria.

Seconds later, Adrian returned to the cafeteria, waving her arms in distress toward the same employee. She then ran out again and headed toward the nurse’s office.

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The nurse told police that Adrian was “pointing to her mouth and trying to speak” before her face began turning “blue.”

The nurse immediately performed the Heimlich maneuver, but Adrian collapsed. When she could not find a pulse, the nurse used an anti-choking device and began CPR.

The school principal called 911 at 11:45 a.m.—about five minutes after Adrian first began showing signs of choking in the cafeteria. Firefighters, police officers and EMS personnel responded, with the final responders arriving roughly 10 minutes after the incident began, according to the footage.

Security video shows responders wheeling Adrian from the school on a gurney while continuing chest compressions. She was placed in an ambulance at 11:55 a.m., and the vehicle left the school at noon.

Adrian was taken to a hospital and later transferred to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth. She died the following day.

Medical experts say that during the first three minutes of a choking emergency, a person may experience restricted breathing, panic and potentially lose consciousness.

Brain damage can begin after four minutes, while cardiac arrest or death can occur after six minutes or longer, CBS 19 reported.

The Texas Rangers’ investigation concluded that no criminal offense had been committed in connection with Adrian’s death. The medical examiner classified the death as accidental, caused by choking.

Lindale Independent School District Superintendent Stan Surratt told The Post that the school has revised its safety procedures, provided additional staff training and introduced new policies intended to “help prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.”

“We recognize that no amount of preparation can eliminate every emergency. However, we remain committed to continuously evaluating our practices, identifying opportunities for improvement, and ensuring our staff members have the resources, training, and support they need to respond when emergencies arise,” he said.

Lindale is a small town of about 6,000 people located about 90 miles east of Dallas.

Federal authorities have launched a nationwide investigation known as “Operation Ghostbusters” to dismantle an international scheme that allegedly exploited student aid programs. Investigators believe the operation, which may have been active since 2021, could have caused “potentially several hundred million dollars” in taxpayer losses.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said the first round of enforcement actions revealed how organized groups allegedly stole the identities of working Americans who had never applied to college. The suspects then used that information to create fictional “ghost students,” enroll them at schools across the country and direct federal aid to offshore accounts.

“These are not isolated errors,” McDonald said during a news conference Thursday. “This is organized fraud at scale.” He added that some participants use artificial intelligence to complete college applications and coursework.

Others allegedly go further by creating the illusion that a fake student is participating in an online class, deceiving schools into believing that an actual student is attending.

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The investigation includes more than 40 active cases being handled by 26 FBI field offices. Authorities have indicted five defendants and seized more than $750,000 in cryptocurrency allegedly laundered through networks connected to Kenya.

“We have already sent a team to Kenya to be on the ground for purposes of rooting out this fraud scheme and figuring out how it works on the ground in Kenya,” McDonald said during the question-and-answer portion of the briefing.

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Prosecutors allege that once tuition and fees were paid, the remaining grant and loan funds were routed through domestic “money mules” before being transferred overseas. Some of the money allegedly moved through businesses such as a Nairobi safari company. Meanwhile, identity-theft victims were left with damaged credit and bills for classes they never took.

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“The complete story includes the plight of an American citizen who graduated high school and went straight to work to provide for his family,” McDonald said. “He never applied to college, he never enrolled in classes, and he never asked for federal student aid. But one day, he finds his name attached to a loan from a school hundreds or thousands of miles away.”

“His credit is now at risk and his name is on the bill,” McDonald added.

McDonald said the investigation began in earnest in April, while the alleged fraud itself dates back to 2021, during the Biden administration.

“If you steal American identities, if you steal taxpayer dollars, if you exploit programs meant to help students build their future, we are resolved to find you and prosecute you,” McDonald said. “Whether you’re in Nebraska, New Jersey, Virginia, or Nairobi, we will pursue you and bring you to justice.”

Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent blamed the Biden administration for removing key safeguards designed to detect fraud.

“When we walked in the door last January, we were extremely troubled to find that the Biden administration had turned off nearly every fraud detection measure, allowing critical funds to become the target of large-scale fraud,” Kent said. “The federal student aid programs result in about a $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio. That’s like turning off fraud detection efforts at Wells Fargo, which is just crazy.”

George Michael’s guitar from the video for his hit song Faith has sold for £234,000, following a family dispute over the auction.

The singer gave the instrument to his long-serving personal assistant, Siobhan Bailey. After her death in 2014, it was inherited by her estranged husband, Ian Belcher, who later put it up for auction.

Siobhan and Mr Belcher were in the process of divorcing when she died, her brother Gerard Bailey said. She had not made a legally registered will.

Mr Bailey told the BBC that his sister “would be horrified at the prospect of the auction being held in her name and that her personal, cherished possessions are being sold off to the highest bidder”.

He said Siobhan had begun preparing a will shortly before her death and intended to leave the memorabilia to her nieces and nephews. However, the document was never registered.

The Gretsch Synchromatic 160 guitar, which came with its original case, had been valued at between £60,000 and £120,000.

It sold for a hammer price of £180,000. After the auctioneer’s fees were added, the UK-based buyer paid £234,480.

The auction also included several photographs signed for Siobhan, George Michael’s running order for Live Aid and an annotated itinerary from Wham!’s 1985 tour of China.

There has been no suggestion that Mr Belcher does not have the legal right to sell the items. However, Mr Bailey said that had his sister lived for only a few more weeks, the memorabilia would not have passed to Mr Belcher.

Calling it “disingenuous” for the sale to be promoted in Siobhan’s name, Mr Bailey said that, if the auction went ahead, it should have been conducted under Mr Belcher’s name.

He said Siobhan would have wanted the memorabilia to “have remained with her family and we would never have sold”, and accused Mr Belcher of deciding “12 years after my sister’s death to cash in”.

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Siobhan became Michael’s personal assistant in 1984 and remained with him for two decades.

Mr Bailey said: “I think she was one of the few people George trusted and whose opinion he valued.

“She was always honest and straight with him. I guess that’s why she stayed working for him for so long through the very, very good and not so good times.”

Michael gave her the guitar as “a gift” because he “thought so much of her”, Mr Bailey added.

The star played the Gretsch Synchromatic 160 in the video for the 1987 hit Faith, an album that went on to sell more than 25 million copies worldwide.

A Sworders spokesperson said after the sale: ‘This auction provided a unique insight into the working life of a music legend and attracted attention and adoration from around the globe.

‘The Gretsch Synchromatic guitar was the “jewel in the crown”, a fitting offering ahead of the 40th anniversary of the release of Faith and a chance to own a small piece of pop history.’

Mr Belcher declined to comment when approached by the BBC. 

A spokesman for Sworders said: ‘We are not well placed to comment on a family matter, but such disputes are not uncommon in the auction business. 

‘In this case, as the BBC article makes clear, the legal title of the collection is not in question.’

This is where runners admit defeat.

For unprepared competitors, the New York City Marathon can take on the feel of a Greek tragedy at an unassuming half-mile stretch on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. That is where runners who decide to quit are particularly likely to tear off their race bibs, according to data obtained by The Post.

The race’s most common drop-off point comes at Mile 18, a notorious benchmark organizers have aptly nicknamed “The Wall.”

In last year’s New York City Marathon, 203 runners disappeared from the course between Mile 18 and the 30-kilometer mark—the largest drop between any two timing checkpoints, according to Road Runners data.

The 0.64-mile section runs along First Avenue between East 96th and East 103rd streets. Unlike much of the route, it is lined mostly by parking lots, athletic fields and municipal facilities rather than residential buildings.

It is also the point where the packed sidewalks begin to empty and the noise fades, leaving runners to confront an eerie quiet after the thunderous welcome they received just two miles earlier while exiting the Queensboro Bridge.

The stretch comes shortly before the course’s steepest climb, the approach to the Willis Avenue Bridge just before Mile 20, when the marathon briefly crosses into the Bronx.

Some runners identify Mile 18 itself as “The Wall,” while others describe the true challenge as the several-mile ordeal that begins there.

Across recent decades, Mile 18 has consistently emerged as the most frequent quitting point on the five-borough course—even though runners have already covered nearly 70% of the marathon.

“It’s likely that runners who are having tough days decide to cut their marathon short and wait until they’re back in a convenient location in Manhattan to drop out,” Road Runners told The Post.

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Annie Reeves, who completed her first marathon in 2023, remembers the crowds thinning near Mile 18 and the race becoming primarily a “mental game.”

“You go through Brooklyn—which is an insane adrenaline rush and amazing experience—you go through Queens, which is great, then when you come off of the 59th Street Bridge, it’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before,” said Reeves, who lives in Bayside.

“You go to all of these phases of amazing, unmatched energy where people are pulling you through. And Mile 18 is a low point.”

Omar Medjid, founder of the World’s Fair Run Crew, believes the struggle of Mile 18 may be universal, regardless of the marathon course.

“That’s when you start looking at your watch, you’re kind of panicking and you’re just saying, ‘Okay, am I going to hit my goal time? Is my pace dropping?’ You start to feel it in your body versus the actual data,” said Medjid, 33, of College Point, who ran the NYC Marathon in 2024.

“You’re already tired from hitting the bridge and everything, then you know you still got that long stretch of Fifth Avenue to go. A lot of mental was really what it would be, but I do think it’s mainly based on the actual mile rather than exactly where it is.”

Medjid managed to keep going after spotting friends and members of his running community along the course. Their presence reminded him of the reason he had entered the race in the first place.

“Remember your why” is also central to the guidance Road Runners coach Steve Mura gives athletes battling through “The Wall” on the way to the finish.

“Before the race, write it on your hand. Why did you sign up? When those moments get hard, and it will get hard, look down at your hand,” said Mura, the organization’s director of Runner Training and Education.

“Think about the next mile, not the remaining eight.”

Pack plenty of fuel, keep your eyes peeled for water stations and use the cheering crowds to your advantage, he continued.

A former Tennessee police chief who investigated the murder that led to Christa Pike’s death sentence recalled the convicted killer as “ruthless” and “almost giddy” when she described the crime to investigators. His comments came as Gov. Bill Lee indicated that Pike’s sentence is unlikely to change after she survived the failed execution.

Pike, now 50, survived Tennessee’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection on Sept. 30 and was returned to prison. Her case has raised questions about whether the state may try to carry out the death sentence again.

Lee addressed Pike’s legal status Wednesday, saying she remains incarcerated under Tennessee law.

“I suspect her sentence will be the same as it was before unless determined otherwise by the courts,” Lee said.

The governor spoke as Pike’s attorneys urged him to commute her death sentence to life in prison without parole following the unsuccessful execution attempt.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, who was taking part in a federal Job Corps program in Knoxville alongside Pike.

Former Knoxville Police Chief Phil Keith, who participated in the investigation, recently described Pike’s demeanor during questioning in the New York Post documentary “No Mercy: Christa Pike Unraveled.”

“I heard somebody that was ruthless, without any remorse, almost giddy,” Keith said. “You know, she was describing what took place, like, almost the sense that she was bragging about it.”

Keith reaffirmed those remarks to News Media, describing them as “spot on.” He summed up his view of Pike in two words: “Pure evil.”

Keith also recalled Pike speaking openly about the killing after she returned to the Job Corps program.

“Pike, when she got back, you know, immediately had to express her joy with killing Colleen,” Keith said in the documentary. “And then the very next day in class, she bragged again, talking about how she killed Colleen. She showed her shoes that had blood on them.”

Pike was 18 when she, her 17-year-old boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and 19-year-old Shadolla Peterson were charged in Slemmer’s killing. Court records show that all four were participating in the Job Corps at the time.

The three took Slemmer to an isolated area of the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus. Prosecutors said her throat was cut several times, she was hit in the head with a large piece of asphalt and a pentagram was carved into her chest.

According to court records, Pike later confessed to her role in the killing.

Keith said the violence at the crime scene stunned even experienced homicide investigators.

“I was accustomed to seeing that kind of gore, if you will. But the brutality was different,” Keith said in the Post documentary.

“You know, the visual scene of it, it was so shocking,” he added.

Pike was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996, and the Tennessee Supreme Court later affirmed her convictions and sentence.

More than three decades later, Tennessee attempted to carry out that sentence on Sept. 30 after the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a last-minute stay issued by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The execution attempt failed after Pike received two doses of pentobarbital, and she was taken to a hospital.

She remained unconscious for days, and her attorneys at one point believed she was brain-dead and expected her to be taken off life support. Pike later regained consciousness and was discharged from the hospital before being returned to prison.

Her attorneys have since said she is able to walk and speak in full sentences.

Following the execution attempt, Lee halted Tennessee’s remaining executions for the year and ordered an independent review of what went wrong.

Pike’s attorneys have argued she should not be subjected to another execution attempt.

The push for commutation predates the failed execution.

In a 2021 filing with the Tennessee Supreme Court, Pike’s attorneys sought a certificate of commutation, pointing to her age at the time of Slemmer’s murder as well as her history of childhood trauma, mental illness and brain damage.

News Media reached out to Pike’s attorneys and Lee’s office for additional comment, and to Keith to confirm the context of his remarks.