Wednesday, 19 October 2022

A young mom's aches and pains turn out to be much more serious.

October 19, 2022 | VIEW IN BROWSER

Your day starts here. The latest in news, pop culture, wellness and more.

A person of interest is arrested in the case of four Oklahoma men whose bodies were found dismembered in a river, and Carson Daly returns to TODAY and reflects about how struggles with back pain led to poor lifestyle choices. Plus, everything you need to know about the real-life story behind the Netflix hit "The Watcher."

THE LATEST

A 'person of interest' was arrested in connection with the slayings of 4 Oklahoma men found dismembered in a river.

Police arrested a "person of interest" more than 1,200 miles away from the site of the slayings of four Oklahoma bicyclists, authorities said yesterday. Joseph Kennedy, 67, was arrested in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, in a car that was reported stolen, police in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, said. Four men between the ages of 29 and 32 were reported missing last week and were found shot and dismembered in the Deep Fork River, police said. Kennedy, who has an address listed in Okmulgee, is being held without bail and did not make any statement to officers, police said. The Okmulgee police statement did not name Kennedy as a suspect in the deaths of the four men.

After back surgery, Carson Daly says he realizes some of his behaviors were 'masking the pain.'

Carson Daly returned to TODAY after undergoing back surgery in August, his second procedure this year to address decades of back pain. He's living pain-free for the first time since the late '90s, and he reflected about how his pain was leading to other harmful choices in his life. "I already have anxiety and mental health issues that I'm already dealing with, and then you throw chronic pain into that cauldron, and what you have is this recipe for really destructive choices," he told TODAY. "I would probably drink more red wine than I needed to, or I would eat too much comfort food because it just made me feel good — and then you end up doing that for years. I realized that I needed to sort of reassess my relationship with some of these things that I was masking the pain with." Read more about Carson's journey.

👁️ The true story of 'The Watcher': How the real-life house and family compare to the Netflix hit.

If you think the new Netflix show "The Watcher" gives you chills, imagine being the people who lived it. Here's all you need to know about the $1.4 million home in Westfield, New Jersey, where the Broaddus family received a stream of creepy and terrifying letters from an anonymous person calling themselves The Watcher. Learn about why the family never actually moved into the home, how real-life events compare to the depiction on the show, and whether they ever found who sent the letters.

A mom didn't know that pain and numb feet were breast cancer signs — until her husband found a lump.

Elissa Kalver, 35, had been going to doctors for months for unusual aches and pains, including numbness in her feet while playing tennis, but they couldn't find what was wrong. She said she was getting dressed one day when her husband felt a lump on her breast. It was ultimately diagnosed as stage 4 HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. "(None of the pain) was near my breasts," she told us. "I was 34, so you don't do mammograms or anything particular anyway." Elissa shared her cancer journey with TODAY, which included eight rounds of chemotherapy, and how she turned a bad diagnosis into a "positive."

LIVE BETTER TODAY

Achieve your life goals with easy tips.

Veterinarian and author Dr. Renee Alsarraf had treated pets with cancer for years, but she struggled to cope with her own diagnosis of endometrial cancer. She soon realized the inspirational power of the animals she works with when it came to her own cancer journey, and she shared the lessons she learned from her furry patients with TODAY. "We can use dogs as guides during our struggles," she said. "They never waste their time with worry." Alsarraf also shared more lessons from pets as well as the differences between human medicine vs. animal medicine.

WHAT'S FOR DESSERT?

Allow us to do the meal-planning for you.

Savor an unexpected taste combination with this lemon espresso pie that's the signature of chef Maya-Camille Broussard. The earthy, espresso-infused crust mixes with a bright and tart lemon custard filling. Top it with Maya-Camille's hot fudge sauce and vanilla bean chantilly cream for a surprising mash-up of flavors.

DAILY DELIGHT

A little pick-me-up before you go.

A mom who proudly completed a half-marathon recently may need some ice to recover from a burn inflicted by her 9-year-old son. Ashley Desanno discovered that her son, Durham, went full McKayla Maroney when writing about her race for a school assignment. "You know what it said? 'My mom ran a half marathon. She did very well ... for old people,'" Desanno shared on TikTok. "'The bigger victory is she did not pee or poop her pants.'" In an interview, Ashley told us, "I read it and was like 'Well, this is fantastic." An avid runner, Ashley has told her boys that going to the bathroom a little bit while running is normal. "Women are so hesitant to being really open about talking about things," she said. "Everybody poops and everybody cries and everybody has negative thoughts ... It's important to normalize how hard it is."