Clues

o Clues and answers from the 13th annual Herald-Mail Landmarks contest SHARPSBURG -- The "stinkin' hot" days Janet Williams and her son, Roger Williams, endured at Antietam National Battlefield paid off. Literally. As the first-prize winners of The Herald-Mail's 13th annual Landmarks Contest, Janet and Roger Williams will receive $300. "Our luck's usually not like that," said first-time entrant Janet Williams, 68, a retired nurse who lives in Sharpsburg.

To watch a slideshow of the clues, click here! Here's a hint to this year's Landmarks Contest: knowing a bit of history pays. The Herald-Mail's 13th annual Landmarks Contest kicks off today. This time, the clues are at Antietam National Battlefield, near Sharpsburg. Antietam National Battlefield is the site of the Battle of Antietam, part of the Maryland Campaign of 1862 during the Civil War. Park officials say more than 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing in the 12 hours of combat, earning it the lamentable distinction as the bloodiest, one-day battle in American history.

View the slideshow The pilot of a helicopter that crashed Thursday night on Interstate 70 on South Mountain, killing all four people aboard, waited two hours before taking off from Hagerstown Regional Airport due to weather conditions, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson said Friday morning. It is not known if weather was a factor in the crash, which took place at about 10:30 p.m. near mile marker 37 of the interstate, NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said in a news conference.

HAGERSTOWN -- The Hagerstown Police Department is hoping to learn more about a Nov. 13 shooting and subsequent traffic accident on Jonathan Street through a series of pictures taken by surveillance cameras. On Nov. 13 at 8:21 p.m., officers from the police department responded to the area of Jonathan Street and Murph Avenue to find a red Jeep that had crashed into a light pole at the intersection, Sgt. Paul J. Kifer said. It then was learned that shots were fired to the rear of residences in the 300 block of North Jonathan Street near Blooms Avenue, Kifer said.

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- Police are calling "suspicious" the death of a woman whose decomposing body was found in her sport-utility vehicle on a Frederick street last week. Investigators found no car keys in the vehicle containing the partially concealed remains of 19-year-old Shneara Boone. And Boone's cousin Keona Moore says that when she last spoke with the younger woman by cell phone on Aug. 31, Boone told her she was leaving her job at a Baltimore McDonald's and would pick her up in 10 minutes.

Our changes to The Herald-Mail's annual Landmarks contest this year didn't throw too many people for a loop. Out of 137 entries, 91 entries found all 13 landmark clues, which were letters this year, and unscrambled the letters correctly to spell Elizabethtown, the first tiebreaker. When Jonathan Hager founded Hagerstown in 1762, he named the town for his late wife, Elizabeth. Kristi Gee won $300 and bragging rights for winning The Herald-Mail's 12th annual Landmarks contest when her entry was randomly drawn from all the correct answers.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania State Police say they still have no clues to the whereabouts of a Hamilton Township man who disappeared last week on his way to work. "Unfortunately, there is no update," Trooper David Rush said Monday of the search for 33-year-old Steven Baird, who was last seen leaving for work at about 7:40 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2. Baird, the human resources director at Menno Haven, was driving a black 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee with Pennsylvania license plate FDY-1398.

WASHINGTON COUNTY - The wind was light, the sky dark - prime conditions for catching little owls. The Lamb's Knoll banding station, along the Appalachian Trail, was ideal for tracking the Northern Saw-whet, an owl as tall and wide as a human hand, and much cuddlier. The station, in South Mountain State Park, sits 1,758 feet above sea level, the right elevation for attracting owls as they fly south from Canada, Project Owlnet found David F. Brinker said. Above all, Brinker said, the birds are drawn to a mating call of the wild: an MP3 recording of a 100-plus-decibel staccato whine that sounds like it needs a spritz of WD-40.

HALFWAY - Tigger and Pooh work here, too. Tiffany Burke, 15, of Hagerstown, thought for only a moment before heading to the Disney Store. Rural valuables. "Do you know what rural means?" Mindy Morgan, of Clear Spring, asked Tiffany. She replied that it means "country. " "What could be valuable?" Morgan asked. Tiffany worked at it for a few minutes before pointing to a sign that read "Country Treasures. " Morgan is Tiffany's big sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County, and the pair participated in the organization's scavenger hunt Sunday at Valley Mall in Hagerstown.

Click here to view the clues and answers The small Panther sticker on the end of a set of bleachers by Field One at Fairgrounds Park was the toughest clue to find for the winner of The Herald-Mail's 11th annual Landmarks Contest. But the green railing was responsible for most of the contestant entries knocked out of the running. We ran a hint, but apparently several people missed it as they still thought the green railing belonged to a trash can. The railing actually was part of a bridge on the bike path that goes from Fairgrounds Park to Pangborn Park.