Thursday Headlines: March 26, 2026

Here's a quick overview of our top stories for Thursday, March 26, 2026:

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TOP HEADLINES:

One Name, Two Men, One Tangled Story: Drug arrest uncovers 17 malnourished puppies

What happens when you share a name with someone making headlines? ✈️⚽ Bozeman soccer coach Hunter Terry laughed off the mix-up

Butte public health forum shares preventative measures to protect backyard chicken flocks from bird flu

MSU Coach Tricia Binford talks Super 16, record-breaking season

Local artists make 1,300 bowls for Butte's upcoming Empty Bowls event

THAT’S INTERESTING:

March 26th, 1997 - Heaven's Gate — Notable Facts

🏠 The Discovery

• Deputies from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department were dispatched after receiving an anonymous tip — a welfare check call — to a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive suburb of San Diego, California.
• The home was a sprawling Mediterranean-style mansion that cult leader Marshall Applewhite had rented in October 1996, telling the owner his group consisted of "Christian-based angels."
• It remains the largest mass suicide in U.S. history.

👗 The Scene

• All 39 victims — 21 women and 18 men ranging in age from 26 to 72 — were found lying peacefully with no visible signs of blood or trauma.
• They were all dressed in identical black uniforms and Nike sneakers, with shoulder patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team."
• Each body had a packed travel bag next to it and a small bag containing a few dollars and a form of ID — as if they were preparing for a literal journey.
• Their faces and upper bodies were covered with purple shrouds.

☄️ The Comet Connection

• The suicides were timed to coincide with the closest approach of Comet Hale-Bopp to Earth — one of the brightest comets of the 20th century, 1,000 times brighter than Halley's Comet.
• Members believed an alien spacecraft was hidden behind the comet and that by shedding their physical "containers" (bodies), their souls would be transported aboard the craft to a higher existence.
• A radio host's claim about a "companion object" traveling behind Hale-Bopp is widely believed to have been a triggering factor for the group's decision to act.

💊 The Method

• The suicides occurred over several days, beginning around March 22–23, 1997.
• Members consumed a lethal mixture of phenobarbital (a barbiturate) and vodka, then placed plastic bags over their heads to ensure unconsciousness led to death.
• The process was carried out in shifts — some members helped others die and were then assisted themselves, with the last group completing the act on their own.

👤 The Leader — Marshall Applewhite ("Do")

• Applewhite, known within the group as "Do", was the son of a Presbyterian preacher and a former stage actor and singer.
• He co-founded the cult in the early 1970s with Bonnie Lu Nettles ("Ti"), a nurse, after the two met under unclear circumstances.
• Applewhite died alongside his 38 followers in the mass suicide.
• He advocated strict sexual abstinence, and several male members — including Applewhite himself — underwent voluntary castration operations.
• Nettles had died of cancer in 1985, and Applewhite told members they would be reunited with "Ti" in the afterlife.

💻 The Internet Angle

• Heaven's Gate was one of the first cults to use the internet as a recruitment and communication tool in the early 1990s.
• The group funded itself through a web design business called Higher Source, building websites for clients.
• Just before the suicides, their website was updated with the message: "Hale–Bopp brings closure to Heaven's Gate...our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion – 'graduation' from the Human Evolutionary Level."
• Members left behind video farewell messages, in which witnesses noted they appeared calm, upbeat, and not distressed about their impending deaths.

📜 Beliefs & Background

• Heaven's Gate blended Christian eschatology, New Age beliefs, and science fiction, teaching that human bodies were mere temporary "containers" for souls destined for a higher alien existence.
• In 1975, Applewhite and Nettles convinced a group of 20 people from Oregon to abandon their families and possessions, promising an extraterrestrial spacecraft would take them to the "kingdom of heaven" — the ship never came.
• Members were required to sever all ties with friends and family.

🔁 Aftermath

• At least three former members died by suicide in the months following the mass event.
• On May 6, 1997, two former members attempted suicide in a hotel in a similar manner; one survived.
• The Heaven's Gate website remains active to this day, maintained by two surviving former members.
• A former member named Rio DiAngelo was the one who made the anonymous call to police and later spoke publicly about his time in the group.

Parts of this story were adapted for this platform with AI assistance. Our editorial team verifies all reporting across all platforms for fairness and accuracy.