Top 500 Stories

Photo for Headline Surfer / Dawn Marie Abraham, a married mother of five, lost her life under bizarre circumstances that remain unanswered more than four years later.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Because she couldn't afford to make the $150 bail at first appearance following her April 8, 2009 misdemeanor DUI arrest, a 41-year-old Ormond Beach woman she spent six days locked up in the Volusia County branch jail.

The tragic circumstances of Dawn Marie Abraham's death, comes in at No. 483 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the Top 500 Stories as part of the 24/7 internet newspaper's 5th anniversary.

Photos for Headline Surfer / Conservative Republican Jim Oddie of Wilbur-by-the-Sea, poses with Wisconsin Congressman and Romney VP Paul Ryan.

THE VILLAGES -- Volusia County conservative Republican stalwart Jim Oddie let Paul Ryan know during his campaign stop in The Villages in August 2012 that Floridians support the R & R ticket.

That's Romney and Ryan, of course.

The Wilbur-by-the-Sea resident not only interacted with Ryan Saturday, but with Mitt Romney himself, along with Gov. Scott, on Monday in St. Augustine.

Oddie's interaction with the GOP big wigs comes in at No. 484 in Headline Surfer's Top 500 countdown of the biggest stories in Volusia County as part of Headline Surfer's 5th anniversary.

Video produced by Multimedia Editor Serafina Frederick / Gene Emter speaks with Headline Surfer after being sworn in March 5, 2012, as the newest member of the Edgewater City Council following his win in a special election a week earlier to fill the seat opened with the passing of Ted Cooper.

EDGEWATER -- By a mere dozen votes, Gene Emter was elected to the Edgewater City Council in a Feb. 28, 2012, special election. Only 7 percent of the city's nearly 13,600 registered voters cast votes in the special election.

Councilman Joseph Perrone's is Volusia County poster boy for why every vote counts after his 1-vote margin of victory in the 2012 primary elections.

PONCE INLET -- Two races from the August primary went unchanged after recounts.

Ponce Inlet Town Councilman Joseph Perrone won re-election over Joe Villanella by one vote, a manual recount confirmed three days  after the Aug. 14 primary. The 1-vote margin in his favor remained the same, 609 to 608 over upstart Villanella.

The narrowest of vote totals for Perrone's primary victory comes in at No. 489 in Headline Surfer's countown of the Top 500 stories as part of the 24/7 internet newspaper's 5th anniversary.

In another race requiring a recount, Shannon McLeish of Ormond Beach held onto her 27-voter margin over third-place finisher Jay Young for the right to go against Volusia County Council Council dist 4 primary primary winner Doug Daniels in the Nov. 6 runoff. Daniels, however, would win that final race.

EDGEWATER, Fla. -- Local gal Tia McDonald, who has travelled quite a bit in her young modeling career, including a spot in an MTV music video shoot, was in Australia in early 2012, where she took part in the making of a book, "Fairy Tale -- Once Upon a Time, Act 1," by Somsay Toumngeun.

Headline Surfer photos by Serafina Frederick / These photos, taken in 2008 on New Smyrna Beach, are indicative of the array of birds on the beaches of Central Florida.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Researchers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission received reports of more than 150 dead or distressed greater shearwaters, gull-like birds, along Florida’s east coast in Brevard, Indian River, St. Johns and Volusia counties in mid-June 2012.

After examining some of the birds, researchers believe these deaths are related to stress from the species’ long, trans-Atlantic migration, following reports of the situation over a week's time.

Headline Surfer photo by Serafina Frederick / New Smyrna Beach City Commissioner Jason McGuirk is shown at far left on a city fire truck with Mayor Adam Barringer during the 2012 Christmas parade, less than a month after he was sworn into office. McGuirk became a city commissioner-elect in June when no one else qualified for the position while he kept a law profile, which he continues to do.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Like a game off dominoes, soft ice cream maven Jason McGuirk announced his candidacy in September 2011 as the heir-apparent to zone 3 City Commissioner Jim Hathaway who had earlier announced he was running for the 2012 election for the dist. 3 seat on the Volusia County Council.

Headline Surfer videos  / Mike Catchings of Lake Mary was the lone biker in the empty lot at Pub 44 as opening night of Biketoberfest 2011 came to a sad conclusion. The local Cheapthrills Band plays a Chris Isaak '80s classic, "Wicked Game," to a handful of bikers earlier in the evening at the bar.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Biketoberfest 2011 was quieter than a lawn mower on the first night of the four-day weekend at what was soon to be an extinct Pub 44. Just after midnight there were three Harleys in the parking lot and one bicycle.

2010's Biketoberfest recession was 2011's depression, at least through the first 24 hours at what for the last couple of decades or so has been the ground zero in Southeast Volusia for bikers, babes and booze.

Headline Surfer graphic / A topless woman interrupting traffic at the intersection of South Orange and West Euclid avenues, as shown here at left in this snapshot locator map, was taken into custody in the bizarre incident back in April 2008.

DeLAND -- Motorists in the vicinity of a well-travelled certainly got an eyeful on a mid-April morning five years ago, when traffic flow was interrupted by a woman walking around topless, DeLand cops said.

Police received a number of calls about the 30-year-old woman's state of undress at the intersection South Orange and West Euclid avenues during the mid-morning hours of April 18, 2008. 

Police received a number of calls about the 30-year-old woman's state of undress at the intersection South Orange and West Euclid avenues during the mid-morning hours of April 18, 2008.