ABILENE, Texas (BigCountryHomepage.com) – It’s our second edition of Big Country Beat, a new segment in partnership across news departments from web to TV with both KTAB and KRBC news. This week, breaking news led web traffic.
This week’s top 5 in BCH’s Big Country Beat weekly countdown

Unfortunately, the Big Country isn’t exactly stranger to inmate escape reports. While Angela Trueblood only had about 20 minutes of freedom, it was what she wore in her mugshot that got people’s attention on Facebook.
- 2. Coleman County man dies in ATV crash with teen girl
- 3. Police: Tire issues cause van to rollover on I-20 in Abilene, 15-year-old ejected
- 4. Police: Man shot & killed after forcing his way into Cisco home, assaulting occupants
- 5. Indicted: Cisco man accused of kidnapping Abilene pre-teens, running over mother who tried to save them
Although the five stories above were the true top five this week, we wanted to focus on something other than death and destruction. So, here are our other featured top stories of the week:

It’s interesting how some stories seem to stick out among the rest, isn’t it? KRBC’s Annabelle Tuggle reported last week about a potential buyer possibly saving a million-dollar house in Abilene.
A large home has been sitting in the Vaquero Ranch neighborhood, unfinished, for almost three years. In a Board of Building Standards meeting on Tuesday, July 5, an attorney announced that a new owner – an entity called Speedy Sell Estates, LLC – could be its saving grace.
The board bought some time by tabling further discussion of demolition for a month, in hopes of a contract going through.

South of Downtown Abilene, best known as the SoDA District, is being revamped once again. What was, up until very recently, Moose Mountain Coffee will soon be a bed and breakfast. Plus, another bed and breakfast is set to go up soon, too. That’s in addition to a multi-faceted home goods store.

The owner of an Abilene scrapyard said a car exploded when he was moving it Tuesday afternoon, causing a large fire in a pile of junk.
Investigators said, “the property owner was on scene and stated that he was moving scrap cars with his crane when one of the vehicles ‘exploded’ after he dropped it on the pile.”