♪ >> live from center city in philadelphia this is fox 29 news at 11. right now at 11, big mystery tran much dee in south philadelphia has got some neighbors on edge tonight. family members of an 81-year-old woman are desperate for answers after someone murdered her this holiday weekend. i'm iain page. that elderly victim died behind the counter of the grocery store she owned for the past 14 years. let's get out to shawnette wilson at philadelphia police headquarters. shawnette this murder has really shane the community. >> reporter: it certainly has. you know, the family obviously is stunned. tonight they gathered at the victim's home just a few doors away from the store she own. >> it's inconceivable. because she just -- she always had a big smile when you walk in

the door. what can i help you with? joking with you. >> reporter: flowers, candles and handwritten notes pile up on the steps of marie's grocery store on south sixth street in south philly. it's where someone gunned down the owner, 81-year-old marie buck, christmas eve. >> it's been very rough on the family. we sort of don't know what's up or what's down at the moment. >> reporter: angela smith describes the agonizing pain she feels over the loss of her aunt. investigators say someone shot buck several times as she stood behind the counter. she's owned the place 44 years. >> neighbors stopped by to remember the woman who they call a saint. >> it's a sad thing. she was a very nice lady, too. >> hurting like if your mother died, your father or your children, you know, some words can't be said. >> reporter: also a mystery to the family they tell us whoever did this didn't take anything. iain, back to you.

>> tragic, shawnette, thanks. developing now the search for missing family members. you recognize them? this great-grandmother and great granddaughter went missing on christmas eve. police say 71-year-old barbara riley and five-year-old lamyra were on their way from mace lanning new jersey to north carolina to visit family. they were last seen at a exxon gas station in luther glenn, virginia. >> barbara driving a silver toyota suv. >> meteorologist mike masco here with your forecast first at 11. >> bottom line it's mild temperatures. we're look at 10, 15 degrees warmer than where we should be for at this time of the night. 49 degrees that's actually above average for afternoon highs and we are looking at a southwestern wind bringing in between 15 to 20 miles an hour bringing in all the mild air from the south. so look at your numbers in response to that wind. 50 in atlantic city. millville 49. the cooler sports towards the north and west into the upper lehigh valley.

phoenixville holding on to the 40 with this wind coming in we'll see much milder temperatures. so even the lehigh valley you'll find yourself into the lower and middle 50's. visibilities down to the north. pottstown, allentown reporting quarter to around 1 mile visibility the next thee hours will stay pretty foggy before the winds kind of push around the fog and allow fort visibilities to improve. ultimate doppler showing us out to the west. scatter the ad showers an thunderstorm out there. that's a cold front that's going to bring much cooler air before it comes through here, look at your numbers. pittsburgh is the 65 degrees at this hour. so a lot of mild stuff across the ohio valley down across the tennessee valley this will continue to push up from south to north. but in its wake we are seeing much colder temperatures where it's into the single digits and teens. fox future cast will show us middle and upper 50s at 8:00 o'clock in the morning. scattered shower will be out there. we'll get up to around 60 degrees. that front slices through here and by wednesday, we're looking at a day that will be spent into the lower 30s and up towards the

north and middle 40s in town. much cooler weather expected by the middle of this week. by thursday that's when we'll watch a storm system off our coastline does it develop if it does develop we could could be talking about addressing the idea of a rain/snow mixture accumulations definitely too early to be called, but north and west higher elevations these are some of the spots that may pick up maybe a couple of inches if this storm matures. we'll have to watch that closely. 59 degrees your afternoon highs tomorrow. wow. upper 40s to around 50 degrees. 61 down to 45 degrees on wednesday. thursday transition back over to rain and even a snow mixture at 45. but nine comfortable day on friday seasonably speaking 41 degrees. and by next week new year's eve if you have big plans, i know iain does, 40 degrees into the 30s at night f you're going to the mummers parade upper 40s your daytime highs. sue serio will be back 4am to update that storm on thursday.

that's what we'll be watching. iain. >> mike, thanks. >> i am off new year's eve. don't start your day without the fox 29 weather app. get weather alerts and live ray dan or i don't know phone available for apple and android devices. philadelphia police are on the hunt for whoever shot and critically wound add man in the city's nicetown neighborhood. police say the 52-year-old man was shot on the 3800 block of north bowyer street around 11:30 last night. someone drove the man to temple university hospital where he is still in critical condition. investigators are not saying anything about a possible motive right now and investigators are not sharing the identity of the victim. a twitter post sparking a debate today about what exactly a local university professor was trying to say in a christmas eve tweet. was it racist, for now the university is not defensing him. fox 29's brad sattin is live tonight on the campus of drexel university with more on the tweet and the backlash it brought. brad. >> reporter: there is some backlash here, iain on the surface you have a white drexel

university associate professor who made some comments that some deem as racist. on his twitter feed. some online are calling for his firing. others though say he's an expert in race relations and the tweet was simply misunderstood. was eight racist tweet or one that has many simply missing the point? it was exposed by the conservative online publication bright bart says drexel university associate professor of politics george sick roll low ma her reported to have tweeted all i want for christmas is white genocide. taken at face value coming from white faculty member it sounds outrageous and some students agree. >> kind of a pretty messed up way to state whatever he was trying to state. i don't think that's okay. >> reporter: drexel responding that the comments are utley... in and e-mail to fox 29 he explained he quote sent a is satirical tweet about imaginary

concept white genocide for those who haven't bothereed to their research white genocide is an idea invented by white supremacist a figment. racist imagination it should have been mocked and i'm glad to have mocked it. some students understood. >> i understand where he's coming from. i think a lot of whites are complacent about white supremacy and i think that he was right to make a point about it. >> reporter: now in his e-mail he sent to me he says he has been getting death threats in the last 24 or so hours. the university is planning to have a conversation with him in the coming days. they say, iain torque get to the bottom of it. >> all right, brad, thank you. incredible story of survival for one lehigh valley woman and her family. 46-year-old karen klein, her husband and 10-year-old son were on their way to the grand canyon they got stranded on some snow covered roads. mrs. klein got out of the car

and walked 26 miles to try and get help. searchers found her in a cabin saturday. two days after she began that trek. she's now recovering from utah hospital. her son and husband are okay. it's the day after christmas and you can imagine malls one of the busiest places if you were out there today. we were at the cherry hill mall look at those crowds. they flocked there for deals and discounts. the post holiday shopping frenzy well under way. some people we talked to didn't waste any time using gift cards they got as presents. other shoppers headed to the stores to return unwanted gifts or just to treat themselves. >> i got load of gift cards. i got h and m, foot locker all of them. so, you know, the normal 21-year-old gifts now a days. no more kiddie presents. >> spending gift cards and shopping for my self now. >> we're all getting for ourselves. we bought everybody else's gift and i know now i'm treating myself. >> you have a gift you don't want. we've got tips hahn you can get cash for it.

head to our website fox29.com. a four leg christmas mystery in winslow township, new jersey. a local farm animal stealing the spotlight from santa's reindeer. fox 29' is that so bean in a kuriakose tells us how a police department brightened the holiday for a lot of goat. >> reporter: rosco the billy goat spent christmas eve on the lamb. breaking out of his pen on a winslow township farm. he was spotted by a policeman and brought to the station in a police cruiser. no cuffs for the record. >> patrolman austin schmidt says the department took a likely to the friendly little guy. put rosco up in a small shelter outside retired officer stopped by with feed and hay. this they knew was an up usual case. >> i've got this goat right now. >> it was christmas after all. >> feel like everybody needs a home around christmas. >> winslow police posted this photo of rosco on facebook asking volunteers to take in the abandoned goat. responsives poured in and rosco a name be stowed by officer

schmidt is now in good hands. alone no more with new friends including thee donkeys and even some good looking lady goats to keep him company. looks like life is good. >> happy ending. >> yes. happy ending. >> just to give you some perspective, this is the pen that rosco spent the last couple of days in. it's not so bad considering he was homeless, but the police department is much happier he is now back on a farm and among friends. the owner of the farm tells me that rosco is healthy and doing well. in winslow township, sabina kuriakose fox 29 news. all right. you did your shopping, you wrapped everything and tore open the packages. one retailer says wait a minute, don't throw everything out just yet. who wants those empty boxes. >> it's hank i'm here with frankie and nick were the spruce street video. they're massive fans of george michael. the british icon passed away yesterday. we'll talk about what it all means in just a minute.

>> millions of americans are celebrating the start of kwanzaa today. kwanzaa focuses on seven principals. each day holiday honors different one. during the week a light lit. this the 50 many anniversary of the holiday. ♪

♪ >> in burlington county, new jersey maple shade police need your help finding this pair. investigators say the two tried to use a credit card that had been stolen from someone's car. the surveillance pictures from a wawa on route 73 and police say the two tried to use the card christmas morning n your money you ripped open all the christmas packages but you might want to think twice about throwing amazon boxes you have. amazon has way for to you put those boxes to good use. you can recycle them and clear out clutter at the same time. online retailer come up with the give back box program. you can use those boxes to ship clothing and other stuff to goodwill for free. all you have to do is print a shipping label at give back box.com and it won't cost i was thing.

if you drive at home from holiday vacatio veigh may want l up in new jersey or delaware. according to gas buddy.com average cost of gas is ringing in at $2 and 29 cents. here in pennsylvania you're looking at 2.46 a gallon. prices are sun 17 cents from this time last month. now to seattle washington where a generous and anonymous donor made christmas unforgettable for homeless people and they did it with steak. someone donated 3500 pounds of thick rib eye steaks to the union gospel mission for its christmas meal. the unique and generous gift turned into many christmas dinners for those in need to the holidays. the mission runs on donations but no one has donated like this before. >> about 80% of the meals we serve are supplemented through donations. this is above and beyond and something really really special for christmas. it's awesome. you can get meal like this at a homeless shelter. i mean who does that? >> the steaks go for about 10

bucks a pound someone spent about $35,000 for these amazing meals. happening right now the world is mourning a pop icon. fans and celebrities are paying their respects to george micha michael. news of the british pop star's death broke christmas day and many fans are in shock and disbelief and stopping by his home in england to leave flowers and notes. michael first rows to inn national stardom in the 1980s as part of the team do you woe wham singer later achieved award winning success as solo artist earning album of year grammy for faith in 1989. he sold more than 100 million albums. michael said to have died of heart failure. he was 83 -- 53. tonight -- ♪ tonight hang's take is hank is remembering the legacy of george michael. he became a pop icon put impact went way further than just his music. he became someone for the lgbt community to look up to. here's fox 29's hank flynn with

more. report ♪ if you listen to the words of all his songs kind of was, you know, little ahead of himself. ♪ >> reporter: fran see price used time% george michael he had that kind of appeal. >> i loved his music even guess i wanted to be george michael. >> reporter: it happened that way a lot with george michael the english super star who died christmas day at age 53. franny wants spruce street on 12th a gay video sure and she works with george who became a george michael believer. >> my best friend was obsessed while walk out of there it was a phenomenal show. i walk out of there a fan. ♪ >> reporter: michael was a massive star. his big sole full voice, his style and sometimes edgy sex appeal gave him worldwide fame

his public struggles with drug abuse and sexuality gave him humility that evades some performers. his 1998 arrest. people could relate. >> he was intertwined with that. his struggles were, you know, public. whereas ours may -- mine and other people's weren't necessarily but it was, upping, you definitely relate to do th that. >> he did everything with, you know, millions of eyes on him. that takes lot of courage. >> reporter: paid a visit is a samantha at lingerie lilly a lynn jr. ray shop in the gayborhood. ♪ >> reporter: the way she see it michaels was figuring him zest out through his work. >> he didn't hide behind this style but he help his style to accept himself and others accept him for who he was. ♪

>> reporter:. >> that's true. i know he came out at the time when people were not acceptin ag of gay people at all at that time. he was just a really nice guy. does. >> reporter: anthony runs nuts and bolts boutique on spruce street that caters to gay men. first of all anthony loves madonna he wants to make that clear. but he says that michaels work started out so with the band wham became not stylish but trend setting and he'll miss the music. ♪ >> when i'm looking at him as performer and when i'm looking at the fact he will no longer be anything, um, that's upsetting i mean it's upsetting when robin williams died. when, you know, we've lost so many famous people this year. it's been intense. ♪ >> reporter: here here. prince, i still can't deal with that one. david bowie, leonard cohen forget it i just hope we can get out of this week and into next year without losing another great performer. >> ♪ >> rest in peace, george micha

michael. thanks for the good stuff. i'm hank and that's my take. sean bell here now with preview what he's talking about in his commentary tonight. >> as you know there's a million bowl games which is probably a million too many. i'll tell you why i hate bowl games and why this shows a larger problem in sports. that's comin coming up next in y sports commentary.

♪ >> sean bell takes on the fact that there are just too many bowl games and too much

immediate crotty. ♪ these bowl games are a joke. i've said it before. but i'm going to say it again. you have a bunch of teams playing terrible games that don't deserve to be there. like today. you had mississippi state playing miami ohio. mississippi state went five and seven during the regular season and the rest of the teams that played today went six and six. that's what they do now. we reward teams and people for being average i'm just sick of it i know i'm about to send incentive right now but i don't care. this is the equivalent of giving kids participation awards. which is a joke also you get no love for losing being average or just participating. that's not how life is.

that's now how sports works. you only get trophies and get to play in post season play for being a winner. you either win or take your butt home and get better. take the participation awards out of sports and get rid of these garbage bowl games. >> iain? >> all right, sean thank you. actress cary fisher still in the hospital after what's being called a cardiac episode during a flight from long don to los angeles last week. fisher is now in stable condition. her mother debbie reynolds posted update on twitter asking everyone for their prayers. fisher best known for her role as principal says lea in star wars much she's now 60 years of age. wow! >> i know, right. well, we got a final quick look at weather. >> don't blink. you'll miss the 60s tomorrow. >> i don't want to do that. >> brief window and that's it back to reality. much colder by wednesday. 45 degrees. now thursday don't get excited if you're a big snow guru because i don't think this system will be very white but a lot of wet more as we get into

thursday night and friday and cooler as we get into next weekend. if you have big plans i know you two, social butterflies i'm sure you got big plans saturday night. we'll be fine. theirs it could be whole lot colder this time of the year. 30s for new year's eve. new year's eve mummers parade looks pretty good. >> i am off new year's eve. >> there you go. >> i'll be home probably by 11:00 o'clock. >> go wild. >> yeah. >> i work 8:00 a.m. on sunday. >> i'm still going to get it in. but still -- >> there you go. >> coffee and you'll be all right. more entertainment news coming up on fox 29. tmz and dish nation and stay tuned for chasing news followed by the simpsons. we're back here at 4:00 a.m. for fox 29 morning news and "good day philadelphia". the good day team will have your morning weather and traffic covered all morning long. thanks for watching. have a goo

and good morning, happening right now on fox 29 morning news a local great grandmother and granddaughter are now missing after setting off to visit family. we will tell you compactly where they were heading. plus, pleading for answers and a 81 year-old grocery store owner gunned town inside of her store on christmas eve morning. now her family wants your help to get the gun man off the streets. also ahead this morning a holiday tweet by a local college professor has gone viral for all of the wrong reasons. what students are saying this morning about one of their teachers. unaudible. >> that is inside a mall, lots of bad behavior,