It is with sadness that we confirm the death of our Chief Creative Officer, Brandon Haskins (1988-2010).

Brandon was fatally shot today during the abduction of his younger brother, 7-year-old Zane Bedinger. Thankfully, Zane has now been found and is safe with police in Indiana. There is no word on his stepfather, Jeff Bedinger who shot Brandon around 4pm today.

It is my belief from what I know of Brandon's character and love of family, that he died a hero protecting his brother.

Brandon Haskins was a naturally talented designer and business entreprenuer. He designed all of our current publications. We are thankful for his talent that helped build Clay Bridges Publishing into a successful small business.

The last thing Brandon and I did today, was discuss our excitement over the design of our two upcoming publications. Brandon loved what he did and was always witty, faithful, and sassy. A wordsmith in his own right, Twitter and Facebook statuses will not be the same without his often brilliantly written quips. I'll leave you with a few of his recent ones.

Twitter:

Happy birthday, America. You don't look a day over 200.

In "Back to the Future," Doc sets DeLorean clock to a day 25 years in the future. Today is that day. But still no flux capacitor.

Concerned I won't be able to fit it all in, I'm going to start sweating now in preparation of tomorrow's heatwave.

Turns out the process used for making sun tea does not work equally well for making eggnog.

HIs last Facebook image wall post said, "Life is too short, do something that matters." We should all take a note.