The Press-Dispatch
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final days SEE B-5 FOR DETAILS BARGAIN PERIOD $ 4 OFF SPORTS B-1 LOCAL FOOTBALL BEGINS FAIR DAYS Wednesday, July 28, 2021 PIKE PUBLISHING VOluMe 151, nuMBeR 30 NEWS TIPS Phone: ���������������������812-354-8500 Email ����� editor@pressdispatch�net INSIDE Local ����������������� A1-8 Reunions ����������������A4 Sports �����������������B1-3 Obituaries ���������������B4 Church �������������� C1-4 East Gibson������������ C5 Classifieds �����������C6-7 History ������������������� C8 Home Life ������������D1-6 Summer Fun �����������D3 Opinion �������������D4-5 USPS 604-34012 $1.00 28 PaGes FOuR seCTIOns ThRee InseRTs PeTeRsBuRG, In 47567-0068 By Andy Heuring A former school board member and local business owner was found dead last week in his car on his own property. Jerry Grubb, 62, died last Tuesday, it is be- lieved of a heart problem, but was not found until several hours later. Pike County Coroner Ray Brooks said Grubb had gone to work at AES, formerly known as IPL, early in the morning, but at about 8:30 a.m., he wasn't feeling well and left work to go home. Brooks said Grubb had a history of cardi- ac trouble. "I believe he pulled into his drive- way, had a cardiac episode, then his car rolled through the yard into a creek or ravine," said Brooks. The car caught fire, but was not no- ticed until several hours later. Grubb's wife, Kathie, had been at work all day. She came home and became worried about him, and eventually noticed the top of the car in the ditch. Petersburg Fire Chief Ross Elmore said when they arrived, the fire was out and vehi- cle was cool to the touch so it had been sev- eral hours. Brooks said he is placing the time of death at about 9 a.m., which is about the time it would have taken Grubb to drive home from work. "My feeling is he was probably dead be- fore the fire," said Brooks. See obituary on page B-4. Grubb found dead in burned vehicle Fox trial gets underway By Andy Heuring Opening ceremonies for the 4-H Fair and the parade have been rescheduled to Wednes- day at 4 p.m. A predicted storm Sunday caused the cancellation of the parade, opening cere- monies and 100th anniversary reception. Instead of a parade down Main St., Peters- burg to the fairgrounds, the parade will be around midway of the paved loop of Horna- dy Park. Pike County Fair Board president Kara Willis said the parade will still feature former Miss Pike County Queens being driv- en by Timeless Classic Car Club members, 4-Hers, police and fire personnel. Line-up will be at the 4-H building and af- ter a lap, the parade will go into the auditori- um. Opening ceremonies will follow at 4:30 p.m. They will then have a reception in the 4- H Building at 5 p.m. The 4-H activities at Pike County's 100th 4- H Fair began on Saturday, when Libby Stone was named Miss Pike County. The fair will continue through Saturday night. There will be free rides on the midway Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Also during the fair, they will be taking food donations for the Indiana State Fair Cares Food Drive. The first 100 food donations will receive a ticket to the Indiana State Fair. The donated food will go to a local food pantry. WEDNESDAY, JULY 28 Free Family night is set for Wednesday night with one small change. There will be Red Dragon laser tag games and a cornhole tourney both starting at 5 p.m. All the activi- ties are free. Willis said it is just fun activities for families to be introduced to 4-H. The one change is the Goat Olympics are being moved to Thursday night. Also set for Wednesday is the rabbit show, and beef, dairy and sheep shows. THURSDAY, JULY 29 Carnival rides and amphitheater events start on Thursday. The featured event will be the X-treme Roughstock Rodeo at 7 p.m. An hour before the rodeo will be a family hour with horse and pony rides. Admission to the rodeo is $10. FRIDAY, JULY 30 A demolition derby is featured on Friday night starting at 7 p.m., as well as the live- stock auction. Sunday storm predictions force changes to fair schedule Online registration for Pike Coun- ty Schools starts today and in-per- son registration for Pike Coun- ty Schools starts as early as Mon- day for Pike Central High School and August 5 for the other schools. School officials are encouraging people to register online through the Harmony system. Below is spe- cific information about each school's registration. PETERSBURG ELEMENTARY Parents and students in grades Pre-K-5 are encouraged to com- plete the registration process online through Harmony. If in-person reg- istration is preferred, call the school in advance to schedule an appoint- ment. It is recommended that students who are new to the corporation complete registration in person on August 4, if possible. Call ahead to schedule an appointment. Pre- school and kindergarten students who came to roundup are not con- sidered brand new for registration purposes. Registration times at PES are: August 4 noon – 6 p.m. August 5 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. August 6 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. August 9 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. WINSLOW ELEMENTARY Parents and students in grades Pre-K-5 are encouraged to com- plete the registration process online through Harmony. If in-person reg- istration is preferred, call the school in advance to schedule an appoint- ment. August 5 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. August 6 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. August 9 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. PCMS Parents and students in grades 6 -8 are encouraged to complete the registration process online through Harmony. Families may schedule appointments to meet with the coun- selor or administrators if they have any questions. If possible, new stu- dents should register on Aug 5. August 5 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. August 6 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. August 9 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. PCHS Parents and students in grades 9 - 12 are encouraged to schedule ap- pointments to meet with the coun- selors, review course requests and schedules, and complete Harmony School registration begins today Stone crowned Miss Pike County Libby Stone has a tiara placed on her head as Miss Pike County 4-H Fair Queen 2021 by the previous queen Abigail Sutt. She was crowned Miss Pike County Sat- urday night. Stone is the daughter of Trent and Tracy Stone. She will represent Pike County at the Indiana State Fair. See additional photos on page A-7. Weathers' house destroyed by Thursday fire A Thursday night house fire destroyed the house of Craig and Nicole Weathers in the White Oak ar- ea. The Weathers were in St. Louis when the fire broke out. A neighbor noticed the smoke and found flames coming out of the eves. A fundraiser is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, August 1 at the Petersburg VFW to help the Weathers. See story on page A-3. See FAIR on page 2 See TRIAL on page 6 See REGISTER on page 6 By Janice Barniak The first day of the Edward Fox felony mur- der trial kicked off in the Pike Circuit Court with defense attorney Doug Walton request- ing a change of venue for his client, citing The Press-Dispatch coverage of the case, saying the jury would not have "courteous" impressions of his client based on the April 7 and July 21 articles. The request was denied. Fox is accused of murdering his estranged wife, Sharon Fox, on July 17, 2020. "What in the world do you want most? " asked prosecutor Darrin McDonald, before painting the picture of the defendant as a man who wanted things — a Mustang, a tractor, a house, a hot tub — but was on a streak of set- backs. The divorce would likely leave him with far less than half the assets as they'd been his wife's before marriage, he couldn't get his items from the house because his wife had a protective order against him, and finally, a Florida scam artist convinced him he'd won the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, eventually fleecing him for $29,000 in cash and $2,000 in Amazon gift cards. While his spouse lived in the $128,000 house, the accused was stuck in a $ 3,000 camper. While on paper his wife's assets to- taled $283,000 or more, his were closer to $10,000, despite his argument he'd made $100,000 worth of improvements to the fam- ily home. "Ed was going to come out with next to nothing," McDonald said. Fox had pulled about $150,000 of his retire- ment out to pay off a truck and a time share, and, if Sharon Fox was to be believed during her testimony requesting a protective order, he had gambled at least some of it away. "She says he battered her, he says he didn't," said McDonald. "This is not a case that revolves around one point in time." Normally their divorce would have been do- ne in March 2020, but COVID delayed pro- ceedings to Sept. 1 that year. According to McDonald, on June 7, Fox or- dered the first of two lockpicking sets. His or- der from online store Wish.com, however, had an estimated date of delivery weeks out. He responded with an all caps email to the retail- er telling them the order should arrive soon- er, McDonald said. He ordered a second set from Lockpick World, which would be deliv- ered July 10. "In early June, he was planning to get into the house, which we will prove beyond reason- able doubt he did," McDonald said. Then, in early July, Fox, despite a protection order prohibiting him from the property, ac- cidentally got his truck stuck on the dirt lane near the home in the middle of the night, and told friends he was out on the lane to cut fire- wood. A local farmer pulled his vehicle out and thought the event was odd enough to warrant taking a picture of it. Finally, Ed Fox called Central Dispatch re- questing a welfare check on his wife, saying his son, Robert, who has schizo-affective dis- order and normally talks to his mother daily, has not talked to her in four days. According to the prosecution, however, Rob- ert Fox had just lied to his father, saying he'd reached his mother by phone and she was fine, because he did not believe it was his father's business what his mother was doing during