The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1471951
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, June 29, 2022 A-3 Backpack Buddies is a program designed to help children throughout Pike County receive free sacks of food and snacks for over the summer. The saying "Many hands make light work," came to mind as students, teachers, staff, retired teachers, principals, school board members, and community members worked together at the old Petersburg gym to pack 1,800 sacks of food for the Backpack Buddy program. Backpack Buddies help feed kids By Sherri Sebella News Editor sherri@pressdispatch.net Backpack Buddies is a program designed to help children throughout Pike County receive free sacks of food and snacks for over the summer. The saying, "Many hands make light work," came to mind as students, teachers, staff, retired teachers, princi- pals, school board members, and community members worked together at the old Petersburg gym to pack 1,800 sacks of food for the Backpack Buddy program. This wonderful resource is for all children, 18 years of age and younger. Pick up loca- tions for the summer include the back of the old Peters- burg gym, Winslow Elemen- tar y, Jordan Memorial Park in Spurgeon, the Community Center parking lot in Stendal, and the Otwell Miller Acade- my Community Center park- ing lot. This program will continue in July to carr y children into the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year. "There is such a huge group of volunteers, that I do not want to leave any- one out," Christine Waddell, teacher for Pike County School Corporation, said. "We packed 1800 lunches in one hour." Those interested in receiv- ing food, may contact the Pike County School Corporation at 812-354-8731. ald. "There have been things about the data they have giv- en us that makes us question if it is 100 percent accurate, or if we understand it. Some data appears to be one hour off," said McDonald. He said investigators know where the phones that they are checking, were at a loca- tion at a certain time, but the data from Google appears to have the phones there one hour different than what in- vestigators know or think they know. "You can check where peo- ple are with sur veillance cam- eras. We wanted to make sure we could trust ever ything they have given us is accurate. We are in the process of going back and checking on that. Some info appears to not be accurate and we haven't been able to get direct input from Google," said McDonald. That doesn't mean the case is going nowhere. He said they have also done traditional investigation work, inter viewing 25 to 30 people to date. "I know a lot more about the forensics at the scene and the way the wreck would have happened. . . .So we have de- veloped a better understand- ing of the scene," said McDon- ald. There were other technolo- gy problems as well. McDon- ald said there is no body cam- era footage of the scene and they only have the first 75 to 80 seconds of the original 911 call, that spanned almost 19 minutes. McDonald said it was lost through a technical snafu no one can explain. He also said when the origi- nal call came in, it first was for an emergency medical situa- tion instead of a hit-and-run. At the same time there was a domestic dispute happening and several police were divert- ed to that location. "We don't quite on it, we re- group and tr y again. Wecome back and look at it from a dif- ferent perspective," said Mc- Donald. "We have had some help from the public with tips that have been helpful." He said it is possible some- one saw something that night in town or near the scene and it didn't seem to them to be relevant. But it may it be," said McDonald. He urged anyone with any- thing to call sheriff's depart- ment to report if they saw something even if they think it isn't relevant. "We are going to keep the investigation open. I'm still talking to people about it. It has been frustrating. This is a travesty that should have never happened to anyone. We will do anything we can to get this resolved," said Mc- Donald. Loveless said he was willing to separate for the night, but Sgt. Simmons said Loveless tested more than twice the legal limit for blood alcohol content on a portable breath test, so he couldn't drive. Loveless told police he had messaged a friend to come get him, but it would be a while, and asked if he could walk around. Sgt. Simmons said he could as long as he didn't get into the street. About two hours later at 1:25 a.m. 911 got another call from Curtis saying Loveless had set the house on fire. Officer Deffendoll said she and Simmons responded to the call and found the southeast corner of the house on fire, and Loveless was there trying to stomp the fire out. Deffendoll said Sgt. Simmons used a fire extinguisher from his patrol car to put out the fire. While Simmons was putting out the fire, Deffendoll went into the house to get Curtis and her two children out of the house. Loveless told police he didn't know the house was on fire and he didn't do it. According to the affidavit ,Curtis told Sgt. Simmons that Loveless had returned to the residence and wanted to apolo- gize to her, but he started rais- ing his voice and she told him to leave. She said shortly after that she smelled gasoline and went to the window and "watched Loveless set the house on fire." In the affidavit, Sgt. Simmons said he found a BIC lighter in the passenger seat of a van parked in the driveway and there was a fresh smell of gasoline and a gas can in the van. Loveless told police he had that gas for about two months and had used it to put gas in the van. When police further ques- tioned Curtis about the incident, she said Loveless came back to the house and calmly to her door and apologized and she let him in to have a conversation. But during the conversation he asked her about another man and she admitted having relations with that man "years ago." She said Loveless became angry again and she asked him to leave. Curtis said later she smelled gasoline so she went to the window and saw Loveless there holding lighter and "then he lit the gasoline," states the af- fidavit. She described the lighter as a large red, green and yellow BIC lighter. She added, Loveless was at the front door and she was un- sure of what he would do to her. Police went to the Hucks store nearby and talked with the man- ager, who said she was sitting outside the Hucks smoking and saw Loveless walking with a gas can from First St. and he went to gas pump 6, left the can there and then came into the store "cover- ing his face with his shirt." Police pulled the surveillance video. According to the affidavit it shows the sequence described by the manager and then showed Loveless fill the gas can and walk away toward First St. in the direction of his residence a few blocks away at 1 a.m. According to the affidavit, during questioning by police Loveless said he was unable to remember purchasing the gas and only remembered trying to "stomp out" the fire. He was taken into custody. A level 1 felony carries an ad- visory sentence of 30 years with a range of 20 to 40 years. Love- less is being held on a $500,000 bond in the Pike County Jail. CHARGE Continued from page 1 FATAL Continued from page 1 Call: 812-354-8500 Email: news@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. 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