The Press-Dispatch
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Local ........ A1-12 Sports .........B1-5 History ........... B6 Classifi eds .. B8-10 Church ........C1-3 Home Life....C4-8 Obituaries....... C8 School...... C9-10 Gibson ... C11-12 WHAT'S INSIDE: CONNECT WITH US: NetEdition ...pressdispatch.net/edition Facebook.....facebook.com/pressdispatch E-Mail .........news@pressdispatch.net Phone:.................. 812-354-8500 Fax: ...................... 812-354-2014 E-Mail . editor@pressdispatch.net NEWS TIPS: PIKE PUBLISHING See REVIEW on page 2 See MARTINEZ on page 2 $ 1 Three sections Four inserts 36 pages Wednesday, December 27, 2017 Volume 148 Number 52 Phone (812) 354-8500 Petersburg, IN 47567-0068 (USPS 604-34012) Early copy deadlines due to New Year's Due to the New Year's holiday, co- py deadlines will be moved up. News and advertising should be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday to insure publi- cation in the January 3 edition. The deadline for classified advertising will still be noon Tuesday. The staff thanks you in advance for all your help with these dead- lines. Another year has come and gone. This is a review of the news in Pike County during the first six months of 2017. Watch next week's issue for the second six months review. JANUARY • A burn pile blown by strong winds set a vacant Winslow house on fire. Don But- ler, who owned the house at the corner of Third and Factory streets, said that he was tearing the house down and was burning some debris from the house when strong winds blew the fire toward the structure and caught it on fire. • Pike Central High School graduate Zach Riddle appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The previous July, Rid- dle traveled to Las Vegas, where the show was filmed, with two family members and two friends. Riddle, the son of Dan and Jen- nifer Deen, was selected following an open audition in Shelbyville. • Fishing net maker Larry Haycraft, of Petersburg, was featured on Handcrafted America, a nationally syndicated show on the INSP network. Haycraft, 53, learned the craft of hand-making fishing nets from his father, Roy Haycraft. • The Pike Central High School boys' basketball team defeated host North Da- viess 48 -42 to claim third-place honors in the 11th annual Graber Post Buildings Clas- sic. The Chargers had opened with a 66 - 41 victory over Clay City before dropping a 67-60 loss to Barr-Reeve in the semifi- nals of the winners' bracket. It was the third straight appearance in the GPB Classic by Pike Central, which placed seventh in 2014 and second in 2015. • The Pike County Commission re- aligned and made appointments to a long list of boards. Brian Davis was re-elected President and Jeff Nelson was re-elected Vice-President. The commissioners ap- pointed retired Pike Central teacher Don- na (Dyer) Wallace to the Pike County Li- brary Board. Kyle Adams and Jim Shoultz were appointed to the Board of Review as well as the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals. Ed Schuessler and Jesse Nixon were appointed to the Patoka Fire District board. Charles Barr was appointed to the Tri-Cap board. Rick Shoultz was appoint- ed to the Park and Recreation Board. Ed- die Joe Boyd, Mike Goodpaster and Bri- an Davis were appointed to the Region 15 board. Nelson was appointed the commis- sioner representative on the Pike Coun- ty Economic Development Council. Ron Sharp was appointed to the Child Protec- tion Team Board. • Pike County's Kaylee Gray was named fourth runner-up in the Miss Indiana State Fair Queen pageant. Gray, the daughter of Mike and Angie Gray, of Velpen, was crowned Miss Pike County in July. Accord- ing to Miss Pike County director Abigail Vinnedge, Gray was only the third Miss Pike County in the 68 -year history of the local pageant to be named as a runner-up at the State Fair. • The Pike County School Corporation's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to re- ject a proposal to "discuss, agree and exe- cute the sale of property" to a group that was seeking to establish a charter school in Otwell. The action occurred after Friends of Otwell Elementary, Ltd., president Mike Houtsch announced that his organization was interested in purchasing property ad- jacent to the former Otwell Elementary School building. A motion by board sec- retary Ron Sharp, stating that the school board had no interest in continuing dis- cussions with Friends of Otwell Elemen- tary, Ltd., for the sale of land adjacent to the former Otwell Elementary School build- ing, was seconded by board member Steve Potter. • A 20 -year-old and two juveniles were arrested after a weekend of driving around shooting lights, mailboxes and a dog. Lo- gan B. Colby, 20, of 304 W. Walnut St., Pe- tersburg, and two of his juvenile friends were arrested after police responded to a 2017: The year in review A Pike Central senior has been named the recipient of a four-year, full-tuition scholarship as the Pike County Commu- nity Foundation 2018 Lilly Endowment Community Scholar. Adam Martinez will receive full tuition to the Indiana College of his choice and a $ 900 yearly stipend for his required books and equipment. Adam is the son of Martin and Francis Martinez, of Petersburg, and is a senior at Pike Central High School. He has excelled academically throughout his high school career. Martinez has been an active mem- ber of Pike Central marching band, jazz band, pep band and winter percussion, also giving his time to mentor young band mem- bers. During the last four years, he has al- so been involved in Spanish Club, Nation- al Honor Society and BPA. He has not de- cided which school to attend but intends to study mathematics and become an actuary. Pike County students applied for the scholarship through the Pike County Com- munity Foundation and the 2018 application process began in August. Twelve applica- tions were scored on a variety of factors, in- cluding academic performance, communi- ty service, school activities, work activities and financial need. The scoring was com- pleted by a volunteer scholarship commit- tee made up of dedicated individuals from throughout the county. Based on the infor- mation gleaned from the applications, the committee narrowed down to five the num- ber of students to be interviewed. In announcing the award, David Flint, chairman of the Pike County Communi- ty Foundation's Scholarship Committee, thanked his committee for the great job they did in reviewing the applications and selecting the candidate. Flint remarked, "Every year, the job just gets more diffi- cult," he added, "It is wonderful to see how many students are well prepared for the ad- venture in front of them." When the local committee completed its Martinez named Lilly Scholar By Andy Heuring A rural Petersburg man, who apparent- ly became overwhelmed by his conscience, turned himself into police last week and confessed to numerous child molestations. Jeremy Bell, 42, of rural Petersburg, had his mother drive him to the Pike County Sheriff's Department last Tuesday night. He asked to speak to police. Petersburg Police Cpl. Scott Wright told the Pike Circuit Court during a probable cause hearing, Bell said, "I want to turn myself in." Wright said he asked Bell if there was a warrant out for him. Bell replied, "I'm a child molester." "It was a little unexpected," said Wright. Wright said this led to a four-hour in- terview of Bell. During the interview, Cpl. Wright said Bell appeared sober and was coherent, but was obviously upset. Wright said Bell told him his conscience was both- ering him. "He said he, 'thought about it all the time.'" Wright told the court Bell then told him about three instances when he had molest- ed young girls. The first one was a girl who was five years old at the time and was be- lieved to have been born in 1992. Wright said Bell went into detail about taking the young girl into a bedroom and molesting her. He was able to give details of the loca- tion and close to the date. The other two instances he was not able to provide as many details. Wright said at times Bell talked about voices he was hearing. However, Wright said he seemed lucid and able to remem- ber details. During the interview, he said Bell cried while talking about the molestations. He said one of the molestations took place when he was dating the girl's mother. Another one happened when he was just 17 years old and the victim, he thought, was four years old. Pike County Prosecutor Darrin McDon- ald told the court they were concerned he probably had molested more girls than he told them about. "There is no way to know if there is more at the time without further investigation," said McDonald. He said, Wright "absolutely is a danger to society." McDonald said Bell even told po- lice during the interviews he "was a danger." Pike Circuit Court Judge Jeff Biesterveld found probable cause on a charge of child molesting, a Class A felony, and set bond at $250,000. Because the alleged crimes took place at least eight years ago, Bell was charged un- der the Indiana Code at that time instead of the new system. McDonald said Bell gave names of the victims. He said they believe those names are of actual girls. He said they were at- tempting to locate the girls, now adults. "When we talked to Mr. Bell, he indicat- ed there were probably more things. We are trying to piece together what happened. It would be beneficial if people who have in- formation about molestations contact our office or the Indiana State Police, so we can get can a clear and accurate picture of what happened," said McDonald. The Pike Coun- ty Prosecutor's Office can be reached at 812-354-8761. The Indiana State Police can be contacted at 800 -852-3970. McDonald said the case is going to pres- ent challenges to prosecute and investigate, because most of them took place so long ago. The investigation has been turned over to Indiana State Police Detective To- ni Walden. Bell confesses to child molesting Adam Martinez Pike Central Senior By Andy Heuring A Christmas eve chimney fire was ex- tinguished quickly by the Jefferson Town- ship firemen, limiting the damage to the flu above the wood stove and smoke damage. Assistant Chief Chris Young said once firemen arrived, they were able to use a fire extinguisher to put out the chimney fire. Jerome Meyer's residence on Cato-Al- giers Road filled with smoke at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday evening. Young said the flu pipe became clogged with creosote and there was no place for the smoke from the wood stove to go, except into the house. Young said their response time was lon- ger than normal because of the snow and wind on Christmas Eve. Strong winds and quickly dropping temperatures were blow- ing snow onto the north-south roads, mak- ing them hazardous. While the fire department was enroute, they had central dispatch tell the home- owner to close the flu to limit airflow to the burning creosote. Young urged people with wood burners to check their chimneys and have them cleaned if they haven't done so recently. He said this was a typical chimney fire that often occurs when warm tempera- tures are followed by cold snaps. Young ex- plained creosote will build up during warm temperatures, then when it gets cold and a stove has to work hard to heat the resi- dence, it sets the creosote build up on fire. Firemen were on the scene about 40 min- utes. Quick response limits damage from Christmas Eve fire Christmas Eve mishap injures family A Washington family suffered injuries in a crash at about 7 p.m. Christmas Eve on Highway 257. Everarvo Angeles Cruz, 49, of Washington, his wife and daughter all suffered injuries when the SUV Cruz was driving skidded off the ice and snow covered road and overturned, according to Pike County Sheriff's Deputy Dallas Killian. Killian said Cruz was driving a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox north on Highway 257 just north of the intersection of High- way 356, when he lost control. Sgt. Killian said Cruz's daughter had a laceration on her head, his wife complained of arm pain and Cruz complained of head pain. All three were taken by ambulance to the hospital.