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Four family members related to Serah Bellar, who was reported missing on April 3 last year at the age of 16, were indicted by an Athens County Grand Jury on Tuesday.Â
Robert, 54, and Deborah Bellar, 49, of Athens, parents of Serah Bellar and 17 other children, are charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony, and two charges of endangering children, both third-degree felonies.Â
The endangering children charges list Serah Bellar and another child as victims.Â
âThe Bellar family formed an enterprise in order to maintain control in the home, their cult-like beliefs based on their religious following, and caused physical, emotional, and psychological harm to their children,â their indictments, filed on May 18, state.Â
NELSONVILLE – Jessica Pyke is feeling relief for the first time in almost three months.
On Tuesday, a 14-year-old Nelsonville boy pleaded guilty in Athens County Juvenile Court for recklessly killing Pyke s firstborn son while playing with a gun.
Eli Spangler was 11, when he was shot and killed on March 6.
On Monday, Pyke was sitting on her front porch, fidgeting with a cigarette and unable to wrap her mind around the fact that someone had finally been charged in Eli s death after weeks without answers.
Less than a day later, she watched as the friend who shot her son pleaded guilty in Judge Zach Saunders courtroom. The boy s father, Donald Platt, who was home the night Eli was killed, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony, tampering with evidence and child endangerment, both third-degree felonies, according to the Athens County Prosecutor s Office.
Charges against Richard Wilson, 51, of Stewart, the husband of the City of Nelsonvilleâs ex-deputy auditor, Stephanie Wilson, were dropped Monday in Athens County Common Pleas Court.
The prosecution alleges that, in addition to the large sum of money already taken by Stephanie Wilson, at least another $45,000 in fraudulent tax returns were also withdrawn, an Athens County Prosecutorâs Office media release stated.
Stephanie Wilsonâs March 8 indictment notes that she allegedly filed and processed inaccurate tax returns for her husbandâs company, Wilson Construction.
Stephanie Wilson later allegedly created fake businesses for the purpose of collecting tax returns from Nelsonville. The ex-deputy auditor then reportedly opened bank accounts to deposit checks written by the city to these businesses, and then she closed the accounts.
ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) Athens County law enforcement are investigating a Facebook post by someone who says she is an Amesville teenager who went missing a year ago.The Facebook post was made Monda