A 19-year old Liston man is in jail after admitting to beating his 9-month old daughter to keep her from crying.

The girl is at Riley Hospital in Indianapolis recovering from injuries.

Tosumba Welch, 19 of Linton, was arrested and charged with 3 counts of Domestic Battery, a Level 3 Felony and Neglect of a Dependent, a Level 3 Felony.

He was booked into the Greene County Jail.

After being contacted by the Department of Child Services, Detectives with the Indiana State Police Criminal Investigation Division at the Bloomington Post began an inquiry related to severe injuries sustained to a nine month old infant in Greene County.

On Wednesday of this past week (08/27), Caela Welch (9 mos. old) was taken to the Greene County Hospital, unresponsive and having seizures.

Due to the severity of her injuries, Caela was air-lifted to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis and the medical staff contacted the Department of Child Services for a review.

Testing at Riley Hospital discovered that Caela had multiple skull fractures which her Doctor described as a “cracked egg shell”, along with multiple brain bleeds.

The worst of the bleeds was to the back of her skull where there was one on each side of her head along with swelling in the same areas.

Caela also had several healing rib fractures. There were injuries to the lower part of her collar bone that were described by her doctor as “non-accidental”.

Caela also had a fracture to her left ankle that was described as a “classic jerk & yank” abuse fracture.

Testing had ruled out any medical cause for Caela’s injuries.

Investigators learned from Caela’s father Tosumba Welch, 19 of Linton, that he had squeezed Caela before and had also punched her in the head since she was four or five months old.

Welch told detectives he would strike Caela in the back of the skull or on the sides of her head to make her stop crying.

On 08/31/2017 Tosumba Welch was arrested and lodged at the Greene County Jail

The Indiana Department of Education tells WSLM Radio they plan to release spring ISTEP scores in the first week of September.

Performance remained stable across content areas in grades 3-8, while for Grade 10 performance rose slightly.

ISTEP+ assesses more rigorous Indiana Academic Standards adopted in 2014 for English Language Arts and Mathematics. Altogether, ISTEP+ assesses English Language Arts, Mathematics in grades 3-8 and 10, Science in grades 4, 6 and 10, and Social Studies in grades 5 and 7.

Current proficiency levels were established based on feedback from educators following the 2015 and 2016 test administrations.

The State of Education is set to meet on Wednesday, Sept. 6 to review the scores. Once that process is complete, they can be released to the media and the public.

Indiana continues with ISTEP+ 3-8 and 10 during the 2017-18 school year as the Department works towards the transition to ILEARN in 2018-19.

ILEARN assesses the same Indiana Academic Standards as ISTEP+, but leverages computer adaptive testing to better inform educators about students’ strengths and weaknesses.

Recruitment of educators to contribute to the development of the ILEARN assessment begins in September. 

The standardized tests were takenlast spring by more than 400,000 students across the Hoosier state.

Wednesday Indiana State Police arrested the mother and step-father of an 11-year-old special needs girl on one count each of Neglect of a Dependent (felony).

The pair was incarcerated in the Clay County Jail. 

Arrested were Autumn Renee Stone Snodgrass, age 29 and Stephen C. Snodgrass, age 36, of 3995 East County Road 1500 North in Clay County. 

The investigation originated on August 18, 2017 when Indiana State Police, Clay County Probation Officers, and Clay County Community Corrections Officers went to 3995 East County Road 1500 North in Clay County to conduct a home compliance check.

No one was home, but officers noticed the home was in deplorable condition. 

Over the next few days, Indiana State Police gathered information from various sources, which ultimately led to a Clay County search warrant for the home. 

On August 29, 2017, Indiana State Police and the Clay County Probation Office served a Clay County search warrant on the residence. The mother, step-father and daughter were interviewed with the daughter ultimately placed in foster care and currently doing well. 

During execution of the search warrant, investigators documented that the small outbuilding shack type home was unclean, no indoor modern plumbing, unprotected electrical outlets, unprotected electrical wires in and around the building, trash strewn about, raw sewage on the ground around the structure and adjacent to the small water well, and numerous other health hazards. 

Autumn R. Stone Snodgrass was taken into custody yesterday afternoon at approximately 2:15. Stephen Snodgrass was taken into custody last evening at 8:47. 

The case was investigated by ISP Detective Michael Featherling. Assisting were ISP Detective Sergeant Sam Stearley, troopers from the Putnamville Post, Clay County Prosecutor’s Office, Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Clay County Probation Office, Clay County Department of Child Services, Clay County Health Department, and Suzie’s Place Child Advocacy Center of Terre Haute. 

An investigation led by the State Police ‘All Crimes Policing’ team ended with a Rockport man behind bars on multiple drug charges.

At 10:37 AM, the Jasper District ACP team, along with K-9 officers Steve Sexton (State Police), Adam Bower (Jasper Police), Jesus Monarrez (Dubois County Sheriff), and David Hall (Spencer County Sheriff), conducted a K-9 sweep at the Kimball Logistics warehouse in Santa Claus. While sweeping the parking lot, two K-9 teams positively alerted for the possible presence of narcotics on a black 2007 Chrysler 300 sedan, belonging to 37-year-old Isaac Stewart of Rockport. A third K-9 team positively indicated on an article inside the warehouse that belonged to Stewart.

Master Trooper Trey Lytton and Senior Trooper Robbie Lambert applied for and received a search warrant through the Spencer County Circuit Court. During the search of the Chrysler, troopers located crystal methamphetamine, cocaine, two handguns, digital scales, marijuana, smoking pipes, and two types of Legend drugs.

Stewart was arrested and transported to the Spencer County Jail. Indiana State Police was assisted by the Jasper and Santa Claus Police Departments and the Dubois and Spencer County Sheriff’s Departments.

Arrested and Charges:

Isaac W. Stewart, 37

Rockport, IN

– Dealing Methamphetamine, Level 4 Felony

– Possession of Methamphetamine, Level 6 Felony

– Possession of Cocaine, Level 6 Felony

– Possession of Legend Drug (x2), Level 6 Felonies

– Maintaining a Common Nuisance, Level 6 Felony

– Possession of Marijuana with a Prior Conviction, Class A Misdemeanor

– Possession of Marijuana under 30 grams, Class B Misdemeanor

– Possession of Paraphernalia, Class C Misdemeanor

Two Indiana State Troopers from the  Bremen Post traded in their police cars in favor of rubber rafts for a few days this week. For the past three years Trooper Kyle Dukes and Trooper Brooks Shirk have spent four days on rubber rafts rowing around Lake Wawasee with area high school students. 

Dukes and Shirk teamed with Wawasee High School and the Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation from August 28th through August 31st for this year’s Wawasee Watershed Adventure.  

Wawasee Watershed Adventure is a four-day team building exercise that focuses on the fragile watershed of Lake Wawasee.  Freshmen students from Wawasee High School row their way around Lake Wawasee learning how to take water quality samples, water temperature samples, and learn wetland plant identification.   

Dukes said that after all the hard work, they end the week with a raft race and a trivial pursuit game testing the students on what they learned.  Shirk commented that this provides a great opportunity for law enforcement to interact in a different setting and encourage young teenagers to make the right choices in their early years.

This afternoon at 12:38, Indiana State Police troopers stopped a 1999 Gauls Camper for unsafe lane movement on eastbound Interstate 70 near the 37 mile marker. During conversations with the occupants, troopers detected the odor of suspected marijuana. 

A search of the vehicle yielded approximately 10 grams of suspected marijuana, 100 suspected manufactured steroid pills, scales, assorted drug paraphernalia, and $3000 in US currency. 

Arrested driver: Maurice Jackson, age 22, of Crown Point, IN.

He was charged with: Possession of Marijuana, Maintaining a Common Nuisance 

Arrested Passenger: Brendin Van-Niekerk, age 24, of South Africa. 

He was charged with: Possession of Marijuana, Possession of Controlled Substance and Visiting a Common Nuisance 

Indiana Conservation Officers are investigating after two subjects were rescued from Donnehue Cave earlier today.
 
At around 10:45 a.m., Indiana Conservation Officers and other responders were notified of a missing person search, and that the person in question may have entered into the Doghill-Donnehue Cave system in Bedford. 

The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department had initiated a search for Joshua Patton (31) of Bedford, after family members were unable to make contact since Tuesday evening. 

Patton had told family members that he had planned on entering the Cave.
 
Indiana Conservation Officers, along with several other trained cave rescue responders, entered the Cave at around 11:50 a.m., and conducted a search of both the upper “maze” portion of the Cave, as well as the lower stream passage. 

At 12:05 p.m., the responders made verbal contact with Patton, and to their surprise, a female subject with him, Samantha East (38), also of Bedford.  They were located approximately 2000 feet inside the Cave.
 
Patton advised responders that the two had entered the Cave at around 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday the 29^th, using only a cell phone light to negotiate the Cave’s passages. 

After damaging the phone and losing their light source, Patton and East attempted to use cigarette lighters to exit the Cave, until their fuel was exhausted.  The two then stopped and waited in the total darkness.
 
Patton and East were treated inside the Cave for hypothermia, dehydration, and exhaustion. 

They were assisted from the Cave and transported to IU Health in Bedford for further evaluation.
 
Assisting agencies on scene were Bedford Police Department, Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department, and AMR Ambulance Service of Bedford.  Local cave rescue responders from Bedford and Bloomington were invaluable for their knowledge and experience with the Cave system.
 

Often times, large natural disasters bring out the giving, caring side of people but unfortunately it also brings out nefarious characters who try to take advantage of those who would like to help.

The Indiana State Police has been contacted by concerned citizens saying they have received telephone calls from individuals identifying themselves as State Police representatives. The caller said they are soliciting funds for victims of Hurricane Harvey.

The persons that received these calls did not fall victim to these phone solicitors but instead did the correct thing and reported the incident.

The Indiana State Police is not soliciting funds for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and will not be contacting citizens by telephone requesting funds.

If you are contacted by anyone requesting payment or money for an event or situation, tell them to send you information through the mail and you will review the information to make an informed decision. If the call is legitimate they should be able to send you the requested information. Do your homework and make a well informed donation. Don’t fall victim while trying to help other victim’s.

As with most scams, the calls can be originating from cell phones or over the internet from all over the country or world. Tracking down this 21st century con artist is no easy task. As defined by TechTarget, caller ID spoofing is a technology that allows a caller to masquerade as someone else by falsifying the number that appears on the recipient’s Caller ID display. Just as email spoofing can make it appear that a message came from any email address the sender chooses, Caller ID Spoofing can make a call appear to come from any phone number the caller wishes, including the Indiana State Police.

The Indiana State Police feel that a well-informed public with a healthy dose of mistrust is the best defense in combating phone scammers and reminds everyone that these phone scams and cybercrimes are becoming commonplace. 

The Indiana State Police ask everyone to talk to their family about these phone scams and to have a plan in place should a scammer call you or someone you love.  Because phone scams have become nothing short of an epidemic, being aware of potential scams is a great first step in protecting yourself from falling victim to one.