St. Vincent Salem Hospital’s United Way fundraising team will host a Chili Supper on Friday, October 7 from 5 – 7 p.m. in the hospital’s associate parking lot before the last home Salem football game against Corydon Central.

All money raised will go toward Dare to Care Food Bank’s Backpack Buddy program at East Washington Elementary, Bradie Shrum Elementary and West Washington Elementary schools.

Chili, peanut butter sandwiches, toppings, drinks and desserts will be available for a donation.

For more information, contact Melissa Richardson at 812-883- 5881 ext. 1366.

The Indiana State Police Post at Bloomington held its annual inspection and audit of personnel and equipment. Commanders inspected the uniform appearance, cruiser and equipment of all Troopers and Detectives from the Bloomington Post, as well as some officers from outside the district. The inspection/audits are held annually at all 14 Indiana State Police Districts.

During the audit, each officer is personally inspected for proper grooming and uniform appearance. The officer’s firearms are then examined for cleanliness and serviceability. Their police car is next and inspected for cleanliness both inside and out. Finally, all equipment issued to the officer is accounted for and examined. Those items include such things as clothing, shoes, radar, computer, camera, taser, baton, mace and any other miscellaneous equipment issued to the officer.

At the conclusion of the individual Trooper’s inspection, the results of the inspection/audit are noted by the Trooper’s immediate supervisor in the monthly observation guide and later in the employee’s yearly evaluation.

The Indiana State Police Department has a rich history in providing the best law enforcement service possible to the citizens of Indiana. To do this, the department purchases state of the art equipment for each officer and then expects him or her to take the utmost care of all issued equipment.

A warrant was issued out of Jennings County Circuit Court for Kevin Bell, age 39, Dover, Pennsylvania on charges related to a crash that occurred on September 17, 2016 that resulted in the death of Nikki Reed, age 37, Seymour, Indiana.

During the investigation, troopers with the Indiana State Police-Versailles learned that Bell was driving a vehicle that crashed in rural Jennings County near the Ripley County Line, killing Reed who was the front seat passenger.

On Tuesday, September 20, 2016, Bell left the vehicle and was located by a passerby along US 50 in Jennings County with injuries sustained in the crash.

Trooper Rick Hewitt arrived on scene and spoke with Bell.

Bell lied to Trp. Hewitt about how he sustained his injuries and did not initially tell officers that he had been in a crash or that Reed was deceased inside the vehicle.

After determining that Bell had been reported to be a missing person along with Reed, Trp. Hewitt soon located the vehicle and Reed.

During the course of the investigation, it was determined that Bell was driving on a suspended driver’s license at the time of the crash.

Bell was hospitalized in an Indianapolis area hospital for treatment of his injuries after the incident until being released earlier this week.

Earlier this week, the investigation was turned over to the Jennings County Prosecutor’s Office for review.  As a result, a warrant was issued for Bell on charges of:

• Driving While Suspended Causing Death, Level 5 Felony
• Leaving the Scene of a Fatal Crash, Level 5 Felony
• Failure to Report a Dead Body, Class A Misdemeanor
• Driving While Suspended, Class A Misdemeanor
• False Informing, Class B Misdemeanor

Bell has not been re-located or arrested at this time.

An autopsy was completed on Reed last week.  The results preliminarily confirmed that Reed’s fatal injuries were sustained in the initial collision.  No foul play is suspected in her death at this time.

The investigation is ongoing.

One teenager is in jail after making threats on a fake Instagram account against Silver Creek Middle School.

His arrest comes within 12 hours of the original social media postings.

Police say the teen admitted he was behind the threat and did it as a joke.

“I’m coming for you Silver Creek, I can’t wait, I’m tired of your ****,” Sellersburg Police Chief Russ Whelan said of the threat. “It had some pictures of guns and bullets and things of that nature.”The 14-year-old is being held at the juvenile detention center in Clark County.

“He said he thought it’d be funny and it was a joke,” said Whelan. “I’m sure that he doesn’t think it’s funny now. We don’t believe this is connected to other incidents.”

The teen is charged with intimidation and identity theft and deception, for using another student’s name on the post.

Whelan said the suspect used a picture and name of a classmate at Silver Creek Middle School to throw everyone off.

“He actually created a dummy account,” noted Whelan. “He just happened to have …they were friends at one time…so he happened to have photos of the other boy. He decided to create it and thought others will get their kicks out of it.”

Officers worked quickly to track down the actual 14-year-old boy who made the post. “He came clean and said, you know, I did it,” said Whelan.

“Investigators are still doing a few more interviews,” Whelan said. “We want to make sure there are no others involved. We had a little bit of luck and lot of lot of good investigative work from my guys. We get a threat last night at 8p and get an arrest about 12 hours later. Makes me feel good from our side.”

It has been a frightening week, with some JCPS as well as Jeffersonville schools and Salem Community Schools all on heightened alert after threatening clown posts which turned out to be a hoax.

Now that a teen is in jail, police hope it sends a clear message. “You’re gonna go to jail. We’re going to catch you, you’re gonna go to jail, and there’s going to be some severe and harsh punishment to go with this,” said Whelan.

Police do not believe he is linked to any of the other social media threats.

Less than 48 hours after a threat was made against the Salem Middle School and its students and staff, Salem Police Department has identified a Person of Interest.

Police have declined to identify the person, who they said currently lives in another law enforcement jurisdiction.

“We have made contact with the proper law enforcement agency,” said Assistant Salem Police Chief Tim Miller. “They have been briefed on the incident and are currently addressing it.”

The Salem Police Department conducted numerous interviews today.

Miller said, “The results of these interviews has given us a person of interest. At this point, we are at the mercy of the other agency, and are waiting to hear back from them after they conduct an interview.”

Miller said the other agency did advise the Salem Police Department that they have, recently, been having similar “clown threats”.

A school threat was made lasts night against Silver Creek Middle School and a teen was arrested this morning in connection with that.

However, Sellerburg Police Chief Russ Whelan told WSLM earlier this afternoon that he believes his is an isolated case and had nothing to do with Clowns. (See related story at wslmradio.com)

Additional threats were made against two schools in Louisville and schools in Jeffersonville this week.

Salem Police responded to a two vehicle accident this morning on State Road 60 East, sending three to the hospital.

911 was called at 11:17a after a 2009 Toyota Matrix turned into the path of a 2016 Hyundai Sonnata.

Larry King, 78, Salem was driving the Toyota and had stopped on 60 and was waiting to turn left onto Old State Road 60.

Jessica Tipton, 33, Pekin, was driving the Hyundai into Salem when King turned into her path.

Tipton continued East and hit the Cowboy’s Convenient Store sign and tore the left side pole loose from the foundation. The car also struck a telephone pole.

Both vehicles were a total loss, according to Salem Police Officer Eric Mills.

Tipton, Cheryl McMahan, 34, Salem and Tipton’s 4 year old daughter, who was restrained in car seat, were taken to St. Vincent Salem hospital where they were treated and released.

Assisting in the accident were the Salem Police Department and Washington County EMS.