Douglas E, Pessefall, 49 years, of Sherwood, passed away Thursday, November 7, 2013 in  Grafton, North Dakota, as the result of an automobile accident.  Doug was born January 17, 1964 in Defiance, the son of Francis “Ed” and Dorothy “Jeanie” (Coressel) Pessefall.  He was an Army veteran.  Doug worked at several area firms as …

Alice I. Rath, age 85, of Ney, Ohio, died at 8:10 P.M. on Thursday, November 7, 2013, at Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers in Bryan where she was a patient. Mrs. Rath was a bookkeeper at the IGA store in Bryan for 18 years and a member of the VFW …

A jury in Defi­ance County on Fri­day found a woman guilty of aggra­vated mur­der and five other charges. The ver­dict was handed down against 46 year old Judith Hawkey on charges of aggra­vated mur­der; four counts of endan­ger­ing chil­dren; and insur­ance fraud. Hawkey’s $3 mil­lion bond was imme­di­ately revoked, and …

Police say a teacher who was try­ing to help a stray dog in the park­ing lot of ele­men­tary school in Toledo, found a man who had been shot. The teacher says the man just came right up to her and told her that he’d been shot. Toledo police say Matthew …

Final num­bers are in and they look pretty impres­sive. The seven Relay for Life events held in six north­west Ohio coun­ties in June, Defi­ance, Henry, Pauld­ing, Put­nam, Williams and Ful­ton, with the Vil­lage of Hicksville in Defi­ance County, hold­ing its own relay, raised a total of $942,390 for 2013. The …

A bar­ren grave site of a Civil War vet­eran is no longer unmarked after a 142-year wait, due to the efforts of two descen­dants. John Cranston, a Civil War Union sol­dier from Co. A 17th Reg­i­ment Kansas Vol­un­teer Infantry, died May 19, 1871, after the war. He is buried in …

One per­son was injured in a single-vehicle crash Thurs­day after­noon on The Bend Road in Defi­ance County. The crash hap­pened just before 1pm when a south­bound vehi­cle dri­ven by 77 year old Pauline Boroff of Pauld­ing, left the road and struck a util­ity pole, sheer­ing it off at the base. …

Tes­ti­mony in the mur­der trial of 46 year old Judith Hawkey con­cluded Thurs­day after­noon in Defi­ance County Com­mon Pleas Court. Hawkey is charged with aggra­vated mur­der; four counts of endan­ger­ing chil­dren; and insur­ance fraud in con­nec­tion with the death back in Novem­ber of 2003 of her hus­banc. Her trial began …

The North­west­ern Ohio Com­mu­nity Action Com­mis­sion (NOCAC) is host­ing a hunger ban­quet on Nov. 19 — to raise aware­ness of hunger issues in north­west Ohio. The ban­quet will be from 5:30–8 p.m. at the UAW Hall in Defi­ance. Tick­ets are $10 for adults and $5 for col­lege stu­dents and chil­dren. …

The Henry County com­mis­sion­ers this week, approved an annex­a­tion request from Napoleon Area Schools for the annex­a­tion of 55.062 acres in the city of Napoleon. The city had approved an emer­gency mea­sure on Oct. 9 con­sent­ing to the annex­a­tion and stat­ing that city ser­vices would be pro­vided to the annex­a­tion. …