Names released with fatal crash in Putnam County

If you’ve been following the story of a fatal crash in Putnam County, a woman from Granville is the victim.

Deputies say 60-year-old Ann Ziegert was southbound on Route 89 Tuesday morning when she rear-ended 60-year-old Ronald Brokaw of Walnut. Brokaw had slowed down because a driver in front of him was turning.

Ziegert was pronounced dead at the scene. Brokaw was treated and released from St. Margaret’s Hospital.

An autopsy on Ziegert is planned Wednesday.

Costly broken water main has Oglesby school scrambling

A water main break at Holy Family School in Oglesby is setting the school back at least five-figures.

Holy Family Pastor Gary Blake says all they know is that the cause was a pipe break and it’ll be around $10,000 to fix it. He says there are no fundraising events planned, but they are accepting monetary help to limit the dollars they have to take out of the church’s operating account.

Blake says he is “pretty confident” the collection will be successful enough to cover the repairs of the broken main.

Divers pull a former Minonk man out of lake

A man who used to live in Minonk is dead after his car ended up in a lake north of Bloomington.

Thirty-seven-year-old Patrick McCurdy was pulled out of Lake Evergreen in Hudson Tuesday afternoon. Preliminary autopsy results show that he drowned.

Investigators say McCurdy was alone in his car and was still buckled up. Why he ended up in the lake is still being looked into.

Alleged cocaine dealing has Mendota family members locked up

A mother and daughter from Mendota will likely spend Christmas together behind bars.

Ada Bragg and her daughter Kimberly Bragg were indicted Tuesday for allegedly dealing crack cocaine. They were arrested at their house in Mendota earlier this month.

Kimberly needs to come up with $100,000 to get released from jail while her mom needs $50,000. Kimberly Bragg will be back in court Wednesday while her mom has a Christmas Eve court date.

Chicago pair accused in Peru CVS burglary are officially indicted

One of the men allegedly involved in last week’s manhunt in Utica is out of jail.

Deonte Harris of Chicago came up with $7,500 to get released from the county lockup. He’s due back in Ottawa court Thursday for arraignment. His alleged partner in crime, Julian Bynum of Harvey remains in the La Salle County Jail needing $10,000 for bond. He’s due back in court January 14th.

A grand jury Tuesday indicted Harris and Bynum for burglary. They’re accused of stealing from the CVS Pharmacy in Peru before ditching their getaway car in Utica after crashing it. Dozens of officers began a manhunt for the pair. Bynum and Harris were tracked down about an hour and a half after the initial theft call went out.

No gun was used in the CVS theft so Bynum and Harris aren’t facing armed robbery charges.

Quick action keeps hi-rise fire contained in Streator

Composure and awareness kept a scary situation in Streator from being a whole lot worse.

A fire broke out Tuesday night in a room on the fifth floor of the Streator hi-rise on East Morrell Street. Anyone living near the room was evacuated while others hunkered down in their rooms at the request of the fire department. Firefighters spent over two hours putting out the fire and ventilating the building.

Nobody was hurt and damage was contained to the one room. The cause of the fire is under investigation but firefighters don’t think it’s anything suspicious.