Here's a look at the top 5 trending stories on nwi.com from the weekend.
MERRILLVILLE — A 34-year-old man died in a two-vehicle crash late Thursday on U.S. 30 near Grant Street, police say.
Kiel Marckese, of Crown Point, was pronounced dead about 10:15 p.m. by the Lake County coroner at Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus in Merrillville. His injuries are currently listed as pending.
Police said the other driver, whose identity hasn't been released, was also taken to the hospital following the crash — which occurred just before 10 p.m. — receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.
The incident is still being investigated by officers to determine whether alcohol or drugs were a factor, police said.
PORTAGE — A 20-year-old Portage man blames his 14-year-old rape victim for instigating the contact by flirting with him ahead of a sleepover at a friend's house, police allege.
The suspect also conceded it was wrong to follow through because of the victim's age, according to police.
Michael Nevitt, of the 5000 block of Marquette Road, was charged with felony counts of rape, attempted vicarious sexual gratification and sexual misconduct with a minor, Porter County court records show.
The alleged assault took place April 12 and 13 but only came to light last week when it was reported to police.
"Victim 1 did not report the assault initially because she was concerned of the impact it would have on her family," police said.
The girl reportedly told police she had been exchanging flirtatious messages with Nevitt for a few weeks leading up to April 12, when she stayed the night at a friend's house.
Nevitt also was at the house and, in the presence of others, discreetly initiated sexual contact with the girl, police said.
When a small group of girls left the room, Nevitt sent a message to the alleged victim to return to where he was located, according to charging documents.
When the girl returned, Nevitt is accused of pulling her on his lap and initiating more sexual activity, court records state.
The girl told police when she resisted and said "no," Nevitt pulled her back to him and told her it was OK, court records state.
"After numerous attempts to tell Nevitt 'no,' she said to detectives that, 'He's obviously not gonna stop, and I let it happen,'" according to court records.
When he was done, Nevitt then ignored the girl, and she rejoined her friends, police said.
Nevitt initially told police he thought the girl was 15 and then admitted she may be 14, police said. He said the girl initiated the flirtatious messaging and said while he knew it was wrong to pursue, he had sex with her, according to police.
Nevitt reportedly admitted the girl repeatedly attempted to stop the sexual activity, "saying something like, 'I really don't want to do this' and 'We really shouldn't be doing this,'" according to charging documents.
Police said Nevitt told them he pulled the girl back down on him anyway.
"Nevitt also admitted that he knew he should have stopped but he didn't," according to court records.
The case has been assigned to Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford.
It’s that time of year again. School supplies line store shelves, fresh layers of paint coat school walls. Back-to-school block parties are in full swing.
With this week seeing the first of Northwest Indiana’s major school districts returning to the classroom, some Region residents are reviving the continued debate: When is the best time to send kids back to school?
To some, earlier start times at the beginning of August make sense. A shorter summer break allows for a more effective testing schedule and less of that over-the-summer brain drain of lessons learned the year before.
However, others argue shortened summers and early August start dates cut down on students’ opportunities for travel and summer jobs.
Early starts bring longer breaks
In the Region, most districts go back to school next week. That’s a couple of weeks later than some Central Indiana districts that started as early as Aug. 1. Some schools there have moved to a calendar allowing for a shorter summer with longer breaks in the fall and around Thanksgiving.
Gary Community School Corp. is moving closer to this model with one of its earliest back-to-school dates in recent years with classes beginning Thursday.
The school district will see a week-long fall break and a three-day Thanksgiving break this year, Deputy Superintendent Nakia Douglas said. This provides a schedule more aligned to dual credit programs offered at the Gary Area Career Center than the district’s previous trimester calendar.
Douglas said district leaders also are exploring opportunities to partner with Purdue University Northwest to offer midyear professional development opportunities for teachers during fall break.
It’s a critical time for building maintenance and repair before the harsh winter season hits, the deputy superintendent said.
“We wanted to break up the year where we could have a nice fall break where people could regroup and come back together,” Douglas said. “It’s always such a long stretch between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. That time can become a little bit of a pressure cooker.”
However, the balanced calendar trend hasn’t quite caught on yet in Northwest Indiana, where some schools in neighboring Michigan and Illinois resume closer to or after Labor Day.
Most schools that start in early or mid-August will let out about the first week of June. Crown Point Community School Corp., among one of the latest in Northwest Indiana to go back to school, will start on Aug. 20 this year.
Late summer business
For some local businesses, a push back to a post-Labor Day start makes sense.
At Deep River Waterpark in Merrillville, summer hours are driven by back-to-school dates, Lake County Parks CEO Jim Basala said.
The water park opens for its summer season in late May.
As schools resume, it reduces operations to weekends only in late August as the park loses its customer base and student workers, resulting in a $500,000 to $1 million loss in revenue by Basala’s estimates.
Basala argues, like many in the tourism and recreation industry, by shifting summer break back students and families can make the most of the more predictable August heat rather than the sometimes cooler and rainy weeks of June.
He said it's not uncommon for out-of-state guests to ask why the park is only open on weekends during late August.
With the vast majority of the parks department’s 300 seasonal employees being students, Basala said the water park depends on its student employees for summer staffing.
The Lake County Fair also could stand to lose out next year as the fair’s traditional first-Friday-of-August start date will fall on Aug. 7, pushing fair week closer to many expected first days of school.
In addition to limiting the pool of student workers available during fair week, Lake County Fair Secretary Arlene Marcinek said she’s seen how earlier start dates can cause conflict with 4-H activities.
“The ones in horse and pony, and showing animals — they’re not as active as we would like them to be,” Marcinek said. “Schools are great, obviously, and they’re wonderful tools for learning, but we are also a tool for learning.”
Universal start?
Indiana lawmakers have routinely brought legislation requesting a statewide back-to-school start date, requiring districts to begin no earlier than the last Monday of August.
Current Indiana law only stipulates that the districts develop school calendars meeting a minimum nine-month term of at least 180 instructional days. Divisions of these instructional days and the breaks that fall between are largely up to local administrators, differing from states like Michigan and Wisconsin, which both have laws directing schools not to start earlier than September.
Speros Batistatos, president and CEO of South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority, who has lobbied for a later school start date, said energy savings and increased sales tax revenue brought by a longer August should be incentive for state lawmakers to adopt similar legislation in Indiana.
Two years ago, legislation came close to passing out of the Indiana Senate but died in a split vote after Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch was unavailable to break the tie. Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Gary, who voted in support of the 2017 bill, said he would not support a mandated start date if brought forward next session.
“I have evolved in my thinking and have had the opportunity to speak with educators across the state who have offered me insight into the complications around pushing back school start dates,” the senator said in a prepared statement, pointing to fall instructional days needed to prepare for standardized tests and calendar days needed for snow makeup days.
Lake Central Superintendent Larry Veracco said he’s split on the topic, and many of his parents are, too.
An early August start date with longer breaks more reflective of a collegiate calendar might appeal to high school parents, while elementary parents might prefer a later summer start with fewer breaks more compatible with a work schedule.
Lake Central resumes Aug. 13 this year, and its school board has approved Aug. 10 and Aug. 9 start dates for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years.
Veracco said he sees benefits in an early start — for example, allowing for more test preparation and uniformity with local schools’ sports schedules. He said he would be open to change if state lawmakers leaned that way.
“There’s a trade off,” Veracco said. “We really are trying to do what we think helps our students most.”
Here's a look at when school starts in the Region
GARY — A Gary woman was reported missing Monday by her family, who said she has been kidnapped. A $10,000 reward was offered Friday by the FBI's Merrillville Resident Agency for information that could lead to her safe return.
Sidne-Nichole Buchanan, 27, was last seen at the Wiz Khalifa concert July 27 in Tinley Park, according to her mother Kaneka Turner.
“We are confident we will find Sidne, but we know information we get from the public can assist us in doing that faster and ensuring Sidne's safety,” said FBI Public Affairs Specialist Chris Bavender.
Turner said while the family is unable to discuss particulars, she has a strong reason to believe her daughter was kidnapped. She said Buchanan is the mother of a 9-year-old and 11-year-old.
"It's extremely difficult for her children," Turner said. "It's very tough for the family. She is very close to her siblings and very close to me. We are trying to shield her youngest from it but her oldest is completely devastated."
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Mike Peasley said as of Saturday evening, Buchanan is still missing. The FBI's investigations into the woman's disappearance shows that she was last seen in Illinois but there is evidence she was in Indiana after the concert.
“The FBI is dedicating all of the resources available to us to find her,” Peasley said. “... The presumption is she was taken across state lines against her will until we find evidence to the contrary.”
Because the investigation is ongoing, the FBI could not share further details of the woman's possible kidnapping.
Buchanan is described as 5'1, 135 pounds with brown eyes and black hair, according to the FBI. She was last wearing a light purple dress with a blue denim jacket.
Sabrina Short, of Gary, said her granddaughter is a loving mother and a former dance teacher at the Beach Front Dance School in Gary.
“Please come forward to help locate Sidne,” Short said. “We miss her and are very concerned for her safety.”
Turner said her daughter is a sweet, outgoing person who loves her children and spending time with family. Turner also urges anyone with information to contact investigators.
"I urge anyone who has seen something or heard something, even if it's something that doesn't seem significant, it may be important to finding her," Turner said. "Please please contact the FBI. Please reach out. We want her home in a way you couldn't imagine."
Authorities ask that anyone with information call the FBI at 219-942-4655.
Times staff writer Stephanie Stremplewski contributed to this report.
ST. JOHN TWP. — In January, Jody Ruble-Castle signed up for Ancestry.com on a whim.
The 55-year-old — who lives in Tampa, Florida — always wanted to learn more about her family’s history since she had been given up for adoption at birth from a Hammond hospital. Plus, membership costs were at a discounted rate, so she spit in a tube and sent off her DNA.
In a few weeks, she received her “shocking” results.
“I was solely looking for nationality,” said Ruble-Castle, who is of Polish descent. “And then I learned I had a sister.”
Ruble-Castle found herself confused. Her birth mother, Helen Wierzbicki, had led her to believe she was an only child when they spoke on the phone almost 25 years ago. But that was a lie.
Ruble-Castle said she always had a lingering suspicion that she wasn’t alone in the world, which is why she had contacted Wierzbicki, a Whiting native, once her adoptive parents died.
Five years after that phone call, Wierzbicki passed away, taking the truth with her.
“She didn’t want to be found ever, and I think that’s why she was misleading,” she said. “So, I closed the door — chapter ended. It confirmed I didn’t have any sisters or brothers. … But it all came out.”
Only children no more
Fran Whiddon joined Ancestry.com a year and a half ago in hopes of learning more about her ethnic background. The price had dropped, so the 70-year-old thought, “Why not?”
Whiddon, who lives in Cedar Bluff, Alabama, had been adopted into a South Bend family following her at-home birth in Northwest Indiana, causing her to know almost nothing about her true heritage.
Her skin tanned so well, Whiddon thought she might be Greek. But the genealogy site revealed her true origin lay much farther north in Poland, nearly 1,000 miles away from where she guessed. And in January, it would reveal even more than that, just as it did for Ruble-Castle.
Despite being born 18 years apart, Whiddon and Ruble-Castle were full-blooded sisters.
“It’s surreal,” said Whiddon, who always thought she was an only child.
A week later, Jennifer Tomsovic came into the picture.
The 53-year-old who lives in St. John Township recently had joined MyHeritage, another genealogy site after receiving a free subscription via Facebook. It was a last-ditch effort to see if she could find any information about her birth family, particularly her alleged siblings.
Her adoptive parents were told that Tomsovic was the last of eight children, who were all given up by the same woman, Wierzbicki, during a 20-period to Catholic Family Services.
Tomsovic said she always wondered about her siblings and wanted to find them, but she had no success. Eventually, she lost hope that she would ever know them.
“I thought since I was the baby, they couldn’t afford me, they gave me up for adoption, and none of the siblings would be looking. But they all thought they were single siblings,” Tomsovic said. “I tried all these years to open records to search. I went back to the original lawyer who handled the adoption. … I hit a dead wall year after year after year, so you give up. I finally gave up.”
Because Ruble-Castle and Whiddon weren’t members of MyHeritage, Tomsovic didn’t have the opportunity to connect with them directly. Luckily, Ruble-Castle’s daughter had sent her DNA to the site for analysis, creating a match between the two that flagged Tomsovic as her full-fledged aunt.
The long-lost sisters made plans to meet face to face in February, cementing their newfound relationship with matching metal bracelets. The meeting diminished any skepticism Tomsovic had.
“DNA doesn’t lie,” the 53-year-old said.
During this time, the sisters also learned they had a brother, 64-year-old Craig Dubczak, living in Hawaii. His daughter had been signed up, allowing them all to connect.
Four of the eight siblings were still unknown, but that number would become a bit smaller in June.
‘Don’t hang up’
At first, Tami Harris thought she was being scammed.
“One day, I get a phone call that says, ‘Don’t hang up ... I’m your sister,’” Harris recalled. “Yeah, right.”
But it turned out to be true.
Like her sisters, Harris — a self-proclaimed “coupon queen” — is a bargain shopper. It’s the only reason she signed up for Ancestry.com a month ago since the price was cut in half.
All she expected to learn is whether her tan skin, bright blue eyes and light blonde hair were the result of Greek or Italian heritage. She didn’t even have her results back when Ruble-Castle called her and dropped the sibling bombshell.
“I’ve been 70 and an only child, then all of the sudden, bingo,” Harris said. “I have people to love me, and I have a family who are flesh and blood. It’s new learning how to be a sibling.”
Another sister, Sandra, was discovered just before Harris. But she died at 32 years old. Her daughter signed up for Ancestry.com, allowing the family to learn about their fifth sister who would’ve been 60.
All of the siblings were the product of a love affair between Wierzbicki and Joseph Burba, who died 26 years ago. The two never married and Wierzbicki kept her pregnancy a secret.
They learned of their father’s identity after speaking with local family members. A granddaughter of his would later take a DNA test, confirming Burba’s parentage.
Out of 500 alleles, only 50 were different for the siblings, Harris said. The resemblance is striking.
“Now, we look like somebody, and before, we never did,” Harris said. “It’s like we’re cloned or something.”
“You can tell blood,” Tomsovic added. “I don’t know if we’ll ever get used to it.”
Tomsovic, whose adoptive parents are the only ones still alive, said they were overjoyed to learn the siblings had found one another. Plus, it meant they had even more children to love.
A Region reunion
Whiddon and Ruble-Castle planned to visit Tomsovic’s home in St. John Township near the end of July. Harris — “the new kid on the block” — would decide to join them once she came into the picture, receiving her own matching silver bracelet when she arrived.
Fortunately, the week they chose was Whiting’s Pierogi Festival, which allowed them to don babushkas and aprons in celebration of their Polish ancestry. Now, each has a pierogi charm on her bracelet.
“On a bad day, I’m turning this into a calzone,” Tomsovic said with a laugh, her sisters joining in.
During their week together in the Region, the sisters couldn’t help wondering all of the times they might have met or been in the same place and never knew it.
“There’s so many coincidences, we still can’t get over it,” Ruble-Castle said. “It’s so surreal that this is even happening. … Our lives will never be the same, in a good way.”
They’ve also found themselves trying to make up for lost time by doing the things that sisters do — facials, pedicures, simultaneous crying, makeovers and hogging the bathroom — in hopes of playing “catch-up.”
But Ruble-Castle said they recognize there are things they will never be able to make up for. Although, it won’t stop them from trying.
‘Life’s too short’
Despite being forced to live the majority of their lives apart, the sisters foster zero resentment for their birth mother and her decision. Instead, they just want to soak up as much time together as possible.
“We just want to hold each other and never let go,” Ruble-Castle said. “It’s just been the biggest blessing.”
“Life’s too short,” Harris added. “There’s a reason all of this happened the way it did.”
Harris said they also encourage any person — adopted or not — to take a DNA test, especially since they still don’t know the identity of two of their siblings, who they speculate are male “because guys just don’t do this.”
Although, Tomsovic said their brother Craig would prefer more sisters.
“We check our Ancestry accounts every day to see if we find another one,” Ruble-Castle said. “If there’s others of us out there, we’d really like to find them.”
“It would complete us,” Harris added.
