Ferdinand News

01/03/2025

ORANGE COUNTY DEPUTY SHOOTING SUSPECT REMAINS AT LARGE

*UPDATE*
West Baden, IN – The vehicle used by a male suspect in the shooting of an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy has been located in the Orangeville area.

The Indiana State Police has identified the suspect in the shooting as Austin Dakota Schepers, Age 33, of Jasper, and issued a Blue Alert. He has not been apprehended and remains at large. Law enforcement officials warn Indiana citizens that Schepers is considered armed and dangerous and not to be approached. He is described as a white male, approximately 5 feet 7 inches, 150 pounds, brown hair, and hazel eyes. He has several neck tattoos and a cross tattoo under the left eye.

The vehicle, a silver 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix with Indiana license plate CRT921 and associated with the suspect, has been located in the West Baden area. Law enforcement officers continue to attempt to locate Schepers.

The Indiana State Police requests that if members of the public locate or come into contact with Schepers, DO NOT APPROACH and immediately dial 911 or the Indiana State Police Bloomington Post at 812-332-4411.

01/03/2025

A message from Tammy Humbert, Director of Dubois County Emergency Management

Winter Storm Watch- January 5th, 2025

With a significant winter weather system expected to make its way to Dubois County on Sunday January 5th, 2025, the Emergency Management Agency is asking all citizens to prepare in advance.

Preparations include charging cell phones and other items in case power is interrupted, evaluating whether driving is necessary, taking your time if you decide to drive, and gathering items for your car and home in case they are needed.

01/03/2025

Indiana State Police Seeking Help Searching for Subject Wanted in Shooting of Orange County Deputy

Orange County - A Statewide Blue Alert has been declared, repeating, a Statewide Blue Alert has been declared .

The Indiana State Police has issued a Blue Alert for Austin Schepers, wanted for the involvement of injury to a law enforcement officer. Schepers, is described as a 33 year old white male, 5 feet 7 inches tall, 150 pounds, brown hair with hazel eyes, with a tattoo of a cross under his left eye, along with multiple tattoos around his neck, and was last seen driving a silver 2007 Pontiac Grand Prix with Indiana license plate CRT921.

At the time of the incident, an unidentified individual also occupied the suspect vehicle.

The suspect(s) last known location was in West Baden, Indiana which is 104 miles southwest of Indianapolis and was last seen on Friday, January 3, 2025, at 12:58 am. The suspect(s) are believed to be armed and dangerous. If seen, DO NOT APPROACH and contact the Indiana State Police Bloomington Post at 812-332-4411 or 911.

Vehicle Plate # CRT921

01/01/2025

12/31/2024

Happy New Year's Eve!

Time to say goodbye to 2024, and welcome 2025! Want to join in on the festivities? Have a New Year's Eve party with your family and friends! You could play games, have dinner, and even tune in to Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest to watch the ball drop!

For those wanting to watch, the special will air at 8 pm EST/ 7 pm CST on ABC!

12/27/2024

The final category for the Best of 2024 News Awards is Most Shared. This goes to the story that had the largest amount of people decide to share the post to their own pages in order to show their friends the story too!

The winner of Most Shared of 2024 is...Return of a Rockford Peach!

In early July, actress Megan Cavanagh who portrayed Marla H***h in the film A League of Their Own visited League Stadium for the first time since filming.
Fans were able to purchase a VIP ticket for a meet and greet and Q&A before the game. Megan's visit prompted many people to tell their friends and family as the post was shared 165 times!

To revisit this great story, click the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02ug6CYZs7wytS66cZHXfpmFtwX51XWRJLVYph4iXAGj6bwVk7pjoyKrPQLjM3ZZFNl&id=100049182049755

12/27/2024

Our next category for the Best of 2024 News Awards is Most Likes. This goes to the story that gathered the most likes from our viewers. (This was calculated from likes on the original post, not counting ones from post shares.)

The winner of Most Likes of 2024 is...The Forest Park Boys Basketball Regional Championship!

In early March, the Ranger Boys Basketball team was already riding high off of their sectional win, and they capitalized on that motivation by securing a Regional victory over Switzerland County in a competitive 58-53 game! The Boys Basketball team sure had a load of support from their community as their post earned a massive 564 likes!

To go back and view photos from this victorious game, click the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02Sf2xgVAzmth2WLMb56XUJAgwpbAJnhaEmzW4zAG5BZZcAHVubUz1wZzvhK8RTUiCl&id=100049182049755

12/27/2024

The next category for the Best of 2024 News Awards is Most Comments. This goes to the story that got the most people to leave a message expressing what they had to say about it. (These were calculated by comments on the original post, not counting extended comments from post shares.)

The winner for Most Comments of 2024 is...The Forest Park Ranger Girls Soccer Sectional Championship!

In mid-October, the Lady Rangers Soccer team began their postseason with a 1-0 victory over Northeast Dubois to earn the program's 6th Sectional title! The girls soccer team had quite the fan section as their post racked up a whopping 73 comments!

To revisit photos from the victorious moment, click the link below:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0ErQ1MBe2FxbzSJZC3M6mmtx8WXfGGopk5kJMRcLqJzR6itc3cRwQzQwtLGHBd7aAl&id=100049182049755

12/27/2024

Today's the day we reveal the winners of the Best of 2024 News Awards!

Our first category is highest reach. This category is for the posts that spread the furthest, and had the most views.

The winner for highest reach of 2024 is...Return of a Rockford Peach!

In early July, actress Megan Cavanagh who portrayed Marla H***h in the film A League of Their Own visited League Stadium for the first time since filming.
Fans were able to purchase a VIP ticket for a meet and greet and Q&A before the game. Megan's visit proved very popular as the story captured the attention of over 63,000 people!

To revisit this great story, click the link below!
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02ug6CYZs7wytS66cZHXfpmFtwX51XWRJLVYph4iXAGj6bwVk7pjoyKrPQLjM3ZZFNl&id=100049182049755

12/26/2024

Florence Hunter, 95, of Holland, passed away Sunday, December 22, 2024, at Serenity Spring/Northwood in Jasper

12/26/2024

Lady Rangers enjoy early Christmas present

FOREST PARK 49, BOONVILLE 43

Santa usually makes his way down the chimney after all the children go to bed on December 24. But he arrived about a week earlier for the Forest Park girls basketball team. And he brought with him an early Christmas present — a victory over conference foe Boonville.

The Lady Rangers can enjoy some holiday cheer after they were gift-wrapped a hard fought 49-43 win against the visiting Pioneers last Tuesday night at Buechler Arena in Ferdinand.
To say Forest Park coach Jacob Berg was pleased with the ‘W’ — which snapped a five-game skid — would be an understatement.
“This was big,” admitted the Lady Ranger boss. “I never really thought about it as an early Christmas present, but we’ll take it. I’m real happy for the girls. They needed it. It’s hard to keep morale up when you go through a tough stretch, but we found a way to get it done tonight. I fully expected a tight game. It could have gone either way, but we were able to pull it out.”

Story by Brian Bohne
Photos by Sierra Bruggeman

12/26/2024

Here are your nominees for each category in the Best of 2024 News Awards!

Stay tuned as we will announce the winners very soon!

12/26/2024

It's Back! At the end of this week, we are going to do a special re-cap of the year by posting some of the most popular stories we've uploaded to our page. So stay tuned!

There will be four categories for this "awards ceremony":

Highest Reach
Most Liked
Most Commented On
Most Shared

See you at the end of the week!

12/26/2024

Today is National Candy Cane Day!

Who doesn't love a good candy cane? Well, today is the day to enjoy them! Go out and get yourself some candy canes!

12/25/2024

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!

~ The Ferdinand News Staff

12/24/2024

Merry Christmas Eve!

Many families and friends get together for dinner on Christmas Eve. Some even go to Christmas Eve masses at their local churches. This day is special because it brings a warm feeling of companionship, love, thankfulness, etc. between family members.

12/23/2024

Merry Christmas: Rangers pay tribute to ‘90 sectional champs

FOREST PARK 58, N.E. DUBOIS 49

In a way, the current Forest Park boys basketball team delivered an early Christmas present. How? The Rangers paid tribute to the 1990 squad — the first to ever win a sectional championship in boys hoops — by showing the same resolve their predecessors did about 35 years ago.

In a back and forth battle, Class 2A, No. 8 ranked Forest Park used plenty of grit in the second half to earn a festive 58-49 victory over rival and Class 1A, No. 7 ranked Northeast Dubois on December 21 at Buechler Arena in Ferdinand.

Given the circumstances surrounding the contest, both Forest Park coach Drew Messmer and one of his veteran players felt it was an important win.“It’s a game on our home floor. It’s a game against a county rival. It’s a game that we obviously want to come in, play well and win,” said Messmer. “I thought Dubois did a great job of challenging our toughness. I thought they were tougher than we were for the first 16 [minutes] and then our guys were able to bounce back and be the tougher team in the last 16 [minutes]. A lot of lessons to be learned about what the responsibility of being Forest Park is. Teams are going to circle us on their schedule. They’re going to come ready to play.”

Jaxon Lueken tended to agree.“It was a huge win,” added the Ranger junior forward. “Dubois is a tough team and a county rival. We knew we were going to get their best shot. We knew it was going to be a physical game. We knew we were going to have to play our hardest.”

They did — in the second half.

Get next week's edition of the Ferdinand News for the full scoop.

Story and Photos by Brian Bohne

12/23/2024

Today Is National Roots Day

A popular Christmas gift every year is the gift of learning your roots through programs like 23andMe, Ancestry.com, etc. So, what better day to do that than today?