Autopsy reveals woman drowned

A 53-year-old Connellsville woman who jumped to her death from the West Crawford Avenue Bridge last week died as a result of asphyxiation due to drowning the Fayette County Coroner’s office revealed today.
Fayette County Deputy Coroner Marisa Springer said the death of Monica Yatsko has been ruled a suicide.
“We are still waiting for a toxicology screen but everything was consistent with her jumping off the bridge into the water. There was no additional injuries or trauma,” Springer said.
Emergency personnel recovered Yatsko’s body from Youghiogheny River after she jumped from the bridge around 9 a.m. May 21.
For more information, see Josh Krysak’s story in tomorrow’s Herald-Standard.

Woman’s body pulled from river

Rescuers search for a woman who jumped from the Crawford Avenue Bridge into the raging Youghiogheny River below Wednesday morning.
Photo by Ed Cope
DUNBAR TWP. — Emergency officials pulled the body of an unidentified woman from the Youghiogheny River this morning after she jumped from the West Crawford Avenue Bridge in Connellsville.
Officials recovered the woman’s body about a mile downstream at Ridge Boulevard after she apparently jumped from the bridge around 9 a.m.
Fayette County Deputy Coroner Ross Rock pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
Her identity was not immediately available.
For more information, see tomorrow’s Herald-Standard.

Teenagers waived charges to court

CONNELLSVILLE — Two teenagers charged with robbing two girls in East Park last month waived the charges to court Thursday after negotiating a tentative agreement with the Fayette County District Attorney prosecutor.

Bryan Tate, 19, of 323 E. Crawford Ave., Connellsville and Darle Casey Jones, 19, of Brown Street, Everson, were scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Ronald Haggerty, but through their attorneys moved the matter to Fayette County Court of Common Pleas in exchange for a deal that will require Jones to serve three to six years in prison and Tate to spend two to four years in prison, if approved by a judge.

For more information, see Patty Yauger’s story in tomorrow’s Herald-Standard.

Connellsville man dies from injuries in crash

A Connellsville man who was one of six people injured a two-vehicle crash in North Union Township Wednesday moring has died.
Joshua B. Basinger, 20, died at Ruby Memorial Hospital from injuries suffered in the crash.
Basinger was one of six people injured in the crash at 7:48 a.m. on Northgate Highway.
According to state police Trooper Timothy A. Kirsch, the crash occurred when a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Matthew Morse of Connellsville and a Toyota 4-Runner driven by Paul Kania of Smock collided.
For more information, see Josh Krysak’s article in tomorrow’s Herald-Standard.

UPDATE: Six injured in North Union Township crash

Six people were injured in a violent two-vehicle crash on Northgate Highway in North Union Township this morning.
According to state police Trooper Timothy A. Kirsch, the crash occurred at 7:48 a.m. when a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Matthew Morse of Connellsville and a Toyota 4-Runner driven by Paul Kania of Smock collided.
Kirsch said Morse was traveling westbound on Northgate Highway when the car collided with Kania’s vehicle near the intersection with Old Pittsburgh Road.
Morse, 19, along with passengers Joshua Basinger, 20, of Connellsville and Brandon Bargiband, 14, of Scottdale suffered major injuries in the crash.
Kania and his two children suffered minor injuries, Kirsch said.
For more information, see Josh Krysak’s article in Thursday’s Herald-Standard.

Connellsville student jumps from moving school van

CONNELLSVILLE — A Connellsville Area School District junior high student was transported by medical helicopter to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh Wednesday morning after he allegedly jumped out of a school van while it was traveling in the 1500 block of West Crawford Avenue.

Dr. Philip Savini, director of curriculum K-12 at Connellsville, confirmed the accident but said he was unable to release the identity of the student, who was the only occupant in the van.

“From my understanding, he jumped,” said Savini, who added the student’s parents were notified.

For more information, see Joyce Koballa’s story in tomorrow’s Herald-Standard.

Local photographer has seen it all

(Editor’s note: This is in the second story in a three-part series)

Charlie Rosendale has seen it all in his career as a newspaper photographer, starting in 1969 with the Connellsville Courier and ending earlier this year with the Herald-Standard, where he had served as chief photographer since the mid-1980s.

Rosendale remembers well his early days with fellow photographer Ed Cope at the Courier.

“It was a learning experience. We were both out of high school with no background in newspaper photography,’’ said Rosendale. “We learned on all the old equipment — 4×5 Graflex cameras and 330s and the first Nikkormat.’’

Eventually, Rosendale spearheaded advances in technology for the newsroom, bringing the Herald-Standard digital and color photography.
“And now we’re into the Web and video,’’ he said. “I was on the starting end. I don’t know where it will end up.’’

See Frances Borsodi Zajac’s full story in tomorrow’s Herald-Standard.