Randy Clark, left, with Dexter City Auction Gallery, and Chris Sieverdes, right, founder of the Millersburg Glass Museum in Millersburg, Ohio, hold a rare carnival glass vase which sold for a record $250,000 at auction in November 2024. Sieverdes purchased the vase for his museum with Clark as auctioneer. (File Photo)

PARKERSBURG – A record-setting auction, state and national issues and the continuing investigation into the disappearance of Gretchen Fleming were among the most viewed stories on NewsandSentinel.com in 2025.

The story viewed the most times as of Dec. 17 was a February article about a rare carnival glass vase which sold for $250,000 at Dexter City Auction, shattering the previous world record of $175,000 for a carnival punch bowl set from Wheeling.

The unique cobalt blue vase, previously unknown to collectors, became the ninth documented piece of its kind. It was auctioned on Nov. 30, 2024, drawing interest from around the country, said Randy Clark, an auctioneer at Dexter City Auction Gallery. Four bidders were present in the auction house, with an additional collector joining by phone from Texas.

Bidding commenced at $100,000 and quickly escalated past $200,000.

The final bidder was Chris Sieverdes, founder of the Millersburg Glass Museum in Millersburg, Ohio, who secured the rare vase with a winning bid of $250,000, which rose to $275,000 with the buyer’s premium. The piece is now displayed at the museum.

A missing person flyer from the FBI on the disappearance of Vienna resident Gretchen Fleming. Fleming remain unaccounted for. (File Image)

Next was a May story about the FBI’s Pittsburgh office releasing a poster seeking assistance in finding Vienna resident Gretchen Fleming, who remains missing as of the end of 2025.

The poster describes Fleming as 5-foot-2 and weighing 125 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. It does not limit the geographical scope of its plea, directing anyone with information concerning her to contact their local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate.

Fleming, a Parkersburg High School graduate, was 27 years old and living with her grandparents in Vienna when her family reported her missing on Dec. 12, 2022. Police determined she was last seen at the My Way Lounge at Fifth and Juliana streets in the early morning hours of Dec. 4. They identified a person of interest in the case, but that person has not been charged in connection with the case.

As of December, which marked the third anniversary of her disappearance, Parkersburg Police Chief Matthew Board said the case remains “active” and is still being investigated on a daily basis.

Those with any information are encouraged to contact local law enforcement. The Parkersburg Police Department can be contacted at 304-424-8444. Anonymous tips may be left online at ppd.parkersburgwv.gov.

Gregory A. Casto, center, enters a Wood County Circuit courtroom Monday, following his attorney, Bill Merriman. A motion to set bond for Casto was denied by Judge J.D. Beane. (File Photo)

The third most-viewed story came in August when the mother of a 22-year-old woman killed in a February off-road vehicle crash filed a civil lawsuit in Wood County Circuit Court, alleging negligence against a former Parkersburg Police officer, his mother and the estate of another individual who died in the wreck.

The complaint, filed Aug. 15 by attorneys for Bridgett Barre, sought damages on behalf of the estate of her daughter, Chloe Barre, who died Feb. 10, 2025, when a Polaris RZR side-by-side crashed on Sams Creek Road.

Also killed in the crash was 23-year-old Joseph Lowers II.

The lawsuit names as defendants former Parkersburg officer Edward McComas III, his mother Jessica McComas and Joseph Lowers, administrator of his late son’s estate.

The Wood County Sheriff’s Office identified Lowers as the driver of the vehicle, but the lawsuit claims it was McComas.

In this Feb. 21 photo, Republican state Sen. Laura Wakim Chapman, chair of the West Virginia Senate Health and Human Resources Committee, holds a map of the U.S. on the state Senate floor depicting the states, including West Virginia, that do not allow religious or philosophical exemptions for required school vaccinations. (File Photo)

The fourth most-viewed story was about the West Virginia House of Delegates’ Health and Human Services Committee in March removing a proposed religious and philosophical exemption from a bill dealing with West Virginia’s school-age immunization requirements.

Instead, the amended bill would have allowed a licensed physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner to submit a written statement to the school administrator or operator of a state-regulated child care center providing a medical exemption for a specific required immunization if that medical professional determines the vaccination could be detrimental to the child’s health or is not appropriate. House Health Committee Vice Chairman Michael Hite, R-Berkeley, said that would shore up existing medical exemptions allowed under state code.

The heavily amended bill ultimately died on the House floor, so an executive order by Gov. Patrick Morrisey allowing for religious and conscientious objections was not codified. The governor issued additional guidance to the Department of Health and county school systems later in the spring for parents seeking religious exemptions. But the state Board of Education instructed county school systems to follow existing code in a unanimous June vote.

The issue wound up in the courts, with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals granting a motion in December for direct review of Raleigh County Circuit Judge Michael Froble’s Nov. 26 order siding with parents seeking religious exemptions, bypassing the state’s Intermediate Court of Appeals.

Froble ruled that West Virginia’s Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023 gave Morrisey the authority to issue an executive order allowing such exemptions. The Supreme Court issued a stay of that order pending resolution of an appeal.

State Code requires children attending school in West Virginia to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown.

In the fifth most-viewed story, a Vienna man was arraigned in January over alleged online attempts to solicit someone to commit murders.

Christopher Patrick Cunningham, 37, Vienna, was arraigned in Wood County Magistrate Court on three counts of solicitation to commit murder.

An investigation that started in August 2024 established Cunningham utilized Facebook Messenger to attempt to solicit others to commit murder. A Vienna Police officer wrote he observed numerous transactions that had taken place that correspond with the conversations. The conversations began approximately May 2022 and lasted until August 2024.

In October, Cunningham was sentenced to one to three years in prison, with credit for 296 days served, after earlier pleading guilty to the lesser included offense of solicitation to commit a felony crime of violence, malicious assault, according to documents from Wood County Circuit Court.

The sixth most-viewed story was a November notice from the West Virginia State Police’s Parkersburg Detachment announcing a sobriety checkpoint on West Virginia 95 near Kemper Street.

The purpose of the checkpoint, in conjunction with the Commission on Drunk Driving Prevention, was to prevent and deter impaired driving.

The State Police held a number of such checkpoints throughout the year.

A June story about two judges being admonished by the West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission after drawing attention to issues within the state’s Child Protective Services was the seventh most viewed.

The commission issued the admonishment against 3rd Circuit Judge Tim Sweeney in Pleasants County on June 12, accusing him of violating four rules of the Code of Judicial Conduct, related to public statements and social media activity concerning an ongoing child abuse and neglect case.

In an order issued on Feb. 3, Sweeney appointed several state Department of Human Services and Bureau of Social Services officials to report to the Ritchie County Courthouse on Feb. 20 and receive assignments as Child Protective Services workers. The order was the result of an October 2024 abuse and neglect hearing where Sweeney ordered a child be placed in an out-of-state treatment facility. According to the admonishment, the case fell through the cracks and local CPS workers did not meet certain deadlines.

Sweeney conducted interviews with The Parkersburg News and Sentinel and WV MetroNews regarding this order. He later canceled the order after meeting with officials and working out an agreement.

Despite the alleged violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct, the JIC found that formal discipline against Sweeney was not necessary given his impeccable judicial record, choosing instead to publicly admonish him.

The JIC also admonished 8th Judicial Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers for similar matters. On Feb. 29, the Associated Press reported that Akers placed DoHS in a one-year “improvement period” under a court-appointed monitor to report on the state’s use of unlicensed facilities – such as 4-H camps and hotels – due to reports of violent incidents involving children in state custody.

In July, both Sweeney and Akers filed objections to the admonishments. No further action in the case had been reported as of Dec. 17.

A February story about the effects of a number of executive orders issued over two weeks by President Donald Trump affecting federal employees and how they were being felt in West Virginia was the eighth most-viewed story.

After taking office for a second term on Jan. 20, Trump issued several executive orders as he sought to remake the federal government to follow his public policy priorities. They included a hiring freeze for all unfilled federal civilian positions in the executive branch, with orders for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget and the new Department of Government Efficiency to submit plans by April 20 to reduce the size of the executive branch. He also ordered executive branch departments and agencies to terminate all remote work arrangements and require employees to return to in-person office work.

According to a report released in December 2024 by the Congressional Research Service, West Virginia was home to 17,338 federal workers as of March 2024, excluding U.S. Postal Service employees and employees of the legislative and judicial branches. That number also doesn’t include federal employees who live in West Virginia but work in the Washington, D.C./Virginia/Maryland metropolitan area.

According to the Associated Press, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump’s executive orders and actions taken by his administration, including the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE. In some cases, the president’s actions have been blocked, some have been upheld and others remain pending.

The ninth most-viewed story came in October with the announcement that a Wood County man had been arrested in connection with the 2014 murder of Vienna resident Cindy Ball.

Gregory A. Casto was indicted on charges of first-degree murder charge and concealment of a deceased human body by a special session of the Wood County Grand Jury and taken into custody without incident.

Ball’s body was discovered by hunters in a rural area of Wirt County on Oct. 24, 2014. According to West Virginia State Police at the time, Ball was reported missing on Oct. 23, a day after she was last seen leaving with someone from the Overtime Sports Bar on Emerson Avenue in Parkersburg.

In November, Wood County Circuit Judge J.D. Beane ruled that Casto, of Walker, would be denied bond.

Martha Jane Stephens, 66, of Waverly, was indicted on a charge of accessory after the fact to murder in the case and released on a $10,000 bond.

The 10th most-viewed story of 2025 came in January with the announcement that tax credit numbers allowing Mountain State residents to claim their first-time vehicle tax rebate on state tax returns were being mailed out by the West Virginia Tax Division.

In 2023, West Virginia lawmakers passed legislation permitting state vehicle property tax paid to counties to be refunded to taxpayers starting with their 2024 tax return. Those paying their vehicle property tax bill on time are eligible for the refund.

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Sign of the Screen Times

1. Carnival glass vase sells for world record price at Ohio auction

2. FBI releases Gretchen Fleming missing poster as investigation continues

3. Lawsuit filed in ATV wreck that killed 2

4. West Virginia House Health Committee removes religious, philosophical exemptions from vaccine bill

5. Vienna man charged with soliciting murders

6. West Virginia State Police announce sobriety checkpoint

7. Circuit Judge Sweeney admonished for bringing attention to West Virginia CPS issues

8. Trump executive orders affect federal employees in West Virginia

9. Indictment in 2014 murder of Cindy Ball

10. West Virginia vehicle property tax credit number needed for rebate