Top 10 stories: Bigfoot howl and jail officer indictment kick off year-end review
The year that has been 2022 was marked with memories that ranged in scope from local to national and in emotion from gut-wrenching to heartwarming.
The year opened under the effects of the lingering remains of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of which will still be felt, potentially, the rest of the decade.
Only a few months in, residents of North Central Ohio were visited often by candidates making their cases ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
And, throughout the year, everyone in Richland County was reminded each time they opened their pocketbooks that inflation was rising on an ever-quickening pace, with no clear end in sight.
As 2022 comes to a close, the News Journal will review Richland County's 10 most impactful articles based on readers' page views and staff input. Today we will look at the 10th and 9th biggest local stories of the year.
No. 10: Bigfoot howl recorded locally and heard worldwide
In the early morning hours of July 3, 2022, Suzanne Ferencak was outside her rural home in Mohican country, listening for Bigfoot.
It was a ritual she had been practicing since her first encounter nearly a decade earlier. Suddenly, she heard a howl, then another. Fortunately, she had an audio recording in her back yard.
"This is the first time I ever recorded howls," Ferencak said.
The two-minute-long recording — which she shared with the News Journal — was described by an analyst as having "high potential" for containing the sound of one Bigfoot attempting to locate another.
"The first howler has a brassy tone to its voice that can be indicative of (Sasquatch)," the analyst wrote. "There are a couple features in the execution, such as shifting to an 'AA' phoneme at the end of the call that are indicative as well, most noticeable in the last two howls."
The article was shared by USA Today as well as other national and European media outlets.
Local attention on Bigfoot continued in September when a dozen eyewitnesses gathered and told an acclaimed Sasquatch researcher during a town hall event at Pleasant Hill Lake Park that the creature lived in the region.
Matt Moneymaker, best known for his role on Animal Planet's television show "Finding Bigfoot," told the crowd of more than 100 that the surrounding area provides great food and shelter for the elusive creature.
It was important for them to share their encounters, Moneymaker told them, because when people talk about seeing Bigfoot, it makes it easier for others to come forward without fear of being ridiculed.
No. 9: Ex-jail corrections officer indicted in Rios' death
A former Richland County Jail corrections officer was indicted in December on three felony charges in connection with the September 2019 death of an inmate who had been forcibly subdued by corrections officers and died in a hospital eight days later.
The officer, Mark D. Cooper of Shiloh, was served the indictment Dec. 15 in connection with the death of Alexander Rios, 28, who tried to flee down a jail hallway and was tackled and held down by corrections officers in an altercation captured on video.
A grand jury indicted Cooper on a first-degree felony count of involuntary manslaughter, a third degree felony count of involuntary manslaughter, and a third-degree felony count of reckless homicide.
The Richland County Sheriff's Office a year ago reached a wrongful death settlement with Rios' family for $4 million.
The jail video obtained by the News Journal in 2021 through a public records request shows the five corrections officers on Sept. 19, 2019, holding Rios down, stepping and kneeling on his back while another punches the inmate in the head and presses his head into the concrete floor as they tried to handcuff him.
One officer placed one foot on Rios’ back and lifted his other foot off the ground, putting his full weight on the inmate for several seconds.
Rios could be heard gasping.
About two minutes after he ran out of the cell, Rios became unresponsive.
Rios was taken to OhioHealth Mansfield and never regained consciousness. He was removed from a ventilator and died on Sept. 27, 2019.
Tomorrow: The News Journal's countdown of the year's top stories continues with a look at the #7 and 8 stories of 2022.
ztuggle@gannett.com
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Twitter: @zachtuggle
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Top 10 stories: Bigfoot howl and Rios death kick off year-end review
