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2012's most viewed stories on Walworth County Today

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Walworth County Today's most viewed stories

Check out the most viewed stories on the Walworth County Today website in 2012.

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WALWORTH COUNTY — These are the news stories that drew the most viewers to Walworth County Today's website during 2012:

An 11-year-old Delavan girl was killed in a crash along Wisconsin Highway 89 in the town of Whitewater on Oct. 25. Avery McCarthy, a passenger in a car driven by a 17-year-old, died at the scene of the single-car accident. Read story HERE.

John Brown, 22, was shot by a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy May 5 after threatening suicide and then threatening deputies with a knife at his mother’s home in the town of Lyons. Brown later died, but Deputy Wayne Blanchard’s actions were later justified by the county’s district attorney. Read story HERE.

Elkhorn contractor Mann Brothers defaulted on a $6 million project in Fitchburg in 2012. A Wisconsin Department of Transportation engineer noted the company was behind on payment to sub-contractors on other projects as well. Read story HERE.

A Walworth County Public Works Department employee died after being struck by a public works vehicle during a road repair project July 23. Jerry Himebauch, 66, of the town of Lyons, was part of a public works crew doing chip sealing on County Highway J in the Town of Troy when he was struck. Read story HERE.

A Lake Geneva couple each faces 10 felony counts of physically abusing their six adopted children—ranging in age from 9 to 17—after being accused of offenses ranging from spraying the kids with pepper spray to making them stand naked in the snow. Complaints from the children to the Walworth County Department of Health and Social Services led police to investigate the home of Martin and Kathleen O’Brien, both 49. Read story HERE.

An Illinois State Police trooper was killed Labor Day in what authorities are describing as a freak boating accident on Lake Como in the town of Geneva.Illinois State Master Sergeant Patrick O'Driscoll, 48, an Illinois state trooper for 26 years, died Sept. 3 when the jet ski he was riding with his 9-year-old daughter collided with a power boat. Read story HERE.

Rita Crundwell, owner of Mari-J Ranch in Beloit, was accused in a $30 million scheme to defraud the city of Dixon, Ill., where she had been comptroller since the early 1980s. Crundwell used the money to help her business, pay of credit cards and purchase luxuries like jewelry. In November, she plead guilty to charges of embezzlement Read story HERE.

The city of Delavan canceled its July 4th fireworks at Veteran's Park, joining a number of other area communities which banned fireworks during a summer plagued by drought. Most municipalities also put open burning bans in place during the summer of 2012. Read story HERE.

A fire did substantial damage to Carvetti’s, a Lake Geneva restaurant June 5. Fire fighters from half a dozen area municipalities helped fight the blaze. No fire fighters or employees were injured. Read story HERE.

A Darien man died Aug. 29 when his ultralight aircraft crashed in a cornfield in the town of Walworth. John C. Evans, 61, was the pilot and sole occupant of the aircraft, which went down in a field alongside the BigFoot Air Field. Read story HERE.