COLUMBUS, Ohio — Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” has a storied history as a New York Times bestseller, as the then-31-year-old’s introduction to the nation as a “Trump whisperer,” as a divisive subject among Appalachian scholars, and, eventually, as a Ron Howard-directed movie.

Its latest role? Secretly transporting drugs into an Ohio prison.

The book was one of three items whose pages 30-year-old Austin Siebert, of Maumee southwest of Toledo, has been convicted of spraying with narcotics and then shipping to Grafton Correctional Institution disguised as Amazon orders. The others were a 2019 GRE Handbook and a separate piece of paper, according to court documents.

On Nov. 18, US District Judge Donald C. Nugent sentenced Siebert to more than a decade in prison for his role in the drug trafficking scheme.

Siebert and an inmate at the prison were caught in a recorded conversation discussing the shipment. He either didn’t know or didn’t care that a central theme of “Hillbilly Elegy” is the impacts of narcotics addiction on Vance’s family and the broader culture.

“Is it Hillbilly?” the inmate asks.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Siebert replies, momentarily confused. Then, suddenly remembering, he says, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s the book, the book I’m reading. (Expletive) romance novel.”

A Republican-backed bill aimed at reducing access to abortion pills could make it harder to buy other prescription drugs, too

A Republican-backed bill aimed at reducing access to abortion pills in Ohio could make it harder to buy other prescription drugs, too.

House Bill 324, which passed the Ohio House 59-28 on Nov. 19, would require an in-person visit and follow-up appointment for prescribed drugs with “severe adverse effects” in more than 5% of cases. Doctors couldn’t prescribe these medications via a virtual appointment using telehealth.

“Many Ohioans are receiving medications from providers they may never meet face-to-face,” said Rep. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, who called the proposed law “life-saving.”

If the bill becomes law, the Ohio Department of Health would be required to create a list of dangerous drugs with a certain percentage of “severe adverse effects.” Severe adverse effects are defined as death, infection or hemorrhaging requiring hospitalization, organ failure or sepsis.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Homicide detectives have made an arrest in connection with the 2020 fatal stabbing of a woman found in a truck on the Southeast Side.

According to court documents, Dominique Edwards was arrested Wednesday and charged in the murder his wife, Infhon’e Edwards, who was found in a pickup truck parked at the Columbus Park Apartments complex in the Milbrook area on Dec. 14, 2020.

A years long investigation placed Infhon’e Edwards and her husband, Dominique Edwards, at the apartment complex the morning of Dec. 11 based on phone records. Video surveillance from the complex showed Infhon’e Edwards pull into a parking space at about 5 a.m. and after about an hour, an unidentified man exited the driver’s side door and walked away from the scene.

Infhon’e’s mother, Rosemarie Dickerson, previously told NBC4 that she recognized the man by his physical appearance, but police had not named any suspect publicly.

“I [recognize] his body build,” Dickerson said. “You couldn’t see his face when he got out, he had a white towel over his face.”

Edwards was stabbed three times on the left side of her chest and twice in her face. Her remains were then placed in the trunk of her Chevrolet Avalanche. 

Her body was discovered on Dec. 14, two days after her husband, Dominique, called police to report her missing. For a previous report on this story view the video player above.

Dickerson told NBC4 that Dominique Edwards called her to say that Infhon’e Edwards had not come home the night of Dec. 10 and asked if she had stayed with a friend.

“When I kept calling her phone and there was no answer, it was like it was off,” Dickerson said. “I [told her husband] ‘report her missing’ then I went onto Facebook, and I just asked everybody ‘has anybody seen Infhon’e, we can’t find her.’”

Police noted that interviews with friends and family revealed that the victim “always wore rings on her fingers,” and she was reportedly wearing the jewelry on the night of Dec. 10. But when her body was discovered, she had no jewelry on.

It was eventually discovered that a ring Infhon’e Edwards was wearing on Dec. 10 was later “disposed of” by Dominique Edwards after her death.

An arrest warrant was issued for Dominique Edwards on Nov. 13 and he was arrested Wednesday. A Franklin County Municipal Court judge issued him a $1 million bond on Thursday and scheduled a preliminary hearing for Nov. 26.