• A 72-year-old Dublin man was arrested in Utah and will be extradited to Ohio to face federal child exploitation charges.
• Wade Christofferson is accused of sexually abusing two children, one in Ohio and one in Utah, in at least 15 to 20 instances.

A Dublin man will return to Ohio to face federal child exploitation charges after authorities discovered a modified play area in his attic with children’s writing on the walls, court records say.

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Ohio said 72-year-old Wade Christofferson is accused of sexually abusing at least two children who were under the age of 10. There were at least 15 to 20 instances of abuse, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Christofferson is charged with attempting to sexually exploit a minor, coercion and enticement. Authorities arrested him on Nov. 20 in Utah.

Court records say Dublin police received a report about Christofferson on Nov. 12. An investigation determined one alleged victim lives in Ohio, and there is a second, who lived in Utah.

That same day, Dublin police searched Christofferson’s Wynford Drive home. Court records say a modified attic area of the home was accessible through a child-sized door with “H Potter” written on it. Inside that area, court records say there were children’s writing on the walls, as well as a mattress, pillows and blankets on the floor.

Additional investigation found searches on Christofferson’s phone for “In Ohio do clergy have to report child abuse confessions” and for defense attorneys who represent people accused of sex crimes, court records say.

According to court records, Christofferson had a sexually explicit FaceTime call with one of the victims that was overheard. In the call, Christofferson asked the child to see her “snow” and “friends,” code words for genitals he had taught her, court records say.

Christofferson is accused of sending coded letters to the Utah victim that would include handwritten messages he labeled “Top Secret.” 

In one letter, Christofferson referenced seeing the child’s genitals while on a FaceTime call, as well as saying he would teach the child “games” that are believed to be code for sexual activity, court records say. 

Christofferson is currently being held in Utah while awaiting extradition back to Ohio.

Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@dispatch.com or on Bluesky at @bethanybruner.dispatch.com.

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.