A rural Steuben County woman called the sheriff's department Thursday night because she found items on and around her property that are commonly used to make meth.A teenager died Monday in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash – just a day after graduating from a Paulding County, Ohio, high school.
Troopers say Nathan Plummer, 18, of Paulding, was driving a 2005 Honda motorcycle northwest of Haviland, Ohio, when the crash happened, according to troopers at the Van Wert post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Plummer was driving south on County Road 107, south of Township Road 72 in Paulding County, when he lost control of the motorcycle and struck a phone junction box in a ditch on the right side of the road just before 10 a.m. Monday, troopers said.
He was ejected from the motorcycle and landed in a field. Paramedics transported Plummer by ambulance to Paulding County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The day before the crash, Plummer graduated from Wayne Trace High School, which has an enrollment of about 450 students, according to Brian Gerber, superintendent of Wayne Trace Schools.
Gerber said he had known Plummer personally for about three years and described the graduate as a “well-liked student” who always had a smile on his face.
“He was full of life,” Gerber said, adding that Plummer planned to attend the University of Cincinnati, where he would pursue becoming an information specialist.
During his time at Wayne Trace, Plummer played on the school’s basketball team, was a member of Future Farmers of America, worked as a teacher’s aide and was a homecoming attendant his sophomore year, Gerber said.
“This is just a heartbreaker for all of us,” he said. “It’s a tragedy to the community and to the school. (He was) just one of those model students that you are proud to have in your district.”
Troopers say Plummer was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash but it was not properly strapped. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Alcohol was not a factor.
