Aunt says Vonda Ferguson took good care of children

Aunt says Vonda Ferguson took good care of children

By Natalie Morales

Staff Writer

An aunt who raised Vonda Ferguson, charged with abusing five of her six adopted children, said she can’t imagine her niece harming her family.

Sandra Blackman of Springfield said as far as she knew Vonda Ferguson and her husband James took good care of the children they adopted after finding out Vonda couldn’t conceive.

“They always brought the kids over for Christmas,” Blackman said. “They always had a song prepared to sing for me. All of them were always just as sweet as they wanted to be.”

After an investigation that began with reported abuse in 2000, Vonda and James Ferguson, of 1337 Northfield Court, were indicted Friday on 63 counts of endangering children, rape and assault through Union County Common Pleas Court.

Blackman described the children as polite, mannerly and well dressed.

Compared to other kids, Blackman said the Fergusons’ children were very quiet, but she said she thought they were just reserved from a strict religious upbringing.

“If I’d have thought the kids were being mistreated, I’d have had a fit,” said Blackman, who reserved an apartment wall for family photos, including some of the Ferguson children.

The Fergusons lived in Springfield when they adopted their first child in the early 1990s, Blackman said.

They eventually moved to Marysville and continued adopting. Only two of children were related to each other biologically, she said.

Vonda homeschooled some of the children through the years, and James has worked at Honda for more than 20 years, Blackman said.

Vonda thought that when she and James signed the paperwork to give up custody of their children in 2004, the allegations would end, Blackman said, adding that she hadn’t expected the charges earlier this month.

“It was hard enough for them losing the kids — that was terrible,” she said. “Now to go through this again ...”

Though Blackman said she would like to contact the children, she wasn’t told where they were taken and hasn’t heard from them since.

Blackman did not deny the children were disciplined and said the family believed in spanking as punishment, but she did not believe the punishment was extreme or out of line.

Having visited all the homes the Fergusons lived in over the years, she said she had no reason to believe they were being mistreated.

“I can’t get in my head that this is what’s going on,” she said.