Defrosting Cold Cases

The first #crimechat of 2013 is dedicated to a cold case with zero media attention: the shooting death of Richard Lee Waggoner. Imagine losing a family member to a murder that never got solved. Nobody to stand trial, nobody convicted for this crime. Nobody who can bring you any news. And then the silence … [...]

Can you help the Chillicothe authorities in Ohio identify someone? In 1975, a man’s body was pulled from the Scioto River. He was naked and his ankles were tied with rope. The autopsy showed that the man died by drowning but the tied ankles leave authorities with many questions. Was this a murder? The biggest question that [...]

The Champaign County Sheriff’s Office (Ohio) is reopening the cold cases of James Larry Jones and Julie Freeman. Detectives will go over these cases again with a fine tooth comb. Both cases are from the 90s but the cases are not related. James Larry Jones (60) was found dead near a bathroom on New Years Eve day, [...]

Prosecutors have opposed testing, and judges have refused it, but Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Attorney General Richard Cordray wrote today to prosecutors in seven criminal cases urging them to allow DNA testing that could confirm guilt or prove innocence. The cases in question include one man on death row, two prisoners serving long sentences, [...]

Edward Edwards, of Louisville, Ky., was arrested after DNA connected him to the deaths of Tim Hack and his girlfriend, Kelly Drew, who disappeared from a Wisconsin wedding reception in August 1980. Their bodies were found weeks later in the woods. Investigators believe Hack was stabbed and Drew strangled. Auhorities said the state crime lab matched Edwards’ [...]

A bill that supporters say will create a vital expansion of DNA evidence availability and improve investigations into heinous crimes is expected to finally get a vote in the House next week. It has been two months since a House committee voted 8-2 to move Senate Bill 77 to the full House. The GOP-controlled Senate [...]

“Springfield fire investigators are trying to track down the person or people behind several bottle bomb explosions near a playground.” Investigators called to the playground hope to find fingerprints on the bottles. If you have any infornation, please contact Lt. Jeff Lyday of the Springfield (OH) Fire and Rescue Division at 1(937) 324-7605. Check out the [...]

Sadly, we have been reading in the news that Kenneth Richey, a former death row inmate from Ohio, who was released on January 7, 2008, has been in trouble with the law. A bit of history here, is in order. In 1987, Kenny was sentenced to death for the murder of two years old Cynthia [...]