Ohio Mysteries

It took five years to identify one of the people who was with 9-year-old Erica Baker at the moment she took her last breath. But without a body, police only have only that witnesses' word about what happened - and the fact that he won't reveal the body's location suggests he might not be telling the whole story. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twit...

In 1985, 14-year-old Swanton, Ohio youth Lori Ann Hill got into a fight with her boyfriend at a Halloween party and walked away. She didn't make it home. Her nude and tortured body was found a few days later. More than two decades later, a trial against a former boyfriend ended up in a hung jury. And new revelations about a serial killer who lived in her neighborhood may be offering up yet another...

In 2006, Ohio State University medical student Brian Shaffer vanished into thin air. A grainy image captured on a camera at the Ugly Tuna Saloona bar showed him standing outside the bar chatting with a couple of women, then turning as if to return to the bar. He was never seen again, despite no camera capturing him ever leaving that bar. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon....

In 1851, at the second National Woman's Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, a runaway slave named Sojourner Truth used her compelling life as an argument in favor of gender equality. Her speech electrified the crowd and her catch phrase "Ain't I a woman?" became a battle cry for feminists. But did Truth really say the words for which she is most famous? 20th-century historians launched an effor...

In 1892, a man named John wrote a three-part series for the local Middletown, Ohio newspaper detailing two tragic events that led to at least 25 deaths in a cave leaking, presumably, natural gas. One event involved 21 escaping slaves, the other involved four geologists who went in but never came out. His tale led to a century of spelunkers trying to find the cave, but others have wondered if his p...

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the patent for the telephone. But historical evidence suggests the design Bell used was actually the invention of Barnesville, Ohio inventor Elisha Gray - who, by the way, also beat Bell to the US Patent Office by two hours. Was the patent examiner bribed to award the patent to Bell instead of Gray?  For the next century, historians would debate who deser...

In 1850, the passenger ship GP Griffith set sail with its new owner and more than 300 travelers hoping to start their new lives in America's growing midwest. But the three-day journey from Buffalo to Toledo stopped short of Cleveland when a fire of unknown origin burned the ship to the waterline, killing almost everyone. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries...

In 1981, young mom Janice Beidleman and her 18-month old son Brandon were on their way home after visiting relatives when they disappeared. That night, residents in a Columbus subdivision heard a woman's screams and a baby crying. Janice and Brandon were found dead the next day, but their killers have never been caught. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries...

In 2005, troopers responded to a call about a car that had driven off Greenwood Road near Rogers, Ohio in Columbiana County. The driver, 37-year-old Michael Williams, was dead. But the coroner would determine it wasn't the car accident that killed him. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: W...

In 1975, 13-year-old David Evans never returned home after heading out to skate at a local park in Boardman, Ohio. He was found dead days later, killed by a diabetic coma because he wasn't home to take his insulin. But who kept him from home, and then tried to hide his body in some bushes?  www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio...

In 1972, 12-year-old Brad Bellino was walking from his buddy's home in Boardman, Ohio to his own home when he vanished. His brutalized body was found a few days later, but his killer has never been found. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: Wrong Together, by Benjamin Marshall. https://www...

In 1980, Lynn Vest and her 2-year-old nephew Jeremy Pickens left her Columbus home to run some errands - and never returned. They were found later that night, both having been strangled and left in the back seat of their car after a robbery.  www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Music: Audionauti...

In 1982, Susan Wolff Cappel was walking to her car after work when a blue car cut her off. After a brief conversation with the driver, she slipped into the passenger side and drove off into oblivion. The young mother, in the midst of a bitter divorce, left behind her purse, her ID, her money, her clothes - and her 18-month old son. Did she go willingly, or did someone end her life? www.ohiomysteri...

There is an inherent danger to hunting, with an average of 75 people killed in the U.S. and Canada every year while in the act of hunting everything from deer to turkey. We discuss the 2013 unsolved case of Larry Bradley in Gallia County, the 1992 unsolved case of Ronald Pohl in Meigs County, and reflect on the case of 1990s serial killer Thomas Lee Dillon, who preyed on Ohio outdoorsmen.  www.ohi...

In 1983, Wyoming, Ohio businesswoman Dorothea Irwin was found dead in the home she was trying to sell. She had been slashed and stabbed repeatedly, and had even broken her arm trying to defend herself. No arrests have ever been made in the case, but Wyoming police said they spent a good deal of time looking at her son, John James Irwin, who had spent several years in prison for embezzlement and la...

In June of 2020, the national database NAMUS included 105 unidentified remains in the custody of various agencies across Ohio. We share the stories behind five cases where learning a victim's identity was the first order of business. The cases of Dorothy Madden in Lorain County, Deborah Morgan in Hamilton County, Dana Lowery in Marion County, Wayne Griffith in Ashtabula County, and a still unknown...

In 1997, Clinton County prosecutors pulled off the nearly impossible. They won conviction of a man for a murder in which they could not produce a body. Vince Doan is now serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend, Carrie Culberson, in Blanchester, Ohio. But more than 20 years later, Carrie's family says there will never be peace until they can bring Carrie's missing remains home. www.ohiom...

A few days after Christmas In 1981, Chillicothe police found Harriet Kaltenbach shot dead in a running car. As they pieced together the erratic timeline of her final days and hours, they learned she may have been trying to stay ahead of a killer that promised she wouldn't make it to the new year. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysterie...

In 1982, 21-year-old Leon Moncer started acting paranoid, especially after a letter arrived with glossy magazine letters pasted into a warning: "Leave it alone or you're dead." He grew overly protective of his 3-year-old daughter, refusing to let her out of his sight. Then one night he left his home in Bellaire, Ohio, never to return. Did the letter writer follow through on  a threat, or did Leon...

In 1903, Agatha Reichlin, the pretty and popular sister of a Lorain priest, was murdered in her own bed. A community anxious for a quick resolution to the local tragedy turned their sites on a visiting priest. An inquisition found that suspicion to be unfounded, leaving a now 117-year-old mystery with no obvious motive and no strong suspect. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patr...

At least half a dozen people died mysteriously when Dr. Michael Swango began his surgical internship at Ohio State University Medical Center. By the time authorities had enough evidence to arrest Swango, he'd accumulated a 16-year career that may have made him one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. The fact that he is serving time for four deaths, however, means there are doz...

In 1957, Akron father and cookware salesman Lawrence Bader failed to return from a Lake Erie fishing trip, and after his damaged boat washed ashore, he was declared lost and legally dead. But four days later, he entered an Omaha, Nebraska bar calling himself Fritz Johnson, a man with a head full of false memories but a charming and flamboyant personality that turned him into a radio and TV persona...

In 1994, Brian Foguth offered to fill in for another employee where he worked as a clerk at the Duke and Duchess convenience store in Portage County's Brimfield Township. In the early morning hours, a robber took not only the cash register money, but Brian's life. www.ohiomysteries.com feedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomyste...

Three days after Christmas in 1964, Beverly Jarosz - a 16-year-old junior in Garfield Heights - would wake up for her last morning in the bedroom where someone would stab her to death that very afternoon. Fifty-six years later, her killer still walks free. www.ohiomysteries.comfeedback@ohiomysteries.com www.patreon.com/ohiomysteries www.twitter.com/mysteriesohio www.facebook.com/ohiomysteries Musi...

In 1986, the part-time town marshall of Belle Center took a call from someone who feared for the safety of another town resident. Murray Griffin responded to the call, driving the three blocks from his own home to that of Phyllis Griffin, but by the time the Logan County Sheriff arrived with back up for Griffin, it was too late. Both Griffin and the woman he went to protect were dead. www.ohiomyst...