A serial killer on the loose…county prosecutor hiding evidence…a man executed for a crime he didn’t commit…

 

            Like all good crime stories, this one’s complicated. But stick with me.

            Someone was killing little girls in the Akron/Canton region in the early 80’s. 12-year-old Tina Harmon from Creston, in 1981. 12-year-old Krista Harrison from Marshallville in 1982. And, 10-year-old Debbie Smith of Massillon, in 1983. A city of Akron worker named Bob Buell became the lead suspect after police discovered evidence linking him to these murders inside his Doylestown home. He was executed for Krista’s murder in 2002.

            In 2006, a box of Buell’s handwritten notes found its way to me. Inside was a mountain of circumstantial evidence that suggested it was not Buell, but his nephew, who committed these crimes.

            At the time of Krista’s murder, Buell’s nephew was the only person living at the house in Doylestown. He was not working the day Krista was abducted. The day her body was dumped, the nephew called off work and appeared later that evening with a bandaged arm. Less than a week later, he abruptly moved back to the Steubenville area. A fingerprint found on the plastic used to wrap Krista’s body did not match Bob Buell.

            The nephew was the lead witness in the state’s case against Buell and the assistant prosecuting attorney who question him in front of a Grand Jury is now the County Prosecutor in Wayne County, Martin Frantz. During that testimony, I discovered, the nephew said it had been his idea, as well as his uncle’s, to abducted women.

            The evidence in Harrison’s case was destroyed after Buell’s execution. But evidence, including clothing which may contain the killer’s DNA, still exists in Tina Harmon’s case file.

            Last year, I helped Tina’s family gain permission to access Tina’s case file. But a couple days before that was to occur, Frantz and Wayne County Sheriff Thomas Maurer suddenly announced that the case was to be reopened and evidence would be tested for DNA.

            It now appears that was a merely a sly ruse to keep us from accessing that cold case file and testing the evidence ourselves, because we discovered in July that no such DNA test had ever been ordered by Frantz or Maurer.

            It’s the sort of blatant cover-up that screams for attention. And finally, it’s beginning to get some.

            Last week, the Ohio Innocence Project, a team of young lawyers who volunteer their time to keep innocent men off Death Row and out of prison, sent Wayne County a letter demanding they preserve all evidence in Tina Harmon’s case. It’s the first step toward possible litigation that could force the state to conduct the DNA test it had promised Tina’s family a year ago.

            And if that DNA really is Buell’s nephew? Then the state of Ohio has executed a man for a crime he did not commit. Such a coupe could spell the end for capital punishment in this state.

            It’s a big stakes game. And it just got interesting. Stay tuned!