# 5 OHIO Unsolved True Crime Mysteries

An episode of [Lazy Chill True Crime](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1815534472), 19 Dec 2025, 47 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO9449778395.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] Hey friends, just dropping my usual reminder to hit the like
[0:03] and subscribe buttons and to dig the notification bell and turn
[0:06] on all the notifications. Also, before we start, drop a
[0:11] quick comment saying where you're listening from,
[0:14] especially if you're in Ohio. On a warm July morning in 1986,
[0:21] a scavenger searching for scrap in a Columbus, OH alley dumpster
[0:24] made a nightmarish discovery. Inside a leather strapped
[0:28] blanket bundle lay the remains of 19 year old David Hattaway, a
[0:33] local teenager with his whole life ahead of him.
[0:37] The gruesome condition of David's body and the mystery
[0:40] surrounding his final hours would haunt investigators and
[0:43] family alike for decades to come.
[0:47] July 21st, 1986 began like any other summer day near the Ohio
[0:52] State University campus. That was until a woman digging
[0:56] for aluminum cans peered into a dumpster between Chittenden and
[1:00] 11th Ave. and realized something was very wrong.
[1:04] She saw a large object wrapped tightly in a blanket and secured
[1:08] with leather straps, almost like a macabre package.
[1:12] Fearing the worst, she alerted someone to call the police.
[1:16] Officers arriving on the scene soon confirmed her suspicions.
[1:20] The bundle concealed a human body.
[1:23] This wouldn't be a John Doe case, though.
[1:26] A school identification card found with the remains
[1:30] identified the victim as David Hattaway, age 19.
[1:35] David was a recent Mifflin High School graduate working at a
[1:38] Sears warehouse in Columbus, and he still lived at home with his
[1:42] parents on the city's north side.
[1:45] Shockingly, an autopsy would later determine that the young
[1:48] man had died from a stab wound straight to his heart.
[1:51] Yet the stab itself wasn't the only horror.
[1:55] David's body had been viciously mutilated even after death.
[2:00] This was clearly no ordinary slaying, and it immediately set
[2:04] detectives on edge about the kind of perpetrator they were
[2:07] dealing with. In Piercing Together David's
[2:11] final hours, detectives learned that the teen had spent the
[2:14] weekend in the campus area enjoying a massive party.
[2:18] It was a come one come all bash at an apartment complex located
[2:22] at 1535 N High St. just off Ohio State's campus.
[2:28] The event lasted all weekend, from July 19th to 20th, 1986,
[2:33] with live bands and even a hot tub set up in the courtyard.
[2:38] By all accounts, it drew hundreds of people, a mix of
[2:41] students, locals, and whoever heard about the open invitation.
[2:46] Detectives soon figured out that David had attended with two
[2:49] friends for a night of summer fun.
[2:52] At some point in the early morning hours of July 20th,
[2:56] David's two buddies decided to head home.
[2:59] They later told police it was around 3:00 to 3:30 AM when they
[3:03] left, but David wasn't ready to leave yet.
[3:07] He was still having a good time and assured them he'd find
[3:09] another way home. The party was still going
[3:13] strong, and it wasn't unusual for people to drift in and out
[3:16] at all hours. Assuming their friend would
[3:19] catch a ride with someone else, the pair departed without him.
[3:24] They couldn't have known it at the time, but this was a fatal
[3:27] move. What happened to David after
[3:31] that remains the central mystery.
[3:34] Dozens of attendees from that party were interviewed in the
[3:37] ensuing investigation, but few even remembered seeing David,
[3:41] and none could say for sure when he left or with who.
[3:45] The sheer number of people coming and going made it
[3:47] extremely difficult for police to pin down David's movements.
[3:52] This was also compounded by the fact that most attendees were
[3:55] likely drunk or under the influence of other substances.
[4:00] What's known is that at some point in the pre dawn hours of
[4:02] July 20th, he crossed paths with the person or people who would
[4:06] end his life. The autopsy results show David
[4:10] was intoxicated at the time he was slain, which might have made
[4:14] him less cautious or capable of self-defense.
[4:18] By the next Monday morning, his body was dumped roughly a mile
[4:21] from the party location. Authorities believe he was
[4:25] likely killed early Sunday and the perpetrator disposed of his
[4:29] body soon after. Strangely, no loud altercations
[4:34] or fights involving David were reported at the party.
[4:38] There's no indication he left due to an argument, and since he
[4:42] wasn't robbed, a random mugging gone wrong seems unlikely.
[4:48] Beyond the mystery of who David left the party with,
[4:51] investigators faced another frustrating problem.
[4:54] They had no actual crime scene. David's corpse had been found in
[4:58] a dumpster, but the attack itself clearly occurred
[5:01] elsewhere and then the body was moved.
[5:04] Detectives scoured the area around the apartment complex and
[5:08] other nearby buildings for any signs of a struggle, blood or
[5:12] evidence, but found nothing conclusive.
[5:16] The profiler who later examined the case felt that the crime
[5:19] likely took place indoors, perhaps in one of the apartments
[5:23] or another nearby building, but every search came up empty.
[5:29] However, one tangible clue was literally wrapped around the
[5:33] victim. David's body had been tightly
[5:35] swaddled in an unusual orange and white patterned blanket and
[5:39] strapped up, likely since someone wanted to conceal it for
[5:43] transport. This blanket itself became a
[5:47] focal point for investigators since it wasn't clear where it
[5:50] came from. Years later, in 2006, a woman
[5:56] came forward with a startling bit of information.
[5:59] She had seen ATV News segment about the cold case in which a
[6:03] photo of the distinctive blanket was shown, and she immediately
[6:07] recognized it. She recalled that in the mid
[6:10] 1980s, her family had owned an identical blanket that came from
[6:14] a Holiday Inn in Columbus. Her uncle worked there and had
[6:18] legally liberated some motel blankets for the family over the
[6:21] course of his employment. Cops identified that the nearest
[6:25] Holiday Inn to the crime area in 1986 was on Lane Ave. not far
[6:30] from the party location. Unfortunately, the hotel had
[6:35] long since closed and any records from that era were gone
[6:39] and this led to a dead end. The blanket itself was also
[6:43] subjected to forensic testing, but if anything was found,
[6:47] detectives have remained tight lipped.
[6:51] Over the years, plenty of theories have floated around.
[6:54] Some suspect David might have fallen prey to a stranger who
[6:58] slipped into that party hunting for a victim.
[7:01] Others wonder if perhaps someone David casually knew or met that
[7:06] night harbored a hidden violent streak.
[7:09] Still others have speculated that the mutilation of his body
[7:13] suggests that he was the victim of a serial killer, though no
[7:16] evidence has ever come forward to indicate this.
[7:20] Personally, I think he was probably lured to the nearby
[7:23] Holiday Inn with the promise of the potential for some hot
[7:27] action. When he arrived, he was attacked
[7:30] and the motel was turned into a horrific crime scene.
[7:34] That said, that's just speculation on my part, but it
[7:37] does align with what the profiler said and with the
[7:40] blanket. As of today, 4 decades later,
[7:45] the killing of David Hattaway remains an unsolved mystery and
[7:48] detectives are still investigating it.
[7:50] Though the case is considered dormant, no arrests have ever
[7:54] been made and no prime suspects have ever been publicly
[7:58] identified. It's a warm July night in 1986
[8:05] at a busy Ohio truck stop. 23 year old Shirley Taylor tells a
[8:09] friend she's going to meet a client known only as Doctor No
[8:13] Days later, her strangled body is found dumped off the
[8:17] Interstate, missing her shoes and underwear.
[8:20] This wasn't an isolated incident, but part of a pattern
[8:24] that haunted Ohio for years. This elusive predator became
[8:29] synonymous with a series of brutal slayings targeting women
[8:32] along Ohio's highways throughout the 1980s.
[8:38] A string of women many truck stop escorts were found slain
[8:42] along Ohio interstates. The pattern emerged as multiple
[8:46] victims turned up with similar details.
[8:50] They were beaten or strangled, killed elsewhere and dumped near
[8:53] highways. They were often missing personal
[8:57] belongings, and investigators suspected the sick puppy behind
[9:00] these attacks kept these items as trophies.
[9:04] Truck stops had a thriving underground trade.
[9:07] Escorts often advertised to truckers over CB radio and met
[9:11] clients in their parked rigs. This anonymous system gave a
[9:15] predator plenty of cover to hunt without drawing attention.
[9:20] By 1991, authorities had linked at least 10 unsolved slayings
[9:25] across Ohio and neighboring states to a single truck stop
[9:28] predator. As investigators compared notes,
[9:34] an ominous nickname surfaced from the truck stop community.
[9:38] Witnesses recounted that a trucker had been using CB
[9:41] handles like Doctor No and sometimes Stargazer or Dragon to
[9:47] lure women. The nickname, which the Predator
[9:51] had given to himself in an apparent nod to a Bond villain,
[9:54] added to the case's notoriety. In 1991, Ohio authorities
[10:00] finally formed a multi county task force to coordinate the
[10:04] investigation. They recognized that various
[10:07] counties had pieces of the puzzle and that no single agency
[10:11] had been tracking all the cases. The task force faced A daunting
[10:16] job. Potential victims, witnesses and
[10:19] suspects moved constantly. The women drifted from place to
[10:23] place seeking greener pastures, and a trucker predator could
[10:27] easily cross state lines before anyone connected the crimes.
[10:31] Federal agents had reviewed a few of the slayings but found no
[10:34] definitive forensic links at the time.
[10:37] In fact, the FBI was unclear whether there was any connection
[10:41] or whether these were completely unconnected incidents that Ohio
[10:45] detectives had convinced themselves.
[10:47] We're all related. With a growing body count and
[10:52] mounting pressure, law enforcement went on the
[10:54] offensive. They interviewed hundreds of
[10:57] truck stop employees and drivers, plastering more than
[11:00] 4000 Flyers at truck stops with photos of victims and a
[11:05] composite sketch of the suspect. Also, if you're one of those
[11:09] people who just listens, I've got the sketch of the suspect up
[11:13] on the screen now. Over the years, numerous truck
[11:17] drivers fell under suspicion but were cleared.
[11:20] In 1991, one Ohio trucker with hair samples matching evidence
[11:25] found on one victim was investigated, but genetic tests
[11:29] conducted years later were inconclusive.
[11:33] Further, given the business model of the women working the
[11:36] lot, his hair being found there wasn't necessarily conclusive of
[11:40] any significant crime. A variety of incarcerated serial
[11:44] predators were interviewed, but they all denied being linked to
[11:47] the attacks. All these men were serving life
[11:52] sentences, so some have argued that they had no reason not to
[11:55] confess to another crime if they did it.
[11:58] I reject that idea, though. Since these individuals are
[12:01] usually caught up in decades of appeals, admitting to further
[12:05] attacks would mean that a successful appeal could
[12:08] ultimately result in no change whatsoever to their status.
[12:12] Regardless, each suspect brought a flicker of hope and then a big
[12:16] feeling of disappointment. By the late 1990's, the trail
[12:22] had gone fully cold. Part of the problem was
[12:25] forensic. Biological evidence was
[12:28] recovered, but the killer's material was hard to isolate
[12:32] among the genetic traces left by victims other clients.
[12:36] This toxic soup of genetic material was too much for
[12:39] forensic scientists to handle at the time, but subsequent testing
[12:43] indicated no common material found amongst the victims.
[12:48] One credible hypothesis is that there was no single doctor, no
[12:52] serial killer at all. And as you'll probably be able
[12:55] to tell, I subscribe to this view.
[12:59] Instead, the deaths likely reflect several different
[13:02] offenders operating independently within the same
[13:05] vulnerable environment. Ohio's truck stops created a
[13:09] convergence point where transient clients, anonymity and
[13:13] constant movement overlapped. Violence against escorts in that
[13:18] setting is common nationwide, and similar disposal sites or
[13:23] methods don't automatically indicate a single hand.
[13:27] While some cases may share elements such as strangulation,
[13:31] dumping near highways, or missing clothing, those traits
[13:35] are incredibly common. Investigators sometimes group
[13:39] crimes together to find patterns, but pattern seeking
[13:42] can also create connections that aren't truly there.
[13:46] When forensic science improved, later testing failed to reveal a
[13:50] shared biological signature linking all victims.
[13:55] In my view, that absence matters.
[14:00] Importantly, the FBI has long expressed skepticism that the
[14:04] attacks represent one roaming predator.
[14:07] Federal analysts reviewing the files reportedly concluded that
[14:11] the similarities were too broad and the differences too
[14:14] significant to confidently declare a serial offender.
[14:20] This interpretation reframes the mystery.
[14:23] Instead of 1 elusive predator evading capture, the reality may
[14:27] be more unsettling. There were multiple men
[14:30] exploiting the same dangerous system, each leaving behind a
[14:34] body, then vanishing into the flow of Interstate travel.
[14:38] If that's true, the failure wasn't in catching one killer,
[14:43] but in protecting people trapped in a high risk world where
[14:46] predators are never in short supply.
[14:53] Hey everyone, just a quick reminder to click the share
[14:55] button and send this video to your friends and family.
[14:59] Also, don't forget to check out the YouTube membership and the
[15:02] Patreon. You can join up for as little as
[15:05] a buck. The sharp, explosive crack that
[15:11] rang through New York's Polo Grounds on August 16th, 1920
[15:16] didn't sound like a typical piece of baseball action.
[15:19] It didn't have the resonant wooden thwack of a bat
[15:22] connecting with a ball, nor the soft pop of a catcher's glove.
[15:26] Instead, it was a sound so violent and out of place that it
[15:31] reached Babe Ruth in right field, nearly 250 feet away from
[15:36] the action. In that split second, the
[15:40] trajectory of the sport changed forever.
[15:43] Ray Chapman, the star shortstop for the Cleveland Indians,
[15:47] didn't run toward first base. He didn't even turn his head.
[15:51] Chapman simply collapsed into the dirt, lifeless.
[15:55] This remains the only time in Major League Baseball history
[15:59] that a player's life was taken by an on field injury.
[16:04] To truly grasp the weight of this moment, it's important to
[16:07] understand that the stakes for the 1920 season were higher than
[16:11] a cow grazing through a grow op. As the middle of August rolled
[16:15] around, the American League was locked in a Pennant race so
[16:18] tight it felt like every pitch carried the weight of the world.
[16:23] Three teams, the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox,
[16:27] and the New York Yankees were all within a game of one
[16:30] another. Every single inning was played
[16:33] with a desperate, grinding intensity, and the atmosphere
[16:37] was made even more toxic by the swirling rumors of the Black Sox
[16:40] scandal. While the public didn't yet know
[16:44] all the details of the 1919 World Series fix, the whispers
[16:48] of corruption were everywhere. Fans and players alike were
[16:53] openly questioning the integrity of America's national pastime.
[16:58] The game on August 16th was the start of a critical series
[17:01] between Cleveland and New York. The Indians arrived at the Polo
[17:05] Grounds holding a tiny lead in the standings.
[17:09] It was a Gray, miserable Monday afternoon.
[17:12] The sky was heavy with clouds and a light rain had fallen
[17:16] throughout the early innings. This left the air thick with
[17:19] moisture and a settling fog that made visibility a constant
[17:24] battle for the hitters. In an era before stadium lights,
[17:28] the late afternoon shadows combined with the dreary weather
[17:32] to create a twilight effect that made tracking a small moving
[17:36] object nearly impossible. Ray Chapman was the heart and
[17:42] soul of the Cleveland club. At 29 years old, he was right in
[17:46] his prime. He was famously jovial, a
[17:50] storyteller who was loved by everyone from the rookies to the
[17:53] hardened veterans. He was even one of the rare
[17:56] people who stayed on friendly terms with the notoriously
[17:59] aggressive Ty Cobb. Off the field, Chapman's life
[18:03] was entering a new, promising chapter.
[18:06] He'd recently married Kathleen Daly, the daughter of a wealthy
[18:10] gas company executive. Because of his marriage and his
[18:14] desire to start a family, Chapman had already told team
[18:18] mates that 1920 would be his final year in professional
[18:21] baseball. He wanted to help Cleveland win
[18:24] its first Pennant and then retired to join his father in
[18:27] law's business. He was playing for his legacy.
[18:32] If Chapman was one of the league's most popular players,
[18:36] Carl Mays was arguably its most hated.
[18:39] Mays was a man who didn't seem to care for the social graces of
[18:42] the game. He was described as surly,
[18:46] unpleasant, and mean spirited. Even his own team mates on the
[18:51] Yankees found him difficult to deal with, and his previous team
[18:55] mates on the Red Sox had actively disliked him.
[18:59] Mays was aware of his reputation and didn't seem to mind, once
[19:03] remarking that he'd long since stopped caring what most people
[19:06] thought about him. He was known as a dirty player
[19:09] who had no qualms with injuring A batter if he thought it would
[19:13] gain him and his team an advantage.
[19:16] Maze pitching style was as abrasive as his personality.
[19:20] Maze used a submarine delivery, a motion where he'd contort his
[19:24] body so low that his knuckles would occasionally scrape the
[19:27] dirt on the mound. For a right-handed batter, the
[19:31] ball appeared to come from the ground, rising toward the
[19:35] hitter's waist before darting and dipping in ways that were
[19:38] incredibly difficult to predict. This delivery was legal, but
[19:43] many players felt it was inherently dangerous because it
[19:47] was so hard to track, especially in poor lighting.
[19:50] It was also hard to fully control, and even good-natured
[19:54] pitchers who tossed one of these throws would routinely hit
[19:57] batters. But Mays was no good-natured
[20:00] pitcher, and he'd earned A reputation as a notorious
[20:04] headhunter. He'd led the league in hitting
[20:08] batters in 1917 and had no qualms about throwing high and
[20:12] tight to intimidate anyone who tried to crowd the plate.
[20:16] The danger of that afternoon was made even worse by the state of
[20:19] the equipment. In 1920, the balls weren't
[20:23] replaced nearly as often as they are today.
[20:26] A single baseball might stay in the game for several innings,
[20:29] regardless of how dirty it became.
[20:32] Pitchers were allowed to doctor the ball using various
[20:35] substances. They'd rub it with soil,
[20:38] licorice or tobacco juice to make it darker and harder to
[20:42] see. They'd scuff it with sandpaper
[20:45] or their own fingernails to make it move erratically.
[20:48] When Maize faced Chapman, he was using a ball that witnesses
[20:52] described as being filthy and discolored.
[20:55] In the gloom of the Polo Grounds, a ball covered in
[20:59] tobacco juice and dirt, thrown from a low angle by a
[21:02] submariner, was effectively invisible against the background
[21:06] of the grandstand. Cleveland held a three run lead
[21:10] when Chapman LED off the top of the fifth inning.
[21:13] As was his habit, he stood close to the plate, leaning in to gain
[21:17] an advantage for a possible bunt.
[21:19] Mays later claimed that Chapman was crowding the plate so much
[21:23] that he was nearly over the strike zone.
[21:26] Maze delivered a high inside fastball on A11 count.
[21:31] Witnesses were haunted by Chapman's lack of reaction.
[21:34] He didn't duck or flinch. He didn't even turn his head.
[21:39] It's as if he never saw the ball leave Maze's hand.
[21:42] And given the visibility and the condition of the ball, it's
[21:46] likely he didn't. The ball struck Chapman squarely
[21:50] on the left temple. The sound of the impact was so
[21:53] similar to the sound of a bat hitting a ball that players
[21:56] thought the play was live. Maze watched the ball bounce
[22:00] back toward the mound, grabbed it and threw it to first base.
[22:05] As the first baseman caught the ball, the stadium went silent.
[22:10] Chapman had crumpled to the ground, his knees buckling.
[22:13] Immediately, blood began to flow from his left ear.
[22:17] The home plate umpire realized the severity of the situation
[22:20] and frantically called for a doctor from the stands.
[22:24] Two physicians in attendance responded and rushed to the
[22:26] plate, where they found Chapman semi conscious.
[22:30] In a testament to his grit, or perhaps a sign of the
[22:34] catastrophic brain trauma he'd just suffered, Chapman actually
[22:38] regained his feet a few minutes later.
[22:42] Assisted by his teammates, he began walking across the infield
[22:45] toward the clubhouse. He even managed to mumble a few
[22:49] words, reportedly telling his teammates he was fine and asking
[22:54] them to tell Maize not to worry about him.
[22:57] However, as he reached second base, his body gave out, his
[23:02] legs buckled again and he slipped into a deep
[23:06] unconsciousness. He had to be carried the rest of
[23:09] the way to the clubhouse and was then rushed to Saint Lawrence
[23:13] Hospital. When Chapman arrived at the
[23:16] hospital, the medical staff realized the injury was life
[23:20] threatening. X-rays revealed a depressed
[23:23] fracture of the skull on the left side, roughly 3 inches
[23:26] long. But the damage wasn't just to
[23:29] the bone. The impact had been so powerful
[23:32] that his brain had been violently Jarred inside his
[23:35] skull, causing lacerations on both sides of the organ.
[23:40] Surgeons decided that emergency surgery was the only option to
[23:43] relieve the intense pressure on his brain.
[23:46] The operation began just after midnight and lasted over an
[23:49] hour. They removed a piece of his
[23:51] skull to allow sufficient room for the swelling.
[23:55] Initially there was a small amount of hope.
[23:58] His pulse stabilized and his breathing seemed more regular
[24:02] for a few hours after the procedure.
[24:05] His manager reached out to Chapman's wife Kathleen, who
[24:09] immediately boarded a train from Ohio to New York.
[24:13] But the hope was short lived. Chapman's condition deteriorated
[24:17] rapidly in the pre dawn hours. He passed away at 4:40 AM on
[24:23] August 17th, 1920. His wife didn't arrive at the
[24:27] hospital until hours after he'd passed away and when she was
[24:31] told the news, she collapsed in shock.
[24:35] And trust me, it would get so much worse for his widow from
[24:38] there on out. But I'll come back to that in a
[24:41] moment. The death of Chapman immediately
[24:44] turned Mays from a disliked player into a public pariah.
[24:48] The debate over whether the pitch was intentional began
[24:51] almost immediately. There are two distinct schools
[24:54] of thought. The first theory championed by
[24:57] Maze's enemies was that he intentionally hit Chapman.
[25:02] Ty Cobb was the most vocal proponent of this view and
[25:05] argued that Maze history and his mastery of the ball made it
[25:09] impossible for him to miss a target by that much unless it
[25:12] was purposeful. Those who disliked him believed
[25:16] he'd thrown at Chapman's head to clear him off the plate and
[25:19] assert dominance, while nobody thought his intention was to
[25:23] throw a fatal shot. The belief amongst this camp was
[25:26] that he had definitely sought to hurt Chapman.
[25:30] The fact that Maze never left the mound to check on Chapman
[25:33] while he was lying on the ground was cited as evidence of his
[25:37] cold heartedness. The second theory is that the
[25:42] death was a tragic accident fueled by the environment of the
[25:46] game. Maze himself consistently argued
[25:49] that the ball was wet and discolored and that the
[25:52] conditions in the ballpark weren't his fault.
[25:55] He pointed out that Chapman's habit of crowding the plate and
[25:58] leaning into pitches made him a difficult target to navigate.
[26:02] Even Chapman's manager eventually said that the
[26:05] Cleveland players didn't believe Maze hit him on purpose.
[26:10] Regardless of his intent, Mays was never the same in the eyes
[26:13] of the public. Players across the league took
[26:16] up a petition demanding he be banned from play permanently.
[26:21] While the league president eventually exonerated him, Mays
[26:24] remained A deeply controversial player for the rest of his
[26:27] career. He played until 1929 and was
[26:31] constantly greeted with boos and threats.
[26:34] Perhaps ironically, though, Mays enjoyed playing the role of the
[26:37] heel since he had always been disliked anyway.
[26:43] While nothing could bring Ray Chapman back, his death forced
[26:46] Major League Baseball to modernize.
[26:49] The league realized that the safety of the players was being
[26:52] compromised by the focus on keeping balls in play regardless
[26:56] of their condition. The first major change was the
[27:00] mandate for umpires to replace any ball that became dirty or
[27:04] scuffed. Secondly, the tragedy provided
[27:08] the final push needed to ban the use of unconventional pitches.
[27:12] While a handful of established pitchers were allowed to keep
[27:15] using the pitch until they retired, no new players were
[27:19] allowed to learn or use them. Curiously, the most obvious
[27:24] safety measure, the batting helmet, took much longer to
[27:28] become standard. While Chapman's death was used
[27:31] for decades as an argument for protective headgear, the tough
[27:35] guy culture of baseball resisted the change.
[27:39] It wasn't until the 1950s that helmets became common, and the
[27:43] league didn't make them mandatory for all players until
[27:46] 1971. Perhaps the saddest part of the
[27:52] story is what happened to the people Ray Chapman left behind.
[27:56] His death seemed to trigger a sequence of tragedies that wiped
[27:59] out his immediate family within a decade.
[28:02] His wife, Kathleen, never recovered from the grief.
[28:06] She gave birth to their daughter Ray in 1921, but the loss of her
[28:11] husband haunted her until she couldn't take the pain, ending
[28:15] it all in 1926. Sadly, their daughter died of
[28:20] the measles in 1929 at only 8 years old, having lost both her
[28:25] parents to the consequences of this perhaps intentional pitch.
[28:32] A late summer night turned into a nightmare for the Lombardi
[28:35] family. In the early hours of August
[28:38] 30th, 1990, a quiet Ohio suburb was rocked by a chilling
[28:44] discovery. Cheryl Lombardi returned to her
[28:47] Westerville home around midnight, expecting her 22 year
[28:50] old son Tony to be home soon. Instead, at approximately 12:45
[28:56] AM, she found Tony's lifeless body in his bedroom, a fatal
[29:00] gunshot wound to his head. Police arrived to a puzzling
[29:05] scene, a young man dead in bed, a pistol on the floor, and his
[29:10] car missing from the garage. Investigators initially treated
[29:15] the case like a killing, but the investigation swiftly shifted
[29:18] direction and detectives determined that he did it to
[29:22] himself. What unfolded was a clash
[29:25] between the official findings and a family's unwavering belief
[29:29] that Tony was slain that night. Tony Lombardi was part of a
[29:34] typical middle class family in the Columbus suburb of
[29:37] Westerville. He had been a cheerful, outgoing
[29:40] young man who worked at a food processing factory and was very
[29:44] close with his parents. On the night of August 29th,
[29:49] 1990, Tony was supposed to be at work for his late shift at a
[29:53] Columbus factory, but he never showed up.
[29:57] Cheryl, his mother, arrived home around midnight and assumed Tony
[30:02] would be back soon, perhaps from work or a night out.
[30:07] Shortly after, she heard the sound of a door closing in,
[30:10] footsteps, prompting her to check on her son.
[30:14] What she found was every parent's nightmare.
[30:17] Tony was sprawled on his bed, unresponsive and bleeding.
[30:22] Panicked, Cheryl called 911, and police officers reached the
[30:26] house by 1:15 that morning. The initial examination of the
[30:32] scene raised alarms Tony's car was gone, which led officers to
[30:36] suspect an intruder might have killed him and then fled using
[30:40] the missing vehicle. In Tony's bedroom, officers
[30:43] found a semi automatic on the floor near his body and a single
[30:47] spent shell casing on the bed. It appeared Tony had been shot
[30:51] at close range and the presence of the weapon initially
[30:54] suggested a staged scene. Within hours, the direction of
[31:00] the investigation took a dramatic turn.
[31:03] While searching Tony's room, officers found a crumpled drunk
[31:07] driving citation in the pocket of his pants.
[31:10] This discovery soon clarified the mystery of the missing car.
[31:14] Two days earlier, Tony had been arrested for driving under the
[31:18] influence, and the Columbus police had impounded his car.
[31:22] Tony was now facing legal trouble, possible fines and a
[31:26] suspension of his driver's license, which could have been
[31:30] weighing heavily on him. To the Westerville police, this
[31:34] painted a picture of a young man in despair.
[31:38] By piercing together the timeline, they theorized that
[31:41] Tony, overwhelmed by his recent arrest and its consequences,
[31:46] might have decided to take his own life rather than face the
[31:50] fallout. The presence of a single wound
[31:54] and Tony's own weapon at the scene fit a self-inflicted
[31:57] scenario in their view. With his car and impound and not
[32:02] actually stolen by an assailant, The early theory of a fleeing
[32:06] perpetrator quickly lost traction.
[32:09] The official stance, supported by the coroner and other
[32:12] authorities, became that Tony's death was brought on by panic
[32:16] over his drunk driving arrest. The case might have ended there
[32:20] if not for a series of puzzling details that Tony's family
[32:23] couldn't accept. These details would cast serious
[32:27] doubt on the official narrative. Tony's parents immediately
[32:31] noticed signs that did not fit the police theory.
[32:35] His jaw was broken, an inch and a half gash cut across his left
[32:39] eyebrow, and deep bruises covered parts of his body.
[32:43] Some bruises on his chest, right beneath his clenched fists, made
[32:48] his family suspect someone had pinned him down during a fight.
[32:52] Tony's wristwatch was found shattered on the floor as if it
[32:56] had been broken in a scuffle. Most oddly, Tony wasn't wearing
[33:01] any clothing whatsoever, A humiliating fact that his
[33:04] parents thought didn't make sense knowing he would be found
[33:07] by them. The physical evidence in the
[33:10] room also raised questions. Tony's body was found with his
[33:14] upper torso propped on pillows, yet the bullet hole in the
[33:18] wooden headboard was at a strangely low height for a shot
[33:22] fired by someone in his position.
[33:25] Tony's father argued this only made sense if an assailant had
[33:28] been pressing Tony down when the shot went off.
[33:32] Additionally, Cheryl recalled that when she first arrived
[33:35] home, Tony's room was dark, but about 45 minutes later, she
[33:41] heard a door and noticed the bedroom light was on.
[33:45] She believes the killer was hiding in the house and slipped
[33:48] out at that moment, turning on the light while fleeing.
[33:52] Notably, an autopsy later determined Tony had already been
[33:56] dead for several hours by the time Cheryl got home.
[34:01] This is a timeline consistent with the idea that an intruder
[34:04] could have killed him earlier that evening.
[34:07] So far, though, this could simply be a case of a grieving
[34:10] family trying to grasp at straws to find any reason to suggest
[34:14] someone else was responsible for Tony's death.
[34:19] Tony's family knew that he had angered at least two individuals
[34:22] in the week before his death, giving credence to an
[34:25] alternative motive. One incident was a case of road
[34:28] rage. A neighbor saw Tony in a heated
[34:31] confrontation with a man driving a white pickup truck after Tony
[34:36] allegedly cut him off in traffic.
[34:38] The irate driver demanded to know where Tony lived, and Tony,
[34:43] perhaps naively, gave him the address.
[34:46] I truly don't get why anyone would do that, but it is what it
[34:50] is. That said, I don't think this
[34:53] guy had anything to do with it. There's a much better candidate.
[34:58] The other threat was even more direct.
[35:01] Tony had been seeing a young woman who had a jealous
[35:04] ex-boyfriend just days before the tragedy.
[35:08] That man left a message on the Lombardi's answering machine,
[35:11] vowing to come over and shoot Tony if he didn't stay away from
[35:15] the woman. Tony's best friend tried to calm
[35:18] the situation, but the caller was unmoved.
[35:22] He insisted the issue was between him and Tony alone and
[35:26] warned that Tony would get what was coming to him.
[35:30] These incidents alarmed the Lombardi family and pointed to
[35:32] clear motives for foul play. Police, however, found no solid
[35:37] evidence tying either angry individual to Tony's death and
[35:41] treated the threats as unsubstantiated.
[35:44] To the family, it felt like too much of A coincidence that Tony
[35:47] had received such violent warnings just days before he
[35:50] died. All official agencies remained
[35:55] firm that Tony did it himself, and when the county coroner came
[35:58] back with his findings, this essentially closed the
[36:02] investigation. After this designation, a full
[36:06] investigation was never pursued, and in 1994, the Lombardi's took
[36:11] their story to the legendary show Unsolved Mysteries.
[36:17] They hoped that this would lead to a breakthrough, or that this
[36:19] national attention would pressure the cops back in Ohio
[36:23] to reopen the case. Unfortunately for the
[36:26] Lombardi's, this national exposure did little to move the
[36:30] case forward and the case remains officially closed.
[36:36] From my perspective, the ex-boyfriend should have been
[36:38] investigated far more thoroughly than he ever was.
[36:42] I want to be clear from the outset that what follows is
[36:44] purely speculative, not an accusation.
[36:48] But there are elements here that feel unresolved and deserving of
[36:51] deeper scrutiny. The most troubling detail to me
[36:55] is Tony's unclothed state. That fact alone sets this case
[37:01] apart from a straightforward self-inflicted scenario.
[37:05] Being found like this doesn't align easily with this,
[37:08] especially in a home where his parents were present and likely
[37:12] to discover him. It suggests vulnerability and
[37:16] interruption conditions that point toward another person
[37:19] being involved. Then there's the ex boyfriends
[37:24] prior behavior. A confirmed threat to come over
[37:27] and shoot Tony is expressed intent.
[37:30] I've wondered whether that man may have encountered Tony and
[37:32] his girlfriend together that night or shortly before.
[37:36] It's not hard to imagine a scenario where the girlfriend
[37:39] was intimidated into silence, either by fear or perceived
[37:43] guilt. Given the threats, the odd
[37:46] physical details, and the lack of a full follow up, I think
[37:51] dismissing the ex-boyfriend so early left too many critical
[37:55] questions unanswered. In late October 1981, three
[38:03] young boys in Newburgh Heights, OH made a horrifying discovery.
[38:08] The lifeless body of 17 year old Kurt Sova lying in a ravine.
[38:14] Apart from a few scratches and bruises, there were no obvious
[38:17] injuries on Kurt's body. Kurt had been missing for five
[38:22] days by then, raising the chilling question of where he
[38:25] was during that time and what led to his untimely death.
[38:30] This marked the start of one of Ohio's most perplexing unsolved
[38:33] mysteries, a case riddled with eerie clues and unanswered
[38:37] questions that continue to haunt the community decades later.
[38:43] On Friday, October 23rd, 1981, Kurt Sova left his home to
[38:48] attend a house party in Newburgh Heights with a friend.
[38:51] He was a responsible teenager, and it was unlike him not to
[38:55] come home on time. So when he failed to return that
[38:58] night, his parents grew alarmed. By the next day, they were
[39:03] frantically calling friends and searching the neighborhood,
[39:07] unable to find any trace of Kurt.
[39:10] His family filed a missing person report with the police on
[39:14] Sunday and plastered the area with Flyers.
[39:18] That weekend, Dorothy Sova, Kurt's mother, learned from one
[39:23] of Kurt's buddies that he had been at a party on Friday night
[39:26] at a duplex nearby. The party host was a young woman
[39:30] named Susan. When Dorothy contacted Susan,
[39:35] the woman initially claimed there had been no party and that
[39:38] she hadn't seen Kurt. However, a pizza delivery driver
[39:43] contradicted this, confirming there was indeed a party at that
[39:47] address that night. Confronted with this
[39:50] information, Susan admitted that there was indeed a wild party
[39:55] and Kurt was there. She said a bunch of people,
[39:58] almost all of them strangers to Kurt, had come and gone during
[40:02] the evening. Susan claimed Kurt had been
[40:05] drinking heavily, which surprised his family since he
[40:09] wasn't known to be a drinker. According to what Susan and
[40:12] others told Dorothy, Kurt eventually became sick from
[40:16] drinking Everclear and stepped outside for some air.
[40:20] A friend took him out to the front porch and then went back
[40:23] inside briefly to retrieve Kurt's jacket because it was a
[40:27] chilly night. When the friend returned a few
[40:30] minutes later, Kurt was gone. They looked around the area, but
[40:36] Kurt had vanished. He had left without his jacket,
[40:40] and his friends assumed the intoxicated teen had decided to
[40:43] walk home on his own. That would be the last time
[40:46] anyone reported seeing Kurt alive at the party.
[40:51] Over the next several days, the Sova family and police scoured
[40:55] the neighborhood and surrounding areas for any sign of Kurt.
[40:59] Finally, on Wednesday, October 28th, their worst fear was
[41:04] realized. That afternoon, a group of kids
[41:08] exploring a ravine about 500 yards from Susan's duplex
[41:12] stumbled upon a body. It was Kurt.
[41:16] He was found lying in the ravine, fully clothed, and
[41:20] appeared to have been there for some time.
[41:22] There were only minor scrapes on him, and notably, one of his
[41:26] shoes was missing. The discovery site raised
[41:29] immediate suspicions. Kurt's father, Ken, insisted
[41:34] that he had searched that very ravine the day before and found
[41:38] nothing. Ken was certain that if his
[41:41] son's body had been there earlier, he would have noticed
[41:44] the bright yellow shirt Kurt was wearing.
[41:47] This suggests that someone may have placed Kurt's body in the
[41:50] ravine after the initial searches, essentially that he
[41:54] was dumped there intentionally. Police at the time also
[41:59] considered this possibility, noting that it looked like the
[42:02] body had been left in a spot where it was bound to be
[42:05] discovered sooner or later. The ravine's proximity to the
[42:09] party house around the corner from Susan's place only added to
[42:14] the confusion of the situation. The coroner's examination of
[42:19] Kurt's body only deepened the mystery.
[42:23] It was determined that Kurt had died roughly 24 to 36 hours
[42:27] before he was found. That meant he might have been
[42:30] alive for about 3 days after he went missing.
[42:34] Despite this, the autopsy couldn't find a clear cause of
[42:37] death. There were no lethal injuries
[42:40] and no signs of violence. Kurt's blood alcohol content was
[42:45] enough that he would have been just slightly over the legal
[42:47] limit. Toxicology tests found no other
[42:51] substances or poisons in his system.
[42:54] In short, nothing obvious explained why Kurt died.
[42:57] Faced with a lack of evidence, the medical examiner labeled
[43:01] Kurt's cause of death as an instantaneous physiological
[43:04] death. His death was classified as a
[43:07] probable accident. But then things got even more
[43:11] unusual. As the investigation unfolded, a
[43:16] series of strange clues and witness accounts emerged, making
[43:20] the case even more unsettling. One of Kurt's friends, David
[43:25] Trusnik, came forward with a startling story.
[43:29] He claimed to have seen Kurt alive on Monday, October 26th, 3
[43:34] days after the party. David said he was driving that
[43:38] afternoon when he spotted Kurt walking with another teen along
[43:41] a road. Not realizing Kurt was missing,
[43:44] David pulled over. At that moment, a van drove up
[43:48] to the 2 youths. Kurt apparently recognized the
[43:52] vehicle or someone inside it, and David heard Kurt yell the
[43:55] name Franco. He then climbed into the van
[43:59] with the other teen and the van then speed away.
[44:03] His account strongly suggests that Kurt was indeed alive for a
[44:06] couple of days after disappearing, raising urgent
[44:09] questions about where he was and who he was with during that
[44:13] period. Around that same time, another
[44:18] bizarre incident occurred which has been subject to significant
[44:21] speculation till this day. On Monday the 26th, a strange
[44:27] man was seen hanging around the neighborhood and entered a
[44:30] record shop where one of Kurt's missing posters was displayed.
[44:34] The man told the store manager that she should take down Kurt's
[44:37] flyer because he would be found dead in 2 days.
[44:42] This unnerving proclamation understandably alarmed the
[44:45] manager. The next morning, before the
[44:48] shop opened, the same man left flowers and a handwritten note
[44:52] at the store. The note read quote.
[44:56] Roses are red, the sky is blue. They found him dead, and they'll
[45:01] find you too. Terrified, the store manager
[45:05] called the police. Authorities did locate and
[45:09] question this mysterious individual.
[45:11] He turned out to be a transient with mental health issues who
[45:14] had been drifting around the area.
[45:17] Despite his creepy behavior and seemingly uncanny prediction,
[45:21] police could find no evidence linking this man to Kurt's
[45:24] disappearance or death. They eventually released him,
[45:28] and he promptly left town. By the time Kurt's body was
[45:32] discovered, just as the stranger had predicted, the man had
[45:37] vanished permanently. The case grew stranger still on
[45:42] the very day Kurt's body was found, in the early hours of
[45:47] October 28th, sometime around 330, Dorothy Silva received a
[45:52] phone call out of the blue from Susan, the party host.
[45:56] Susan said that someone was sleeping in her basement and
[45:59] suggested it might be Kurt. Unsure what to believe, Ken
[46:04] Silva drove over to check. In the basement he found a cot
[46:08] that looked recently slept in, but Kurt was nowhere to be
[46:12] found. The odd tip yielded no new
[46:15] information, but it further fueled the Sova's suspicions.
[46:19] Dorothy believed that Kurt had indeed been hidden in that
[46:22] basement, perhaps unconscious or already dead.
[46:27] When Susan realized the authorities were closing in, she
[46:30] or others moved Kurt and left him in the ravine.
[46:34] It was another piece in a puzzle that pointed toward a cover up.
[46:39] Kurt Sova's death remains unsolved to this day.
[46:42] In the years immediately following 1981, the case went
[46:46] cold due to a lack of solid evidence or witnesses willing to
[46:49] talk. Kurt's parents grew frustrated
[46:53] with what they felt was a sluggish investigation.
[46:56] In fact, reviews by outside agencies later suggested that
[47:00] the initial police work was not as thorough as it should have
[47:03] been. For instance, no formal search
[47:07] of the party house was conducted, and not all potential
[47:10] witnesses were interviewed. These missteps may have allowed
[47:14] crucial evidence or testimony to slip away.
[47:18] As of now, the Newburgh Heights police consider Kurt's case open
[47:21] but dormant.

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