Under Investigation

Homicide date: Oct. 29, 1966

Incident location: Springfield, Ohio

Lead agency: Springfield Police Department

Twenty-year-old Anita Taylor had an 18-month-old son, a marriage to her high school sweetheart and a brand-new job that she took to help her young family save to buy a house.

But on Oct. 29, 1966, when her husband returned from his second-shift job at a local industrial plant to their rental home at 415 Ludlow Ave. in Springfield, Anita didn’t answer the door. Larry Taylor forced his way inside and found his wife on their bedroom floor.

She had been severely beaten and apparently raped. Though still conscious, Anita was struggling to breathe; her throat had been crushed and she was clearly in pain.

Her husband ran to get help at a nearby café, where the friends who had dropped him off from work were having a drink. When Springfield authorities arrived at the couple’s home, they found the Taylors’ toddler, Aaron, in the crib in his bedroom, one leg shattered and bruises covering his body.

Mother and son were transported to a local hospital in the same ambulance, but Anita died on the way as Aaron cried for her.

Her son survived and yearns for closure.

“As I look back, I can only assume that I was used as a ‘bargaining chip’ by the murderer,” Aaron Taylor wrote on a website dedicated to solving his mother’s murder. “That he had begun to beat me, and Mom eventually gave in and said, ‘Do whatever you want to me, just leave my son alone.’”

Forensic evidence from the scene, which still exists, excluded Larry Taylor as his wife’s killer. Larry Taylor died in a motorcycle crash in 1978.

Anita Taylor’s page from the Unsolved Homicides Database

TaylorCase.com — The Unsolved Murder of Anita Taylor, a website created by her son

Homicide date: April 15, 2012

Incident location: Fairfield, Ohio

Lead agency: Fairfield Police Department

Fifteen-year-old Chelsea Johnson wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She liked to fish and camp, read and text her friends, and she also liked to leave notes telling her mother that she loved her.

But Chelsea never got the chance to fulfill her promise. On April 15, 2012, she was stabbed to death.

A family friend helping to search for Chelsea found her body the next day about 9 miles from her home, near a creek and Creekside Village of Fairfield apartments, between River Road and Pleasant Avenue. The complex was undergoing a significant renovation.

Chelsea, a sophomore who got good grades at Options Academy in Fairfield, had been reported missing to police nine hours earlier. Her mother, Vicky Fible, had spent the past day frantically searching for Chelsea and contacting the teen’s friends, none of whom had heard from her.

“It doesn’t get any easier. Years go by (and people say,) ‘Oh it gets better,’” Fible told Fox 19 NOW in 2020. "No, it doesn’t. It’s getting harder because the jerk who took her from me is not being punished.”

Homicide date: Feb. 14, 2003

Incident location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Lead agency: Cincinnati Police Department

After Cincinnati police received a call saying Herman Brown had not been seen in a long time, officers were dispatched to the 46-year-old’s apartment at 2572 Sarvis Court. Herman was found beaten to death inside.

Herman Brown’s page from the Unsolved Homicides Database

Homicide date: June 28, 1999

Incident location: Sharonville, Ohio

Lead agency: Sharonville Police Department

Eighteen-year-old Raymond Wells was found dead in the middle of a street in a retirement neighborhood that he had no known connection to, about 10 miles from his home in Bond Hill. Evidence showed that, in addition to other injuries, Raymond had been dragged by a car.

Raymond Wells’ page from the Unsolved Homicides Database

Homicide date: Dec. 21, 1983

Incident location: Perry Township (near Canton), Ohio

Lead agency: Perry Township Police Department

Carol Zastudil was a married mother of two who lived with her family in a tidy red-brick ranch at 2668 Graydon Ave. S.W.

On Dec. 21, 1983, her husband, Richard Zastudil, left for work about 7:15 a.m. and her kids got on the school bus an hour later. The family usually took care to lock the doors because a couple of months earlier, Carol had discovered an intruder inside their home. He fled before Richard could get his gun loaded.

But on this day, a family member had forgotten to close the garage door. When Carol’s son got sick at school, her husband picked him up and took his step-son home — where they found Carol dead in her daughter’s room.

The 36-year-old’s throat had been cut, her purse and a couple of drawers had been upended, and about $500 in cash was missing.

Carol Zastudil's page from the Unsolved Homicides Database

Incident date: last reported seen on June 24, 2016

Incident location: Middlepoint, Ohio

Lead agency: Van Wert Sheriff’s Office

Kori Glossett, a lifelong Van Wert resident, had recently turned 25 years old when he was last seen in 2016.

Kori Glossett’s page from the Missing Persons Database

Homicide date: May 22, 2005

Incident location: Columbus, Ohio

Lead agency: Franklin County Sheriff’s Office

When Willie McCloud’s friends hadn’t seen her for a few days, they grew worried and went to her apartment at 4996 Chatterton Road. They found the 56-year-old dead inside. She had been strangled.

Willie McCloud’ page from the Unsolved Homicides Database

Homicide date: March 1-2, 2006

Incident location: Fostoria, Ohio

Lead agency: Fostoria Police Department

It was Jeffrey Risner’s daily practice to drive his ex-girlfriend’s grandkids to school — they and their parents lived with him. But he wasn’t around on the morning of March 2, 2006, so his family started looking for him.

They found the 50-year-old dead in the garage behind his home. He had a deep cut in his neck and and suffered further injuries to his head and one arm.

Jeffrey Risner's page from the Unsolved Homicides Database

Homicide date: sometime between July 31, 2016 and Aug. 4, 2016

Incident location: unknown

Lead agency: Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office

On Aug. 4, 2016, a property owner was mowing grass between a wooded area and Alderlick Road in Wayne Township when he came across the body of 26-year-old Samantha Jo Stewart.

The resident of Weirton, West Virginia, had died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Samantha had been reported missing four days earlier by her estranged husband and had no known ties to Columbiana County.

Homicide date: sometime between July 22, 1981 and Sept. 29, 1981

Incident location: unknown

Lead agency: Union County Sheriff’s Office

Joanne Hebert would have been a freshman at Dublin High School when the summer of 1981 came to a close.

The 14-year-old, who was shy and soft-spoken, lived with her parents and older brother, Keith, at 9036 Dublin Road. On July 22, 1981, she asked Keith if he wanted a soda, then hopped on her 10-speed and headed for the nearby Tag Market, at 9110 Dublin Road. Her parents were both at their jobs.

Joanne was seen at the market talking on the payphone, and her bicycle was still out front when the store closed at 8 p.m. But then it disappeared, as had Joanne.

For two months and seven days, there was no sign of the teen, yet her mother refused to believe Joanne had run away.

“We’ve been through hell,” Sandra Hebert told The Columbus Dispatch.

Then a squirrel hunter in woods 3 miles from the Heberts’ home and a mile south of Mitchell DeWitt Road (near where Franklin, Delaware and Union counties meet) stumbled across a partially decomposed body. It turned out to be Joanne, half-dressed, likely sexually assaulted and beaten to death.

Union County Sheriff's Office information page on Joanne Hebert