Law Enforcement > Local Law Enforcement > Unsolved Homicides
Boyd Dale Stearns Unsolved homicide
- Case number: 1218
- Nickname or alias: Dale
- Incident location: Along a creek bank near Greensburg Pike
Bowling Green,
Ohio
- Wood County
- Incident date: 9/4/1979 - 10/1/1979 (Approximate)
- Homicide date: Unknown
- Date of birth: 7/6/1941
- Gender: Male
- Race/Ethnicity: White
- Hair color: Brown
- Law enforcement agency: Wood County Prosecutor's Office / Wood County Sheriff's Office
Details
Dale Stearns was reported missing by his wife on September 4, 1979. She stated he left for work that morning at 6:30am (he was a contractor) and never returned. On September 21, 1979, a hunter reported finding Stearns' pickup truck in a woods on Dirlam Road in rural Wood County. The hunter had seen vehicle tracks in soft ground going into the woods on September 8th but hadn't entered the woods or actually viewed the truck. He returned to the woods on the 15th to hunt and saw the truck for the first time but assumed it was another hunter. On the 20th, he again was in the woods to hunt and again saw the truck which had not been moved and became suspicious. He checked the truck and found the victim's name on paperwork and reported it to the sheriff's office on the 21st after a friend advised him the name he saw on the paperwork was of a person reported missing. On October 1, 1979, the partially decomposed body of Dale Stearns was found by a township worker mowing weeds along a creek bank near Greensburg Pike a little over two miles south of Stearns' home on Sand Ridge Road near Bowling Green. His body was clad in his underwear lying face down. An autopsy revealed Stearns had been shot in the back and a small bullet fragment was recovered from his body.
Contact
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