Ohio, Pennsylvania detectives search for leads in 4 cold cases that could be connected

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Detectives in three counties aren’t giving up on chilly circumstances which have stumped them for many years.

They’re making an attempt to determine whether or not one killer might be behind the murders of 4 girls from the Cleveland space within the 80s and 90s.

All the victims had been dumped in distant areas off a stretch of Route 6 heading east to Pennsylvania.

Different placing similarities within the circumstances have led detectives to research whether or not their violent deaths might be linked.

Detective Don Seamon with the Geauga County Sheriff’s Workplace thinks it’s doable.

Two of the 4 circumstances occurred in his county.

Det. Seamon opened up his case recordsdata to 19 Investigates, as a result of he’s decided to unravel the case.

The chilly circumstances

Here’s a timeline of all 4 circumstances.

• 1981: Delores Furnace, 30, discovered lifeless subsequent to a rustic highway in Geauga County.
• 1992: Verlene Flenoy, 28, found close to a rustic highway in Ashtabula County.
• 1994: Terri Iverson, 38, discovered lifeless subsequent to a rustic highway in Geauga County.
• 1999: Danita Landres, 34, discovered lifeless in a soybean area simply throughout the state line in Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

In 1981, somebody discovered the primary sufferer’s physique in a drainage ditch simply off Clay Road close to Thompson Street in Thompson Township in Geauga County.

“Her physique was badly decomposed. She had been lacking for 2 weeks, three weeks,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

It took awhile to establish her as Delores Furnace of East Cleveland.

Investigators believed she had been strangled. However they couldn’t decide a reason for demise.

Practically 11 years later, in 1992, the physique of Verlene Flenoy of Cleveland was discovered on Mead Hole Street in Hartsgrove Township, Ashtabula County.

“She had been lacking for a couple of week, her reason for demise was believed to be strangulation,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

Then, two years later in 1994, one other lady’s physique was dumped in Geauga County.

Terri Iverson of Cleveland additionally died of strangulation.

“Her physique was discovered nearly in the identical location as our sufferer in 1981, a couple of quarter mile aside,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

“Did they suppose they bought the identical location, or had been they simply making an attempt to place it in the same location? What was the aim for it, was it nearly like taunting the regulation enforcement?” he mentioned.

In 1999, a farmer found one other lady’s physique dumped in a distant soybean area simply throughout the state line in Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

Danita Landres of East Cleveland had been strangled too.

She died from blunt power trauma to the top.

“And for those who comply with Route 6 East from Cleveland, all of the our bodies had been situated both very near Route 6, or only a couple miles off,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

Detectives working the circumstances within the 90s believed these killings might be linked.

And the detectives engaged on them at present do too.

“Simply as a result of similarities, all identical sort of victims believed to be prostitutes, Black females taken from nearly the identical, the identical neighborhood in Cleveland,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

Similarities within the circumstances

Might these girls have been the goal of a serial killer?

All 4 of them had been final seen within the space of East fortieth Road in Cleveland, between Route 20 and Woodland Avenue.

They had been all Black girls of their 20s and 30s.

Most of them had been strangled.

Their our bodies had been dumped in rural areas off Route 6, heading east from the town.

However two giant gaps within the killings have investigators stumped.

After 1981, 11 years glided by till the subsequent murders in 1992 and 1994.

Then 5 years handed earlier than the fourth and final identified homicide in 1999.

“Did the suspect go to jail on an unrelated crime throughout these instances? Did she or he perhaps transfer out of the realm?” Det. Seamon mentioned.

Households seek for solutions

These girls are nonetheless cherished and missed by the households they left behind.

It’s been thirty years since Paris Matlock misplaced her mother, Verlene Flenoy.

“What I bear in mind most is that smile, her smile and her eyes,” she mentioned.

She cherishes the few pictures and recollections she nonetheless has.

“It’s been arduous through the years, you understand, not having her right here,” Matlock mentioned.

Verlene had 4 children.

Paris is the oldest. She was eight years outdated when she died.

Her brothers had been simply toddlers and infants.

“They, they had been it, that was it. That was all I had,” she mentioned.

A long time later, her kids are nonetheless looking for solutions.

“It could be good to know, for certain, you understand what occurred, you understand, what went on, who did it, you understand?” Matlock mentioned.

It was years earlier than Paris discovered her mother’s case might be linked to the murders of three different girls.

She mentioned her mother was not a prostitute.

However she does consider the circumstances are linked.

And she or he’s satisfied her mother knew her killer.

“I simply suppose they simply bought caught up with a person that had a variety of hate in his coronary heart. It was nothing that they did or mentioned, simply somebody with hate,” she mentioned.

Serial killers dominated out as suspects

Investigators adopted a whole bunch of leads all through the years.

In late 2018, detectives thought they can join the circumstances to a serial killer from proper right here in northeast Ohio.

Samuel Little turned out to be essentially the most prolific serial killer in American historical past.

He confessed to 93 murders throughout the nation earlier than he died.

His victims had been all strangled to demise.

Det. Seamon flew to Texas to fulfill with Samuel Little face-to-face.

“It was surreal. I’ve labored many murder circumstances, interviewed many potential suspects, however that’s one I’ll always remember,” he mentioned.

However Little denied killing any of those girls.

And he was in jail throughout one of many murders.

“Samuel Little, in my expertise from what I do know of him, if he was accountable, he would admit to it. He wouldn’t admit the circumstances he was not liable for and he did adamantly deny having any accountability in these 4 particular killings,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

Detectives formally dominated him out as a suspect and turned their consideration to different doable serial killers.

They appeared into Anthony Sowell, referred to as the “Cleveland Strangler.”

Sowell was convicted of murdering 11 girls.

In addition they checked out Samuel Legg, a former truck driver accused of a number of homicides in Ohio and at the very least one in Illinois.

Each males had been dominated out too.

Det. Seamon’s subsequent attempt is to make use of DNA, which just lately helped him remedy a high-profile chilly case.

He solved “Geauga’s Youngster” with new DNA expertise, which helped him observe down the identification of a child discovered lifeless on a rustic highway again in 1993.

And in the end led to his mom and killer. 19 Investigates profiled that case in again in November.

“So the proof in these 4 circumstances have been and is being re-analyzed. So in search of that one piece of DNA that’s appropriate for comparability that we may begin that family tree case once more to search for the suspect,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

He thinks somebody on the market can join these gaps in time to somebody they know.

“We’re just one telephone name away and that subsequent telephone name might be the one that might assist us remedy this case,” Det. Seamon mentioned.

And Paris remains to be holding out hope.

“You recognize, we simply need solutions. We need to know. So in the event that they do know something, come ahead, inform us what you understand,” she mentioned.

Name with any leads

If in case you have any info on any of those circumstances, you possibly can name the next businesses:

• Geauga County Sheriff’s Workplace: 440-279-2009.
• Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Workplace: 440-576-3590.
• Pennsylvania State Police: 814-332-6911, ask for Trooper Baldwin on the Meadville station.

You may as well contact Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-4PA-TIPS (8477) or on-line right here.

You might be eligible for a money reward for info that results in an arrest.

Learn extra concerning the Danita Landres’ case right here.

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