Bones uncovered (Story)

Bones uncovered

Demolition of dead suspect’s home reveals Lima remains that could be Nicholle Coppler, missing since 1999

By BOB BLAKE

LIMA — The family of Nicholle Coppler has spent nearly 13 years in limbo, not knowing the fate that met their daughter, sister, granddaughter. The 14-year-old Lima girl ran away from home in May 1999 and never came home. The decade-old wait for answers may soon come to an end.

A planned demolition of a city-owned house — the last place police were able to link to Coppler — yielded one last surprise Wednesday afternoon. In a development first reported by The Lima News on its website, LimaOhio.com, demolition crews and police detectives discovered what were believed to be human remains in a basement crawl space area of the house.

“We’re looking for any type of remains,” said Maj. Richard Shade, of the Lima Police Department. “Clearly we don’t know if we’re looking at a single incident or multiple incidents. We don’t know where this will lead but we will take our time and use all exhaustive efforts.”

Shade said the discovery of bones was made mid-afternoon. Demolition work immediately stopped, yellow police tape went up and the property at what used to be 735 S. Elizabeth St. became a crime scene, he said. The house had once been the residence of Glen Fryer, a man suspected in Coppler’s disappearance. Fryer committed suicide in the Allen County Jail in February 2002 after pleading no contest to rape charges involving a 12-year-old girl.

Evidence, including a hair identified as Coppler’s, her school identification card, and a diary with entries several days after she disappeared were found in Fryer’s house in previous searches.

“We had detectives down here watching the scene at the time,” Shade said. “There was nothing abnormal with the house construction but when they got into the basement area, what would have been a crawl space area we did recover items that are bones.”

Authorities contacted Coppler’s mother, Krista Coppler, in Florida.

“I don’t know who else it could be,” Krista Coppler said.

Krista Coppler said she suspected all along Glen Fryer killed her daughter and hid her body on his property despite previous attempts by police to find her body, including using ground-penetrating radar.

“If this is her, I knew she was there,” she said.

Shade said in addition to detectives from the Lima Police Department, agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation were called to process the scene. By late afternoon, three state crime scene trucks, a local police and fire command center, and more than a dozen law enforcement officers converged on the scene.

Tents were erected to protect the site along with the retrieved evidence. The city brought in floodlights to help with planned overnight collection and processing efforts.

“Obviously we wouldn’t be here if it didn’t appear to be” human remains, Shade said. “There is no confirmation. Absolutely, it is being handled as a crime scene.”

Shade said it would take time to process the scene, collect all the evidence and remains as well as conduct all the forensic tests, including DNA analysis, needed to determine if the remains were Coppler’s.

The flurry of activity was met with plenty of onlookers, among them were relatives of Nicholle Coppler. All said they were hoping the discovery can help lead to closure for the family.

“This hopefully will bring closure to our family. We always had a hope maybe she was still alive,” said Diana Coppler, Nicholle’s grandmother. “Then after Sunday’s paper knowing if she was what she’d be going through, it may be a blessing she never made it out of Lima.”

In another story first reported by The Lima News a week ago, an investigator with the FBI’s Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force confirmed there is a federal investigation into people connected to Fryer. The investigator said federal charges for human trafficking related to Coppler’s disappearance could be forthcoming.

“It’s been pretty hard not knowing what happened,” said Rob Coppler, Nicholle’s older brother. “You usually hear little things here, little things there. The uncertainty of where she’s at, what happened to her, it’s been hard.”

Diana Coppler described Nicholle as a sweet, loving, fun-loving girl.

“She was loving. She always had a hug for Grandma and that smile of hers just would melt you,” she said. “She, again at the age she was, she was a teenager, and she felt confined so she spread her wings before she realized she wasn’t old enough to understand what was going on and ended up in a bad place.

“We know she wanted to come back home according to her diary. I just know God was with her, whatever happened to her. He will be with us and get us through all this.”

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 9, 2012

 

It happens in Lima (Story)

It happens in Lima

Local coalition working to raise awareness about human trafficking issues

By  BOB BLAKE

LIMA — Human trafficking used to be an issue associated with exotic locales abroad. It was something that happened in major urban centers. It wasn’t something that happened here.

Those assumptions were shattered in 2009. That’s when a foreign national in hiding spent a year at a Crossroads Crisis Center shelter. It’s also how a few in the Lima community got a first-hand crash course in the $32 billion a year issue of human trafficking — the world’s second-largest criminal enterprise.

“That was the first experience I was aware of that touched us,” said David Voth, executive director of Crime Victim Services. “That person wasn’t from Allen County it was someone in hiding from another state that kept getting moved because they kept getting found. It still brought it home to us.”

The next year, Voth and Emily Wrencher, director of the crisis center, were both at a conference on the topic. Their interest in the topic coupled with the experience of having a victim in Lima helped facilitate the creation of the Northwest Ohio Human Trafficking Rescue and Restore Coalition.

Comprised of members from Crime Victim Services, Crossroads, Safe Harbor Runaway Shelter, the Lima Police Department and the Partnership for Violence Free Families, among others, the local initiative aims to raise public awareness, aid in survivor recovery and strengthen the judicial response to the crimes.

“I guess coming from a domestic violence arena I’m not surprised,” Wrencher said. “I’m not surprised that it’s kind of been an issue that’s always been there but has always been covered up or looked the other way or we as a society, and even social service agencies, just haven’t devoted the attention that is needed. I would say this issue is where domestic violence was 30 years ago.”

Even with the awareness of the issue, Voth said he didn’t anticipate it would be something he saw with any regularity here. Last year, Crime Victim Services was involved in six cases — two involving individuals from outside the area and four involving Allen County residents.

“To have six in one year last year was a shock to me,” Voth said. “I had this concept that it was going to be foreign, adult women. It’s tended to be white, middle class youth and young adults and local. I wasn’t expecting that.”

Laurel Neufeld Weaver, the rape crisis coordinator for Crime Victim Services, said this whole region needs to have an awakening to the issue.

“In our area we have to wake up to the fact we are very close to an interstate highway system that has the movement of people happening on a daily basis,” Weaver said. “ We think because we don’t see it, it doesn’t happen. The reality is it is happening.”

Members of the local coalition said they have been working the last couple of years to familiarize themselves with the services available around Lima to aid victims. Those services include free shelter, counseling and 24-hour emergency response.

They have also been trying to spread the word among vulnerable youth in and around the community, according to Tara Nagy, who is part of Safe Harbor Runaway Shelter’s street outreach program.

“We look for high-risk youth,” Nagy said. “We’re going out into the schools, giving out the information talking about the drop-in center, talking about Safe Harbor. They know they have a safe place to go and maybe they won’t take that other route.”

The bottom line is that despite the challenges in identifying human trafficking and the obstacles victims have in getting away from the traffickers, there are resources available locally to help.

“We want anyone who might hear about this to know it is happening,” Voth said. “If it’s you, you’re not alone. There are people who believe you and will help you.”

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 6, 2012

‘Modern-day slavery’ (Story)

‘Modern-day slavery’

Trafficking task force eyes charges in Coppler case

By BOB BLAKE

L IMA — Nicholle Coppler ran away, leaving her home on Broadway Street in May 1999. She never returned. Nearly 13 years later, a federal crime task force is closing in on charges against individuals who may have played a role in why the Lima teenager never came home.

Three times law enforcement officials have conducted raids at sites in Allen and Hardin counties looking for clues or for Coppler herself. The searches never found Coppler, though traces of her — a human hair and her school identification card — were found inside the home of Glen Fryer at 735 S. Elizabeth St.

Fryer, who reportedly was going to talk to authorities about Coppler, committed suicide in the Allen County Jail in February 2002 — four days after pleading no contest to rape charges involving a 12-year-old girl.

Coppler’s case remains open and active for the members of the Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force. Comprised of members of the FBI, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and other local law enforcement agencies, including the Lima Police Department, the task force has continued its work to determine what happened to Coppler and bring those responsible to justice.

“The task force is investigating Coppler’s activities prior to her disappearance. Other persons of interest involved with Glen Fryer are being looked into for possible state and federal charges,” said Investigator David Gillispie, a member of the task force and the Lima Police Department. “No information has been received that [she] is alive, however she cannot be presumed deceased at this time. I would welcome any information from the public.”

The Coppler investigation now centers on individuals believed to be involved in human trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center calls it a modern-day form of slavery where victims are “subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.”

Unlike prevailing public perceptions, human trafficking isn’t just a problem in exotic locations abroad or in major urban areas. It’s a problem in the United States, Ohio and Lima, too. In fact, human trafficking is the second-largest criminal enterprise in the world, second only to the drug trade, officials said.

How big is the problem?

Advocates of human trafficking awareness and prevention said the scope of human trafficking is staggering.

Statistics from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center estimate between 600,000 and 800,000 people annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who has continued an Ohio Human Trafficking Commission initiated by his predecessor Richard Cordray, said by some estimates human trafficking is a $32 billion a year international enterprise.

“It’s a nasty, nasty crime. All crimes are nasty. I think what particularly makes this offensive is that most of the victims are young, most of them are under 18, there’s someone who is dominating them,” DeWine said in an interview with The Lima News. “There is someone who is older who is making them work against their will or making them have sex against their will. It’s something that we all should be concerned about, that should affect all of us. It should make us all mad. We all should have a sense of indignation about this.”

As many as 100,000 children in the United States are thought to be involved in the sex trade, according to DeWine’s office. Most of the girls involved begin between the ages of 12 and 14.

“It’s a quiet, silent, insidious crime. It’s very difficult to detect,” DeWine said. “What our office has started to do now since I became attorney general is focus more on the criminal side of this. Frankly, we have a ways to go and we need help.”

Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey, president of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association, said the organization has offered training specifically on the issue within the past year. Grey, however, said he wasn’t aware of any cases of human trafficking in Mercer County or in the surrounding counties.

“It’s hard from a law enforcement perspective because we’re mostly reactionary. We certainly go out on patrol, we certainly try to do crime prevention type activities and educate the community,” Grey said. “When a crime is happening most of the time we find out when a victim tells us or someone else who’s seen the activity tells us. It makes it very difficult because if nobody is telling us about the problem, it’s hard for us to react to the problem.”

An Ohio problem, too

Gillispie said the work of the federal task force out of Toledo has shown the prevalence of the issue not only in the United States but also in Ohio.

A growing awareness of the scope of the issue and the connections between Toledo and Lima helped precipitate Gillispie’s assignment full-time to the task force in early 2009, he said.

“This issue came about as a result of numerous complaints of juveniles, especially juveniles from the Lima and Allen County area, being lured away from this area by the Internet or being actively involved in prostitution outside of Ohio,” Gillispie said. “Girls from Toledo as well as Detroit are often recruited and sent from the Toledo area to Lima and to Beaverdam to the truck stops under pimp control. I wouldn’t say our problem in Lima is prostitution within our city as far as the juveniles. The cases I’ve been running, girls from Lima have been recruited and sent outside the area to include Fort Wayne, Covington, Ky. and elsewhere for the actual prostitution.”

A report from the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission to former Attorney General Richard Cordray found that Toledo is No. 4 in the country in terms of the number of arrests, investigations and rescue of domestic minor sex trafficking. Only Miami, Fla., Portland, Ore. and Las Vegas rank higher.

“It’s a huge problem globally and nationally. The most important thing is it’s here. I’ve seen two cases firsthand,” said Mark Ensalaco, associate professor of political science and director of the Human Rights Studies Program at the University of Dayton. “One a foreign national and one a U.S. citizen, an American girl at a local high school who was trafficked into sex beginning at the age of 14. It was two years before we were able to extricate her from that.”

A 2009 conference at the University of Dayton on the issue of human trafficking sparked enough interest to get a new group, Abolition Ohio, formed to address modern-day slavery. The group has generated support from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, students, other civic groups and social service agencies, Ensalaco said.

“They know it’s here. They’ve seen it, they’re concerned about it. We’re very happy there’s a multiple level of awareness that modern slavery exists here but also the commitment to try to abolish it,” Ensalaco said. “It’s a very difficult phenomenon to identify. Victims are afraid to come forward. It’s a clandestine criminal enterprise. It’s very profitable. It’s very hard to track this.”

Ensalaco said one of the problems that has been identified is the lack of safe havens for those who are rescued from traffickers.

“The big problem now is what do you do when you rescue them. They need protection,” he said. “There are homes for runaways, but they may not have the expertise to deal with the broad range of issues facing these people.”

A safe haven

Recognizing the need for a safe haven for victims of human trafficking, Gracehaven, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2008 with the goal of opening Ohio’s first shelter.

Theresa Flores, director of training and education for Gracehaven, said the goal is to open the house — at an undisclosed location in Logan County — yet this year. In the years since its founding the group, with an office in Dublin, has been focused on increasing awareness of the issue.

“Pimps are traffickers. A lot of people don’t realize that,” Flores said. “We as a society just don’t label it as that. That’s part of the problem.”

Flores said studies have shown the average pimp involved in human trafficking makes $300,000 a year in cash through threats, coercion and violence toward the people they are trafficking.

“To me human trafficking is a big deal. You’re using a person continuously, nightly. Rape in the first degree could be a one-time thing,” Flores said. “It’s just sad from a victim’s perspective. That’s what they’re faced with. That’s why it’s so hard to heal sometimes because society doesn’t believe you and everything is against you. It’s like you have to convince people that this is a problem. How many crimes are out there that the victims have to convince people that this is wrong, that they were a victim?”

Flores knows. She’s been there. She was just 15 and a sophomore in high school in an affluent suburb of Detroit when a boy she had a crush on drugged and raped her. Male family members of the boy took photographs and told her she’d have to “earn them back,” threatening to show them to her parents, her dad’s boss and others if she told anyone.

For two years, Flores endured the threats, beatings, being drugged and raped associated with human trafficking. The experience changed the course of her life as she pursued a career as a social worker. It wasn’t until a convention several years ago that she realized her experience had a name — human trafficking.

“No one would choose this. I didn’t,” Flores said. “It just gets bigger and bigger and you don’t know how to get out.”

It was an instantaneous decision to get involved in raising awareness of the issue, Flores said. As she puts it, human trafficking awareness and prevention became her life’s purpose.

Flores said she was shocked when she realized just how much of an issue human trafficking is in Ohio.

Studies through the Ohio Human Trafficking Commission estimate more than 1,079 children are being trafficked currently in the state. The studies have also estimated more than 700 immigrants are being trafficked. Current estimates put the number of people who are being trafficked either in the sex or labor trades around 4,000, Flores said.

While it has been difficult to tell her story and be identified as a human trafficking victim, it has been part of her healing process, Flores said.

“The biggest part of my healing has been finding my purpose and trying to make sure this doesn’t happen to others,” Flores said. “The biggest factor has been finding my calling. Something like Gracehaven is a very tangible way to heal, to have something for these young girls that I didn’t have when I was their age.”

Changing the culture

Increasing awareness of the issue is one way advocacy groups and law enforcement officials are working to get a handle on and stamp out the issue of human trafficking.

“We’re trying to change the culture and trying to change people’s attitudes. It’s not that people don’t care,” DeWine said. “It’s just a police officer’s got a ton of things to do that are coming at him or at her every single day. This one doesn’t necessarily jump up and hit them in the face.

“You get a burglary report, you take the report. You get a rape report, you take the report. You investigate it. These, you don’t get reports on. The victim is not calling you. The victim is not saying solve my crime because the victim is being coerced and so you have to get evidence someplace else.”

That’s exactly what the members of the Northwest Ohio Violent Crimes Against Children Task Force in Toledo have been doing in the Coppler case.

“It’s an active investigation. We have made progress in the case,” Gillispie said. “We’re hoping to be able to charge people shortly with that and not so much in the missing juvenile but possibly in the area of human trafficking.”

Gillispie said any indictments will be sought in U.S. District Court and will be announced by the FBI’s Cleveland office since it is a federal investigation.

“The public perception on prostitution ranges from disgust to legalization. It’s viewed by some as a victimless crime,” Gillispie said. “When I speak to girls involved in prostitution, I ask them why. I have been told many reasons including supporting of a drug habit, doing for the love of their boyfriend/pimp and needing money. I have never been told that they are doing it for enjoyment.

“The victimization can continue for years. Victims are reluctant to provide information on their abusers out of fear, loyalty or the belief that no one cares about them. The victimization is downplayed by media. TV shows, music have glamorized the life of the prostitutes and pimps. The reality for victims is something entirely different. Physical and mental abuse, drug addiction and rape are the norm.”

Published in The Lima News: Jan. 29, 2012

Confusion corridor (Story)

Confusion corridor

Projects put neighborhood’s future in limbo

By BOB BLAKE

LIMA — Who goes and who stays is unclear. When they’ll find out, that is unclear, too.

A month ago, the residents of Bryn Mawr Avenue in Bath Township were celebrating the Fourth of July. Today, they wonder if they will be among the group of neighbors who will be forced out of their homes.

Residents say they’ve just been informed this month that the Ohio Department of Transportation and American Electric Power will be demolishing homes that lie within their easements. Ruth Hollenbacher, president of the Lost Creek Neighborhood Association, said residents have been told they have until Dec. 1 to relocate. Hollenbacher said as of now as many as eight properties are being sought for demolition — two by ODOT and six by AEP.

“They are our friends and our neighbors,” Hollenbacher said. “We feel for them.”

Precisely when and exactly how many residents will need to leave their homes remains unclear.

There are more than two dozen parcels along Bryn Mawr Avenue, running along and abutting the east side of Interstate 75, just north of Harding Highway. The neighborhood sits where two major projects — the Interstate 75 reconstruction and an AEP transmission line replacement — converge.

“I know in time, things change,” said Lori Johnson, a resident of the neighborhood for 16 years. “It’s going to be sad.”

Johnson said neighbors remain unclear on whether all the homes that sit nestled against the interstate will eventually be acquired.

She’s not the only one confused. Even Shelly Clark, a spokeswoman for AEP, said that’s a question to which she doesn’t have an immediate answer.

Clark said the electric utility is working to upgrade its 138 kilovolt transmission line that parallels the interstate to comply with system capacity requirements set by PJM, the utility’s regional transmission operator. The project, ongoing since 2010, is being coordinated with ODOT’s reconstruction plans, she said.

“To obtain the clearance/easement required for the voltage level of the transmission line to ensure the safety of the public, AEP has been in contact and are diligently working with property owners to acquire four locations along the corridor,” Clark said. “The acquisitions are needed because of the close proximity to the high-voltage transmission line. AEP hopes to complete the acquisition of the properties by the end of 2011, but has ensure the property owners that we will accommodate their schedules for relocation.”

For Johnson, life has become a “maybe” — maybe she won’t lose her home; maybe she will only lose her garage. Maybe she can have her garage rebuilt on the other side of the house. Maybe not.

She explained her property is also crossed by a number of pipelines owned by Buckeye Pipeline. The garage sits within AEP’s easement, but she’s yet to be able to work out an agreement for building another one because of the pipelines. Without that agreement, AEP will also acquire her property, she said.

“We’re in limbo. Others here know their house is gone,” Johnson said. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over the whole thing.”

Published in The Lima News: Aug. 24, 2011

Year of the twister (Story)

Year of the twister

Radar locations leave area at risk

By BOB BLAKE

LIMA — One month ago, the lives of the residents of Joplin, Mo., changed forever. A nearly mile-wide tornado cut a swath of catastrophic damage across the southern half of the town. The monster storm claimed 153 lives and injured more than 1,100.

The storm, a rare EF-5 with winds greater than 200 mph, is the seventh-deadliest single tornado in American history. It was an historic tornado in the midst of what is quickly becoming an historic severe weather season.

Traditionally rare, there have been five EF-5 tornadoes nationwide so far this year. Imagery from Joplin, along with other devastating tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Ala., has raised questions about storm vulnerability and preparedness.

“It’s not a matter of if we’re going to get a big tornado in here, it’s a matter of when,” said Michael Lewis, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in North Webster, Ind. “It’s just a matter of time before a big tornado or a big severe thunderstorm outbreak or a heavy snow, winter storm, blizzard — it’s just a matter of time before we get impacted significantly by the weather.”

The region is no stranger to tornadoes — just ask folks in Celina, Cridersville and Van Wert. This region, however, is in a unique position geographically — located on the edge of three separate weather service forecast zones. The problem that arises from that unique position is that the weather service radars are positioned so far away they can’t always see what’s happening closer to the ground.

Troy Anderson, director of the Auglaize County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said there are instances when storms move into the county right under the radar and spin up quick, weak tornadoes.

“We had the tornado that hit New Knoxville [in August 2006]. We had the damage and the weather service didn’t see it until they came up to do the [damage] survey,” Anderson said. “We were showing them those patterns and they said they didn’t catch that. After several events like that, I said we have to do something here.”

The key, according to weather and emergency management officials, is making sure lines of communication are open between agencies and promoting preparedness to residents and businesses.

Russ Decker, director of the Allen County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said, “I think we cannot undervalue the importance of mitigation — things like public education, the community warning sirens, encouraging people to go out and buy weather radios.

“For tornadoes, it’s not like we can build a levee and protect the community. We have to look at public warning. In the case of Joplin, there were 24 minutes of warning time. That 24 minutes is excellent and it’s above the national average but it only helps you if the people in your community know what to do with that 24 minutes.”

A unique situation

Three separate National Weather Service offices are tasked with issuing forecasts, watches and warnings for the region, with no overlap between offices. The North Webster, Ind., office handles Allen, Putnam and Van Wert counties. The Wilmington office is responsible for Auglaize, Hardin, Logan, Mercer and Shelby counties. Hancock County is the responsibility of the Cleveland office.

Missed tornadoes and the ice storm of 2005 prompted Anderson and others to build an active spotting program in Auglaize County. The Aug. 28, 2006, tornado, an EF-0 that caused minor damage, hit the southern part of New Knoxville and was part of the impetus. A tornado warning had been issued earlier that night for a storm in Mercer County. No such warning was ever issued for Auglaize County, according to published reports at the time.

“We’re doing the storm spotting, the storm reporting. We’re the eyes for Wilmington,” Anderson said. “If we’re the farthest away, their radar is not seeing where we’re at. Some of the storms are sliding through. On the radar if the storm top isn’t high enough and severe enough, it’s going to look mild on radar to them. Here, it’s not mild.”

Mary Jo Parker, warning coordination meteorologist for the weather service office in Wilmington, acknowledged that there are limitations with the radar technology.

“Storm spotters, emergency management are important no matter where we’re talking about in our coverage area,” Parker said. “A lot of times the tornadoes that we’re dealing with, very weak tornadoes, may or may not be detected on radar depending on where they occur, even if they occur fairly close to a radar site. It’s really important to have that network of spotters out there, be in close contact with emergency management.”

An unusual season

It has been an overly active severe weather season by all accounts. There’s been a nearly three-fold increase in the number of severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued by the National Weather Service office in North Webster, Ind., across its 37 counties in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, Lewis said.

“If you go back to our fall season, it was also very active,” Lewis said. “From September through June, the bottom line is it’s been a very active year.”

Lewis said exact numbers aren’t readily available for the number of warnings. While those specifics haven’t yet been charted, he said in terms of the number of people affected by warnings and the size of the areas impacted, it has been larger this year, he said.

Parker said there’s no question there have been more severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued across the 52 counties of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky served by her office since the first of the year.

“Over that time period, we issued a total of 1,198 warnings,” Parker said. “That doesn’t mean we had severe weather for each warning. Sometimes we’ll issue a warning and we don’t get anything. Compared to last year for the same time period, we issued 398 severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings. It was quite an active springtime and we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Nationally, statistics show a similar pattern.

A report from the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., shows so far there have been nearly 1,500 reports of tornadoes — up from the three-year average of 1,376. There have also been more than 500 tornado deaths, significantly higher than the three-year average of 64. There were more than 800 tornado reports and more than 360 tornado deaths reported in April alone, according to the report.

Mike Bettes, an on-air meteorologist for The Weather Channel, said conditions have been ripe for explosive weather.

“Atmospherically there have been times when a strong jet stream combined with just a lot of Gulf of Mexico moisture have combined at the right time, right place or the wrong time, wrong place to create these huge events,” Bettes said. “Conditions have been ripe multiple times this year for violent tornadoes to form. Unfortunately very violent tornadoes have formed.”

The national average for the occurrence of the most violent tornadoes, EF-5, is one every two years, Bettes said. This year alone there have been five, including Joplin.

‘It changes you’

Experiencing a life-altering tornado like Joplin firsthand has impacts, even for veteran weather professionals, Bettes said.

Bettes was in the Midwest chasing tornadoes as part of The Weather Channel’s monthlong “Tornado Hunt” from May 9 through June 3.

“We go out in search of the storms and I think in the back of our minds we always know what the result of something big could be, but in most instances we don’t think about it,” Bettes said. “We think about a big, beautiful, majestic tornado in the wide open countryside. I think this year that changed for us in particular when we ended up in Joplin literally minutes after the tornado touched down.”

Bettes said they ended up seeing exactly what an EF-5 tornado’s aftermath is when it strikes a populated town.

“That was a storm that we actually targeted that day. We were chasing it, we intercepted it just outside Joplin but at the time it didn’t have a tornado,” Bettes said. “As it moved past us, we followed in behind it and ended up getting stuck in some heavy rain and some hail and that ended up slowing us down because the visibility was so bad we couldn’t even do the speed limit.

“If it hadn’t been for that our whole crew would have likely been right in Joplin when the tornado hit. I think the rain and the hail actually probably saved our lives.”

The crew witnessed many things with the raw emotion, the shock and the scenes of utter devastation when they pulled into town, Bettes said.

“I think it changes you. It changed me,” Bettes said. “Often times in the job we do, we usually end up at a tornado site after the fact, a day later. The freshness of it is gone, you still see damage but you don’t feel that emotion that you feel when it happens right in front of you. You see the terror on people’s faces, the shock and the injuries and the fatalities and it’s all very fresh for you.”

The experience has given him a new outlook on how to approach passing along warnings to viewers, Bettes said.

“For me personally at least, what I took away from that was there are so many times when we can become very disingenuous when we talk about tornado warnings because we talk about them so frequently,” Bettes said. “There is a direct result of having people take action because of the words that you speak. For me, I think I take them more seriously now even, there’s more urgency in how I talk about tornadoes now than I ever used to have.

“I think that’s for me a direct result of having witnessed what I witnessed in Joplin.”

Overcoming the limitations

Despite the vulnerabilities, officials said there is constant work to improve collaboration between agencies as well as the utilization of new technology to improve the system.

“Technology provides limitations no matter what you do. The advantage is we’re trained and we receive training on radar interpretation nearly continuously,” Lewis said. “The focus has always been how can we make better sense of the radar and how can we use it to our advantage. Regardless of where the storms are, we understand what we can reasonably expect down to the ground. This is why we need spotters. There’s a constant need for steady, reliable information.”

Decker said there are constant discussions between the weather service offices, first-responders and emergency management officials working to improve the warning system.

“Every day we are doing things to make the system better,” Decker said. “There are a lot of things we’re working on to get better in the future. We’ve added Facebook and Twitter. We’re trying to reach out on the social media level.”

Other improvements down the line include technology that will be able to send warning information to people under a warning through their satellite radio and wireless phone technology regardless of where they are at, Decker said. That technology is less than five years away, he said.

It’s all aimed at improving warning notification and is part of the process and debate about how much lead time is just right, Lewis said. Conventional wisdom has held that the more lead time people have before a storm, the better. That’s not necessarily true, Lewis said.

“The big question is how much is too much time. There is a point where if I gave you five days warning a lot of life occurs in five days,” Lewis said, noting too much warning time may give people a false sense of safety. “Will you remember in five days that we told you five days ago? Time is of the essence. The question is how much time is too much time.”

Published in The Lima News: June 19, 2011

Bail set at $1 million (Story)

Bail set at $1 million

911 call, scanner archive depict chaotic scene in wake of stabbing

By BOB BLAKE

LIMA — A neighbor prayed for divine intervention early Tuesday moments after her next-door neighbor came screaming for help to her door.

In the 911 call to the Lima Police Department released Friday, the neighbor can be heard praying for 4-year-old Linda Jackson and for her 19-year-old elder sister, Kenyada Vorise-Jackson.

“Help us, Lord. Snap her out of it, Lord,” the woman said during the call. “Snap her out of it, Lord. Don’t let her hurt Linda, Lord. Oh, Jesus.”

The call provides a small window into the scene at 1913 Burch Ave. shortly after 1:40 a.m. Tuesday. It was in those early hours, police said, that Vorise-Jackson repeatedly stabbed her younger sister to death. The girls’ mother, Latamangela Jackson, 44, was also stabbed multiple times during a violent domestic disturbance at the family home, investigators have said.

Vorise-Jackson, who was set to graduate from Elida High School on Sunday, made her initial appearance in Lima Municipal Court on Friday on a charge of murder.

Dressed in black-and-white striped jail garb, her hands shackled near her waist, Vorise-Jackson said nothing. Even when addressed by Judge RicKard Workman, Vorise-Jackson responded with meek nods of her head.

Workman ordered Vorise-Jackson held in lieu of $1 million bail. She faces 15 years to life in prison and up to a $15,000 fine if convicted on the murder charge. Lt. Jim Baker, of the Lima Police Department, has said additional charges were likely in the case. Those charges are not likely to come until after the case is presented to a grand jury.

Investigators have been tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding the double stabbing since Tuesday. Police scanner traffic archived by RadioReference.com and obtained by The Lima News reveals Vorise-Jackson was briefly on the run in the aftermath of the deadly stabbing.

In the audio, an officer can be heard saying the suspect, a black female dressed in all black, took off running west from the scene. That was about 12 minutes after officers got the call and headed to the scene.

“Station also, I don’t know if you’ve got any other units free on the west but they can try to check westbound from here,” the officer said. “Tell them to use 40 [caution], we’ve got multiple stab victims at this location.”

The scanner traffic also showed officers were concerned about setting up a perimeter at the crime scene, but also about whether Vorise-Jackson would return to the house.

“She’ll run right up on us,” an officer said.

Various officers can be heard participating in the search for Vorise-Jackson, according to the scanner archives. Nine minutes after an officer reported Vorise-Jackson took off from the scene, a winded officer reported the suspect running along Brookwood Drive, about a half-mile west of the Burch Avenue crime scene.

“I have the 29 [woman] running on Brookwood,” the officer said. “She’s naked right now running, eastbound. Standby.”

Moments later, an officer said they had one in custody in the 600 block of Meadowbrook Drive.

“If she has no clothing on and she’s got blood all over her face it’s probably her,” another officer said. “We have clothing in one of the backyards that she ditched.”

Published in The Lima News: June 4, 2011

Report: ‘Suicide by cop’ (Story & Video)

Check out the video: Video edited by BOB BLAKE.

 

Report: ‘Suicide by cop’

Former officer felt he was burden to family

By BOB BLAKE

ST. MARYS — Distraught by feelings he was a burden to his family and still harboring resentment from a failed career on the local police force, Dennis R. Slone drove to St. Marys on Jan. 28 intent on ending his life. His goal, according to investigators, was suicide by cop.

When Slone, 42, of Waynesfield, phoned friends and acquaintances earlier that evening saying he wanted to die, some hoped they would be able to talk him down as had been the case in previous suicide threats in years past. Others who talked to him said he sounded like he “was on a mission.”

Slone’s death at the Marathon station at the corner of Main and South streets in St. Marys was the culmination of years of suffering from brain tumors, severe, debilitating headaches and seizures. Slone’s years-long battle with the ailments was also taking a physical toll on his wife, Jennifer, and interfering with his ability to help raise their daughter, according to investigators.

The revelations are part of the voluminous investigative report compiled by agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. The report was obtained by The Lima News after a public records request.

The investigation was requested by Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon after one of his deputies, Sgt. Brian Little, shot Slone three times after a slow-speed pursuit through St. Marys after Slone exited his vehicle and pointed a gun at officers. The investigation ultimately cleared Little of any wrongdoing and he returned to active duty earlier this month.

Jennifer Slone told Agent David Hammond, of the Ohio BCI&I, that her husband often complained about being a burden to her. She also said he wasn’t able to drive and was struggling to help their grade-school-aged daughter with her homework.

In a report, Hammond also said on the day of the incident Slone told his ex-mother-in-law, Lavera “Flo” Edginton, “I’m going to take a big dip of snuff and blow my brains out.”

Edginton told Hammond she thought Slone was joking and said she responded, “Don’t have time to go to a funeral right now.”

He angrily told her, “Then don’t come,” according to Hammond’s report.

Lt. Barry Truesdale, of the Wapakoneta Police Department, told Agent Sam Justice that on the night of the shooting he received a call from a dispatcher who said Slone had called the department, where he formerly worked as an auxiliary police officer, and said he was going to St. Marys to “find a cop to shoot him.” In a phone call with Truesdale, Slone reportedly said he had a loaded gun in the car. In another call with Truesdale, Slone said he was “screwed up in the head” and it had caused him and his wife trouble and he was tired of it.

Truesdale told Justice he knew when he spoke with Slone that he was on a mission and no one was going to stop him from killing himself.

According to Sheriff’s Office reports, three times between 2003 and 2005, deputies were called on report Slone was threatening to kill himself. Deputy Thomas Keckler talked a gun out of Slone’s possession during one such call in 2004. Over the phone, Keckler tried to talk Slone out of his plan as Slone was driving to St. Marys. Slone reportedly said he couldn’t be talked out of it this time.

In cruiser camera footage released as part of the investigative report, various law enforcement cruisers can be seen catching up to Slone’s vehicle as it approached St. Marys along U.S. Route 33. After officers turn on their lights and sirens as the procession of vehicles slowly works its way down state Route 66 into town, officers can be heard saying Slone is holding the loaded gun to his head as he drives.

In statements to BCI&I agents, various St. Marys Police Department officers said at one point in the pursuit, Slone turned toward the Police Department prompting a lockdown at the facility. Slone was fired from the department in 1997 for poor performance after failing to progress beyond his initial probationary status despite a year and a half at the agency.

Despite poor marks for job performance, personnel records show fellow officers at the St. Marys Police Department described him as a likeable individual, a good person and easy to get along with.

The camera footage also shows a gun clearly visible in Slone’s left hand as he exits his vehicle immediately upon pulling into the Marathon lot. Little, who was in the first cruiser behind Slone, immediately exited his vehicle, taking cover behind the open door and repeatedly yelled for Slone to, “Put the gun down!” When Slone continued turning toward officers with the gun in hand, Little opened fire. One of the shots pierced Slone’s heart, according to the reports.

According to the report, Little told Agent Justice he was aware of the threats Slone had made earlier in the day to shoot a cop and he “was not going to let Slone shoot first.”

Slone was pronounced dead at Joint Township District Memorial Hospital in St. Marys about half an hour after the shooting.

Published in The Lima News: May 27, 2011

For the sake of Jake (Story & Video)

Vicky Miller and her husband awoke Saturday morning to find Jake, a horse they gave away in September to relatives, severely injured and tied to a small tree in the front yard. (Lima News video by BOB BLAKE.)

Check out the video: Lima News video by BOB BLAKE.

For the sake of Jake

Horse’s return not a happy homecoming

By BOB BLAKE

HARROD — Vicky Miller had quite the pre-Easter surprise when she awoke Saturday morning. A horse Miller and her husband, Don, had given away last fall had returned to their home east of Harrod. It wasn’t a joyous reunion, however.

The horse, Jake, was tied to a small tree in the couple’s front yard. It quickly became apparent something was very wrong with Jake.

“When my husband went out to get him, he went to walk him away and he noticed that his hindquarter was really hurt,” Miller said. “We got to looking at him and I noticed that one of his ribs is sticking out.”

The couple had Jake at their home for years. They gave the horse away in September to relatives Donald and Jeanne Martin on Clum Road, where they thought Jake would be well cared for, she said.

“They called a couple days ago and wanted to know if I wanted him back,” Miller said. “They said he was a problem, which you can see he isn’t. They brought him back evidently in the middle of the night and tied him to a tree in my front yard.”

Jake is in obvious pain and puts little pressure on his left rear leg as he stands gingerly in the Millers’ yard. Often, the horse, who is about 9 years old, keeps his leg just off the ground. There is a noticeable limp in the horse’s gait any time he moves to find greener grass to nibble.

Unable to afford calling a veterinarian to the house and paying upward of $300 to have the horse examined, Miller called the Allen County Sheriff’s Office. Miller said a deputy spent hours at the property calling around trying to find someone to come take a look at the horse to no avail.

As of Sunday afternoon, a basic report had been filed with the Sheriff’s Office but no additional details were immediately available.

“I can’t believe that people would do this to animals at this level of cruelty to such a beautiful animal. He’s a very good horse,” Miller said. “From the time we gave him to them in September until now the difference in the property they live in is tremendous. If you look there now you can obviously see there’s animal hoarding going on. They have literally turned it into a compound. I definitely think something needs to be done to them over this.”

Attempts to reach the Martins for comment were unsuccessful Sunday afternoon. A man who answered the door at the Martin home said the couple were not home and could not be reached by telephone. A phone call to a number previously associated with the couple went unanswered with a message saying the number had been disconnected.

Miller said the Martins had complained about Jake and the other horses getting loose. The entire property is surrounded by a fence constructed entirely of shipping pallets. Numerous vehicles and animals — chickens, dogs, pigs and horses — reside at and in the home, according to Miller and neighbors to the Martins.

A neighbor who asked not to be identified said the horses escaped twice in the same day on April 1. The neighbor said complaints have been filed, but nothing has ever been done to remedy the situation.

Miller said she’s just looking to get help for her horse.

“I’m going to keep him and hopefully I can get a vet that will come out and take payments maybe or look at him,” Miller said. “The money situation isn’t right. I hope they get prosecuted for what they’ve done.”

Published in The Lima News: April 25, 2011

File shows praise for deputy in shooting probe (Story)

File shows praise for deputy

Records portray Auglaize shooter as model lawman

By BOB BLAKE

WAPAKONETA — The deputy sheriff at the center of a state probe into the fatal shooting of a Waynesfield man last month is a highly trained, veteran officer with only one disciplinary warning, according to a review of documents in his personnel file.

Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon on Friday identified the deputy who fired the shots that killed Dennis R. Slone on Jan. 28 as Sgt. Brian Little, a seven-year veteran of the department. Little, a 1988 graduate of Memorial High School in St. Marys, came to the Sheriff’s Office in October 2003 after more than 10 years as an officer with the Cincinnati Police Department.

Solomon released the file on Tuesday after a public records request by The Lima News.

The lone record of discipline came in August when Sgt. Thomas Keckler issued a verbal warning for speeding to Little, 41. According to a write-up in Little’s file, Little was clocked by laser traveling at 99 mph on southbound Interstate 75 near mile post 120 in Allen County on Aug. 8. Little was transporting an inmate at the time.

The file included several letters of recommendation from supervisors at the Cincinnati Police Department. Little’s file also includes numerous certifications for continuing education courses.

“While assigned to road patrol, Brian was consistently at or near the top of the relief in all performance categories,” wrote Lt. Kenneth P. Finan, the property management section commander with the Cincinnati Police Deaprtment. “He displayed an eagerness to get involved and always displayed a high degree of honesty, loyalty and integrity. He was always alert, quick and responsive to service demands.”

In addition to work in the Cincinnati department’s evidence and property management section and road patrol, Little was also a member of the department’s Special Weapons and Tactics team.

“Brian impressed me as being a hard working, responsible officer,” wrote Lt. Douglas Ventre, the SWAT section commander at CPD. “As a member of our SWAT team, Brian was always willing and able to handle even the most challenging of assignments.”

Little’s file also included documentation stemming from an Oct. 14, 2005, high-speed pursuit through parts of the county near St. Marys and New Knoxville that ended with Little’s cruiser on fire.

According to reports, Little observed a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed on county Road 33A, just east of St. Marys, and turned to pursue. The pursuit reached speeds in excess of 115 mph before the vehicles crossed Moulton-Angle Road on Moulton-New Knoxville Road. The road had been recently resurfaced at the time resulting in a bump. The cruiser hit at a high rate of speed and “bottomed out” causing a fire when a hole was punched in the oil pan, according to reports.

Little was not disciplined after that incident, according to records in the file.

Last week, Solomon said Little fired three shots into Slone, 42, as Slone was exiting his vehicle with a gun Jan. 28 at the Marathon station near the intersection of South and Main streets in St. Marys. Slone had led authorities on a slow-speed pursuit through town.

Solomon said Little was on paid administrative leave pending the conclusion of an internal review and an independent state investigation by special agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 23, 2011

Cops cleared in shooting: The BCI&I report (Story)

Cops cleared in shooting

Fort Shawnee fatality began as routine traffic stop

By BOB BLAKE

FORT SHAWNEE — It started out as a routine traffic stop. For a rookie officer patrolling village streets on his own for the first time, it didn’t stay routine for long, according to state investigative records.

An equipment violation and a traffic violation started the chain of events that ended when a Fort Shawnee police officer shot and killed John T. Sowders, 20, of Cridersville, last month, according to a review of state investigative records released Wednesday. A grand jury this week declined to file criminal charges against the two officers who opened fire as Sowders charged an officer wielding a 12-inch-long hunting knife and threatening to kill officers.

The early hours of Jan. 15 marked the first time Officer Justin Bentz, a rookie officer who graduated from the Apollo Basic Police Academy in August and was hired by Fort Shawnee in November, patrolled without Officer Justin Wireman, his training officer, alongside him in the cruiser. According to the investigative files compiled by special agents of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, Wireman and Cpl. Darrell Fields were in a separate cruiser observing Bentz — a typical scenario during field training.

Bentz told a BCI agent he noticed a car pulling out of the American Petroleum station on Breese Road with a headlight out. Bentz turned his cruiser around and began following the car and observed the car driving in the center of Delong Road. The vehicle turned into the Indian Village Mobile Home Park and came to a stop in the 100 block of Olentangy Drive after Bentz turned on his cruiser’s overhead lights.

According to multiple statements by officers to state agents, Sowders refused to comply with a series of police orders — first to roll down his car window all the way and eventually orders to exit the vehicle. Wireman reportedly told Sowders to exit the car or he would be forcibly removed. Sowders responded he wasn’t leaving on his own.

Bentz told state officials it took Wireman three pulls to remove Sowders from the vehicle. As Wireman began wrestling with Sowders, Bentz said that’s when he first noticed Sowders had the knife and was trying to stab Wireman in his side. According to the report, it was during this confrontation when Sowders cut Wireman’s hand, resulting in three stitches. According to the report, when Wireman freed himself, the officers tried to subdue Sowders with the stun guns.

Bentz and Wireman said after being stunned, Sowders jumped up, looked at Bentz and said, “You [expletive] up. I’m going to kill you now.”

Wireman told a state agent that Sowders charged at Bentz with the knife raised high and continuing to say he was going to kill him. Fearing that Sowders was catching up to Bentz, Wireman ordered Fields to shoot Sowders, according to the report.

Fields and Bentz both fired their weapons at Sowders. In all, three shots were fired, with one of Fields’ shots striking and killing Sowders, officials said.

Sowders was taken to St. Rita’s Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Published in The Lima News: Feb. 17, 2011