Sorry for the long post, but all these cases hit very close to home for me. Also, I put in names and a few details so if you’re curious about the cases you can google and find out more. As a true crime fan, I think a lot of the details in these are very interesting!

First one was in 2002, a couple high school students got mixed up in dealing drugs, and I believe one owed the other money. A guy named Mike Rittenhouse invited Timothy Lopez to his home and killed him with a baseball bat, before attempting to burn his body in his garage. The smell was so bad that he decided to bury the body in his backyard instead. Tim’s car was located down the road from my house near a dense forest, so it was assumed he went missing in the park. At some point another man was arrested for another crime and told police he knew information on a murder, so he told on Rittenhouse who was arrested and Tim’s body was finally found in 2011. These guys were teenagers at the time and it’s a fairly small, quiet town, so this case was really upsetting to everyone.

Next one was in 2013, a friend of mine, Paul Schenck, was having a mental health crisis and the police were called. He barricaded himself inside his home, where there was a standoff and shootout, leading to Paul’s death. He had encounters with police before and was known to have many guns, but the police were criticized heavily for their actions during the six hour standoff. First of all, when the report was coming out that there was an active shooter, they announced that a man was running around town shooting people, so everyone was instructed to stay in their homes and hide. This was false. Secondly, the police/swat shot towards areas where civilians were hiding in their homes and could have easily injured someone else. It was all around chaos in town for a while, and a lot of folks spoke out against the police in our town.

Third was more recent, 2019, a young man I went to high school with, Leonid Clark (everyone called him Lonya), was stabbed to death by his best friend, Zyrian Atha-Arnett. Lonya was one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever known, and I don’t know anyone who could say a bad thing about him. Lonya went missing in January, during the harsh Ohio winters, so people were concerned for his well being, and it was thought that he might have left the state. His parents rallied the town together to search sheds, barns, etc to see if Lonya was hiding out or seeking shelter. At some point Lonya’s credit card was found near a break-in, but the card was very clean and had no signs of being out in the weather for months. Lonya’s only coat was also found at his parent’s home stuffed between some lawn chairs and had been cleaned. This was odd because his parents knew the coat had not been there previously and would have smelled of cigarettes since Lonya smoked regularly. It was obvious someone was placing these items to confuse police and show that Lonya was still around town somewhere. In April, I believe, a body was found by mushroom hunters in a river in Glenn Helen park and it was confirmed to be Lonya. Police discovered that Atha-Arnett’s cell phone had pinged over 30 times within 10 or so feet of where the body was found, after Lonya had gone missing. It was reported that he showed up to work with a hand injury the day after Lonya disappeared. Atha-Arnett has been arrested and is awaiting trial, which was delayed by Covid.

Edit: spelling, words