Ohio town has 2 homicides in 2 days after going 5 years with none
CECIL, Ohio (WANE) – After five years without any homicides, the Paulding County Sheriff’s Department is investigating with two homicides and a suspicious death.
Just in the last two days, a woman and a man were found dead, their bodies discovered about 15 miles apart.
According to the police department, a man hunting for mushrooms near the south edge of Rochester Cemetery came across a man’s body around 7 p.m.
The cemetery is located near U.S. 24 and County Road 424 in Crane Township.
According to Paulding County Sheriff Jason Landers, the body appeared to that of a man and was covered in a blanket.
The county coroner and crime scene investigators believe the body had been at the cemetery for several weeks.
Officials in Toledo will conduct an autopsy and assist with a positive identification.
No other information was available, including if the man’s death is the result of foul play. The incident is under investigation.
“I want my community to know we are working hard. We haven’t slept very much, and that’s probably obvious looking at me. But that’s just the way it works,” said Landers.
Monday, police in Paulding County began investigating the death of Wilma Schwartz after construction workers found her body at an abandoned property outside Antwerp.
According to Preliminary results released by the Paudling County Cornor, Schwartz was killed by a single gunshot to the head.
Landers told NewsChannel 15 the two cases were not connected.
“I don’t think this is a serial killer I don’t think this is somebody out taking off people and throwing them in yards,” he said. “I just don’t believe that’s the case.”
In February, the body of 21-year-old Hannah Fischer was found by police inside a Paulding apartment. Police named her boyfriend 47-year-old Frank Tracy Jr., a suspect in the case. He has not yet been arrested.
Sheriff Landers said he knows people want answers but the investigation will take time.
“The frustrating part is time,” he said. “Time is not always on folks side when they want answers. This is not TV. this cannot be solved in 60 minutes with commercials. This unfortunately doesn’t work that way unless we get lucky.”
