Sunday, June 7, 2015

Chillicothe To Portsmouth -- Murdered and Missing Women

 "Somebody out there knows something. These girls are one call away from being found.... Basically, we are waiting on tips."

--Chillicothe police Chief Keith Washburn

Chillicothe is looking for missing women. It is evident some connections among the cases have led to new, increased efforts to solve the crimes. The Chillicothe Gazette said a troubling trend of missing women in the area began a little more than a year ago when a kayaker found the body of Tameka Lynch, 30, in Paint Creek near Bainbridge on May 24, 2014.

The Columbus Dispatch reported Shasta Himelrick was the second woman found dead. She went missing the day after Christmas and was found a week later. She had drowned in the Scioto River in rural Ross County. She had six parallel cuts on her left forearm and was in the early stages of pregnancy.

The coroner ruled her death a suicide, yet friends have vowed to prove otherwise.

Then, the body of 38-year-old Timberly Claytor was discovered May 29, 2015, off Trego Creek Road in a patch of weeds in Massieville according to the Ross County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff George Lavender said Claytor had been shot three times in the head.

And now three more women have seemingly disappeared without a trace. The following disappearances have the community extremely concerned:

* 29-year-old Charlotte Trego was reported missing by her mother May 18 last year.

* Next came Wanda Lemons, 38, who was last seen by her mother October 2, 2014 and reported missing December 28, 2014

* And most recently, 26-year-old Tiffany Sayre disappeared May 11, 2015.

(Caitlin Turner. "What Is Being Done To Find Chillicothe's Missing Women?"
Chillicothe Gazette. June 7, 2015)

All of those women, according to police, were involved in the same social circles. "There is somebody out there that is killing these girls, and it needs to stop," Sayre's aunt, Samantha Sayre, told Huffington Post. "They are tearing families apart."

“We can’t conclusively say that they’re all linked,” Bud Lytle, spokesman for the Chillicothe police department, said. But there is this: “They all fit similar profiles.”

Lori Kurtzman of The Columbus Dispatch said, sadly, not all residents feel for the victims, who were reportedly involved in drug abuse. Kurtzman reported ...

"Some in Chillicothe, a city that has struggled lately with drug- and sex- trafficking problems, have not been kind. Sympathy is not heaped on the addicts, the prostitutes. 'Another druggie missing' was the subject of the post on a local online forum last month.

“'I’m not worried about no damn serial killer,' someone wrote. 'The only killer around here is stupidity and drugs.'”

(Lori Kurtzman. "Dead, missing Chillicothe women have city on edge."
The Columbus Dispatch. June 7, 2015)

The insane stigma that drugs affect only "bad people" stifles investigations and creates huge social gaps making investigations so difficult. Communities must come together and support all efforts to solve drug-related crimes.

Now, there seems to be a Portsmouth connection to the horror that has struck Chillicothe. That connection is Megan Lancaster, who has been missing from the area since April 3, 2013. Is this proof that the drug cartel and human trafficking rings have worked together to cause these terrible kidnappings and murders?

People in Scioto County join those in Ross County who are praying that investigators break these cases wide open and find the evildoers who have committed these horrendous crimes.

Please come forward with any vital information that may help stop this nightmare.

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