OH OH - William 'Bill' Comeans, 14, Columbus, 7 Jan 1980 - #1

GoingByMyGut said:

• In terms of what you know about the police investigation, has LE ruled out any known offenders that you are aware of (other than perhaps Capehart and Trudell)?

• Have you noticed any factual errors in our understanding of the case?

• Was Bill or anyone else in the household taking valium on a doctor's orders at the time of his death?

• The bowl of ice cream that was so poignantly described in your family's Twitter feed: Was Bill eating that on the porch the night he disappeared? If so -- and if he was not taking valium by prescription -- was the ice cream ever tested for the presence of a drug?

• Did Bill first receive notes in his locker before or after the first attack? Where I live, 9/5/79 -- the first Wed. after Labor Day -- would have been the first day of school. Did you all start earlier? I am just wondering if someone unrelated could have subsequently written those notes to play on his fear about the attack.

• Were you aware of any cars in the neighborhood or at the high school like the one Bill described?

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• The main allure is the partnership between the two boys. They are around the age BC ID'd. They are local. In fact, judging by their addresses at the time of their arrest, they may not only have gone to Westland but may also have attended Prairie-Lincoln Elementary School (speculating). In 1980 they appear to live about a mile from the Cs. That mile is well outside the areas in which the assaults on BC took place, but Capehart and Trudell may have had other connections to BC's neighborhood. I will PM the addresses to pdxmama and ask if she can add them to our map.

• HOWEVER, while they appear appear to be JDs of the worst sort, they killed elderly EB in the course of robbing her, and their other activity (at least so far as revealed by this article), involves a spree of five robberies.

• We know from other sources that BC was not robbed, so a potential motive for any interest in Bill remains unrevealed.

• Also, they stabbed EB with a hunting knife (three wounds to the abdomen, plus throat slashed) -- and they did not need to try three times to accomplish that. In fact, during the robberies, Capehart and Trudell threatened the people they stole from with a sawed-off shotgun, so they were no strangers to weapons.

• One thing that bothers me is that I am picking up on a kind of recklessness that BC's attackers did not exhibit, but then, this is nine months after Bill's death and could involve different motivation. Would these two young men have troubled themselves to "try" to kill BC three times when they clearly had access to weapons and the facility to kill? Why? Unclear. But due to the fact that they worked together, went to Westland HS, lived fairly closely to BC, and had this later crime history, I think we just can't ignore these two.

• Any interest in notes/threats is absent in the crimes described in the article, as is the use of drugs.

RainyAlaska said:

Thank you to pdxmama, GoingByMyGut, Tulessa and others for the excellent job of presenting the articles, map, timeline, and facts. Thanks for your hard work.

My two cents for what it's worth:

1) The men or young men who killed BC were from the area or were legitimately in the area all the time. They were very familiar with the neighborhood and would not stand out. If you mark the triangle between all three sites of attacks, it would not surprise me if one or both of the attackers lived in that general area.

2) BC was watched. Someone was watching at least his evening routines. This means it was probably someone in and around the neighborhood. If the suspects didn't live in the neighborhood, they had reason to be there all the time and not stand out. (i.e. grandparents' house, girlfriend, etc.)

3) The notes left at the high school suggests that the two attackers were connected to the high school in some way. Were they students? Former students? Staff? I'm leaning towards students or recent students. It would be helpful to know if BC's friends noticed if BC had any reaction(s) to any particular people at the high school. Or if BC's brother ever saw BC have a weird reaction to any of his friends.

4) BC was noted as being somewhat deceptive on his polygraph test. I think he knew more about the two attackers than he wanted known. My gut tells me this may have some sexual undertones. Maybe something happened between the victim and his attackers before the first attack. It could have been sexual experimentation, sports or rough-housing that turned into something sexual. The two unknown young men may have been very scared of BC saying something. In 1979/80, being gay was not nearly as accepted as it is now. There was some reason LE thought BC was not being completely truthful. Maybe BC was protecting himself or embarrassed to tell the entire story. LE may have picked up on this and decided something was "off" about BC's report of the first attacks. I have faith in a cop's 6th sense (gut feeling) but sometimes they get the reason wrong.

5) Whatever the motive for BC's killing, it was something pretty horrendous. Something so potentially harmful that someone tried three times to silence BC. Someone watched and waited. Serial killers seldom, if ever, try three times for one victim. They're more likely to pick a convenient victim. This was deliberate. I don't think we're going to be able to tie it to any other murder. The two attackers might have some sort of criminal record after but it may not be murder (violent assault, fights, drug/alcohol issues). I think this was one reason LE couldn't come up with a motive. There was a motive and it meant a lot to those two attackers but it may not be obvious to the rest of us.

6) BC was on the porch the night he was killed. How did the killer(s) get to him? If they drove up, wouldn't he see the car? Was the killer driving a different vehicle? How did BC not see him/them coming to the porch? Even if the killer had a knife, why didn't BC make a sound? Maybe he did and he wasn't heard. If I'd been attacked twice like BC was, I'd scream my lungs out even if the attackers had a knife. BC's family members were in the house and his dad was only feet away in the garage with the door open. BC wasn't a small child that one could pick up quickly and silence with one hand over his mouth. How did his killers get to him at his own house?

7) At the scene of the third attack, one article mentions LE stating that there were 30-40 people at the scene. Did LE get the names of those people? Were any of them investigated? Did LE take pictures at BC's funeral or memorial service? Since BC had been attacked twice before, perhaps the killer(s) wanted to know if BC was dead. Plus, I don't think they would have stood out. I think the killer(s) blended very well into the neighborhood. LE probably didn't look for suspects in this way because they felt it was a suicide.

This is a solvable case. Since so much time has elapsed it may be more difficult now than it would have been in 1980 but BC deserves justice. LE needs to look at the aqua/teal colored car, high school students and people in the neighborhood. I think I'd also look at BC's polygraph test again if it's still in the case file.

The above is all MHO. I hope this murder is solved and BC's family can find some sort of closure of their terrible loss. I was a freshman in high school the same year BC was so it makes me sad to think of his life cut so short.

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GoingByMyGut said:

I took a little time today to research the story behind the 9/11/1980 murder of 85-YO Edith Bridenstine at the hands of 18-YO Ronald Steve Capehart and 16-YO Gary Lee Trudell (the case mentioned by KatCo upthread).

The article I accessed today can't be posted, but for anyone who wants to seek it out, it is published in the 9/12/1980 Columbus Dispatch under the heading Pair Charged With Murder. I hope to look more deeply into this in the days ahead.

Several things about the case make it appealing one to examine with BC in mind, but at the same time, some things don't fit the BC case. I'll highlight a few points to show you what I mean.

• The main allure is the partnership between the two boys. They are around the age BC ID'd. They are local. In fact, judging by their addresses at the time of their arrest, they may not only have gone to Westland but may also have attended Prairie-Lincoln Elementary School (speculating). In 1980 they appear to live about a mile from the Cs. That mile is well outside the areas in which the assaults on BC took place, but Capehart and Trudell may have had other connections to BC's neighborhood. I will PM the addresses to pdxmama and ask if she can add them to our map.

• HOWEVER, while they appear appear to be JDs of the worst sort, they killed elderly EB in the course of robbing her, and their other activity (at least so far as revealed by this article), involves a spree of five robberies.

• We know from other sources that BC was not robbed, so a potential motive for any interest in Bill remains unrevealed.

• Also, they stabbed EB with a hunting knife (three wounds to the abdomen, plus throat slashed) -- and they did not need to try three times to accomplish that. In fact, during the robberies, Capehart and Trudell threatened the people they stole from with a sawed-off shotgun, so they were no strangers to weapons.

• One thing that bothers me is that I am picking up on a kind of recklessness that BC's attackers did not exhibit, but then, this is nine months after Bill's death and could involve different motivation. Would these two young men have troubled themselves to "try" to kill BC three times when they clearly had access to weapons and the facility to kill? Why? Unclear. But due to the fact that they worked together, went to Westland HS, lived fairly closely to BC, and had this later crime history, I think we just can't ignore these two.

• Any interest in notes/threats is absent in the crimes described in the article, as is the use of drugs.

I'll highlight anything else I find later in the week. I have a feeling there's more to this. If anyone else knows more about the two, please share.

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rosesfromangels said:

The twitter "p.r." was absolute brilliance on the part of the family. Bravo!
My most profound prayers go to them. Now that there is more attention on his murder, someone may just come forward. Let's pray so!

Regarding motive. Wow, what a strange case. The possibilities could range from two warped teenagers bullying, to some punishment for something seen or not followed through on. I have one very strong and distinct impression though, that Bill *knew* his attackers. I think he was silenced with the threat of retribution against his family, and payed the ultimate price to perhaps protect them. I believe Bill saw or knew something, or didn't do as was requested of him.

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GoingByMyGut said:

• Was Bill or anyone else in the household taking valium on a doctor's orders at the time of his death? I am not aware of Bill or anyone else taking valium. When I did see that in the autopsy report, I wondered why. Bob might be have a better answer than me.

• In terms of what you know about the police investigation, has LE ruled out any known offenders that you are aware of? From talking with Bill's friends (in the past few years), most of them where not questioned. Talking with some of them, they may have some information that might be useful to LE and I have passed that information on. Several friends told me that a couple upper classmen would come to the choir room and "stare Bill down". I am not sure if they were ever questioned.

• Have you noticed any factual errors in our understanding of the case?

I will try to update any errors that I come across. I am still trying to take in all the posts.

• The bowl of ice cream that was so poignantly described in your family's Twitter feed: Was Bill eating that on the porch the night he disappeared? If so -- and if he was not taking valium by prescription -- was the ice cream ever tested for the presence of a drug? It was probably never thought to be tested.

• Did Bill first receive notes in his locker before or after the first attack? Where I live, 9/5/79 -- the first Wed. after Labor Day -- would have been the first day of school. Did you all start earlier? I am just wondering if someone unrelated could have subsequently written those notes to play on his fear about the attack. School for us usually started the week before Labor Day. I don't know if he rec'd the notes before the first attack... I would venture to say no. Bob would know better.

• Were you aware of any cars in the neighborhood or at the high school like the one Bill described? I know that my mom & dad would scour the neighborhoods, driving all over, looking for cars like that. They would write down license plates and let the police know. I don't know if anything was ever check out by LE.

There will be no shortage of questions here, so please just take a break from us when you need to. In the meantime, we'll do our best for you.

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rosesfromangels said:

The twitter "p.r." was absolute brilliance on the part of the family. Bravo!
My most profound prayers go to them. Now that there is more attention on his murder, someone may just come forward. Let's pray so!

Regarding motive. Wow, what a strange case. The possibilities could range from two warped teenagers bullying, to some punishment for something seen or not followed through on. I have one very strong and distinct impression though, that Bill *knew* his attackers. I think he was silenced with the threat of retribution against his family, and payed the ultimate price to perhaps protect them. I believe Bill saw or knew something, or didn't do as was requested of him.

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KatCo said:

Originally Posted by GoingByMyGut

• Was Bill or anyone else in the household taking valium on a doctor's orders at the time of his death? I am not aware of Bill or anyone else taking valium. When I did see that in the autopsy report, I wondered why. Bob might be have a better answer than me.

• The bowl of ice cream that was so poignantly described in your family's Twitter feed: Was Bill eating that on the porch the night he disappeared? If so -- and if he was not taking valium by prescription -- was the ice cream ever tested for the presence of a drug? It was probably never thought to be tested.

I have added my answers in the red, bolded type above.

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KatCo said:

Originally Posted by GoingByMyGut

• Did Bill first receive notes in his locker before or after the first attack? Where I live, 9/5/79 -- the first Wed. after Labor Day -- would have been the first day of school. Did you all start earlier? I am just wondering if someone unrelated could have subsequently written those notes to play on his fear about the attack. School for us usually started the week before Labor Day. I don't know if he rec'd the notes before the first attack... I would venture to say no. Bob would know better.

• In terms of what you know about the police investigation, has LE ruled out any known offenders that you are aware of? From talking with Bill's friends (in the past few years), most of them where not questioned. Talking with some of them, they may have some information that might be useful to LE and I have passed that information on. Several friends told me that a couple upper classmen would come to the choir room and "stare Bill down". I am not sure if they were ever questioned.

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KatCo said:

Then night Bill was murdered, he was actually supposed to go out with our mom and dad. The three of them were going to go to the mall and return a couple Christmas gifts. The car wasn't cooperating, which is why our dad was working on it.

For someone to take Bill from our yard, they would to have been watching him to know he was home. Were they close enough where they could keep tabs on him? (Mrs. Tope, who later left threatening letters, lived across the street and over one house from ours).

Maybe it was someone he thought was a 'friend' and felt 'safe' with them. Perhaps he really didn't see who attacked him the previous times.

Maybe he knew exactly who it was and was too afraid to yell. If there were two of them, and they had a knife, I can understand why Bill wouldn't have fought.

Was Bill threatened to the point of not knowing what to do? Were threats being made to Bill regarding his family? So many questions.

Bill was an outstanding person. He was a friend to everyone. The neighborhood families knew him (from the paper route) and liked him. Bill wasn't a snob, he didn't act like he was better than anyone else. He was genuine.

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dogperson said:

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but nobody received a threat letter until after the first attack, did they? If that's the case, then I was wondering if the letters were written by someone else. For example, some school bullies knew about the first attack and thought it would be funny to put threatening letters in the lockers, but maybe whoever wrote the letters were not involved in the attacks.
Another theory would be that a student at the school was connected to the attackers and was making delivery of the letters. But then of course we are pulling additional people into the whole thing. The more people involved, the less likely you would think they would have kept silent all these years.

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rosesfromangels said:

The twitter "p.r." was absolute brilliance on the part of the family. Bravo!
My most profound prayers go to them. Now that there is more attention on his murder, someone may just come forward. Let's pray so!

Regarding motive. Wow, what a strange case. The possibilities could range from two warped teenagers bullying, to some punishment for something seen or not followed through on. I have one very strong and distinct impression though, that Bill *knew* his attackers. I think he was silenced with the threat of retribution against his family, and payed the ultimate price to perhaps protect them. I believe Bill saw or knew something, or didn't do as was requested of him.

Click to expand...

rosesfromangels said:

Continuing the theme of my original post above. I keep ruminating on this case, and can't shake loose a couple of very strong impressions, or deductions:
-He absolutely knew his attackers
-They had him backed in to a corner to the point where he wouldn't tell who they were. He had done something, or gotten involved in something that he couldn't talk about, no matter what
-He dodged these perpetrators for as long as he could, and wouldn't even *tell* when they almost killed him twice. What he knew couldn't be told, no matter what.
-BILL WAS WILLING TO GIVE UP HIS LIFE RATHER THAN DO WHAT THEY WANTED HIM TO DO. The first two near killings were warnings that he *must* do what they instructed

I come to the conclusion that they had instructed Bill to kill someone, and he choose to sacrifice his own life versus kill someone else. This is the only explanation that makes sense to me.

I believe that many people know the truth of this matter but were too afraid to come forward. Perhaps time has changed that.

MOO.

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• Young Duo Compiled Lengthy Crime Record, Columbus Dispatch, 9/12/80
• Dad of Accused Boy Charged in Dispute Over Estate's Money, Columbus Citizen-Journal, 9/26/80
• Testimony Heard From Hitchhiker, Columbus Dispatch, 10/21/80
• Focus of Case Shifts to Defendant, 16, Columbus Dispatch, 12/2/80

• These reports put the date of the EB murder/spree of four thefts at 9/10/80, not 9/11/80 as I said in my last post.

• Acc. to the media, Capehart & Trudell both had records prior to the 9/10/80 EB murder/theft spree (which, btw, they committed in EB’s stolen car [I am guessing they found the key in her apartment, so this probably didn’t require hot-wiring or other technical skills — mb more a crime of opportunity]).

• Trudell’s father may have been the son’s “role model” in elder abuse, as one of the above articles is about a civil suit filed against the father for allegedly embezzling $10,000 from an elderly couple (the father’s business appears to have been providing Medicaid assistance to the elderly — oh brother).

• According to a hitchhiker who is painted as a respectable member of a Columbus community, Capehart & Trudell gave him a ride hours after killing EB — in her car — and told him what they had just done.

• Location: Three of the four robberies Capehart & Trudell committed after murdering EB were outside BC’s neighborhood (on the other side of 270), but one place they robbed was just a few blocks from Westland HS. Also, EB lived on Beacon Hill Road between Topsfield Road and Schoolhouse Lane, which is just blocks from both Prairie-Lincoln Elementary School and the BC home.

• Some description of Capehart & Trudell may give potential answers to questions we would ask about any deranged crime partnership, such as the relationship between the partners. For example, in spite of their ages (with Capehart being the older of the two), Capehart’s lawyer painted Trudell as the leader and Capehart as “non-violent ... a classic example of a follower.” The same man called Trudell a psychopath. Of course, that’s Capehart’s lawyer talking, so who knows ...

• Capehart was allowed to plead out to voluntary manslaughter (it seems there wasn’t much physical evidence against him). For that he got a maximum 15-75 years in the Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield (closed since 1990). In terms of the content of these articles, Trudell was awaiting a decision on whether he’d be tried as an adult. But the headlines in the other articles I’ve requested suggest he was found guilty (e.g., “Judge West calls for applause at trial of Gary Lee Trudell”), but I’ll know for sure once I get them. And as KatCo said upthread, "Trudell is serving a life sentence will parole coming up in 2018."

• Priors: The offenses on the two boys' records prior to the EB murder don’t overlap. In fact, where “complicity” is noted for Capehart in October 1979, the accounts do not say “with whom.” Did their partnership even predate Sept. 1980? To me, this is a viable search option: For starters, consult court records for the 10/79 offense. I would also see if Westland kept their individual disciplinary records.

• Car theft: Since car theft is in the duo’s crime vocabulary in 1980 (perhaps a skill Capehart brought to the table, given his solo performance in May 1980), might they have done it before? Could the aqua car used for the second attack on BC have been stolen by them from elsewhere and later dropped off outside the neighborhood, without anyone knowing who took it? Another viable search option: Reported stolen cars. Pure speculation, but not outside the realm of possibility.

• The hitchhiker: IMO, bragging to the hitchhiker about their crimes pretty much blows a hole through any motive that these two pursued BC because BC saw something.

• BC's Description: Considering BC’s age of 14, did Capehart & Trudell, aged 16 and 18, have enough physical presence for BC to refer to them as “men”? (If in fact "men" was BC’s word choice and not LE’s or the media’s.)

• MO: I still feel this pair is more reckless than the crimes against BC suggest. They committed the robberies with witnesses and told a hitchhiker they murdered EB! Would they have been capable of the stealth and persistence that the BC crimes suggest? A family tweet today says the knife found at the site of the third attack and BC’s later death was a “butcher knife.” Given what Capehart and/or Trudell did decisively with Trudell’s hunting knife one year later, wouldn’t they have used it if they wanted to kill BC?

• By September 1979, the time of BC’s first attack, Capehart & Trudell appear to be “making a living” by stealing, and Trudell at least was having truancy issues (I wonder if Capehart was still enrolled, graduated, or dropped out of Westland ...). Were they still enough a part of Westland school culture to know BC? To care about a 14-YO? I still don’t see a specific, logical connection or motive here. That said, Trudell was actually charged with a crime on 9/1/79, and not knowing whether he’d be found guilty or what sentencing would bring, he could have reverted temporarily to “good behavior” by attending school (where we know he didn’t entertain himself with the 3 Rs). Pure speculation, but possible.

• One thing seems certain: If there is a link to this pair, or even to one of them, testing the evidentiary DNA should prove it.