OH OH - Asenath 'Seenie' Dukat, 8, Upper Arlington, 3 June 1980

[Jennifer123]

 

[STANDREID]

Was the DNA from semen? To me, the suspect sketch looks like a female.

 

[Owutatangledweb]

I think he looks like the sketch. The article references that there are TWO sketches. Do we have the other?

 

[Jennifer123]

Here's the newspaper clipping where I found the sketches. I used a collage app to put the 3 images together up above. I still hope this case can be solved. I believe RCW would be approximately 56 years old now. Can anyone find out how much time he served at Mansfield for the abduction attempt on 09/27/1980? Apparently the judge for that case sentenced RCW - who was 20 years old at the time of the crime - to a prison term of three to ten years and a fine of one thousand dollars.

 

[Jennifer123]

I've being doing some more online research and I found out that RCW (Robert Chris Winchester) and BS (Brent Strutner aka hypodermic guy/threw himself out of window at YMCA) were neighbors on Kent Road in Upper Arlington. Apparently some of the people on their street thought that RCW was a creepy guy who had a lot of influence over BS and some people who were close to the family and the investigation have suggested that both BS and RCW could have been at the scene of the crime. Since BS was vulnerable and mentally disadvantaged I'm inclined to believe that RCW was the influencer and that BS did something that day he couldn't live with. Hence his deep stress and eventual suicide. I found an old case online in which Brent Strutner's father sued the local newspaper for invasion of privacy after his name was put in the newspaper during the investigations into Asenath Dukat's death. He lost this privacy case. Here's a summary of the basic complaint: Plaintiff (BS's Dad) brought an action claiming an invasion of privacy predicated upon a newspaper article printed in the Columbus Dispatch, in which Plaintiff was identified, by name and address, as the parent of Brent Strutner who not only had been arrested for assaulting a police officer in Willoughby, Ohio, but was being questioned as a suspect in a brutal rape-murder of an eight-year-old girl in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

 

[Jennifer123]

I found RCW's high school senior portrait and added it to the collage - a remarkable likeness if you take each feature of the sketch one at a time.

 

[GoldenBear1]

The circumstantial evidence against RCW and BS seems strong and I've confirmed that a UA Police investigator, "off-the-record" believes it was both of them, together, who committed the crime and articulated it as the consensus belief amongst those in-the-know. One curious note that I pulled up through research is the similar crimes of that era in Ohio. Take a look at this newspaper clip from 1982.

Clipping from The Akron Beacon Journal - Newspapers.com

 

[GoldenBear1]

I am also fairly certain that a podcast will be released within the year covering this story- I know as I was consulted. Largely it will center on information that is public record. If you are an individual directly involved in this investigation, say RCW or a relative of BS and would be interested in telling your side of the story, please PM me here and I can likely put you in touch with the author. I would propose that your name be withheld from the podcast in exchange for your insight. Of course if a relation of Asenath or the May attack would be interested (or have objection) let me know as well. I believe the author will be reaching out to the family for consent.

 

[iusf98]

Hate to see this thread stagnate, when there has to be more information out there. Would love to hear what others have to say on this terrible case. I remember it like it was yesterday, and I was very young. It would be great if in this age of Social Media, someone started running with the case. The Podcast sounds like a very interesting idea, and at the least would get others in the community talking about Seenie again.

It also seems that while everyone (including the police) has focused on two individuals BS and RCW, that there has to be another avenue. Both of them were never indicted, which is frankly not hard to do at all. There must be some evidence or alibi's that caused the police to not push it further with them. Does anyone here have knowledge of that???

 

[medea13]

I am also fairly certain that a podcast will be released within the year covering this story- I know as I was consulted. Largely it will center on information that is public record. If you are an individual directly involved in this investigation, say RCW or a relative of BS and would be interested in telling your side of the story, please PM me here and I can likely put you in touch with the author. I would propose that your name be withheld from the podcast in exchange for your insight. Of course if a relation of Asenath or the May attack would be interested (or have objection) let me know as well. I believe the author will be reaching out to the family for consent.

Any updates on the podcast? I have been curious about this case and wonder if the WS community is convinced it was RCW and BS or was it possibly a serial killer/rapist operating throughout the area as mentioned in the 1982 Akron Beacon Journal posted above?I am personally on the fence.

 

[Deleted member 230385]

One detail that should be emphasized for those not familiar with the neighborhood. There is a drainage runoff creek that begins at Miller Park, south of Waltham Road and west of Arlington avenue, that goes under Cambridge Road through a tunnel that can be easily walked through. On the other side the creek continues for several blocks at the back edge of residential properties and ultimately ends at the culvert where Asenath was found. The key detail is that if someone is walking along the creek, it lies deep enough that they wouldn’t be seen from the street or backyards or houses, not unless you go right up to the edge of where the ground drops off. I believe it levels off with the street closer to the culvert. So that could answer the questions regarding why there were no sightings past Arlington Ave. It was common for kids to play down there and go through the Cambridge tunnel. It may be the “deviation” in Asenath’s path that day referred to by police, whether by choice or not. The runoff creek is visible on Google maps if you know where to look, but the depth isn’t discernible.

 

[Owutatangledweb]

Any updates on the podcast? I have been curious about this case and wonder if the WS community is convinced it was RCW and BS or was it possibly a serial killer/rapist operating throughout the area as mentioned in the 1982 Akron Beacon Journal posted above?I am personally on the fence.

Look up Robert Buell with regard to a few of the girls on your map.

 

[GoldenBear1]

Hate to see this thread stagnate, when there has to be more information out there. Would love to hear what others have to say on this terrible case. I remember it like it was yesterday, and I was very young. It would be great if in this age of Social Media, someone started running with the case. The Podcast sounds like a very interesting idea, and at the least would get others in the community talking about Seenie again.

It also seems that while everyone (including the police) has focused on two individuals BS and RCW, that there has to be another avenue. Both of them were never indicted, which is frankly not hard to do at all. There must be some evidence or alibi's that caused the police to not push it further with them. Does anyone here have knowledge of that???

Update. Progress is being made on the Podcast (or other form of media- we aren't sure yet what form it will take). We now have an organized team working on this. Next step is a website which will be launched this month. We are working on getting answers to this key question that you ask. Why no indictments of BS and/or RCW. I will share the URL as soon as we are up and running.

 

[GoldenBear1]

Here is the URL for the Project. We are waiting for a few items to clear-up before the November launch.
longwalkhomeua.com

 

[iusf98]

One detail that should be emphasized for those not familiar with the neighborhood. There is a drainage runoff creek that begins at Miller Park, south of Waltham Road and west of Arlington avenue, that goes under Cambridge Road through a tunnel that can be easily walked through. On the other side the creek continues for several blocks at the back edge of residential properties and ultimately ends at the culvert where Asenath was found. The key detail is that if someone is walking along the creek, it lies deep enough that they wouldn’t be seen from the street or backyards or houses, not unless you go right up to the edge of where the ground drops off. I believe it levels off with the street closer to the culvert. So that could answer the questions regarding why there were no sightings past Arlington Ave. It was common for kids to play down there and go through the Cambridge tunnel. It may be the “deviation” in Asenath’s path that day referred to by police, whether by choice or not. The runoff creek is visible on Google maps if you know where to look, but the depth isn’t discernible.

Stipes you are correct that if Seenie did cut through Miller Park she would have been able to walk down the stream, under Cambridge. However, I think that there is a strong chance that she walked all the way to Waltham with her classmate. That would place her beyond the Bridge and really would have made it difficult for her to cut back down to the stream due to the houses in the area. So then the question becomes how in a 4 very short block area (Cambridge to Malvern) was someone able to grab or coerce her with them.

On another note, I am so happy to see that people are still interested in this case, and that it may have a chance to be resolved. I saw the website the group below mentioned and the starting point looks great. Not sure I have any information that they do not but would be happy to offer help in any way

 

[Deleted member 230385]

According to compilation of news articles on https://longwalkhomeua.com/what-we-know-1
there was a mother walking to meet her daughter on Waltham Rd at that time and neither saw Asenath walking. (Columbus Citizen Journal, 5/18/81)
This led the police to construct a theory that she was abducted by a driver between Cambridge and Arlington Ave. They never explained how this theory fit in with a police dog’s ability to trace Asenath’s entire path to the point of entry of the culvert in June 1980, which was described as taking “an interesting deviation” from Asenath’s normal route. The exact deviation was never disclosed.

 

[Deleted member 230385]

The circumstantial evidence against RCW and BS seems strong and I've confirmed that a UA Police investigator, "off-the-record" believes it was both of them, together, who committed the crime and articulated it as the consensus belief amongst those in-the-know. One curious note that I pulled up through research is the similar crimes of that era in Ohio. Take a look at this newspaper clip from 1982.

Clipping from The Akron Beacon Journal - Newspapers.com

I wonder if those “in-the-know” choose to believe this because it’s the easiest explanation, or say this in response to inquiries as a way of burying the subject. Obviously they never had the evidence to make an arrest against either suspect, or else they would have. I have no bias for/against those named, but worry that they may have overlooked other people in the area that day who would not admit to being there. It was not unheard of for teenagers to pile into a car and cruise around during the last week of school, pulling pranks on the younger kids walking. Just something to consider.

 

[buckeyekid]

Hi. I am new to this site and I grew up in upper Arlington untill the age of 12. We moved out of state then. The year would have been 1985. Something happened to me that I will never forget and haunts me to this day. In my adult years, I've always been wanting to tell someone, like the police department in Upper Arlington, share with them what happened to me but haven't. First let me say I know nothing about this case I am posting in, I didn't know this girl. but what I have to say may be of some relevance, I don't know. When I started reading what happened to her the street names hit me, I know those street names. I lived off of Leeds Rd, I went to Wickliffe elementary and Jones jr. High. I used to ride my bike all the time, so did my friends. We rode out bikes everywhere. Well one day I was riding my bike down my street alone, it was still light out but getting dark so I want to say it was around dinner time, when I felt the worst feeling in my entire life. And this is no joke, I swear I could feel something evil behind me, and I never knew that feeling or had anything like it before of after this. When I looked back there was a car driving slowly behind me. They would not pass me, they stayed right on me. I kept looking back and I was so scared because I knew this wasn't normal and it wasn't right for someone to do that. It was a larger black or brown car, square shaped, like an Oldsmobile or Cutlass, style. I am pretty sure it had very tinted windows. I would look back and I couldn't see the person's face. I started to pettle as fast as I could and I knew I wasn't going to stop at my house because I didn't want the person to know where I lived so after I past my house I turned right on the next Street and on the corner was a house of my neighbors but there front porch had like a little area you can go behind and no one from the street would be able to see you, so I turned the corner went on their driveway crashed my bike and ran to the door and tried to hide while ringing the doorbell. No one answered. And the car stops right in front of the house and sits there for what felt like an eternity. Then they drove off.
About a week later, I'm on my bike again but I was far down the street when I looked around and saw that car again turn onto Leeds. This time I knew I was far enough away that I could easily loose them, I think I cut into someone's yard and went to another neighbors house thru the back door. In my neighborhood, you knew every car that would drive down your street. You practically knew everyone, I had never seen that car before or after that time. And I'm telling you that I know that person had intentions to harm me. I know because of how I felt and what they did and I have thought about this everyday almost because the feeling that went thru my body was like nothing I've ever felt, I knew it was evil and I knew they would kill me.
I tried to look up missing persons/ children in upper Arlington for around that time period and I never found anything untill I found this site. I'm glad I am finally able to share this. I know it isn't much, but maybe the description of the car might help. Thanks

 

[buckeyekid]

The car would have turned from zoolinger on to leeds where the x is where it ended

 

[medea13]

Hi. I am new to this site and I grew up in upper Arlington untill the age of 12. We moved out of state then. The year would have been 1985. Something happened to me that I will never forget and haunts me to this day. In my adult years, I've always been wanting to tell someone, like the police department in Upper Arlington, share with them what happened to me but haven't. First let me say I know nothing about this case I am posting in, I didn't know this girl. but what I have to say may be of some relevance, I don't know. When I started reading what happened to her the street names hit me, I know those street names. I lived off of Leeds Rd, I went to Wickliffe elementary and Jones jr. High. I used to ride my bike all the time, so did my friends. We rode out bikes everywhere. Well one day I was riding my bike down my street alone, it was still light out but getting dark so I want to say it was around dinner time, when I felt the worst feeling in my entire life. And this is no joke, I swear I could feel something evil behind me, and I never knew that feeling or had anything like it before of after this. When I looked back there was a car driving slowly behind me. They would not pass me, they stayed right on me. I kept looking back and I was so scared because I knew this wasn't normal and it wasn't right for someone to do that. It was a larger black or brown car, square shaped, like an Oldsmobile or Cutlass, style. I am pretty sure it had very tinted windows. I would look back and I couldn't see the person's face. I started to pettle as fast as I could and I knew I wasn't going to stop at my house because I didn't want the person to know where I lived so after I past my house I turned right on the next Street and on the corner was a house of my neighbors but there front porch had like a little area you can go behind and no one from the street would be able to see you, so I turned the corner went on their driveway crashed my bike and ran to the door and tried to hide while ringing the doorbell. No one answered. And the car stops right in front of the house and sits there for what felt like an eternity. Then they drove off.
About a week later, I'm on my bike again but I was far down the street when I looked around and saw that car again turn onto Leeds. This time I knew I was far enough away that I could easily loose them, I think I cut into someone's yard and went to another neighbors house thru the back door. In my neighborhood, you knew every car that would drive down your street. You practically knew everyone, I had never seen that car before or after that time. And I'm telling you that I know that person had intentions to harm me. I know because of how I felt and what they did and I have thought about this everyday almost because the feeling that went thru my body was like nothing I've ever felt, I knew it was evil and I knew they would kill me.
I tried to look up missing persons/ children in upper Arlington for around that time period and I never found anything untill I found this site. I'm glad I am finally able to share this. I know it isn't much, but maybe the description of the car might help. Thanks

wow! thanks for sharing. what happened to you is so scary and I for one am glad you shared it. In cases like this any little thing can be the clue that helps solve it and I am glad you found this thread and posted!