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

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I find myself circling in my mind, a few potential theories. I go back and forth between them. Sometimes I am leaning towards the 'budding serial killers' in the neighborhood theory. There are things which point to that possibility.

But I also have an inkling of a possible weird situation in which he knows who the attackers are because it is not exactly as he describes. Maybe some sex play/experimentation gone wrong, but then the sex partners decide to get rid of him to protect their secrets. But that seems unlikely, so I do linger on the slight possibility that he had mental issues and made it all up and injured himself. But that does not seem right either, so I go back to the neigjborhood serial killer theory...
 
Mouse said:
In a horrible coincidence, Alean Tope's granddaughter was murdered in 2005. She exacerbated the Comeans family's pain for whatever twisted reasons of her own, only to have that same horror visited on her own family a quarter-century later.

Karma: do not taunt it.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2008/07/27/Tope_ART_07-27-08_G4_G3ARBRR.html

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12241765
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Wow, that is ironic. I read (I think in AJT's obit) that this family member had been lost young, but I didn't know how. Curious as to the killer, I looked further after your post and found this Columbus Dispatch article on the trial. An awful fate for anyone.
 
katydid23 said:
I find myself circling in my mind, a few potential theories. I go back and forth between them. Sometimes I am leaning towards the 'budding serial killers' in the neighborhood theory. There are things which point to that possibility.

But I also have an inkling of a possible weird situation in which he knows who the attackers are because it is not exactly as he describes. Maybe some sex play/experimentation gone wrong, but then the sex partners decide to get rid of him to protect their secrets. But that seems unlikely, so I do linger on the slight possibility that he had mental issues and made it all up and injured himself. But that does not seem right either, so I go back to the neigjborhood serial killer theory...
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Yes, I know what you mean. If the killer targeted BC for a reason -- unknown to us but bc they knew him -- the end result goes way beyond bullying, for sure. Some on the thread believe the family has someone in mind. If this is the case the killers may be both bullies AND very sick dudes.

Because of the persistence of the killers, I too wind up back at the budding serial killers' table. But I guess a really imbalanced local pair could just have had it out for him as well.

Re the budding serial killers -- the motive for attacking boys this age is most often sexual (I'm coming to believe it's because they are "man size" but easily manipulated and overpowered). But in the case of Eyler, it looks like the thrill can come from the murder too -- he didn't always have to rape his victim for it to be sexual for him.

Could it actually have BEEN Eyler?

(1) It would be the first case attributed to him in Ohio, but his kill range included four states (IL, IN, WI, KY), so to my eye, Columbus would not be a stretch.

(2) His MO was inconsistent and a few of his early kills are in the MO of BC, including the unsuccessful part (but not the persistent followup).

(3) At his death he was reluctant to let his lawyer tell his crimes even after he died (his permission was a requirement for her to do so) -- did he tell her everything? Or did he hold something back? As prolific as he later was, we have little info about the years between 1978-82. Could he have been protecting an accomplice during those years?

I would really like to know what cars he had access to and where he was between Sept. 1979 and Jan. 1980. Did he know anyone in the Columbus area? He was sort of nomadic ... It may be far-fetched, but I would just like to definitively rule him out.
 
I have a question about the notes found in lockers. If somebody other than a student or school personnel was putting the notes in the lockers, wouldn't they have been noticed as suspicious? When I was in school in the 1970s/1980s it's true anybody could walk into the building from any of the doors (which were ALL unlocked during the day) but I would think an out of place adult roaming the halls putting things in lockers would be noticed. Even if it was done while classes were going on, I would think somebody would see them through the classroom door, or a hall monitor might see them, or a student going to the restroom might pass them in the hall.
If the locker letters were legit and not a prank by someone who just knew about the attacks, I am leaning toward other students being involved.
 
Another question in regard to my above post. I see the locker letters were typed in red ink. I remember some of the old electric school typewriters having both red and black ink, and the old manual typewriters did as well. Could the writer have made these notes in typing class?
 
dogperson said:
I have a question about the notes found in lockers. If somebody other than a student or school personnel was putting the notes in the lockers, wouldn't they have been noticed as suspicious? When I was in school in the 1970s/1980s it's true anybody could walk into the building from any of the doors (which were ALL unlocked during the day) but I would think an out of place adult roaming the halls putting things in lockers would be noticed. Even if it was done while classes were going on, I would think somebody would see them through the classroom door, or a hall monitor might see them, or a student going to the restroom might pass them in the hall.
If the locker letters were legit and not a prank by someone who just knew about the attacks, I am leaning toward other students being involved.
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BBM: That's a good point. I've lost sight of that. I do still think at least one of the attackers had to have a connection to the school. As to the how and when, what about during a Saturday football game? Or later in the year, during an evening basketball game? Fewer people inside ... and at my HS you could get inside during those hours too. Actually, any evening, as the night custodians often left the doors unlocked while they were working ... but yes, a student is possible too.
 
dogperson said:
Another question in regard to my above post. I see the locker letters were typed in red ink. I remember some of the old electric school typewriters having both red and black ink, and the old manual typewriters did as well. Could the writer have made these notes in typing class?
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LOL -- you couldn't have gotten that past MY typing teacher but who knows :)
Yes, I remember those double-striped ribbons too. And I think you're right, the typing classes had electric typewriters (I was in HS betw 70-74) so that students would be trained on "modern" technology. On one of my first jobs I used a Royal manual with only a black ribbon, but that may have been all I had a need for. I wonder if you can tell from the notes whether they were typed on an electric or manual typewriter? Often the manual ones jumped lines. A single letter in a word could be misaligned.

Off to work.
 
I didn't think about someone getting inside the school during a ballgame. My school was the same way; there were always some doors unlocked during football games. Plus, during basketball games, school dances, etc you could roam the building. I think somewhere in the thread it had dates when some of the locker letters were found. If so, we could find out what day of the week those were by using one of those websites where you figure what day of the week you were born on and so forth. I need to look back and see if the dates are on here. If they were found, say, on a Monday morning we might make a guess that someone did it on the past Friday night during a football game.

We had an old manual typewriter at my house when I was a kid that I played with and when the black part of the ribbon would wear out I would just change to the red part. I don't remember how you did that, maybe there was a little switch or something. I would think someone who knows much about typewriters might be able to tell what type of machine was used. Really, the police should have followed up on the typewriter angle. I would think some analysis of the ink would tell you what type of ribbon it came from, and from there what type of machine was used. It could have been done from someone's home or business too, I was just thinking about the red ink and how people didn't use it much unless the black ran out. It could have been an old manual typewriter at someone's house and the red part of the ribbon was the only usable part left on it.

Another thing that got me to thinking about a student writing the letters is that when I was a kid in typing class we girls used to write prank letters to our friends sometimes and slip them into their lockers. Of course, our friends knew we did it because we'd write these long dramatic "love letters" supposedly from boys in the school, but they still got a laugh out of it. A good time to slip a letter into someone's locker was if you rode one of the earliest buses and there was hardly anyone in the hallways.
 
I'm Bill Comeans' oldest brother. I've been reading some of your comments. Got questions? I might be able to answer. Bob
 
bob6104 said:
I'm Bill Comeans' oldest brother. I've been reading some of your comments. Got questions? I might be able to answer. Bob
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God bless you and your family Bob! Thanks for finally joining!
 
Was Bill abducted from the front porch?
 
bob6104 said:
I'm Bill Comeans' oldest brother. I've been reading some of your comments. Got questions? I might be able to answer. Bob
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Welcome, Bob :)

I do -- tons -- but I think according to the site's TOS (terms of service), we have to get you registered as a VI (verified insider) first. Otherwise, anyone could pose as you in this kind of forum. No suspicion here, just respecting process. I will let our moderator know about this post and she will likely contact you. It's easy.
 
GoingByMyGut said:
Welcome, Bob :)

I do -- tons -- but I think according to the site's TOS (terms of service), we have to get you registered as a VI (verified insider) first. Otherwise, anyone could pose as you in this kind of forum. No suspicion here, just respecting process. I will let our moderator know about this post and she will likely contact you. It's easy.
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It's Bob, but I will pm a mod. :)
 
Oh duh GBMG! You got it lol. I'm recovering from that darn stomach bug, and am just now catching up myself. Great work BTW! :)
 
This is such a strange case.

Just me, but I doubt a serial killer or thrill-killer would attempt to murder the same person three different times (if we believe that the prior two attacks are related, which by all accounts and common sense, they are). They would simply move on to another victim.

The fact that Bill was targeted multiple times makes me believe (a) he knew his attacker and (b) they had a very distinct reason (at least in their mind) for choosing Bill as their victim.

Strange, strange, strange case.
 
bob6104 said:
I'm Bill Comeans' oldest brother. I've been reading some of your comments. Got questions? I might be able to answer. Bob
Click to expand...

Welcome, Bob! We are so grateful that you are taking the time to come here and help us out. I know it can't be easy. Once you get verified I'm sure there will be plenty of questions and any insight you can give is appreciated.
 
TroyinTX said:
This is such a strange case.

Just me, but I doubt a serial killer or thrill-killer would attempt to murder the same person three different times (if we believe that the prior two attacks are related, which by all accounts and common sense, they are). They would simply move on to another victim.

The fact that Bill was targeted multiple times makes me believe (a) he knew his attacker and (b) they had a very distinct reason (at least in their mind) for choosing Bill as their victim.

Strange, strange, strange case.
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I agree completely.
 
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