Found Deceased OH - Harley Dilly, 14, walking to Port Clinton High School, 20 Dec 2019 #4

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JaneEyre said:
This is the best way to prevent break-ins of vacant homes. Keep it up as if it’s occupied, keep the heat running to a degree, and use timer lights. I only recently found out that there were two vacant homes near me. I kept seeing exhaust from the chimneys and occasional lights, lawns mowed, leaves cleaned up, etc. So it wouldn’t surprise me if very few people realized this house was vacant.
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Before we purchased our current vacation (and future retirement) home, we owned another in an oceanside community. That house was located on a large property surrounded by timber, so was fairly private. We hired a local commercial farmer who did landscape work on the side to take care of our large yard and he kept an eye on things when storms came through. He had a key.

I visited often with my young daughter and her friends. We'd stay the week and my husband would drive over on the weekend. One time I arrived to discover an envelope addressed to my husband and me at that address had been left in my doorway. (We did not provide our address in local phone book.) The person writing that letter had fantasized an entire relationship between himself and us - that we had graduated from the local high school together and interacted in other ways.

I wanted to report this to the sheriff, but my husband found a similar name in the local phone book and insisted upon visiting that address to see if he could locate the writer. The writer's mother answered the door, explained that her mentally ill adult son wandered the peninsula and often visited properties that looked empty. She said he was harmless, just curious.

The first few times we visited after that, I slept with a golf club in my hand, dog in the bed, and my cellphone and car alarm next to me. I started taking handgun classes because I felt I'd need better defense than a golf club and a county sheriff who patrolled such a large area that he could easily be 2 hours away if I made a call. Ultimately, I could never feel safe there again and so we sold the property.

People who pay attention come to know when a property isn't occupied or closely attended to.
 
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holtzmann said:
Still thinking about LE communications here. The deviation from "child found" to "child recovered" is so at odds with the reluctance to confirm whether he is alive or dead. Given the time passed, I would be shocked to hear that HD is alive. I wonder why the language choices.
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They’re being awfully cagey. Live people are “rescued” and deceased bodies are “recovered.” When someone’s missing a long time in the woods rescuers will say “We believe this is now a recovery mission...” (ie there is no longer hope that the person is alive.)
 
Sources say his body was found behind a wall, possibly inside the chimney of the home.

Investigators are still on scene gathering evidence. Sources added that a portion of the home’s wall was removed.

The house across the street from where the Dilly’s live is unoccupied and used as more of a vacation-type home.
I-Team: Body of 14-year-old Harley Dilly possibly found inside chimney
 
Linda7NJ said:
I can’t understand how his jacket ended up on the second floor hanging on a door and his body stuck in the chimney.
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How long was it there? Someone in the last thread stated maybe the police found it and hung it there out of the way. And that comment was dismissed as the police wouldn't tamper with evidence. But if it was an obvious accidental death perhaps they would do so.
 
imstilla.grandma said:
Sources say his body was found behind a wall, possibly inside the chimney of the home.

Investigators are still on scene gathering evidence. Sources added that a portion of the home’s wall was removed.
I-Team: Body of 14-year-old Harley Dilly possibly found inside chimney
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Seems like an extremely bold reporting choice to write that based off the drones and them being seen cutting the wall...

JMO but I'm not trusting "sources say" and I think it's lazy reporting/rumor mongering. Seems like they are just reporting speculation and it will be easy for them to say "Welp, our 'sources' were wrong, not our fault" if it comes out unconfirmed.
 
lmr said:
My thoughts exactly! Is it possible that the lockbox was recently placed in the home?
Does anyone know if this state mandates that vacant homes have a lock box so that emergency responders may enter?
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Ohio laws on vacant homes vary by city and county. I'm not having much luck researching the codes as most search results are sandwiched between reports on this story.

dkryder said:
Everybody was just waiting for LE to get done before they searched themselves.
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To be fair, LE specifically asked and cautioned against anyone running their own searches independently before LE had completed their own.

I'm also wondering how big y'all are imagining lockboxes are. The ones I've seen are usually the size of maybe two padlocks put together. Not very visible, especially given how far back that home sits from the street.
 
HD having a secret hideaway makes him leaving his house so early on a school day (6:08am) make more sense to me. Perhaps he even slept there the night before his dissepearance after leaving his friends house.

My fear is foul play or accident. If accidental and if having his phone would have saved him .... I can't even :*-(
 
IMO there would have been more activity or investigators on the roof last night if they thought he was in the chimney. Doesn't seem like a "oh, we'll just wait til morning" type of situation if that is the case. They'd be up there putting cameras/lights down the chimney even now IMO, not relying on drones to see down a likely pitch black chimney even in daylight.
 
martin.downs said:
Yeah "drones focusing" on chimney, this is an accidental death...it has to be. And in my opinion, I reckon HD has been visiting that property for some time.
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Surely if he had then after the initial access,he would have found an easier way to come and go than scaling the house to climb down the chimney,I mean that is a totally extreme method to access a house to begin with!
 
MsRydia said:
HD having a secret hideaway makes him leaving his house so early on a school day (6:08am) make more sense to me. Perhaps he even slept there the night before his dissepearance after leaving his friends house.

My fear is foul play or accident. If accidental and if having his phone would have saved him .... I can't even :*-(
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Perhaps he even slept there the previous times he disappeared for the night and was casually presumed to be sleeping at a friend's house.
 
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