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

Yoda said:

Article two was very informative.
1. Toxicology report says he had Valium in his system. No one knew where he got it.

2. The first two scenes there was no sign of struggle. The third scene was disturbed by too many people.
3. It had rained two days before the second attack, but Billy's light color pants and shoes showed no signs of soil. This was when he was passed out under a tree for five hours.
4. He was given a lie detector test that showed signs of him trying to conceal something.
5. A teacher told police he had been asking how you could make yourself pass out.
6. FBI ruled his death inconclusive. Ny detective auto asphyxia- which was also want the local LE believed.

Click to expand...

A couple of other things stood out to me in this article:

1. The coroner said the death was ruled a homicide primarily to keep the case open.

2. This quote: ..."strong possibility that he was not murdered and that he may have died at his own hands in a tragic accident."

My thoughts:

I think the polygraph results could easily be explained by the theory that he knew more about his attackers than he claimed, it doesn't necessarily mean that he was lying about the events taking place.

Also, sorry to be graphic, but if this was an autoerotic situation, wouldn't there be other clues? Pants unzipped, etc.

However, in the interest of exploring all of the options, I think it might be good to list out clues we have that absolutely point to this being a murder and not an accidental suicide. Unfortunately, as much as I don't want to believe it, I could see that being an option as it stands right now.

GoingByMyGut said:

BBM1: Yes, there sure are some surprises there! I was really stunned by the turnaround of LE in this article. If it's possible to come to dislike two detectives from a single news article, that's how I came away feeling. In spite of the new evidence, I had the sense these two felt they were above the coroner's findings. Some thoughts:

* The valium makes perfect sense to me. I am grateful that it may mean BC didn't know what hit him the night he died. IMO, it also potentially validates the 5-6 hour "nap" after the second attack, as well as possibly the fuzzy mindedness I am attaching to BC's inability to describe his assailants after both attacks. Sticking with the possibility of attackers, they stepped up their game with the choking each time, maybe they did so with the drug doses too? Valium is fast acting on injection -- I remember that an oral surgeon used it for my daughter's 3-hour bony impacted molar surgery years ago in an IV drip and it was considered "general anesthesia." Also, it is an amnesiac -- it causes forgetting of anything you were conscious of when you were on it!!! For me, this drug explains the lack of struggle in all attacks, as well as the lack of struggle.

* Was it this article or one of the others that says, at the time of assault #1, BC was on a trail 50 yards into the woods behind the elementary school? Is that a shortcut somewhere, I wonder -- home perhaps by way of the RR tracks? I have the sense that, at the time of this article anyway, LE "reads" this as BC seeking privacy.

* Yes, the "crime scene" was probably quite a mess, and it probably hurt LE and the coroner not to see the way the scarf was tied around Bill's neck. But -- hello! -- breathing was a little more important at the time. It disturbs me that these two cops called the crime scene a "death scene." It was NOT. BC died at the hospital. The crime scene was a mess because human beings tried to save the boy's life! They seemed to ignore that little detail ...

* Can a lie detector test be reliably administered to a 14-year-old?! I thought it could not be given to kids because of their impressionability/suggestibility and the blurry line between imagination and reality? Does anyone know how this is seen today?

* And the teacher -- well, if all teachers were saints, I'd have no problem with this, but they are ordinary people with all sorts of personalities (helpful and, well, not so much). We are not told when BC asked the teacher this Q, but given the fact that the first attack happened so close to the beginning of the school year, I am guessing the convo occurred at least after that and maybe even after the second one. What if BC's Q was a reaction to LE's suspicion of him? By that time, LE may have already been taking samples of Bill's handwriting to rule him out in the case. Maybe he said to the teacher "How could I have made myself pass out?" and the teacher (or LE) took it out of context? LE sure likes hearsay when they think it works for them ...

* We are supposed to believe that a 14-year-old sought "self-gratification" outdoors?! And his routine was to take valium first? And to do it in the middle of delivering papers or collecting for his paper route? Give. Me. A. Break. So I guess then that quitting his paper route was a deliberate cover for his actions?

Sorry about this little rant -- I read this stuff before bed last night but it's only just now that it's getting me P.O.'d. Last night the "new evidence" these two detectives gave made me take a step back. But this morning I realize how discredited it must have made the family feel -- both for themselves and their son. It feels like slander to me. I think one of the red flags in this article is the detectives' lack of professionalism and any regard for the family --- they are blase about publicly brandishing their POVs; they brazenly disregard the coroner's findings; and they make the official designation of homicide seem like a well meaning but uninformed decision. (IOW, they don't only discredit Bill, they discredit their own.) Did anyone else feel the arrogance in their position, or am I overreacting?

The next articles are an eyeful too because of the development that the 54-year-old mentally disturbed neighbor confessed to sending the letters between July and Oct. 1980.

BBM2: Thanks, Yoda

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BB1 - I agree, the Valium explains a lot and I too hope it meant he was not suffering as I had imagined.

BBM2 - This doesn't mean much but I've zoomed it as much as possible on that patch of woods and see nothing resembling a path. The trees do have a very thick canopy though. I guess it could be a shortcut to Topsfield Rd, Malden Way or N Murray Hill Rd. I have a hard time believing this area was a part of his paper route though, it's quite a distance to cover if his paper route also covered the Maple Dr./ Beacon Hill Rd area that the second attack took place. It's not far as a direct route but if he is delivering to houses on all of the streets in between by bicycle, it's quite a ways.

BBM3 - Totally agree.

BBM4 - Yeah, I think I'm probably going to disregard this comment. Even if he were trying to find out, would he really ask a teacher? I find that very hard to believe.

BBM5 - Yes. In my previous post, I questioned this conclusion when there doesn't seem to evidence. In other cases of autoerotic asphyxiation, they are often naked, pants undone, something. Also, there is usually something else involved that holds the rope/ belt/ scarf in place (hanging from something.) I just don't seem him tying his own scarf around his neck so tightly that it has to cut off. I just don't think that's possible.

My notes from the articles I posted in post #128:

Article 1:

Not a lot of new info here but it really goes to show the disconnect between what the police said and what the neighbors felt was really going on.

"Although the distraught families claimed the sheriff's office has ignored their pleas for help, deputies said they have spent 'thousands of hours' staking out the neighborhood since letters began arriving in July."

and

"However, when approached by The Dispatch, two unnamed uniformed sheriff's deputies in the neighborhood said they had not idea what was going on. 'We were just told to meet you guys out here,' one deputy said"

My thought: HOW COULD THEY NOT KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON??

Article 2: I covered in a previous post

Article 3: The neighbor that sent the letters (A. Tope) also sent them to her own home and gathered with neighbors to talk about the threats. It was determined that she was not responsible for the notes BC received before he died, the ones found in his locker.

Article 4: The letters were mailed and taped to car windshields. Nothing about the leather belts that we heard earlier. I can't believe she was only fined $50. I would be livid if I were that family.

pdxmama said:

A couple of other things stood out to me in this article:

1. The coroner said the death was ruled a homicide primarily to keep the case open.

2. This quote: ..."strong possibility that he was not murdered and that he may have died at his own hands in a tragic accident."

My thoughts:

I think the polygraph results could easily be explained by the theory that he knew more about his attackers than he claimed, it doesn't necessarily mean that he was lying about the events taking place.

Also, sorry to be graphic, but if this was an autoerotic situation, wouldn't there be other clues? Pants unzipped, etc.

However, in the interest of exploring all of the options, I think it might be good to list out clues we have that absolutely point to this being a murder and not an accidental suicide. Unfortunately, as much as I don't want to believe it, I could see that being an option as it stands right now.

Click to expand...

OK, I'm quoting and BBM'ing myself. I believe the fact that he died from his scarf being tied so tightly is the one clue that absolutely convinces me this was not a suicide, accidental or otherwise.

Original posts TBM:

pdxmama said:

Also, sorry to be graphic, but if this was an autoerotic situation, wouldn't there be other clues? Pants unzipped, etc.

However, in the interest of exploring all of the options, I think it might be good to list out clues we have that absolutely point to this being a murder and not an accidental suicide. Unfortunately, as much as I don't want to believe it, I could see that being an option as it stands right now.

Click to expand...

pdxmama said:

BBM5 - Yes. In my previous post, I questioned this conclusion when there doesn't seem to evidence. In other cases of autoerotic asphyxiation, they are often naked, pants undone, something. Also, there is usually something else involved that holds the rope/ belt/ scarf in place (hanging from something.) I just don't seem him tying his own scarf around his neck so tightly that it has to cut off. I just don't think that's possible.

Click to expand...

BBM2: Good idea. And the lack of evidence of self-gratification is def. one of them (BBM1 & BBM3). Also, presumably bodily fluids may have been discovered during the autopsy.

Point of clarity: Are you saying you have seen this type of accidental death take place outdoors? I am only familiar with what you describe in BBM3 (some sort of hanging contrived, even from a closet hook), with it sometimes viewed as a suicide with unclear intent, and usually taking place in a YA's bedroom. I would be interested to hear if you are saying outdoors in also common.

BBM4: I thought the whole reason for contriving a hanging of some sort was because you couldn't choke yourself that tightly without passing out.

pdxmama said:

A couple of other things stood out to me in this article:

1. The coroner said the death was ruled a homicide primarily to keep the case open.

2. This quote: ..."strong possibility that he was not murdered and that he may have died at his own hands in a tragic accident."

My thoughts:

I think the polygraph results could easily be explained by the theory that he knew more about his attackers than he claimed, it doesn't necessarily mean that he was lying about the events taking place.

Also, sorry to be graphic, but if this was an autoerotic situation, wouldn't there be other clues? Pants unzipped, etc.

However, in the interest of exploring all of the options, I think it might be good to list out clues we have that absolutely point to this being a murder and not an accidental suicide. Unfortunately, as much as I don't want to believe it, I could see that being an option as it stands right now.

Click to expand...

OK, I'm quoting and BBM'ing myself. I believe the fact that he died from his scarf being tied so tightly is the one clue that absolutely convinces me this was not a suicide, accidental or otherwise.

Original post TBM:

pdxmama said:

BBM2 - This doesn't mean much but I've zoomed it as much as possible on that patch of woods and see nothing resembling a path. The trees do have a very thick canopy though. I guess it could be a shortcut to Topsfield Rd, Malden Way or N Murray Hill Rd. I have a hard time believing this area was a part of his paper route though, it's quite a distance to cover if his paper route also covered the Maple Dr./ Beacon Hill Rd area that the second attack took place. It's not far as a direct route but if he is delivering to houses on all of the streets in between by bicycle, it's quite a ways.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is peculiar, but I don't see it as much of a distance. The thing that struck me most is that, even though it's only five blocks from Maple Drive to the elementary school, there is no through street from Deerfield to Buena Vista. I think I see electric and phone wires running through this breach in the backyards of houses on both blocks. Kanard seems to dead end at this point -- though it's hard to be sure; there may be a sidewalk, alley, or path there. To my eye, the path along the RR tracks and Beacon Hill Road may provide the only reliable access from one area to the other. Kids don't tend to only follow roads, esp. longer ago.

According to Zillow, the homes that surround the school went up in the late 50s, so the neighborhood is as it would have been at the time BC was killed. Would the Comeans children have attended this school? This may have been very familiar turf, IMO. What route would they haven taken? I am guessing they would have walked to and from the school.

There is a street northwest of the wooded patch behind the school that runs on a diagonal. I had to look on another map to find out what it's called because it doesn't show up on the Google maps. It's called Powder Mill Lane. It seems to be a street because a few homes front onto it. It runs almost directly from the northwest corner of the tiny "woods" to the path. There is only the width of one lot between where is dead-ends and the tracks. Could the kids have been accustomed to cutting through a homeowner's property back there to get to the path and then home? I am guessing ... but it looks like the shortest distance to me. They could also have cut thru the house at the northwest end of Powder Mill, then through a yard that fronts on Buena Vista, and walked home by way of Park. These neighborhood patterns are hard to know unless you live in a place.

With the cold though, my thinking is all over the place. I'm guessing you can relate

pdxmama said:

Oh wow, I'm sick too so I haven't read the articles myself. I'm pretty surprised about the Valium. I wonder if there was any way to determine how it was administered? Would there still be pills in the stomach contents? Is it standard to look for injection sites during autopsy?

I'm off to read through now.

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Unsure. Finding an injection site may have required suspicion and looking for it, or more sophistication -- I think it could be easily missed. I am guessing they would have looked at the stomach contents as SOP, but have no idea re the pills. Probably not, because they have to dissolve to work, right? Also, how would the killers have gotten BC to take them?

As to BC's innocence or culpability, I wonder if valium (aka diazepam) was used in the Comeans home. Could it have been prescribed by his doctor after the second attack for calming his fears/anxiety?

From the 60s to now, valium has been a heavily prescribed drug (peak use was 1978). I am just not sure how hard it would have been to get your hands on an injectable quantity.

According to Wikipedia: Diazepam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• "Advantages of diazepam are a rapid onset of action ..."
• "Adverse effects of benzodiazepines such as diazepam include anterograde amnesia and confusion (especially pronounced in higher doses) and sedation."
• "Diazepam in doses of 5 mg or more causes significant deterioration in alertness performance combined with increased feelings of sleepiness."
• It also says it can be injected into muscle, so it wouldn't require finding a vein.
• "The onset of action is one to five minutes for IV administration and 15–30 minutes for IM administration."
• ?Diazepam occurs as solid white or yellow crystals with a melting point of 131.5 to 134.5 °C. It is odorless, and has a slightly bitter taste. The British Pharmacopoeia lists diazepam as being very slightly soluble in water, soluble in alcohol and freely soluble in chloroform."

And: Anterograde amnesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Anterograde amnesia is a loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact."

GoingByMyGut said:

Original posts TBM:





BBM2: Good idea. And the lack of evidence of self-gratification is def. one of them (BBM1 & BBM3). Also, presumably bodily fluids may have been discovered during the autopsy.

Point of clarity: Are you saying you have seen this type of accidental death take place outdoors? I am only familiar with what you describe in BBM3 (some sort of hanging contrived, even from a closet hook), with it sometimes viewed as a suicide with unclear intent, and usually taking place in a YA's bedroom. I would be interested to hear if you are saying outdoors in also common.

BBM4: I thought the whole reason for contriving a hanging of some sort was because you couldn't choke yourself that tightly without passing out.

Click to expand...

BBM1 - No, sorry, I don't think being outdoors for this sort of thing is common at all. Especially when it's cold enough for there to be snow on the ground.

BBM2 - Exactly. This is the number one reason I don't believe this was an accidental suicide.

pdxmama said:

BBM1 - No, sorry, I don't think being outdoors for this sort of thing is common at all. Especially when it's cold enough for there to be snow on the ground.

BBM2 - Exactly. This is the number one reason I don't believe this was an accidental suicide.

Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying. BBM1: That is SUCH a good point.

Your BBM2, we are in agreement on this. Also, to the same point, one of the sources says the coroner's report listed internal injuries resulting from the strangulation -- which I think goes to the force with which he was strangled. Could this mean just bruising? Or does it suggest something more, like a collapsed airway? I don't know. But I don't think it matters either way.

GoingByMyGut said:

BBM1: Yes, there sure are some surprises there! I was really stunned by the turnaround of LE in this article. If it's possible to come to dislike two detectives from a single news article, that's how I came away feeling. In spite of the new evidence, I had the sense these two felt they were above the coroner's findings. Some thoughts:

* The valium makes perfect sense to me. I am grateful that it may mean BC didn't know what hit him the night he died. IMO, it also potentially validates the 5-6 hour "nap" after the second attack, as well as possibly the fuzzy mindedness I am attaching to BC's inability to describe his assailants after both attacks. Sticking with the possibility of attackers, they stepped up their game with the choking each time, maybe they did so with the drug doses too? Valium is fast acting on injection -- I remember that an oral surgeon used it for my daughter's 3-hour bony impacted molar surgery years ago in an IV drip and it was considered "general anesthesia." Also, it is an amnesiac -- it causes forgetting of anything you were conscious of when you were on it!!! For me, this drug explains the lack of struggle in all attacks, as well as the lack of struggle.

* Was it this article or one of the others that says, at the time of assault #1, BC was on a trail 50 yards into the woods behind the elementary school? Is that a shortcut somewhere, I wonder -- home perhaps by way of the RR tracks? I have the sense that, at the time of this article anyway, LE "reads" this as BC seeking privacy.

* Yes, the "crime scene" was probably quite a mess, and it probably hurt LE and the coroner not to see the way the scarf was tied around Bill's neck. But -- hello! -- breathing was a little more important at the time. It disturbs me that these two cops called the crime scene a "death scene." It was NOT. BC died at the hospital. The crime scene was a mess because human beings tried to save the boy's life! They seemed to ignore that little detail ...

* Can a lie detector test be reliably administered to a 14-year-old?! I thought it could not be given to kids because of their impressionability/suggestibility and the blurry line between imagination and reality? Does anyone know how this is seen today?

* And the teacher -- well, if all teachers were saints, I'd have no problem with this, but they are ordinary people with all sorts of personalities (helpful and, well, not so much). We are not told when BC asked the teacher this Q, but given the fact that the first attack happened so close to the beginning of the school year, I am guessing the convo occurred at least after that and maybe even after the second one. What if BC's Q was a reaction to LE's suspicion of him? By that time, LE may have already been taking samples of Bill's handwriting to rule him out in the case. Maybe he said to the teacher "How could I have made myself pass out?" and the teacher (or LE) took it out of context? LE sure likes hearsay when they think it works for them ...

* We are supposed to believe that a 14-year-old sought "self-gratification" outdoors?! And his routine was to take valium first? And to do it in the middle of delivering papers or collecting for his paper route? Give. Me. A. Break. So I guess then that quitting his paper route was a deliberate cover for his actions?

Sorry about this little rant -- I read this stuff before bed last night but it's only just now that it's getting me P.O.'d. Last night the "new evidence" these two detectives gave made me take a step back. But this morning I realize how discredited it must have made the family feel -- both for themselves and their son. It feels like slander to me. I think one of the red flags in this article is the detectives' lack of professionalism and any regard for the family --- they are blase about publicly brandishing their POVs; they brazenly disregard the coroner's findings; and they make the official designation of homicide seem like a well meaning but uninformed decision. (IOW, they don't only discredit Bill, they discredit their own.) Did anyone else feel the arrogance in their position, or am I overreacting?

The next articles are an eyeful too because of the development that the 54-year-old mentally disturbed neighbor confessed to sending the letters between July and Oct. 1980.

BBM2: Thanks, Yoda

Click to expand...

Yeah-me, too! Maybe I am unsophisticated about sexual matters, but when did
Auto-erotic asphyxiation become something that 14 year old boys had a notion to do OUTSIDE, in the days before the internet and rampant *advertiser censored* existed? I promise you, I had never even heard of that in 1984, and I was an adult then. Just saying that this isn't something I would consider as a possibility after finding this boy, with his pants and other clothing intact.

GoingByMyGut said:

Original post TBM:


Yes, this is peculiar, but I don't see it as much of a distance. The thing that struck me most is that, even though it's only five blocks from Maple Drive to the elementary school, there is no through street from Deerfield to Buena Vista. I think I see electric and phone wires running through this breach in the backyards of houses on both blocks. Kanard seems to dead end at this point -- though it's hard to be sure; there may be a sidewalk, alley, or path there. To my eye, the path along the RR tracks and Beacon Hill Road may provide the only reliable access from one area to the other. Kids don't tend to only follow roads, esp. longer ago.

According to Zillow, the homes that surround the school went up in the late 50s, so the neighborhood is as it would have been at the time BC was killed. Would the Comeans children have attended this school? This may have been very familiar turf, IMO. What route would they haven taken? I am guessing they would have walked to and from the school.

There is a street northwest of the wooded patch behind the school that runs on a diagonal. I had to look on another map to find out what it's called because it doesn't show up on the Google maps. It's called Powder Mill Lane. It seems to be a street because a few homes front onto it. It runs almost directly from the northwest corner of the tiny "woods" to the path. There is only the width of one lot between where is dead-ends and the tracks. Could the kids have been accustomed to cutting through a homeowner's property back there to get to the path and then home? I am guessing ... but it looks like the shortest distance to me. They could also have cut thru the house at the northwest end of Powder Mill, then through a yard that fronts on Buena Vista, and walked home by way of Park. These neighborhood patterns are hard to know unless you live in a place.

With the cold though, my thinking is all over the place. I'm guessing you can relate

Click to expand...

BBM - I saw that, too. The one that ends in a cul de sac? It does look like at could be a shortcut for kids heading home from the elementary school over two where the foot path near the railroad tracks begins at Buena Vista and Park.

Fair warning: Incoming lengthy posts to follow this one


Thanks to several posters, we have been given a lot of information to digest across the last six pages. It helps me to cull and collate information from a deluge like this and look at it in a more organized fashion. Since I have done this for myself, I am sharing it here in case this sort of thing helps you too.

That said, I urge you to look at the source materials if you haven’t already done so, because pulling out what seems to be valid information from media sources is a subjective enterprise. There are a lot of contradictions and errors in the press coverage -- some of the latter I’ve caught (e.g., one source saying that, including Bill, Mrs. Comeans has two other children, when in fact she has three; a photo of Bill with his father’s name, Robert, under it), but some I likely have not. In general, I’ve assumed something’s true if I read it in more than one place, but that’s not foolproof. Not if, but when, you catch mistakes, please let me know. I’ll edit them out or repost with corrections at a later date so everyone has a chance to weigh in.

Sorry for taking up so much space, but I hope it helps.

William Comeans: Case Information & Initial Timeline

Thanks to several posters, we have been given a lot of information from MSM and internet sources to digest across the first six pages of this thread. It helps me to cull and collate information from a deluge like this and look at it in a more organized fashion. Since I have done this for myself, I am sharing it here in case this sort of thing helps you too.

That said, I urge you to look at the source materials if you haven’t already done so, because pulling out what seems to be valid information from media sources is a subjective enterprise. There are a lot of contradictions and errors in the press coverage -- some of the latter I’ve caught (e.g., one source saying that, including Bill, Mrs. Comeans has two other children, when in fact she has three; and a photo of Bill with his father’s name, Robert, under it), but some I likely have not. In general, I’ve assumed something’s true if I read it in more than one place, but that’s not foolproof.

Caveat: IMO this timeline is best used after you've read the source materials. Only then will you really get what the abbreviated statements mean. Also, the timeline is not intended as a substitute for reading the thread. Posters' points of view, analyses, and later content contributions all shed new light on the preliminary information presented here.

(1) From the Ohio Atty. Gen.’s website (TBM):

UNSOLVED HOMICIDE: WILLIAM COMEANS(2) From various sources (see listing after this post):

PERSONAL INFORMATION(3) Created by pdxmama:

MAP

For a visual of locations mentioned in the timeline that follows, pdxmama created a Google Map with colored pushpins showing:(4) From various sources (see listing after this post):

TIMELINE

September & October Threatening Notes Rec’d at School9/5/1979, Wednesday First Assault (Attempted Murder?)10/22/79, Monday Second Assault (Attempted Murder?)1/7/80, Monday The Murder4/22/80, Tuesday Coroner’s Report Released7/21 - 10/31/80 Neighbors on Maple Drive receive threatening letters/notesDecember 1980 54-Year-Old Woman Arrested for Penning Letters to NeighborsSept. 1981 LE Proposes New Theory of Crimes(4) From various sources (see listing after this post):

EVIDENCECURRENT CASE STATUS

Wow, GoingByMyGut! The "thanks" button is not adequate. This is amazing!

FAMILY SOURCES

MEDIA SOURCES

Media sources are listed chronologically by publication date, not in the order they were posted.

See post 108

See post 64

See post 69

See post 71

See post 74

See post 82

See Post 91

See Post 93

See Post 128

Obituary of Hoax Letter Writer

See Post 24

pdxmama said:

Wow, GoingByMyGut! The "thanks" button is not adequate. This is amazing!

Click to expand...

Thanks

It was almost worth getting sick to finish!

My heart goes out to this family in a big way. I applaud them for their determination and excellent use of resources.

And you guys get a standing ovation for the awesome work you've done in this thread. Thank you so much!


:woot: :takeabow: :woot: :takeabow: :woot:

The Ohio Attorney General's statewide cold case list searchable by county, city, or victim's name.

http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Law-Enforcement/Local-Law-Enforcement/Cold-Case/All-Cold-Cases


This is an excel spreadsheet of all Dayton County cold cases.

www.daytonohiopolice.com/coldcase/Coldcase%20Full%20List.xlsx


Columbus PD cold case list

http://www.columbuspolice.org/ColdCase/70decade.html

Before we move onto other ways of looking at BC's case, I have a few thoughts that are nagging me about the stuff we've already looked at:

(1) I think LE's proposal in 1981 that BC died of autoerotic asphyxiation could have played a role in the case going cold. I'm only basing this on my/our own reactions to the information. When I first read about it, it made me take a step back. I wonder if, at the time, people/the public just didn't know what to do with the information. They may have felt torn between sympathy for the family and belief in the authority of LE. At the time, the polygraph alone could have really confused everyone. The murkiness of what it all meant about Bill may have made them move on ...

Unless there is more of a basis for this theory than we know, I think it was irresponsible for LE to come out with this position. I wonder if it was intentional, a way to get the public/the media to back off? I don't suppose we'll ever know, but on a gut level, it feels to me like the kiss of death for the case.

I think that until we are contradicted on the facts, we should push past the theory as extraordinarily unlikely, based on all of the arguments advanced in our combined posts (lack of evidence of self-gratification, unlikelihood of BC doing this outdoors in winter, presence of valium in his blood, physical unlikelihood of imposing such an intense degree of harm on himself, unreliability of polygraph results with children and/or the possibility that the test picked up genuine nervousness/confusion/thoughts about who did this to him). JMO

(2) I think it's worth talking about AJT and her letter-writing hoax some more. One thing that disturbs me is the fact that, when she was being investigated, she refused to give a handwriting sample or to take a polygraph and that these two things would have been incriminating to her. Whenever mental illness is on the table, I look for things like this as indicators of whether a person knew what they were doing was wrong. To my eye, her lack of cooperation on these two items says "oh yes!" in neon lights. Crazy like a fox, as the saying goes.

Also, it appears we were right that the pre- and post-death notes had difference authors. However, one of AJT's notes (“All have been warned”) is very similar to the text of the note LE found on BC's bike after the first attack (“He was warned.”). They are similar in both content and sentence structure (passive construction -- i.e., versus "I/We warned them/him.").

So, I know the logic of a letter-writing hoax is to mimic the initial letters, but how did she know what was in these notes -- esp. the one after the assault? Unless I am mixing up the dates of the articles in my mind, it seems to me that -- with the exception of the note rec'd at school just after BC's death ("You're next," signed with a red "S") -- LE did not release and the media didn't report the text of the locker and bike notes until the 1981 "Mystery Still Lingers" article. We do know that there was a friendship between AJT and Mrs. Comeans (Mrs. Comeans says of her, “She was a good friend, but I don’t even want to look at her.”), but I would assume LE cautioned the family to keep the content of the notes to themselves. Wouldn't the family have taken this seriously? In close-knit circles, telling even one close friend would have been akin to telling everyone ...

Another thing AJT refused to do was explain WHY she undertook the hoax. Since the reason for her earlier lack of cooperation (handwriting sample & polygraph) appears to have been self-preservation, it seems plausible to me that this she withheld the overarching explanation for the same reason. But at this point in the case, when what she had done was public, what was left to protect?

I don't think it's being overly suspicious to wonder whether AJT's actions reflected a "family" point of view. Often, sick ways of thinking are toxic to a household and permeate the children -- to say nothing of a potential genetic basis for whatever her mental health issues actually were. I wonder if LE investigated her three sons “ranging in age up to 30”? Presumably, one or more of them did not live at home. Did LE look at the cars they drove? How exactly did they dismiss the likelihood of AJT's involvement in BC's death? I'm not suggesting she was present, but could the motivation for the hoax, in her distorted way of thinking, have been to protect a son or sons from what she knew they did?

I find the conclusion on this completely unsatisfying. JMO