Hometown Killer. Carol J. Rothgeb
had three other daughters by his first wife, who lived in Indiana with their mother. Steve Moody was the father of two girls, eight and three, and a five-year-old boy.
At Dayton radio station WTUE, Steve Kerrigan asked for donations to a reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the deaths of Phree Morrow and Martha Leach.
The Crime Scene Unit on Wednesday returned to the crime scene and searched the pond and island area for any evidence that might have been missed. With the help of the new recruits, another search was made of the same area that had been searched on Tuesday. Each officer searched in a different area than he had searched the day before, just in case he might spot something that another officer had missed.
The scene was secured with tarps and plastic sheets to protect it from possible bad weather at 3:30 that afternoon. Again it was guarded by uniformed patrolmen.
At 8:00 that evening, the area was opened and lab personnel “black-lighted” the scene to look for evidence. The whole area around the pond was sprayed with luminol, but no blood was found except in the spot where the bodies had been, which led the investigators to believe the girls were murdered right where their bodies were found.
Three hours later, the scene was again secured and guarded.
By late Wednesday afternoon, August 26, the police had received several dozen phone tips from the public regarding the composite drawings. They brought in extra personnel to help answer the telephones. They were determined to follow up on every possible lead.
A forensic artist worked with the bakery clerks to combine the two composite drawings into one single sketch of the man seen with Martha in the bakery on Saturday afternoon. Captain Richard O’Brien, the Public Information officer, stated that the artist was working with the witnesses to “come up with a more lifelike image.”
There was a viewing at the funeral home for Martha Leach that evening. The funeral home had been wired with surveillance cameras in the event that the killer was bold enough to show up there. From the basement Detective Barry Eggers monitored persons coming into and going out of the funeral home. Also, from time to time, he walked around among the mourners inside and outside the building and even worked the door for a while as a greeter.
At some point, between 6:00 and 7:00 P.M., he noticed a young man outside in front of the building wearing a “cheap” light blue suit and a tie. Detective Eggers thought it was strange because he never did see the man enter the funeral home. The man had simply walked by the front door and looked in and then disappeared. And when the detective reviewed his tapes later, the young man’s image had not been captured on any of the tapes.
Perhaps it didn’t mean anything, but it was odd.
Later in the evening, a man showed up who had just recently had all his hair cut off, and a mob of family members and friends, thinking he may have had something to do with the murders, was about to attack him. At that point Detective Eggers—frustrated at having to make his presence known—rescued the startled young man from the crowd. It turned out that the reason for the new haircut was not to change his appearance—he had just joined the armed forces.
A very thorough Detective Eggers also asked an employee of the funeral home to make him a copy of the sign-in sheet in the guest book.
Reverend Forest Godin conducted the somber funeral service for Martha Leach on Thursday morning, August 27, 1992—two days after what would have been her twelfth birthday. There were about 130 mourners, including Martha’s classmates, in attendance. A heart-shaped balloon floated near Martha’s open casket. After they played one of Martha’s favorite songs, “Wind Beneath My Wings,” the minister tried, with his words, to comfort the brokenhearted family members and friends who had gathered.
Afterward, a procession of about fifty cars headed west on High Street toward Ferncliff Cemetery. They slowly passed between the two locations where the bodies and the bicycle had been found, less than a block in either direction.
By this time the crime scene personnel had already been back to work for several hours. They raked the island area and placed the debris in bags and took them to police headquarters. The pond was searched again. The overflow grates on the north wall of the pond were removed. They removed the debris, sifted it, and examined it for possible evidence.
The entire area was searched again: the stacks of wooden pallets, the parking lot, and the wooded area. Since this was considered a final search of the crime scene, all the tarps and plastic sheets that had been used to protect against bad weather were returned to their owners. At 6:00 that evening, Captain David Walters released the scene from further protection.
Sergeant Haytas remarked, “We did everything but bring the fish in from that pond.”
Michael Haytas, a Vietnam veteran, had dreamed of being a police officer since he was a child. Originally from New Jersey, his tour of duty in the air force brought him to nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He liked the area and decided to stay.
His first attempt to join the Springfield Police Department was rejected because of a height requirement. Several months later, the department eliminated the stipulation and he was hired. He had a reputation for being thorough and meticulous.
Haytas was the father of two sons and a daughter. His daughter was twelve years old.
At 10:00 that night, the crime scene personnel returned to the Lion’s Cage, where the bicycle had been found, to “black-light” the area to look for possible evidence. This area, too, was sprayed with luminol, but the results were negative.
More than two hundred people gathered at the same funeral home on Friday to mourn the loss of Phree Morrow. Even though it was late August, the temperature had dropped significantly and it was a cloudy, fall-like day.
Pastor Timothy Dotson, of the First Church of Christ in Christian Union, compassionately expressed a deep understanding of the overwhelming emotions present in the room. He told the Bible story in which the disciples tried to shoo the children away from Jesus.
Grief-stricken family members and friends filed through the alcove past the open, but white veiled, casket. A nearby table was covered with stuffed animals and an assortment of other gifts.
Afterward, a procession of fifty cars slowly headed east to Rose Hill Mausoleum. Away from the crime scene—away from where the bicycle was found. But they couldn’t get away from the heartache and the pain, and, of course, the anger.
5
We were getting hundreds of little “tip slips” a day . . . and they all were sending us in different directions.
—Sergeant Barry Eggers
Jamie was full of nervous excitement as he watched the activity around the warehouse. He had never seen so many police cars. He didn’t have as good a view as he had had earlier because a detective had made him move. He knew he shouldn’t be there. What if that detective found out that he had been there last night? But his curiosity would not let him stay away.
Within days Jamie Lee Turner had told several people that he had witnessed the rapes and murders of Phree Morrow and Martha Leach. On Thursday, August 27, 1992, Jamie was brought to police headquarters to be questioned about what he claimed he had seen.
The twenty-year-old mentally challenged man told Detective Al Graeber the same amazing story that he had told his friends. He claimed that he had been walking down Penn Street Hill when he saw a man having sex with a girl in the parking lot of the warehouse. He went away for a while, then returned and climbed up into a tree to watch.
According to Jamie, the man appeared to be “Chinese.” From his perch in the tree, he then saw the “Chinese” man hit one of the girls in the head with a big rock. He said that he saw both of the girls’ heads bleeding and that they were both naked, one faceup, the other facedown. He thought the girls were just “playing around.”
Then while the “Chinese” man was covering the girls up with brush, Jamie threw a rock and hit