October 5, 2006

Police are looking into whether a Toledo truck driver who confessed to killing five women in Ohio is linked to the June 2004 slaying of a woman in Cumberland County.

Toledo police said they have shared information on convicted serial killer Dellmus Colvin with state police troopers investigating the slaying of Vesta Haufe, whose body was found along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in West Pennsboro Twp. State police Cpl. George Cronin wouldn't comment yesterday on possible suspects in Haufe's slaying.

On Monday, Colvin, 47, pleaded guilty in the Ohio slayings amid his trial on murder and kidnapping charges. A Lucas County, Ohio, judge immediately sentenced him to five consecutive life prison terms, according to published reports. Colvin's confession occurred at the same time that a Cumberland County judge granted a request by Coroner Michael Norris to exhume the remains of Haufe, 44, of Knoxville, Tenn., to try to secure DNA.

Norris said the DNA could help pin down a killer, perhaps by matching it to evidence that could be found in a suspect's home or vehicle. While local authorities wouldn't comment on Colvin, police said the victims in the Ohio killings were prostitutes. Investigators have said that Haufe, too, was a prostitute and a drug user who frequented truck stops. "He preferred to kill prostitutes," Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester said of Colvin.

A Toledo detective will come to Harrisburg this month to address an interstate conference for investigators of unsolved slayings such as Haufe's, Forrester said. So far, he said, Colvin has admitted only to murders in the Toledo area.

According to the Toledo Blade newspaper, Colvin admitted killing Valerie Jones, 38, and Jacquelynn A. Thomas, 42, in 2000; Lily Summers, 43, in 2003, Jackie Simpson, 33, in 2003; and Melissa Weber, 37, in 2005. "He claims he didn't do any more," Forrester said.

He said fuel purchase records will be used to trace Colvin's trips across the country since 1998 to help determine if he could have committed other murders. It's a question Sharon Ratliff of Maryville, Tenn., Haufe's sister, also wants answered.

Ratliff said Haufe, who had six children, battled a crack cocaine addiction, but was starting to re-form. "For the first time she was cleaning up her life," Ratliff said. "She was going to school to be a paralegal. She was in rehab. She'd just gotten saved. In church she turned her life over to Christ. "I don't know why anyone would have done this terrible thing," she said. "I want to see [her killer] found. I'd like to see him put out of business completely." Cronin said the Haufe probe "absolutely" is making progress.

A network of police agencies, spearheaded by the FBI, is coordinating investigations into such unsolved murders across the country, he said. Cronin said more than 150 cases, some dating a decade or more, remain open. "There's no statute of limitations on murder," Cronin said. "We never forget our victims."

Colvin tied to 6th murder

Serial killer details drug death, investigators report

By Robin Erb and Erica Blake - ToledoBlade.com

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Dellmus Colvin, the Toledo long-haul trucker and convicted serial killer, has admitted "his involvement" in the death of a sixth prostitute, investigators said yesterday.

"He told us the method of her death," Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester said. "It was an intended overdose."

He declined to elaborate on Colvin's role in the murder of 40-year-old Dorothea Wetzel of Toledo, citing the ongoing investigation, but said others may be involved in her death.

Ms. Wetzel's skeletal remains were found Aug. 5, 2000, by a man walking his dog near the Maumee River in South Toledo.

Like Colvin's other victims, Ms. Wetzel - who also went by the last name Oviedo and was nicknamed "Angel" - was a known prostitute, according to police and court records. And like several of Colvin's other victims, her body had been wrapped in a blanket and discarded in a desolate area.

Yesterday, police again spoke to Colvin, whom they said may have carried the bodies of one or two of his victims with him until they were mummified.

Calling the 47-year-old Colvin "twisted," assistant prosecutor Tim Braun compared him to Jack the Ripper, the notorious killer of at least five prostitutes in the Whitechapel section of London in 1888.

"It's the same motivation. This is having sex with women you hate. He blames them for having sex for money, but he's paying for them. Then, to feel superior, he kills them," Mr. Braun said, noting letters that Colvin sent to another prostitute while he was in custody.

They are vitriolic and laced with profanity, telling her she is worth nothing, Mr. Braun said.

Investigator Tom Ross, who spent several hours interviewing Colvin late Sunday evening and into Monday morning, agreed: "I think it's a control thing. It's 'I kill because I can.'•"

The cases against Colvin abruptly unfolded Monday during the third day of his trial for the murders of Jackie Simpson, 33, whose body was found April 23, 2003, and Melissa Weber, 37, whose body was found May 9, 2005.

Called to their seats just after lunch, the jury was dismissed as attorneys finalized the deal.

Finally, Colvin stood, admitting one by one to killing Ms. Weber and Ms. Simpson, as well as Lily Summers, 43, whose body was found April 8, 2002; Jacquelynn Thomas, 42, whose body was found Sept. 2, 2000; and Valerie Jones, 38, whose body was found Jan. 6, 2000.

All five Toledo area women had been strangled or smothered - their bodies wrapped in sheets and blankets, and dumped. Several were badly decomposed. Mr. Braun and another assistant prosecutor, J. Christopher Anderson, yesterday said forensics revealed that at least two of the women were dead long before their bodies were discarded.

Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Osowik gave Colvin five consecutive life sentences, but Colvin's confession allowed him to avoid the death penalty under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.

Colvin declined to be interviewed by media yesterday unless he was paid, jail personnel said. The Blade does not pay for interviews.

Police had begun to suspect Colvin of a series of murders more than a year ago after one prostitute told police critical details following an attack by Colvin. During the assault, she urinated on the sheets in his cab in order to leave her DNA, the assistant prosecutors said.

"She thought he was going to kill her," Mr. Braun said. "She was going to do everything she could so that if they came looking for her, they'd find something."

Additionally, she memorized details of the truck Colvin drove at the time.

Investigators eventually matched her assailant's DNA with evidence in a string of rapes of local prostitutes and to the murder of Ms. Weber, police said.

A separate trial against Colvin on two rape charges ended in a mistrial in November. In the meantime, police continued to build their murder cases against him. On the second day of the trial Friday, a man described as Colvin's best friend testified that Colvin had asked for cleaning supplies and was in a hotel room where he saw what appeared to be a body covered with a sheet.

"He saw the writing on the wall," said investigator Tom Ross of the prosecutor's office. Colvin was "freaked out" by the prospect of the death penalty, Mr. Ross said.

Family members of the victims have come to terms with Colvin's sentence of life in prison. Judy Simpson, who testified during the first day of his trial, said she was surprised by the plea that saved her daughter's killer from the death penalty.

"I feel that my daughter is gone forever and he'll still be alive," she said, adding that her daughter was not only a good mother to her two children but someone who took care of everyone in her family.

"Maybe [investigators] will be able to find more [victims] and other families will have some closure," she added. "In that case, it's a good thing."

Others could not accept Colvin's negotiated life sentence, including the former prostitute who provided the critical details in her rape. The Blade does not identify the victims of sex crimes.

"I wanted him to get the death penalty," she said Monday after Colvin was led from court in chains. "I didn't get a choice. Those other girls didn't get a choice on whether they lived. Why should he get a choice?"

Defense attorneys and prosecutors negotiated throughout the weekend. Late Sunday, Mr. Ross and Sergeant Forrester met with Colvin and his attorneys.

He began talking about cases in which investigators acknowledged they otherwise had little or no evidence against him.

Ultimately, Colvin gave them the names of the six prostitutes he said he killed, but investigators didn't have enough time to verify his account on Ms. Wetzel's death until yesterday, Sergeant Forrester said.

They had at least one other thing in common - the man who killed them.

Truck driver Dellmus Colvin, 47, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of aggravated murder and one count of complicity to commit murder in exchange for prosecutors' agreeing not to seek the death penalty.

Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik sentenced Colvin to two consecutive terms of life in prison with no chance for parole.

Theresa Weber, mother of one of the victims, said that even though they had all fallen on tough times, they didn't deserve to die.

"They were all mothers," she said. "They all had families."

Colvin went on trial last week in the deaths of Weber's daughter, Melissa Weber, and Jackie Simpson. Both were strangled and wrapped in sheets and blankets before being dumped, prosecutors said.

Investigators linked Colvin to the slayings through DNA evidence, prosecutors said during the trial. He agreed to a plea deal because he wanted to avoid a death sentence and the solitary confinement of death row, Assistant Prosecutor Tim Braun said.

The other victims were Lily Summers, 43, Valerie Jones, 38, and Jacquelynn Thomas 42. Braun did not provide details of their deaths, though he said all the bodies were found in the Toledo area between 2000 and 2005.

Investigators had suspected Colvin was involved in more than just the two murders he was charged with and were pressing him to admit to other killings, Braun said. Colvin admitted to all five killings Sunday night during a meeting with police and prosecutors, Braun said.

"He finally came clean," Braun said.

Weber said she didn't object to the plea deal because it allowed Colvin to admit to the other killings.

"Those parents and families needed to have closure," she said. "It would have been hard to live without knowing what happened to your child."

Trucker Confesses To Killing Five Prostitutes

Northwest Ohio

October 3,  2006

A truck driver on trial in the deaths of two women pleaded guilty Monday to killing four women and taking part in the slaying of another, ONN affiliate WNWO reported.

All the women were prostitutes whose bodies were found in the Toledo area between 2000 and 2005, prosecutors said.

Dellmus Colvin, 47, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and complicity to commit murder. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Dellmus Colvin shocked court observers, admitting to not only killing Jackie Simpson and Melissa Weber, but also three other women he wasn't even charged with murdering.

"I hope he'll rot in hell. The eternity of fire," said Theresa Weber, victim's mother.

In a surprise move, Colvin made the shocking admission that he would strike a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penality. The man who took at least five lives confessed to spare his own.

Melissa Weber is one of the women Colvin says he murdered. Her family says Colvin should be put to death, but they agreed to the plea deal to give the families of other victims peace.

"I think he should have got the death penalty. But for the other families that didn't know where their children were, or what happened, that's why I said yes, go ahead and do this," said Theresa Weber.

In addition to Weber, Colvin admitted to killing Lily Summers, who's body was found near Metcalf Field and Valerie Jones, who was found near the Hoffman Landfill. He also confessed to the murders of Jacquelynn Thomas and Jackie Simpson. Police believe all were prostitutes.

Weber's family believes there are probably more victims out there.

"My question is, 'Are there more?' I mean, in addition to this, how many? I can't believe this is just it," said Michael Riebie.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Colvin will spend the rest of his life in prison without a chance for parole.

Prosecutor says accused preyed on prostitutes

Death penalty sought in trial

Friday, September 29, 2006

A Toledo man accused in the slayings of two women and the sexual assaults of two other victims preyed on prostitutes who needed money to support drug addictions, a Lucas County assistant prosecutor told a jury yesterday.

"To put it simply and use a general term, he is a serial killer," Timothy Braun, the assistant prosecutor, said in his opening statement to the Common Pleas Court jurors.

Dellmus Colvin, 47, is charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of Melissa Weber and Jackie Simpson. The charges include death-penalty specifications.

Mr. Braun said both of the victims, to support their addictions to crack cocaine, descended into living on the streets and working as prostitutes. "But these women were people and they were all victims of Dellmus Colvin," he said.

Ms. Simpson, 33, the mother of two children, had been missing nearly three months before she was found April 23, 2003, under bushes near a tanning business at 4200 Creekside Ave.

Ms. Weber, 37, was found May 9, 2005, in a vacant trucking terminal behind 1045 Matzinger Rd. Her decomposed body was wrapped in a sheet and hidden under a vinyl turquoise couch.

A truck driver, Mr. Braun was charged with the murder of Ms. Weber in October after police linked him to the crime through a DNA analysis.

Mr. Braun said genetic testing of evidence taken from the victims at autopsies linked the defendant to the homicides: fingernail clippings of Ms. Weber and vaginal swabs of Ms. Simpson showed the existence of Colvin's DNA profile.

He said the pattern of the crimes were consistent: The victims were strangled and suffocated, wrapped in sheets and blankets, and dumped in desolate areas in the city's industrial north end.

Colvin also is charged in the sexual assaults of two Toledo women, ages 47 and 31, who were assaulted in April, 2004, and July, 2003. Mr. Braun said the women, also prostitutes, lived through their attacks.

Theresa Weber, the mother of Ms. Weber, looked down and appeared saddened when photos of her daughter were displayed to jurors on the courtroom computer monitor while the assistant prosecutor spoke.

Defense attorney Jack Viren cautioned jurors to keep open minds during the trial because Colvin is presumed innocent, and the state must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

"You have to listen to the evidence the state presents. We ask that you afford Dellmus the same rights you would expect if you were sitting in Dellmus' seat,'' he said.

Mr. Viren also said that the existence of Colvin's DNA doesn't mean that he inflicted the injuries that killed the women. "Nobody knows how it got there. No one can testify when it got there," he said.

Judy Simpson, the mother of Ms. Simpson, testified later yesterday about reporting to police that her daughter, the second eldest of five children, disappeared in mid January, 2003.

She said her daughter was a "good person'' even through her three-year addition to crack cocaine.

Also testifying was Nicholas Vaugh Weber, the 19-year-old son of Ms. Weber, and eldest of her three children. He told jurors they lived apart, but he attempted to keep in nearly daily contact with her.

He said Ms. Weber disappeared in early February, 2005, after she left the South Toledo home where she was staying with another woman.

Terry Cousino and Jerry Schriefer, detectives with the Toledo police scientific investigations unit, said the murder victims appeared to have been dumped in the locations, which were about two miles apart.

Ms. Weber was wrapped in a purple comforter that had been bound with strips of bed sheet. Detective Schriefer said the linens were tagged with the logo of the Toledo Budget Inn Motel on South Reynolds Road.