Murderpedia

 

 

Juan Ignacio Blanco  

 

  MALE murderers

index by country

index by name   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

  FEMALE murderers

index by country

index by name   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 

 

 
   

Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.

   

 

 

Dellmus Charles COLVIN

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Long-haul trucker - Rape
Number of victims: 7 +
Date of murders: 1987 / 2000 - 2005
Date of arrest: November 20, 2005
Date of birth: August 3, 1959
Victims profile: Donna Lee White, 27 / Valerie Jones, 38 / Dorothea Wetzel, 40 / Jacquelynn Thomas, 42 / Lily Summers, 43 / Jackie Simpson, 33 / Melissa Weber, 37 (mostly drug-addicted prostitutes)
Method of murder: Strangulation - Suffocation
LocationNew Jersey/ Ohio, USA
Status: Pleaded guilty. Sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole on October 2, 2006
 
 
 
 
 
 

photo gallery

 
 
 
 
 
 

Ohio serial killer indicted for 1987 Atlantic Co. murder

Nbc40.net

June 25, 2010

MAYS LANDING -- After 23 years in the making, Atlantic County Authorities have indicted a convicted serial killer for a murder in South Jersey back in September of 1987.

Dellmus Colvin, 51, who is currently serving time in an Ohio prison, was indicted Thursday for murdering a woman, Somers Point resident Donna Lee White.

Although Colvin was the main suspect at the time, the Medical Examiner's Office determined White's death to have been caused by acute cocaine intoxication and the case was closed.

It wasn't until the fall of 2009 that the Prosecutor's Office went back to review the cold case and found Colvin was being investigated for other crimes in Toledo, Ohio.

He was eventually linked to the murders of 5 women there from 2000 to 2005, however, it's long been believed he had many other victims across the country.

 
 

Serial killers, victims invisible to outsiders

By Robin Erb and Erica Blake - ToledoBlade.com

October 24, 2006

Of all the questions Barb Angel wants answered about her daughter's murder, it is this: Why?

"She was such a nice, bubbly, happy girl," said Ms. Angel of her daughter, Joan Elaine Palacio, who according to Ms. Angel was lured by drugs into a life of prostitution before her body was found in a weedy East Toledo lot Sept. 15, 2002.

"I want to know how anyone could do this to her - to anyone," Ms. Angel said.

Earlier this month, Ms. Angel hoped she might get the answer to another question about her daughter's death: Who killed her?

In a tense Lucas County Common Pleas Court on Oct. 2, Toledo long-haul trucker Dellmus Colvin admitted to strangling and suffocating five prostitutes and dumping their bodies in remote areas in and around the city. Ms. Angel's daughter was not among the victims.

The next day, police connected him to a sixth murder. Police said they are now considering Colvin's links to a seventh murdered prostitute, Debra Dixon.

They're not done.

Because this much has been known for years: Hookers are easy targets, especially for serial killers.

"All your lives you tell your children, 'Don't talk to strangers' and 'For God's sake, don't ever get in a car with strangers.' Then these people go up and try to talk their way into the car with those strangers," said Sheriff's Lt. Clarke Fine of Hendricks County, Indiana.

As in other detective offices across the country, Toledo investigators are taking a fresh look at old murders.

They're relying on forensic databases and other new technology to connect missing persons reports to unidentified bodies and serial killers to prostitutes - now trying to connect series of murders rather than investigating each as an isolated case.

For two years, Lieutenant Fine has been searching for the killer of Buffie Rae Brawley, a Toledo prostitute whose body was discovered at an abandoned truck stop outside Indianapolis.

He and other investigators working the cases of murdered prostitutes face an exasperating paradox: For as easy as prostitutes are to prey upon, their killers are often impossible to catch.

Prostitutes are marginalized, transient, often drug-addicted, and leery of police. Especially in the case of truck-stop prostitutes, disdainfully dubbed by some as "lot lizards," their disappearance often goes unnoticed until someone discovers a body.

That happened to Yvonne Mipe, 43, and Felita Thomas, 36, victims of a pair of Toledo men later convicted in their deaths. The murders in September of 1999 - about the same time that Colvin went on his murderous spree - weren't discovered until their bodies were found in January of this year in a frozen Monroe County farm field.

All the while, serial killers like Colvin can find anonymity in plain sight as a truck driver, living as a loner and, through a legitimate profession, crisscrossing the country.

Colvin's case underscores another frustration for investigators: At least once, Colvin killed inside his truck cab, dumped the body outside, and pulled away.

Portable crime scene

"Your crime scene literally is portable. The crime scene might be in Nebraska by the time you find a body," said John Helm, an investigator with the Wood County prosecutor's office.

In Lake Township, two cases continue to stymie investigators. One of them, Victoria Collins, an exotic dancer from Cleveland whose naked, frozen body was found in 1996, most likely died elsewhere but was dumped in Lake Township, Mr. Helm said.

Worst of all for investigators, there's no obvious motive - a critical, tell-tale clue to any homicide investigation - and often no other link between victim and killer.

"A random act of violence is very hard to solve, and compound that with [a killer] who might travel 1,200 miles a day every day all over the country," said Lake Township Police Chief Mark Hummer.

That's the heartbreaking realization for loved ones who might wait years, even decades, for a killer to be identified.

It has been almost 10 years since Helen Zedaker learned that her pregnant daughter's body was discovered partially clothed on a Spencer Township farm. Left in a watery ditch for several days, Heidi Theisen's only injuries indicated she'd been asphyxiated.

Investigators have interviewed friends, family, and acquaintances. They have run Ms. Theisen's photo to the news media and tracked down leads.

There have been no arrests.

"I think about her all the time," said Mrs. Zedaker, 68, from her home in New Bavaria, Ohio. "I don't know if it will ever get solved."

Even with an arrest, convictions in a prostitute's murder are far from guaranteed.

Witnesses might be other prostitutes or drug users with credibility problems. DNA isn't lock-solid evidence either.

Michael Bates, 42, was arrested last year in the 1990 murder in Monroe County, Michigan, of Connie Baker Slayton, 24, whose partially clothed body was discovered by a passer-by along Albain Road near I-75.

She had been stabbed once in the chest.

Monroe County sheriff's Detective Dave Davison said a break in the case came in 2004 after investigators at the Michigan State Police Crime lab ran a test on semen collected from the scene 14 years earlier. The DNA led detectives to Mr. Bates.

But on June 15, after a four-day trial, a Monroe County jury found Mr. Bates not guilty of the murder.

"The jury felt it was proved that he was the last person who had sex with her but not the person who killed her," Detective Davison said. "Because she was a prostitute, I believe that weighed in the jurors' minds."

Unexpected breaks

Yet, there are the unexpected breaks.

In Colvin's case, it came with a plea agreement hours before the third day of his trial for murdering two prostitutes was to resume in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Colvin admitted responsibility for the deaths of Jackie Simpson, 33, whose decomposed body was found April 23, 2003, under bushes near a tanning business on Creekside Avenue, and Melissa Weber, 37, whose body was found May 9, 2005, under a couch in a vacant trucking terminal behind 1045 Matzinger Rd.

He also admitted his role in the unsolved slayings of three other Toledo-area prostitutes: Valerie Jones, 38, a grandmother whose skeletal remains were found Jan. 6, 2000, near the Ottawa River and Hoffman Road landfill; Jacquelynn Thomas, 42, whose body was found Sept. 2, 2000, just across the Michigan line near Smith and Telegraph roads in Bedford Township; and Lily Summers, 43, a mother of two whose body was found April 8, 2002, in a 45-foot tractor-trailer behind B&B Repairs, 4400 Martin-Moline Rd., near Metcalf Field in Lake Township, Wood County.

All five women had been strangled or smothered, their bodies wrapped in sheets and blankets, and dumped.

Colvin pleaded guilty under a plea agreement to four counts of aggravated murder and one count of complicity to aggravated murder. In exchange, prosecutors lifted the death-penalty specification against him; they also dismissed rape charges in the sexual assaults of a 47-year-old Toledo woman in April, 2004, and a 31-year-old city woman in July, 2003. Both lived through their attacks.

Judge Thomas Osowik immediately sentenced Colvin to five consecutive sentences of life in prison.

The next day, police said, Colvin admitted his involvement in the death of 40-year-old Dorothea Wetzel of Toledo, whose skeletal remains were found Aug. 5, 2000, by a man walking his dog near the Maumee River in South Toledo.

Police said they are now investigating Colvin's possible role in a seventh murder: the death of 44-year-old Debra C. Dixon, a prostitute whose battered and severely burned body was found in an empty wooded lot in the 4100 block of Creekside Avenue early Christmas Eve, 2000.

Colvin's confessions have prompted investigators to examine other area cold-case murders, particularly those involving prostitutes. Police have also contacted more than 100 police departments nationwide where the Toledo truck driver was known to have traveled.

"We have no idea what they have or what we'll find," Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester said.

Colvin has repeatedly denied requests for media interviews unless he's paid.

In a brief telephone conversation with a Blade reporter, he wanted to know first: Would he be compensated for his information?

He was told paying for stories is neither ethical nor negotiable, and no news organization most likely would pay him for his story.

He disagreed.

"Oh, they will. Believe me, they will," he replied. "There's a lot of things you don't know [that] people want to know. Thank you and good-bye."

He hung up.

Letter from jail

Later, he sent a letter from jail to The Blade, criticizing the newspaper's unwillingness to pay him for an interview.

In Harrisburg, Pa., last week, Colvin's case was presented at the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program's Truck Driver Serial Killings meeting, where investigators nationwide swap information about still-unsolved murders and still-unidentified bodies.

In Wood County, Mr. Helm continues to scan headlines and police databases as serial killers, and their travels, continue to be identified.

And in a tidy Oregon home, Ms. Palacio smiles in snapshots taken years ago: as a little girl in her Brownie uniform and later with T-ball equipment, as a high school senior, and as a young mother with her infant son.

Colvin's confession refreshed Ms. Angel's pain, but hope that her daughter's killer will be found diminishes with each passing day.

"First you go nuts. It's all you can think about. You can't sleep. You can't drive well. You're crazed," she said. "Then you realize: I have to accept that I may never have those answers."

 
 

Serial Killer Admits to Murders

October 9, 2006

A 47-year old truck driver on trial for murdering two Toledo women, confessed to killing another two women. He also told authorities that he was involved with killing a fifth woman. In exchange for "copping" a guilty plea, Dellmus Colvin will not face execution.

He was instead sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole at the Lucas County courthouse on Monday. the assistant prosecutor, Tim Braun, said, "He finally came clean about a number of other killings he had been involved with."

The victims' -- Jackie Simpson and Melissa Weber -- bodies were both discovered between 2000 and 2005 wrapped in blankets and hidden in secluded areas. Both women were alleged prostitutes. Colvin was matched to the murders through DNA analysis. Colvin admitted to the additional murders Sunday night to police and prosecutors.

Melissa Weber's mother Theresa said she did not object to Colvin skipping death row because she wanted the confessions to come out for the family members' sakes. Weber told reporters, "Those parents and families needed to have closure. It would have been hard to live without knowing what happened to your child."

 
 

Probe looks at serial killer

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.

 
 

Dellmus Colvin sentenced in killings

13ABC.com

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Investigators believe five women whose bodies were found in secluded, industrial areas in a roughly five-year span had been working as prostitutes to feed their drug addictions.

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."

A message seeking comment was left Monday evening at the office of Colvin's attorney, Jack Viren.

 
 

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.

 

 

 
 
 
 
home last updates contact