In the master bedroom, they found all the evidence they needed to confirm the rape victim’s story.
In a guest bedroom, painted powder-blue, detectives discovered a roll of carpet the color of nutmeg. The fibers were trilobal polyester and matched fibers found on the bodies of Tina Harmon and Krista Harrison. In the closet were jeans with a hole worn into the left knee—identical to the pair found near Krista’s body. They also found dog hairs that matched those found on Tina, a newspaper clipping on the abduction of Debbie Smith, and candles of the same brand that were found near Debbie’s body.
Investigators took Buell’s van too, a 1978 maroon Dodge with new black seats from Sears. Inside was more of that same nutmeg carpeting.
Police put Buell’s picture into a lineup which was shown to witnesses. Several people who had attended Krista’s last softball game identified Buell as a stranger they saw watching the game. A check of Buell’s timecards revealed he had taken time off from work the day Krista’s body was dumped.
As Buell’s face became a front-page and TV news staple, other women came forward claiming they had been abducted and raped by him, then released. One woman from West Virginia told a grim story almost identical to the Salem victim’s, down to being handcuffed in the bedroom so that Buell could go to work.
But all of these women were in their late 20s or older. So FBI Special Agent Bill Callis commissioned a second criminal profile to help explain what is referred to as “the missing link” between Buell’s practice of raping and releasing grown women and his presumed taste for killing young girls. Serial killers tend to stick to one sex and age group and tend to escalate in violence over time; they generally don’t start just letting victims go. This second report was not prepared by John Douglas, but by another profiler in the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. It blamed Buell’s mother.
Buell pleaded no contest to the rape charges and was sentenced to 121 years in prison for those crimes. He was only charged with one murder, Krista’s, even though police believe he murdered Tina Harmon and Debbie Smith and maybe more. But as one detective put it, “How many times do you need to kill a man?” Buell was convicted of Krista’s murder on April 4, 1984. The jury sentenced him to die.
MARTIN FRANTZ WAS assistant prosecutor for Wayne County during Buell’s lengthy trial and played a significant role in sending the Akron city employee to the Death House. Today, Frantz is county prosecutor and remembers the case well, down to the names of eyewitnesses, 23 years later. He has no doubt that Buell killed those girls.
“It wasn’t in the trial,” he says, “but we had someone figure out, mathematically, how many people in the world could possibly be connected to all of that circumstantial evidence that we found inside Buell’s home. It was something like 1 in 6 trillion.”
Actually, it’s 2 in 6 trillion.
Bob Buell was not living at his ranch house during the summer of 1982. His nephew was. Ralph Ross Jr. was a skinny 20-year-old from Mingo Junction, a factory town just outside Steubenville. He had dark hair that curled near his shoulders and was growing a mustache. In February 1982, Ross moved to Akron to drive a truck for an auto-parts manufacturer. His uncle Bob let him stay in the powder-blue guest room. Usually Ross had the house to himself because Buell spent most nights at his girlfriend’s place. In exchange for room and board, Ross did chores around the house. It was his job to take out the garbage.
Ross was Buell’s ex-wife’s brother’s kid, but they shared a special kinship that was thicker than blood. For instance, they often fantasized about kidnapping women and doing things to them inside Buell’s van.
“What are some of those things?” asked Wayne County Sheriff’s Department Detective Dennis Derflinger, in an interview with Ross shortly after Buell’s arrest in 1983.
“Tying them up, shaving their crotch, putting a gag in their mouth, using a vibrator, that’s about all.”
Ross went into a little more detail about these conversations when questioned by Frantz in front of a grand jury.
“Can you tell us what you remember about what Robert Buell said when he was talking of these fantasies and riding around in the van?” asked Frantz.
“I would like to say something,” Ross replied. “It was me as well as him that was discussing whatever we were discussing.”
Frantz: “So both of you were talking about it?”
Ross: “It was a two-way conversation.”
Frantz: “Just tell us what Buell said.”
Ross: “Well, he would talk about, if we would pass up a girl or something on the street, talked about wouldn’t it be nice to have that girl for this evening, and I would say, yeah, sure would.”
Frantz: “What else was said?”
Ross: “Well, I said I would doubt if she would go out with me or get together, that I didn’t know her, just passed her up on the street. And he said well—or we both suggested—that we could get her into the van if we wanted to.”
Ross specifically remembered cruising Marshallville.
When Ross moved into Buell’s house, the roll of nutmeg carpet was still being stored in the living room, where it had been for years. It matched the color of Buell’s old van, a golden-brown 1977 Dodge that Buell had sold to Ross in 1980. That van and Buell’s new one were very similar, but Ross’ had a sun roof and bubble windows. And Ross’s van was a little dirtier; Buell had let his daughter’s dog sleep in it before selling it to Ross.
But they didn’t just share seats and vans, they shared women, too. Women like Buell’s secretary.
Frantz: “And the three of you were in bed together?”
Ross: “Yes.”
Frantz: “And at that time the vibrator was used?”
Ross: “Me and Bob both used it.”
Ross’ hair was a little curly and Buell’s was straight, but otherwise the two shared an uncanny resemblance. In fact, when a police officer responded to a noise violation at the house in July 1982, he mistook Ross for Buell. (Ross may have shown him Buell’s driver’s license.) And a closer look at original interviews with bystanders at Krista’s last softball game raises important questions as well. One who identified Buell in a lineup also said, “There was another man standing beside him with a camera and mirrored sunglasses on.”
The detective asked her if she meant that Buell was taking photographs.
“No, the man beside him was taking photographs. [Buell] did not have a camera.”
Roy, the boy who stood just a few feet away from Krista’s abductor when she was taken, said repeatedly that the man he saw that day was not Buell, but that the man was similar in appearance.
Ross did not have an alibi for the day Krista was abducted. He told police that he was probably visiting his parents that weekend, but couldn’t remember for sure, and this apparently was never confirmed. Detective Derflinger asked Ross to submit fingerprints and his photo, but he refused. Derflinger ends his written report with this note: “P.S. He has started to grow a beard, but I don’t think that means anything.”
When interviewed by Franklin Township Detective Ron Fuchs about whether Ross had ever helped Buell alter his vans, Ross was more evasive. “Ralph’s answers are contrary to other information already gained and he appeared to be deliberately lying and trying to cover up the incident,” Fuchs stated. In fact, Ross had helped his uncle move seats from Ross’ van into Buell’s new van.
A witness told police that he saw the jeans and shirt that were found at one of Krista’s crime scenes lying near the road at around 11:30 the morning of July 23. Police believe Krista’s body also must have been dumped that morning because the items strewn about the road were not seen before then. The jeans and shirt are assumed to have been dumped at the same time. But Buell was at work until noon that day. And, according to his girlfriend, the only reason he took the rest of the day off was to help her fix her clothes dryer. She produced a receipt that showed she had purchased a dryer belt that afternoon. By the time Buell had a chance to stop by his house, it was 4:50 p.m. In
a letter to the Rev. Sanders during his incarceration, Buell stated that he remembered the time because he thought it was odd that his nephew was home so early on a work day, and Ross’s hand was wrapped in bandages. “He told me he had injured his hand at work and had to go to the hospital to get his hand x-rayed and bandaged,” wrote Buell. Ross’s employer had no record of the injury, according to police records. Buell’s girlfriend also told police that the last time she saw the boxes that had contained the van seats they were in the garage next to the garbage cans.
A week after Krista’s body was found, Ross abruptly quit his job in Akron and moved home. He went to work at his mother’s craft store and, for a while, managed small booths for her at area malls, flea markets and fairs.
And then there is the evidence that detectives didn’t find. When they confiscated Buell’s van, they vacuumed every inch of the interior, but did not find one hair or fiber from Tina Harmon, Krista Harrison or Debbie Smith. They never bothered to test Ross’ van. The fingerprint on the plastic bag did not match Buell’s, nor did DNA collected at the scene.
BY 1984, BUELL WAS BEHIND BARS, but young Ohio girls continued to disappear.
In 1989, 10-year-old Amy Mihaljevic was abducted from Bay Village. Like Debbie, she made a phone call to her mother when she was most likely already with her abductor. She resembled Krista Harrison. And even though Amy was from Bay Village and Krista was from Marshallville, two cities separated by 58 miles, Amy’s body was discovered a short distance from where police found a bloody garbage bag containing part of Krista’s scalp. Like Tina, Amy’s body was found in a field, on an incline, placed so that it could be easily seen from the road. Amy’s body had also been stored someplace before being moved to the “dump” site. On Amy’s body, the coroner also discovered gold-colored fibers, but they were never compared to those gathered in the Tina Harmon and Krista Harrison homicides because Buell was already in prison. Wayne County Prosecutor Martin Frantz says his Sheriff’s Department destroyed the evidence after Buell was executed, though some samples may still be kept by BCI&I.
The case of 13-year-old Barbara Barnes of Steubenville is similar too. Barbara disappeared in December 1995, on her way to school. She was found two months later, strangled to death. But Barbara’s killer went to great lengths to hide the body, in a muddy embankment in Pittsburgh. She was discovered when the river level rose with the thaw.
“I UNDERSTAND the circumstantial evidence could be put to Ralph Ross as well as Robert Buell,” says Frantz in his office today. The prosecutor is a gracious host and opens his files to the Free Times because he truly believes he sent the right guy to the Death House. He sees the Harrisons in public sometimes and can meet their eyes.
“I know that during the investigation, Derflinger had those feelings. We ruled [Ross] out, but I can’t remember how. I’ve always felt in my heart that Buell was guilty.”
Pastor Ernie Sanders disagrees.
“Buell never killed those girls,” he says. “He was by no means someone you would call a perfect citizen, but I know he didn’t do it. I told him I was suspicious of his nephew, but he just kept saying that [Ross] was not smart enough to pull something like that off. You see, Buell thought he was smarter than everyone he knew. He told me that when he talked to Ralph about kidnapping women, he specifically told Ralph not to cross the line. He said not to take kids. And Ralph never argued with him, but Buell said he wasn’t happy about it. A month before his execution, he told me, ‘You know what? You were right all along. Ralph set me up.’ And I believe him. Ralph had access to Bob’s clothes and the clothes found at the crime scene were too small for Buell anymore. He’d left them for Ralph.”
Today, Ralph Ross Jr. lives in a small house just outside Steubenville, where he grew up. He works for a cable company. He was arrested earlier this year and charged with possession of marijuana.
He spoke to this reporter on the stoop in front of his house in 2007. “I don’t think Buell did it,” he says. “But I don’t know who did. They never questioned me about the deaths. Why would they?”
When asked why he didn’t allow the detective to take his fingerprints, he becomes defensive. “What if something come up?” he says. “I told them if they wanted it to get a court order and take it. If they needed it, they could have got a court order.”
He puts his hands in his pockets and looks over the river that meanders below his house. Ross says he started talking with his uncle about kidnapping and brutalizing women when he was 13 years old, and the conversations continued until Buell was caught.
“Times were different back then,” he says. “I was hanging out with my cool uncle. I thought it was just guys talking when we talked about taking those women. I should never have said anything about it to the cops.”
Asked about Krista, he abruptly ends the conversation. “I don’t have anything more to say,” he says. He goes back inside, stands behind his screen door and glances up and down the sidewalk. Asked if he had anything to do with Krista’s abduction, he shuts the door and disappears into the darkness.
Jack Swint, author of Who Killed…Cleveland, provided Buell’s box of documents, which were cited in this story.
JAMES RENNER is a staff writer for the Cleveland Free Times. He is also the author of Amy: My Search for Her Killer, a true crime book that chronicles his investigation into she unsolved murder of Amy Mihaljevic. Renner was named one of Cleveland’s Thirty Most Interesting People by Cleveland Magazine in 2005, after he adapted a short story by Stephen King into a film, which Renner directed. It premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival later that year.
Coda
I have spent the last three years researching the strange abduction and murder of Amy Mihaljevic, a crime that occurred in 1989, in Bay Village, the idyllic Cleveland suburb made infamous by the Sam Sheppard case. The FBI agents and police detectives that have worked Amy’s case for eighteen years believe that her murder was the first and only one committed by her killer, because his “MO” does not match any subsequent crime. I began to wonder if that assumption was incorrect.
While it’s true that there appears to have been no similar murder committed in northeast Ohio after Amy’s, I quickly found three that occurred just a few years before. However, these murders were attributed to a man named Robert Buell, who had been executed in 2002. Still, I tracked down the original case files, to see—just for my peace of mind—that the police and prosecutor who sent Buell to the death house got the right man. After reviewing the files, I quickly came to believe that Buell was innocent of these crimes and that the real killer still lives among us.
Since this story was originally published in the Free Times, things have not gone well for Ralph Ross, Jr. He was fired from his job installing cable for Comcast after the article circulated around the office. FBI agents were seen at his office, questioning coworkers. However, Wayne County prosecutor Martin Frantz refuses to officially reopen the Krista Harrison case—the murder for which Buell was executed. Instead, detectives are “reinvestigating” the murder of Tina Harmon, which remains an open case, even though identical fibers were discovered on the bodies of both Tina and Krista. Those fibers have recently been compared to similar fibers found on the body of Amy Mihaljevic. They do not match.
Tom Junod
MERCENARY
FROM Esquire
THE PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT in Covert, Michigan, is real. It produces 778 megawatts of electricity, and the electricity keeps the lights burning for about half a million residents. The nuclear reactor inside the nuclear plant is also real. It gets really hot, and anyone driving on Interstate 196 on his way to Grand Rapids or St. Joe can see thin clouds of steam rising from its cooling towers, as constant a presence as the weather. The steam is real; it’s water from Lake Michigan, pumped in to keep the reactor cool. The nuclear power plant is on the shore of Lake Michigan, right next to the tourist town of South Haven and about eighty miles from Chicago as the crow flies. Lake Michigan is real, definitely, though
it comes off as an illusory ocean, offering the horizon as its only boundary. South Haven is real, too, although it empties out in the cold of winter. And Chicago? As real as the millions of people who live there, and the strange American fervor they generate. Chicago is so damned real, and so damned American, that it’s hard to imagine an American reality without it—it’s hard to imagine an American reality if, say, a terrorist attack on Palisades Nuclear contaminated the big lake for the next thousand years or so and emptied out Chicago, not to mention St. Joe and South Haven and Covert.
Which is why it’s a good thing that the security manager at Palisades Nuclear for the last year and a half is real, too, with real qualifications for the job. His name is William E. Clark, and he has been in the Army, he’s been a cop, he’s done some contracting work for the Department of Energy, he’s gone to Kosovo on a diplomatic mission, and after Katrina, he worked for Blackwater, the security company, outside New Orleans. He started at Palisades in early 2006. He has a new house and a new wife and has told people, “I would shed blood to keep this job.” As a statement of determination, this is reassuring…but what if he means it as a statement of fact? What if William E. Clark has told people—told me—that he has in fact shed blood many times, in many places, over the course of many years? What if William E. Clark says that he worked for Blackwater in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as in New Orleans and killed so many people that he considers himself a cold-blooded murderer? What if he says that his job as the security manager of a nuclear plant on Lake Michigan is both a reward for all the killing he’s done and a means for keeping him quiet about it?
THE GUILT IS REAL. The shame is real. He is not proud of the things he’s done, although that doesn’t stop him from talking about them. He’s not proud of what he had to do in Vietnam, his son says. He’s not proud of having to kill someone in New Orleans, his ex-wife says. He wakes up with nightmares, his new wife says, because he’s starting to see the faces of the human beings he once saw through the rifle scope. And so this story represents his attempt to come clean. He is a bad person, he says, but he wants to be a good person—he wants to be thought of as a good person. He wants to be purified, shriven. He is telling his story because he knows it will destroy him. He is telling his story because he knows it will set him free.
The Best American Crime Reporting 2008 Page 28