Hometown Killer

by Carol Rothgeb

  Graeber (patiently): Let me interject something here, okay? Just so I can understand the story. Instead of knocking her “on the floor,” let’s say “knocked her on the ground.”

  Alex (a little confused, but agreeing): Oh, okay.

  Graeber: Let’s go from there.

  Alex: Okay.

  Graeber: I mean dirt ground—not wooden ground—dirt ground. Let’s go through the story from there, okay?

  Alex: Okay. After he knocked her on the ground, he took a stick and hit her upside the head with it on the other side. And that’s just about . . . That’s all. They left. And I came home.

  It would be sometime before the detectives realized they had missed an important piece of information in this exchange with Alex: “knocked her on the floor.” Sergeant Moody and Detective Graeber knew that the girls had been raped and murdered at the pond, so they were sure, when Alex said “floor,” he actually meant “ground.”

  Much later in the statement, Alex said that they were in a house at first, but he couldn’t tell them where the house was located, so this, too, was dismissed.

  Moody: What happened to the two girls that we’re talking about?

  Alex: They got raped—beat up. Killed.

  Graeber: Alex, who killed the girls?

  Alex: Damien did. Stabbed—with a knife. Stabbed her in the stomach, hit her across the head with a stick, and hit her with a fist.

  Moody: You saw what was going on, things were getting out of hand. These two little—little girls . . . Why wouldn’t you do something to go get help?

  Alex: Freaked out or something.

  Graeber: Who hit them in the head with a rock?

  Alex: Damien.

  Although Alex’s account was also confusing, he, too, told the detectives many details, some that matched what Jamie had told them and some that had never been made public. He told them that Jamie and Damien set up the meeting with the two girls and one had light-colored hair and the other had dark hair. Jamie tried to kiss one of the girls and she slapped him.

  He also told them that they were all drinking beer. One of them fell in the pond and got wet. Another one took a pair of panties and put them in his pocket. He said that the heavyset girl (Phree) was cussing and yelling.

  And that the victims’ bodies were side by side, both facedown, and positioned on an “island.” Both victims were partially clothed—tops on, pants off. One girl was cut in the stomach area. One pair of shorts was cut and “pulled apart.”

  The girls were struck in the face and the head, and both were sexually assaulted by one person. Even though he said that Jamie and Damien both “made love” to the girls, when he was asked who “had sex” with them, he said, “Damien.” Throughout this investigation it would become increasingly obvious that the idea of sexual intercourse varied considerably among the mentally challenged.

  Although neither girl was stabbed in the stomach, what Alex most likely saw was her shorts being cut off with a knife.

  Moody: You said Damien had a knife. What did he do with the knife?

  Alex: Well, at first I thought he cutted her with the knife. But I wasn’t for sure.

  Later that day, Jamie Turner was brought in for questioning again. Detective Graeber conducted the interview. Also present were Jamie’s mother and Agent John Finnegan of the FBI.

  After Detective Graeber read him his rights, Jamie removed his jacket and hung the dark windbreaker on the back of the chair, then asked: “Am I going to jail?”

  Graeber: We can’t answer that right now.

  Finnegan: That’s not up to us, Jamie.

  Jamie: Who is it up to?

  Finnegan: It’s up to the prosecutor.

  Jamie (whining): I have to go to jail for something I didn’t do.

  Graeber: Well, did we accuse you of doing anything?

  Jamie: No.

  Graeber (mildly exasperated): The only thing I’ve ever said is that you haven’t always told me the truth. Isn’t that what I’ve always said?

  Jamie: Yeah. After we get done questioning, can I leave?

  Detective Graeber (patiently explaining): Well, today we have to go through a whole bunch of people between me and you, okay? The prosecutor, the chief, the captain—

  Jamie: I don’t understand what he’s saying.

  Finnegan: It’s not up to us.

  Graeber: I’ve got to clear everything through them. Understand that?

  Jamie (pleading): Yeah. After you do that, can I go home?

  (Jamie would not admit that it was his idea to meet the girls, even though he had told several of his friends that he was meeting two girls that night.)

  Graeber: You met the two girls downtown with them?

  Jamie: Yeah.

  Graeber: But you set it up.

  Jamie: No, I did not. I swear to God I didn’t set it up. They did. I swear to God, Al.

  Finnegan: Who is “they,” Jamie?

  Jamie: Alex and Damien, they set it up. I didn’t. I swear. You think I lying.

  (“Kevin” was never mentioned again.)

  Graeber: Well, I don’t know. It’s like I said—there are some questions we’ve got to straighten out.

  Jamie: I ain’t lying to you, Al, you know that.

  Finnegan: No, he doesn’t, Jamie. He doesn’t know that anymore.

  Jamie (insisting he was not lying): I tell you square. That’s a square answer.

  Graeber (firmly): What did I tell you last night when you left? Didn’t I tell you that we aren’t done talking yet?

  Jamie: Yeah.

  Graeber: Didn’t I tell you that you weren’t the main player in this whole thing?

  Jamie: Yeah. I ain’t.

  Graeber: And the best thing you can do is tell us everything. That’s what we’re doing here; we’re finishing it up.

  Jamie: Will you guys bug me no more?

  Graeber: Jamie, that’s up to you. Now I told you last night, you’ve got to clear everything up and don’t leave any loose ends.

  Finnegan: Jamie, do you want to sleep tonight?

  Jamie: Yeah—at home.

  (Jamie claimed that they stopped at Rally’s on East Main Street and got hamburgers, French fries, and drinks, then went to the pond to eat. He said he didn’t get anything to eat because he was feeling sick.)

  Finnegan: Jamie, they ate at the pond. Then they got doughnuts. Who got the doughnuts?

  Jamie: Damien did.

  Finnegan: He went into the bakery and got the doughnuts?

  Jamie: Yeah.

  (Agent Finnegan asked what time he thought it was by then.)

  Jamie: About seven-thirty, something like that. I don’t know, you know.

  Finnegan: You weren’t wearing a watch, were you?

  Jamie (yawning and stretching his arms over his head): Huh-uh. I don’t know how to tell time on a watch.

  Finnegan: Was it still light out?

  Jamie: Yeah.

  Graeber: I’m saying that you were on the other side of the pond, the same side of the pond that Damien was on with the dark-haired girl. And you grabbed ahold of the blond-haired girl.

  Jamie: I didn’t kill her.

  Graeber (his patience wearing a little thin): Did I say that? Did I say you killed her? Did I?

  Jamie: No.

  Graeber: I said you were over there and for six months you’ve been telling me this other bullshit that you weren’t over there and that’s exactly where you were.

  Jamie: I wasn’t doing nothing to her.

  Graeber: That’s where you were—you had your arm around her neck.

  Jamie: I wasn’t choking her.

  Graeber: But you’re rolling around on the ground with her.

  Jamie: I wasn’t choking her.

  Graeber: Were you or were you not, did you or did you not, roll around on the ground with her?

  Jamie: No, I wasn’t rolling around with her.

  Graeber: You were wrestling her on the ground.

  Jamie: You act like you don’t believe me
no more.

  Graeber: Hey, what did I tell you when we started out? Ninety percent of the stuff you told me last night was true, ten percent bullshit. This is part of the ten percent.

  Jamie (sulking): I got them for you. What else do you want?

  Graeber: You’re damn right you did, which you could have done six months ago.

  Jamie: I didn’t kill her; you know that.

  Graeber: Didn’t say you did. I didn’t say you did. But it took me six months to get you across this pond. Now what else aren’t you telling me?

  Jamie: I’m telling you everything.

  Graeber: Jamie, you didn’t tell me about being over here on the ground, holding her until Damien got over there.

  Jamie (pouting): You didn’t ask me.

  Finnegan: All right, Jamie, you held her. You held the blond girl, Martha, and you are on the other side of the pond up where the pallets are in this picture.

  Jamie: I didn’t do nothing to her. I didn’t beat her.

  Finnegan: But you held her there.

  Jamie: I didn’t kill her, though.

  Finnegan: You held her there for Damien. Is that true?

  Jamie: Yeah, I didn’t beat her, though.

  Finnegan: You hit her. She hit you. Why did she hit you?

  Jamie: Because I said something smart to her.

  Finnegan: What did you say smart to her, Jamie?

  Jamie (rubbing his eyes with the palm of his hand): I forget now.

  Graeber: What did you say smart to her to make her slap you?

  Jamie: I told you.

  Finnegan: What did you say to her, Jamie? Jamie?

  Jamie: I quit talking.

  Finnegan: You quit talking? What does that mean?

  Jamie (frowning): I finished.

  Graeber: Well then, Jamie, I’m finished.

  That night, about 9:30, Jamie Turner was arrested at his home on Lagonda Avenue, next door to where Martha Leach lived when she disappeared. He and his mother had moved there about three months after the murders.

  Jamie and his mother lived in an upper duplex, and Jettie Willoughby, Martha’s mother, still lived in the upper duplex next door. The two houses were so close to each other that the landings on the outside stairs almost touched each other.

  About 10:00 that same night, Alexander Boone was arrested at police headquarters, where he had turned himself in.

  Later that night, Damien Tyler* was arrested and questioned and then held on unrelated drug-trafficking charges at the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center. He was fifteen years old.

  Alexander Boone and Damien Tyler both submitted to having their blood drawn for DNA testing.

  On Wednesday, March 3, 1993, Boone and Turner were arraigned and charged with two counts each of aggravated murder. Their cash bond was set at $500,000 each.

  The following Monday, the Clark County grand jury indicted Jamie Turner and Alexander Boone on thirteen counts each: six counts of aggravated murder, two counts of rape, two counts of kidnapping, one count of obstructing justice, and two counts of abuse of a corpse.

  The charge of aggravated murder carried death penalty specifications. According to the law in the state of Ohio, committing murder with prior intent, or while committing rape, or while committing kidnapping, are considered separate offenses. Hence, since there were two victims, six counts each of aggravated murder.

  That afternoon Jamie’s distraught mother requested help from the police while, understandably, she moved away from her home on Lagonda Avenue. The uniformed officers stood watch while she moved her belongings, making sure that none of the neighbors bothered her. She claimed that some of them had been taunting her.

  Detectives Eggers and Graeber had been to see Jettie several times over the months to keep her informed about the case, but because of the volatility of the situation, they knew they couldn’t tell her that her next-door neighbor was a possible suspect.

  With the arrests of Jamie Turner and Alexander Boone, the town breathed a collective sigh of relief. They thought it was over. They could stop viewing every stranger with suspicion. They could loosen their grip on their children—just a little. They thought they could go back to normal. They were wrong.

  On Friday, March 5, twenty-three-year-old John Balser, another mentally impaired young man, came to police headquarters with information about the two murders. He and Jamie Turner had gone to school together at Town and Country. John would prove to be one of the biggest challenges to the detectives; his IQ was similar to Jamie’s. He was a heavyset man at 5’7” and 180 pounds.

  During this visit, in a very confusing statement, John claimed that Jamie had told him and several other people that he had been there when the girls were killed. John had tried to get Jamie to turn himself in and get help. John also told Detective Graeber and Sergeant Moody that Jamie told him a man named Lloyd Tyler* was with them that night. Lloyd was Damien’s uncle and he also went to Town and Country Day School.

  “I would get up in front of anyone and say Jamie didn’t do it. I know . . . I know Jamie too well. I know Jamie would never hurt no one. Jamie’s been with me almost since . . . I know Jamie all the way through school, never did nothing like this and all,” John Balser stated.

  But then John claimed that he heard Jamie say, “I killed both and raped both.”

  According to John Balser, John’s stepdad, David Marciszewski, also heard Jamie say it.

  John, however, did not believe Jamie. “I say it was Lloyd instead of Jamie. I don’t think Jamie would do it,” Balser maintained.

  “Why do you say that, because Jamie’s your best friend?” Graeber asked.

  “No—no way. Me and Jamie got together always through school. Jamie never did nothing like that,” Balser emphasized.

  John told them the names of three other people who had heard Jamie talking about the murders. Besides his stepdad, John claimed that his three cousins had been present when Jamie was talking about the crime: Willie Jackson*, Robby Detwiler*, and Frank Fisher*.

  He also claimed that Lloyd Tyler heard Jamie and told him to “shut up.”

  A few days later, Detective Graeber talked to Frank Fisher, a forty-year-old mentally retarded man. Frank verified that he was with John, Jamie, and the others when Lloyd Tyler told Jamie to shut up because he “did not want to hear no more.” Frank could not or would not tell the detective what Jamie had said.

  8

  It was difficult with a lot of them because you didn’t know whether you weren’t getting the answers to your questions because they were being deceptive or if it was because their mental capacity just wouldn’t allow it.

  —Sergeant Barry Eggers

  March 24, 1993, was an exhausting day for the determined investigators, as a number of interviews were conducted that day.

  Sergeant Moody and Detective Eggers questioned thirteen-year-old Willie Jackson and fourteen-year-old Robby Detwiler, John Balser’s cousins. Because the young boys had spent the weekend of August 22 and 23, 1992, at David and Wanda Marciszewski’s house, the detectives thought they might have information pertinent to the investigation. John lived on South Light Street, with Wanda (his mother) and David (his stepfather). John’s real father had died.

  Willie, a thin, dark-haired boy, told the detectives that John Balser and Jamie Turner had been together the night of the murders. When John came into the house a little after 11:00, he asked Willie and Robby if they wanted a cookie. When they asked where he got them, he replied that he got them from “the bakery.”

  The detectives knew that the cookies that Willie described to them almost certainly came from Schuler’s Bakery. These were soft chocolate-chip cookies, each wrapped individually in the cellophane that the bakery clerk used to pick them up gingerly and place them in a bag or a box.

  But the cookies that John offered the boys weren’t in a bag or a box—they were in his pants pockets. The two young cousins thought that he had stolen them, but they didn’t ask because they “knew he’d get mad and s
tart yelling.”

  Willie also told the detectives that when he saw Jamie a couple of days after the murders, Jamie had bruises on his arms. When Willie asked him what happened, Jamie claimed that he had wrecked his bicycle.

  And, referring to John, Willie offered, “He kept coming up with details that wasn’t on the news or nothing.”

  At 2:00 that afternoon Detectives Eggers and Graeber interviewed John Balser again. Even though it was early spring, John was bundled up in a bulky winter coat and sweatpants. John’s very worried guardian, Joe Jackson*, accompanied him to the police station. Jackson was also John’s uncle and Willie’s father.