Post by admin4laney on Feb 13, 2006 10:40:07 GMT -5
New Leads In Laney Gwinner's Murder
LAST UPDATE: 2/8/2006 2:15:55 PM
Cold Case Detectives are following new leads in the 1997 murder of Laney Gwinner. Local 12 CrimeStoppers Reporter Deborah Dixon shared the following report in April 2005, when the leader of the Butler County Cold Case Squad said her murder can be solved:
Laney Gwinner was killed in December of 1997, and no one knows why. The one clue that can lead investigators to her killer has yet to be uncovered. But as Crimestoppers Reporter Deborah Dixon says, investigators hope a hi-tech device can help shed light on the case. Laney Gwinner drew attention wherever she went. She was beautiful with a big laugh, and loved country music the boot scootin' kind. Several young men watched Laney play pool at Fairfield's Gilmore Lanes the evening of December 10, 1997. Laney left alone. But they never saw Laney, again. Her body was found a month later, in the Ohio River near Warsaw Kentucky, forty miles from where she disappeared. She was dead before going in the river, not raped or robbed, but definitely murdered.
Joy Herron, Friend: "Why did someone do this to her? What did she do? What path did she cross that she made somebody angry that we weren't aware of?"
The questions are nagging and painful:
Tammy McWhorter, Laney's Friend: "Was she in pain? Was she struggling? Was she scared, crying, fighting?"
Rachel Pritchard, Friend: "How is there no car, no reasonable explanation for death, nothing?"
Specialist Frank Smith, Butler Co Sheriff's Department: "From the information we've received, so far, looking at everything, I believe it's very solvable."
Frank Smith is one of the top cold case detectives in the country. A Specialist in the Butler County Sheriff's Office, he's now working the Gwinner mystery. Smith believes Laney's missing Honda Del Sol is a watery clue. Smith thinks the car was put in the Miami River south of Hamilton and Fairfield high tech sonar search to find it.
"We're planning one of the most extensive searches in the history of the Sheriff's department of the Miami River."
The search will include a sonar signal that fans out and bounces off objects sitting on the river bottom. Objects such as this plane on the bottom of Lake Erie. If the object is very dense, such as a car, the signal picks up the image.
"I had an opportunity to review autopsy photos, no way that girl was on the bottom of that river."
Smith thinks Laney's body was protected by her car until she floated out and down river.
"One of the most important things about the vehicle, wherever it was placed in the river, provides a generalized location where suspect probably resides."
When it comes to suspects, there are new ones and old ones.
"Most likely an acquaintance, not necessarily friends, maybe just someone."
Somebody she rejected?
"Very well, very well"
Sheriff Richard Jones, Butler County: "We're sharing resources with Fairfield. If Frank says it's solvable, I believe Frank. We've got some leads we can't discuss and we hope to have more."
The renewed investigation started from the beginning, with Smith interviewing Laney's friends. Now Laney's picture hangs on his wall of death. The wall with faces of unsolved butler county murders. on the opposite wall, are the faces of murders he's solved, which is every one he's worked on.
"I would say be looking over your shoulders at all times."
Laney drove a black 1993 Honda Del Sol. Ohio license plate: AKP 3607.
If you have any information that can help cold case detectives, call our partners at CrimeStoppers. The number 352-3040. You don't have to give your name and can get cash for clues
www.wkrc.com/crimestoppers/story.aspx?content_id=1CBA0653-286D-478D-AC1A-B2448AC23B1F
LAST UPDATE: 2/8/2006 2:15:55 PM
Cold Case Detectives are following new leads in the 1997 murder of Laney Gwinner. Local 12 CrimeStoppers Reporter Deborah Dixon shared the following report in April 2005, when the leader of the Butler County Cold Case Squad said her murder can be solved:
Laney Gwinner was killed in December of 1997, and no one knows why. The one clue that can lead investigators to her killer has yet to be uncovered. But as Crimestoppers Reporter Deborah Dixon says, investigators hope a hi-tech device can help shed light on the case. Laney Gwinner drew attention wherever she went. She was beautiful with a big laugh, and loved country music the boot scootin' kind. Several young men watched Laney play pool at Fairfield's Gilmore Lanes the evening of December 10, 1997. Laney left alone. But they never saw Laney, again. Her body was found a month later, in the Ohio River near Warsaw Kentucky, forty miles from where she disappeared. She was dead before going in the river, not raped or robbed, but definitely murdered.
Joy Herron, Friend: "Why did someone do this to her? What did she do? What path did she cross that she made somebody angry that we weren't aware of?"
The questions are nagging and painful:
Tammy McWhorter, Laney's Friend: "Was she in pain? Was she struggling? Was she scared, crying, fighting?"
Rachel Pritchard, Friend: "How is there no car, no reasonable explanation for death, nothing?"
Specialist Frank Smith, Butler Co Sheriff's Department: "From the information we've received, so far, looking at everything, I believe it's very solvable."
Frank Smith is one of the top cold case detectives in the country. A Specialist in the Butler County Sheriff's Office, he's now working the Gwinner mystery. Smith believes Laney's missing Honda Del Sol is a watery clue. Smith thinks the car was put in the Miami River south of Hamilton and Fairfield high tech sonar search to find it.
"We're planning one of the most extensive searches in the history of the Sheriff's department of the Miami River."
The search will include a sonar signal that fans out and bounces off objects sitting on the river bottom. Objects such as this plane on the bottom of Lake Erie. If the object is very dense, such as a car, the signal picks up the image.
"I had an opportunity to review autopsy photos, no way that girl was on the bottom of that river."
Smith thinks Laney's body was protected by her car until she floated out and down river.
"One of the most important things about the vehicle, wherever it was placed in the river, provides a generalized location where suspect probably resides."
When it comes to suspects, there are new ones and old ones.
"Most likely an acquaintance, not necessarily friends, maybe just someone."
Somebody she rejected?
"Very well, very well"
Sheriff Richard Jones, Butler County: "We're sharing resources with Fairfield. If Frank says it's solvable, I believe Frank. We've got some leads we can't discuss and we hope to have more."
The renewed investigation started from the beginning, with Smith interviewing Laney's friends. Now Laney's picture hangs on his wall of death. The wall with faces of unsolved butler county murders. on the opposite wall, are the faces of murders he's solved, which is every one he's worked on.
"I would say be looking over your shoulders at all times."
Laney drove a black 1993 Honda Del Sol. Ohio license plate: AKP 3607.
If you have any information that can help cold case detectives, call our partners at CrimeStoppers. The number 352-3040. You don't have to give your name and can get cash for clues
www.wkrc.com/crimestoppers/story.aspx?content_id=1CBA0653-286D-478D-AC1A-B2448AC23B1F
