Post by admin4laney on Feb 27, 2006 7:48:34 GMT -5
Billboards seek info on Fairfield woman slain in 1997
BY SHEILA MCLAUGHLIN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
FAIRFIELD - Eight years after Alana "Laney" Gwinner disappeared from the Gilmore Lanes, the Butler County sheriff's cold-case squad is using billboards to help find her killer.
The first of six billboards bearing Laney's picture was unveiled Friday at Ohio 4 and Maple Avenue in Hamilton, promoting a $10,000 reward. Det. Frank Smith said he hopes it will help jog someone's memory and help police find a key piece of evidence - her car.
Other billboards will be posted on Ohio 128 and Ohio 4 in Hamilton and Fairfield.
The 23-year-old Fairfield woman's body was found in the Ohio River near Warsaw, Ky., about one month after she disappeared Dec. 10, 1997, from the bowling alley on Dixie Highway.
Laney left the alley after making a call to a boyfriend, whom she planned to visit at his apartment.
Police said they think Laney was snatched from the parking lot or nearby in a possible sexual attack, yet the autopsy showed no signs of sexual assault. Police said they suspect she was suffocated when she fought back, then placed in her 1993 black Honda Del Sol and dumped into either the Great Miami River or the Ohio River.
The car has never been found, despite sonar searches of 31 nautical miles of the Great Miami and one side of the Ohio River, Smith said.
Police intend to search the other side of the Ohio River when the weather warms up.
The preserved condition of Laney's body when she was found indicates that she may have been concealed inside the car for most of the time she was missing.
Her body probably broke free and floated for a day before it was found near Warsaw, he said.
Whoever killed Laney probably got a ride back to the bowling alley and back to his car, Smith speculates. Smith wants to hear from the person who might have provided that ride.
"We figure we've got some unsuspecting person who received a phone call to take him back to the Fairfield bowling lanes," he said. "Most likely, the person who gave this ride never thought anything about it before."
Smith said that hundreds of people have been interviewed; 150 have submitted to polygraph tests.
Police have a suspect - and it's not Laney's boyfriend. He has been ruled out, Smith said.
Fairfield police referred the case in May to the 4-year-old cold-case squad; a joint effort between Sheriff Rick Jones and Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper.
Her death is one of nine unsolved homicides the squad is working.
This case is getting a lot of focus because it is the most recent.
E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com
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Solved homicide casesHow to help
The Butler County sheriff's cold-case squad has solved four homicide cases:
The 1964 slaying of Ethel Strayer, 72, who was found in her Hamilton home on Christmas Eve stabbed numerous times. Donald Korn, a rapist serving time in Indiana, was charged in the case on DNA evidence but died in prison before his trial.
The 1974 murder of retired Hamilton schoolteacher, Ruth Doench, 72. Donald Korn was convicted in Doench's death before he died in prison.
The 1974 death of Cynthia Beuerlein, 15, whose body was found in a ditch in West Chester Township. James Elmo Craft recently was found incompetent to stand trial in Beuerlein's slaying.
The 1999 abduction and strangling of Patricia Barrett, 27, who disappeared after a party in Fairfield. Dustin Hendrix, 30, of Hamilton is serving a life sentence for the slaying.Anyone with information on Alana "Laney" Gwinner's death can call Det. Frank Smith at 513-785-1236; or Crime Stoppers, 513-352-3040. Tips also can be provided through the squad's Web page at www.butlersheriff.org/coldcase
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