Post by admin4laney on Jul 20, 2005 13:57:44 GMT -5
By Mike Rutledge, Post staff reporter
Laney Gwinner was a young woman who could brighten a room without even trying.
Tonight, her family and friends will light candles in Old Sharonville to celebrate her memory, hoping the flicker of news coverage will stir a thought in someone's memory - or, perhaps, someone's conscience.
Fairfield police began their search for 23-year-old Alana Gwinner - known to her friends as Laney - a year ago today. Her body was found Jan. 11 about 30 miles down the Ohio River from Cincinnati, near Warsaw, Ky.
Yet the black 1993 Honda Del Sol with gold trim that she prized has never been found, and police have made no arrests.
''Her family had contacted us and wanted to do something really nice for her,'' said Amy Tipton, 24, of Mount Lookout, a friend since the two attended Adena Elementary School in West Chester, Ohio.
''We felt this was really for them.''
''It has multiple purposes,'' added Natalie Davis, another friend who remained close with both since grade school.
''It's to bring people back together, her family and friends. It's a celebration of her life.
''It's also to bring this out in the open, that this is unsolved - lock your doors,'' Ms. Davis said. And: ''Maybe someone will be sitting back and say, "You know, I did see something,' or "She said something strange.' ''
The 7 p.m. ceremony will be held near the old train depot at Reading and Creek roads.
Friends will view a collage of photographs from Ms. Gwinner's elementary school years through last year.
''She was beautiful,'' Ms. Tipton said. ''She had a very confident beauty, and she just shined.''
She was 5-foot-7, and very slender, with striking light-green eyes, and a gorgeous, confident smile, Ms. Tipton said. Ms. Gwinner wouldn't hesitate to walk up to strangers and start a conversation.
''She was more daring than the rest of us,'' Ms. Tipton said. ''She would be the first to drag us out and have us dance in a parking lot, without any reason.''
Ms. Gwinner loved to roller skate and dance in junior high and high school - as she grew older her dancing tastes shifted to country line dancing from ''jam skating'' with Top 40 hits at Golden Skates in Tri-County.
''She was one of those free-spirited people, and she was very funny,'' Ms. Davis said. But she was a good student, and not a class clown, she said.
She was last seen around 1 a.m. Dec. 10, leaving Gilmore Bowling Lanes on Dixie Highway in Fairfield, where she had been playing pool.
She entered the bowling alley with a male companion who was described by acquaintances as a ''good friend'' of hers. They had driven in separate cars.
Police said she phoned her boyfriend in Fairfield around 12:30 a.m. to tell him she was coming over. But Ms. Gwinner - the administrator at Telco Communications in Blue Ash - never arrived.
''I'm keeping faith that it will be discovered, whether it's in one year, or 10 years,'' Ms. Tipton said.
''Someone's guilt will judge them, even if the law never does.''
Friends would love to find the black Honda, the first car she bought new, and proudly showed off to them.
''There's some kind of evidence in that car, and that's why it's gone,'' Ms. Tipton said.
Anyone with information about the disappearance is encouraged to call Fairfield police at 639-7820.
Other deaths are unsolved
The deaths or disappearances of several Greater Cincinnati women remain mysteries:
Erica Fraysure, 17, of Germantown, Ky., disappeared Oct. 21. Her car, with her purse inside, was found abandoned in a hay field outside Brooksville, Ky. A reward for information leading to her discovery has grown to $25,000.
Leesa Machelle Sowder, 26, of Cynthiana, Ky., was last seen leaving a party in southwestern Harrison County, Ky., about 3 a.m. Sept. 12. Police said witnesses told them Ms. Sowder, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, had been drinking.
Vera Harrison, 69, was found strangled in her Dayton, Ky., home Feb. 21, 1996. Family members speculated her killing may have been connected to her granddaughter's involvement in selling crack cocaine.
Jacqueline Ann Bonner's body was found Dec. 3, 1996, in a cistern south of Melbourne, Ky. Detectives believe Ms. Bonner, 40, of Cincinnati, had been dead about five months when she was discovered. Police continue to investigate.
Kimberly Sue Sipe's body was found on the Covington, Ky., bank of the Licking River Jan. 17. The 24-year-old Newport woman had left her home Jan. 12 for St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Edgewood, to visit her newborn daughter.
In the most infamous local disappearance, Vincent Doan has been convicted of killing his 22-year-old former girlfriend, Carrie Culberson of Blanchester, on Aug. 29, 1996. But Ms. Culberson and her red 1989 Honda CRX have never been found.
Publication date: 12-10-98
www.cincypost.com/news/1998/gwin121098.html
Laney Gwinner was a young woman who could brighten a room without even trying.
Tonight, her family and friends will light candles in Old Sharonville to celebrate her memory, hoping the flicker of news coverage will stir a thought in someone's memory - or, perhaps, someone's conscience.
Fairfield police began their search for 23-year-old Alana Gwinner - known to her friends as Laney - a year ago today. Her body was found Jan. 11 about 30 miles down the Ohio River from Cincinnati, near Warsaw, Ky.
Yet the black 1993 Honda Del Sol with gold trim that she prized has never been found, and police have made no arrests.
''Her family had contacted us and wanted to do something really nice for her,'' said Amy Tipton, 24, of Mount Lookout, a friend since the two attended Adena Elementary School in West Chester, Ohio.
''We felt this was really for them.''
''It has multiple purposes,'' added Natalie Davis, another friend who remained close with both since grade school.
''It's to bring people back together, her family and friends. It's a celebration of her life.
''It's also to bring this out in the open, that this is unsolved - lock your doors,'' Ms. Davis said. And: ''Maybe someone will be sitting back and say, "You know, I did see something,' or "She said something strange.' ''
The 7 p.m. ceremony will be held near the old train depot at Reading and Creek roads.
Friends will view a collage of photographs from Ms. Gwinner's elementary school years through last year.
''She was beautiful,'' Ms. Tipton said. ''She had a very confident beauty, and she just shined.''
She was 5-foot-7, and very slender, with striking light-green eyes, and a gorgeous, confident smile, Ms. Tipton said. Ms. Gwinner wouldn't hesitate to walk up to strangers and start a conversation.
''She was more daring than the rest of us,'' Ms. Tipton said. ''She would be the first to drag us out and have us dance in a parking lot, without any reason.''
Ms. Gwinner loved to roller skate and dance in junior high and high school - as she grew older her dancing tastes shifted to country line dancing from ''jam skating'' with Top 40 hits at Golden Skates in Tri-County.
''She was one of those free-spirited people, and she was very funny,'' Ms. Davis said. But she was a good student, and not a class clown, she said.
She was last seen around 1 a.m. Dec. 10, leaving Gilmore Bowling Lanes on Dixie Highway in Fairfield, where she had been playing pool.
She entered the bowling alley with a male companion who was described by acquaintances as a ''good friend'' of hers. They had driven in separate cars.
Police said she phoned her boyfriend in Fairfield around 12:30 a.m. to tell him she was coming over. But Ms. Gwinner - the administrator at Telco Communications in Blue Ash - never arrived.
''I'm keeping faith that it will be discovered, whether it's in one year, or 10 years,'' Ms. Tipton said.
''Someone's guilt will judge them, even if the law never does.''
Friends would love to find the black Honda, the first car she bought new, and proudly showed off to them.
''There's some kind of evidence in that car, and that's why it's gone,'' Ms. Tipton said.
Anyone with information about the disappearance is encouraged to call Fairfield police at 639-7820.
Other deaths are unsolved
The deaths or disappearances of several Greater Cincinnati women remain mysteries:
Erica Fraysure, 17, of Germantown, Ky., disappeared Oct. 21. Her car, with her purse inside, was found abandoned in a hay field outside Brooksville, Ky. A reward for information leading to her discovery has grown to $25,000.
Leesa Machelle Sowder, 26, of Cynthiana, Ky., was last seen leaving a party in southwestern Harrison County, Ky., about 3 a.m. Sept. 12. Police said witnesses told them Ms. Sowder, the mother of a 3-year-old daughter, had been drinking.
Vera Harrison, 69, was found strangled in her Dayton, Ky., home Feb. 21, 1996. Family members speculated her killing may have been connected to her granddaughter's involvement in selling crack cocaine.
Jacqueline Ann Bonner's body was found Dec. 3, 1996, in a cistern south of Melbourne, Ky. Detectives believe Ms. Bonner, 40, of Cincinnati, had been dead about five months when she was discovered. Police continue to investigate.
Kimberly Sue Sipe's body was found on the Covington, Ky., bank of the Licking River Jan. 17. The 24-year-old Newport woman had left her home Jan. 12 for St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Edgewood, to visit her newborn daughter.
In the most infamous local disappearance, Vincent Doan has been convicted of killing his 22-year-old former girlfriend, Carrie Culberson of Blanchester, on Aug. 29, 1996. But Ms. Culberson and her red 1989 Honda CRX have never been found.
Publication date: 12-10-98
www.cincypost.com/news/1998/gwin121098.html
