Every Town - Chillicothe, Ohio: The Disappearances & Deaths of 6 Women within 14 Months

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

Go to https://deadboltmysterysociety.com/ and use the promo code: deadbolt20 for 20% OFF your first order!Scary Mysteries Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiE86yS_VM7qjiICqRPmwLQ?view_as=subscriberOwn Shares In Our New HORROR MOVIE: https://www.startengine.com/an-angry-boyContact US: [e-mail] incidents of disappearances, although very unfortunate, are not uncommon in America. However, no one is immune from the heartbrokenness of having a loved one vanished, and from the fear of a looming possibility that the missing is lost forever, or finally found but lifeless. The period between March 2014 and May 2015 was a harrowing time for the rural town of Chillicothe, Ohio’s first capital. Not accustomed to widespread crime and violence, the town was gripped by terror as 6 women disappeared one after another. Chillicothe mourned the death of four of the victims, while the families of the remaining two women hold on to the tail of hope that they’d one day find their loved ones still alive. Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So you get truly immersed in this box trying to figure out who the pretender is before they strike again. Crate Joy is over 260 reviews by people just like you that have joined the Deadbolt Mystery Society and they average 4.9 out of five stars which Deadbolt totally desert. go to deadbolt mystery society.com today and use the code deadbolt 20 to get 20% off any subscription or single box right now again that's 20% off when you use the promo code deadbolt 20 come join the deadbolt mystery society today every town has a dark side in this episode we head to chillicothe in southern ohio where we check out the baffling disappearances and deaths of six women within just 14 months.

Rising incidents of disappearances, although very unfortunate, are not uncommon in America. However, no one is immune from the heartbrokenness of having a loved one vanish, and from the fear of a looming possibility that that missing loved one is lost forever or even dead. The period between March 2014 and May of 2015 was a harrowing time. for the rural town of Chilicothe, Ohio's first capital. Not accustomed to widespread crime and violence, the town was gripped by terror as six women disappeared one after another. Chilicothe mourned the death of four of the victims,

while the families of the remaining two women hold on to the tale of hope that they one day find their loved ones still alive. I'm Andrew, and this is every town. Chilicothe women, Charlotte Trego, Tamika Lynch, Wanda Lemons, Shasta Himmerlich, Tiffany Sayre, and Timberley Claytor vanished under mysterious circumstances within 14 months. Each may have been a separate isolated case, but what was baffling was the uncanny similarities in the manner of their disappearances and deaths. Additionally, the women targeted were linked by the shady activities they allegedly engaged in, drugs and prostitution. The town was soaked in fear of a possible serial killer on the loose, yet it's not been unequivocally resolved as five out of the six cases of turn cold. Were the crimes coordinated or simply coincidental, in this episode, we'll chronicle the terrifying tale,

of the vanished women of Chilicothe. For a community with 22,000 in population, Chilicothe is the only town in Ohio's Ross County big enough to be called a city, but still fairly small and so people would notice when their neighbors would suddenly disappear. Thus, the news of some women,

going missing in successive fashion, spread like wildfire among the town residents. Inevitably, the not-so-known Chiliclocum. became the subject of sensational news in America. The chain of unfortunate events in this town located 50 miles south of Columbus began in May of 2014 when 27-year-old Charlotte Trego inexplicably disappeared. When Yvonne Boggs gave birth to Charlotte on June 5th of 1986,

the little girl became her constant source of joy. Young Charlotte loved climbing trees, splashing in the creek, and playing hide-and-seek with her siblings. But her happy childhood took a downward turn after her parents divorced. Charlotte had given birth to her daughter at the young age of 16, and after that she started taking painkillers and then heroin. Despite being a teenage mother, Charlotte managed to finish high school, but never seemed to get anywhere except becoming a mother for the second time.

Aside from her heroin addiction, Charlotte also suffered. from depression and had attempted to take her own life according to her mother. The Caucasian girl seemed helpless about her addiction that she often got into arguments with her mother whose frustration and anger had reached a boiling point. Yet they constantly kept in touch, so it seemed atypical for Charlotte to be silent in the first two weeks of May of 2014. She was last seen on May 3rd that year, leaving a house on Eugge Street, where she was evicted by her roommate that day and left by foot according to initial police reports. Sensing that something was terribly amiss about her daughter, Avon walked into the Chilicot

police station on May 18th. She appealed to the authorities to find her daughter, who she described as five feet, four inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes that were usually covered by a pair of eyeglasses. Charlotte's distinguishing mark, included numerous tattoos, the name James on her right breast, the name Chloe underneath a flower band on her arm, a playboy bunny below the name Jason on her upper right arm, and a flower on her right ankle. Charlotte had been into drug rehabilitation programs but underwent a relapse. However, a few weeks before the mother of two went missing, Charlotte told her mom she was sick of her lifestyle. Avon helped find a place where Charlotte could be locked down for another rehabilitation,

but her daughter is still nowhere to be found today. Interestingly, on the same day Charlotte was last seen, her friend figured in a strange circumstance. Her name was Tamika Lynch, she was a 30-year-old black woman, married with three children, and she became one of Chilicot's vanished women as well. But her fate ended with much, devastation when she was later found dead in a creek. According to Tamika's mother, Angela Robinson,

after her daughter was diagnosed with the long-term autoimmune illness, lupus, Tamika turned to drugs to ease her pain. Their drug addictions linked Tamika and Charlotte together as they ran with the same circles. Could that have been a vital reason in their successive disappearances just a few days apart? Before Tamika went missing, she was staying with her friend Patty Gessels, who knew her since high school. Tamika, however, was no longer lodging at Patty's Chillicothe home since May 3rd, which was also the same day Charlotte was forced out by her roommate.

Tamika most likely went home to her husband, Jeremy, and their three kids, but left their house on May 16th to go to the area of North Bridge, and water streets to meet someone. Tamika's mom said, I heard from her every single day no matter what. I knew something was wrong when I went two days without hearing from her. Two days after Tamika's family sought police help

and finding her, the authorities publicly said that there was no reason to believe she's in any danger. But they were in for a shocking discovery because on May 24th, eight days after she was last seen, Four kayakers found a woman's body lying in a sandbar in Paint Creek near the small town of Braembridge, 20 miles away from Tamika's home in Chilicothe. The naked body, clothed only in a pair of socks, was identified by the Ross County Police as Tamika Lynch. A coroner's investigation determined she had died from multiple overdoses of cocaine, alcohol, and amphetamines,

although the manner of her death was listed as an undetermined. determined circumstance. Was the nature of her death accidental, suicide, or homicide? Did Tamika take the drugs willfully, or did someone force her to? Police also said that the victim was already dead when she was put in the water of the creek. Tamika's family found it suspicious as they insisted that she was scared to death of the water and the woods. Thus, they believed that she wouldn't have been at Paint Creek on purpose, and that at least two people probably dumped her since she was on the heavier side. Tamika left her children, ages 12, 7, and 6 motherless, and her mother devastated. It changed my whole world. It will never be

the same again. She had her whole life ahead of her. It's not right that somebody just took her and threw her away like a piece of trash, Angela said. After finding her, she was a little bit of the same. Tamika, the local Chilicothe police also searched along Payne Creek and in to the Skioto River for any signs of the missing Charlotte Trego, but their efforts were unrewarded. Six months later, the Chilicothe community was on edge and in fear again. She disappeared into thin air, was the exasperated sentiment of then-19-year-old Megan, the eldest of the five children of Wanda Jean Lemons, who was reported missing on December 20, 28, 2014. At the time of her disappearance, Wanda was 37 years old, facing a custody battle involving

her youngest kid and recovering from a drug addiction. She seemed to fit the profile of Chilicot's previous missing women. Wanda's mom, Diane Willett, last saw her brown-haired and blue-eyed daughter on October 2nd, 2014, and everything seemed to be on track. Diana had been used to not speaking to her daughter for lengthy periods of time. However, when Wanda didn't show up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, she realized something had gone awry. So more than two months after she last saw her daughter, Diana filed for a missing person's case at the local police station. Wanda seemed to have vanished with even less of a trace than the first victim, Charlotte, according to the authorities. All they had was the basic information about the missing woman. Wanda was five feet, seven inches

tall, 135 pounds, had a scar on her right leg due to a car accident and multiple tattoos, including dolphins forming a heart shape on her lower back. She was also known as Wanda Hodges and Wanda Jackson. An important lead was obtained when a male friend of hers told police that he saw Wanda on November 3rd and explained to them that she had gone to Galveston, Texas with an African-American truck driver named Darius or DeMarcus Thomas. Nothing seemed suspicious about it because Wanda frequented Galliston, where she had family. On November 5th, Wanda contacted her daughter Megan through a text message and posted on her Facebook account. Since then, not a single trace of Wanda has been found, and she has not contacted any friends or family members, which was entirely

out of character. Unfortunately, the name of the alleged truck driver is unknown, which hampered the police investigation. Wanda has been classified as endangered missing, and this upsets her mom, Diana. She said, I feel like in my gut they're not going to find her alive. I just hope I'm wrong. At the same time, Wanda was reported missing in December of 2014, a pregnant 20-year-old woman named Shasta Himmelrick also disappeared. She was the fourth and the youngest included on the list of Chilicot's vanished women.

If there was someone doubly excited on Christmas of 2014, it was Shasta. Despite losing her father five months earlier, she was happy to share her wonderful, Yuletide gift with her family and friends. She was expecting a baby with her boyfriend Michael O's. Her announcement was welcomed with delight by everyone during a party on December 25th at her family's home in Richmonddale located along U.S. Route 35, southeast of Chilicothe. On December 26th, the pregnant young lady left to fetch a female friend on North Sugar Street in Chilicothe and to get cocaine in Percocet. A few minutes after she had left her boyfriend Michael and a friend also went to see the other girls. girlfriend of Michael's pal. This distressed Shasta, who then sent a barrage of text messages to

Michael. They were able to talk at 2.30 a.m. and Shasta told him that she was on her way home. But when Michael arrived home at 3 a.m., his pregnant girlfriend was nowhere to be found. He then called the local hospital, jail, and Shasta's friend from North Sugar Street, but with no luck. By 10.24 a.m. Shasta's car was found by the sheriff's deputies on Hyby Road with the passenger door ajar, the interior lights on, gas drained, and battery dead. Found inside the car were Shasta's two cell phones, a syringe with a broken needle, and blood smears on the headrest and back of the driver's seat. Deputies reported collecting blood samples and checking for any prints but didn't find any. They also didn't find any signs of a struggle. The police investigation determined from surveillance footage

that Shasta was walking alone into the Bridge Street Speedway gas station in Chilikoth past 3 a.m. on December 26th, and then she was gone. Search operations began the following day, and on December 30th, a pair of canines led the police from where Shasta's car was found to a bridge where a pair of shoes was found. Then, on January 2, 2015, Shasta's dead body was discovered in the Skioto River south of Chilicot, about a mile away from where her abandoned car was. The Ross County Corner found cocaine and the narcotic painkiller oxycodine in Shasta's system,

but they weren't at fatal levels. Also, there was no sign that she struggled. So Shasta's death was ruled as suicide by jumping, and drowning into the river, but her family and friends rejected that. Her grandmother, Janice, said, I think if she did do what they say, I think someone may have forced her to do it. However, police records showed that Shasta had a history of suicidal tendencies when she attempted to take her life after her father died in July of 2014.

The mystery of Chilikon's vanished women marked its first anniversary in May of 2015. with another case of a missing woman. After four consecutive disappearances, two of which ended in tragic deaths, Tiffany Sayer became victim number five. The 26-year-old mother of two reportedly struggle with drug problems just like the other victims and was suspected of engaging in prostitution as well.

Tiffany was last seen on the night of May 11, 2015, by a friend who said that she said, visited her dead boyfriend's apartment, which had been burglarized. On that same night, her friend Jesse Sanford, met Tiffany, who was heading to the Chilicothe Inn to do some business with two men. She left momentarily to go to her grandmother's house and was supposed to return to the inn, but it was unclear whether she did so. What was certain was Tiffany had vanished without a trace, but Jesse thought somebody had taken her. The search for Chilkoth's fifth missing had a shocking culmination. On June 20th, two people walking along Cave Road in Highland County

about 30 miles west of Chilokov discovered Tiffany's dead and nude body wrapped in a white sheet on a creek bed. The site was about three miles away from the creek where Tamika Lynch's body was found just a year before. The Highland County corner had difficulty determining the exact cause of Tiffany's death because her body had been so drained of blood, but he ruled it as a homicide. Police weren't sure where she was killed and they had no witnesses. What linked Tiffany's case to the other vanished women in Chilicothe was her autopsy. It revealed cocaine, amphetamines, morphine, and alcohol in her system at the time of her death. Tiffany's sister Jessica said the victim battle with drugs for five years and had been attempting to come

clean. Tiffany tried to stay sober for her two daughters and understood she needed to kick her drug habit for their sake. She even recorded a cell phone video to her family thanking them for their support and her recovery attempt, but she never got the chance to actually do it. Tiffany's family is still desperate for answers about her murder. Jessica lamented, my sister has a three and a six-year-old who have to grow up without a mommy. There's no one there. There's no one there. to say this is what happened and this is what was done. The person responsible still gets to walk around out there and it's not fair. We want answers. Tiffany's case heightened speculation in Chilicothe that a serial killer might be in their midst.

And Ross County Sheriff George Lavender said it's one of the things authorities are considering. At this point, many people, including the victim's families, believe Tiffany's death had a connection to the previous similar cases, and the victims had all known each other. All had battled drug addiction, and all were known to have frequented the same spots where the drug and sex trades thrived. While Chilicothe was reeling from the unsolved cases of Charlotte, Tamiko, Wanda, Shasta, and Tiffany, another woman turned up dead on May 29, 2015, just 18 days after Tiffany had disappeared. The latest victim was Timberlinson.

Claytor, who left behind her five children and one grandson. According to Timberley's ex-boyfriend, Jamil Burgeon, her family told him that Timberley was last seen getting into a car with a man at a local gas station at 3.30 a.m. on May 28th. Then, just before noon on May 29th, Timberley was found dead, nude, and with multiple gunshots to the head alongside a vacant building off Trego Creek Road in Macyville, about five miles south of Chilokov. Jamil also revealed that Timberley knew Charlotte, Wanda, and Tiffany, so he believed that their similar fates wasn't a coincidence. And just like the three women, Timberley was fighting heroin addiction, too. She had her struggles just like the other women. They had their struggles

with drugs and other issues, Jamil said. His statement was corroborated by Timberley's friend, Marsha Pummel, with whom the dead woman confided her addiction. But among the six cases of vanished and dead women, only Timberley's case achieved closure. Two months after her death, 37-year-old convicted sex offender Jason McCrary was charged with her murder. In July of 2016, he was convicted of that murder and sentenced. to 28 years in prison on August 12th that year.

A prosecution witness during the trial testified that she saw Jason shoot Timberley in his car after an altercation ensued because Timberley smoked Jason's last supply of cocaine. This was a callous, senseless murder committed by the defendant, Ross County prosecutor Matthew Schmidt said. However, investigators haven't found any evidence that linked Jason to any of the other cases. have the other cases been forgotten and left cold by the authorities. The families of the other victims with unsolved cases have scrutinized and pounded Chilicot's police and judicial system.

In May of 2019, police chief, Keith Washburn and Ross County Sheriff, George Lavender, said they've been doing everything they can to solve the remaining five cases with the help of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and Homeland Security. Their investigation has amassed 574 recorded tips as of May of 2018 and searches by land, air, and water using various tools, including trained dogs, horses, kayaks, airboats, helicopters, and the FBI's ground-penetrating radar been conducted. The cases have been reviewed by local state and federal agencies and prosecutors, yet the nagging question, who committed the crimes and why is still unanswered.

Some think because of their shady past that authorities aren't taking it serious. And family and friends found it odd when police chief Washburn said, No one has said there's a serial killer. No one's come off with any definitive link between these cases. What is definite, though, is the small town of Chilicothe is confronted with really big problems, sex and drugs. The drug use is abysmally high in that community and sex trafficking. is among Ohio's major criminal issues which has plagued that town too. Unless these are addressed extensively, the unresolved cases of the five Chilicothe women

will remain a collective mystery. So that's it for this week's episode of every town. If you're interested in hearing more creepy stories that are currently happening in our world, and make sure to check out our Scary Mysteries podcast and YouTube channel, where each week we cover topical stories in our twisted news segment, and every month we have the strange and scary mysteries of the month. Tune in next week for another episode, filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories about every town out there. And who knows, maybe your town will be next.