Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The filing cabinets of most large law enforcement agencies in the nation are packed with folders that are marked under the label of cold cases. These are the unsolved murder mysteries that keep survivors and detectives awake at night. They may be cold, and often forgotten, but they aren't quiet. They call out to those who remember the victims and those who tried to find answers where answers were few.
The 1974 calendar year was one of those periods in the Toledo area that recorded a larger than usual number of such homicides. In our April 27 issue, The Press reported on three such murders, one in Ottawa County and two in Sandusky County that appear to be linked — the deaths of Richard Simmons, found in Allen Township, and the deaths of Gilda Paschall and Peggy Townsend, whose killer left their bodies along a rural roadside near Fremont.
This week, we take a look at three other potentially related deaths around that same time.
Judith Ann Petrie
In a strange convergence of events, on Oct. 14 of that year — the day that the bodies of Paschall and Townsend were identified — news readers learned of the story of another body found, that of a missing woman from nearby Oregon, as the battered remains of Judith Ann Petrie were discovered in a field in western Lucas County. The victim was an unmarried 20-year-old and 1973 graduate from Clay High School. She had been working as a full-time live-in babysitter on Shadowbrook Drive in Oregon.
But in June 1974, the brown-haired, brown-eyed girl vanished. She was last seen walking by herself on Consaul Street towards Wheeling Street after visiting a friend on the night of June 16. Her parents and friends were soon worried. It was not like her to just disappear. Those who knew her said this was uncharacteristic of Petrie. She wasn't the type to just run off.
Family members say Petrie was “trustworthy, loyal, and considerate” and always wanted to work with children. Nancy Davis, the mother who hired Petrie as a live-in babysitter, said she was “absolutely wonderful with the kids, they just loved her, and she loved them.”
On June 24, a Toledo Blade article appeared about the missing babysitter as efforts were made to find her. That story, and a second story in September, however, didn't produce any positive results or leads. By then, Petrie's mother had even contacted a private company that specializes in finding missing people. Sadly, the next time Judith Ann Petrie's name would be mentioned in the news was in October when her skeletal remains were found lying along Angola Road in Spencer Township in rural Lucas County.
A tentative ID was made from her green and white slacks and navy blue sweater she was wearing the night she was last seen alive, and dental records would later confirm her identity.
Sheriff's investigators and the coroner at the time said there were marks on her body indicating that she may been beaten with an object and there were also slice marks surrounding a hole in her skull. Her left ankle bone was also found to have been broken. Lucas County detectives combed the area looking for a knife or heavy object that may have been used to inflict the wounds. A shovel and pickax were found nearby next to a shallow grave. It is uncertain whether those objects were used. They did note that Petrie's clothes were in disarray, leading them to speculate she may have been sexually assaulted. Joseph Inman, the coroner's investigator, said given the condition of the remains and the amount of time that had passed it was difficult to determine all of the circumstances or the exact cause of death.
A recent conversation with Sgt. David Kowalski, an investigator with the Lucas County Sheriff's Department, revealed that while this case has been reviewed over the decades, no new information has come forward to lead detectives to a suspect or provide any new clues. That is not unusual, Kowalski also said, as there are numerous unsolved cases that have accumulated in the Toledo area over the years. However, they are often reviewed to determine if there are any new leads or old evidence that could be reexamined using more modern investigative techniques and procedures.
Linda Wolfe
Another case in Lucas County that Kowalski said awaits a new lead or a break is the murder of Linda Wolfe. On Aug. 9, 1974, two months after Petrie vanished, this 22-year-old woman from Welker Street in Toledo and mother of a newborn, also vanished.
The crime was discovered when her disabled car was found on I-75 near Phillips Avenue. It apparently had run out of gas as Wolfe was on her way to see her mother in East Toledo at Ravine Park Village. It was speculated by investigators that someone may have stopped to get her some gasoline, and perhaps she may have gone with them willingly as there was no evidence of any type of struggle near her car, although it’s also possible she might have locked up her car and started walking to a gas station only to be picked up by someone else with bad intentions.
Fifty years later, the answers are only found in speculative theories. The grim reality was that her body was found, days later, on Aug. 12 in rural Lucas County along Centennial Road — about a mile from where investigators would find the remains of Petrie two months later. In this case, Wolfe was found to have been shot twice at close range, once in the forehead, once in the chest, and perhaps a third time, in the hand, as she was trying to flee her killer.
It's not believed that she was molested or assaulted sexually. Robbery might have been the motive, as her brown handbag and contents were missing along with the family's bank ID card. It was used in subsequent days three times by someone to withdraw $300 from the family's bank account. Whoever withdrew the money would have to have known a personal six-digit bank code to access a withdrawal. Either they deciphered it, or Wolfe was forced to reveal it. Lucas County investigator Sgt. Stanley Nalepa said at the time that he had interviewed more than 50 people about the case and did come up with some possible suspects, but all of them were eventually cleared.
James Caughhorn
One aspect of the Wolfe and Petrie cases that make them similar is both women were abducted and their bodies dumped in a rural area outside of the city — the same pattern that occurred in the killings of Paschall, Townsend, and Simmons. Five victims with similar circumstances, and they were not the only victims in 1974 who fit this pattern.
In September, 16-year-old James Caughhorn of East Toledo vanished after leaving his home to go on a date. He was seen about an hour later at a bowling alley in West Toledo. What exactly happened to this well-regarded Waite High School junior after that is a question without answers.
When Caughhorn didn't come home that night, his mother reported him missing. Hours later, on Saturday morning, Sept. 21, his body was found in a field along I-75 and Erie Road in Monroe County. He had been shot twice in the head. Two days later, on Monday, his missing car was also found, stripped of its rear wheels and abandoned near a vacant house in the 2000 block of Franklin Avenue near Woodruff.
Michigan State Police worked on the theory that robbery was the motive as his car and wallet were stolen when the body was discovered. After the car was found, the teen's wallet was found in the 1500 block of Adams Street. It was empty.
Caughhorn’s murder was a shock to many of his classmates at Waite. They described him as “well-liked, hard-working, and pleasant.” He also worked a part-time job with an architectural firm in town and had ambitions to be a welder or a printer someday. It was reported that he had become close to his family ever since his father had died the year before in a drowning accident.
The slaying of James Caughhorn, another sad chapter in a tragic story that like many others in 1974's storm of violence, begs for a final chapter.
