DNA links now-dead man to 1978 Ohio cold case murder

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DNA technology has been used to link the rape and murder of a University of Cincinnati student more than four decades ago to a now-deceased man who authorities suspect may also have been responsible for three other murders in Ohio, prosecutors said.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters last week announced a posthumous indictment of Ralph Howell, who died in a 1985 auto accident, on aggravated murder and rape charges in the murder of 19-year-old Cheryl Thompson.

"I have prosecuted multiple serial killers in my time as prosecutor," Deters said in a statement. "My office firmly believes he is another."

Thompson went missing in March 1978 after leaving her home to meet her boyfriend at a bar in Oakley, prosecutors said. About two weeks later, a state natural resources officer found her body along the bank of the Little Miami River. Authorities said she had been raped and she died of asphyxia caused by strangulation.

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This year, a DNA sample taken from Thompson’s body at the time of the crime was sent to a third-party genealogy company that narrowed the search to a specific family tree that included Howell, and further investigation revealed that he had been arrested in 1983 on an abduction charge.

In that incident, Howell picked a woman up on the side of the road and offered to drive her home, then put a rope around her neck and began to strangle her, prosecutors said. She was able to escape. Court records indicate that Howell pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of unlawful restraint, a misdemeanor, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Family members of Howell who submitted DNA samples were excluded as suspects in Thompson’s murder, but the tests indicated that the suspect was a close family relative. Ralph Howell's body was exhumed and a DNA sample taken that proved to be a match to the DNA found on Thompson's body, prosecutors said.

DNA has been used to connect a now-deceased man to three Ohio cold cases of murder and rape. Prosecutors are investigating whether the dead man is responsible for 3 other murders in OH.

Prosecutors said Howell is suspected in the deaths of three other women killed in Hamilton and Butler counties between 1976 and 1978 that display similar circumstances:

— Charmaine Stolla, 17, was last seen in February 1978 in Cincinnati. Her body was found the following month off Old Colerain Pike.

—- Nancy Ann Theobald, 18, was last seen in November 1977 leaving the Clifton restaurant where she worked. Her body was found the day after Christmas in Butler County.

— Victoria Hincher, 24, was last seen leaving her home in October 1976. Her body was found in Butler County a week and a half later.

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All three women were strangled and raped, but investigators do not have DNA from any of those killings, Deters said.

Prosecutors said Howell was employed as a delivery driver for the Cincinnati Enquirer and was an over-the-road truck driver, and "his possible victims are not necessarily limited to this geographic region." Anyone with information about Howell or a similar unsolved homicide was asked to call investigators.