Ohio pair charged with murder after missing 18-year-old woman found with gunshot wound to head, cops say

Samantha Guthrie, 18, was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in the Ohio woods. (Facebook)

Two people were charged with the murder of an 18-year-old Ohio woman who was found dead in a wooded area Sunday three weeks after she had last been seen.

Samantha Guthrie’s body was found in New Franklin around midnight Sunday, Akron police spokesman Lt. Rick Edwards said. The medical examiner’s office said she died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to Cleveland.com.

Danny Hamby, 39, of Springfield Township, and Toni Kenney, 31, of Warren, were charged with murder Monday, according to FOX8 Cleveland. The pair had already been in jail on charges related to Guthrie’s vanishing. It wasn’t immediately clear if Guthrie knew either Hamby or Kenney.

Hamby is also facing charges for a parole violation, a probation violation, carrying concealed weapons, improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, drug abuse, possession of drug abuse instrument, having weapons while under disability and tampering with evidence and obstructing justice charges, according to People.

Danny Hamby, left, and Toni Kenney were charged with the murder of Samantha Guthrie. (Summit County Sheriff's Office)

Kenney was also facing charges for carrying concealed weapons, obstructing justice and tampering with evidence charges, the magazine reported.

However, it wasn’t clear who allegedly fired the gun that killed Guthrie.

“Detectives are not naming which one, Danny Hamby or Toni Keeney, actually fired the shot that killed Samantha Guthrie,” Edwards said, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. “This is still an active investigation at this time.”

William Eugene Alexander, 38, and Dylan Brown, 19, were also arrested in the Guthrie case. The pair and Kenney told authorities Guthrie was shot at a house in Akron and then her body was dumped in the wooded area in New Franklin, the Beacon Journal reported.

Alexander and Brown were charged with tampering with evidence or moving a corpse, People reported.