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you're listening to DNAID brought to you by Abjec Entertainment. Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, including the Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking Beyond Bizarre True Crime, Campus Killings, Below the Surface, and Killer Communications. All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. Sam. This episode concerns child murder. Listener discretion is strongly advised. It was 1972. The Bellino family was not one to worry. They lived in a small, safe suburb, Boardman Township, Ohio. Helicopter parenting hadn't been invented yet and 12 year old Brad Bellino's parents, who had four kids, were decidedly hands off. But when Saturday, April 1st rolled around and family members realized that 12 year old Brad hadn't been seen or heard from since Friday evening, his older sister Debbie called the police at 3:20pm When Patrolman Robert Laird got to the Bellino home located at 61 McClurg Road, Brad's sister Debbie and father Joseph told the patrolman that they put together just that morning that Brad was missing. The last they knew, he had left the house around 1pm on Thursday, March 30 to go to the Southern Park Mall to meet his friends. And then he was going to the house of his bestie, Don Templeman, who lived at 733 Teakwood in the Applewood Acres neighborhood. School was closed on Friday for Good Friday and Brad spent the night at the Templeman home. On Thursday night, Brad had left Don's house to walk home, but he never made it. And and on Saturday, the day before Easter, his family grew concerned. The missing Persons report for Brad listed him as 12 years old, 4 foot 8 inches tall, weighing just 80 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes. His family said he was wearing what kids wore, jeans, white sneakers with black stripes and a blue winter jacket. It turned out that he was actually wearing a gray T shirt that said the devil made me do it and very 1970s style blue and red striped pants. Police interviewed Don's family since Brad was last believed to have been at their home. Mr. Templeman had gotten home from work just after five on Friday and felt that he was coming down with the flu. Around six, they ate dinner and Brad ate with the family. Then the mom, Mary Templeman, left with one of the daughters to go do the grocery shopping. Brad had originally been supposed to be home around 4pm on Friday, but he called his dad and begged to be allowed to stay later. So his dad said, fine, just be home by 9. Often, Mrs. Templeman drove Brad back and forth to and from his house whenever he and Don hung out, which was pretty much anytime they had free time. She didn't like him walking home by himself after dark. Mrs. Templeman told the Cleveland Press, quote, if Brad left here after dark, we would drive him home. But Friday I was out shopping and my husband was sick. So Brad left on his own, hoping for a ride home. Brad used the Templeman home phone and called his house twice to get his father to come pick him up. He called once at 7:05 and once at 7:30. No one answered. After the second call at 7:30, Brad decided he had to head home on his own. Mr. Templeman said that Brad came in at 7:30 and said he was leaving. Mr. Templeman, who was not feeling well and was watching Dragnet, told Brad to call his dad for a ride. The next thing I knew he was gone. He said. It was just getting dark outside. Brad had a four mile walk to get home. He never made it. Let's talk a little bit about who Brad was. Brad was born on April 7, 1959, the fourth child of father Joseph Sr. And mom Alyssa. The Bellinos were a working class family. Alyssa was a buyer for Lane Bryant in Cleveland and was required to spend many nights in the city. Joseph was a steelworker at Youngstown sheet and tube. Brad's older brothers were Joe Jr. And Rick and his older sister was Debbie. Brad was a typical fifth grader at Boardman Middle School. His best friend was Don Templeman. As I said, the two had met playing baseball three years earlier on a team for which Don's dad was the coach. The two Boys were inseparable. They were together all the time, biking in town and having sleepovers. They frequented the Isley's dairy store near Applewood Acres and a pizza place near Don's home and sometimes the Southern Park Mall. They also spent time at the local Adamas lapidary and gem shop. Because Brad had a rock collection and the place was located near his house. Because his parents both worked so much and his mother was largely absent because of work requirements, Brad was often unsupervised. He was outgoing, fun loving and a little bit naughty. He was known to walk all over town and sometimes to hitchhike, although his mom said he didn't hitchhike alone. He was the kind of kid who had a rock collection and always had a bunch of stuff in his pockets. He was small for his age and quite skinny, always wearing a belt to keep his pants up. He was popular at school though, and had a little girlfriend that he liked to meet up with at the mall. Police took Brad's disappearance very seriously. The Boardman Police department was small, but since Brad was unaccounted for for 20 hours by the time his family called the police, he generally did not disobey his parents instructions to come home at a certain time. And his uncle Tony Depolito was a patrol officer in nearby Youngstown. It was all hands on deck looking for the missing 12 year old. The Boardman PD jumped into action, sending out cars to scour the area, conducting interviews with those last known to have seen Brad and asking for tips from the public. One of the first interviewees was Brad's father, Joseph Bolino. He last saw his son on Thursday afternoon, March 30, around 1:00pm at that time Brad was on his way to the Southern Park Mall. He said he wasn't going to come home that night and was going to sleep over at Don's house. On Friday at 4, Brad called from the Templeman home and his dad gave him permission to stay out until 9pm Joseph, the father, then went out to the bars Friday night and stayed out until 2am when he got home at 2 on Saturday morning, he went to bed without checking on whether Brad was home. He slept in on Saturday and when he got up at noon, his son Rick said Brad didn't come home last night. So Joseph called his wife to ask if she'd heard from Brad, but she hadn't. So he called the Templemans to see if Brad was still there. They told him Brad had left the home. On Friday night at 7:30, Joseph and Rick went out to look for Brad up and down Southern Boulevard, all the way up to Route 224, even checking the mall, not finding Brad. They went home and Joseph's daughter Deborah called the Boardman police. Rick Bellino, one of Brad's older brothers, also had information to contribute. Sometime on Friday evening, he got home and noticed that the TV was on and a pillow was on the ground in front of it. That was Brad's typical TV watching spot. But Rick thought nothing of it, that no one was home. He knew his mom was in Cleveland and his dad was out for the evening. Brad, he assumed, was at the Templeman. Rick went out to a small party at his friend's house. His girlfriend Abby was there too, with her friend Karen Templeman, Don's sister. When the parents of the kid whose house it was broke up the party, Rick walked home. Getting home around 11pm he noticed there was no sign of Brad. He called over to his girlfriend Abby's house because Chuck, her little brother, was one of Brad's best friends. They hadn't seen Brad. Abby offered to call over to the Templemans and did so. Mrs. Templeman answered the phone and said, no, Brad's not here. He left here around 7:30. Brad's brother Rick went to bed at 11:30 or 12. Brad was still not home. There was no question that Brad had spent the afternoon of Friday, March 31st with the Templemans. A buddy of his, 11 year old Paul McCourt, said Brad and Don were over at his house around 1:30 or 2 on Friday afternoon. And Abby, Rick Bellino's girlfriend, said she saw Brad in the early afternoon of March 31st at the Templeman residence on Teakwood Drive. He was wearing striped blue jeans, a T shirt with some kind of writing on it, tennis shoes and a blue nylon jacket. Okay, so police knew where Brad was on Friday until 7:30pm when he left the Templeman house on foot. The challenge was figuring out where he'd gone after that. The problem was the public was very eager to help find the missing boy. And a lot of people called in saying they saw Brad at all hours of that Easter weekend. For example, local resident Mary Crumbacker told police that she saw and spoke with Brad Bellino at 10:45am on Saturday, April 1 at the North Lima Dairy Queen where she worked. She had known Brad for seven years because they lived next door to her before moving to Boardman. She was adamant that the child she talked to on Saturday was Brad. She even described him as wearing a T shirt, the striped jeans and a blue jacket. She said he was in the store alone and ate. A Sunday he left while she was in the back, so she didn't know if he left with anyone. A man named Gary Duponti saw Brad at 2pm on Saturday, April 1, at the Southern Park Mall with two girls. He knew Brad from Boardman Lanes. Brad asked Gary if he'd gotten a haircut. This sighting of Brad by Gary seems so certain that police told the Cleveland Press they had established that Brad was seen at the Southern Park Mall at 2:30pm on Saturday, quote, We know definitively that he was seen there, said Boardman Police Chief David Hartsock. We have a statement from someone who knew him and talked to him there. Bernadine Neapolitan knew who Brad was because she had picked him up hitchhiking with his friend James M. On March 25th. On that day, she dropped them at the mall. Bernadine said that on Saturday, April 1, she saw the same two boys hitchhiking toward North Lima. This was at 4:25pm this sighting was reported in the papers as the last sighting of Brad. That was at least three solid sightings of Brad on Saturday. Easter Sunday came and went. For Brad's extended family, the day was not a happy one. Brad's maternal first cousin, Anthony Depolito, a Youngstown police vice officer at the time, knew that Brad typically walked and hitchhiked all over town. His family was sitting down to Easter dinner when the Bellinos called saying Brad was missing. They went out and searched for two hours that day. The entire family conducted searches all around Boardman and contacted everyone they could think of. Monday saw the return of the school week and Brad did not show up. On Tuesday, April 4, three days after Brad was reported missing, there was terrible news. Paul Smith was an employee of Very Brothers Rubbish Company which serviced many of the businesses and residences in Boardman. He was working that day alongside company owner and truck driver Fred Very and fellow garbage man Wally Pettiway as at 7:55am they arrived at Boardman Plaza, a typical strip mall type shopping plaza in downtown Boardman that housed various retail shops and businesses, many of which were teen hangouts. Fred pulled up behind the isaly store at 263 Boardman Canfield Road where there were two large wheeled trash receptacles with closed lids. Paul and Wally, the trash guys, jumped down from their perches on the back of the truck and Paul grabbed the trash bin closest to him and wheeled it over to the rear of the truck. Paul opened the container and started throwing bags and boxes into the truck's maw. After he had chucked in four big bags, a crate and two boxes, he uncovered something that was not trash sticking up out of the receptacle, disappearing into piles of garbage. Below were two small sneaker clad feet waved over by Paul. Fred Very got out of his trash truck and peered into the dumpster. Then he walked around to the front door of the Isaly's restaurant and knocked, summoning the owner, Carl Rifoff. Carl walked around back and looking in the dumpster, assumed the body was a dummy. He reached in and dug down and touched a hand and realized of course that was not a dummy. The trio called Boardman police, which had only 12 officers at the time, and Patrolman Glenn Bowers was dispatched by radio. The dispatcher would not tell him over the radio what he was going to find, knowing that the radio waves were monitored by citizens. When Officer Bowers got to the dumpster location, the employees pointed to the dumpster and said, there's a body in there. Patorman Bowers took a look, saw the feet and also made the decision not to touch anything. He called in the detective squad and the police chief. The detectives carefully removed and set aside the garbage in the dumpster that obscured the victim when they could see what they were looking at. It was a young white boy, his torso twisted at an unnatural angle, his face at the bottom of and against the front wall of the dumpster. His legs were crossed, his pants pulled down to his knees, his shirt partially pulled up. A tan child sized belt was cinched tightly around his neck. Mike Yarosch of the Coroner's office and the Youngstown Police Department Crime Lab were summoned to the scene. A CSI from the Youngstown PD named Brunswick photographed the dumpster and the body. A photographer from the Youngstown Vindicator was allowed to photograph the scene as well. The boy's body was removed to Southside Hospital by Gold Cross ambulance and was admitted to DOA at 9:25am I'll skip the suspense here. The body was Brad Bellino, found 1.5 miles from the Templeman's home, 2 miles from his own home in a garbage receptacle he had not gotten into by himself. Brad's clothing was removed and sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations, or bci. Rubber bands found in his pockets were collected by the investigators. Honestly, being the mom of three boys, I'm surprised, that's all. But that was found in his pockets. Dr. James Gillis, Pathologist, conducted the autopsy. Brad had a deep furrow around his throat caused by the tan belt. He had a fracture of the cricoid cartilage, congestion and hemorrhage of the larynx and congestion and edema of the lungs. He also had blood in his ears and a 4 centimeter abrasion on the base of his chin, indicating he had perhaps been struck. There were no marks on his hands or feet that would indicate that he was bound. But he had a human bite mark on his upper left arm and he had major trauma to his anus. The report reads. Lacerations to the anal sphincter, traumatic multiple hemorrhagic lacerations of the anal mucosa, blood in the anal canal. Semen was found in the anus. Sperm was on a rectal smear. Dr. David Belinke was the coroner. After a coroner's inquest, his report stated that the official cause of death was asphyxiation, ligature strangulation during the a sexual assault. Coroner Belinki declared it a homicide and called it the act of a degenerate. There may have been evidence that Brad was assaulted with a stick. Coroner's investigator Eddie Cassanta told the Cleveland Press that the time of death was 48 to 72 hours before Brad's body was found. Quote, he said the boy had been sexually molested and his clothes were partially ripped off. He was strangled with a tan leather belt. His own belt was still in his jeans. As you can imagine, the news that Brad had been found molested and murdered shocked and horrified the community. This bit all from WFMJ21 News. Quote, it was just devastating, said Don Templeman, best friend to Bellino and last friend to see him alive. Templeman and Bellino were inseparable, even going to the same school, having sleepovers and playing on the same sports teams. When we started playing baseball together, I was the pitcher and he was the catcher and my dad was the coach, Templeman said. Many of those days ended with a family dinner at Templeman's house, which was also the case. The last day of Bellino's life. In the days to follow Bellino's disappearance, Templeman's fears were confirmed by a teacher during math class. I have some news. The Bellino boy's been found, said Templeman. Everyone cheered and was excited. But then she said, but he's dead. Don called his mom to come pick him up at school that day. His life would never be the same again. His best friend had been murdered after leaving his house to walk home. Brad's funeral on April 6th at St. Charles Catholic Church was attended by 200 mourners and citizens paying their respects to the 12 year old boy who had met an unthinkable fate. It was also attended by vigilant detectives scouring the crowd for anyone who looked suspicious. Don Templeman gave an interview years later. He said the funeral was open casket and you could tell Brad had been strangled. He wished he hadn't looked inside. Mary Templeman said later that she felt sadness and regret for the rest of her life. She had driven Brad back and forth to his home every day for years. She assumed that she would drive him home that night, but he left while she was at the grocery store and he ended up sexually assaulted and slain in a dumpster. The Templeman family moved to Tennessee shortly thereafter to avoid the danger and the memories. As for Brad's family, they didn't give a lot of interviews at the time, but his brothers were remained in touch with law enforcement for decades as investigators waded through massive amounts of information and large numbers of potential suspects. Let's go to the first few days of the investigation. Police desperately wanted to connect the dots between Brad leaving the Templeman's home and ending up four days later in the dumpster. Where was he that whole time? What had happened to him? How did he fall into the clutches of a monster while just walking the streets of placid Boardman, Ohio? And when was he put into the dumpster? Detectives spoke to employees at the retail establishments in the Boardman Plaza, a popular shopping and dining destination on Boardman Canfield Road. They learned that the dumpsters behind Isalies were kept closed at all times. According to restaurant employees who used them, they had last been emptied on March 31 at noon. Both dumpsters had been completely emptied at that time. By the time Brad was found on Tuesday, when the trash service came to empty the dumpster, the dumpsters were full, his body covered with bags and boxes. From Isalys, Patrolman Tracy took The statement of 16 year old Michael Chalkey, who worked at Iceley's Dairy Store, a popular ice cream and fast food chain in the Plaza where preteens and teens hung out. Michael had worked at the restaurant pretty much every day between Friday, March 31 and the day Brad was found. Michael had taken the trash out from the restaurant to the dumpster a number of Times. On Friday, March 31, he put trash in one of the dumpsters around 9pm he said since the trash had been emptied around noon, there was probably nothing in it. Then on Saturday, April 1, he put trash in that same container twice at 5pm and 9pm on Sunday, April 2, he put trash in that same dumpster sometime between 9 and 9:30. It was getting full so he had to push the trash down to fit more bags. But he noticed nothing unusual. Then on Monday, April 3, he also loaded trash into the dumpster at 8pm adding just one bag of trash into the very full receptacle. He noted that at this time the dumpster appeared to be about a foot farther away from the building wall than usual. That seemed to point to someone moving the dumpster slightly. Sometime between Sunday and Monday, police interviewed 11 year old Don Templeman extensively trying to learn who Brad was in contact with, what his habits were and whether he might have called someone for a ride or hitchhiked. Don was certain that Brad left his house on Friday night at 7:30. He knew the time because they wanted to watch a TV show that came on at 7:30. But Brad had to leave before it started. The investigators asked Don if Brad could have called someone else for a ride. But Don said Brad had only ever been picked up by his parents and once by his sister Debbie and her boyfriend George. The investigators then showed Don the belt they found around Brad's neck and asked him if he remembered whether Brad was wearing it. He said, I don't really know. I can't remember. I think he was. Later in the interview, he said they had a sleepover on Thursday night and when they were getting dressed to go outside on Friday morning, Brad had to find his belt. So he knew Brad was wearing a belt, but he was found wearing a black belt. No one seemed to know where the tan belt came from. The odd thing that the detectives noted was the belt appeared to have been chewed on the tongue end. Don said he had never seen Brad chew on his belt and he didn't think their dogs would have chewed it either. At least Don was able to clear up the rubber bands in Brad's pocket. He said he gave them to his friend because they were using them for slingshots. The investigators asked Don about what Brad might have eaten. He said Brad ate with his family around six and they both had chicken and and mashed potatoes. Mary Templeman confirmed that that was what she had served for dinner. The coroner's report of the autopsy findings on Brad Bellino states, quote, the stomach contents consist of undigested food. Definitely pineapple chunks, bread, possible meat and mashed potatoes. No food was in the small bowel indicating that Brad had died shortly after eating. According to practical homicide investigation by Vernon Geburth. Under ordinary circumstances, the stomach empties its contents four to six hours after a meal, end quote. The investigators asked Don specifically whether his mother had given them pineapple, and he said, I don't think so. Later in the interview, they asked him whether Brad liked pineapple and he said no. He liked strawberries and raspberries, but he didn't like pineapple. Mary confirmed she had not served pineapple. Where did the pineapple come from? The fact that Brad had not begun to digest the meal that he ate around 6pm on Friday told the investigators that he was dead within hours of that time, which meant he was abducted and killed on Friday night. Eventually, the timeline was buttoned down. The detectives settled on the theory that Brad had set out Friday night to walk the nearly four miles home, leaving the Templemans at 7:30 during the daytime hours. Brad had walked home on many occasions before taking the route from Teakwood Drive toward Tanglewood to the Southern Park Mall and then to his home on McClurk, the Cleveland Press reported. Quote, he would often hitchhike, said Don Templeman, and frequently took a shortcut through Boardman Park. A neighbor saw him hitchhiking near the Templeman home shortly after 7:30. End quote. If Brad had been hitchhiking at night, that opened up almost an infinite number of possibilities. The investigators asked Don if he and Brad talked every day on the phone. Yes, he said. Do you think that Brad would have called you on the telephone on Saturday if he were able to? Yes, said Don. The investigators were trying to work out whether the sightings of Brad on Saturday at the mall and at the Dairy Queen were accurate. They leaned toward no, because Friday was not a school day. It was believed that a lot of the sightings of Brad that people thought were on Saturday were actually on Friday. There were no verified sightings of Brad after sometime between 7:30 and 8:30pm Friday night. Let's get into the physical evidence in this case. When Brad's sneakers were removed at his autopsy, the several pine needles fell out of them. This led officer Bowers and several others to check the grove of pine trees that sat directly behind Boardman Plaza, where the dumpsters were. 200ft from the dumpster, Officer Robert Rupp found a white rag with red stains on it that the officers thought might have been used as a gag. They placed it into evidence and sent it to the bci. The following items from Brad's autopsy were also submitted to the Brad's tennis shoes, his black socks, his striped jeans, his blue jacket, his gray T shirt, his jockey shorts, his black leather belt, the bedsheet. He was transported in and two vials of scrapings from under his fingernails. No semen was detected on Brad's clothing. On the red rag, stains were negative for blood and appeared to be tomato based. A few small grease spots were also detected. Under the fingernail. Scrapings were dirt, fine lint and one piece of gold aluminum foil. The BCI lab reported that a streak of grease was found on the sole of Brad's left sneaker. In the plastic bag that contained Brad's sneakers and socks. They also found two small particles of olive green paint, a conifer needle, a small plant stem and a particle of foam rubber. Brad's pants showed evidence of a fine tan colored soil on both knees and upper portion of the right leg. Dark green paint was also found on the pants. On the jacket was found coffee grounds, sawdust, foam rubber of several different shades. Dark green paint, white paint and non ferrous metallic silver particles of undetermined origin. The same were all recovered from Brad's shirt. The white jockey shorts had both urine and fecal stains. The black belt Brad was wearing was a size small, 22 to 24 inch, manufactured by Town Craft Prep. An additional hole had been punched in the belt in order to lengthen it. The tan belt around his neck was also a child size, 22 to 24 inch, 18 inch wide. That belt was submitted to Lowell Levine, a consultant in forensic dentistry for the office of the Chief Medical examiner in New York City. He happened to be in Ohio in August 1972, lecturing in Cleveland. They showed him the belt and he believed the teeth marks on the tongue were human and they could have been put there over a period of time, not just at one time. It looked to him like it could have been part of a heroin addict's paraphernalia where they bite the end of the belt, wrapped around their arm to pull it tight and shut off circulation of blood to the arm. On April 10, investigators took the belt to J.C. penney in the Southern Park Mall and spoke to the manager of the Boys and Girls department. The tan belt was manufactured by Durite Leather Goods in New York in 1969 and was carried to the store until March 1970. Because Brad was seen hitchhiking and was driven to the dumpster at Boardman Plaza. Police were working on the theory that Brad was likely picked up in a vehicle. Of course, being 1972, there was no surveillance footage for police to work with. They had to rely on fallible human eyeball sightings of vehicles and corresponding tips relating thereto. Police also surveilled boardman Plaza in the middle of the night and wrote down suspicious license plates. Even field interviewing some drivers. Ed Jeffries, who worked the night shift at Boardman Plaza, reported a suspicious car, a white 1968-71 Caddy behind the Plaza on April 2, 1972 at 11:45pm that was about 36 hours before Brad was found. A Joe Caroty reported seeing a green Chevy Nova being driven near Boardman Plaza on the night of April 1st by a white male in his mid-30s, 6 foot tall, 185 pounds with light brown hair and a receding hairline. A store manager at a men's clothier at the Plaza also saw a 1969 or 70 green Chevy Nova cruising the area, passing by a number of times. A suspicious car, a light colored Dodge or Plymouth hardtop, was seen by Patrolman Fisher behind Boardman Plaza in the middle of the night on April 3rd. And a lot of stock was put into a vehicle sighting reported by Gladys Turner on April 4th at approximately 12:05am Gladys had just finished up her Monday night bowling league at Boardman Lanes. Her drive home took her behind Boardman Plaza at the intersection of Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail. She looked at the rear of the plaza and observed a late model light cream or white car backed into the COVID at the rear of Isley's Dairy Store where the two dumpsters were. As she watched, the car pulled away at a high rate of speed east behind the plaza and turned west onto Santa Fe Trail. When the car passed in front of Gladys, the man driving appeared to be hiding his face and the trunk lid on his vehicle was ajar. She could not describe the male Caucasian driver. She didn't see the license plate, but thought there was possibly a letter I lists of all these vehicles and many, many more were made. Investigators also gathered the names of all Brad's teachers and interviewed them. They compiled a list of all residents of Applewood Acres where the Templemans lived and interviewed many of them. Same for the Bellinos neighbors, one of whom was even polygraphed. The Bellino's next door neighbor, Robert H. Robert said sometimes Brad stopped in if no one was home, into his own house. Robert was fairly certain he saw Brad in the neighborhood. Around 9am on Saturday, April 1st. He passed a polygraph and was ruled out as a suspect. His sighting of Brad on Saturday was chalked up to an error. Investigators also checked on the names of all the Boardman Townhouse Motel guests for the dates of March 31 to April 4 in case the perpetrator was someone passing through. And eventually the Boardman PD filed a ViCAP report with the FBI detailing the case so they would be alerted to any similar cases nationwide. In the police file I was provided from Boardman PD an undated and unsigned typed report entitled Facts with the Highest Probabilities. Seems to be some sort of profile of Brad's suspected killer. He was a white male Caucasian Boardman area resident who worked or lived near the plaza where Brad was found. He likely had a criminal history and possibly had been committed to a mental hospital or institution. He was of average IQ, probably completed 7th to 10th grade schooling, and his occupation was likely business and services like shipping, commercial driving, stockkeeping. He likely had a good work record. He was immature with poor social relationships, isolated and shy, and probably surrounded himself with children by working with youth organizations. He could be someone acquainted with Brad through a youth club or a Sunday school, a sports team or the like. He was a casual acquaintance, neighbor or family friend. The likely place of the offense going down was the home of the offender, the car of the offender, or a vacant house, building or shed. After Brad's murder, residents of the area went into high alert. The fact that Brad had been sexually assaulted was widely publicized, and the abduction, sexual assault and murder of one of the community's little boys was truly unsettling to everyone. That kind of thing just didn't happen. Bear in mind also that this was 1972. Gay men were pariahs and often had to remain closeted, their sexual activity banned by law in many places and their preferences considered unnatural and taboo. Citizens started to call in reports about men deemed suspicious in overwhelming numbers. Police files investigating so called sexually deviant men numbered in the thousands of pages. That being said, it wasn't a roundup of all area gay men. Police focused on those who openly solicited sex from minor boys or who forced themselves on other males. I'd like to state here that another sobering reality was that child sex abuse was often not treated as such. In the early 1970s, adults who engaged in it were often charged with minor crimes like contributing to the delinquency of a minority, rather than with child rape or molestation. Anyway, the investigators did not believe that Brad willingly engaged in the assaultive behavior that had victimized him. A predator had taken him, and they had plenty of them to consider. For example, a tip came in about a suspicious person, a white male, 45 to 50 years old, of medium height, with light brown, graying hair and a dark complexion, driving a white vinyl and blue 1970 or 71 Monte Carlo, two door. This man tried to pick up a 14 year old boy at south and Dewey. The boy ran away and reported the incident. On April 5, Boardman police received a report from 13 year old Dominic S. Dominic reported that on the night of Wednesday, March 29 he was hitchhiking on State Road 7 at 9:30pm when a man picked him up in a 69 or 70 Pontiac brown with a vinyl top. The man asked him if he'd ever had sex with a man, ever played with himself and ever been given a blowjob by anyone. Dominic resisted this man's advances and the man dropped him safely at home. But his behavior was of course very suspicious. Dominic described the man as a white male, age 35 to 46ft, 200 to 220 pounds with brownish black hair combed back on the sides. Peter L. Of Columbus, age 55 was polygraphed in November 1973 after an August indecent exposure case at the Applewood Swim Club in which the victims were three young boys. The swim club was in the Templeman's neighborhood. Peter passed the polygraph both about Brad and about deliberately exposing himself. This was by far the most used tool by the 1970s investigators to rule suspects in or out the polygraph. They lie detector tested many many men and relied heavily on the results to inform the investigation. 25 year old Edward Y. Was investigated because in July 1967 he had been charged by the Youngstown PD with carnal copulation of after picking up a 16 year old named James and forcing him to have unnatural sex at knifepoint. Let's call this what the 1967 police did not rape. Edward Y. Pleaded guilty and got three years probation. Shockingly, between this charged event and his sentencing in October 1967 he exposed himself to a 10 year old boy and in August he assaulted a 14 year old boy named Robert, threatening him with a knife and making him disrobe. Edward Y. Was polygraphed about Brad's murder in May 1972 and was deemed to be telling the truth when he denied any involvement. Paul S. Came to the attention of Youngstown Police on May 5, 1972 when they were dispatched to the intersection of Mahoning and Hazelwood. Three boys had reported they were standing on the corner when a guy in his 50s pulled up. He asked them if they wanted to go for a ride. They said no and he said come on, I'll get some beer and we'll go to the quarry. The boys said they were calling the police and he drove off. But he Drove back by the area and the cop responding to the boy's complaint pulled him over. He said, I know why you're stopping me. You think I'm a queer. They asked him what he was doing in Youngstown and he said looking for work. He said, you'll never solve those murders. That's what you're looking for, ain't it? When police ran his record, they learned he had a history of sex offenses with juveniles in the New Castle, Pennsylvania area including oral sodomy and indecent assault. Paul S. Was polygraphed and the results revealed knowledge of sexual relations with juveniles but no knowledge of the Bellino case. A fugitive from California who worked in Boardman was investigated after he came to the attention of the North Lima police chief following an incident in that town. Richard Jordan had sexually molested a 17 year old male of North Lima and took the boy from Lima to Pennsylvania because he knew the police would be looking for them. The boy's parents called police who learned that Richard was in fact a fugitive from California with a molestation charge with a minor from Oakland in 1955 and another from Toledo for molesting a Minor male in 1954. Richard Jordan's lengthy record included contributing to the delinquency of a minor, crimes against children, indecent liberties and so on. Richard seemed like a really good candidate to have molested and killed Brad, but he passed a polygraph and was released. Another guy named Richard, last name F, was arrested in May 1972 for sodomy which was illegal regardless of the fact that the victims he sexually assaulted were were three male juveniles and nowadays he would be charged with child rape. Richard was polygraphed about Brad's case and the results were deemed inconclusive. Richard was not eliminated but stayed on the growing list of men police needed to keep an eye on. A man named Henry Alt had been arrested in August 1971 for indecent assault on an eight year old boy in Pennsylvania. He lured the child into his cottage and offered him a bottle of soda and then molested him. He he had a long record of armed robbery and various other crimes. Alt was found guilty and imprisoned for this assault on the child and Boardman investigators worked to find out where he was in late March 1972 when Brad was killed and a Robert David Deamer was investigated extensively because he had committed a crime that had distinct parallels to Bratz. In May 1972, Deamer anally raped a small blonde 11 year old boy named Philip Irvin Zigler in Bradenton, Florida. After the rape, Philip was strangled with a shoelace and dumped in an orange grove. Deamer was of particular interest because his hometown was Columbus, Ohio and his sister still lived there. So it was thought he could have been in the area when Brad was killed. The police file describes him as a dirty hippie type living in a commune. After deserting the army, Deamer could not be placed in the Boardman area in late March 1972, so he was crossed off the list. But for a time, he was an interesting suspect. A. Michael A. Had pled guilty to molesting a young boy in Missouri and had been in Ohio when Brad was killed. Because he was a student at Salem Bible Academy. He graduated in June 1973. The police report says, quote, from all indications, subject lived in Salem, Ohio on or about 4-4-1972 when this offense occurred and would be a prime suspect in this case. End quote. From what I can gather from the case file, Missouri police were requested to interrogate Michael A. About Brad's murder, but this went nowhere. Anthony G. Was named by several teenage boys in town as a, quote, homosexual who paid young boys for sexual favors. He was known to offer boys rides, buy them alcohol and generally do whatever he could to have access to young males. And then he would try to grab them. Some of the teens were savvy enough to exploit him for rides and alcohol, but always made sure to stay together so he could not molest them. One teen, Ron A. Told police that one time this Anthony G. Picked him up hitchhiking and started grabbing his leg. Another 16 year old boy named Dennis reported that on March 28, just three days before Brad was believed to have been taken, he was crossing Boardman Canfield Road near the Plaza Donut shop when a 50ish man in a turquoise Ford Ltd stopped to let him cross. This was Anthony G. Anthony asked if he would like to get in the car and go for a ride. Dennis told police this guy had been soliciting boys in the area for a long time, sometimes offering them money to go with him. This same guy also tried the same thing with another kid, Greg s age 15. Greg was able to get the license plate of the car and police tracked it down to Anthony. Anthony got in a lot of legal trouble in May 1972 when he was arrested for performing oral sex on a teenage boy in a Park at 3:30 in the morning. The boy said Anthony had paid him for this act on several occasions. Anthony G. Was of extreme interest to police investigating Brad's case. Not only because he was a known Local predator who preyed on young male hitchhikers. But also because he was reportedly known to frequent Boardman Plaza donuts. He lived in nearby Youngstown and he worked in Canfield. He had an extensive record for carrying concealed weapons and shooting a guy during a fight. Police hauled Anthony G. In and questioned him. He denied having anything to do with Brad's slaying. He was polygraphed and the results showed he was being truthful. One guy who was known to molest young boys in the immediate area was Robert E. Who lived in Applewood Acres around the same time frame. He reportedly attracted teen boys to his home with beer and pot and then would get physical. He also had a record. I don't know if he was polygraphed, but police moved on from old Bob as he was known. Another man who was looked at turned out not to be involved at all in Brad's murder, but was a collector of porn. And not just any porn. I was horrified to discover that there is such a thing as Nunporn. Unfortunately, there was a large collection of photos in the file I was sent. Not a fan. Okay, so those are just some examples of the men looked at in the widespread police investigation into Brad's murder. Basically, any man who had ever even looked sideways at young boys was investigated, his criminal history reviewed and his vehicle and whereabouts on Easter weekend 1972 documented. But there were some men who rose to the level of actual suspects in Brad's murder. Ralph Martin of East Lewiston was reported to Boardman police by a woman named Carol M. During the community panic in the aftermath of Brad being found slain. Carol called in on April 5, 1972, reporting a man she saw exposing himself to two groups of small children at Boardman Plaza. She wrote down the plate number of his copper duster. This same man, Ralph Martin, was the subject of a tip from a local minister who said this guy had a history of picking up kids. When police ran down this lead, they found Ralph Martin, a white male, aged 50s, light graying hair. They found that he had committed a felonious assault and sodomy on a 11 year old boy named Jack in 1955. It turned out Martin had molested a number of boys, admitting to forcing seven or eight of them to perform sex acts on him by threatening to beat them. Martin's MO Was to groom the kids by bringing the boys back to the movie theater where he was the projectionist, no doubt plying them with candy and soda and then force himself on them. He was diagnosed as a sociopathic sex deviate. And sent to prison and then paroled in August 1960. Looking into Martin's recent activities, police learned that he was still luring boys to the Boardman movie theater, bringing boys in after hours and making them perform sex acts. Under duress. They started surveilling Martin and photographed him in his car. He was interrogated but was never arrested for anything to do with Brad. Martin stayed on the list, but I think was back burnered because a man who became the prime suspect in the case very quickly drew the laser focus of investigators. The prime suspect in Brad's murder was a very well known local man in his 30s named Kenneth LeClaire. In the 1970-1972 timeframe, LeClair was commissioned as a special police officer or constable through the Mahoning county courts. He was also employed as a private security officer by a local businessman named Clarence Smith. His duties included managing security at the shop owned by Smith, which was the Adamas Lapidary and Gem Shop on Market street in Boardman. The gem shop was a favorite destination of Brad and his friends. Brad had a rock collection and the boys liked to go and look at the geodes and so on. Leclair also worked as a security guard for Smith's company, Diamond Steel, and at Smith's residence, a large property housing a barn where leclair had an office and would entertain gay lovers and reportedly underage boys. Brad's home was located 1/4 mile or less from this lapidary and gem shop and the barn that leclair frequented. According to witnesses and police officers who were familiar with him, Kenneth LeClaire frequently wore a police style uniform and drove a white Plymouth four door that was outfitted like an unmarked police car with a red light bar. Many local boys gave statements that LeClair would try to impress them with his gun, uniform and vehicle. But he would also offer to buy them alcohol and said he would expect a return favor. At some point. He invited them over to the barn to drink booze, smoke pot and watch stag movies. He told them if they ever want to make money, they could use what was in their pants. He would talk to them like he was their buddy, asking them if they ever been screwed or asking how big their dick was. He would tell them to play with it to get it bigger. Basically, he spent a lot of time acting like an authority figure in town toward a lot of boys in a pervy and lecherous way, but he generally seemed to lose interest in them when they turned 16 or so. Leclair was smart and clearly singled out the children more likely to succumb to his advances. He used his authority and grooming techniques to get what he wanted from the boys, and he'd been doing this for a long time. The investigation revealed that LeClair had a long history of engaging or attempting to engage in improper sexual activity with teenage boys, often manipulating them using his role as special police officer, security guard, advisor to church youth groups and boy scout leader. He used all these positions to facilitate contact with his victims and get them to like and trust him. LeClair's commission as an auxiliary police officer with the city of Youngstown had been revoked in 1960 after a complaint from the principal of Wilson high school that LeClair had been prowling through the school's halls and lavatory and picking up young male students during their lunch hours and taking them off premises in his vehicle. When the principal confronted him, he identified himself as a Youngstown police officer. He was found to be driving a privately owned vehicle outfitted as a police car. He was accused of impersonating a police officer in 1960 and made to relinquish his auxiliary officer title and stop decking out his car and wearing a uniform. Eventually, he moved on to Boardman. Investigators working Brad's case had every reason to be interested in leclair. He had a recent history of improper sexual activity and threats of violence with teenage boys at the Diamond Steel and Gem shop properties. For example, on July 23, 1971, at the barn on the Diamond Steel property, Leclair initiated mutual oral copulation with a 15 year old boardman boy named Frank. Frank had been at the barn where LeClaire hosted teen boys and Frank said that LeClaire approached him and persuaded him to partake in oral sex. He then threatened Frank by telling him that he would come looking for him if he told anyone. This act was repeated again with the same boy in July, September and November 1971. Leclair threatened the boy that if the boy ever told anyone about these events, he would find him and do a Baird job on him. The term Baird job was a reference to the murder of Thomas Baird, a 15 year old boy who had been found badly beaten on Lake Park Road in Boardman Township on Dec. 3, 1970. He died after lingering for 10 days. His death was common knowledge in the area at the time. Police openly stated that they were not ruling out the possibility that Thomas and Brad's deaths were connected. Police Chief David Hartsock told the media, quote, we have a link with the other case. Both fit a pattern More on the Baird case later. Back to Leclair. In March of 1971 he molested yet another 15 year old boy named Joseph during a church sponsored event at the Camp Stambaugh Boy Scout Camp in Mahoning County. The young Survivor said that LeClair started things by sitting on his bed and rubbing his back and touching him underneath his underwear. Okay, so you get the point. Leclair was a sexual predator who preyed on young boys who trusted him and he threatened them so they would never reveal what he had done. That was the status of things with LeClaire who was still a Boardman Auxiliary officer when Brad was killed. But after Brad's death, many, many boys reported LeClaire's name to the police as a possible suspect. Rick Bellino, Brad's brother, was one of these. He said leclair had picked him up hitchhiking him a number of times. But in a recent interaction he picked Rick up hitchhiking and asked him if he wanted to have some fun. He said all Rick had to do was relax and look at the stars. Rick bailed out of the car, but police were interested to learn that the Bellinos knew leclair. Brad had never mentioned being picked up by leclair but leclaire had been to the Bellino home once to look at a car they were selling. And there was more. Something big. On Friday, March 31, the night Brad was believed to have met his killer, at around 7:30 or 8:00pm, a Mrs. Neff called Ken LeClaire and told him Brad was outside throwing rocks at the Lapidary and gem shop sign. LeClaire, who was on duty as a security officer at the time, went outside and confronted Brad. Brad was last seen walking away from leclair and was not seen again until his dead body was discovered. Police discovered all this from a teenager to named Clarence who was hanging out with LeClaire at the time of Mrs. Neff's call and witnessed the interaction between LeClaire and Brad. Brad was never seen alive again. The police report reads, quote, investigation revealed that the victim was seen near the suspect's place of employment which is also near the victim's home at approximately 8pm that date, end quote. Furthermore, another witness report added to the pile on LeClaire witness Gladys Turner was the woman who had called in about seeing a white Plymouth four door with the trunk open at the dumpster behind Isley's just eight hours before Bob was found there. At the time, Kenneth leclair drove a newer model white Plymouth four door he was also known to frequent isolies. That location was approximately one and a half miles from the Adamus Lapidary and gem shop and diamond steel properties where Leclair worked regularly. Gladys Turner subsequently identified Leclair's white 1971 Plymouth Four Door as being the same color and style as the car she saw with the open trunk. All of this was more than sufficient to give police probable cause to search Leclair's workplace and vehicle. On April 11th, Boardman PD and CSIS from Youngstown PD conducted a search of the house, barn and a construction shop on Clarence Smith's property. All of which were frequented by leclair and many boys. Smith was present for the search. The police collected grease, soil, paint samples, styrofoam and metal shavings. They also collected a sample of sawdust from the trunk of a recently cut tree and and a sample of pine branch from a pine tree located 45ft west of the barn. All of these items were sent to the BCI and compared to the trace evidence found on Brad's clothing. In a disappointing turn of events, the lab report stated that none of the collected items compared positively with anything found on Brad. Leclair was polygraphed as part of the investigation. Of course, he denied having anything to do with Brad's murder. Apparently the results of the test were inconclusive. Leclair admitted to the Friday night interaction with Brad where Brad was throwing rocks, but claimed he never saw Brad after that. His alibi was that he closed the rock shop and spent the Evening with Clarence. Two brothers named who were 14 and 15 years old and another team named Fred B. They all hung out at the barn. Clarence went home and LeClaire finished work at the Smith residence around 12:30. Then he and teen boys went and ate sandwiches LeClaire's mom made and watched a late movie. The boys spent the night and on Saturday they all went shooting together. Yes, the alibi of this 33 year old man was that he had a sleepover with two young teenage boys. Unfortunately for the investigators backed this story up. But no matter. Leclair was a suspect in the eyes of police. They just had to figure out how he had pulled it off. Somehow he had time to rape and kill Brad that night. They were sure of it. As part of the extensive investigation into leclair's activities, the police interviewed a lot of the teenage boys who hung out with LeClaire or were propositioned or molested by him. And that is how the sexual abuse he inflicted on 15 year old FW throughout 1971 came out in his interview with police about Brad's murder. FW was friends with Brad's brothers. He said leclair would put porn in the woods knowing the boys would find it. Then he would shine his spotlight on them, intimidate them and take advantage of them. He was known to fondle boys. FW was polygraphed on May 5, 1972, asking about LeClaire and whether he, FW knew anything about Brad's murder. FW told the polygrapher about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of LeClaire, and he was deemed to be telling the truth. As a result, Leclair was arrested on May 5. The charge was carnal copulation of another human being in an opening of the body other than sexual parts, not child rape. Once again, LeClair refused to sign the rights waiver, refused to initial the warrant, and refused to give any information whatsoever. He was kept for two days in the jail until he was released by the judge on May 7 pending trial for unknown reasons. The charges were later dropped and LeClaire quickly moved to Florida. Brad's case chugged along with investigator Robert Rupp plugging away throughout 1973 and 1974. He continued checking on all leads that came in, mostly incidents from local and outside jurisdictions that had to do with so called sex perverts. The names of thousands of men are in the case file and the numbers of man hours expended are extraordinary. But with no DNA surveillance footage, cell phone data or eyewitnesses, answers eluded the dogged investigators. More than 20 years later, on March 18, now, Lieutenant Robert Rupp conducted an interview of a David K. At the Boardman Police Department. David had come forward because he knew Brad as they attended school together, and he said he had been emotionally affected by the murder since the time it happened. He had the name of a man that he felt the investigators should consider a possible suspect. He said. There was a man in Boardman Township named John diamond who was well known to many boys in the area at the time. Diamond was then working at a pizza shop on Southern Boulevard in Boardman. And David Kaye knew from personal experience that diamond had engaged in sexual activity with several young boys in the Boardman area around that time. David said diamond would let the boys play pinball for free at the pizza shop and would buy them beer in exchange for sexual favors, including fellatio and anal penetration. Diamond was sometimes rough and had discussed the use of a ligature around the neck to heighten sexual gratification. David himself said that he had engaged in these activities with diamond in his car and had been allowed to drive the car as a reward. David had good reason to suspect that diamond and Brad might have crossed paths. One evening a few months before the murder, he had seen Brad sitting in a car he recognized as Diamonds in the parking lot of the Lawson convenience store in Boardman. He recognized Brad because they knew each other. Brad was alone in the car, but David knew the car, a late 1960s green Rambler, well because he had driven it. It was Diamond's car. David noted one more thing of interest. He had seen diamond frequently around the Boardman area before Brad's murder. But afterwards, diamond sort of disappeared. He saw him once or twice six months later, but never saw him again after that. David suggested police take a look at John diamond, and they did. His stats revealed that he was only 17 or 18 at the time of Brad's murder. But since he had gotten into trouble, his criminal history showed Arrests by the Mahoning County Sheriff's office in February 1975 for disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, by the Boardman PD in July 1977 for carrying a concealed weapon in possession of marijuana, again by the Boardman PD in October 1982, for trespassing. By the Hubbard PD in March 87 for disseminating matter harmful to juveniles. And by the Ross, Pennsylvania Township PD in August 94 for indecent assault of a child victim in a restroom. Police notes say of diamond that he was a sex offender who preyed on juveniles and in all caps. Suspect is known to loiter near restrooms. When he was arrested for the indecent assault in 1994 in Ross Township. Diamond was confronted with his record of juvenile sex crimes and said he'd done things like that a long time ago and had been seeing counselors for professional help. Lt. Rupp pulled in diamond for an interview in January 1996. He admitted that he had worked in Boardman and drove a green Gremlin. In March and April 1972, he admitted to being gay, which even at the time of this interview in 1996, was seen as somewhat deviant. But diamond denied any involvement in Brad's murder and said he had never had contact with him and said Brad was never in his car. He claimed not to recognize Brad when shown his photo and did not recognize the belt when Lieutenant Rupp showed it to him. Diamond did admit to knowing Ken LeClaire as they were both involved in Boy Scouts at Camp Stamball, but that was it. There was nothing linking diamond to Brad and Lieutenant Rupp had to let him go. In March of 2001, Detective Jeffrey Patterson managed significantly to move the ball on Brad's case. DNA was now a common tool and Patterson reviewed the physical evidence for any items that could be tested for DNA. There was a major setback when he tried to locate the slides containing the sperm samples from the rectal swabs collected from Brad at autopsy and learned they had long since been destroyed. I know, it makes me question why on earth they have to destroy evidence laden items like these slides that take up minimal storage space and aren't hurting anyone, just sitting peacefully in their little boxes. But destroyed they were. So that was a dead end. Patterson knew, of course, that Brad's clothing had been examined for seminal fluid or other usable material back in 1972 and had come up empty. But that was 29 years earlier. No doubt crossing his fingers, on March 13, he resubmitted the clothes to the BCI lab for updated testing. He was told that in order to perform DNA testing on the clothes, the lab needed DNA from Brad. They didn't have any. So with the permission of Brad's mom, Alyssa, in July 2001, the they exhumed Brad. A large crew of people assembled at Greenhaven Cemetery on July 10, including Detective Patterson, Lieutenant Rupp, Patrolman Steve Runiak, who would go on to inherit the case coroner's investigators Tom Pappas and Frank DeMain, pathologist Dr. Jesse Giles, prosecutor's office investigator Paul Andrews, and a Catholic priest, Father Tim o'. Neill. The gathering was largely a formality. The casket was removed from the mausoleum and loaded into a transport vehicle to be delivered to the morgue where Dr. Jesse Giles collected the the one envelope containing five left nails and five left fingertips, one envelope containing four right nails and four right fingertips, one envelope containing pulled head hair, one plastic container containing a lower left molar, a white bag containing the left femur bone, an envelope containing two oral swabs, an envelope containing six perianal swabs, a bag containing underwear remains, and an envelope containing two perianal smears. The remains were placed in a new casket and reinterred. The samples collected were delivered to the BCI lab for testing. The lab was able to obtain a DNA profile for Brad, and when they analyzed the clothing he had been found wearing in the dumpster, semen was found on the back seat area of the genes. A BCI lab report by forensic scientist Margaret Salp stated that a partial DNA profile was obtained from the sperm fraction from the stain on the Genesis. It was Consistent with an unidentified male. There were no matches in codis, but it was still a bombshell. They now had a DNA profile that almost certainly came from Brad's killer and they could use it for direct comparison to the many suspects who had never been formally eliminated in the case. They started with Kenneth leclair. Kenneth leclair was still absolutely the number one suspect. The Boardman PD had filed a VICAP report on Brad's case, which had been filled out under the suspect section with the name of Kenneth Adrian LeClaire and the following info. Occupation, security guard, chauffeur, special police officer, boy Scout leader, National Guard, homosexual and drug user seller acquaintance to the victim. The MO Was listed as posed as authority figure slash police officer. His suspect vehicle was listed as a late model Plymouth Fury with a police package, spotlight and magnetic red light. The notes said, quote, suspect worked as a security guard and special police officer and was an avid police buff. Suspect had history of allegations of homosexual activity with teenage boys for approximately 10 to 15 years. Prior to this crime, suspect was active with Boy Scout organizations, et cetera. End quote. Lt. Rupp's 2001 report also says, quote, it is important to note that during the following 29 years the suspect has moved from this area to and currently resides in the South. Several males have come forward as adults and advised the police department that they had been molested as juveniles by the suspect. Additionally, the suspect worked as a uniformed security guard at a location 400 yards from the victim's home. Referring to Brad Bellino, remember that Kenneth Leclair basically fled Ohio after he was arrested for sexual abuse of the 15 year old boy, Frank. The charges were dropped, but he couldn't stand the heat, so he got out of town and moved to Florida. And he hadn't behaved himself there. He was convicted in 1982 of drug and weapons charges and also had arrests there in 1983 and 85 for charges of armed robbery and auto theft. But there was more. My eyes popped out of my head when I read this. On the VICAP form there is a prompt that reads list holdback information you do not want discussed or disseminated outside vicap, but which will assist in the analysis of your case. Boardman PD filled out news media accounts, named the suspect in connection with the Adam Walsh case in Florida. What? I could not get into newspapers.com fast enough. Sure enough, a February 1996 article in the South Florida Sun Sentinel addresses the prime suspect In Adam Walsh's 1981 murder, a man they referred to as dim witted Odys tool. But the article states, quote, Another man, Kenneth LeClaire, has not been ruled out as a suspect in the killing, end quote. LeClair's name had been provided to the police in Hollywood, Florida as the prime suspect in Brad's case. And the Walsh investigators in Florida were seeking him for questioning in the notorious murder of the little boy Adam Walsh there. But they couldn't find him. And that's because leclair had once again fled the state, this time settling in Anderson, South Carolina. The 53 year old Leclair was living with a teenage boy there and that is where the investigators caught up with him. The Ohio authorities got the Lee County Sheriff's Department to obtain a DNA sample from leclair pursuant to a search warrant written by Lieutenant Rupp. Again, when the South Carolina cops approached leclair, he refused to cooperate and they had to get a court order to seize him and collect DNA and saliva samples. When the results came in, they showed that the DNA extracted from the semen on Brad's pants did not match LeClaire. After nearly 30 years of being the prime suspect, he was excluded. I imagine Lieutenant Rupp was incredibly deflated by this news. The investigation turned to other possible suspects seeking DNA from men who had never been ruled out. One of these was the guy named Clarence, an older teen who was at the Adamas Lapandary and Gem Shop during the rock throwing encounter between Brad and LeClaire on March 31, 1972. Clarence had been arrested in 1998 in Florida for domestic violence against his male partner after an incident in which he accosted his partner with a shard of glass and a razor. Clarence had already been arrested once for domestic violence using a knife. This time when police came to him for a DNA sample in 2001, he was on parole and was noted to be a heavy drinker, prone to fits of rage. A search warrant for his DNA was executed on October 3, 2001. Testing showed that the semen extracted from the DNA on Brad's pants did not match Clarence either. He was excluded. This is when they turned to John Diamond. Remember that diamond was named by David Kay as having Brad in his car and being someone who liked young boys. Lieutenant Rupp got a search warrant for a DNA sample from diamond, which was executed on October 24, 2001. The DNA profile extracted from the semen on Brad's pants did not match diamond and he too was excluded. There was a lull in the case. Lt. Rupp retired, frustrated beyond measure that he hadn't been Able to solve Brad's case. When one of the original suspects, Ralph Martin, died in November 2005, the Boardman investigators rushed to get a DNA sample to test against their evidence. Before he was embalmed, Martin had died of natural causes on the staircase of a home described as squalor with multiple cats. Photos show that he had let trash pile up everywhere and was just dumping out the used cat litter. In the corner of one room in the house, police found tons of porn. The investigators contacted Martin's next of kin, his niece, who knew about his history of child molestation and wanted nothing to do with him. She authorized the testing of her uncle's DNA. Incidentally, the niece told the investigators that she had formerly owned the Bellino home with her first husband, but said Martin had never been there. To her knowledge. The DNA collected from Martin's corpse ruled him out as the man who raped and killed Brad. Detective Steven wigniac inherited the Bellino case and after reviewing the massive file, reinterviewed don Templeman in March 2006. Don said he remembered the case very well, and he said something that I hadn't seen in the file before. Don said that on the day that Brad left the Templeman's house, March 31, 1972, there was a brown van or car following them at a distance. They last saw it about two hours before Brad left his house. Well, that was interesting. The investigators continued reinterviewing people close to Brad. They contacted Joanne C. She was Brad's girlfriend of a few weeks and a fellow student at Glenwood middle school. Shockingly, she said she had never been interviewed in 1972 or afterwards until now. She said Brad called her around dinner time on Friday, March 31, 1972, but she couldn't remember the time. He wanted her to meet him at the southern park mall, but her mom was making dinner, and she couldn't. Don templeman had said Brad called Joanne from his house, so this made sense. Brad wanted her to meet up with him at the mall, which he would walk by on his way home. She couldn't, and we don't know whether Brad ever made it that far. Detective Runiak and his partner, detective Grimes, talked the case over with Rick and Joseph Bolino, Brad's brothers. They both said that Brad was an independent kid who was allowed to wander all over town and often stayed with a friend. He did not hang out with adults, but it was apparent that the family didn't really know much of what Brad was up to much of the time. Detective Runiac and detective Grimes, quote, decided to attempt to contact the people listed from the initial investigation who were subjected to polygraph exams and attempt to gain any new information and scientifically eliminate or include them by way of DNA. End quote. So they started tracking down these men, running their criminal histories and approaching them for DNA samples. They even swabbed Don Templeman and his father. Detective Runiac, also visited Frank W. The man who as a child had been victimized by Kenneth Leclair. His 1972 polygraph about bad's murder had been inconclusive, and he had an extensive criminal history for dui, theft and domestic violence. Frank agreed to submit a buccal swab and was ruled out. Another guy from the original case file, the mid-2000s investigators revisited was Michael Chalkey, the teen who had loaded the Iselese dumpsters with trash and failed to notice Brad's body. Apparently, he changed after the murder. His grades dropped to D's and F's and he developed pot and alcohol habits. He ended up going to prison for murder after stabbing someone in a bar fight. Chalkey had died and the the investigators looked into obtaining DNA samples from his autopsy, but they were preserved in paraffin blocks and the lab was unable to extract DNA from them. They moved on. Edward Y. Was contacted because he had lived in Youngstown at the time of the murder and was on the list because he had pulled a knife on a male juvenile who refused his sexual advances. He consented to a buccal swab and tests eliminated him. In May 2006, the investigators tracked down Fred B. Who had a special constable commission in boardman in the 1970s. He was a special policeman at Boardman Plaza and also worked for Clarence Smith and was a co worker of Kenneth LeClaire's for six years. Fred worked security at the Rock Shop and the roller rink, was a delivery person for the Isolys chain, and was seen at the arcade at Boardman Plaza. After 1am the week that Brad was found. Fred willingly gave a DNA sample and was eliminated. They next tracked down David C. Who had been polygraphed in 1973 when he was 26 years old because he'd been arrested for indecent exposure at a BP station on Route 224. His polygraph revealed that he was not involved in Brad's murder, but he did admit that for the last two years he'd been involved in over 100 incidents of indecent exposure in Boardman, Youngstown and strothers, Ohio. In May 2006, David willingly gave a DNA sample and was eliminated As a suspect. You'll recall the name Richard J. Who had been on the suspect list because of multiple instances of indecent liberties with a child. He was the one who took a 17 year old boy he molested across state lines into Pennsylvania to avoid capture. By the time the 2000s investigators tracked him down, he'd been incarcerated in Kansas for indecent liberties with a child. The file says, quote, richard J. Had similar charges as child molestation in Toledo, Youngstown and Fostoria, Ohio, as well as Oakland, California, end quote. Unfortunately, Richard had died on supervised release from prison for cancer treatment one week before he was supposed to be swabbed for DNA for the state offender DNA database. They were unable to obtain DNA for him to compare to the evidence in Brad's case. In June 2006, the investigators followed up on Richard F. He had been arrested in May 1972 for three counts of sodomy for raping three juvenile boys. And his polygraph on the Bellino murder was inconclusive. Now he was living in a homeless shelter in Houston. A detective Scales from Houston PD located him and the first thing Richard F. Said was, are you here about what happened in 1972? He agreed to give a buccal swab, but was very wound up and bit or broke off the end of one of the oral swabs, so they had to be redone. Richard F. Admitted that he did not do well on his polygraph, but still denied having anything to do with Brad's murder. When the DNA test results came back, they eliminated him. So by the late 2000s, the Brad Bellino case was stalled once again. Scores of DNA samples had failed to identify anyone as Brad's killer. Investigators ran out of viable suspects to test and the case was put on ice. In September of 2017, cuttings from the stain on Brad's pants were resubmitted for testing by detective Benjamin Switka. The lab once again obtained an STR profile, but also obtained a y STR profile of an unknown male contributor sufficient for comparison. In October 2018, Detective Albert Kakasic of the Boardman PD arranged for the BCI to send the sperm sample from Brad's pants to parabon nanolapse. He had heard about the cold cases being cracked around the nation thanks to this wondrous new tool, IGG ParaBond first produced a phenotype which told the investigators they were seeking a man of northeastern European descent with fair or very fair skin, few freckles, brown or hazel eyes, and brown or black hair. Not very specific, but any Non white suspects or anyone with blue eyes could be disregarded. Then Parabon proceeded with the IGG analysis. On December 20th, Detective Kakasek received Parabon's initial report. They had located two promising matches consistent with being a third cousin or closer relative to the suspect. Parabon recommended reference testing. Two individuals suspected to be related to the suspect, a man named JT and a woman named KR. KR's maiden name was Rydell, a name that appeared in the family tree of the suspect. JT refused to cooperate and the investigators learned that KR had Alzheimer's and could not consent to give a sample. So they turned to KR's sister whose name was S. Riddell. She agreed to provide a DNA sample. Parabon also recommended that if they could not obtain a sample from JT to try to obtain one from one of his great nieces, a woman named md. Another reference tester Parabon recommended was a woman named Kay Coleman from the Milton Heppinger genetic network. They had linked a number of matches to Kay Coleman's father and grandfather were possibly related to the suspect. When the investigators approached her, Kay Coleman was amenable to providing a sample and did so. This allowed Parabon to focus their analysis and they continued to recommend reference testers and follow up by uploading the results to GEDmatch. They also monitored new matches coming into the database. One family in particular continued to be prominent in all the results, the Riedels. This all took well into 2019. Parabon located an ancestral couple of the Riedel family descended from Joseph Riedel and his wife Emma Lucas. Based on the genetic relationships, their focus landed on five male grandchildren of the ancestral couple, all of whom were first cousins with one set of brothers. On October 23, 2019, Parabon relayed the name of one of these male Rydel first cousins to the investigators. This was a man named Thomas Carey. He had died and was cremated, but he had three siblings, one of whom, calling scs, was still living. The investigators approached scs, who worked at the Boardman Walmart at work. She declined to give a DNA sample and walked out of the meeting. Research and analysis continued into 2021. The genealogist could not reliably eliminate Thomas Carey, so she turned her sights to the other four male Rydell first cousins. One of them was unidentifiable as they had just a first name, no last name for him. But another of the first cousins was of interest. This was Paul Lewis Hake, a registered sex offender whose mother was named Rydell. Hake had been convicted in Trumbull County, Ohio in 2007 at age 49 of sex abuse of a 7 year old girl. He was sentenced to 8 years in prison but was dead by the time the IGG pointed to his family. The investigators started watching his brother Rh attempting to get a DNA sample from him and observed marijuana plants growing on his property in plain view. They obtained a search warrant for the pot plants and in executing it contacted RH who agreed to give a voluntary DNA sample. RH's sample was processed and Paul Hake and his brother RH were excluded based on RH's DNA. The testing confirmed the suspect was on the brother's maternal side and was possibly a first cousin. They were focused on the right family and there was only one male Riedel family first cousin left. Parabon gave the investigators the name of a possible candidate the police had never heard of before. Joseph Norman Hill. He was the only child of parents John Hill and Mildred Riddell Hill. By now it was well into 2022. The investigators were eager to collect a sample from this Joseph Norman Hill, but unfortunately he was dead. Hill had died in San Bernardino county on July 3, 2019 and was cremated. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Coroner's office reported Hill passed away at Calimesa Post Acute Long term Care facility and the listed was cause of death was cardiorespiratory arrest, senile degeneration of the brain and chronic kidney disease. Because his death was attributed to natural causes, no autopsy was performed and no samples were collected. The hospital that had treated Hill at the end of his life also had not retained any samples. So a sample from Hill was an impossibility. But he had a living son and that was where the investigators turned. In September of 2022, the FBI facilitated contact with the Criminal Investigations Division at the Lee County, Georgia Sheriff's Office. In October 2022, the Lee county investigator Chris Allen approached Hill's son and explained what they were trying to do. The son had not retained any items from his father that would be expected to yield DNA. So a voluntary sample from the son was the best they could do. Four swabs were collected and submitted to the BCI for comparison testing. Lab analyst Erica Jimenez at BCI conducted the testing and reported to now Captain Kokasek that the tests showed the DNA collected from the son of Joseph Norman Hill confirmed that his father was the man who had deposited the sperm on Brad Bellino's genes. They finally had the name of the man who had raped and killed 12 year old Brad literally 50 years earlier and they were just a few years too late. After it was all over, the Boardman PD released some information explaining how complicated and drawn out the genealogy process was in this case. Believe me when I tell you I vastly oversimplified the analysis, which was extremely complicated by the need to reference test a large number of individuals. As Captain Kakasek stated at the agency's press conference, the analysis was also difficult because not all families take into account out of wedlock births or adoptions and because not every person contacted would willingly give DNA. The Boardman investigators met with Deborah and Rick Bellino to inform them of their conclusions. Brad's family had never heard of Joseph Norman Hill. The Ohio authorities held a press conference on January 24, 2023. Boardman Police Chief Todd Worth and Captain Albert Kasek, Chief of Detectives, announced that the DNA sample collected from Hill's son resulted in a 98.28% probability that the DNA found on the victim and his clothing matched an individual previously unknown to investigators who was Joseph Norman Hill. He had died just four years earlier. The 98.28% number was not 100% match because they had no DNA from Hill himself since he'd been cremated. But the number was large enough that it provided confidence in the positive ID of Hill as Brad's murderer. We believe there is sufficient evidence to present to a grand jury if Hill was alive and that ultimately it would have led to his indictment, said Boardman Chief of Police Todd Worth. While Hill cannot be fully held accountable for this horrendous crime, our hope is that after 50 years, knowing who is responsible for Brad Bellino's death can bring some sense of closure to his family and friends. Mahunan County Prosecutor Gina Denova addressed the assembled crowd, confirming that if Hill were still alive, her office would consider the evidence against him sufficient to warrant murder charges. You know, 50 years, a child is lost and I have children to even imagine what it would be like and what the family must have gone through. Having no closure for such a long time is heartbreaking for me as a mother and a residence of this community and the prosecutor digenova said Brad's family asked for privacy, so I don't have interviews with them to relate, but they represented just a small fraction of the people who were deeply affected by this case. For example, Robert Rupp, who had worked the case as the lead investigator for years and years. This from WFMJ21 News. After the identification of Joseph Norman Hill, I vowed at that time I'd work very hard to find out what happened to him, said retired Boardman police officer Robert Rupp. Rupp even went as far as North Carolina to follow leads. Rupp noted that despite the fact that the case file contained the name of literally hundreds of men, Joseph Norman Hill was not one of them. Rupp told the Morning Journal, ever since that day that I stood at the dumpster and saw them pull that boy out, I've thought of that case every day of my life. Now, he said, when he thinks about the case of Bradley Bellino going forward, he will do so knowing the boy is finally at peace. So what do we know about Joseph Norman Hill? He was born on August 1, 1939, in Youngstown, Ohio, the only child of parents John Hill and Mildred Rydell Hill. His mother, Mildred, had seven siblings, all from Ohio, which complicated the genealogy. Mildred's father's name was Joseph Norman Rydell. She clearly named her son after him. On June 27, 1959, at age 19, Joseph Norman Hill married Bonita Lou Powell. His occupation on the marriage license was listed as bottle washer. A Catholic priest presided over the ceremony. Interviews with Hill's son provided some background information. During the 1970s, the family had lived in Boardman at 151 Shadyside Drive. Hill drove a delivery truck for Wheeler's Bottled Water and then drove a truck for a local produce company. Hill's personal vehicle was a goldish 1970 Monte Carlo, and according to a neighbor who lived next door, he also owned a dark colored van. The family moved to Yucapa, California, in 1971, and Hill worked for Tamco Steel after his cousin got him a job there. Hill's son said his father was not abusive, but he last saw him in 1993. His mom died that year of cancer and Hill himself had a stroke. The son said, quote, we moved him to San Diego to take care of him. He accused us of trying to take his money, so he moved away. He left a note advising that he did not want to see us again. After the announcement on January 24, 2023, Captain Kakasik got a call from a Mark C. He was a neighbor with Hill and his family when he was a young boy, mark said. He was 5 years old in 1972. His family moved to 155 Shadyside Drive a few months before Brad was killed, and they were friendly with their neighbors, the Hills. Mark recalled that Joseph Hill drove a produce truck and that he always brought extra produce over to Mark's family. Hill also had an old van that Mark and his family had borrowed sometime in 1978 to drive to Camp Fitch. Mark could not remember the color. Mark's mom, Donna, was also interviewed and she said she and her husband were close to Hill and his wife Bonnie, whose real name was Bonita. Donna recalled Hill's van was a dark color, but she couldn't recall the exact hue. She said she never saw anything off about Hill. They had lost touch when his family moved to California. Joseph Norman, Hill's son, had never heard the name Brad Bellino and didn't even recall the murder. He was very young when it happened. He never heard his father mention the case. Boardman Police Captain Albert Kakasek confirmed that Hill's name was nowhere in the case file. Hill was 32 years old at the time of Brad's murder. No connection between Hill and Brad or his family has been established. Hill was not known to go to their church to be involved in the schools or the youth baseball program or frequent any locations Brad was known to frequent. There was no indication that Hill lived anything but a normal life when he was in Boardman. However, once he moved to California, Hill did rack up an arrest. No files exist on this incident any longer, so we don't know what precipitated the arrest for lewd conduct, but Hill was convicted in LA county in 1986 for disorderly conduct and solicitation for a rude act. At the press conference, Chief Worth said law enforcement in California is also looking into other cases in their state to see if there is any link to Hill, but they didn't have to go that far. Let's talk about the Evans case. 13 year old David Evans, also a student at Boardman Middle School and a member of the band, disappeared in Boardman, Ohio on Friday, January 17, 1975. David was out on his own that afternoon and was last seen by his father at 6pm at the intersection of Stillson Place and Withers Drive, just a couple of dozen houses away from his own. Located at 208 Ridgewood. His father was heading out to night classes and stopped and talked with his son. David said he had been to check the ice on Boardman Lake, but it wasn't frozen thick enough to skate on so he was heading home. Okay, his dad said. See you later. But David did not go home. I know kids wander, right? But not David. David was a diabetic. He Wore a medical ID bracelet and required a shot every 12 hours. He did not have the option to blow through curfew or disobey his parents instructions. And as a shy kid, he would not have gotten into a car with someone he didn't know. When David did not show up at home, his parents called around to the homes of his friends and then drove around looking for him. When at 11:30pm they found his red hat in the snow at the intersection where his dad had seen him. With the snow around, it packed down in a circle as though a scuffle had occurred around it. Panic set in. Police got involved immediately. Officers like Glenn Bowers searching high and low for David accompanied by a National Guard helicopter. Everyone must have had an incredibly ominous sense of deja vu because of Brad's case. And they were right too. David's fully dressed body was found on Thursday, six days after he had vanished. This from an exclusive Porchlight Project investigation. The unsolved murder of Brad Bellino by Carolyn Bernardino. Quote, the search ended Thursday, January 23rd when Boardman realtor Hugh McCall and his wife found David's frozen body in the bushes of a parking lot at the northeast corner of Market street and Boardman Poland Road routes 7 and 224 respectively. The location is less than 1/2amile from where Brad Bellino was found in the dumpster. As the McCalls were getting into their car, they reported seeing a knee sticking up in the snow in the bushes, the Vindicator reported. His body was on his back with one knee bent and one straight, his hands on his chest. His clothing was pulled up around his neck as if he'd been dragged by the feet, McCall told police. End quote. An autopsy was performed on David and Mahoning County Deputy Coroner Dr. William Johnson ruled that the investigation held no element of criminality. The cause of death was determined to be diabetic coma. There was no strangulation and no sexual assault was evident on the body. But David's left radius and ulna were broken. There was evidence they had snapped after David was already dead. David also had a round 1/2 inch wide puncture wound a half inch deep on his back, three inches above the belt line. There was no corresponding hole in his shirt and there was very little blood indicating that it was inflicted post mortem. The source of the puncture wound has never been determined, but it was not a needle mark or inflicted by a knife bleed. According to Vindicator coverage at the time. David also had abrasions on his face, including his left eyebrow, right chin earlobe and upper part of his back. No one believed the natural death ruling Boardman citizens clamored for the case to be investigated as a homicide. Letters were written to the local papers expressing outrage because a natural death Finding meant that law enforcement would not be on the trail of a child killer. David Evans murder on top of Brad's and the unsolved 1970 beating death of 15 year old Thomas Baird caused pure panic in the community. Their tween boys were not safe and citizens kept them locked inside. David's parents went so far as to contact President Gerald Ford, begging him to get the FBI involved. The agency declined, stating jurisdictional restrictions. Glenn Bowers, the Boardman patrolman who went on to become police chief, later said of the David's Evans case, quote, you don't die and then break your wrist. At some point after he died, his wrist broke. Now, if I had him in the trunk of a car and I took him out of the car, out of that parking lot and let's say, carried him over and dropped him, it could have happened then how it occurred again, that's speculation, but that alone would tell you it wasn't natural, end quote. At a press conference, Boardman Police Chief Todd Worth said of the David Evans natural death ruling, quote, during that time, several investigators from the Boardman Police Department, based upon the information at the time, felt that this was the result of a homicide, end quote. The 1975 investigators continued to investigate David's case as a murder despite the ruling and submitted David's clothing for testing right away, but found nothing. Thank goodness they didn't return it to the family. Now, 50 years later, with the Brad Bellino case finally solved, Boardman Township Sgt. Michael Hughes and Capt. Albert Kirkasek quietly began turning their attention to the David Evans case. Boardman police believed that David's and Brad's cases were very likely linked. The circumstances of the boys deaths were different, yes, but the boys looked very much alike. David, too, was small for his age. Like Brad, he played baseball. Unlike Brad, he had overcome a physical challenge. He had only a thumb and two fingers on one hand, but he was determined to play baseball and he made it work. Both boys were out alone after dark when they were taken. Their bodies were found less than a mile apart. The investigators asked the current Mahoning County Coroner, Dr. David Kennedy, to review David's autopsy report. He had a different ruling than the Coroner back in 1975. The immediate cause of death was diabetic coma, but based on the broken bones, abrasions and puncture wound, he deemed the case a homicide. Based on that determination, the investigators resubmitted David's clothes for testing. On June 8, 2023, Ohio authorities held another press conference. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joined Boardman Township Chief of Police Todd Worth and Mahoning County Prosecuting attorney Gina diGenova to make a big announcement. Photos of both Brad Bellino and David Evans were hung on easels near the lectern. Chief Worth said that in April 2023, BCI testing on Brad's clothing obtained an offender profile, which was then compared to the profile in the Bolino case. As a result of the testing, it was found that a DNA profile taken off of David Evans underwear came back to Joseph Hill. Also, Worth said Hill had killed both boys. Worth continued, while Hill cannot fully be held responsible for these horrendous crimes, our hope is that after almost 50 years, knowing who was responsible for Bradley and David's deaths can bring some sense of closure to their families and friends. While David's parents had already passed away, his living siblings declined to participate in the news conference and requested privacy. As in Brad's case, no connection between Hill and David Evans was identified. Police believe his abduction and murder was a crime of opportunity. Mahoning County Prosecutor Gina digenova addressed the crowd to state that the forensic evidence would be sufficient to present the cases to a grand jury for indictment if Hill had remained alive. She said, losing a loved one is tremendously difficult, especially when a family has to wait over 50 years to actually get the answers that they always knew existed. David was a victim of a homicide at the hands of Joseph Norman Hill. This is the same man who took the life of Bradley Bellino many years ago. Investigating these cases is not easy, and it actually was impossible until certain techniques relating to DNA were developed and refined several years ago. Due to the hard work of our law enforcement partners, the killer of David Evans has been identified. I was comfortable we would end up getting an indictment if Mr. Hill was still alive. While no words could ever bring David back to those who loved him, I pray that this information will bring some closure to his family. Mr. Hill ruined so many lives. I only wish he lived long enough to have been brought to justice. May David Evans and Bradley Bellino rest in peace. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost spoke next. Consider these victims 12 and 13 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them, he said. Their murderers stole everything they could have become and could have achieved. Today's announcement does not mitigate their loss, but reinforces why our Cold Case team pours their heart and soul into their work, reminding us that everyone matters and we need to fight for justice. Joost continued, Sometimes superheroes don't wear capes. Sometimes they wear lab coats. You need to fight for justice. You need to fight for the victims because everybody matters. Yost called Hill a serial killer and said that other victims are being sought. He said, one of the things we know about the psychology of serial killers is they don't tend to stop. It's very possible that there are other cases out there, here, California, somewhere in between. Along Killer Hill's journey. Chief Worth clarified that the Ohio investigators had been in touch with the San Bernardino authorities to try to learn whether Hill committed any crimes during his many decades of living in California, besides the one lewd conduct arrest they already knew about. Hill's DNA has been entered into codis, so the possibility of future hits remains. For the record. It seems that police do not believe Hill was responsible for the murder of Thomas Baird, although Captain Kokasek told me in an email the case involving Thomas Baird is still open and I cannot provide any further information. Investigators believe that Joseph Norman Hill was an opportunistic predator. There is no record from his time in Ohio of any inappropriate conduct with children. He wasn't grooming them like the prime suspect, LeClaire, and he wasn't embedding himself in situations where he would be exposed to children, like schools and youth sports or the scouts. He was simply a roving predator who literally snatched small young boys off the streets, never to be seen alive again. If the David Evans crime scene in the snow is any indication, then Brad was also forcibly snatched off the street. But assuming the witness who saw him hitchhiking was correct, he could have gotten into Hill's vehicle of his own accord. As for the brown van that was seen following Brad and Don that night, could that have been Hill? Remember, he owned a dark colored van? Unfortunately, we'll never know. But we do know that investigators believe Brad was killed the very night he disappeared, probably within two to four hours of eating his last meal at the Templemans. There is no evidence whatsoever that he was kept alive for any period of time. He died within two to four hours of leaving his friend's home. Captain Kokasek said, by midnight, and they believe it was sooner than that. I cannot explain the pineapple in Brad's stomach. Dawn said Brad didn't like pineapple, and Mrs. Templeman said she did not serve it that night. I'm indignant when any of our killers die without facing justice, but it really riles me that this guy, Joseph Norman Hill, died of old age, having gotten away with murdering at least two children. Plus, he died in 2019 when the IGG analysis was already underway. He literally avoided being identified by just three years and that's why it is crucial that no expense be spared in conducting testing on cold case evidence now before it's too late. The original testing found nothing, but both David Evans and Brad Bellino's clothing items were retained and tested again 50 years later. The miracles of modern science. The testing in this case since 2018 cost $29,000, but answers are priceless. Thank you so much to Boardman Police Captain Albert Kokasek for providing me information about this case. And if you are one of the bad guys, they are coming for you. Thanks for listening to this episode of dnaid. Before you leave, please let me tell you about some important things related to the show. 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