Ohio teenager’s murder solved after 43 years thanks to DNA technology

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A man who was shot and killed last month as authorities tried to serve him an indictment on federal gun charges has been identified as the killer of an 18-year-old Ohio woman in a case that went unsolved for 43 years, the news outlet reported. Monday police.

Mansfield Police Chief Jason Bammann said the cold case of Debra Lee Miller, a local waitress beaten to death with an oven rack in her apartment on April 29, 1981, has been reopened in 2021 to take into account advances in DNA technology and investigative techniques forensics.

“They investigated the case as if it happened yesterday, from a completely new perspective,” Bammann said at a news conference. “Their discoveries were astonishing.”

The chief said evidence left in the room showed a “reliable DNA profile” of James Vanest, Miller’s then-26-year-old upstairs neighbor. Vanest was questioned, but he was never identified as a suspect during the initial investigation, which became mired in allegations of potential police misconduct.

Miller was one of several Mansfield-area people whose suspicious deaths in the 1980s were investigated for possible links to Mansfield police officers.

A special investigation ordered by the mayor found in 1989 that there was no evidence linking any officer to the deaths, but the report raised questions about sexual ties between police officers and murder victim Miller and how police investigate some killings. The report noted that Miller wrote in her diary that she had sexual relations with several Mansfield police officers.

The local police chief retired in January 1990 after receiving further complaints about alleged irregularities in the investigation into the death of a Mansfield policeman’s ex-wife.

In the following years, the Miller case was reopened several times. This time, Richland County Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher concluded that the DNA evidence against Vanest was strong enough that her office was preparing a murder case against him to go before a grand jury.

But this case was never presented.

Police found Vanest living in Canton, about 100 miles (160.93 km) east of Mansfield, in November 2021 and questioned him again about Miller’s murder. He admitted lying to investigators during his first interview in 1981, and investigators sensed that this time he was trying to create an alibi for the presence of his DNA in Miller’s apartment, Bammann said.

Mansfield Police Detective Terry Butler asked for a second interview in spring 2024, but Vanest declined the interview and asked for an attorney. Authorities said he then sold his Canton home, bought a pickup truck and trailer and fled to West Virginia. He left several firearms at his Canton home and was arrested in West Virginia with two more. He was arrested on state charges and released on bail.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives took over his case and later charged him with federal weapons charges. On November 18, U.S. Marshals and the Canton SWAT team attempted to serve this indictment on Vanest at the hotel where he was hiding out.

“It is our understanding that Mr. Vanest, when confronted by marshals and the Canton Regional SWAT team, pointed a gun at them and barricaded himself in the hotel,” Bammann said. “After a brief gunfight, one of the Canton SWAT members was shot in the arm and Mr. Vanest was fatally shot.”

The chief said the department considers the case closed and hopes that identifying Miller’s killer will bring closure to her family.

Butler said his uncle was one of the first officers to arrive on the scene of Miller’s slaying in 1981. He said he feels lucky to have the chance to solve a murder that occurred when he was just 10 years old. People should know, he said, that “we don’t give up, we keep looking.”