Bill Comeans ////// 137 | Forensic Files

Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is the least attractive guy on the podcast. He is the captain.
I failed to see your humor, my friend. It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks
for telling a friend. Tonight we are drinking Metal by Trillium Brewing Company in beautiful
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heads out there. With 8.4 ABV, this is a very hoppy and dry Imperial double with
hints of tangerine, white wine, and all wrapped up with a smooth dry finish. And
Metal was brought to us by these smooth criminals. First up, a big shout out and
thank you to Nicole and Adam who sent some love to us via airmail. I'm friends with them on Untappd. So, thank you to
Nicole and Adam. And a big shout out to Kristen from Centreville, Virginia. Next up we have
Nicole. Oh, this is another Nicole from Groton, Connecticut. And a big shout out to legendary, the
legendary, Joel and Jimmy. Uh, no shout out to Jimmy because uh he didn't want to donate with
Joel. So, big shout out big like your jib to the legendary Joel. Also, a shout out to Windy in Wasola, Arkansas. I'm
not going to read her note, but basically Captain, she is inviting you on a crime spree. Which
which is funny, but it's also very much the opposite of what we are doing here. Well, I read the note. It's very very
inappropriate. We also have Rebecca in Cornelius, Oregon. And last but not least, a big thank you to Joanne from
Casey, Australia. So, thanks to everybody for filling up the fridge this week. And if you want to buy us a round
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All right, everybody gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.
The family of a teenager murdered 34 years ago is making a new plea to solve that crime. They are frustrated now with
the progress on the case and demanding answers from investigators. 10TV's Chuck Strickler has more on their new push for
justice. Well, it is one of the oldest unsolved murders in Franklin County. We talked to
the family of Bill Cammins a month ago on the 34th anniversary of his death. And today, Bill's sister continues to
post tweets like these as if Bill were talking from beyond the grave. And she has only one goal, to never let Bill's
voice go silent. I never wanted to be a best-kept secret for 34 years. I don't have a clue then
or now. Kathleen Commins speaking for her brother Bill, a battle she says is going nowhere. He's not just a box of
files sitting on a shelf gathering dust. You know, he had a future. He's 14 years
old. He had his whole life ahead of him. Somebody decided to end it. Phil Commins
was found just down the street from his house on January 7th, 1980. Years have passed, the case has grown cold, and she
feels even today her family has been left out in the cold. It's frustrating trying to get answers, trying to get
somebody to return phone calls, return emails, to get some kind of information. Here's one
to the Franklin County Sheriff's Department. Says, "Please don't give up on me now." The Commins family says
there were certain pieces of evidence found here at the murder scene. A knife, a beer bottle, and what could be the
most significant, Bill's scarf that was used to strangle him. Now, a body fluid was found on that scarf, and the family
says it was supposed to be tested for DNA last year, but they are still waiting for answers. There's got to be
somebody that can do something. There's no reason to stop. There's always going to be some hope.
And she will continue to pressure and publicize her plight in whatever way she can as the battle for answers goes on to
find Bill's killer. If my murder has tormented you for decades, and deep down you know what happened to me, share.
Now, Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott tells me that the DNA sample in question
is so small that if they use it once to test, it may be gone forever. And that's
why they are taking extra time to review it. He says his detectives will continue
to work the case. Kathleen says an email from a detective promises a follow-up meeting with the family. She says she
hopes that happens. In the meantime, these tweets, she says, will continue. On the evening of January 7th, 1980,
14-year-old Bill CoMeans is helping his father work on the family car. He went two doors down to get his sister
to walk home from a birthday party. This is Bill's little sister, Kathleen, who is only 9 years old. However, the party
was not over. Kathleen does not want to come home yet and ask Bill to come back and get her later. Right. So, a good
like a good older brother, he's going to come home and then he's going to tell his parents, "Hey, I'll go back and get
her later. No big deal." And I think the way that this thing went down, Captain,
is that Bill's father, Robert, and his mother, they the three of them were supposed to go to the mall that evening
while Kathleen was at this birthday party. Now, they didn't go to the mall because the family car was not running
properly. Uh and at this discovery, his father, Robert, and Bill decide that they're going to stay in the garage and
work on the car. Mhm. Now, throughout this night, Bill will be helping his father and he even his father a cup of
coffee. Um his two brothers, he has two older brothers. They're at home at this time
along with their mother. All are presumably in the house. Now, after bringing his father a cup a cup of
coffee for the second time, Bill goes out to the goes out of the garage and goes to the front porch front yard area
of the property. Well, let's talk a little bit about this neighborhood. I mean, so this is Columbus, Ohio. So, we're
pretty familiar with this, but those of you that aren't, uh if you've ever seen the show The Wonder Years,
Mhm. um now, that show was set back in time a little bit, but similar, uh neighborhood.
Yeah, I actually lived in this neighborhood at one point one time for about a year or so, and you've been out
there to visit me during this time, and it's a small neighborhood. Mhm. Uh and to describe it to everyone,
the the best way I would describe it is there's very few what I would call like straight roads. It's a lot of winding
roads through this neighborhood, and all the houses are they're smaller homes, um and probably were built in the '60s
and late '60s, I would guess. Um but, that gives you a picture of this neighborhood. Small homes, windy roads,
the homes are pretty close together. Yeah, and when I was first looking into this case, I I thought there would
probably be some confusion cuz, you know, this happened on a Monday, Mhm. but there was a birthday party.
Yeah, well, So, what's up with that? Yeah, it's a strange evening to have a birthday party in my mind, but uh take
note of this, people. I'm I'm being honest, shooting from the hip here, Mhm. cuz there are some parents out there
that are like, you know what? My kid was born on January 7th, we have the party on January 7th. You know what? Take into
consideration all your guests and do this thing on the weekend, please. Yeah, I don't know if that happens as much
anymore. But, okay, so it's it's Monday night, working on the car. Last time they see Bill as he delivers this cup of
coffee, and they're probably trying to settle in for the night. Mhm. And you they have work and school
the next day, so uh where's Bill? Well, exactly, because Robert is done, Bill's father Robert is done working on
the car at some point. He comes inside, he talks to his wife, he expects to see Bill inside the house, Bill's not there.
Mhm. You know, she says the obvious thing, oh, I thought he was out in the garage
with you. No, he must have went back to collect Kathleen from this birthday party. Right.
They go down to the birthday party, Kathleen's there. Bill is nowhere to be found.
They call this in to the local police department. Now, we said this was we said this is Columbus, Ohio, but this is
outside of 270. So, 270 is the outer belt freeway that goes around Columbus, Ohio. Mhm. This is what would be called
the west side. Um and it's typical back in these days that a small police department called
New Rome uh might have actually been the police officers that would have responded to this call. Right, so we
have a 14-year-old boy missing. And it's believed his father would later report that they believe that Bill was
probably last seen about 20 minutes or so before they realized he was not at the house.
Right, so not long after they report him missing, the police are there. They're going to surveillance the whole area for
I I believe 9:45 or so. Yeah, around 9:45 the police are on the scene looking through the neighborhood. Billy's father
and a neighbor and Billy's two brothers would end up finding Bill near train tracks at the end of a dead end street.
Uh Bill is lying face down in a snowy ditch. His winter scarf is knotted tightly around his neck and he is
unconscious. Uh this spot, strange enough Captain, is only about two blocks away from the family's home.
And as we said, this is near train tracks. So, he's lying face down amongst, you know, trash, beer bottles,
rusty car parts, that sort of thing. Uh Bill's brother Mike, using a pocketknife, cuts the scarf from Bill's
neck. Uh Bill's father and older brother Bob perform CPR on the young man until the ambulance arrived. Bill was
transported to a nearby hospital. Uh the hospital, this is called Doctors West. Uh it's maybe just two or three miles
away, so a very quick drive to the hospital. But unfortunately, at the hospital, Bill is pronounced dead.
Uh this would be around 11:00 p.m. at night. The cause of death was listed as strangulation. Law enforcement says
other than the strangulation, there were no other signs of violence or a struggle, nor was Bill robbed. Upon
arriving at the hospital, law law enforcement was working with two theories. Either Bill was murdered or
this was some kind of suicide. Mhm. Now, it wasn't until April 22nd that they I don't even think they even said suicide,
too. I mean, wasn't at some point they thought it was possibly an accident? Yes, you are exactly right. But but upon
arriving at the hospital, these are the two theories that they're working with. Uh it wasn't until April 22nd that they
released the coroner's report. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. Uh the cause of death was actually, you
know, I said strangulation earlier, but the cause of death was actually cardiac arrest due to compression of the neck by
ligature. Mhm. Um You know, I What does that mean? Okay, so basically, he has a heart attack
because there's extreme trauma to the body. You know, you're cutting off the airway, he's unable to breathe, and this
this brought upon this heart attack that ultimately killed him. Right, but that's probably by more force
than if he accidentally, you know, tightened the scarf around his neck too tight.
Mhm. It would probably because, you know, a lot more force on the neck might cause
that heart attack as Yes. Is that correct? Yes. Well, I but I also want to touch upon something real quick
here. Um you know, we said that this he went missing and was found unconscious on in January of 1980. It wasn't until
April, late April of 1980 that the coroner's report was released. Now, I've heard a lot of people and read a lot of
people stating that, you know, oh, it's the 1980s, they didn't really know what they were doing back then, and this was
the cause for the delay of this coroner's report. I actually don't believe that to be the case at all. I
think that they probably knew very quickly, within days of him arriving at the hospital, of what was the manner of
death. Mhm. Uh I believe that what actually happened here, Captain, was there might may have been a dispute
between the sheriff's department and the coroner as to the cause of death. Is there any other findings that the
coroner finds? Yes. Uh a toxicology report shows Valium in Bill Coen's blood. Mhm. But other than that, there are no
signs of personal drug use by the 14-year-old. Now, law enforcement are not sure how Bill got the Valium or why
it was in his system. The coroner uh publicly declares the death a very bizarre case, and we're
going to see why very quickly. Because it was quickly reported after his death, after the young man's death, that on two
previous occasions, uh the first being in September and then again in October of 1979,
Bill was attacked by two unknown males and he was choked on both of these occasions. Bill Coen, as we said, he's
14 years old. And I want to paint a picture of Bill for you. Now, 14 sounds very young. I've seen pictures of Bill,
and Bill is 6-ft tall, about 175 lb. Uh he's a freshman at Westland High School.
He's, you know, from all accounts, he's the the teachers say he's a perfect student. His parents say he's a perfect
child. Um he played the piano. He was in the school choir. He was a newspaper boy. Yeah, he he had
a newspaper route for some time. Now, I do want to touch upon this uh 6-ft tall,
175 lb because I've seen pictures of Bill. Mhm. He does not look 14 years old to me. He he looks seven 17 or 18. He
looks almost like a grown man. You know, when you picture a freshman in high school,
you don't So, typically don't think to see somebody 6-ft tall, 175 lbs. So, he's a He's a tall, big kid.
Let's talk about these attacks that took place in September and October of 1979.
Now, Bill received some threatening notes at school. It's reported that he received three to four notes that were
found in his locker. These were given to detectives eventually. Some of these were typed, some were
written, and some were cut from pieces of magazines. Now, Bill's best friend and his girlfriend also received a note
in their lockers. These notes were typed in red ink. One saying that blood will spill,
another saying it's it Bill has 3 months left. So, PS, make the best of it. The The note that said that Bill had 3
months left is the note that was delivered to his girlfriend's locker. Well, it seems like somebody has way too
much time on their hands. The other thing, Cap, and there is one note that was found at Westland High School after
Bill's death that says, "You are next." Signed with a red S. This is according to Bill Cormin's parents, but I also
want to state that the deputy Hold on a second. So, there was another note that was delivered after his death
that says, "You are next." We don't know if it was delivered after his death. It
was found at the high school after his death. Now, the tricky thing here is So, it wasn't delivered to anybody.
That's what I'm trying to get at. Um I do Here's where there's a big problem. There's little details about this note,
and that is because we have Bill Cormin's parents saying that this This note was found after his death at
Westland High School. We have the sheriff's deputies who would not discuss this item, nor would they confirm even
having found this. Right. So, we don't even know if it exists. So, it's Yes, it's in big big-time
dispute here whether this this thing was real or not. Played the base big time. So, I want to
talk about these assaults. The first took place on a Wednesday. This is September 5th, 1979 at approximately
8:30 p.m. Bill was on his way home from a friend's house. He decides to cut through the woods behind an elementary
school. Bill is on his bike. He's riding his bike. He's on a trail that's about 50 yards
behind the school when he is knocked off of his bike by what he would say is two
men that were unknown to him. Um they approached him from behind. Once they attacked him, they tie a plastic garbage
bag over Bill's head and wrap a bicycle inner tube around his neck. Bill almost blacks out from this attack, but
eventually he starts to break free before he can black out. When he when this happens, these two dudes that
attacked him in the woods took off. When Bill gets home, he has obvious signs of bruising.
The police are called regarding the attack. The attack is reported, but the the police go to the scene. They find
Bill's bike. They find the inner tube, and they find the bag that was placed over Bill's head. They found a note
there saying, "He was warned." Uh Bill was unable to describe the two men that assaulted him.
Okay, so normally you could be able to tell right away the individuals were black or white.
Mhm. So, he's not able to say that? find any reports where they they say, you know, these are white guys, these
are African-American guys. Um really there's no description of these people at all as far as public
records go. Well, normally too, it's like you might not be able to tell if the guy is 16,
you know, the person that attacked you if they were 16-year-old or if they were but you can normally, you know, break it
down and go, "Well, they're in their 20s or 30s." That's one of the frustrating one of the
many frustrating things regarding this case. And and what if Bill knew and just was afraid to actually
state anything? There's a lot of speculation regarding that. Let's talk about the attack that took place on
Monday, October 22nd, 1979. This is the second assault and you could you could possibly call this the
attempted murder of Bill Coen's. This takes place at approximately 6:30 p.m. Bill is out collecting money.
Like the captain said, he had a newspaper route. Mhm. And he was going door-to-door to
his different customers and he's collecting money. Now, he's not on his bike this evening. He's on foot. He says
that at some point while he's out collecting money, two men who were driving an older model vehicle,
he described this as aqua or turk-turquoise in color. Two men jumped out of a car and they jumped him from
behind. Mhm. They attack him and then tie a rope around his neck and throw him into some bushes. Billy loses
consciousness and he blacked out for about 5 to 6 hours. Once he regains consciousness, Bill walks home and he
arrives around 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. that morning. Bill has rope burns on his neck. He has a gash on his face and
broken blood vessels on his face as well. You know, obvious signs that this guy was choked and knocked out. Bill
files a police report and describes the assailants as two white guys in their late teens or early 20s. He's also taken
to the hospital at this time where his injuries are noted. This was probably part of the police report.
And so he's two He's attacked twice. Both times the police investigate, a report is filed and at least one of
these occasions he seeks medical attention because of the attack. Bill would ultimately end up quitting his
paper route. I understand why and just four days after filing the report, Bill is asked to take a
polygraph test. Now, he has to take this test. This is at the BCI office, the Ohio BCI office, which is in London,
Ohio. Mhm. There's a lot of questions about these two attacks. The the sheriff's
department and let's let's kind of clear this up a little bit because I said earlier the New Rome Police Department
would more than likely be the ones responding to the missing report of Bill from January of 1980. Mhm.
New Rome is a tiny little tiny little area and they only had part-time police officers back then. It's bigger than
parts unknown, but it is tiny. Yeah, and the best way to describe these police officers, picture boy scouts in cop cars
is pretty much the way I would describe the new New Rome Police Department. They're part-time. They really only
issue traffic tickets. They don't really investigate any type of crime. Later, and I don't know that
There's probably a New Rome cop listening right now. Mad as hell. Well, there there can't be because New
Rome no longer existed. At some point it was absorbed by Prairie Township because
there. There you go. But if they had any type of major crime or an assault or anything like this, this is within
Franklin County, Ohio. So eventually the sheriff's department would be called in
to investigate these different things, not the boy scouts that were issuing traffic tickets on West Broad Street.
Yeah, I'm sure I got a ticket from them before. Yeah, I I definitely received one and one thing I remember is they
they told me I had to pay in cash in person. And my ticket was for not having being
able to provide proof of insurance. I was pulled over for who knows what, but that ends up being the ticket. I didn't
have my insurance card on me at the date that I was pulled over. Now, in Columbus
and in most cities, you can just go to the court and prove that you had insurance at the time you were pulled
over and there's then they take away the ticket. My situation with New Rome was I
showed up, I'm like, "Look, I here's my proof of insurance." They're like, "We don't care that you have insurance. You
were pulled over for not having proof of it. You need to pay that ticket and pay
it in cash." I can't remember what I paid, but here's what I do remember. Part of the reason
why New Rome no longer exist Mhm. is they were writing all these tickets telling people they had to pay in cash
and then they they the government doesn't believe that New Rome was reporting all of these tickets being
paid or even issued. That they're basically pocketing the money. So, So, they got you. Yeah, many many good
reasons why New Rome is no longer around. But, let's let's go through this real quick, Captain. So, we have a dead
14-year-old boy, Bill Comings. He's found face down in a snowy ditch. Uh his scarf is tied tightly around his neck.
Death by strangulation. Exactly. And then we also find out that on two previous occasions this same
young man has been attacked by what he describes as two men who attack him and both times trying to
choke him to death. Yeah, first time trying to put a bag over his head and then tie the bag, you
know, tight. And then the other time trying to strangle him with a rope. Where he blacks out for 5 to 6 hours.
Yeah, but did they report him missing that day? There's So, here here's a big problem with this
case. His parents are no longer around. Um they they both passed away, lived to be,
you know, in old age. Um his sister and brother are still around. Uh he had two brothers. I don't know about his oldest
brother, but his sister and brother to this day are very active in the case, keeping this case alive, searching for
answers. Good for them. Exactly. Um but however, his they were young at this time. His
sister was only nine. Uh his brother was a few years older than him. They are a little they're a little fuzzy about the
details of some of these things. And there's also been a lot of people that have kind of come out of the
woodwork saying, "Well, if my son was attacked on two separate occasions, I would have moved. I would have mortgaged
my home and Sure. to another neighborhood." Sure you would have. Okay, let's let's not fault these
parents. I don't find any fault in what the parents did or did not do. No. Okay,
let's be clear about this. The two times that he was attacked, both times it was
reported to the police. That's what you're supposed to do. At least one of those occasions, Bill received medical
attention, if not on both occasions. Right. Um so, I don't know what more you expect of parents to do. You you report
these things to the police and and then you know, you hope that the police are out doing their job. Well, yeah, but
with the police is the the victim is unable to describe these guys. Uh the best description that they get
out of two attacks is it it was a aqua turquoise car uh with some white dudes that may have
been in their late teens or early 20s. Yeah, but it kind of sounds like you're faulting Bill. I mean, again, I think
there's probably some reason that he didn't want to come forward with some information, but yeah, there's ways to
toughen up your kids, too. I mean, you could you could have sent Bill to the Cobra
Kai dojo. Yeah, but it's also I I'm not faulting Bill. What I'm saying is there's good chance he may not have he
couldn't provide a better description because he didn't know who these guys were. Uh he was attacked. Uh you've
talked about on this show several times what happens when you're knocked out. You might not remember things that
happened leading up to being knocked out. I don't know what happens when somebody's choked out or strangled like
that to the point of losing losing consciousness that they might might not be clear about what happened to them. Um
it's pretty easy then when you come to to be pulling the inner tube off of your neck and the bag off of your head and
realize that that's how you were choked or strangled. There is so much more to get into in
this case just heating up. We'll get right back to this right after this quick beer break.
All right. Cheers, mates. Cheers, full on, mates. Full on cheers, mates. Okay, so let's jump right back into this,
Captain, cuz this thing is this thing's pretty big, I think. Mhm. Let's take into account that the sheriff's
department they're currently investigating that Bill has been attacked on two separate occasions. This
is before he's found murdered or found dead at the end of that dead end street. They were also investigating the letters
that these notes that Bill received at at school. They were investigating all this before
he's found dead at the the end of that street. Now, after his death, the Franklin County Sheriff's Department,
the detectives, they're on record stating quote that we are interviewing persons close to Bill. And the reason
being is at this time they're still struggling to determine if they were dealing with a homicide or potential
suicide. So, for the first part of their investigation, they interviewed just about if not everyone that would have
known Bill. Uh they interviewed his family, his friends, and school officials. And they state they said
quote uh persons interviewed describe Bill as a perfect student, a perfect child, a perfect citizen.
So, I really firmly believe that they could come up with no apparent reason for his death whatsoever. Even though
they couldn't decide if this is a homicide or suicide, there's no reason for this 14-year-old boy to be dead.
And I believe that that is why that they waited so long to have the coroner release his report, ultimately ruling
the situation a homicide. More evidence is going to come in backing the idea that this is a homicide and not a
suicide because his neighbors are going to start getting threatening letters. This is a crazy thing, Captain, because
on July 21st of 1980, neighbors on Maple Drive start receiving threatening letters or notes.
We say Maple Drive, this is the same street that Bill and his family lived on. It's reported that 13 to possibly 19
notes of these threatening letters or notes were received by eight different families all very near the Comeyns home.
Some families received identical notes on the same day, some notes were mailed, some were delivered in person at night.
Notes were found on porches and on cars. So up until September of 1980, these notes were mailed, but the first note
that was delivered in person at night was discovered on September 9th, 1980. Police were looking at the handwriting
on these notes. The handwriting is described in two ways, two very different ways.
One being crudely printed, and there's also notes that are neatly penciled on pieces of cut out envelopes.
These notes are submitted for analysis which reveals that the letters were all written by the same person, even though
some crudely and some neatly. Right, but were these letters connected to the original letters?
Let's go through that because there is some wording of these notes that would make you believe that they could be
connected. And keep in mind, he's Bill Comeyns is receiving these threatening letters and then he's killed. Most of
these letters are brief. They're simply just three or four words on a lot of the
notes. The messages that were reported in the newspaper at the time were as follows. Parents should guard their
children carefully. This one is signed X. The next note is time is short. Now, I want to note here that seven different
girls and women in the neighborhood, which the ages range from seven all the way up to 50, received these letters
addressed to their name. Mhm. Some of the other notes said all have been warned. One said death in October. One
said you are next. And the other one said it's time. This one was left the night before Halloween.
This of course, you know, just some of the notes received because they didn't report all of them to the newspapers.
Police say that they did believe that the letter writer could possibly be the the killer of Bill CoMeans.
On November 2nd, law enforcement took the notes to Syracuse for a psychological profile of the letter
writer. Here's where things Well, that's kind of difficult too when the letters are so short. Yeah. Well,
here's the difficult thing too because in December of 1980 they arrest somebody for writing these
letters. A 54-year-old woman who lives on Maple Drive was arrested for writing the threatening letters. She wrote all
of them. So, how did they catch this crazy old bat? Well, remember they did the psychological profile and they've
not said this in the papers, but here's what I believe. I believe that what they
came up with in the psychological profile is that probably one of the persons that have received letters or
received the notes themselves Mhm. was the author of all of these notes. So, what they end up doing is they go back
and everybody that received a note, they asked them to submit a handwriting sample so they can compare it to the
notes found. Mhm, clever. So, 54-year-old, this is Aileen Toop. Uh she decides she's not going to submit
a handwriting sample to the police. So, they get a search warrant and they go to
where she works and they take items from her desk, basically taking, you know, collecting handwriting samples on their
own without her help. They determine that she wrote these letters based off of items that they found in her desk.
And the letters probably smelled like cats. Well, Aileen Toop was a state employee.
She worked for the Ohio Department of Taxation. She lived with her husband who was a retired mail carrier. This is
Willard Toop, 56 years old. had him deliver the letters. They had four adult children at this time when
she's arrested. One daughter and three sons ranging in age from 22 to 30. I believe the daughter was the youngest of
their children. They lived in their house on Maple Drive for 7 years. They knew the Comeyns.
Actually, Mrs. Comeyn describes Aileen Toop as a friend. Um and So, then why is she writing these
these letters? Because she's not really a friend, I'm guessing. This is This is after the fact that once it's discovered
that she was the writer, the mother states, Bill Comeyn's mom states, you know, she was once a friend, now she's
somebody I don't even want to see ever again. Mhm. Uh they lived smell. The way that the way that Bill's sister Kathleen
describes the neighborhood, um the Toops would have lived not directly across the street from them, but across
the street in a house over. Right. So, they lived very close to the Comeyns. A little more background on Alien Toe.
Um She She before she wrote the letters, before the letters started showing up, this is back in 1973 and 74, she had
several nervous breakdowns. Um after after being caught as the letter writer, she was diagnosed as having dual
personalities. She spent 3 weeks in a hospital. And then she got all better. Well, she was or her family was one of
the first people to receive these threatening notes. They took The notes were delivered between July 21st and
October 31st of 1980. She's caught for this in December of 1980. Mhm. So, she even participated in the
investigation in the sense that she spoke with police on several occasions and she also talked to the newspapers.
Uh when when the people in the neighborhood were receiving these notes, she told the Columbus Dispatch that this
is some kind of sick joke or somebody is ready to go off the deep end. That's what she's quoted as in the paper. She
told the police she was receiving threatening phone calls and prowlers were lurking around her home at night
and attempted break-ins to their home. Well, I wonder if maybe with the mental issues she was dealing with
if this uh because Bill was murdered, maybe this triggered something inside her and and again maybe she was friends
with the family and that that was a bigger trigger and therefore then she became mentally unhinged because of the
murder. So, but it's sad nonetheless. Now, law enforcement would end up proving that all the phone calls to
police, uh the the comments or the suspected prowlers or attempted break-ins to their home, they were all
false claims. All right, so what does she get charged with? Well, she gets charged with writing the threatening
letters. This I guess is a misdemeanor and she pleads no contest to this and receives a fine of $50.
Um, she fainted during the court proceedings. And like Just like Suge Knight. Yes, he has a he has a problem going to
court. Um Here's the weird thing though, Captain. Mhm. Uh, in as if it's not weird enough.
much weirder. So, I've read newspaper articles that came out in December of 1980 and her husband is interviewed with
her uh, regarding her arrest. He seems to be in her court. Uh, he has her back. Um, like we said, she probably has some
mental issues going on. The thing is though, she offers no explanation as to why she wrote any of
these letters. Eventually, law enforcement would say that she did not write the letters that
Bill CoMeans received before his death and stated that she is not a suspect in Bill CoMeans murder. The letters that
were received were received at people's houses or on the street. Um, the the letters that Bill received
were at the school. Mhm. In September of 1981, so over a year and a half goes by and after announcing the
menacing letter writer was not a suspect uh, in what the coroner called a very bizarre case and also Eileen Tope was
not considered a suspect in the threatening letters Bill had received before his death, the police still had
named no suspects. Couldn't find a motive for the murder of Bill CoMeans, but now in 1981, they're re-examining
the case and talking to the press once again. This time advance there's a there's a theory that starts to come out
a year and a half after the death of Bill CoMeans. Okay. And this is that he possibly died
of an accidental suicide by way of autoerotic asphyxiation. Law enforcement Okay. Law enforcement claims that the
investigation is ongoing at this time. However, uh, we have detectives detectives
stating publicly that they don't believe that Bill Cole means was murdered. The coroner at this time still has not
changed his ruling of homicide. The deputy coroner claims the ruling of homicide was given to keep the case open
that law enforcement were they were having trouble believing the stories uh regarding the first two attacks on Bill
Cole means and they are now telling the newspapers that Bill Cole means uh responses to the lie detector test that
they asked him to take before his death showed signs of {quote} significant attempt to deceive. Okay, a couple
things going on here. First of all, autoerotic asphyxiation, right? Mhm. So, this is where either during
sex, I guess, or during self-sex. Okay. I can't believe we're talking about this.
Uh but you'd be choking yourself and be and it would help uh you know, you climax. Okay. Right? So,
that's what they're stating they believe it's a possibility that he was choking himself with his scarf
um and then beating off uh by the train tracks? All right. Well, let's get into this.
This is the time where we have to get into all the speculation. Mhm. Because it's obvious that law
enforcement they don't seem to have a good idea, I think, on whether he's murdered or whether this was an
accidental death. What's pretty simple, was his pants found down around his ankles or or was his pants on? I'm going
to go off of what Bob has said. Bob is uh Bill's older brother. He was one of the people that found Bill face down in
that ditch that night. He states that as far as his memory goes that Bill's clothing didn't seem abnormal.
Um and to furthermore, the family's belief that he was murdered is Okay, so this is a cold night. There was
snow on the ground. Bill's wearing a winter coat. He's wearing pants, long pants. He's wearing big thick gloves and
a scarf, a scarf his own scarf that is tied tightly around his neck that probably caused this cardiac arrest that
he had. There's no sign of There's no sign of a struggle, but there's also no sign of
what you were just talking about, that your self-sex that you were just discussing.
Um Sorry. So That's inappropriate. Yes. Bill, you know, Bob, these are Bob's statements many years later. One
sad One of the saddest things about this is I've I've read Bob's stories and um you know, just the fact that he and his
father basically took turns performing CPR on Bill, trying to revive him. Yeah. Um Bob states that that Bill had vomited
because of the the strangulation. And that for many, many years Bob could still taste that in his own mouth
from having performed the the CPR. But there's all kinds There's so much things There's so many things to discuss
here. Okay, let's Well, I think this whole idea of this autoerotic asphyxiation theory is to me is just irresponsible.
Well, and and one thing that that would have your back on that is that a lot of people argue that the size of the gloves
he wore would have been that you wouldn't have been able to tie your shoelaces with these big thick gloves
on. That he wouldn't have been able to tie this scarf around his own neck. Mhm. Um
I have so many questions about this case. And this is one of these fascinating cases that you dive into and
you could go a million different directions with it. Um the first The first question I have is there's there's
some question as to when Bill still in life started receiving these threatening letters, these threatening notes.
Was it before the first time he was attacked or was it after the first time he was attacked? Um he was attacked on
September 5th of 1979. And the reason why I bring that up because that's a Wednesday. That would
have been the Wednesday after Labor Day. Now, back in the day, and you'll remember this, and I know that school
school years have changed throughout the years that a lot of kids start school early August or mid-August nowadays.
But back when we were kids, we would typically start school the week before Labor Day. And I used to love
that because they would kind of ease you into the school year because you would typically start on that Wednesday before
Labor Day. Mhm. So, you would go to school for 3 days, you would have a 3-day weekend,
you would go back to school for 4 days before you went to your first full week of school, which is week three.
So, I have to believe, I'm just going off of numbers here, that Bill probably started receiving
these threatening letters after the first attack. And I only say that because I believe
that having found them in his locker and his friends finding them in their lockers, that these letters would have
been delivered by somebody that had access to that school. This would be an upperclassman or a
teacher, somebody already in the school. Now, leading up to the first attack, Bill would have only been in school for
what? Five days? Five school days before the first attack? Right. Um and I do have confirmation
that that that school year is correct. Uh his sister would say years later when questioned about the whole incident,
that back then we started school the week before Labor Day. So, he wouldn't have been in school very
long before before being attacked. Right, which makes some sense because, you know, people get back from summer
break and then they're kind of rowdy. Mhm. So, that's you know, that makes sense. And I And I believe, you know, if
he was murdered, that the the people that they're looking for, the suspects, are going to be
members of that high school. Mhm. There were some reports that Bill might have been bullied by some upperclassmen. Now,
no one could give really specific incidents of him being attacked or being picked on at school other than there
were a couple people that said on more than one occasion during choir practice, you know, while he's at choir, there
were several upperclassmen that seemed to go to the choir room and kind of stare down some of the kids in the
choir. Yeah, because Bill being one of them. Right, because when you go to high school, you normally have like freshman
English class. Well, who's in freshman English class? Freshman. Right? Mhm. You have sophomore math class or
whatever. There's those classes that have a overlap. So, choir being one or like jazz band or like even gym class
sometimes would have a overlap. Right, so this would give Bill the opportunity to be in contact with some of these
upperclassmen. You're exactly right. Okay, so let's talk about these notes and let's talk about the things going on
at school. Um regarding the notes that he received before his death, these are items that are being held
somewhere in an evidence locker in the Franklin County Sheriff's Department. These are These are notes that his
remaining family members are a little unclear of and they're not actually certain that they've seen these notes.
So, Kathleen and Bob, who are active in this investigation, are not really able to clue us in as to what these notes
are. We have some vague descriptions of these notes, but like I said, some of them were written, some were typed, and
some were letters and words cut out of magazines and newspapers. Uh the sheriff's department does not comment on
these letters other than stating that they were investigating if Bill was the actual author of these letters.
Mhm. And I say that because remember the polygraph test that they gave Bill, that
they requested of him? Once they saw signs that he might have been deceptive during those polygraph
test, that's probably why they're starting to look at him being a possible author of these notes. One big question
I have regarding those notes are which ones were written, which ones were typed, and which ones were uh cut out of
magazines and received by whom? Mhm. You know, if all the handwritten letters and notes were received by Bill, and the
typed ones and the ones that are cut out of newspapers and magazines were received by his best friend and his
girlfriend, I would really wonder if Bill actually authored those those notes. Yeah, cuz one of the theories that, you
know, gets me is, you know, as far as the the autoerotic asphyxiation theory, doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but a
possible like, you know, maybe it was uh suicide mhm in the sense of, well, you know, whatever's going on in my
head, I'm going to go take a walk, and I got this scarf, and if I tie it really tight Mhm. and cut off my airway,
that uh and I throw these gloves on, that once it gets difficult to breathe, that maybe uh I won't be able to take
off the scarf. Mhm. That that would be my idea. And so, but then what if, cuz like what
the coroner said is, well, it was really the heart attack because of the So, what
if he tied the scarf super tight, he can't breathe, he has these gloves on, before it gets to the point where he
would probably struggle to save himself, you know, he he passes out. Mhm. And so that that is a possibility.
And like you said, if he's writing these letters, then maybe he's just writing these
letters or talking about these attacks that maybe never happened as a way to get attention.
Yeah, or to cover up some kind of thing that he was doing on his own. Mhm. I actually I don't think But what would
that thing be? I mean, you're just tossing that out as a overall blanket idea. Well, I'll get into that in a a
bit here because I don't think that suicide is the right word for any of this. I think that what we're dealing
with here is either a homicide or an accidental death. Um Mhm. not a suicide. So, there is one report that one of the
teachers at Bill's high school at Westland High School told law enforcement that at one point Bill had
asked that teacher how to pass out, how to make yourself pass out. Mhm. I couldn't find I don't know how
credible this is. Um this is something that I found on a website somewhere. I didn't find it in a newspaper. I
couldn't find any other reports of this actually being a real thing. Okay? But what I'm
getting at here is that possibly could have happened. He could have asked somebody that or could have had these
weird conversations maybe with some of his friends. Now, Kathleen and Bob, they don't believe that a good number of his
friends were interviewed about this. You know, we have the law enforcement stating that, you know, we talked to
everybody that knew Bill. Um and they say that a lot of his friends weren't spoken to by the police. I don't know
what information they could offer, um but here's here's where I have a problem with this being a homicide.
The first thing is that the parents state that Bill would have not left the home without telling them where he was
going. And I believe this. I believe this because everybody that's been in the newspaper, anybody that knew Bill
has always said he was extremely close with his family and his parents, and he was also
a very responsible kid. You know, we talked about him being a good student and talking about him having a paper
route. Uh so, I believe this. So, their statement to the sheriff's department is
this has to be a murder because he would not have committed suicide. And Bill would have had to have been abducted
from either their front porch or from their front yard because he wouldn't have left on his own. Right.
But, there's a few problems I have with this. The one being that that these homes are close together. They're
small homes. They're small lots. Uh this this area, when I lived there 15 years ago, was a very quiet area at 9:00
at night, especially during the week. Mhm. If Bill was abducted, you would think
that somebody would have heard something. That there might have been a struggle. Bill's 6-ft tall, 175 lbs. Uh
I I feel his father's in the garage with the door open working on the car. Mhm. It almost seems to me like if he
was abducted, all Bill would have had to do, especially after having been, you know, in two situations like this
before, already being in fear, all he would have had to do was shout out or yell or scream, and his father would
have heard him or a neighbor would have heard him. So, I have a problem with the
family's thought that he was abducted and then later found strangled to death. And I'm going back to the first two
attacks as part of this problem. One being the night that he was coming home from his friend's house where he was
attacked in the woods and somebody places a bag over his head and an inner tube around his neck to
choke him out. I have a problem with the inner tube. That seems like a strange thing for an attacker to bring to an
area in the woods maybe lying there waiting for somebody? I mean, how would you know that
the letters to me if Bill's receiving threatening letters, it almost seems like Bill is targeted. Maybe he was
targeted after this first attack. I don't know. But having the inner tube there seems like a strange thing. It
doesn't seem like a strange thing to me with somebody being on a bike. Bill might have had an inner tube. You know,
a lot of people will bring an inner tube with them in case they get a flat tire out somewhere. They can change the tire
themselves and ride home. Well, right. So, you're saying that possibly he's playing like the blackout game. Yes, or
something of that nature. That that he was getting a some kind of high or or maybe this was something taught to him
by a friend. This is pretty common actually. I I'd say probably every generation that
people go through this period of, you know, the the blackout game or the fainting game, speed dreaming. There's a
bunch of different names for it. So, let's go back to the first attack. I've looked at where that school in the woods
behind the school are located. Mhm. And I know where his friend's house was and I know where his home was.
Deeper. The woods was actually out of his way. And he did not need to go through the woods to get home. First of
all, second of all, it was not a shorter route. You know, like kids often would take shorter routes, cut through
people's yards and cut through the woods. I get that. Yeah, but it would have been faster for him to
take the the roads from his friend's home to his house. It was completely out of the way. Yeah, but maybe he just
preferred it. I get that. I get that, but it seems strange. And then second of all, we have the
second attack. He's out on his own and he's unaccounted for for 5 to 6 hours. Mhm. That seems strange to me, too. I I
have so many so many issues with with this case. Claiming that you're attacked while
you're collecting money for your paper route might give you an not to have a paper route anymore. And on none of
these occasions was he robbed. And on the two occasions that he comes home from these attacks, there's nothing on
his clothes to indicate any type of struggle other than the bruising on his neck and that this this poor kid was had
passed out or was unconscious for some period of time. Right, but how do you explain these
marks? Could he could have choked himself. He could have blacked out himself. No, no, that's what I'm saying. But what
I'm saying, let's say you're trying to play the blackout game. You're just curious, right? Maybe you played the
blackout game with your buddies and you're like, you know what? That was kind of weird weird feeling. I kind of
want to experience that again. I mean, again, he's a 14-year-old boy. I mean, we do some dumb stuff, you know? So,
he's sitting there and he's like, okay, I want to try this by myself. Then he goes home and they're like, what the
hell's on your neck? Right? And then he's like, well, what happened was I was attacked and that's what was happening.
And then what he did was, well, I'll make up these notes cuz then if I make up these notes, then that covers my
tracks even more. Yeah, the first attack is weird because the police do go to that spot in the woods and they find the
bicycle, they find the inner tube, and they find the bag. Everything that Bill said would be there was there. Why would
he leave his bike? Maybe he came to and and panicked and and freaked out and just went home on foot. And like you
said, now he's at home, he's got to he's got to explain for his whereabouts, he's
got to explain why he doesn't have his bike. Um now we also have the situation where he's coming home from his paper
route. He's unaccounted for for 5 or 6 hours. He comes home and he looks like he's been attacked as far as the choking
goes. Um and now he's got to explain to his parents why they have to take him to the
hospital. I just don't see any sign of abduction or struggle or attack other than this
choking thing. The rumors of a abduction really kind of came after. Mhm. And then we have the Valium. Why was
there Valium in his system? That's strange to me, too, but I I don't think that anybody would have made him or
forced him to take Valium and then kill him. Mhm. That doesn't make any sense to
me. I He He would have died or been close to death pretty quickly after having been, quote unquote, abducted
from his front yard. I don't know how much time it would take Valium to get into his system, but I think this is
something that he took on his own. I wouldn't be surprised if this was something that was We could find no
reason that it was prescribed to him, but we're talking about 1979 and 1980. Is there a possibility that when he was
seeking medical attention for the second attack that a doctor he he received a shot that night, according to his
sister. Is there a chance that a doctor said, "You know what? Here's some of these
Here's some of these pills, and when you're feeling weird, Bill, or not feeling good about things, you can take
one of these, and it'll help you relax." Mhm. So, there's a possibility he could
have received those from an actual doctor or hospital, but not actually have been prescribed the medicine. We
don't have Bill's parents around anymore to verify how he would have received that Valium, nor could I find anything
from his parents discussing the Valium in the newspapers at the time. Well, you were telling me earlier about
an interesting point about the second attack. Yeah, the the one thing about the second
attack, remember he states that he was choked from behind with a rope. Uh these two white dudes, teenagers, early 20s,
they jump out of this car, they jump him. And the way that he makes this sound, and the way that it sounds in the
newspaper, is that he was along his newspaper route. These are homes that are close together, that he was attacked
there and basically choked and left for dead, thrown into some bushes or underneath a tree.
I wonder, you know, if we could get a better a better report of that actual attack. Because had he been abducted and
taken elsewhere, that would make more sense to me because I cannot believe that in this neighborhood he that that a
boy that a 14-year-old boy just lie there lifeless almost for 5 and 1/2 6 hours on the side of a sidewalk or in
somebody's front yard or side yard and nobody discovers him during this 5 and 1/2 6-hour time period and he eventually
wakes up and walks himself home. Well, and I think your theory makes a lot of sense. Uh I would just argue that there
was items found uh with uh Bill's body and you know, they were able to pull DNA off these items. Yeah, okay. So, there's
the items found with him. There's There's one item in particular that uh the family points to and this was a
knife was found in the area of where Bill was found. Mhm. And their thought is it's possible
that this knife was used to abduct Bill. That's why he was silent during the ab-
abduction. Um and that whoever killed Bill would have thrown him there into the ditch and then discarded of the
knife uh before leaving the scene. Well, and there's possibly DNA on the scarf as
well. Correct. So, I've I've seen several reports that in late 2013 and early 2014, they were
going to test these items. As early as 2000 I believe 2012. Okay. Um I've heard conflicting results on
these tests. Mhm. Uh I've heard some reports that the items still to this date have never been
tested. That's the main rumor that I hear as well. And then the other rumor is that
these items were tested and they weren't able to come up with any new leads based
off of their findings on these items. I wonder uh as far as the knife goes, let's
describe this knife. It was described by Kathleen, his Bill's sister, as basically a knife that you would find in
somebody's kitchen. It had a wooden handle. Um it was not a knife that the family recognized to be from their home.
Mhm. Um it also could simply just be trash. You know, this was along the the railroad tracks.
Uh he was found, you know, there were beer bottles in the area. There were car parts. Possible that this could just be
trash. Well, one of the other rumors about the DNA is that there was not enough to sample that they would have
this destroyed. And it's funny to me because think about how many cases that we cover
and we learn week by week we learn something. Mhm. And what did we learn last week? Was it
PCR? Yes. So, you know, there you know, you're reading about this case and they go, "Well, we
don't have enough DNA evidence to to test it. We're afraid we'll contaminate it." And then you go, "Wait, but PCR is
like basically a photocopier. So, why aren't we implementing this in this case? And if it's about money, I think
the thing maybe not the knife cuz like you said, it's a very possible very good possibility that this knife
was just thrown out as trash or just left there. You know, some kids were playing with their mom's kitchen knife
and just was like, "Ah, just leave it here." Littering. Don't do it. That's what it comes down to. A bunch of
litterers. Pick up your Pick up your trash. You You piece of trash. Um No, so I I agree with you. There's
There's those items there that to me are sketchy. But, I think the thing here is
if we can pull DNA evidence off of his neck, his scarf, anything that they could get that was connected to him, not
on those surroundings, but connected to him. If they're able to test that, if they're not, but they're able to
duplicate with PCR, then do that and then test it. Now, is there somebody else's DNA other than Bill's? Right.
Because if it's just Bill's, then your theory makes the most sense. But, if there's somebody else's It the
the or the you know, or the killers, not the suspects, the killers went to his high school. He knew them through high
school. They were upperclassmen. The thing that I lean towards your theory about is uh
why would you when you went to pick on an individual, wouldn't you punch them? Mhm. Hold them
down. Do something. I mean, it seems like strangling the individual is you know,
the first thing you would do when attacking somebody. possibly that you'd strangle them with
your hand, you know, you'd be in a fist fighter or or or maybe they're not even fighting back, but you'd strangle with
your hand before you would use a bag with a uh you know, a tire tube. And if they have
the tire tube, can can we you know, what kind of a tire tube did did Bill have? Mhm. You know,
so I don't know. I mean, it leans that way. The re- The only reason why I lean that way cuz I would assume that if
somebody's bullying him, that there would be a punch or something thrown. First, Bill would have a black eye, you
know, not just marks around his neck. Yeah, and okay, let's I'm going to go back to the DNA real quick before we get
before I get into the bullying. But the DNA that we're that you're talking about that was found on his
scarf, um was reported as bodily some kind of bodily fluid, right? Um been the puke. That's what I'm getting
at. We all we now know that that Bill vomited at some point uh and it very well could have been Bill Bill's vomit
on that that scarf. Um so, I question I question that and I'm like like you said, let's test that stuff and if it's
Bill's, we got to move on from this thing. What's irresponsible here is that I really feel that we're 30-some years
later and I I think there's enough to question if this is a homicide or not. I would love for law enforcement to come
out and say definitively one way or the other. It remains technically a homicide
because it's on the books as such. And that's what his sister believes it is as well. And so does Bob and his and I
believe his family always believed that he was killed and that he was murdered. Um I don't mean to go against his family
at all. Um I simply just want answers exactly like they do. Regarding the bullying, uh you mentioned something,
you know, that this would have had to be upperclassmen. I I agree with you 100% on that. The other thing is if these
people were not just they weren't just upperclassmen. If it if he was in fact murdered,
it wasn't just somebody that had access to his school that attended his school. This was also somebody that fit into
that neighborhood that didn't seem out of place in that neighborhood because there's nobody other than Bill on three
separate attacks to say, "Hey, I saw this guy or these guys or these group of people driving around in this
aqua-colored older car that that he said was probably a Ford Falcon or something
that looked like a Ford Falcon." Do yourself a favor, Google an older model aqua Ford Falcon. That is not that could
not have been a common car back in 1979-1980. Not the pictures that I saw. This is a
car that in my opinion would have stood out. This is a car in my opinion that had they gone to the school, they
probably could have asked about 50 people and said, "You know who drives one of those? So-and-so drives one of
those." Yeah. Uh it would have been an easy thing to come up with. The other thing regarding the bullying
is when interviewing his girlfriend and and his friend that received these threatening notes as well,
Captain, don't you believe, you know, both of us, you know, in a high school setting, don't you believe that if you
receive some kind of threatening note, you might have some clue who put that in your locker?
Yeah. Yeah, no, I I think so, but Or or at least out of the three of you, you might have some speculation as to
who did it? Yeah. I think you know, I think you could come up with somebody going oh so-and-so doesn't like me or
so-and-so's mad that I'm dating this girl or so-and-so doesn't like my buddy or started a fight with my buddy. I
think you would have a small list of people that would be likely suspects in the notes themselves. Well, I but I also
take back what I was saying before, you know, when I was saying the bullies would probably punch him in the face. If
you think about stuff like um what's that show Dazed and Confused? Mhm. You know, they these upperclassmen
would jump out of the car. All they're doing is holding down an individual and then spanking them. Mhm. I say that only
what I what I mean by that that's a horrible thing to do to anybody but what I mean only by that is they're not
punching them. Right. To get the So this could have been just some sick thing. doing like a form of hazing almost.
Right, but this could be some kind of sick form of hazing. Mhm. And so yeah, these these two individuals for whatever
reason picked Bill and then they go after him they grab him and then they just we'll tie this around his head and
then we'll we'll run off. Mhm. But the but the threatening letters that the the notes that he's getting don't sound like
some kind of taunting as towards hazing. You know, I get you are next. Yeah, that
sounds like oh you know, remember we choked that one kid we now we're going to we're going to choke you in our
little hazing weird hazing thing that we do but one of the notes says blood will
spill. That sounds like murder. That sounds like some kind of severe attack. The other one stating something like
Bill has three months left. Uh spend them wisely or something like that. You know, this Again, like I said there's so
many things that you brought up that I think are super valid points and then the other side of me goes
but the people that were closer to this case than me me and you could you know, ever be is his siblings. And for them to
come out and say look this doesn't you know, it's a 14-year-old boy that you know, maybe was just you know, had this
weird phase for a while where he was making himself pass out. That's a very good possibility.
There is a good possibility that he was just being harassed by somebody and that
these individuals, for whatever reason, maybe it just started out as a haze and they're like, "Oh, well, this, you know,
this actually went too far. Now we got to get rid of him." Mhm. That's that's a good possibility, too. And I But I
think, you know, what I know what his sister's doing is she has a Facebook page. They've posted a lot of
information about that school. And now, what's great about like WebSleuthers is they can
actually go online and pull up the yearbook for Westland High School. Mhm. Um Westland High School in Columbus,
Ohio. And and look through uh and look through these pages. Yeah. And and if he was murdered, to me, 100% I
believe you'd find those those individuals in that book. Well, I think a big problem with this case is Aileen
Tope, the one who started writing these other letters that were not connected to
anything. I think that I think that the police probably had their suspicions as to whether this was an actual homicide
or not. And I think once the once those letters started, well, there was a big scare in that neighborhood by people
receiving these letters and even by people that weren't receiving these these letters. And so, the police had a
job, they had a duty to that community to go in there and determine who's writing these letters because everybody
in the neighborhood immediately thinks these are coming from whoever killed poor Bill Comings. And I think that once
they were already confused about their own investigation, they get involved in this letter writing investigation. And I
think the police for a long time, for those few months that those letters are being received, I think they thought
that if they could find the author of those letters, that they would find the killer of Bill. And when then that that
didn't work out, when that turned out not to be Bill's killer, I think maybe they reverted back to their original
thought of this might not be a homicide. And what I mean where I think a big interruption is alien tope is I think
that those months would have been better spent. They definitely they definitely did a lot of work on this case. They did
a lot of work trying to figure out who that letter writer was. Why would they have spent those hours and those days
going back and actually clearing up within a year, within months of his death, determining the actual cause of
death and and maybe getting it right. Well, and I wish you know, there was more than one polygraph test.
Yeah. Because I because I don't know how much that proves. I mean, we I I don't I
actually don't leave I don't I don't look to that polygraph for anything, really. Because I don't I I think I
think giving a polygraph to a 14-year-old Mhm. boy or girl, I think is strange. I think especially if he was in
fact attacked, you could make a child feel like they're guilty of something that they had no
had nothing to do with. Yeah. And just by putting him in the chair and submitting him to that test, he could
come off as deceitful just because he's now in a situation and in a setting where he feels you made him feel like
he's done something wrong. And I would love to know if that DNA was actually tested. If so, I would love to know what
the results are. I know people are going to send us things that they've seen, but
like we've said, we've heard both sides of the coin Mhm. that yes, that they have been done, nothing came back, or
that they've not been done. I worry that the sheriff's department, this many years later,
believes that it's not actually a homicide and they might not be technically working the case. If that's
if that in fact is their stance on it, I would love for them to say, "You know what, Comeyns family, let's sit down.
Let's review the boxes of evidence that we have. Let's review this together because they are owed some answers. They
are owed some answers in this case and They're owed closure, yeah. Even even if it's just law enforcement coming out and
stating, yes, we are on your side. We believe this was a homicide. Or no, we still think that this was an accidental
death. And I And all the people that write suicide or even the autoerotic asphyxiation stuff, I think that's a
little too I think that's a little irresponsible. I think that this, in my opinion, I lean
towards accidental death here and I think that's the right term. I And I welcome I welcome anybody else's
thoughts on it because there's I my When I sit down and look at this thing, Captain, my opinion changes daily
Mhm. as to whether he was killed or whether this was an accidental death. Yeah, well, again, I think sometimes
people throw out these theories and they have no evidence to back it up. Mhm. So, you know, I think look, I but I
do think, like I said before, there's enough information online and that maybe that the websleuther community could
help out in some way, the true crime community in some way possibly could dive into this case a little bit and
maybe uncover some new leads. That's the hope of his sister. The other thing, too, is, you know, like we said, our you
know, what we kind of lean towards or what kind of makes the most sense was this was some kind of accidental um
death. The other thing, too, is if we do have these letters, why can't we pull DNA off the letters that were written?
Right. So, and if it's if it is if it's about funding, well, it's this simple, you know, the the siblings can contact
us, can contact True Crime Garage and we'll we'll pull the the true crime community together and we'll get this
tested ourselves if it's about financials. So, um I I you know, it'd be great for that
community and for the family to get some closure on this case. Yes, and I truly hope that Kathleen and Bob, uh Bill's
brother and sister, receive the answers and the information that they need and deserve. Uh, his parents deserve that
information and and that closure as well. Unfortunately, they did not get it. You can follow you can actually follow
Bill Comings and Bill Comings family at Twitter. Um, so if anybody's looking for updates
on the case, hopefully hopefully there are updates. Um, you can do that at Bill Comings. Well, it's a really interesting
case, one I never heard of uh, till this week. And it was a Columbus case. So, uh, do we have a recommended reading for
this week? We do. This week we are recommending the Pierre Hotel Affair. This is a true
story of one of the most famous unsolved heist in American history. In 1972, someone
uh, well, I should say someones stole $28 million worth of jewels from New York City's Pierre Hotel. You know, this
would make a great movie, Captain. Anyway, a group of men arrived at the hotel dressed in tuxedos. They very
quickly attacked the security guards and took hotel staff and guest hostage. Uh,
when they finally left the hotel, they departed with $28 million worth of jewels and they left in limousines. If
you would like to if you like a good heist or you like a good who done it, check out the Pierre Hotel Affair and
you can do that by going to truecrimegarage.com and click on the recommended page. Uh, team Nick shirts
are about to sell out and and team captain uh, tank tops are about to sell out as well and I don't know when when
the next time we'll print these. I have a couple um, different designs up my sleeve that we'll be rolling out in the
next week or so. All right, until next week everybody be good, be kind and don't litter.
Oh.

Bill Comeans ////// 137

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

January 7th, 1980 - Columbus, Ohio. 14 year Bill Comeans' lifeless body is discovered by his father and brothers. Bill had been abducted from the family home and found face down in a ditch just two blocks away. Bill had been attacked before on two separate occasions. He was receiving threatening notes before his death. About six months after Bill's death someone started sending threatening notes to women and children in Bill's neighborhood. Today we discuss the strange death and case of young Bill Comeans.

Beer of the Week - Mettle by Trillium Brewing CompanyGarage Grade - 4 and a half bottle caps out of 5

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Bill Commins and his family's ongoing quest for justice after 34 years.

Key points

Family's Plea for Justice. The family of Bill Cammins, murdered 34 years ago, demands answers from investigators.
The Mystery of Bill Coen. 14-year-old Bill Coen is found dead, leading to a complex investigation.
Bill Comings Found Dead. A 14-year-old boy is discovered dead in a snowy ditch, raising questions about his death.
Threatening Letters Sent to Neighbors. After Bill's death, neighbors receive ominous letters, suggesting a deeper connection to the case.
Aileen Toop Arrested for Letters. A woman is arrested for writing threatening letters, but is she connected to Bill's murder?
The Irresponsible Theory. Discussing the controversial autoerotic asphyxiation theory surrounding the case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

There's always going to be some hope.

Kathleen Commins on her family's quest for justice.

5:18WatchDec 3, 2022

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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