this is a nice quiet area. they had to know their killers.
i'm just hearing about this, need to know more about victims. awful crime. inexplicable. the poor mother of Johnny was in the street screaming her son cannot be dead! that breaks my heart. the girl's parents trying to get home asap.
Toledo Blade, Ohio
Father finds young couple slain
'Horrific' scene described in Springfield Twp. home
Johnny S. Clarke was a "mama's boy," according to his aunt, Maggie Cromer, and when his mother could not reach her 21-year-old son on his cell phone early Monday, she had a "gut feeling" that something was terribly wrong.
After two calls to 911, Johnny's father, John P. Clarke, drove to the Springfield Township home where Johnny was living and kicked in the front door shortly before 4 a.m. Inside, he found his son and his son's girlfriend, 20-year-old Lisa Straub, lying dead on the floor, their hands bound with duct tape and plastic bags over their heads.
"What kind of evil person could make such a heinous crime?" Ms. Cromer asked between sobs at a news conference last night.
Her husband, Joe, said Mr. Clarke's father "is in complete shock, to find his own son lying there. … He tried to revive him.. … It's just heartbreaking."
Ms. Straub's parents, Jeff and Mary Beth Straub, had left on Friday for a 25th wedding anniversary Caribbean cruise and were reached by relatives at 1 p.m. Monday. The couple were flying back last night from Miami, trying to beat the imminent winter storm, said Jim Verbosky, Lisa Straub's uncle.
Mr. Clarke's mother had called 911 at 1:24 a.m. and again at 2:07 a.m., according to Detective Cathy Stooksbury of the Lucas County Sheriff's Office.
"Mom felt in her gut that there was something wrong, but she got that gut feeling because of some information she got earlier in the morning just before we got called out there at 1:24 a.m.," the detective said.
"Our crews went out there. We saw nothing amiss when we did the first check," Detective Stooksbury said. "They rang the bell, looked in the windows, walked around house. There were no sign of forced entry."
A deputy checked the house at 2161 Longacre Lane a second time, but again got no response at the door and saw nothing out of place, she said. There were no tracks in the snow.
The third time Mr. Clarke's mother called 911, it was 3:50 a.m. and she said her husband had just found Mr. Clarke and Miss Straub dead.
Detective Stooksbury said deputies came upon a "horrific" scene in the kitchen/dining room area of the house.
Lucas County Coroner James Patrick said the victims "were bound, and they had plastic bags over the heads, and they do not have any obvious gunshot wounds. That's where we are."
Investigators said they are treating both deaths as homicides, although autopsies were to be performed today.
Detective Stooksbury said investigators have not determined a motive in the slayings, although it appeared that someone had gone through part of the house looking for something.
"There may be evidence that it could possibly have been an attempted type robbery situation, that people may have been looking for money," she said.
"We're not sure of that. That's something that we're looking into." She also said there is a chance the suspect or suspects could have been let inside the home.
Ms. Cromer said she believed the victims knew their killer or killers. "It must have been somebody they knew, obviously, to let them in the house."
She said Miss Straub, a 2009 graduate of Springfield High School, and Mr. Clarke had been dating for nearly two years.
Mr. Clarke, a graduate of Bowsher High School, had been living with the Straub family for several months, Ms. Cromer said.
Miss Straub was a prenursing student at Owens Community College and had been employed as a server at T.G.I. Fridays restaurant on Bernath Parkway for about a year.
Mr. Verbosky, who is Rossford's fire chief, said his niece "always had a smile on her face and was always a nice, happy girl."
In a news conference at his Rossford home last night, Mr. Verbosky said Miss Straub played volleyball on travel teams and was looking forward to a career in nursing. "She had goals and was working toward the future to help others," he said.
"She strived to be a good person and had a lot to offer her community."
Miss Straub loved animals and had recently rescued and was raising a Rottweiler puppy, her uncle said.
He said she had no enemies and that her parents were in "total shock and disbelief."
Jaime Drafts, who had worked with Miss Straub at Applebee's restaurant on West Dussel Drive in Maumee, was shocked to hear news of the slayings Monday.
"I saw her a week ago when I went to see her where she works now at T.G.I. Friday's," Miss Drafts said. "She was a super nice girl and always fun to be around.
Mark Mundwiler, T.G.I. Friday's manager, said Ms. Straub was hired as a server at the corporation's Airport Highway franchise restaurant about a year ago.
Co-workers were devastated, and the company said it would offer grief counseling to employees.
One worker, who did not give her name, gave a blank look and remarked how "everyone here knew her."
Many learned of the homicides Monday morning as news spread across the Internet on media Web sites and the Facebook social networking site, Mr. Mundwiler said.
Before the restaurant opened for business Monday, employees put several tables together to sit down and console each other, he said.
"We bond together so close as a family," Mr. Mundwiler said of the restaurant staff.
Sarah Mettler, who described herself as a childhood friend of Miss Straub, drove to the Straubs' home Monday morning rather than going to class at the University of Toledo.
"We learned how to walk together -- no joke -- we were best friends," Miss Mettler said. "She's a very nice person. She's just always happy. … I just can't believe this happened."
Johnny Clarke played football at Bowsher and was planning to start barber school in a few weeks, according to his uncle and aunt.
"He was very well-liked. He had a lot of friends," Ms. Cromer said.
Mr. Cromer said his nephew "may have had a little bit of trouble here and there, but Johnny, you know, he was trying to get his life together. Lisa was a good girl. They were both loved. Johnny was a big part of our life. He's like our own son."
Mr. Cromer said Mr. Clarke "got into little mischievous stuff, like everybody else."
Asked if Mr. Clarke hung around with some bad people, Mr. Cromer said: "Who don't?''
Mr. Verbosky and the Cromers urged anyone with information on the slayings to contact law-enforcement authorities.
"Somebody out there has got to know what's going on. Somebody saw something," Mr. Cromer said.
Those who lived near the Straubs in the quiet, upscale neighborhood told deputies they had not seen or heard anything unusual Sunday night or early Monday, Detective Stooksbury said. No suspects had been identified Monday although detectives were "following up quite a few leads," she said.
She said Mr. Clarke had picked up Miss Straub from work Sunday. The two "had plans with someone earlier in the evening," the detective said, but had not shown up and had not called to say they wouldn't be there.
Miss Straub's car was in the garage, and it did not appear they had gone out at all that evening, she said.
Asked whether the murders appeared to be random or intentional, Detective Stooksbury said she did not know.
"As of right now, I would hate to even speculate," she said.
"It was very tragic -- two young people -- very tragic."
Anyone with information about the crime is urged to call the sheriff's office or Crime Stoppers, 419-255-1111.
i hope neither of them was into drugs. :(
this was a terrible murder, no guns or knives, just smothered them!
blade
Maggie and Joe Cromer, an aunt and uncle of Johnny S. Clarke, talk at a news conference about the death of the 21-year-old along with his girlfriend, Lisa Straub, 20.
After two calls to 911, Johnny's father, John P. Clarke, drove to the Springfield Township home where Johnny was living and kicked in the front door shortly before 4 a.m. Inside, he found his son and his son's girlfriend, 20-year-old Lisa Straub, lying dead on the floor, their hands bound with duct tape and plastic bags over their heads.
"What kind of evil person could make such a heinous crime?" Ms. Cromer asked between sobs at a news conference last night.
Her husband, Joe, said Mr. Clarke's father "is in complete shock, to find his own son lying there. … He tried to revive him.. … It's just heartbreaking."
Ms. Straub's parents, Jeff and Mary Beth Straub, had left on Friday for a 25th wedding anniversary Caribbean cruise and were reached by relatives at 1 p.m. Monday. The couple were flying back last night from Miami, trying to beat the imminent winter storm, said Jim Verbosky, Lisa Straub's uncle.
Mr. Clarke's mother had called 911 at 1:24 a.m. and again at 2:07 a.m., according to Detective Cathy Stooksbury of the Lucas County Sheriff's Office.
"Mom felt in her gut that there was something wrong, but she got that gut feeling because of some information she got earlier in the morning just before we got called out there at 1:24 a.m.," the detective said.
"Our crews went out there. We saw nothing amiss when we did the first check," Detective Stooksbury said. "They rang the bell, looked in the windows, walked around house. There were no sign of forced entry."
A deputy checked the house at 2161 Longacre Lane a second time, but again got no response at the door and saw nothing out of place, she said. There were no tracks in the snow.
The third time Mr. Clarke's mother called 911, it was 3:50 a.m. and she said her husband had just found Mr. Clarke and Miss Straub dead.
Detective Stooksbury said deputies came upon a "horrific" scene in the kitchen/dining room area of the house.
Lucas County Coroner James Patrick said the victims "were bound, and they had plastic bags over the heads, and they do not have any obvious gunshot wounds. That's where we are."
Investigators said they are treating both deaths as homicides, although autopsies were to be performed today.
Detective Stooksbury said investigators have not determined a motive in the slayings, although it appeared that someone had gone through part of the house looking for something.
"There may be evidence that it could possibly have been an attempted type robbery situation, that people may have been looking for money," she said.
"We're not sure of that. That's something that we're looking into." She also said there is a chance the suspect or suspects could have been let inside the home.
Ms. Cromer said she believed the victims knew their killer or killers. "It must have been somebody they knew, obviously, to let them in the house."
She said Miss Straub, a 2009 graduate of Springfield High School, and Mr. Clarke had been dating for nearly two years.
Mr. Clarke, a graduate of Bowsher High School, had been living with the Straub family for several months, Ms. Cromer said.
Miss Straub was a prenursing student at Owens Community College and had been employed as a server at T.G.I. Fridays restaurant on Bernath Parkway for about a year.
Mr. Verbosky, who is Rossford's fire chief, said his niece "always had a smile on her face and was always a nice, happy girl."
In a news conference at his Rossford home last night, Mr. Verbosky said Miss Straub played volleyball on travel teams and was looking forward to a career in nursing. "She had goals and was working toward the future to help others," he said.
"She strived to be a good person and had a lot to offer her community."
Miss Straub loved animals and had recently rescued and was raising a Rottweiler puppy, her uncle said.
He said she had no enemies and that her parents were in "total shock and disbelief."
Jaime Drafts, who had worked with Miss Straub at Applebee's restaurant on West Dussel Drive in Maumee, was shocked to hear news of the slayings Monday.
"I saw her a week ago when I went to see her where she works now at T.G.I. Friday's," Miss Drafts said. "She was a super nice girl and always fun to be around."
Mark Mundwiler, T.G.I. Friday's manager, said Ms. Straub was hired as a server at the corporation's Airport Highway franchise restaurant about a year ago.
Co-workers were devastated, and the company said it would offer grief counseling to employees.
One worker, who did not give her name, gave a blank look and remarked how "everyone here knew her."
Many learned of the homicides Monday morning as news spread across the Internet on media Web sites and the Facebook social networking site, Mr. Mundwiler said.
Before the restaurant opened for business Monday, employees put several tables together to sit down and console each other, he said.
"We bond together so close as a family," Mr. Mundwiler said of the restaurant staff.
Sarah Mettler, who described herself as a childhood friend of Miss Straub, drove to the Straubs' home Monday morning rather than going to class at the University of Toledo.
"We learned how to walk together -- no joke -- we were best friends," Miss Mettler said. "She's a very nice person. She's just always happy. … I just can't believe this happened."
Johnny Clarke played football at Bowsher and was planning to start barber school in a few weeks, according to his uncle and aunt.
"He was very well-liked. He had a lot of friends," Ms. Cromer said.
Mr. Cromer said his nephew "may have had a little bit of trouble here and there, but Johnny, you know, he was trying to get his life together. Lisa was a good girl. They were both loved. Johnny was a big part of our life. He's like our own son."
Mr. Cromer said Mr. Clarke "got into little mischievous stuff, like everybody else."
Asked if Mr. Clarke hung around with some bad people, Mr. Cromer said: "Who don't?''
Mr. Verbosky and the Cromers urged anyone with information on the slayings to contact law-enforcement authorities.
"Somebody out there has got to know what's going on. Somebody saw something," Mr. Cromer said.
Those who lived near the Straubs in the quiet, upscale neighborhood told deputies they had not seen or heard anything unusual Sunday night or early Monday, Detective Stooksbury said. No suspects had been identified Monday although detectives were "following up quite a few leads," she said.
She said Mr. Clarke had picked up Miss Straub from work Sunday. The two "had plans with someone earlier in the evening," the detective said, but had not shown up and had not called to say they wouldn't be there.
Miss Straub's car was in the garage, and it did not appear they had gone out at all that evening, she said.
Asked whether the murders appeared to be random or intentional, Detective Stooksbury said she did not know.
"As of right now, I would hate to even speculate," she said.
"It was very tragic -- two young people -- very tragic."
Could it be one of those weird, unfortunate, bad moment kind of pic where she's actually in the process of another visual emotion entirely? Like the way someone about to sneeze looks like they're from the planet Bong if caught in just the right moment...?
this is truly bizarre. drug dealers don't kill like this, and garden-variety burglars don't usually kill at all. a burglary thinking the parents were away? OK, maybe, but it seems the killer(s) knocked on door. i don't see how one person could have overpowered the 2 victims and done this.
and there is a contradiction here, the mom says a friend on phone heard her son answer the door and say "who are you?" then later it is stated they knew killer(s). there should be prints or even DNA on duct tape.
Toledo Blade:
Johnny S. Clarke was talking to a friend on his cell phone when he was startled by what he saw at the door, according to police tapes.
"This girl says she was on the phone with my son and his girlfriend, and he was supposed to go pick her up," his mother, Maytee Vasquez-Clarke, said in her first call to 911 at 1:21 a.m. Monday. "He was telling her he was going out the door, and all she heard was the phone drop and heard my son saying in the background, 'Who are you? What do you want? What are you doing here?'... Oh my God, ma'am, I'm so afraid something happened bad. Oh my God."
Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke was told the phone went dead. Hours later, her son and his girlfriend were found slain in her parents' Springfield Township home.
In a series of 911 calls released by the Lucas County Sheriff's Office Tuesday, Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke frantically told the dispatcher she was so worried her heart was beating out of her chest.
Early Monday morning, her husband had met sheriff's deputies at the home where their 21-year-old son had been staying with his girlfriend, Lisa Straub, 20. Not long afterward, Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke arrived at the house with her cousin.
"I kept telling [the deputies], 'Please kick the door in.' I had a horrible gut-wrenching feeling," she told The Blade Tuesday. "My son isn't answering the phone. These kids could be dead in the house. They could need medical help. They said they didn't hear anything and they didn't see forcible entry."
While deputies twice came to the Longacre Lane house and left, Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke said that once the deputies left that second time, her husband, John P. Clarke, and cousin walked around to the back of the house where Mr. Clarke boosted her cousin up to peer in a window.
Through a blind, she could see the bodies on the floor.
"I saw her dart toward the truck. She was running and saying, 'Oh my God, call the cops. Call 911. Call the rescue squad, and I knew," Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke said.
Her husband ran around the house, kicked in the front door, and found the two on the floor near the kitchen. Both had their hands bound with tape. Plastic bags were fastened around their necks with tape.
"He ran in and sees her, then sees my son, and then he rips open the bag to give him CPR, but his face is already cold," a tearful Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke said. "He turns to her, rips her bag open and he sees a puddle of blood next to her on her face."
"I feel like this is a nightmare and I just need to wake up and give him a kiss and talk to him," Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke said. "I can't stand life. His little brothers cry for him constantly. My 7-year-old writes letters to him in heaven. My 15-year-old won't come out of his room."
Lucas County Coroner James Patrick said autopsies performed Tuesday showed that both Ms. Straub and Mr. Clarke died from asphyxiation. They had injuries to their necks but no other significant marks, he said.
They were found with their hands bound with duct tape and plastic bags over their heads, he confirmed.
Both deaths are being investigated as homicides, and no suspects were in custody Tuesday.
Dr. Patrick said his office could not pinpoint a time of death, although it appears both died within six hours of being found.
Sheriff's Detective Cathy Stooksbury said Tuesday that the deputies who responded to the Straub home did what they legally could do.
"Everyone was walking around the house. Everyone was looking in, trying to get them to answer the door," Detective Stooksbury said. "There was no probable cause to kick that door in. There was no probable cause to believe there was something wrong inside that home."
Just a mother's intuition.
In Mrs. Vaquez-Clarke's second call to 911 at 2:07 a.m., she said she was driving to the Straub home with her cousin. Deputies had been to the house and found nothing, she said, and she wanted answers.
"I want to know where my son is," she tells the dispatcher. "I want to know where my son and his girlfriend are."
At 3:50 a.m., after deputies have left the property a second time, Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke dials 911 a third time, hysterically demanding that police return.
"My son is in the basement, tied up in the house. I just saw him through the window," she screams. "The police was … out here earlier and did absolutely nothing."
Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke said Tuesday that she did not look in the window or go in the house. Deputies found the bodies on the first floor, not the basement.
"I want to die right now," she said. "I wish I would've been killed instead of my son. This is so bad. How do you murder two kids? My son was in barber school. His girlfriend was in nursing school. They were good kids."
Detective Stooksbury said the young woman who last spoke to Mr. Clarke on his cell phone talked to him about 11 p.m. and she believes he and Miss Straub likely died between 11 p.m. and 3:50 a.m., when Mr. Clarke's father discovered their bodies.
She said the friend who was expecting Mr. Clarke and Miss Straub to pick her up that night tried repeatedly to reach them by phone and text message, but could not get either of them. She went to the house, rang the doorbell repeatedly, but got no answer. A friend of hers eventually called Mr. Clarke's mother, who then called 911.
Tuesday, investigators spent the day interviewing "family, friends, acquaintances, acquaintances of acquaintances," Detective Stooksbury said. Ms. Straub's parents, Jeffery and Mary Beth Straub, were out of the country on a Caribbean cruise at the time of the murders but were expected back by Wednesday, weather depending.
Mrs. Vasquez-Clarke said she believes her son knew their attackers because he let them in the house. She said she's upset that deputies did not find him and Ms. Straub when she first called 911, but now she's just hoping they find their killers.
"Justice needs to be served. These people need to get capital murder for premeditated murder and get the death penalty. That's what I want," she said. "This wasn't random. This was premeditated and planned. They knew them."
me:there should be prints or even DNA on duct tape
there is unsubstantiated talk, i.e. RUMORS being dispersed about drugs, drug dealers blah blah. until LE says it's so, it's not a fact.
but i will stake my combat boots that bad-ass drug dealers don't use plastic bags as their weapons of choice. i believe the bags came from the house and this was not a planned murder at all. it was a spontaneous event.
unless of course, it was the Keystone Drug Dealer Gang.
TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) - Lucas County Coroner Dr. James Patrick said after conducting an autopsy on Lisa Straub and John Clarke, the young couple died of asphyxiation.
Ms. Straub, 20, and Mr. Clarke, 21, were found murdered early Monday morning inside a Springfield Township. Their hands were bound, and plastic bags were taped over the victim's heads.
Dr. Patrick also observed injuries around the necks of both victims.
FOX Toledo News asked the coroner if either of the victims had any other injuries. Dr Patrick said, "neither had any other significant injuries."
John Clarke's mother tells 13abc FBI agents are also investigating the murder of her son and his girlfriend.
THERE IS A LOT HERE WE DON'T KNOW AND COPS ARE VERY/TOO QUIET. a presser really is needed.
Clarke, 21, and Lisa Straub, 20, were found dead in her parents home in the 2100 block of Longacre Lane.
John Clarke's mother says she wants detectives to seek the death penalty in the case if an arrest is made.
Clarke's mother Maytee was there when her husband found the bodies "and found Johnny tied up with hands behind his back and a bag over his head with tape all around it and he rips the back open, he touches his face, it's stiff, he can't move it. She told me to call 911 then he goes to Lisa and rips the bag off and she's tied up too and she's got like a pile of blood on the floor but a bag over her head and then dry blood on the side of her head."
Maytee Clarke says she won't sleep until detectives find the people who killed the couple Her son Johnny. "was a football player for Bowsher. He was going to barber school."
His girlfriend Lisa Straub was a nursing student at Owens Community College. Straub's parents were on a cruise celebrating their wedding anniversary when the young couple was murdered in Lisa's parents' home.
Clarke's mother says Monday evening she received a call from a girl who said Johnny was in trouble. His mother called 911.
Johnny's mother says she tried to reach the couple. "It's not like my son to not answer the phone. He'd answer the phone."
Sheriff deputies checked the house on Longacre Lane twice and found nothing. Johnny's parents went to the home. "There's a back window but the blinds are closed but they're just cracked enough where you can look down in them.My husband looks in. He says he sees Johnny's cell phone like in one corner in the room and then my little cousin is looking in and she says she sees my son there tied up."
That's when Johnny's dad kicked in the front door. Johnny's mother has a message for the people who committed the crime: "There is no apologizing for what you have done to these kids and my son."
According to court documents, John Clarke was convicted of robbery in 2007. He did a year and two months in prison and was just released in June of 2009.
Hi, I'm new here. I was interested in adding a thought that Ladycop asked in the blade. FBI involvement. Could it be possible the this couple might be an escalation of the crime in Mich. last fall. It would seem like there would have to be more than one person doing this crime. I know the one in Mich was a family left unharmed but the criminals might be upping the ante for their " presonal thrill"??? I'm not law enforcement but as an ER nurse, I hear lots of stories.
There was a case up around the Adrian, Jackson, somewhere in that area where wife, 2 kids and the father were tied up and the father got lose just after they left. I can't recall much of the details anymore. It seems like it was back late Sept-November. I was before I took my annual hunting trip in mid November. The wife might have been assulted as well. Like I say, I can't recall all the details, but it seemed like it was unsolved.
i just did a quick search for a MI case involving family bound and robbed. all i could find was a 2009 case. they were after dad's gun collection.
frankly it doesn't sound at all similar to me, even if it's the same case you're thinking of. this case in Ohio seems personal. Johnny spent over a year in prison, who knows who his associates may be, or who might be angry at him. the mother's initial hysteria over him not answering his phone is a bit over the top unless maybe she was worried about who he could be involved with. she has also been inconsistent about some things.
this is all just my speculation based on very little that has been made public.
found it!Police/Courts | Published 10/29/10
Michigan assault victims deemed random target
Three men who burglarized a Medina Township home at gunpoint, tied up a family of four and sexually assaulted the mother appear to have targeted their victims randomly, authorities said Thursday.
Police/Courts | Published 10/28/10
Woman sexually assaulted, family bound near Morenci
A woman was sexually assaulted Wednesday night by one of three men who burglarized her Medina Township house, binding and blindfolding the woman, her husband, and their two sons, ages 5 and 8, authorities said
Your right about the who knows what kind of friends he made in prison. Personal, yes. who know that they were staying there? Could they be a msg for the home owner? I just scared myself.
i don't believe this case in Ohio is random. i don't hear the police telling people they need to be on guard.
also, the case you mention involved firearms, whoever did this did not use a gun that we know of.
I apologize in advance if any family members end up reading this and are offended. My opinions are simply that, my opinions. I don't state them in order to troll, to insult, or to make a scene in general. I simply state them because this is a forum, and that's what a forum is for.
The FBI is involved because this was obviously a professional hit. Based on all the published details of the crime, it was not a crime of passion, nor was it a robbery. This unfortunate double-murder appears to be a signal being sent. Likely somehow related to drugs. My opinion says Johnny likely owed the wrong people a tidy sum of money. These people came to the conclusion that he had no means to pay it back, and since they were convinced the money was never going to be repaid, why not make an example in order to deter others from making the same mistake in the future.
This crime will more than likely never be solved. If anyone is ever arrested, they will likely be arrested in Detroit, Chicago, or possibly even New York.
If the police and the FBI had any indication that the general public had anything to fear (apart from those unfortunate enough to have the same questionable relationships) then there would have been at least something put out to the media to this effect.
i am not scoffing at YOU, but i have to say, i have never heard of a professional hit by plastic bags & duct tape. a pro would just give them a double tap and leave. simple, quick and to the point. they don't hang around ransacking houses to make it look like a home invasion/burglary. in and out, fast. the end. and that duct tape will yield evidence that no pro would leave behind. this was personal. it's not personal for pros, it's business.
i alluded earlier to your comment Duchess, the mother had a major over-reaction to her 21 year old son not answering the phone. she knows, or thinks she knows, much more than she is saying. mainly because i believe she knows her son may have met some not-nice people in prison.
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