By Frank Lewis
There is apparently no correlation between a murder case and missing women case in Ross County and women missing in Scioto County.
Portsmouth Police Chief Robert Ware said on Thursday morning officers from the Portsmouth Police Department met with officials in Ross County to discuss the working group focusing on missing girls in the Chillicothe area, and Ware says, at this time, there does not appear to be any direct connection to any Portsmouth Police Department investigations.
“It is very important to the families of those affected that false hope is not created as a result of information being reported in the mainstream media, social media, or through other information sources,” Ware said.
The initial report centered around the death of Timberly Claytor, 38, whose body was found on Trego Creek Road near Massieville Road, and mentioned the case may be tied to some missing women cases in Ross County, Columbus and Scioto County.
At that time, Ware received a request to have his department work with a task force in an attempt to solve the case.
“As of this time, the Portsmouth Police Department is not an active participant in the working group or task force that has been set up by Ross County authorities,” Ware said. “However, in the best interest of the public, the Portsmouth Police Department will continue to communicate with members of the working group to exchange information that may be of importance to their investigations as well as any investigations we have where such exchange could result in bringing closure to the families and resolution to open investigations.”
As with the Ross County authorities, Ware said all the agencies involved owe it to their communities to explore every possibility in order to solve their respective cases. Ware said if a direct connection develops between the Ross County cases and any case under the jurisdiction of the Portsmouth Police Department, then the Portsmouth Police Department’s participation in the working group will increase accordingly.
In another development, authorities arrested Jason McCrary, 36, a registered sex offender, on a charge of failure to update his address information, and, while not charging him in any of those cases, did refer to him as a person of interest.
Reach Frank Lewis at 740-353-3101, ext. 1928, or on Twitter @franklewis.