Monday, December 24, 2001
After months of investigation, authorities are stumped.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- It has been more than six months since Tracy Hill of Middleton Township has been missing, and hope of her being found alive is waning.
Columbiana County Sheriff Dave Smith said recently that leads in the disappearance of the 24-year-old Sprucevale Road woman have trickled to nothing.
"We've exhausted every avenue," Smith said. "No one has come forward with anything" substantial in weeks.
"If anything new develops we'll jump on it immediately," Smith added.
Hill was last seen June 7 at her job at Duo-Corp on Miley Road, North Lima.
With months having passed without Hill's having been heard from, the sheriff said he doubts she's alive.
"My guess is that she's not," Smith said. He said he believes that "for the simple fact that no contact with the family has been made" by Hill.
Her disappearance is rare for a missing person case in that such a long period has passed without a contact being made, a body being found or a suspect connected with the disappearance being identified, Smith said.
If Hill met with foul play, "you would think somebody's conscience would be getting to them" and they would either surrender to authorities or admit the crime to someone who would tip investigators, Smith said.
Leads: Authorities have pursued numerous leads in the case.
They spent days in July combing the bottom of Guilford Lake, west of Lisbon, after specially trained dogs detected a body's scent beneath its surface.
No body was found, however.
Authorities also have probed abandoned strip mines near Hill's home, and woods and fields in areas of Unity and Fairfield townships based on tips that she might be found there.
In August, Wayne County authorities acted on a tip and searched a swampy area of Wooster.
All the searches came up empty.
Also in August, Columbiana County authorities sent dental and medical records to Ross County for authorities there to determine if a body found in that county was Hill's. It wasn't.
Husband: Hill's estranged husband, Clifford, 32, of Guilford Lake is serving a 10-month prison term for a theft charge. Hill, who has not been named a suspect in his wife's disappearance, pleaded guilty in September in county common pleas court to stealing aluminum and other items from a Columbiana business in April.
Hill also is awaiting sentencing on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, to which he pleaded guilty in September.
He was arrested June 18 in Guilford Lake in possession of the car used by his wife. The car belongs to Tracy's mother, who had not given Clifford permission to use the vehicle.
The charge bears a maximum one-year prison sentence.