NILES POLICE Detectives follow clues in slayings into the past

An officer said investigating old homicide cases requires extra legwork.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- A death dating back to a beating 16 years ago is the latest open homicide investigation handed in recent months to Niles police officers.
Vint Wesley Rounds, 43, died Jan. 30 at his home. The Trumbull County coroner's office says the death was the result of injuries suffered in a beating in 1986.
Reports say Rounds died from a seizure disorder caused by a head injury.
Rounds was severely beaten in Waddell Park that summer and lapsed into a monthlong coma. When he awoke, he had no memory of the beating, his past, or his family.
Medical problems
He underwent months of rehabilitation, but suffered from medical problems until his death, records show.
No one was arrested. Now police are investigating the death as a homicide.
"We opened the investigation after the coroner called us and wanted some background information," said Officer Jim Robbins.
Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, the county's forensic pathologist, issued the ruling.
Robbins said Thursday several people are being interviewed, but he's unsure if any suspects have been named yet.
The case is the latest of several old homicides drawing attention here.
Kleese case
Police also are investigating the asphyxiation death of a 35-year-old Cynthia Street woman last year. The murder of two infants in the early 1970s was recently solved.
Jane Kleese was found dead Jan. 23, 2002, at the bottom of her basement stairs.
Police initially thought the death was accidental since she was on medication to treat symptoms of multiple sclerosis, but the coroner's office later announced she died of asphyxiation. Investigators will not say what evidence led to that conclusion.
No arrests have been made.
Capt. Ken Criswell said he speaks with Kleese's family each week and follows all leads.
"There's always some information that comes in, but if anyone out there has anything they think we need to know about, we will look into it," Criswell said.
Robbins and Criswell says the two cases will remain open because there is no statute of limitations in Ohio for homicide.
"It just takes a little extra legwork and determination and a lot of help from other departments," Robbins said.
Slaying of children
He pointed out the recent resolution of the case against Gloria Greenfield, who was accused of killing her children shortly after their births more than 30 years ago.
Greenfield, 52, pleaded guilty last month in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to two counts of manslaughter.
The charges state she caused the deaths of Theodore II in 1970 and Regina Woods in 1971. The children were each less than a month old when they died of asphyxia.
At the time, the coroner ruled they died of natural causes, but a new investigation changed the causes of death last year.
Robbins said Capt. Guy Simeone investigated the case for more than a year after Germaniuk issued the ruling. The cause of death for Regina, Theodore and a third child, Melissa, are now listed as homicides.
Greenfield was originally charged last year with Melissa's death, as well, but prosecutors agreed to dismiss one murder count and reduce the other two murder counts to manslaughter in exchange for Greenfield's guilty plea.
"It was another case where the coroner came to us with the ruling and we opened a homicide investigation," Robbins said. "Guy did a lot of hard work on that investigation."
slshaulis@vindy.com