PYMATUNING TWP. Man held on charge of abuse of corpse

Authorities said the woman was last seen leaving a bar with Richard Hodge.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
TRANSFER, Pa. -- State police have charged a Pymatuning Township man with abuse of a corpse and two counts of corruption of minors in the case of a Jefferson, Ohio, woman found buried in a shallow grave near Andover, Ohio.
Richard D. Hodge, 44, of Lot 38 in the West 10th Street Mobile Home Park, was arraigned Wednesday before District Justice William Fagley of Greenville, who ordered him held in Mercer County Jail on $100,000 bond.
Police said Hodge is linked to the death of Naomi Bright, 22, who was last seen alive with him leaving the Causeway Inn near Andover in Ashtabula County at 2:10 a.m. May 11.
Police said Bright's husband, Larry D. Bright Jr., reported her missing May 13 to the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Department.
Causeway Inn
An investigation showed that Naomi Bright went to the Causeway Inn with a friend late May 10 and was seen leaving the bar with Hodge en route to his home.
Police believe that Bright died at Hodge's home.
No ruling has been made in the case because a cause of death hasn't been determined, police said, noting that an autopsy was to be done today in Ashtabula County.
Police said the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Department received an anonymous tip that Naomi Bright had gone to Hodge's home with him. Another tip to the Pennsylvania State Police on May 17 indicated that she might be dead.
A subsequent investigation showed that after Bright's death, she was placed in Hodge's vehicle and driven by him and a juvenile to a remote location near Andover, where her body was dumped in a field, police said.
Shallow grave
On May 13, Hodge and two juveniles drove to West Virginia, where Hodge bought two shovels and what authorities described as "other related items" and returned to the field where the body was left. He dropped off the two juveniles and drove away. The two juveniles buried the body in a shallow grave and were later picked up by Hodge, police said.
Authorities recovered the body Wednesday morning when one of the juveniles involved led troopers and deputy sheriffs to the scene, police said. Hodge was then arrested, police said.