Coroner awaits drug report on body

TRANSFER, Pa. -- Authorities are waiting for toxicology reports before ruling on the cause of death of a Jefferson, Ohio, woman found buried in a shallow grave near Andover, Ohio, says an investigator for the Ashtabula County Coroner's office.
"We didn't find anything unusual [during the autopsy]," said Richard Mongell, chief investigator for the coroner's office. "There were no marks or wounds on the body. It appears to be a drug overdose."
Mongell said toxicology tests will take six to eight weeks.
Pennsylvania State Police charged a Pymatuning Township man with abuse of a corpse and two counts of corruption of minors in the case.
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.
Bright's husband, Larry D. Bright Jr., reported her missing May 13 to the Ashtabula County Sheriff's Department.
An investigation showed the victim 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.
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 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.
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.