Unsolved homicide still active

Authorities have attributed the killing to 'greed' but have offered few details.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County Prosecutor Robert Herron insists he hasn't given up trying to solve a 1999 slaying and contends that progress is being made in the case.
Herron made the remarks recently in response to a county common pleas court document filed earlier this month.
The judgment entry referred to a grand jury investigation into the homicide of Richard Altomare, a Leetonia businessman found shot to death nearly five years ago in a vacant school he owned along Fairfield School Road in Fairfield Township.
The court document describes a May 20 hearing attended by Herron and the representative of a business.
Herron said the hearing was intended to get information in the case, but he wouldn't elaborate.
Efforts to find out who killed Altomare remain active, Herron said.
"We have some new directions, and we're pursuing them," he said. That comment is virtually identical to one he made in September 2002.
Other information
Herron and other authorities have offered few specifics about the death of Altomare, owner of Altomare's Welding in Leetonia.
Herron replied "greed" when asked about the motive behind the killing.
Altomare, 59, was killed by someone he knew after going to the school building to meet that person, investigators have said.
They won't comment, though, when pressed for details, such as how many times he was shot and with what type of firearm.
The ongoing probe has produced controversy.
In September 2000, Altomare's son, Richard Jr. of Salem, accused Herron of neglecting to pursue certain evidence and asked that Herron take himself off the case, which he refused to do.
Atty. Robert Guehl of Salem, who represented the son at the time, said Herron had recordings of three men talking in a manner that would indicate they might have knowledge of the crime.
Herron won't discuss the recordings.
leigh@vindy.com