Bowling Green man convicted of 15-year-old slaying of teen

The man offered to help police catch the killer.
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP) -- A man who once offered to give authorities the name of a woman's killer if they could arrange his release from prison has been convicted of the slaying 15 years ago.
Wood County Common Pleas Judge Reeve Kelsey sentenced Ralph Doren, 56, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years Monday. Doren will serve the aggravated murder sentence after he has finished his 30- to 60-year term in Michigan for a 1993 rape conviction.
A jury found Doren guilty of slashing the throat of 19-year-old Deana Meeks in the kitchen of her family's home in Northwood, southeast of Toledo, in June 1991.
Prosecutors said Doren went to the home to steal money and killed Meeks so she would not call police. He became a suspect in 1997 when he contacted authorities and said he had information about the killing.
Doren told investigators who visited him in prison that he would reveal the killer's name if they could arrange his release. To prove his knowledge, he told them where to find property stolen from the house on the day of the murder.
Doren stopped talking to authorities when they could not arrange his release.
Police work
Police in Northwood reopened the case in 2003 and tracked down a former neighbor living in Texas who remembered seeing a strange-looking man walking by her house on the day of the killing. She picked Doren's photo out of a lineup.
Police also interviewed a former associate of Doren's, who remembered accompanying him to Northwood in 1991 and seeing blood on his shirt when he returned to the car.
"Ralph Doren gave us the case we needed," Northwood Police Chief Jerry Herman said. "In fact when we talked to him in prison, he said, 'You had nothing if it wasn't for me.' And I said, 'You're right.'"
Doren's attorney said he plans to appeal.