1 of 2 deaths is ruled homicide

Police are checking to see if the deaths are related to a 1998 murder.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — The Trumbull County Coroner’s Office has ruled the death of one of two people found in a Southwest Side house a homicide.

The coroner said Wednesday that John Freeman, 49, of 2631 Front St., died of multiple stab wounds.

Also found in the house Monday night was Freeman’s niece, Andrea Reynolds, 30. The two lived together.

The coroner’s office hasn’t completed Reynolds’ autopsy. It is known, however, that Reynolds had more trauma to her body than Freeman.

The two were found in their home by a friend, who city police say stopped to see them and discovered the bodies.

The investigation

Police Capt. Tim Roberts continues to keep a tight lid on the investigation. He would not comment on whether a knife was found at the scene or if the house was ransacked.

“It’s bad. It doesn’t get any worse than that,” Roberts said of the deaths that investigators are probing as a double homicide.

Roberts said he doesn’t believe that either Freeman or Reynolds are known to police for any illegal activities.

Roberts did say that one of the leads being investigated is Freeman’s minor involvement in a murder case that’s coming to trial in the fall.

“We’re looking at that avenue. It has come up,” Roberts said.

The other case

He is referring to the scheduled Sept. 10 trial of William K. Gunther, accused in the 1998 rape and murder of Priscilla I. Code, 48, of Warren. She suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Freeman found Code’s body on Peerless Avenue near Kenworthy Avenue, not far from his Front Street home.

Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Freeman was most likely going to testify in Gunther’s trial in the courtroom of Judge W. Wyatt McKay

Becker said that Freeman’s testimony wasn’t critical to his case.

Gunther was arrested in Miami in February. His identification came about because of a national database created by the FBI known as CODIS — Combined DNA Index System. The database is operated by the Virginia Department of Forensic Science in Richmond, Va. It matched a DNA profile of Gunther with a forensic sample it had acquired from the Code investigation.

All people who have been convicted of a felony after July 1, 1990, are required to provide a blood or cheek cell sample for DNA analysis. Gunther’s profile was taken in an unrelated case. Gunther, 35, formerly of Cortland, is being held in the county jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond.

yovich@vindy.com