Authorities ID body found in Bazetta, rule death homicide

By Ed Runyan

The dead man from Warren had been out of prison for about one month when he came up missing.

BAZETTA — Family members said they have no idea why anyone would want to kill Dozie A. Blackmon Sr., 37, of Warren.

The remains of a body found along a rural part of Geauga-Portage Easterly Road in Bazetta Township have been identified as those of Blackmon, authorities announced Wednesday. His death has been ruled a homicide.

Charles Sayers, Bazetta’s police chief, along with Joe Sofchek, a township police detective, conducted a press conference at the police station here. Blackmon’s mother and sister said they didn’t have any explanation for why someone would kill him.

“If you would look at him, you would be afraid of him, but he would talk to anybody,” said Rhonda Tates of Akron, Blackmon’s youngest sister. The women said Blackmon, who had lived on Southwest Boulevard Southwest, was smart, a talented rapper, and a good fighter.

He also had been in trouble with the law, having been released from prison in March 2008, only a month or so before he came up missing.

When Bazetta police found human remains in a black plastic garbage bag in a ditch between North Park Avenue and Durst Clagg Road on June 14, 2008, Shirline Ferrell, Blackmon’s mother, with whom he lived, notified Bazetta police her son had been missing for about six to eight weeks

The call from Blackmon’s family was among hundreds of calls from all over the United States from people with missing loved ones, Sayers said.

The remains provided few clues as to who the person was because nearly all that was found was bones, officials have said.

Sue Easterday, who lives nearby and discovered the remains with her husband while taking a walk, said the skull and bag of bones were about 15 feet apart.

The skull had a hole in it, and what appeared to be black hair was below it, she said. The bag appeared to contain only bones, she added.

Family members provided Bazetta Police months ago with dental records for Blackmon, which matched the teeth in the skull.

The match was made in recent weeks by the Army Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., whose main job is to identify the remains of U.S. soldiers, Sayers said.

A police report from the day the remains were found says a T-shirt and black bag also were recovered from under the torso.

Sayers said he is “fairly sure” that Blackmon did not die in Bazetta, but he wouldn’t say what information leads him to believe that. The township is receiving assistance from the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department and Warren police in the investigation, he added.

Lt. Gary Vingle of the Warren Police Department said his department was aware that Blackmon was missing, but it has no information suggesting a reason why Blackmon was killed or evidence to suggest he was killed in Warren.

The investigation will stay with Bazetta unless information is found that Blackmon was killed in Warren, he said.

The Blackmon family was notified Monday of the match.

Ferrell said she had mixed emotions while waiting to hear the results of the dental testing, hoping that the remains were not her son’s but also wanting to know whether he was alive or dead.

“I just kept praying to the Lord for closure,” she added.

The family plans to have a memorial service.

Tates said her brother, who had four children of his own, tried to counsel youngsters around him to choose a better life than he had.

“He was like a father figure. I miss him and love him. I don’t understand who would want to kill him,” she said.

Blackmon, who attended Warren schools, including Western Reserve High School, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2002 on convictions for felonious assault and aggravated burglary.

Bazetta police also found the remains of a person in Mosquito Lake State Park near the dam on state Route 305 in July 2006. The pathology institute said those bones were from a black man older than 50, about 5 feet 10 inches tall. The identity of that man has never been determined, Sayers said.