Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Here is a list of the numbers of homicides in the past decade in the county.
2010: 6 to date.
2009: None.
2008: 6.
2007: 2.
2006: 2.
2005: 2.
2004: 2.
2003: 1.
2002: 4.
2001: 2.
LISBON
Columbiana County is seeing an increase in homicides but officials aren’t sure why.
The county normally has one or two homicides each year.
In 2009, there were no homicides in the county.
So far this year, the county has had six homicides with a little over two weeks still to go.
County coroner records show that there only have been nine years since records were first collected in 1934 that did not have a homicide.
(The only homicide in 1934 was the police shooting of Charles Arthur Floyd, who was better known as the gangster Pretty Boy Floyd, who was shot near East Liverpool.)
The largest number of murder cases in a year was in 1979, when the county had 10 homicides.
Fran Rudibaugh, a coroner’s office investigator, said, “I don’t have a clue” about the increase in homicides.
East Liverpool had three homicides this year. One of the cases from this year dealt with a man who killed a woman who was trying to protect a female friend and then killed himself. In another case, a man stabbed a woman for an undetermined reason.
County Prosecutor Robert Herron that Monday he is working on several homicide cases from this year but did not want to talk about the cases while they are pending.
East Liverpool Detective Don Fickes said that he has worked some of the homicides this year. He said he is working on another potential homicide case, but he declined to make any comment in order not to jeopardize the investigation.
County Coroner Dr. William Graham said he could only guess about the reason for the increase in homicides this year.
“Usually, alcohol or drugs are involved,” he said.