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Detective: Interviews will tie cases
Girard
Police detective Capt. John Norman believes interviews today will tie together Tuesday’s shooting victim in the city and a suicide victim in Hubbard Township later the same day.
On Wednesday, officials from both Girard and Hubbard discovered a link between the two.
Norman said it appeared the suicide victim, 26-year-old William Kehler IV of Chestnut Ridge Road in Hubbard Township, was the person who shot 39-year-old Jeffrey Carpenter, of 118 W. Liberty St., based on the description of the shooter’s clothing and the white truck witnesses saw as he left the crime scene in Girard.
Township police officer Greg Tarr responded to the suicide Tuesday about 2 p.m. and found Kehler’s body in his driveway.
The Trumbull County Coroner’s Office confirmed Wednesday the manner of death was suicide by a single gunshot to the head.
Tarr said while he was getting ready for work Wednesday morning, he saw on the news the description of the truck in Girard and realized it matched the truck in Kehler’s driveway.
He sent photos of the truck and of Kehler to Norman.
“I don’t know how it’s linked,” Norman said early Wednesday. “I don’t know anything connecting them.”
But Norman continued the investigation throughout Wednesday.
He said had visited St. Elizabeth Health Center, where Carpenter is hospitalized, but was still unable to talk to him, and there is no report on his condition.
Norman interviewed Carpenter’s family, but they did not recognize Kehler.
But by Wednesday evening, Norman said he was only “one interview away” from understanding what happened leading up to Tuesday.