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Parole hearing set for Anderson, killer of 2 teens
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Ohio Parole Board in April will consider the release of Richard G. Anderson Jr., who has served 14 years in prison for killing two teens in 1997.
Anderson, 34, formerly of Arms Drive in Liberty, killed Charity Agee, 18, of Youngstown on Jan. 1, 1997, and Wendie Clay, 16, of Weathersfield Township on April 2, 1997.
Agee disappeared from a Youngstown tavern on New Year’s Eve morning, the day she is believed to have been killed, but police believe Clay had gone willingly to Anderson’s home before Anderson killed her, prosecutors said.
Anderson pleaded guilty in January 1998 to murdering both teens and received a prison sentence of 15 years to life. This will be Anderson’s first parole hearing.
Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, has written to the parole board opposing Anderson’s release.
“Without question, Richard G. Anderson Jr. is a dangerous, incipient serial killer who should never be released from prison,” Watkins wrote to the parole board.
Miriam Fife, Trumbull County victim-witness advocate, said Clay’s family plans to write letters opposing Anderson’s release. The prosecutor’s office has not heard from Agee’s family, Fife said.
In materials given to the parole board, Watkins said Anderson’s parents both worked at the General Motors Lordstown assembly plant “and provided [Anderson] with solid middle-class upbringing. He clearly had wonderful parents.”
Police found the body of Agee, of East Florida Avenue, Jan. 3, 1997, alongside Slag-Crusher Road in McDonald. It was wrapped in garbage bags. The girl was last been seen early Jan. 1, 1997, in the Downtown Lounge on Elm Street near the Youngstown State University campus.
Police had no leads in the case until April 2007, when Liberty police were called to Anderson’s home by Anderson’s father, who found the body of Wendie Clay in a garbage bag in the family’s back yard. Clay lived on West Fifth Street.
Police later determined that a tarp that covered the body had come from the garage of the Anderson home.
Anderson, who had grown up in McDonald, was 19 years old at the time of the murders and had lived in Liberty for three years.
Police were aided in their investigation by statements given by two young men who knew Anderson and related conversations they had with Anderson regarding Anderson killing someone.
“His release at this time would demean the seriousness of his criminal conduct and would at the same time present a clear and present danger to society,” Watkins said.