Law enforcement officials mum on latest in probe of fire, rape cases

YOUNGSTOWN

Officials on Friday would neither confirm nor deny reported details of a search warrant served Thursday at the home of a man who is a person of interest in a fire that killed three people, one of them a child who was to testify against him in a rape trial.

One of the investigators — Capt. Brad Blackburn, city police chief of detectives — even issued a statement saying that leaked details to the media of the investigation into the Monday fire that killed 10-year-old Corinne Gump and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, are “hindering the investigation,” as well as upsetting the family.

Schmidts’ 3631 Powers Way home, just hours before Robert Seman, 46, of West Calla Road in Green Township, was to go on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on charges of raping the child, who was the daughter of a girlfriend. He faces life in prison if convicted and was under house arrest after posting $200,000 bond.

Thursday evening, agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation searched Seman’s home, where the mother of the child, Lynn Marie Schmidt, was found Monday after the fire and taken to the city police station to be interviewed by detectives. She has not been charged with anything.

Court records show that Huntington Bank filed papers March 20 in common pleas court to begin foreclosure proceedings against Seman on the home.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office referred all questions about the search to the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office, because she said they were assisting them. But Sheriff Jerry Greene said Friday he could not comment on any aspect of the search or if it was related to the fire because the search warrant was sealed by the common pleas court judge that issued it.

Read more about the cases in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.