40-year-old with prior convictions lived in house where remains found

JEFFERSON, OHIO — James E. Brooks, 40, who has served at least two prison terms for crimes he committed in Trumbull County since 2009, is the man who lived in the house in Ashtabula County where human remains were found Thursday.

Authorities are making plans to conduct DNA tests to determine whether the remains are those of Alesha Bell, 18, of Warren, who has been missing since July 23.

Brooks, was arraigned Friday in an Ashtabula County court on drug charges and abuse of a corpse, apparently related to the remains found in a burn pit and along a tree line behind the house on U.S. Route 6 in Roaming Shores.

The home, just west of state Route 45, is near Jefferson and 37 miles north of Warren.

Brooks was among a number of people arrested Thursday and Friday in a multi-jurisdictional drug investigation. But investigators were also on alert at Brooks’ house because of Bell, officials have said.