Woman found dead in West Side home

By Joe Gorman

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Police located the vehicle that belonged to the woman found dead late Tuesday by her husband in their West Side home.

Police said Tina Jarrell’s car, a 2011 Black Ford Taurus, was missing from the driveway after her death, and they were looking for it Wednesday.

Police Chief Robin Lees said the car and the person driving the vehicle were located in Pittsburgh. Youngstown detectives headed there Wednesday evening to question the driver, who they did not identify, but charged him with receiving stolen property.

Police said the suspect will be kept in Pittsburgh until he is extradited.

Meanwhile, Lt. Doug Bobovnyik, a supervisor in the detective bureau, said investigators were “narrowing in” on a suspect.

Tina Jarrell, 55, was found about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday in their home in the 1600 block of Wellington Avenue by her husband as he returned from work.

Reports said when officers first arrived they found Tina Jarrell face down on the living-room floor covered in blood and not breathing. Her husband, Robert Jarrell, and another man were inside and one of the men was crying, reports said.

Reports said the husband told police he left for work at noon. When he came home he found his wife on the floor. He summoned a neighbor and called 911, reports said. Paramedics tried to revive her in the home but could not, reports said.

Her husband declined to speak to a Vindicator reporter Wednesday morning.

Police were called to the home about 6:55 p.m. Sunday, where call takers in the city 911 center were told by her husband his wife had been drinking all day and was locked in a bedroom. Reports of that incident said Tina Jarrell was threatening to kill herself by taking a bottle of pills.

Officers arrived, and the report says she was referred to a mental-health agency for help.

A neighbor who lives across the street, Ann Louise Heeter, said there had been trouble at the home before.

“I knew something would happen, but I didn’t know it would be this drastic,” Heeter said.

Heeter has been living in the home near Steel Street for nearly 57 years, and she said in the past few years crime has picked up, especially because of drugs. She said she does not worry, however, because of her security system.

Jarrell’s death is the city’s 11th homicide of 2015. The city had recorded six homicides at this time in 2014.

This also was the city’s second homicide in three weeks. Ezequiel Rivera, 21, was shot and killed June 21 by a bar employee who had a valid concealed-carry handgun permit after Rivera managed to get inside Mi Raza in the 1400 block of Oak Street on the East Side with the shotgun about 2 a.m.

Contributor: Brandon Klein, staff writer.