Police have person of interest in death

Associated Press

HAMILTON, Ohio

Investigators in southwest Ohio say they have a “person of interest” but are seeking the public’s help in the unsolved homicide death of a young woman who disappeared from her home more than five years ago.

Butler County sheriff’s Maj. Mike Craft said authorities don’t yet have enough evidence to take the case to a grand jury. The sheriff’s office began investigating late last year at the request of the father of Katelyn Markham, after years of investigation by the Fairfield, Ohio, police and Indiana State Police.

“The case was heavily investigated ... before we took a look at it,” Craft said. “We interviewed 20 people and conducted three polygraphs.”

Skeletal remains identified as Markham’s were found in 2013 in a wooded area in Cedar Grove, Ind., some 20 miles west of her home in Fairfield. The 21-year-old art student had vanished Aug. 13, 2011.

A coroner ruled the death a homicide, but the cause hasn’t been determined.

Craft said investigators have narrowed a list of names “down to a strong person of interest, but we need some help with this case.”