Retired Youngstown Detective Blanchard dies

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Retired Detective William J. Blanchard of the Youngstown Police Department died Wednesday in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

Blanchard, 66, of Boardman, is best known for his role in the investigation of the 1985 murder of Gina Tenney, a Youngstown State University student, who was strangled by Bennie Adams, her North Side apartment building neighbor.

Blanchard and his colleagues preserved evidence, which was resubmitted in 2007 to an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab.

That lab found Adams’ DNA on Tenney’s body, which was found in the Mahoning River near the West Avenue bridge in December 1985.

Adams, 60, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death in 2008, but is now serving a life prison term after the Ohio Supreme Court overturned his death sentence.

Blanchard was born May 25, 1951, in Lackawanna, N.Y.

A 1969 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High School, Blanchard attended Youngstown State and Ohio State universities before joining the police force in January 1975 and being promoted to detective in May 1981.

In 1986, he was elected chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 28 Labor Council representing active members of the city police department.

After retiring from the police department in Febrauary 2011, he was engaged in law practice.

Friends may call from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Fox Funeral Home, where services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday.