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Cause of death pending for woman found in ditch in Mecca Township
By Ed Runyan
MECCA
The Trumbull County Coroner performed an autopsy but is not yet ruling on the cause of death for a Mecca Township woman found Monday in a ditch along state Route 46, just south of the Lake Tavern.
Further studies will be conducted before a ruling is issued.
Rachel E. Cella, 27, of Edgewater Drive in the township, was found dead about 8:15 a.m. by her boyfriend, Raymond Gay, 28, also of Edgewater Drive, and a Bristolville man passing by.
The Bristolville man called 911 at 8:16 a.m. saying a woman was in the ditch with mud on her, and a man was there who knows her and has touched or moved her. The Bristolville man said he got the other man away from the body.
When a deputy sheriff arrived, he found Gay sitting on the ground near the ditch on the east side of the road. Cella’s body was nearby.
Gay was very upset and said: “What do I say to my kids?”
A Vienna woman who was passing through the area in her car told the deputy she saw a man beside the road talking on his cellphone, and another man in the ditch. The woman said she helped Gay out of the ditch.
Another woman living across the street from the ditch said she had just let her dog out and noticed Gay falling into the ditch, and the woman waving at her to help.
She and the other woman held Gay back so he wouldn’t go into the ditch, she said.
Two detectives with the sheriff’s office are investigating the death, and the body was taken to the morgue.
Cella’s mother, Veronica L. Johnson of Orwell, reported Cella missing at 6:05 p.m. Sunday, saying no one had seen Cella since 10 p.m. Saturday, when she was at the Lake Tavern, according to a sheriff’s report.
Cella’s mother said Cella went to the Lake Tavern on Saturday with Hannah Stull, 28, of Griffith Drive in the township. The tavern is about a half-mile from Cella’s home.
Cella had left her purse and phone in a vehicle and had nothing but a debit card and photo identification with her, Gay told a deputy.
A deputy sheriff checked with personnel at the Lake Tavern, and they said Cella had been “extremely intoxicated” and acting hysterical and paranoid while at the tavern.
Bar personnel said Cella and Stull were asked to leave after the disturbance but they didn’t know what else happened after that.
Stull told an investigator that she and Cella arrived at the tavern at 10:15 p.m. and were asked to leave about an hour later. Cella walked toward Route 46, but Stull didn’t see which way she went, she told a deputy.
Stull said she, Gay and a man who lives with her spent two hours looking for her Friday night.
Late Sunday, a deputy received additional information from a neighbor of Stull’s on Griffith, who said he had seen Cella late Friday hanging out of the window of a Chevrolet Trailblazer on Griffith Drive.
Cella was screaming obscenities at him, he said, adding that he didn’t know whose vehicle it was.