Small Confederate monument displayed on private land

Small Confederate monument displayed on private land

FRANKLIN

A small monument honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that sparked debate and had been removed from its original location is now displayed on private property in southwestern Ohio.

The Hamilton-Middletown Journal-News reports a Franklin Township trustee says the bronze plaque on a five-ton rock is now on property at a Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge.

Some Franklin Township residents became angry in 2017 after learning the 90-year-old marker, originally along Dixie Highway, was removed in August after deadly violence during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

A city crew in neighboring Franklin, which controlled the previous location, removed the marker. That city subsequently returned it to Franklin Township, about 40 miles north of Cincinnati.

The Eagles later agreed to put the marker on their property in Franklin.

Relative of family killed in 2016 massacre died from gunshot

LATHAM

Authorities say a woman found dead in Ohio woods who was a relative of people killed in a 2016 family massacre died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Authorities have said they have no reason to believe her death is linked to the 2016 slayings.

Thirty-five-year-old Violet Taylor’s body was found June 11, roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Columbus. The Dayton Daily News reports Pike County coroner’s and sheriff’s offices say the Latham woman died under suspicious circumstances and they have a suspect.

Taylor was a cousin of some of the Rhoden family members killed in April 2016. Seven adults and a teenage boy from that family were found shot at four homes near Piketon. No suspect has been publicly identified. The motive remains a mystery.