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Austintown detectives waiting to close 2011 murder case
AUSTINTOWN
More than eight years after Stephen Shonn’s murder, township police said they’re still waiting for a DNA match that could lead to his killer.
“This case – you would have thought it would have been an open-and-shut,” said Detective Sgt. Jordan Yacovone, who took over the case more than five years ago.
“Most of the time, you don’t have any DNA or good [finger] prints. Now, we have plenty of DNA, but we just don’t have a suspect in the data banks.”
Shonn, 76, was found dead by his wife in the basement of their Bentwillow Lane home in the early morning of Jan. 19, 2011. He was lying face-down with his hands at his sides. His face and hands were blue and his nose was bloody, but his body showed no other signs of blunt force trauma. A week later, then-Mahoning County coroner Dr. Joseph Ohr ruled his death as a homicide by manual strangulation, meaning the killer used hands to choke Shonn to death.
Police noted there was no forced entry to Shonn’s home, suggesting whoever killed him was actually invited in.
Shonn’s pockets were emptied and his wallet, cellphone, car and several other items from the home were gone.
Three hours after Shonn was found dead, detectives found his 2007 Buick Lucerne in the parking lot of the former Brudders restaurant along North Canfield Niles Road and reviewed surveillance footage from the area.
Yacovone said investigators initially tracked the GPS signal from Shonn’s cellphone, which showed the phone traveled along Interstate 80 into Pennsylvania.
Shonn’s wife, who returned to the home late the night before, told police he had planned on getting hot dogs from Truck World in Hubbard the night of his death.
The Ohio Attorney General’s website, which details cold cases or other unsolved homicides around Ohio, states Shonn “was known to frequent restaurants near interstates and truck stop areas.”
Yacovone said detectives in 2013 were looking into one “strong” suspect for Shonn’s murder – a truck driver who fit the pattern – but that didn’t pan out. They’ve since “exhausted all leads,” he said.
Though detectives found several pieces of DNA evidence from Shonn’s killer inside the home, that person is not identified in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, which links DNA samples to known suspects – except Shonn’s killer hasn’t been profiled yet.
“There’s absolutely nothing to pursue, so now it’s a waiting game – hoping that he does get caught committing a felony,” he said.
About a month ago, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation suggested township detectives take DNA profiles of Shonn’s family members, but the bureau has yet to return results for those samples, Yacovone said.
To submit a confidential tip to Austintown detectives, call the tip line at 330-270-5108.