Latest news with #TheFifthFloor
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Yahoo
Cold case murder suspect in death of Ohio State student faces judge
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A man arrested in connection to a cold-case homicide in which an Ohio State student was killed 25 years ago is set to face a judge on Wednesday afternoon. According to court records, Brian Swanson, who has been living in Cincinnati, is charged with the murder of 22-year-old Charles Ballard, who was found shot dead on Feb. 8, 2000. Swanson was arrested March 28 and will appear in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas for an arraignment hearing at 1 p.m. Charged with murder and aggravated murder, the investigation led police to Swanson, 48, after years of circumstantial evidence that tied him to Ballard's murder. For an earlier report on this story view the video player above. One dead after collision with semi-truck on I-71, north of Downtown, Columbus Based on a contemporary report from The Lantern student newspaper, Ballard was found the morning of Feb. 9 shot dead and partially burned in the basement of his East 17th Avenue apartment. Police said he was laying on top of a gun that may or may not have been used in the homicide. Ballard was shot three times, once each in the head, chest and abdomen and he was lying on the basement floor and on top of some paper, which was partially burned. The bottom half of Ballard's body suffered severe burns, according to The Lantern, and were less severe on his torso and clothes. Also burned was the basement door, which was left ajar, though police do not believe there was a struggle. It is still not clear how the fire was ignited. Details of the decades-long investigation were revealed on a Columbus police podcast called The Fifth Floor, which described a dispute occurred between Ballard and an employee at the BP gas station near Ballard's residence. Police said that on one occasion, the employee followed Ballard home before Ballard scared him away with a gun. On Feb. 18, 2000, police discovered that the same employee was seen about 90 minutes after Ballard's death, at 4:18 a.m., using an ATM card on North High Street. Officers questioned Swanson, who was wearing a mask while attempting to use the bank card. The name on the card was Ballard's girlfriend, who opened an account and co-signed it with Ballard. She told police she never was in possession of the ATM card and that it was Ballard's card. $370M project would bulldoze Latitude Five25, renovate Wedgewood Village The employee, now believed to be Swanson, said he found the card and was considered the main suspect in Ballard's death. The ATM card and ski mask were submitted into evidence, but he was not charged in what was described as a 'suspicious incident.' The link between that incident and Ballard, however, was never confirmed, as the evidence appeared circumstantial, police said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
29-03-2025
- USA Today
An Ohio State University student was killed in 2000. A suspect was just charged.
An Ohio State University student was killed in 2000. A suspect was just charged. Show Caption Hide Caption Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper and DNA: New tech solving murders From Ted Bundy to Jack the Ripper, new DNA technology is solving murder mysteries, finding serial killers, and exonerating innocents. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY An Ohio State University student was found dead in his apartment building in 2000. Nearly 25 years later, a man is facing charges in connection with his death. A Franklin County grand jury indicted Brian Swanson, 48, of Cincinnati, on Thursday on charges of aggravated murder and murder in connection with the Feb. 8, 2000, death of 22-year-old Charles "Chico" Ballard. Authorities filed a warrant for Swanson's arrest, according to court records. Ballard, a mechanical engineering student from Shaker Heights, was attending Ohio State on a full academic scholarship, The Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, previously reported. Around 6 p.m. Feb. 9, 2000, his body was found in the basement of a home. Ballard had lived in an apartment on the first floor of the building. The Dispatch reported Ballard was last seen the day before. After missing a shift at his telemarketing job and a class, as well as not responding to multiple pages, friends became worried and ultimately called the police. In 2010, The Dispatch spoke with the detective investigating Ballard's case, Dana Farbacher, who said there had been confrontations between Ballard and a clerk who worked at a gas station less than a block away. About 90 minutes after Ballard was last seen alive, that same clerk, now believed to be Swanson, tried to use a debit card connected to Ballard. Detectives could not disprove Swanson's explanation about finding the debit card on the steps of a nearby building. The detective called Ballard's killing a "Hollywood hit" because he believed the person who killed Ballard had lured him into the building's basement by flipping off circuit breakers to cut the home's electricity. Ballard had likely gotten a candle to help light his way to the basement, which caught some trash and other material on fire, partially burning his own body after he had been shot, The Dispatch previously reported. Columbus police featured Ballard's homicide on the Division of Police's "The Fifth Floor" podcast in 2024. Genealogical DNA, cigarette butts: Police go to lengths to solve cold cases According to Project: Cold Case, of the 1.1 million homicides and non-negligent murder cases between 1980 and 2023, just 345,613 are unsolved. The nonprofit works with surviving families and law enforcement to share stories about victims and their unsolved cases. Police departments see breakthroughs in the cold cases as advancements made in DNA technology help investigators crack the codes, according to the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice. "As a result, crime scene samples once thought to be unsuitable for testing may now yield DNA profiles," the department said. "Additionally, samples that previously generated inconclusive DNA results may now be successfully analyzed." That's what happened in Michigan, where a suspect in the 1983 murder of Christina Castiglione was identified using genealogical DNA comparisons. The 19-year-old's body was found in the Oak Grove State Game Area in Livingston County, nearly an hour away from her mom's Redford Township home. Detectives found Castiglione partially clothed and said she had been strangled to death and sexually assaulted. Private forensic lab Othram Inc. developed a genealogical profile from the DNA found on Castiglione, leading the Livingston County Sheriff's Office to Charles David Shaw. Shaw died in November 1983 of accidental sexual asphyxiation. 'The work that was done back in 1983 to preserve the evidence, to process the scene, was an outstanding effort by everybody that was at the scene, detectives as well as the responding deputies,' County Sheriff Mike Murphy told the Livingston Daily Press and Argus, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. In Vermont, DNA from a cigarette butt helped Burlington Police Department solve the 1971 murder of Rita Curran, 24. The butt was found next to Curran's body and had DNA evidence that's been preserved for more than 50 years, according to the Burlington Free Press, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. The department sent the cigarette to a forensic lab in New York City, where the lab determined that a man's DNA was detected. CeCe Moore, a scientist and genealogy expert at Parabon Nanolabs, matched the DNA to William DeRoos after hours of research through genealogical and public records. Roos, however, died in 1986 of a drug overdose. "The DNA evidence ended up being so incredibly key," Moore said in a 2023 press conference. "They couldn't have possibly imagined the power that we would have at this time to actually use that to narrow it down to one person." Contributing: Lilly St Angelo, Burlington Free Press; Patricia Alvord, Livingston Daily Press and Argus. Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@ or on Bluesky at @
