Police Identify Slaying Victim – Man is 10th Named in Series of Area Killings

By Jeff Zogg

Authorities today identified the body of a man they believe could be the tenth victim in what appears to be a string of killings of men from Indianapolis who had ties to the gay community. Darke County, Ohio, authorities Monday night used fingerprints on file at the Indianapolis Police Department to identify the body of Thomas R. Clevenger Jr., 19. Clevenger was last seen Sept. 5. His nude and decomposed body was found on an abandoned railroad bed north of Byrket Road in Darke County Sept. 12. Authorities from that county are trying to determine whether Clevenger had ties to the Indianapolis gay community, Darke County Det. Larry Dickey said.

They did not know what caused Clevenger’s death. Monday, Ohio authorities released the names of nine other Indianapolis men whose gay lifestyles and violent deaths have similarities, but they stopped short of saying a serial killer is at work. “Nothing in our investigation can call them serial killings.” said Wilfred “Bill” Dues, prosecutor in Preble County, Ohio. “There are similarities in the cause of death. There are similarities in the locations where the bodies have been dumped. But at this stage, we have nothing to indicate, who caused these or where the deaths occurred.”

All nine victims were known to be gay or had links to the gay community in Indianapolis. Some were known prostitutes. All lived in Indianapolis just before their deaths, Dues said. Their nude or semi-nude bodies were found in rural Indiana or Ohio over the last 10 years. Four men found in Preble County, Ohio, were strangled to death, as were three of the five men found in Indiana. The cause of death for the other two never has been determined.

10 slain men from The Indianapolis News. Police have linked 10 killings over the past 10 years. The victims all had ties to the gay community in Indianapolis.

Found in Preble County, Ohio

• Eric Allen Roettger, 17, found in May 1985. Nude from the waist up. He had been sexually assaulted and suffered a burn on his left shoulder before he was strangled with a rope.
• Michael Allen Glenn, 29, found in August 1986. Not identified until a 1989 fingerprint check. Strangled with a rope.
• Steven L. Elliot, 26, found in August 1989. Wearing only underwear. Strangled with a rope.
• Clay Russell Boatman, 32, found in August 1990. Boatman’s car was found in a parking lot of Our Place, at Alabama E. 16th streets in Indianapolis. Strangled manually.

Found in Darke County, Ohio

• Thomas R. Clevenger, 19, from Indianapolis, found September 6. Nude.

Found in Indiana

• Michael Petree, 15, found in June 1980 in a Hamilton County ditch. Nude. Cause of death undetermined.
• Maurice Taylor, 22, found in July 1982 in 6 inches of water in Weasel Creek Hamilton County outside of Atlanta. Nude from the waist up. Cause of death undetermined.
• Delvoyd Baker, 14, Found in October 1982 in Hamilton County. Strangled
• James Robbins, 21, found in October 1987 in a Shelby County drainage ditch about 1 1/2 miles from Gywenneville. Nude. Strangled.
• Michael Andrew Riley, 22, found in June 1983 in less than a foot of water in a Hancock County ditch, 5 miles southeast of Greenfield. Nude from the waist up. Strangled.