On July 19th<\/sup>, 1989, a few kids were paddling down Flat Run Creek in Tully Township when they spotted shoes in the brush along the creek\u2019s edge. Maneuvering their canoe a little closer, they realized the shoes were attached to a body.<\/p>\n Removing the man\u2019s remains from the creek, law enforcement almost immediately suspected that he was a murder victim. For starters there was no I.D. on the man nor could investigators find a boat or car belonging to him. An autopsy later provided more substantial evidence supporting foul play. Specifically, former Marion County coroner Dr. Robert Gray told the Columbus Dispatch <\/em>in 1992 that he believed, \u201cthe man died of a .22-caliber bullet wound to the larynx.\u201d Although the sheriff\u2019s department ran down \u201chundreds\u201d of leads, the identity of the man \u2013 by now investigators were referring to him as \u201cLuther\u201d \u2013 remained a mystery.<\/p>\n In 2007, however, the sheriff\u2019s department tried one more time to find out Luther’s identity. The plan was to extract a DNA sample from Luther\u2019s remains and submit it, along with his physical description, to the FBI\u2019s National Crime Information Center. The NCIC is a database containing a vast amount of crime-related information, and the hope was that Luther\u2019s profile would match one the thousands already on file. Unfortunately, Luther\u2019s profile didn\u2019t generate any hits, and his identity remains unknown to this day.<\/p>\n Vicky<\/strong><\/p>\n On March 10th<\/sup>, 2007, nearly 18 years after Luther was found, Larry Higgins Jr. was out poking around in the brush near Victory Road. The area has always been a popular illegal dumping site, and Mr. Higgins was hoping to find some metal he could scrap. Instead he found what he initially mistook for a Halloween decoration. As he got closer, though, he realized that the skull he had spotted was, in fact, real.<\/p>\n On March 14th<\/sup>, 2007, Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey announced at a press conference that they were certain only that the skeleton was that of a young woman. As was the case with Luther, investigators also suspected that she was a homicide victim. An attempt to match her with a missing person listed on the NCIC database, however, yielded no hits.<\/p>\n Officially, the Luther and Vicky cases remain open (though very cold). Still, there’s always the possibility that a crucial piece of evidence will come to light or that someone with information will come forward. And then we will at last learn the names Luther and Vicky had when alive rather than the names given to them in death.<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n \u201cBody Found Here.\u201d The Marion Star<\/em> 20 July 1989: 1A.<\/p>\n Dreitzler, Bob. \u201cMarion County Coroner for 35 Years Swaps Job with Assistant.\u201d The Columbus Dispatch<\/em> 6 April 1992: 02B.<\/p>\n Edwards, Randall. \u201cHelp Needed to Identify Dead Man.\u201d The Columbus Dispatch<\/em> 28 August 1989: 04D.<\/p>\n \u201cIdentity of Body not Determined.\u201d The Marion Star<\/em> 21 July 1989: 1A.<\/p>\n Peppard, Bevin. \u201cDump Hunt Uncovered More Than Just Trash.\u201d The Marion Star<\/em> 13 March 2007: 1A.<\/p>\n Peppard, Bevin. \u201cSheriff: Bones Thought to be Female.\u201d The Marion Star<\/em> 15 March 2007: 1A.<\/p>\n Peppard, Bevin. \u201cWhat happened to ‘Luther’?\u201d The Marion Star <\/em>20 May 2007: 1A.<\/p>\n \u201cSkeletal Remains Found in County.\u201d The Marion Star<\/em> 11 March 2007: 1A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the age of DNA testing and networked computer databases, it\u2019s a bit of a shock to learn that a few corpses have turned up in Marion County over the last twenty five years which remain unidentified. Luther On July 19th, 1989, a few kids were paddling down Flat Run Creek in Tully Township when […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-true-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1174"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1745,"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1174\/revisions\/1745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.spookymarion.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/luther.jpg\" "\\"luther\\"")
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