An unsolved homicide case of a Springfield woman is being reinvestigated by the Ohio Attorney General's Cold Case Unit.
The unit investigates and helps solve cold case homicides and unsolved sexual assault cases. It is based at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and works with local law enforcement agencies to investigate the unsolved cases by offering new forensic analysis and investigative resources, according to BCI spokesman Steve Irwin.
"We can make a difference, even when years have passed since a murder or sexual assault," Attorney General Dave Yost said when announcing the unit's mission. "Consider how DNA testing advances have unmasked, time and time again, violent criminals who got away with living among us for too long."
One case the unit, along with the Springfield Police Division, is working to solve is the homicide of Anita Taylor, 20, who was found beaten and apparently raped at her home at 415 Ludlow Ave. in Springfield on Oct. 29, 1966.
Detective Ron Jordan of the Springfield Police Division is working on the case.
"I'm excited. I know we're looking at a case here that's 54 years old. Several detectives within our agency have looked at the case over 50-plus years, so I'm excited about being a part of this," Jordan said. "I'm excited to have the opportunity to investigate this case for Aaron Taylor and his family and I think the family deserves some answers. Hopefully between our agency and BCI, we can hopefully give him and his family the answers they've been looking for for so long."
Clark County Prosecutor Dan Driscoll said revisiting this case is great and something that's done with all their cases.
"I don't think that any homicide is ever dead. We continue to work those cases, revisit those cases, and when you get an opportunity to get some new science, take a look at the case evidence, we give that a shot to get some new answers," he said.
Anita Taylor was found still alive, but barely breathing, on the bedroom floor by her husband after he got dropped off at home after work around 1:35 a.m., according to a description of her case on the Ohio Attorney General's website. The couple's 18-month-old son, Aaron , was also found beaten in his crib in a separate bedroom.
Aaron Taylor has followed his mother's case for years and maintains an in-depth website about her killing. The website includes decades of news articles and the police report and other information. The Attorney General's website sends visitors to Aaron's site, www.taylorcase.com, for more details regarding the case.
According to the Springfield police report posted to Aaron's website, officers responded to 432 E. Liberty St. after receiving a call of a beating and rape that took place at the couple's house on Ludlow Avenue. When they arrived, they met with Anita's husband, Larry Taylor, and two of his coworkers. Larry told police his wife had been beaten on her head and neck with an unknown object and raped sometime between 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 and 1:50 a.m. on Oct. 29.
When officers arrived at the house, they found Anita Taylor in a semi-conscious condition and moaning softly, and they found Aaron laying in his crib, beaten. They also found the back door of the house was standing open, but there were no signs of forced entry, the report stated.
The Fire Division Emergency Squad took both Anita and her son to Community Hospital where she was pronounced dead, the report stated.
According to the police report, Larry told police he left for work around 4 p.m. on Oct. 28 and clocked out around 1:36 a.m. on Oct. 29. He said he rode home with his two coworkers, who stopped to have a drink afterwards at Bill's Cafe at 1640 Sheridan Avenue. After he was dropped off, he went up to the door and knocked as Anita kept the front door locked. He said he heard the living room TV on and thought he heard moaning sounds from the bedroom, so he forced the door open and found his wife on the floor. He then ran to Bill's Cafe to get help from his coworkers, who returned to the scene with him.
Existing forensic evidence from the scene excluded Larry Taylor as his wife's killer. He died in a motorcycle crash in 1978, according to information Aaron received from detectives.
Aaron stated on his website that on the night of Oct. 28, his mom came home from work and began doing laundry with him next to her. He learned from detectives that sometime during the night, someone came to the house. There was no forced entry, but he said the door could be "forced" open if needed as the doors weren't solid and impenetrable.
"Although I was there, I really can't remember the night. I underwent hypnotherapy in the late 80's to attempt to do so, but was unsuccessful," he stated on his website.
Aaron has recently met with people from both the State Attorney General's Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to help work with them on the case regarding his mother, which he said, "was pretty unbelievable."
"It was very touching, emotional for me. I've told the story about mom a million times but having a dozen people in a room that are willing to help you, that was the part that was really touching. I was struggling trying to get the story out, just because you now got all these people that are taking an active interest in trying to help you," he said.
Aaron said he feels the unit reinvestigating the case gives him "more hope" than he's had in a long time.
"The resources that they have and just the genuine interest in trying to help. I'm very hopeful. The waiting is torture," he said. "I'm impressed by the different roles, very broad backgrounds, of all the people that are helping. They genuinely seem to want to, they weren't taking it lightly... I very, very much appreciated their willingness to give it a try."
Driscoll said it's a good thing to try and give families some closure when it comes to revisiting cases.
"Anytime you can give family some hope, some closure, it's a good thing," he said. "It doesn't mean we're going to be able to do that; it's simply trying to take advantage of some of the technology that's out there."
Aaron said there is a lot of evidence, a "massive box" of DNA and many different ideas about who might have been involved.
"They're still studying DNA," Aaron said. "A lot of evidence, including a summary of everyone they've talked to, it's very long. They did some work, no questions."
Some of that evidence from the night of the slaying includes a bloody footprint, a partial fingerprint and other unidentified prints, Aaron said.
"Anytime that local law enforcement is working on a case, whether current or older, they will reach out to our office. In the end, we got to make sure a case is sufficient to not only the grand jury but also a jury, so we try to get involved with as many cases as we can from our office," Driscoll said.
Jordan said he is hopeful about working with BCI and the cold case unit.
"I'm hopeful that BCI can give us good leads with things that we've submitted to them. We've had advancements to DNA science over the last 10, 15 years or so. I think that's good," Jordan said.
"They have resources that can help us out greatly with the testing of items for DNA and things along those lines. With them being a part of this is a huge deal. I think that their cold case unit there, it gives us here more ideas in a different perspective on how to look at things. It takes a team effort and everyone's ideas and suggestions can go a long way," Jordan added.
Aaron, who now lives in Newport, Kentucky, said after his time at the hospital following the death of his mother, he went home to live with his father, who had moved in with Taylor's parents, but eventually was raised by his grandmother in Selma.
Aaron went to Southeastern Local Schools, and the same high school as his parents.
"A lot of friends didn't know about it, but their parents did. It's weird when you go to a friend's house and parents would look at you weird," he said. "Someone being attacked in their house... that certainly changes things a bit."
After he graduated, Aaron went to work at the Champion Paper in Hamilton driving a forklift to pay for college at Miami University in Oxford. He said he would come home almost every weekend from college between 1983 to 2008.
"I came home every weekend to see grandma. I knew it was her only connection to her daughter. I kind of understand that role and what my existence meant to her, not just as her grandson, but as her grandson that sprung from her daughter that she lost," he said.
Jordan added that just because a case turns cold, doesn't mean it's no longer being investigated.
"People think that if a case turns cold, it just turns into a box on a shelf somewhere and it just never gets looked at again. It doesn't matter how old the case is, if we received information regarding the case, we will investigate it. Cold just means all leads were followed up on and until that point no arrests were made, but if new information comes in, we investigative it," he said.