TOLEDO, Ohio — There are dozens of unsolved homicides in our area. Many of them go back decades.
One is the case of a young woman who went on a walk in north Toledo and was never seen alive again.
Tabitha Guth took her last walk Aug. 20, 1995.
Toledo Police Detective Bill Goodlet said Guth, 19, was watching a movie at a home on the 3900 block of Watson Avenue with a guy with whom she was involved that night.
"At some point during the evening, the friend was tired and started falling asleep, so Tabitha wrote him a note and said that she was going to walk home," Goodlet said. "She left the residence, we believe, around midnight."
Guth began the 2-mile walk to her mother's house on Willamont Road.
There were no cameras mounted to buildings or cell phones to track Guth's whereabouts. What route she took, no one knows. Guth never showed up at her mom's house.
"On the 22nd, some kids were out riding, playing around and found some items. One of those items was a keychain that had 'Tabitha' on it. There was a green lighter and some other objects and they found that on Laskey, near Bennett," Goodlet said.
Police interviewed everyone close to Guth, including her estranged husband and the father of her child.
"No one mentioned that she had problems with anybody, that there were any threats from anybody, or she had anything that she should have been concerned about," Goodlet said.
A month went by and there was still no sign of Tabitha, until Sept. 21, when a worker at Bohl Companies on Laskey Road made a horrifying discovery at the edge of the property: a partially clothed body.
"More employees came out to verify that what he was seeing was actually what he was seeing and it was. It was human remains," Goodlet said.
Was Tabitha Guth killed by someone she knew or someone who took the opportunity to kill her?
"It's hard to know what the landscape was in '95, but I would have to believe late at night, there's probably not as much traffic," Goodlet said. "It's fairly secluded, where she was found."
Police have exhausted all leads and are hoping someone knows something.
"You're always hopeful that someone comes in and has something that leads you in a new direction or look someplace we haven't looked, that just hasn't happened yet," Goodlet said.
Guth was 5-foot-9, 126 pounds, with blonde hair and green eyes.
She may have been seen on Aug. 20, 1995, or after in the area of Laskey Road and Bennett Road.
If you know anything about the disappearance of Tabitha Guth, call or text Crime Stoppers at 419-255-1111. You can remain anonymous.
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