TOLEDO, Ohio — The Maumee Police Department is taking another crack at solving a cold case.
Jane Jordan, 31, was found killed in her apartment at 2903 Key Street on Oct. 18, 1977.
Maumee Police Detective Chris Rutledge told 11 Investigates the department re-opened the case after a call from Jordan's son on the 45th anniversary of her death, asking about the status of the investigation.
The case had been previously re-opened in 2000.
According to Rutledge, Jordan worked at the Toledo Jeep Assembly Complex as a material handler at the time of her death and had not shown up to work for three days when two coworkers, Raymond Luce and Robert Tille, were sent to check on her whereabouts by a foreman at Jeep.
Luce and Tille were let into the building by a resident and found Jordan's door unlocked.
They called 911 dispatch and reported that Jordan had taken her own life.
But Rutledge told WTOL 11 that police quickly determined Jordan was clearly the victim of a homicide.
"She was brutally murdered. The manner in which she was killed was violent," Rutledge said.
WTOL 11 submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for documents pertaining to the initial investigation in 1977.
Supplemental reports provided to WTOL 11 showed Jordan was found stabbed in her bathtub.
"Body seated in tub back to wall, feet and legs extended over edge of tub. Head turned to left shoulder. Blood smears on right and left walls, as you face body, water in commode tinted with appeared (sic) to be blood," a report of the incident reads.
"Somebody was exceptionally upset with her. That's what I'll say," Rutledge said.
Tille has died, but 11 Investigates did speak to Luce on the phone. He refused to say anything other than that he only went to check on Jordan, whom he identified as Tille's girlfriend. In reports, police also identify Tille as someone who dated Jordan at the time of her death. According to those reports, he told police he last saw Jordan five days earlier when she went back to her apartment to do laundry.
According to the reports, authorities fingerprinted and questioned both Luce and Tille during the initial investigation.
Cold case challenges
Rutledge said investigating a cold case 45 years after the crime is complex. Many of the initial investigators and witnesses have died. Also DNA technology that investigators would use today did not exist in the 1970s, though he said officials did take blood evidence and fingerprints from the scene and compared to various subjects in 1977.
He submitted some materials to the Ohio Bureau of Investigation for retesting and hopes to get a DNA match to anyone currently listed in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The tool allows investigators to compare DNA profiles electronically with known offenders in the database.
Further complicating the case, Rutledge said that Jordan was not a long-term resident at the Lakeview Shores apartment complex. She lived alone in the Maumee apartment and had virtually no family in northwest Ohio.
Originally from Huntington, Indiana, Jordan's parents died at a young age, and she was raised by her aunt and uncle. She married in Indiana in 1964 and had two children, a boy and a girl. She divorced in 1971 and the children primarily lived out of town with their father at the time of her murder.
Rutledge hopes to make contact with residents who lived at Lakeview Shores during the time of Jordan's murder and may have seen or heard something.
Carlo Sommer and the Carlolites
And he would like to speak to people who were followers of Carlo F. Sommer, a magician-turned-hypnotist-turned-cult-leader and author.
Sommer became fairly well known throughout northwest Ohio for his "Crusade of Love" commercial, which aired in heavy rotation on Toledo airwaves for years in the 1970s and 80s.
Sommer claimed to help thousands achieve a better life in every way with his "better life principles" and referred to himself as "The Father."
His followers referred to themselves as "Carlolites."
"I would characterize that as quasi-religious, even a cult. It's been described to me as a cult," Rutledge said.
"She had a lot of contacts with those people. That seemed to be her circle, so to speak. I would be very interested in talking to them again, not to say they didn't get talked to before, because they did, but as time goes on, people's feelings change or kids grow up and they are more willing to talk to law enforcement or enough time has passed, perhaps guilt has set in, enough anxiety, that perhaps now they'll come forward and reach out to us."
Looking for answers
Rutledge would also like to speak anyone who lived in the Lakeview Shores Apartments during the time Jordan was killed.
If you know anything about the homicide of Jane Jordan, call Maumee Police at 419-897-7040.
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