Numerous currently accessible resources, such as those offered by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as Project: Cold Case and the Murder Accountability Project, provide the number of murders in Ohio by year within criminal reports packed with statistics. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, provides Uniform Crime Reports which are released annually, which are frequently packed with relevant information about the kinds of offenses committed and their relative crime rates in each state. In addition to local, state, and law enforcement agencies, Project: Cold Case has built a webpage that displays the number of unsolved murders in each state, as well as their relative homicide clearance rate, in collaboration with the Murder Accountability Project. Per this page, there were around 32,133 homicides in Ohio alone from 1980 to 2019. As time passed, approximately 21,474 of those crimes have been solved, leaving Ohio with approximately 10,659 unsolved homicides.
Some examples of the many unsolved murders in northern Ohio include the 1987 murder of Barbara Blatnik, the 2012 murder of Jameela Hasan, the 1960 murder of Nancy Eagleson, the 1976 murder of William Forsberg, and the 1981 suspicious death of Kurt Sova, among countless others. The 1998 murder of Stacey Colbert, the 1971 murder of Michael Klitch, the 1991 murder of Bonita Parker, the 1990 murder of Patrice Corley, and the 1997 murder of Martha Oelman, along with the well-known 2006 unsolved disappearance of Brian Shaffer are only a handful of examples of the many unsolved central Ohio murders and strange disappearances.
In addition, a few of the many unsolved murders in Columbus, Ohio, included within various lists of Ohio’s cold cases are the 1996 murder of Columbus Austin, the 2005 murder of Abel Madero, the 1982 murder of Deanne Campbell, the 1979 murder of Kent Wheeler, and the 1977 murder of Jessie Smith, along with the well-known 2006 unsolved disappearance of Brian Shaffer. Last of all, some of the many remaining unsolved murders in Franklin County, Ohio, include the 1986 murder of Barbara Brooks, the 1975 murder of Jill Cull, the 2010 murder of Rebecca Caroll, the 2007 murder of Alissa Clere, and the 1981 murder of Robin Durrer, among several others.