Stephanie Hummer

 

In early March of 1994, Stephanie Hummer went missing. Stephanie was just eighteen years old and a freshman at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Police say Stephanie was snatched off Pearl Alley, east of campus. On March 6, 1994, her body was found in a field near downtown. She had been sexually assaulted and bludgeoned in the back of the head.

Her partially clothed body was found face down in a field about four miles from her dorm. 

She had been raped and murdered. Thirty-five-year-old Jonathan Jerome Gravely is charged with her murder. Police say they have DNA evidence linking him to the crime. It's been 12 long years trying to find Hummer's killer, but a law passed just last year played a key role in tracking down Gravely.

Hummer, a 1993 Finneytown High School graduate (Cincinnati, OH), was on a full scholarship at Ohio State University when she was killed. Police said she was kidnapped near the campus as she walked to a party at 3:00 a.m. in early March of 1994. Police found Gravely at a labor pool site Wednesday, and during questioning he admitted to some involvement in the case, police said. He was charged with one count of murder, and is expected to be arraigned today in Franklin County.

Stephanie Hummer was an athlete with a vivacious personality who dabbled with the idea of becoming a model; she would have turned 30 this year.

In 2002, a park along North Bend Road, a short distance from the home of her parents, Dan and Sue Hummer, was dedicated in her memory.


According to the new law, anyone charged with a felony must submit a sample of their DNA. Gravely was recently convicted of a felony, and as a result, was required to submit a DNA sample. That sample was compared to a DNA sample taken at the time of the murder. Police say they matched. It was the morning of March 6, 1994 when Stephanie Hummer's body was found in a field.

Jonathan Gravely was once a star athlete in Columbus, and no one ever suspected him in this crime until his DNA showed up in the state database.

Jonathan Gravely hid behind a public defender in court Thursday, but police told the judge that he has confessed to the murder.

When the judge set bond at $1 billion, Gravely's family left the courtroom in tears.

If it weren't for a 2003 indictment for non-support, the lowest of felonies, Gravely would still be free. He wasn't paying the mother of his two teenage children the $377 a month he'd been ordered to. He pled guilty to one count and was ordered to pay more than $21,000 in back support.

He also got five-years probation, which allowed a probation officer to swab for Gravely's DNA for the state database.

At one time Gravely had a bright future. He graduated from Whetstone High School in 1989. He was the quarterback on the football team and a star player in basketball.

At the time of Stephanie Hummer's death, Gravely's children were three and five years old.

Gravely's family wouldn't talk to a reporter from 10 TV Thursday, but in the hall outside the courtroom, his mother hysterically proclaimed his innocence.

Court records also show Gravely was ordered to pay support for another child born in 2003, and he had to submit to DNA testing then to prove paternity, but that DNA sample did not go into the State data base, because the law requiring this was not passed until 2005.

Gravely's public defender claims that he didn't waive his Miranda rights and he will be filing a motion to throw out his confession. Gravely has plead innocent to the murder charge.
 

Jonathan Gravely is being held on a $1 Billion bond !!
  
Murderer:

 

Stella and Ruby Harvey

On January 1, 2006, the two Black males, Ricky Javon Gray, 28, and his nephew, Ray Joseph Dandridge, 28, ruthlessly slashed the throats of Kathryn and Bryan Harvey and their two daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4.

Six days later, on Friday, January 6, these same two Black males killed Percyell Tucker, 55, his wife, Mary Baskerville Tucker, and her daughter, Ashley Baskerville, 21. The lead that led to the suspicion of Gray and Dandridge was that Ashley Baskerville had once dated one of them. Ashley Baskerville had recently gotten out of jail and was looking for work and taking classes, according to her aunts.

After the arrests, the investigation widened. Richmond police have also charged the duo with a home invasion in Chesterfield County, VA, in which there were no injuries.

A SWAT team arrested the duo in Philadelphia on Saturday, January 7, at the home of Dandridge's father, Ronald Wilson. They used pepper spray to subdue one of the men, who resisted arrest, according to Philadelphia police.

The men remained in custody Sunday in Philadelphia; an extradition hearing could be held as early as Monday.
 

All seven victims were found bound with tape in their homes, authorities said. The Harvey home was set on fire after the killings on New Year's Day, and the Tucker home was ransacked Friday in what police described as an apparent robbery. Robbery was given by police as the motive in both cases.

Although neither the police nor the news media has mentioned the race of the killers, a video is available at this website which shows the killers and Dandridge's father in a short interview.  

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=3791973  

A photo of Ray Dandridge was available though the prisonpenpals.org website:

http://www.prisonpenpals.org/235473.html

On Saturday, as detectives in two states were tracking down the suspects, more than 1,400 people packed into a Richmond theater to remember the victims.

Ricky Javon Gray, believed to be from Arlington, and Ray Joseph Dandridge, both 28, were both charged Saturday in Virginia with conspiracy to commit murder and auto theft, Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said at a news conference Saturday night, publicly connecting the two crime scenes for the first time.

Dandridge had been released from James River Correctional Center in November after serving a 10-year term for robbery and use of a firearm, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

His father, Ronald Wilson, said Dandridge had left his Philadelphia home on Christmas to visit his mother and Gray in Virginia and the two returned to Philadelphia Friday afternoon.

The two sets of vicious attacks in the span of a week cast a pall over Richmond, a city of about 200,000.

Bryan Harvey, 49, had been a fixture on the local rock music scene since the mid-'80s — most notably as guitarist and singer for the critically acclaimed duo House of Freaks, which released five albums on three labels from 1987 to 1995.

His wife, Kathryn Harvey, 39, was the half-sister of actor Steven Culp, who played Rex Van De Kamp on "Desperate Housewives." She co-owned World of Mirth, a quirky toy and novelty store in Carytown, a 12-block stretch of trendy boutiques, cafes and coffee shops just west of downtown.

The couple and their daughters, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, were found in their basement, bound with tape and with their throats cut, authorities said.

The Harveys had invited friends for a chili party on New Year's Day. Bandmate Johnny Hott, the first to arrive, entered the unlocked front door and was engulfed in smoke. He shouted for a neighbor to call 911, and authorities discovered a fire and the bodies in the basement.

Less than a week later, in another Richmond neighborhood, the bodies of Percyell Tucker, 55; his wife, Mary Baskerville Tucker, 47; and her 21-year-old daughter, Ashley Baskerville, were found Friday, also bound with duct tape.

Friends and family said Tucker, was a forklift operator, and Mary Baskerville, worked at a nearby cleaners, the Times-Dispatch reported.

A makeshift memorial of flowers and candles had built up in Kathryn Harvey's store during the week, along with condolences scrawled on a large poster and sealed letters addressed in children's handwriting to Stella and Ruby.


  Murderers: