DNA Breakthrough Offers Hope to Solve 1980s Midwest Serial Killer Case

Eight young girls were taken and killed in a terrifying crime spree that terrified the Midwest during the 1980s. Their bodies ended up dumped in isolated spots while their killer walked free. Now, more than forty years later, a new DNA breakthrough offers fresh hope to crack one of the area's most disturbing cold cases.

Among those victims were Tina Marie Harmon, twelve, Krista Lea Harrison, eleven, Dawn Hendershot, seven, and Debbie Smith, just ten. Debbie vanished from a crowded Ohio carnival before her mutilated remains surfaced beside a riverbed. Her brutal death left families broken and investigators scrambling to figure out if these crimes were linked.

Fresh forensic testing has breathed new life into the investigation surrounding Debbie's murder. This work raises hopes that modern DNA technology could finally expose the person responsible. It might also uncover the truth behind other killings that have haunted northeast Ohio for generations.

Debbie disappeared on June 25, 1983. She was at a carnival in Massillon with her mother, Linda Smith, and her teenage brother, David. The ten-year-old had been riding the Tilt-A-Whirl with David when Linda briefly turned away to get drinks for them. When she returned, Debbie was gone.

David could not explain where his little sister had gone. A frantic search of the carnival grounds began immediately. The family then rushed home, hoping she might have returned on her own. She did not.

By August 6, 1983, a canoeist changing clothes beside the Tuscarawas River stumbled upon badly decomposed human remains about fifteen miles from Debbie's home. Investigators compared hair recovered from the body with hair taken from Debbie's comb and confirmed a match. Experts subsequently established her identity.

A Smithsonian expert determined that Debbie suffered a stab wound through her second rib that may have pierced her heart. Her throat had been cut, and investigators also considered whether she had been strangled. Pieces of wax were found beneath her remains while a similar substance was discovered nearby. Investigators suspected she may also have been sexually abused.

Police launched a vast search involving around 200 officers, firefighters, and volunteers. They questioned carnival workers, inspected amusement operators' vehicles, and combed nearby streets, buildings, railroad tracks, and riverbanks. Linda was petrified because Debbie suffered from juvenile diabetes and required insulin injections twice daily. For nine days, searchers scoured the area desperately hoping to find the missing schoolgirl alive.

Then came the discovery that shattered the family's hopes. Later reports suggest someone stabbed her to death in a wooded area near Bolivar in Tuscarawas County.

The saga involves four girls slain between 1981 and 1983 in Stark and Wayne counties. Tina Marie Harmon, twelve, was from Creston and vanished in October 1981. Krista Lea Harrison, eleven, was from Marshallville and disappeared in July 1982. Dawn Hendershot, seven, was from Massillon and gone by September 1982. All had disappeared before being found dead.

Investigators are now taking a second look at Robert Buell, who was a suspect back in 1983. Buell was executed in 2002 for kidnapping and strangling eleven-year-old Krista Harrison in Marshallville in 1982. After his death, the man who had been convicted of raping two women was also linked by DNA to the 1981 murder of twelve-year-old Tina Harmon, who was last seen in Lodi.

Tina Marie Harmon lived in Creston. She went missing in October 1981 before her body was discovered. Her death joined a growing list of horrors that plagued the region. Now science offers a chance to finally bring closure to these shattered families and hold justice accountable for decades of silence.

Investigators raided Robert Buell's residence in Franklin Township during October 1983 and walked away with five white candles plus a full carton of candle wax and another box holding orange-white paraffin. They also removed two unopened cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon from his refrigerator, items that would later surface near Debbie's body at the crime scene. An official affidavit detailed how Buell had taken a canoe trip along the Tuscarawas River just two weeks before she vanished, a detail that matched where her remains were eventually found near a canoe livery.

The legal outcome for Buell became clear in 1984 when he faced conviction for Krista's abduction and murder, leading to a death sentence. He never stood trial for the slayings of Debbie or Tina. Recently, Dadisman forwarded some of Debbie's clothing along with other evidence collected at the scene to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, yet DNA testing failed to link Buell or anyone else to the biological material found on those items.

Debbie's disappearance left her family facing a nightmare that would haunt them for decades. Her uncle Terry May recalled her as a happy-go-lucky child who loved coloring books and spending time outdoors at the park. She was a wonderful little girl, he noted, describing her as beautiful and ambitious with an active spirit that never seemed to slow down.

But Debbie's murder was not the only case haunting northeast Ohio during this dark period. Tina Harmon vanished from Creston in October 1981 while Krista Harrison disappeared from Marshallville in July 1982. Seven-year-old Dawn Hendershot died in Massillon in September 1982, and her neighbor Donald Maurer faced conviction for that specific murder. These killings fueled deep fears that a predator might be targeting young girls across the entire region.

Investigators began comparing these separate cases to search for similarities that could reveal whether one person was responsible for multiple attacks. By October 1983, attention had turned sharply toward Robert Buell, a forty-three-year-old employee of the Akron planning department suspected of involvement in the murders of Debbie, Tina, and Krista. He had already been implicated in separate abduction and rape cases involving two adult women where he pleaded no contest to receive a lengthy prison sentence.

Searching his home again revealed those candles and quantities of wax, raising questions about whether the substance could have played a role in how Debbie was abused. Beer cans found near her remains and the account of that canoe trip along the Tuscarawas River shortly before she disappeared attracted significant attention from law enforcement. Despite these strong suspicions, Buell was never charged with Debbie's murder.

However, he was convicted for Krista's abduction and murder in 1984 and sentenced to death. Prosecutors presented DNA evidence including carpet fibers that linked Krista's clothing and remains directly to Buell's home and van. Buell maintained his innocence throughout the process regarding the girls' murders, insisting that the real killer remained at large somewhere in the community.

Yet before his execution took place in September 2002, he told witnesses including Krista's parents that he did not kill her daughter. His claims did little to settle the questions surrounding the other unsolved cases. Around the time Debbie vanished, a chilling pattern of abductions was occurring all over Ohio with Kimberly King twelve years old disappearing from Warren Michigan and Tiffany Papesh eight being abducted from Maple Heights in 1979 where her body was never found.

Kelly Prosser eight years old was kidnapped and murdered in Columbus in September 1982 while the same tragic fate happened to Gloria Pointer fourteen in Cleveland in December 1984. Lastly Marilyn Sissy Reeb was just thirteen when she was brutally murdered in 1985. Years later true-crime author James Renner raised a controversial alternative theory in his 2008 book The Serial Killer's Apprentice.

Renner suggested that a male relative who lived with Buell at the time might have been responsible for some of the killings specifically referencing Harmon and Harrison. This theory casts doubt on whether Buell acted alone or if someone else within his household committed these terrible acts while he served his sentence.

James Renner, a writer known for his work in true crime, has put forward a startling theory regarding the slayings of four young girls around the same period. He suggests that a relative of Buell might have been involved. This person lived with Buell when the killings occurred and shared his physical appearance. Even more disturbing is the claim that this individual allegedly talked about cruising for young women and discussing abductions.

It is important to note that this theory has never been proven in court. Investigators have not found evidence placing this relative at the scene of any murder. In 2009, authorities opened Tina's file again and ran DNA tests on old evidence. The results came back matching Buell's genetic profile. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray stated that the chance of such a match occurring by accident was roughly one in 96 trillion. Prosecutors used these findings to conclude that Buell acted alone.

However, Debbie's killer is still free, leaving her death as one of the unsolved mysteries from that era. Now, new developments offer fresh hope. In October 2024, Massillon police looked back at Debbie's case after reaching out to the Porchlight Project. This nonprofit group helps solve cold cases by following up on promising leads. They have supported investigations into other historic murders, such as the 1987 killing of 17-year-old Barbara Blatnik, where genetic genealogy helped identify a suspect who passed away before trial.

Massillon police turned down the organization's offer to send direct help but agreed to run additional forensic tests on evidence from Debbie's investigation. Detective Shaun Dadisman later confirmed that previous DNA testing on clothing and other items failed to match Buell or anyone else. The results did not name a killer, yet they gave investigators another reason to examine evidence collected over 40 years ago.

The possibility that Debbie's murderer is still alive remains valid. That is true, it is very possible, Dadisman said. Renner believes the new DNA exclusion of Buell supports his theory that a relative could be responsible for the deaths of Debbie, Tina, and Krista. He has long urged investigators from Stark and Wayne counties to look more closely at this living relative in southern Ohio.

Buell's DNA was found on items linked to Tina, meaning he was present and interacted with her, Renner explained. But I don't think he acted alone, Renner said of Buell. And my suspicion is that Buell was not the one carrying out these murders. The Porchlight Project remains ready to fund genetic genealogy testing if investigators feel it will move the case forward. Dadisman has pledged to keep working on the investigation.

When I began investigating this case, I had a daughter the same age as Debbie when she was abducted, so it goes without saying that these acts of violence break my heart, he said. Although several family members are now deceased, I believe justice still needs served here on earth. For Debbie's surviving relatives, finding out who killed her has been elusive for more than four decades. Her mother and grandparents died without knowing what happened to the little girl missing during a normal family outing.

Now, as investigators revisit old evidence using modern techniques, there is renewed hope that this mystery could finally be solved.