FAYETTE COUNTY, Ohio — More than 30 years after an unidentified body was found in a creek outside of Jeffersonville, the Sheriff of Fayette County said on Monday they now know who the person was.
Sheriff Vernon P. Stanforth joined Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and other law enforcement members in a news conference to announce that a crack in a 1981 cold case happened recently. A body known for the last three decades as “Lampe Doe” has been positively identified as Theodore “Teddy” Long, 19, from Toledo, Ohio.
Long was given the name “Lampe Doe” when his body was found in Fayette County because of the road — Lampe Road — where two hunters found him laying in a creek. Long had been shot twice and stabbed more than a dozen times, the coroner said at the time. With no identifiable information on the body, the case became a “John Doe” and Fayette County Sheriff’s Office would go on to search for clues for more than 30 years — both the name of the victim and who killed him.
Recently, a phone call was placed to a police department in Youngstown, Ohio, from a person who was looking for a friend who disappeared in the 1970s. The reason the person called Youngstown was because the police department had recently been on the news about their own John Doe and was asking the public for help. When Youngstown found out that the tipster calling in was not part of their case, they sent them to Ohio’s Attorney General who was able to investigate their inquiry further. During the interview and search of databases, agents from the Attorney General’s office were able to steer the caller to Fayette County, where it would later be revealed that “Lampe Doe” was the person the caller was searching for. The caller was able to provide information, which Fayette County used to make a positive identification of Lampe Doe as Long. Long had gone missing in 1981 from Toledo, the Sheriff said. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance were not immediately known. Stanforth said that the friend who initially called Youngstown looking for Long was the crack in the case Fayette County needed.
Long’s mother has died, along with much of his family, but he still has a sister alive, the Sheriff said. Stanforth said that while the identification of Long was made, the circumstances surrounding his murder remain an active investigation. The Sheriff told the Guardian on Monday that he hopes by tracing Long’s background and interviewing people from his life that a suspect may be developed.
Long is currently buried in the Washington Cemetery in Washington Court House in an unmarked grave. The Sheriff is in discussions with Long’s sister about moving Long’s body closer to home as they continue to look for a killer.
Meanwhile, in Youngstown, their John Doe was identified as Robert Earl Sanders through DNA profiling with the help of a cold case group known as Porchlight Project. It was 17,000 days ago to this day, or 46 years, 6 months, and 15 days, that a missing report was filed for Sanders. Sanders was reported missing on August 13, 1976. Although his remains were found in 1987, they were not identified as belonging to him until now. The cause of Sanders’ death also remains an active investigation.