Ohio woman thought missing is found safe

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A friend, worried that a woman not seen for almost a week would become the seventh mysterious disappearance here in the past year, reported her missing to police Friday, and she was found within an hour.

Loretta Lawson-McCrary, 30, who lives in this city about an hour south of Columbus, last had been seen Sunday or Monday evening in the parking lot of a Rally’s fast-food restaurant here. But authorities located the woman at about 4:15 p.m. ET Friday at a home nearby, and she was not harmed, Police Chief Keith Washburn said.

Lawson-McCrary is a white woman with brown hair and hazel eyes and is 5 feet, 6 inches and 130 pounds. Five of the six women missing in the past year in this city of about 22,000 people were white and in her age range.

The unresolved cases have caused residents to speculate that a serial killer is in their midst. Two of those women — connected through a common history of drug use, possible prostitution and links to the same social circle — remain missing, and four have turned up dead.

6 missing, dead

Six women have been reported missing in the Chillicothe, Ohio, area in the past year. The bodies of four have been found:

• May 24, 2014. Tameka Lynch, 30.

• Jan. 2. Shasta Himelrick, 20.

• May 29. Timberly Claytor, 38.

• June 20. Tiffany Sayre, 26.

Still missing:

• Wanda Lemons, 37, about 5 feet 7 inches tall and 135 pounds with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes. She has a tattoo of dolphins making a heart on her lower back. Missing since Dec. 28.

• Charlotte Trego, 38, 5 foot 4 inches tall and 160 pounds with dark hair and blue eyes. She has a tattoos of “JAMES” on her chest and a Playboy bunny on her upper arm. Missing since May 3, 2014.

Source: Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers