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Prosecutor: Man in prison is person of interest in multiple Springfield homicides

UPDATE (May 4): Prentiss Rashan Hare, serving a life term for one killing in Springfield, is a person of interest in several Springfield homicides, the Clark County prosecutor told a news conference Friday afternoon.

Law enforcement officials are focusing on Hare, 37, to possibly connect him with several unsolved homicides that have occurred in Springfield since he became a resident in 2008.

Those officials have his DNA and said they are working to see if it matches any evidence gathered from the crimes scenes of the unsolved homicides.

County Prosecutor D. Andrew Wilson said they believe Hare killed Tiffany Chambers and Michael Frazier, both Jacksonville, Fla., residents, and three other people.

RELATED: Friend of Tiffany Chambers wants justice

Wilson said law enforcement officials believe Hare killed Chambers in July 2015 with the help of two other people because he suspected she was telling people about a homicide he committed.

This week, he pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and other charges in her death. Remains identified as Chambers were found in May 2016 in a secluded area of Greene County.

Frazier was last seen July 11, 2015, near a lounge in Jacksonville, according to a Florida TV station.

Hare is in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution for murder in the 2015 slaying of Springfield resident Deshun Lumford in an argument over a drug deal.

INITIAL REPORT (May 3)

Has Prentiss Rashan Hare, who pleaded guilty this week to killing a Florida woman in Clark County in 2015, committed other homicides?

"I'll answer that one tomorrow," Assistant Prosecutor Dan Driscoll, Clark County Prosecutor's Office, said Thursday night to WHIO-TV reporter James Buechele.

"Tomorrow" alludes to a Friday afternoon news conference county Prosecutor D. Andrew Wilson called to share more details about Hare and his connection to the slaying of the woman and another man who have ties to Jacksonville, Fla.

Hare already is in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution, serving a life sentence in the 2015 killing of Deshun Lumford of Springfield during an argument over drugs.

RELATED: Suspect arrested in connection with Spring Valley Twp. human bones recently ID'd

Hare's plea on Thursday in the 2015 killing of Tiffany Chambers "came about quite suddenly," Driscoll said.

"We didn't want the defendant to change his mind," Driscoll said.

The timeline involving Hare, 37, Chambers and Lumford, 35, plays out this way, according to the prosecutor's office:

  • July 2015: Chambers, of Jacksonville, Fla., is killed in Clark County, the prosecutor's office says, because she witnessed the slaying of Michael Frazier in Jacksonville on July 11, 2015. Frazier was last seen July 10 near the Centerfold Lounge in Jacksonville and was never seen or heard from again, according to WJXT TV-4. Driscoll, asked whether the prosecutor's office knows who killed Frazier, said, "we have a pretty good idea."
  • December 2015: Hare is accused of killing Lumford in a house on South Light Street in Springfield over drugs.
  • May 2016: Unidentified human remains are located in a secluded area in the 2500 block of Elam Road in Spring Valley Twp., Greene County. The remains are later identified as Chambers.
  • December 2016: Hare is convicted of murder in Lumford's death and sentenced 26 years to life.
  • This week: Hare pleads guilty to single counts of aggravated murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the Chambers case.

"The killing of Lumford occurred after Chambers was slain," Driscoll said, "but Hare was arrested and prosecuted in Lumford's killing before we found out about the second killing (Chambers)."

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Hare's plea in the Chambers killing "provides closure to the families of Tiffany Chambers and Michael Frazier," county Prosecutor Wilson said in a prepared statement.

"We're confident he'll no longer be a danger to the public," he said, noting that the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, Springfield police and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office collaborated with his office on the Chambers investigation.

This news organization plans to cover Friday’s news conference and we'll provide continuing coverage of this case.

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