UPDATE @ 6 p.m. (Jan. 20):
We requested cruiser and body camera videos of investigators arriving at the scene of the shootings. However, the Greene County Sheriff’s office redacted much of the video because the images are part of their active investigation, officials said.
The video below is of one of the deputies walking to the home where the bodies were found.
Investigators are continuing their investigation into the murders, officials said.
UPDATE @ 3:15 p.m. (Jan. 18):
Sheriff Fischer said the female victim was found face down in the driveway and had been dead for a few hours before being found.
UPDATE @ 3:05 p.m. (Jan. 18):
Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer said the male victim William Brown was shot multiple times.
“We believe person responsible was angry and targeted specifically this individual,” Fischer said. “Investigators believe this was not random.”
Fischer said they have “no idea” who the suspect or suspects are.
Investigators have conducted over three dozen interviews so far and are still collecting evidence, including technological evidence.
A tip line number for anyone with information on the case is 937-562-4815.
UPDATE @ 3 p.m. (Jan. 18):
You can watch live a 3 p.m. press conference with Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer by clicking this link.
UPDATE @ 11:50 a.m. (Jan. 18):
We've received a copy of the call made to Yellow Springs police Sunday afternoon that began a double homicide investigation with the Greene County Sheriff's Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The female caller, who is unnamed, told dispatchers there was a middle-aged woman, in a black and white dress, lying in the driveway by the side of the road. The caller said the woman appeared to be bleeding.
The dispatcher stayed on the call with the jogger while she relayed the information to Yellow Springs police, confirming the location.
Investigators responded and discovered the bodies of William “Skip” Brown and Sherri Mendenhall dead from gunshot wounds.
UPDATE @ 10:40 a.m. (Jan. 18):
The Greene County Sheriff is expected to provide an update on the double homicide investigation that left William “Skip” Brown and Sherri Mendenhall dead from gunshot wounds.
Sheriff Gene Fischer is expected to hold a press conference at 3 p.m.
INITIAL REPORT:
Fourteen state agents are helping the Greene County Sheriff’s Office investigate the double homicide just outside Yellow Springs — a “tough” task, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said of a crime with no known suspects or witnesses.
DeWine said his Bureau of Criminal Investigation will provide Sheriff Gene Fischer with “whatever he needs” in their investigation into the slayings of William “Skip” Brown, 44, Sherri Mendenhall, 63.
“We will be there for him and the people of Greene County,” said DeWine.
He admitted that the lack of suspects or witnesses makes the investigation “tough.”
“We’ve had many cases where we find a body and it takes us a while,” said DeWine. “It doesn’t mean the case won’t be solved, it just simply means we have two bodies that were found, no witnesses to the crime and it does present some challenges.”
Sunday afternoon, a jogger reportedly spotted Mendenhall on the ground outside 4444 E. Enon Road in Miami Twp., just outside Yellow Springs, and alerted authorities. After arriving on scene, officers found Brown’s body inside the residence.
Mendenhall and Brown were neighbors who lived in separate units in the East Enon Road building where Brown also operated an art gallery dedicated to the photography of his great-grandfather, Axel Bahnsen.
DeWine and sheriff’s officials said they would err on the side of caution by limiting details of their investigation to the public.
“We don’t want to broadcast our knowledge of information to the people who committed the crime or the person who committed the crime,” said DeWine. “That’s just standard operation procedure, nothing unique about this. We just don’t get into talking about the details of the investigation.”
The sheriff’s office is leading the investigation with the assistance of BCI, a partnership DeWine described as “common.”
According to the attorney general’s Public Information Officer Jill Del Greco, 14 BCI agents are working the case with the sheriff’s office, including agents from their crime scene unit, which collects and processes any viable evidence.
Bob Locke, who lives in the area, purchased his current home from Mendenhall about three years ago. The two stayed in contact.
“She was very nice, very sweet,” Locke said. “She always sent us a Christmas card. We didn’t know her that well, but she seemed to want to be friends and we always called it ‘our house.’ ”
Locke said Mendenhall referred to Brown as her boyfriend.
Locke said when he heard Mendenhall’s name on the news, he had hoped it wasn’t the same woman he knew.
“It’s terrible. I’ve never known anyone that has been murdered in cold blood. Sherri Mendenhall is not a very common name. I thought ‘Oh no, that sounds like Sherri.’ ”
Locke said, “I’m still not over it.”
EARLIER REPORTS
State and local investigators are trying to piece together what happened on a quiet street just outside the village of Yellow Springs pn Sunday that left two people shot to death and a killer on the loose.
The victims were identified Monday as William “Skip” Brown, 44, and Sherri Mendenhall, 63, by the Montgomery County Coronor’s Office.
They were neighbors who lived in separate apartments on the property at 4444 E. Enon Road where Brown also operated an art gallery dedicated to the photography of his great-grandfather Axel Bahnsen.
“I think everybody is just absolutely floored,” said Terri Adoff, who lived across the street for several years. She remembers the area as quiet and her neighbors as kind.
“People always spoke very highly of Skip,” she said. “If I ever needed anything he was there.”
Brown, who grew up in Yellow Springs, was also the owner of the Legendary Roofing Company.
Long-time friend Lisa Cermele said she was just in disbelief when she heard the news. Brown’s loss will be felt in the tight-knit community, she said.
“When you’re from Yellow Springs. That’s your family,” she said. She described him as having a love of laughter and life.
In 2012 he told the Yellow Springs News that he'd taken an interest in promoting his great grandfather, who was at one time considered among the best in the world of black and white photography. He renovated the space on Enon Road into a gallery and sold Bahnsen originals through the website www.axelbahnsen.com.
A jogger called Yellow Springs police Sunday at around 3 p.m. to report finding a woman lying in the driveway of a residence, just outside Yellow Springs and about a mile north of Antioch University.
After arriving on scene, police found a second body, Brown’s, inside one unit of the duplex, Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer said.
Both were shot, but more details about the manner of their deaths has not been released.
The police do not have a suspect and are asking anyone with information to call the sheriff’s office at 937-562-4819.
“We’ve talked to some of the family members that have been out here. We’re going to be contacting some more people between my detectives and agents from BCI,” Fischer said. There’s still a lot of footwork that needs to be done and we are going to be working this well into tomorrow and days after that.”
The deaths came as shock to not just those who knew the victims, but to an entire community not often touched by violence.
The last murder in Yellow Springs was in 2002. In fact all of Greene County averages only a few homicides a year. In 2013, several streets of the village were evacuated overnight when police became engaged in a shootout with Paul E. Schenck Jr., whose death from an officer’s gunfire was ruled justifiable.
“It’s scary. The first thing I thought was: Wow I can’t believe this is happening next door,” said Chasilee Crawford, who lives just a few hundred feet from the East Enon Road duplex. “One of the main reasons we moved to Yellow Springs was the safety issue with our children.”
Joining the sheriff’s office at the scene were the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Greene County Coroner’s Office and Yellow Springs Police Department.
Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Greene County resident, was at the scene Sunday night.
The attorney general said he and his wife were at a movie in Yellow Springs when he checked his cellphone and realized his BCI unit tried to contact him.
