Mysterious deaths rock N. Main Street in Dayton

Dayton — Dayton police and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office are investigating the mysterious deaths of five women within the last year. They died at a variety of unknown locations, but their bodies were all dumped in and around alleys along North Main Street in Dayton. So far, investigators have not found any evidence to connect the five cases, according to Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl.

"We continue to work leads. We still have people we want to locate and interview. So there's more work to be done but we're far from finished," Biehl said.

>>PHOTOS: The bodies of five women. Four found in a drug-infested neighborhood. Dayton struggles for answers.

Although the women's bodies were found in different locations on different days, the cases do have some things in common. For starters, the victims are all female. Three of the women were shot to death. All five are believed to have been involved with drugs. Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer believes the cases are linked to prostitution and human trafficking.

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"Dayton has stepped up their efforts and my RANGE Task Force has been instructed to clean that up because that's Main Street. That is the main street of the city of Dayton and that should not be going on there," Plummer said.

The Task Force recently made two arrests in drug cases in the North Main area. Plummer expects more to come.

Neighbors like Lynn LaMance and Victoria McNeal are worried about the unsolved cases.

McNeal added, "It was just very sad and it made me really mad because I thought they were murdered."

For several years they have been trying to clean up the area, even walking the streets and alleys to monitor what is going on at vacant houses and report illegal activity and code violations to the city.

"When you look at the area, it looks as though no one cares," LaMance said.

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Jordan Gonzalez said his wife discovered one of the women's bodies wrapped in a sheet in a vacant lot next to his home. He said his neighborhood is no longer safe for his wife and children. Gonzalez wants the city to send more police officers to patrol the area and drive out drugs and prostitution.

"People out here need protection. At the end of the day, that's what it's about," Gonzalez said.

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