Ohio family fights for new cold case law

CAMBRIDGE, Ohio (WOIO) — An Ohio family fighting for answers in a decades-old murder is pushing for new state legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to list unsolved cases on their websites.

The 1991 murder of 17-year-old Robin Stone in Cambridge remains unsolved more than three decades later.

Robin Stone loved unicorns, watching MTV and dancing. On Aug. 27, 1991, she went home after her first day of school in Cambridge, about 80 miles east of Columbus.

She then got a call and told her family she was going to visit a friend, and it was the last time they ever saw her.

Four months later in December, the Guernsey County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Robin’s remains had been found near Luburgh Lake, not far from Cambridge. Robin had been murdered.

She was seven months pregnant at the time.

“It’s still hard every day, every day,” said Judy Stevens, Robin’s mother. “It’s a rough way to go for any parent to lose a child.”

Family seeks justice after decades

Stevens spoke with 19 News along with Robin’s younger sister Jamie Edwards on what would have been Robin’s 52nd birthday.

“You try to remember the good times, but then it’s kind of rough when they’re not there with you,” Stevens said.

As a 10-year-old child at the time, Edwards told us she lived in fear, wondering if Robin’s killer would come after her and the rest of her family next.

“We just want justice for her and her baby,” Jamie Edwards said. “We want to go to court one day and the person be held accountable.”

Robin’s case remains unsolved. Her family said they haven’t heard an update from the sheriff’s office since 2014, when a national TV show profiled her case.

“No, we’re on the back burner. That’s where I think we’re at and that’s where we’ve been,” Stevens said.

Petition calls for mandatory case listings

Jamie Edwards knows they’re not the only grieving families needing more attention.

She started a petition that now has more than 600 signatures calling for new state legislation to mandate every law enforcement agency in Ohio list unsolved cases on their website.

The proposal would require agencies to keep cases up-to-date and include basic case details and contact information to send tips to police.

Edwards believes this would shift the burden off families.

“It would be nice to get a lot of them solved,” Edwards said. “And if they’re not bringing awareness to them, then a lot of people think that these cases are already solved. So nobody’s going to come forward.”

The Ohio Attorney General already lists nearly 2,800 unsolved homicides statewide and hundreds of missing persons cases, featuring children and adults online.

In Northeast Ohio, 19 Investigates found a few agencies out of more than a dozen we checked list their unsolved cases on their websites. Cleveland Police and Akron Police list missing persons cases.

Lorain Police list missing persons and unsolved homicides. Oberlin Police list cold cases.

State lawmakers consider legislation

Edwards reached out to State Rep. Adam Holmes (R- Nashport), who represents her district.

He gives her credit for trying to keep these unsolved cases alive through her petition.

“More transparency in our government is always a good idea. I think as legislators, we should be supporting that,” Holmes said.

Holmes said it’s important to strike the right balance.

“At the same time, we have to make sure we don’t impact people’s privacy and their requests for that or inadvertently obstruct law enforcement’s actions on it,” he said. “And again, if we do it in a cooperative way with law enforcement, they might help us write it.”

Holmes said hope may be the greatest gift they can give families of the missing and murdered.

“And this is just one more thing that we can do. It demonstrates that we care about each other. And that’s-- we need more of that now than ever before,” he said.

Edwards said the goal of the petition is to solve more cases like Robin’s.

We reached out to State Rep. Christine Cockley (D-Columbus), who is already working on other state bills involving missing persons cases.

Since then, we learned she is now working with Holmes on possible bi-partisan legislation to address this petition.

The Guernsey County Sheriff’s Office said Robin Stone’s case is still “open and active” and “remains high on the priority list for our agency, as it always has.”

They said the release of any more information would “jeopardize any progress” that has been made in this case.

Anyone with information about Robin’s murder can call the sheriff’s office at 740-439-4455.