Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Janson: Ohio 1977-1978

    

   On Thursday, October 20th, 1977, 14 year old Beth Ann Mote headed off to middle school at 7:15.  Her Dayton, Ohio neighborhood was a quiet one. Her walk to school shouldn’t have taken long. It was a chilly morning so she was wearing a couple of sweaters. 

   Beth’s mother was an Episcopal priest. She was one of only a few female priests in the country at that time. The Mote family lived a quiet life. 

   Somewhere along Beth’s route to school; she vanished.  Like most schools in those days, if children did not show up they were marked absent.  But, no calls home were ever made.  If a child did not show up, it was just assumed they were ill. Consequently, Beth’s Mother had no idea that she never made it to school. Beth’s abductor had an 8 hour lead on anyone who might have begun searching for her.

   

  That weekend two of Beth’s sweaters were found in the Five Oaks neighborhood of northeast Dayton. One had a hole and blood across the front. Her books were found a few streets away.  Her purse was also found in another nearby area.  All were roughly in the same neighborhood. The fact that these items were placed in an area where they would be discovered is significant.  The abductor could have easily placed these items in a trash bag and disposed of them in a dumpster behind a restaurant or store and no one would have ever seen them again.  He liked the fear and horror that their discovery created.  He liked the attention that the papers would give to the story. 

 

   Beth had been missing for a few days when her mother got a call.  A man demanded money for the return of Beth. It would turn out to be just an extortion plot.  Henry Trussell would be arrested and questioned but ultimately did not have Beth. He didn’t have anything to do with the disappearance but simply wanted to try to get money out of Beth’s distraught family. However, the spot where he asked the family to drop the ransom money was very close to the three spots where her belongings were found.

  Beth Ann was found on Thursday October 27th 1977 by hunters south of Miamisburg. Mr. Glendon Miller and his friend were hunting groundhogs and walking on opposite sides of a field when Miller spotted what he first thought was some sort of Halloween decoration or mannequin. He took a little closer look and realized what he was actually seeing. He later described a large gash on the chest to reporters.

   Beth’s case was still open and still being investigated when on the morning of April 5th 1978, another young girl went missing. 13 year old Lisa Janson of Cincinnati was abducted also early in the morning on her way to school. She was found the next day in Kentucky.  She had been raped and shot.   

   Eugene William Gall, Jr. was apprehended nearby by Kentucky State Police after an armed robbery and shootout with police in Gardnersville Kentucky. He killed a police officer during the shootout. His .357 Magnum would be linked through ballistics testing to the murder of Lisa Janson. Tire tracks near Lisa’s body also matched Gall’s vehicle.   

    

   Eugene William Gall, Jr. had a long criminal history.  He was a lackluster student in high school.  He spent some time in the Army.  In 1964 he was arrested as a “Peeping Tom”.  He was stalking women and peering in their windows.  

   In 1970 he faced 8 charges in connection to several rapes, an abduction, and armed robbery in Lima, Ohio. He was to be sentenced from 10 to 30 years.  He was paroled in 1977.  That left him free to abduct, rape and murder Beth Ann Mote and Lisa Janson.

   His ex-fiancée testified at his trial for Beth Ann Mote’s abduction, rape and murder. She said that in the months after Beth’s disappearance they would drive to Dayton and cruise through Beth’s neighborhood on multiple occasions. She testified under oath that Gall would often say that he wanted kids in the future and that his favorite name for a girl was “Beth”. 

    

    Lima, Dayton, Cincinnati…He got around.  What other crimes did he commit?  Are there more victims out there in small towns that haven’t connected the dots yet?

   He’s still in jail. They should have his DNA or they can definitely get it. It would be worth considering him for other unsolved murders in the Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky area.