Linda Sue Dyer: 1976, Cincinnati, Ohio

   

   Linda Sue Dyer was born November 8th 1960. She was the daughter of Dorothy Krebs Dyer and James Dyer. Linda was one of six children. They lived in the College Hill neighborhood. 

   She and her mother had been shopping for school clothes just before her disappearance. Linda was looking forward to school that year. That was the last afternoon that they spent together.

   Linda Sue Dyer had been staying with her best friend, Ernestine, most of that Summer of 1976. I wonder what they did on the 4th of July. It was the Bicentennial year. The Fourth was a big deal that year. I wonder if they went swimming a lot. 

   On August 22nd 1976 Linda went to a party with friends in the Monfort Heights area of Cincinnati. That’s on Cincinnati’s northwest side. She left that evening with a plan to hitchhike home. She was last seen getting into a vehicle on North Bend Road.

   She was abducted, raped and murdered that night of August 22nd 1976. She was only 15. 

   On August 24th 1976, the body of a girl was found in Colerain Township in a rural area. Colerain Township is on the northwest side of Cincinnati but further to the northwest than Monfort Heights. 

   The number of young women and girls who were being murdered was absolutely shocking. Police were overwhelmed. They were working hard but this was on another level. 

   Police released a sketch of the girl found in Colerain Township. Linda Sue Dyer’s family thought the sketch looked like Linda. She was definitively identified using dental records. 

   I regret that I cannot find a photo anywhere for Linda Sue Dyer. Usually I will find yearbook photos on Ancestry or photos will have been posted on the Find a Grave website. The only image I could find is the police sketch of the unidentified Colerain Township girl who turned out to be Linda Sue Dyer. 

  

 Who might have killed her?

  It wasn’t Eugene William Gall, Jr. because he wouldn’t be out until April 12th, 1977.  Gall served time for a series of 1970 rapes, abductions and robberies in and around Lima,Ohio. He was in custody from December 15th 1970 to April 12th, 1977.  He should have served decades of his full sentence but found a sympathetic ear and was paroled. He then went on to kill Beth Ann Mote in October of 1977 and Lisa Jansen in April of 1978. He is suspected in other abductions and murders. But Eugene William Gall Jr. wasn’t free when Linda Sue Dyer disappeared. 

   I think it very well could be Larry M. Ralston who raped and murdered Linda. 

   Larry M. Ralston was born on July 5th, 1949 to Kirby and Myrtle 

Ralston. 

   

   He attended Lockwood School and later Norwood High School. He should have graduated around 1968 but he quit highschool to join the Army. That was a thing that they let teenagers do in the 1970’s. 

    In 1975, Ralston was back in Ohio. When exactly he came back to Ohio, I haven’t found out yet. 

    Ralston raped and murdered Linda Kay Harmon in September of 1975. Her skeletal remains were found scattered over a large area by animals. 

   Linda Kay Harmon,Nancy Grigsby, Mary Ruth Hopkins, Elaina Bear, Diane Sue McCrobie were all murdered by Ralston between September 1975 and July 1977. Each was found raped, strangled and dumped unclothed in a rural area. Some had also been stabbed. 

   Ralston became a suspect after he had given Elaina Bear and a friend a ride home. Elaina was dropped off first. Ralston then took her friend home but asked for directions back to Elaina’s place. The friend was able to give testimony that Ralston intended to go back for Elaina and was probably the last person with Elaina before her disappearance. This proved to be a break in the case. 

   Ralston knew a lot of younger people and went to teen parties often. His name was found in one victim’s address book. Diane Sue McCrobie had written his name and phone number down so she could call him for rides. 

   Victoria Hinscher’s murder occurred during Ralston’s two year murder spree and before he was in custody. She was also found not far from his usual whereabouts. Her murder is also unsolved. I think Larry Ralston is responsible for Victoria’s murder as well. 

   Elaina Bear’s brother was interviewed in 1977 and said that Elaina knew Victoria. Ralston’s victims were usually acquaintances that he met at parties or through other friends. It would not be strange that she might call him for a ride or bump into him at a friend’s house. 

   As police closed in on him, Ralston fled to Chicago. He was arrested on November 15th, 1977. He was tried and convicted for the murders of Elaina Bear, Linda Kay Harmon,Nancy Grigsby, Mary Ruth Hopkins, and Diane Sue McCrobie. 

   Larry M. Ralston is currently serving a life sentence in Ohio as I write this in June of 2025. 

   

   

   Linda Sue Dyer’s murder is still unsolved. If you have information about her murder please call the Colerain Township Police Department at (513) 321-2677.