Cheryl Ann Thompson:1978, Cincinnati, Ohio

     

   Cheryl Thompson was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma on the 28th of June in 1958. Her parents were Betty Jean Vaughn Thompson and William Joseph Thompson. 

  Cheryl lived in a University of Cincinnati dorm during the school year. When school was out she lived on Wooster Pike with her parents. That’s on the east side of Cincinnati. 

  Cheryl’s parents last saw her on Friday March 24th, 1978. She was supposed to meet her boyfriend at Gatsby’s Disco that night. When she did not show he spent the night looking for her. He drove for hours. He thought he saw a man driving her car about 5:30 a.m. and he followed him. At some point he lost sight of the car. 

    Who could have done this? 

    Eugene William Gall Jr. was still on the loose. He was finally caught in early April 1978 when he abducted, raped and murdered Lisa Janson from Cincinnati. He shot her and left her on the side of the road in Kentucky. Then he held up a convenience store and all the customers in it. He wounded one woman there. Later that day he got in a shootout with police and killed a police officer before being apprehended.

   Gall had also abducted, raped and murdered another young girl, Beth Ann Mote in October of 1977. He would be convicted of both of those murders. 

  Larry Ralston was, thankfully, no longer free to abduct, rape and murder women. He had finally been arrested on November 15th, 1977. He was eventually convicted of numerous murders and suspected of more. 

   Cheryl Thompson was found in Loveland on Sunday April 9th, 1978 by a game warden. She was found on the banks of the Little Miami River in Hamilton County, Ohio. She had been raped and strangled. Despite the hard work of investigators her case would go cold. 

   In 2022, DNA tests were conducted that developed a profile of her killer’s DNA from evidence collected in 1978 from Cheryl. But, the DNA profile of her killer was not in any modern systems. Investigators thought the profile would point to someone with a long criminal history but they got no matches. They turned to genetic genealogy techniques. When the genetic genealogy investigation pointed to a man named Ralph Richard Howell; Investigators looked into Howell’s background. Upon finding a 1983 case in which Howell abducted a woman and tried to strangle her; investigators knew they had to get a sample of Howell’s DNA. 

   They disinterred Howell in order to get a DNA sample. They were able to extract a viable DNA sample from his jaw. Tests definitively revealed Cheryl’s killer to be Ralph R. Howell. Prosecutors posthumously indicted Howell. It’s rare to indict a deceased person. I admire the prosecutors who took that step though.  I think it’s important to make this a part of the legal and historical record. 

   Who was Ralph Howell? Why had he never come up before? 

  

   Ralph Richard Howell was born on January 16th 1950 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He went by the nickname “Rick”. He graduated from Deer Park High School. Deer Park is an eastern suburb of Cincinnati. 

 

  He abducted, raped and murdered Cheryl on March 24th 1978. He was likely already dating the woman that he would marry at that same time. Beverly J. Wilson and Howell were married in 1979. 

   In 1983 Howell abducted a woman but she was able to get away. This is the victim’s description of what happened: The victim said she was on the side of the road with car trouble. Ralph Richard Howell pulled over and offered her a ride. He was in a truck that delivered bulk shipments of Cincinnati Enquirer newspapers. She refused but he kept insisting. He said things like “I’m not an animal. I won’t hurt you. You don’t have to be afraid.”  The coercive goading wore her down and so she got in. 

  As soon as she was in the truck, he had a rope around her neck and was strangling her. She fought. She also managed to frantically talk to him and beg for her life. She also asked him if he had a wife. He said yes. She asked if he would want someone to do this to his wife. He said no.  He eventually let her out. She went to the police and reported her story. Thank goodness she did. Without her bravery in reporting this crime Howell might have evaded detection forever. Howell was charged with abduction and attempted rape but plead down to only a misdemeanor of unlawful restraint. If only prosecutors in 1983 had known who they were dealing with. 

   And then, Ralph Richard Howell died in a car accident in Kentucky in 1985. I haven’t found the details of that wreck. But I did find that it happened in Kenton County, Kentucky. That is just across the River from Cincinnati. Was he alone in the car? Did he go to Crittenden County often? Why was he there that day?

  Back in 1976 an unidentified body of a woman was found in Crittenden, Kentucky which is on the border of Kenton County. Was she also a victim of Howell? She was not the only victim found in Kentucky either. 

  Ralph Howell worked as a long haul trucker for a while. He also worked delivering bulk shipments of Cincinnati Enquirer newspapers. We know he was doing that in 1983. What were his routes? I hope someone is putting together a timeline of his work record. I hope records of his routes still exist. 

  He is also suspected of killing Nancy Theobald, Charmaine Stolla and Victoria Hinscher.  I believe there are many other victims. The fact that he had a rope ready and waiting in 1983 when he goaded that woman into accepting a ride makes me think this was a regular routine. It seems like he had done this many times. 

   

   Cheryl Thompson was only 19. She was a promising student at the University of Cincinnati. She worked part time at a doctor’s office near campus. Her future was stolen from her. She should still be here now. 

   

   Rest in Peace Cheryl Ann Thompson.