Carol Michelle Frederick Jones:1974, Akron

  


  Carol Michelle Frederick was born August 29th,1954 to Anita and Harold Frederick. She had three brothers and a sister: Jerome, Harold Jr., Phillip and Lynn. Her Grandmother, Bessie Caldwell, also lived in Akron. 


  She married Joston B. Jones as a teenager. The couple had a son in 1971. Carol was expecting again in 1974.


  In 1974, Carol might have been writing to her brother Jerome who was off at Camp LeJeune with the Marines. The family likely said prayers each night for his safety. 


  Carol Michelle Frederick Jones was at home with her three year old son on February 12th, 1974 when a stranger entered their home at 1114 Maryville Avenue in Akron. 


  Her husband was at work at Goodyear Aerospace that day. Joston Jones came home just after 5 p.m. and discovered Michelle’s body in the bedroom. 


  Carol’s throat had been cut. She had very likely been sexually assaulted as she was found nude. 


  Her three year old, Anthony, was able to tell the police that he was eating cereal in the kitchen when a man came in and hit his mother with a stick and had “poured something on her”. It seems that her son had not realized that his mother was bleeding. A 19 inch length of wood, covered in blood, was found in a wastebasket. A kitchen knife was found in the bedroom.


  Victim blaming was rampant in the article about Carol’s brutal murder. The newspaper article claimed that drugs were involved because police found marijauna in a ravine/ditch somewhere behind the house. This poor young family has suffered an unimaginable loss and trauma and police are blaming this family because some marijauna was found in a ditch. 


  Carol Michelle Frederick Jones was a 19 year old wife and mother. She was at  home with her little boy. He was having a bowl of cereal. It should have been a pleasant Winter day. They should have been safe and cosy in their home. It was the 12th of February. Valentine’s Day was coming up. The newspaper articles about Carol’s murder have Valentine’s Day ads and articles next to them. That’s already a bit of an insulting juxtaposition. And then the newspaper prints the outlandish theory that drugs were somehow the cause of this murder? They try to paint Carol and her husband as drug users by reporting that a “smoking instrument” was found in the house. 


  What the article leaves out is any sort of description of the murderer. That would have been most helpful to the public and police. Other housewives could have been on the lookout. Instead the implied message is that Carol and her family were somehow to blame for what happened to her. The message is “You don’t have to worry about this vicious killer unless you also have a smoking instrument and there’s pot hidden in a ditch behind your home.” 


  Whoever killed Carol was a rapist and a murderer. Who was he? 


  Is there any chance that this murder is related to Donna Jean Hudson’s 1972 Columbus murder?  Donna Jean Hudson was assaulted and murdered at home in front of her three children. Perhaps. It’s only a two hour drive. Or the same man could have moved to Akron in the two years between. More likely, this is yet another 1970’s Ohio murderer. 


  Ohio almost seems like a perfect breeding ground for violent criminals. Industry boomed there after World War One with the rise of the auto industry. During World War Two another huge rise in manufacturing came as the people supplied the war effort. Automakers then kicked into high gear again in the post war years. 


  Houses for workers were built cheaply.  Many would have contained the cheaper lead paint. (Public housing and federal buildings were not allowed to use lead paint because the toxic effects of lead were already known.) 


  The gasoline in all the cars, trucks, tractors, busses, and lawnmowers contained lead. So the exposure was widespread. Eventually lead as an additive in gasoline was phased out. But, in 1988-1989, I remember gas stations in Indiana that still had it for older vehicles that still needed it.

 

   There have been recent studies that show a correlation between lead levels in the blood and violent crime. The graphs of the data mirror each other. 


   The baby boomer generation was massive. If you assume that in every population there are going to be a certain amount of violent criminals… per capita, you might expect more murder. 


  The baby boomers were also raised by one of the most traumatized generations. The Greatest Generation grew up during the Great Depression and went to war during WW2. Therapy and treatment for PTSD was non-existent. Physical punishment was considered the norm. So, the most traumatized generation was raising one of the largest generations. Abuse creates abusers. Of course not every child who gets whipped and abused becomes a killer. But, if you are talking about the largest generation then on average you can expect more violent killers. 


  And what future did the Baby Boomers have to look forward to in Ohio?  A factory job? Military service in Vietnam? No wonder some kids tuned in, turned on and dropped out. Not everyone could stomach being a part of the military-industrial complex. 


  You also had a culture that told men they should be manly and dominate the women. Movies, television and music pounded that message out daily. Take a listen to the lyrics of The Rolling Stones song “Under My Thumb.” 


  And yes, drug use was on the rise in the 1970’s. Some drugs can make a person very violent and dangerous. Some addicts might steal and kill in order to gain access to more drugs. 


  It was all the perfect list of ingredients to guarantee a huge rise in violent crime. And Ohio had so many cities. They had plenty of killers and plenty of victims and police officers who had never seen anything like this. T.V. Shows like Columbo and Dragnet did not prepare them for what they were seeing. This crime wasn’t something you could read about in an Agatha Christie book. 


  One killer who was raping and violently killing women in Akron in 1974 was Gustave Sepharas. He was recently convicted using DNA evidence of two 1970’s cold cases (Karen Louise Bentz in 1970 and Loretta Jean Davis in 1975. Karen Louise Bentz was abducted from very near the Jones’ residence.) He is serving a life sentence now. 

  I believe he may also have killed Mollie Pearson, Linda Pagano, and Zelma Allen. I’ve written about these young women as well. 




  If a rape kit was collected, fingernails were clipped and saved…perhaps DNA evidence could be used to solve Carol’s case. 


  Carol Michelle Frederick Jones was buried in Glendale Cemetery in Akron, Ohio. Her unborn infant rests there with her. 


   Rest in Peace Carol 


If you have a tip that can help solve Carol’s murder please use this link: 

https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Cold-Case/Homicides/Jones-19


  


  

  


  


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