Kathryn Bevington:1972, Akron, Ohio

   


  Kathryn Louise Wiltrout was born on May 31st, 1945 in Sidney, Nebraska. Her parents were Doris and Robert Wiltrout. That’s in Cheyenne County which is way out in Western Nebraska. Interstate 80 runs past it. I have driven that stretch of I-80 but I must admit that I did not recall Sidney, Nebraska. Looking at the map you can see that Lodgepole Creek runs through the town.  I imagine the town grew up there because of the water supply. The railroad likely came along next and then the Interstate came about a century later.  


  By 1950, the Wiltrout family was living in Akron, Ohio according to the 1950 Census. 


  Kathryn Wiltrout married Jay Bevington in 1963 when she was 17 and he was 20. Jay was in the AirForce at the time. They had been high school sweethearts at Coventry High School. 


 Kathryn Bevington was a young mother in 1972. She and Jay had a son and a daughter. 


  Kathryn took on a job as a cashier at the Massillon Road Pharmacy at the start of October in 1972. On October 4th, she was working as usual inside the store. Witnesses said that they saw her talking to a man. They said she appeared distressed. They said he didn’t seem like a customer. Their conversation didn’t seem like a normal customer interaction. Witnesses said that in the busy store they did not notice when she disappeared. She left her handbag with her wallet and cigarettes in it and her car there at the Pharmacy. 

 

  Did the killer say something like “Come with me quietly or I’ll kill everyone in here.” Maybe he showed her a gun or pretended to have a bomb. A kind woman like Kathryn would have probably gone with him in order to save others. 

 

   The newspaper articles were written as if she willingly left. They surmised that she was just depressed and decided to walk away from her life and leave it all behind. Really? It was her fourth day at her new job. It was probably her first job in years now that the kids were in school all day. She was probably a little nervous but eager to start making a little money of her own. 


  Kathryn was missing for about a month. Her body was found in November by a hunter. It was likely the start of deer season. Ohio and Indiana have large deer populations and November is deer hunting season. Many hunters head out into the woods in the early morning to their preferred spot. (All those paranormal stories about stairs and ladders in the woods…those are deer stands.  An elevated spot to watch for deer. Stairs?  Yes, say you are part of a crew taking apart an old house. There’s a set of stairs there in good shape.  You and a couple of buddies cart that off into the woods. And now you have a deer stand.)


  Kathryn was in a rural wooded area near Kreighbaum Road and Raber Road. The man who abducted and murdered her did not take her very far away from the Massillon Road Pharmacy.  Why was that?  Did he need to get back to work that day? 


  Kathryn Bevington had been sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times. 


  If you have been listening to the last few videos you’re probably already wondering if the Massillon Rd. Pharmacy was anywhere near the Sapharas Family Restaurant.  Why, yes it was, as a matter of fact. 


  Was Gus Sapharas in town then? I believe he was. He married in 1972 but I did not find the date. He and his wife later moved to West Virginia but I don’t know when exactly. They divorced on October 8th, 1974.


  Who do we know that is impulsive enough and violent enough to abduct a woman from a crowded pharmacy? I would say that this perpetrator is Gus Sapharas. 

Gus Sapharas in 1975


   We know he grabbed Karen Bentz off the street in 1970.  We know he kidnapped Loretta Jean Davis in public in 1975. We know he savagely raped and murdered both of these young Akron women. We know that in 1991, while out in parole for another violent rape, he abducted, raped and murdered Bonita Parker of Columbus and nearly killed another Columbus woman. Even on parole he had no impulse control. 


  We know he was in and out of jail for rape and violence from 1969 on. 


  Kathryn Bevington did not get to see her children grow up. She didn’t get to enjoy a career. She didn’t get to enjoy all the things that many of us take for granted. Her children had to grow up without her. Her high school sweetheart, Jay, had to try to go on living and caring for their  children without her.


  If Gus Sapharas didn’t kill her; who did? Is that man still out there?  


  Kathryn Bevington is buried at Mt. Peace Cemetery in Akron. Mollie Pearson and Zelma Allen are also buried there.  I believe they are also victims of Gus Sapharas. 


 Kathryn’s case is not on the Ohio Unsolved Cold Case website. If you have a tip, please call the Akron Police Department at (330)375-2552. 



  


  


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