MISSING WOMEN

Columbus, Kentucky cases draw task force interest

Gazette staff

CHILLICOTHE – Members of the Ross County Missing Women Task Force are busy running down leads connected to a local man connected to a string of rape cases in Franklin County.

Meanwhile, they are closely monitoring a police search of a farm about two hours south in Kentucky for any links to the local cases.

T.J. Hollis, who heads the missing women task force, said he would not rule out Andrew Morrison, 52, of Chillicothe, as a suspect in the disappearance investigation, but investigators with his department haven’t received any solid leads yet.

“We are working with Franklin County and running down tips as we speak,” Hollis said. “We have received some tips regarding Morrison and encourage anyone with information on him to let us know.”

Hollis and Ross County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Mike Preston both stopped short of calling Morrison a suspect in the disappearance of six women in the past 18 months in Ross County.

Two of those women were later found dead, and no one has been arrested in either of those cases. A man is charged with one death and the other was later ruled death by suicide, though the family has disputed the ruling.

Morrison was arrested in Chillicothe on Aug. 22, and Franklin County sheriff’s deputies say he is a suspect in the rapes and attempted rapes of seven women there. He spent 13 years in prison after a 1990 conviction on a pair of sexual assault cases.

Hollis also said the task force is closely watching an investigation in Robertson County, Kentucky. Federal agents, along with crime scene investigators from both Ohio and Kentucky, have been seen at a farm twice in the past week.

Police officials have not publicly discussed why they are there, but the Maysville Ledger-Independent in Kentucky quoted neighbors Wednesday as saying the investigation had to do with a woman missing from Springfield, Ohio.

Hollis said investigators in Kentucky have not contacted the missing women task force regarding any connection.

Have a tip?

The Ross County Missing Women Task Force can be reached at 740-774-FIND (3463). The email address is findme@rosssheriff.com. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office also wants to hear from any other women who might have been victimized by Andrew Morrison at 614-525-3351.