Maysville High School students investigate unsolved mysteries for class project

SOUTH ZANESVILLE — A series of slain sex workers, a refrigerated commercial vehicle and a suspicious truck driver piqued the interest of a couple Maysville High School student sleuths.

Sophomores Jacklynn Watts and Jenna Gundelfinger set out to connect the dots. From there, the two launched into a quest to figure out why this trail on the similarities in the case were never put together by professional investigators.

"It was all connected," Jacklynn recalled of the serial murders.

Looking into the mystery wasn't just for sheer curiosity. The two are working on a class project to find out why the case remains cold — and maybe get some leads of their own.

Toni Stoepful's sophomore pre-AP English class is taking a deep dive into those unsolved mysteries. Each small group is tasked with investigating those cases, tracking down the leads that left law enforcement at a dead end.

But the project is about more than novice detective work, according to Stoepful. They're gaining professional abilities they'll use down the road, like emailing, talking on the phone and public speaking.

"It's hard enough to get students to buy into just a research project," she said. With this project, "they're learning a lot of life skills."

Teen sleuths take a deep dive

Students were required to pick unsolved mysteries from Ohio. After creating visual evidence boards, they'll present their findings in front of the class.

Jacklynn and Jenna launched into research on a series of murders on Interstate 71 known as the Ohio Prostitute Killer case. They interviewed Pultizer-prizing winning journalist Michael Berens, who found similarities in the string of murders from his own investigative reporting when he worked at The Columbus Dispatch.

The two were surprised by the lack of communication between law enforcement in different counties and states. If they all had worked together to connect the dots in the similar killings, they theorized that case might have been solved.

"He was very suspicious," Jacklynn said of a suspect. "He fit the description of the murderer."

The murder of Amy Mihaljevic in Bay Village, Ohio, reeled in Abigail Fracker and MacKenzie Mathers. The killer apparently has an MO, luring young women to shopping malls before each murder. Yet the case remained unsolved. Investigators were led to a teacher who reportedly refused to give his fingerprints after newfound DNA evidence was discovered.

"You could just tell it was the same guy," Mackenzie said.

Heather Montgomery, Kendal Eppley and Jerzei Blackketer looked into a cold close that was close to home. The death of a woman, whose body was found in the woods in Zanesville, initially raised questions about homicide.

Former Zanesville Police Detective Rick Roush — now a Maysville school resource officer — told the girls that it was believed to be an overdose death. Conspiracy theorists online say they're connected to a couple other area deaths, although those are unproven.

After eagerly taking on her investigation, Jacklynn has developed a new passion. She is considering a career in journalism, inspired by the former Dispatch reporter's impact the serial murder case.

"I think it's definitely something cool to do in the future," she said. "It was cool to read about and think, wow, I can do that."

ecouch@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Maysville English class takes deep dive into cold cases