OH OH - Alana 'Laney' Gwinner, 23, Fairfield, 10 Dec 1997

[mysteriew]

One of the country's top cold case detectives is hot on the trail of the person who killed a young woman seven and a half years ago. Now a special team of river investigators is helping to solve this Tri-State mystery. The murder of Laney Gwinner was seven and a half years ago, but in recent months tips have poured in. It started when Butler County's cold case investigator started reworking the case. Frank Smith has received enough new information to have an idea of what happened, and get the right people with the right equipment to help him look for a key piece of evidence.

Frank Smith, Butler County Sheriff's Cold Case Squad: "We've received information from as far away as Florida and Chicago. We continue to receive information on a weekly basis in the Gwinner disappearance."
http://wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=90B9CC5E-FC7C-4DD7-804B-CDF0805C457F

 

[Laney's Legacy]

December 10, 1997 is a day we will never forget. Laney Gwinner was out with a friend at Gilmore Bowling Lanes in Fairfield, Ohio the night before. It is estimated that she left the bowling alley around 1:00am. By 10:00am the next morning, friends and co-workers began talking; it was unlike Laney not to let a friend know where she was, let alone, to not call into work. As day turned to night, we became more concerned for her but we had faith that she would walk through the door at any moment. Although the news reports were heart-wrenching, they never swayed us into considering the worst-case scenario. On January 4th, the Cincinnati news channels were buzzing about Officer Mike Partins who fell from the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge while chasing a suspect. We all took a break from our own sorrow and turned our thoughts to his young wife, Lisa and their daughter.

A day, a week, a month went by and then it happened… On January 11, 1998 while searching for Officer Partins, Kentucky State Police found the body of Alana “Laney” Gwinner. Everything fell silent. Watching the news, flipping through channels thinking one of them will tell us otherwise, hearing the phone ring but unable to speak to anyone… Can this really be happening? How? Who? Why? So many questions…some that will remain unanswered.

On January 17, 1998, a memorial service was held at St. John Church in Westchester, Ohio. She would have been proud of the number of friends and family that came to show their respects. Now that the worst is over, we begin to look for answers.

Laney’s 1993 Honda Del Sol has never been found (License # AKP-3607). The case was recently reassigned to the Cold Case Unit in Butler County, Ohio. Detective Frank Smith has given all of Laney’s friends and family hope. Detective Smith says this is a solvable case…we will have closure. It has been a long time coming…

If you have any information regarding the case of Alana “Laney” Gwinner, please contact the Butler County Sheriff’s Department at 513-785-1000.


Please visit our website : http://www.laneyslegacy.com/

 

[mysteriew]

An obsession over murder, one of Butler County's Cold Cases sets off a massive river search for a clue. Four search vessels from three counties teamed up for a 51 nautical mile search Monday. They used divers, salvage teams and a new high tech underwater camera to search for a murder victim's car.

Laney Gwinner was found in the Ohio River in Warsaw Kentucky in January 1997, one month after she disappeared. There are scientific reasons to believe her car in still in the river. As Local 12's Deborah Dixon tells, there is a haunting reason to believe people know where it is.

Search teams moved from the Great Miami River to Warsaw Kentucky on the Indiana side...and back on the Kentucky side focusing on anywhere a boat...or car could go in. If a car sinks in the river it pretty much goes to the bottom and sticks there. Even with a flood, it wouldn't go far. And new high tech Sidescan Sonar can locate and identify images from the river floor. Monday's search is the first of several target areas for Laney Gwinner's car, believed to be her first watery grave.

http://www.wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=92DFD18C-C230-4171-BDB4-6D7A6E348F47

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Billboards seek help in cold case
FAIRFIELD – Eight years after Alana “Laney” Gwinner disappeared from the Gilmore Lanes here, the Butler County sheriff’s cold case squad is using billboards to help find her killer.

The first of six billboards bearing Laney’s picture was unveiled today at Ohio 4 and Maple Avenue in Hamilton, promoting a $10,000 reward. Det. Frank Smith hopes it will help jog someone’s memory and help police find a key piece of evidence – her car.

The 23-year-old Fairfield woman’s body was found in the Ohio River near in Warsaw, Ky., about one month after she disappeared Dec. 10, 1997, from the bowling alley on Dixie Highway. Laney left the alley after making a call to a boyfriend, whom she planned to visit at his apartment...

More: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060224/NEWS01/302240018/-1/rss

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Detectives Compare Notes On Murder Mysteries

Cold Case detectives in Ohio and kentucky are comparing two murder mysteries. The disappearances eight years ago of two dark haired young women in two months. There are similarities in the Laney Gwinner case in Butler County and Erica Fraysure in Bracken County. The one big difference is that Fraysure is still missing. Local 12's Deborah Dixon has exclusive details from the tiny town still haunted by the teen's disappearance.

8 years of changes in this tiny Kentucky town are subtle. The town restaurant has changed hands. And most of the regulars at the so called gossip table have died, so has talk about 17 year-old Erica Fraysure's disappearance.

Angie White, Carbo's Cafe: "Now everything's went on with their ways, thinking well, some day we'll know."

More: http://www.wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=4D0D3EFB-E167-42F5-AD0C-07E55B7F2683

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Ok, kind of spooky to me, but I think Laney and Erica DO kind of look similar.

Pictures of Laney: http://laneyslegacy.com/sub/Pictures.html

(I swear it reminds me of me and my friends posing the same way in all of these pictures from younger years to teen years to college years!)


And here's Erica: http://www.geocities.com/findericafraysure/EricasPhotos.html

 

[mysteriew]

New leads are coming in

When it comes to suspects, there are new ones and old ones.

"Most likely an acquaintance, not necessarily friends, maybe just someone."

Somebody she rejected?

"Very well, very well"

Sheriff Richard Jones, Butler County: "We're sharing resources with Fairfield. If Frank says it's solvable, I believe Frank. We've got some leads we can't discuss and we hope to have more."

http://www.wkrc.com/crimestoppers/story.aspx?content_id=1CBA0653-286D-478D-AC1A-B2448AC23B1F

 

[Old Broad]

More information coming out about this case.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060630/NEWS01/606300400/1056

FAIRFIELD - A document found in a central Florida home and a tip about the possible whereabouts of Alana "Laney" Gwinner's car might help heat up a cold case.

Gwinner disappeared Dec. 10, 1997, from the Gilmore Lanes bowling alley. The Fairfield resident's body was found in the Ohio River near Warsaw, Ky., about one month later.

Her killer hasn't been found. Neither has her car.


More at link.
Old Broad

 

[Beyond Belief]

Does anyone know how to get some information to these people?

 

[tarabull]

Beyond...hope this helps

Contact Specialist Frank Smith - 513-785-5260
Crime Stoppers - 352-3040
coldcase@butlersheriff.org
- or -
use the form below

Found here: http://www.butlersheriff.org/coldcase/

 

[Beyond Belief]

I called and let a message on Dec. Smith answer service. Last night I tried to pass some information along to crime stoppers, the woman wouldn't co operate, call the police she says. Worthless needless to say.
A man in the area south of here has been arrested for attemped sexual battery, I checked intellius, he was from Alana's area. i could only find an address for 95 close to the bowling alley she went missing which was 97.
Leopards don't change their spots and i think they should take a look at him.

 

[amber1]

Cold Case Detective Frankie Smith keeps this case alive as of 2012:
http://www.local12.com/content/crim...Seeking-The-Truth/cgQkyCt7MkmdfcKH5LaP3A.cspx
There's a great video clip as well. I have much faith that Laney's killer will be brought to justice!So glad to hear the cold case squad is on this!

Article:
<MODSNIP>

Local 12's Deborah Dixon tells us about the case that haunts him, and why.

<modsnip>

"The connection between the man Frank thinks killed Laney goes back to the night she disappeared from this bowling lane."

Laney Gwinner walked out of Gilmore Lanes on December 9th 1997 and vanished. A month later police found her body in the Ohio River. Her car has never been found.

The coroner could not say how she died, only that Laney was dead before she was put in the river. The man Frank suspects has relatives who live near the lanes, and there's more.

"Living across Bowling Lane there was a history of attempted abduction, an abduction, carjackings."

"The statements, the hostility he showed to us confident right guy."

Getting to the truth in Laney's murder will be up to a detective inheriting Smith's files.

<modsnip>

Article:

 

[amber1]

It gives me chills that her car has never been found-any theories of how and why that is, fellow websleuths members?

 

[amber1]

Thinking of Laney. I feel if we solve her murder, and find her car, we can solve other crimes and disappearances as well. I am sure her abduction and murder is not the first one her perp has done, and was not the last.

 

[CanManEh]

WoW that's a pretty big piece of evidence to hide . It's gotta be in the water and drifted alot further then they think ..I wonder if tim miller could help he is well knowen for finding stuff in water..

 

[:+:MrTT:+:]

It gives me chills that her car has never been found-any theories of how and why that is, fellow websleuths members?

It could have went to a chop shop
​

 

[neverletgo]

Thinking of Laney today, as well as Katelyn Markham who is also from Fairfield and is still missing.

 

[bessie]

Adding a 2009 article because some of the older links no longer work.

Student's body was found in Ohio River; car still missing

updated 3:39 p.m. EDT, Wed May 20, 2009
By Philip Rosenbaum

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Alana "Laney" Gwinner, a 23-year-old accounting student at the University of Cincinnati, had a lot to celebrate Tuesday, December 9, 1997. She had just aced an exam and received a promotion at work.

So, that night, Gwinner and friends met up about 10 p.m. at a bowling alley in nearby Fairfield, Ohio. After midnight, Gwinner left to drive to her boyfriend's house, about 2 miles up the road. She never made it.

Her boyfriend and relatives soon went to the bowling alley to look for Gwinner but did not find her or her car, a black 1993 Honda Civic CRX Del Sol.

...a shipmate on a tugboat saw something floating on the water near Warsaw, Kentucky, about 65 miles from the bowling alley. It was Gwinner's body, fully clothed and in good condition, Smith said. Her death was ruled a homicide.

"She was not raped, and robbery was definitely not the motive,'' Smith said. He added that he believes that it was an attempted sexual assault that turned deadly. Gwinner was probably accosted in the alley's parking lot, killed and put in her car, which was then rolled into the Ohio or Miami rivers from a slope or embankment, Smith said.

 

[5CentsWorth]

It's really curious that her car is still missing. :bump: for Laney.

 

[skydelta3574]

If she truly didn't show up at her boyfriend's then something happened in the parking lot--no cameras, no witnesses? No one walked out of the bowling alley with her, no one walked her out to her car?