OH OH - "The Red Shoe Mystery" - Lola Celli, 24, Grandview Heights, Feb 1946

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Citizen Saturday March 9, 1946

Drag Twin Lakes In Celli Search

• Deputy Sheriffs were to drag Twin Lakes in Delaware County on the tip that they may find the body of Lola Celli.

• The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office had received a tip that something is in the lake.


Columbus Dispatch Saturday March 9, 1946

Deputies Search Twin Lakes For Missing Teacher

• The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office was to drag Twin Lakes in Delaware County Saturday afternoon in the search for Lola Celli.

• Twin Lakes is the west side of the Scioto River north of the O’Shaughnessy Dam.

• A Delaware County Deputy Sheriff was assigned to the Celli case at the request of Grandview Heights Police.

• The Delaware County Sheriff said he heard reports that a red automobile had been seen in the vicinity of Twin Lakes.

• A red automobile previously had been sought in the investigation because of a report that a girl had been seen struggling in a car that color North of Columbus.

Note: Twin Lakes is North of Shawnee Hills on Ohio State Route 745 between Harriott Road & Cook Road in the southwestern part of Delaware County. Ohio State Route 745 is also known as Dublin Road in the Twin Lakes area.

Twin Lakes is also close to Franklin County and Union County.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Citizen Sunday March 10, 1946

Police Seek “Good Break” In Celli Case
Dragging Of Lake For Girls Body Is Fruitless

• Grandview Heights Police Chief Robert Livingston said that police needed a ‘good break’ before they can make progress as all leads in the case have lead to a ‘dead end”.

• Grandview Heights Police, Delaware & Franklin County Sheriff deputies dragged a portion of Twin Lakes.

• A tipster said a bakery truck driver had seen a red coupe drive down the edge of the lake on the evening of the day Lola Celli vanished.

• The coupe had a man and a woman when it entered the lake area. When the coupe left the lake area, only the man was inside the coupe.

• Chief Livingston visited the scene on Friday to look for tire prints but a recent rain had washed away any evidence of a car being there.

• The search of Twin Lakes were fruitless as nothing were found.

• Each of the tipsters on the “red coupe lead” failed to get a license plate number.

• Grandview Heights Police were also investigating an assault of another Grandview girl at Grandview Avenue & First Avenue.

• A man grabbed a school girl at that corner three days after Lola Celli disappeared.

• The girl screamed and dropped several books she had been carrying. The man leaped into his auto and drove away.

• One of the books the girl dropped fell in front of the auto and when the man fled, one wheel ran over the book leaving a tire print.

• Subsequent investigation into the incident that occurred at Grandview Avenue & First Avenue failed to tie the incident to the Celli case.


Columbus Dispatch Sunday March 10, 1946

Twin Lakes Search Futile
Ironton Residents Say They Saw Lola
Two Persons Report Missing Grandview Heights Girl Seen in Southern Ohio Town On Feb. 27

• Lola Celli was reported seen by two persons in Ironton, Ohio, Feb 27, four days after she mysteriously vanished.

• A man reported that he saw Lola in the Waldo Restaurant at Ironton in company with a man at noon February 27.

• A woman said her auto almost struck the same woman about 5 p.m. in Ironton.

• Both persons identified Lola from a picture of Lola.

• The Ironton Police Chief had been investigating the possibility of Miss Celli being in the Ironton vicinity for more than a week but that no developments other than the two identifications had resulted.

• Grandview Police Chief Robert Livingston asked Ironton Police to investigate after Chief Livingston received a letter from the woman telling Chief Livingston about the near accident.

• Chief Livingston said he didn’t plan on going to Ironton as more than a week has elapsed since the missing girl was seen there.

• Even if the identification are positive, he didn’t see how a trip to Ironton could “contribute to any efforts” Ironton Police have made.

• The man who saw Lola in the Waldo Restaurant, told the Columbus Dispatch in a telephone interview that he was positive that the girl he saw in the restaurant with a man on Feb 27 was Miss Celli. “If it wasn’t, it was her twin sister.”

• The man did not notice that the type of hat the girl was wearing in the restaurant but he believes she had on red shoes.

• The man also said the fur coat she was wearing looked expensive. Its pelts were different. They looked like they may be distinctive pelts yet they blended in the coat as if one pelt. The coat sleeves were turned up.

• The description of the fur coat tallies with a description of a coat given by Lola’s brother Felice Celli. Felice said his sister was wearing a “Bombay lamb” coat. Some of the pelt are curly and some straight, but they all blend together and are not noticeable unless under close inspection.

• The man in the restaurant described the man with the girl as being about 35 and weighting around 140. The man had a gray overcoat. He did not wear spectacles, appeared prosperous and “nice appearing”. The man paid for his own and the girl’s meal.

• The man who saw Lola in the restaurant reported the identification to the Ironton Police Chief immediately after seeing Miss Celli’s picture in the newspaper on February 29.

• The woman who saw Lola said she was driving near the outskirts of the city when her auto almost struck the woman crossing the street. She stopped.

• The woman who was almost struck by the auto continued on and after reaching the other side, she turned and faced the driver.

• Chief Livingston said that the two identifications were the first of positive nature. The chief said nothing in his investigation indicated that Miss Celli would be in the Ironton vicinity other than the two identifications.

• The Celli Family said that Lola had no friends or relatives in the Ironton area and that the description of the man with the woman in Ironton does not point to anyone they know.

• The search of Twin Lakes in Delaware County, North of Columbus, failed to throw any further light on the case.

• The search was made after a man called Grandview Heights Police stating that he saw a couple along the banks of Twin Lakes. The man said the coupe was seen on February 23, the same day that Lola disappeared.

• Deputies dragged the east side of West River Road for several hours in vain.

• Chief Livingston said the information was one of “many tips” which came to Grandview Heights Police and all was checked to make sure we don’t miss anything.


There was also another newspaper that was a weekly tabloid newspaper published on Sundays called the Columbus Star.

The weekly tabloid newspaper was controversial back then on account that some of the ads and photos were considered to be racy that wouldn't even be printed in the other Columbus daily newspapers.

The Columbus Star was a newspaper that carried mostly lurid stories of crime and scandals with headlines that sure got your attention.

The Columbus Star only had one article about the Lola Celli case in their newspaper. That article was written by a well known law enforcement officer.

Columbus Star Sunday March 10, 1946

Co-Workers Await Tidings Of Missing School Marm
Vanished Celli Girl Still Expected To Return From Limbo Of Missing Persons

• Lola Celli was a school teacher in Bokes Creek Township Rural School in Logan County.

• Miss Celli’s desk in domestic science room at school was still padlocked.

• Miss Celli’s clothes still hang in neat array in the closet of her bedroom in the West Mansfield home on Railroad Street. Coverlets on her big brass bed are turned back ready for her to crawl in. Her cosmetics still are in her special shelf in the family bathroom of the West Mansfield home.

• Lola’s bedroom had bay windows.

• Lola’s closet had a dozen or more suits and dresses. Lola was a seamstress, she made her own clothes.

• Lola’s closest friend and fellow school teacher told Columbus Star that Lola talked about airplanes and South America. Lola’s aim was to be a stewardess on a Pan-American liner. Lola also wanted to be an interpreter.

• Lola spoke 5 languages. She spoke Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and English fluently.

• Lola was constantly watching her diet.

• Lola taught home economics for grades 7 to 12, biology for grades 9 and 10, and science for grade 8.

• Lola was very proficient in teaching the subjects and the students liked her.

• Lola attended all the home basketball games.

• Lola talked of Dr. Anthony Melfi as the type of fellow countryman she would like to marry. Lola did not appear interested in Dr. Melfi, merely as a type.

• Miss Celli left West Mansfield and Columbus without discernible motives, without preparation and without leaving the dimmest clue to her possible destination.

• Lola recently had all of her spring clothes dry cleaned but took none of her spring clothes with her.

• Lola took to Columbus only the smallest of two matched cases. Another small case was in her closet at West Mansfield.

• Lola was fond of jewelry, especially earrings and decorative pins, but she left her best sets behind.

• Lola Celli left the West Mansfield home she was staying at on the evening of February 21 in an aqua dress with distinct red stripes, a gray lamb coat, a small grey felt hat, red shoes, was carrying a small black circular purse with between fifty and sixty dollars in it.

• Lola was wearing the same outfit when she left West Mansfield on February 21 and when she disappeared on February 23 in Columbus.

• Lola took the train to Columbus when she went home to Columbus.

• Lola usually went to her Columbus home each weekend, leaving on Friday afternoon on the New York Central and returning late Sunday evening. Lola had no car.

• Lola’s friend and fellow school teacher had an automobile.

• Lola went with the basketball team away games to Huntsville, Rushylvania, and Zanesfield with her fellow school teacher and another teacher with her husband.

Note: the article didn’t say who the other teacher and her husband were.

• Canvass was made of Miss Celli’s fellow workers at Ranco Inc. in Columbus where Miss Celli worked from June 1945 to September 1945 prior to start of school term.


Note: According to the 1946 Columbus City Directory, Ranco was an electric thermostat manufacturer located at 601 West Fifth Avenue in Columbus, Ohio.

 

[Veidt]

<snip>

After looking at the newspaper articles about Lola’s neighbor, I don’t think the neighbor would have been confused as to where he boarded the bus at on that day as he would know the streets in his neighborhood.

I have to wonder if the neighbor told different stories to the police and newspaper reporters about being the last person to see Lola before she disappeared.

It is possible that the neighbor could have been a victim of sensational journalism where what he told reporters was misstated in the newspapers.

Snipped by me. Nerosleuth, thanks for replying to my post. I agree, there is no way that he could be confused about where he boarded the bus because they were are very different places, especially in the scenario where he runs down Westwood towards West 1st Avenue. There is no feasible way that someone who had lived in that area for his whole live and on those very streets at that could get so confused.

The idea that he could have been the victim of bad fact checking sounds possible, if the journalists were all trying to get as much info as quickly as possible and wrote down the wrong street names. I suppose that a reporter from a different area could easily have mistaken them.

I'd really like to know which version he gave the police. Whichever one it is it's probably the most accurate unless he just gave different reports each time.

I also wonder which bus driver cleared him and when, and if he ever reported the exact time. It's not a stretch, to me at least, to think that a bus driver would see so many people coming and going that he could have seen him at a different time but looking like he had hurried to catch the bus or missed Lola, having seen her but being unable to remember, etc. Of course it's possible that the bus wasn't full enough for this to be a possibility.

I also wonder about the different reports about whether he spoke with her. One of the articles you talked about said that he saw her but didn't call her out and then the reports seen by GuyO say that he even called after her but couldn't join her because he wasn't fully ready to go out.

 

[Veidt]

By the way, I have made a few maps in case anyone else is as confused as I am about street names and distances. If the images are too big let me know and I'll swap them with links.

This first map shows the area where Lola was last seen. The pink spot marks the area where she lived, on West 3rd Avenue between Glenn and Westwood. The orange trail/spot is how much she would have walked to take the bus at Cambridge Boulevard and West 3rd Avenue. It's not a huge distance but it strikes me as peculiar, why would she walk such a long way when she could have taken what was reportedly the same bus (according to the man who lived nearby; so it's not the bus she disliked which included a transfer elsewhere).

The other spots all mark different places where her neighbor has been reported to have gotten on the bus.

If I understood it correctly (see nerosleuth's and my own posts above) if he walked to Glenn Avenue and West 3rd Avenue (the light blue spot) he would have walked past her house. If she loved on the other side of the block then this applies to Westwood Avenue and West 3rd Avenue (the light purple spot). Either way, in one of these he walks past her house, in the other he does not. One of them would have been closer to his house than hers.

The green spot is the area at the intersection of Westwood and West 1st, which is where some reports place him when he boarded the bus. As you can see, that would definitely entail a rather long walk. However, if he took a while to get ready and the bus followed that route then he could have ran there instead of taking it at Cambridge. If the bus stop was empty (because Lola wasn't there) and if he could see him from his doorstep then he could have thought the bus had left already and decided to sprint down.

The biggest questions here IMO are - what was the bus's actual route? IF it didn't go from Cambridge and then south and east to the Westwood/1st Intersection, then there would have been places closer to home where Lola and possibly her neighbour also could have taken it. Unless he saw her after she walked past Glenn Avenue, how could he have guessed that she was going all the way to the Cambridge stop? Was she planning on taking a detour? I think that knowing where the bus would actually stop and that specific one (plus the one that had a transfer and which Lola disliked, because maybe that one was the one the neighbor boarded and that's why she wasn't there - but surely police would have put two and two together and crossed that out so I don't think this is likely) would be really helpful. Does anyone know where we could find this information?

Please ignore the purple thing on this map, I was just feeling too lazy to come up with a blank and make my own markings on it on Paint. Point A is the West 3rd Avenue area (I'm not marking any specific intersections) and Point B is the East Gay Street and North High Street intersection where she was going to buy nylons. We don't know where the bus stopped and if she would have headed there directly, this is just for reference.

This map shows the distance between the West 3rd area and Olentangy River Road area where the shoe being thrown out of the car was reported. Please ignore the purple track, again. The orange thing followed by the purple track, which I believe is a freeway, may be misleading. I don't know if it would have existed in Lola's time but either way, the road you're looking for has a similar name but it's not the freeway. Look a bit east where it says "315", it's there between the freeway and the river. Near the spot where it says "Ohio State University", and then a bit further south next to West 5th Avenue, you can see that both seem to sort of overlap, which makes the map looking confusing. The roads stretch north, too. If you can I would advise everyone to go look at it on Google Maps because it's easier.

This map shows the area where a school girl was attacked by a man a few days after Lola's disappearance, vs. West 3rd Avenue. The place where the attack happened is in green. West 3rd Avenue is marked in pink. You can see the block between Glenn and Westwood close to the border of the map. If you look at the first map, you can see that unseen here but after Glenn it would be Wyandotte, Lincoln, and Cambridge.

I also wanted to add two things that I was thinking about while making these:

- There's yet another report here about what the neighbor saw. In this after he goes out he sees her down the road but presumably doesn't call her. So we have basically three different scenarios - one, he's inside his house and sees her but says nothing and doesn't see her when he goes out, two, he's inside the house and sees her but says nothing and when he goes out he sees her again, and three, he sees her while he's inside and calls out after her.

- Another report says she worked at Bokes Creek Township Rural School which is also in Logan County - but it's not the same as West Mansfield High School, is it? So which one did she teach at after all?

- Finally, I was thinking about the Catholic church (you can see the map here, it's the one called Our Lady of Victory not First Community Church) which nerosleuth had mentioned. I Googled it to find out if it would have been there in Lola's day and yes - it was founded in 1922. More information about its history plus a picture here.

As an aside, I'm sorry for the light colours and weird markers on the maps above. I wanted to keep the tracks/spots more or less transparent without using Photoshop so I used one of the more transparent brushes on paint and used lighter colours so the text with the street names underneath it would be more easily readable.

 

[JaimeSommers]

Thanks very much for these maps. Just discovered this thread and was about to ask if Lola had to walk past the neighbor's house to get to the bus stop.

What kind of car did the neighbor have? If it was already mentioned, I apologize for missing it.

Fascinating case. I'm hooked.

By the way, I have made a few maps in case anyone else is as confused as I am about street names and distances. If the images are too big let me know and I'll swap them with links.

This first map shows the area where Lola was last seen. The pink spot marks the area where she lived, on West 3rd Avenue between Glenn and Westwood. The orange trail/spot is how much she would have walked to take the bus at Cambridge Boulevard and West 3rd Avenue. It's not a huge distance but it strikes me as peculiar, why would she walk such a long way when she could have taken what was reportedly the same bus (according to the man who lived nearby; so it's not the bus she disliked which included a transfer elsewhere).

The other spots all mark different places where her neighbor has been reported to have gotten on the bus.

If I understood it correctly (see nerosleuth's and my own posts above) if he walked to Glenn Avenue and West 3rd Avenue (the light blue spot) he would have walked past her house. If she loved on the other side of the block then this applies to Westwood Avenue and West 3rd Avenue (the light purple spot). Either way, in one of these he walks past her house, in the other he does not. One of them would have been closer to his house than hers.

The green spot is the area at the intersection of Westwood and West 1st, which is where some reports place him when he boarded the bus. As you can see, that would definitely entail a rather long walk. However, if he took a while to get ready and the bus followed that route then he could have ran there instead of taking it at Cambridge. If the bus stop was empty (because Lola wasn't there) and if he could see him from his doorstep then he could have thought the bus had left already and decided to sprint down.

The biggest questions here IMO are - what was the bus's actual route? IF it didn't go from Cambridge and then south and east to the Westwood/1st Intersection, then there would have been places closer to home where Lola and possibly her neighbour also could have taken it. Unless he saw her after she walked past Glenn Avenue, how could he have guessed that she was going all the way to the Cambridge stop? Was she planning on taking a detour? I think that knowing where the bus would actually stop and that specific one (plus the one that had a transfer and which Lola disliked, because maybe that one was the one the neighbor boarded and that's why she wasn't there - but surely police would have put two and two together and crossed that out so I don't think this is likely) would be really helpful. Does anyone know where we could find this information?

Please ignore the purple thing on this map, I was just feeling too lazy to come up with a blank and make my own markings on it on Paint. Point A is the West 3rd Avenue area (I'm not marking any specific intersections) and Point B is the East Gay Street and North High Street intersection where she was going to buy nylons. We don't know where the bus stopped and if she would have headed there directly, this is just for reference.

This map shows the distance between the West 3rd area and Olentangy River Road area where the shoe being thrown out of the car was reported. Please ignore the purple track, again. The orange thing followed by the purple track, which I believe is a freeway, may be misleading. I don't know if it would have existed in Lola's time but either way, the road you're looking for has a similar name but it's not the freeway. Look a bit east where it says "315", it's there between the freeway and the river. Near the spot where it says "Ohio State University", and then a bit further south next to West 5th Avenue, you can see that both seem to sort of overlap, which makes the map looking confusing. The roads stretch north, too. If you can I would advise everyone to go look at it on Google Maps because it's easier.

This map shows the area where a school girl was attacked by a man a few days after Lola's disappearance, vs. West 3rd Avenue. The place where the attack happened is in green. West 3rd Avenue is marked in pink. You can see the block between Glenn and Westwood close to the border of the map. If you look at the first map, you can see that unseen here but after Glenn it would be Wyandotte, Lincoln, and Cambridge.

I also wanted to add two things that I was thinking about while making these:

- There's yet another report here about what the neighbor saw. In this after he goes out he sees her down the road but presumably doesn't call her. So we have basically three different scenarios - one, he's inside his house and sees her but says nothing and doesn't see her when he goes out, two, he's inside the house and sees her but says nothing and when he goes out he sees her again, and three, he sees her while he's inside and calls out after her.

- Another report says she worked at Bokes Creek Township Rural School which is also in Logan County - but it's not the same as West Mansfield High School, is it? So which one did she teach at after all?

- Finally, I was thinking about the Catholic church (you can see the map here, it's the one called Our Lady of Victory not First Community Church) which nerosleuth had mentioned. I Googled it to find out if it would have been there in Lola's day and yes - it was founded in 1922. More information about its history plus a picture here.

As an aside, I'm sorry for the light colours and weird markers on the maps above. I wanted to keep the tracks/spots more or less transparent without using Photoshop so I used one of the more transparent brushes on paint and used lighter colours so the text with the street names underneath it would be more easily readable.

 

[Veidt]

Thanks very much for these maps. Just discovered this thread and was about to ask if Lola had to walk past the neighbor's house to get to the bus stop.

What kind of car did the neighbor have? If it was already mentioned, I apologize for missing it.

Fascinating case. I'm hooked.

Hi, welcome to the case! I think she would have walked past his house if he lived closer to the Glenn street side than she did. I believe that's what nerosleuth was saying a couple of posts above this one, that if he caught the bus on Westwood he would have walked past her house.

By the way, I've just caught a mistake. I don't think the blue dot should be on the map at all, I've just noticed that the blue and purple are both on Westwood (I'm slow today) and that when people have referred to him catching the bus on Westwood it's to the south, not where it intersects with West 3rd Avenue. I might be confused because there are different variations about HIS bus stop.

I don't think it's type of car has been mentioned, just that he took the bus. I don't think his car would have been a Red Coupe or that coincidence would have attracted a lot more attention. JMO of course.

 

[JaimeSommers]

Deleted ... missed a few posts that answered my questions.

 

[nerosleuth]

Columbus Citizen Monday March 11, 1946

Red Shoe Fails To Aid Celli Probe

• Columbus Police received another red shoe tip.

• Police went to Holley Road near 17th Street and found two red shoes, but the shoes did not fit the description of the shoes Lola Celli was wearing.

• The Family of Lola Celli was in the 16th day of an all but hapless vigil as they waited for some word of Miss Celli who had been missing since February 23.

• Felice Celli told reporters “We are pretty low but we haven’t given up hope.

 

[nerosleuth]

3. I wonder why Lola would have said she was busy that weekend (she told her friend at West Mansfield that she had a lot to do at home and also that her parents would worry; she also told her best friend that she couldn't visit Dr. Melfi because she would be busy). By all accounts of her activities, she was being rather leisurely - sewing, playing piano, reading, etc. I can understand the first part about her wanting to go home and spend as much time as possible with her family. However, if Lola and Dr. Melfi were very good friends as I think I saw stated somewhere, wouldn't she have visited him? At some point her best friend says she only saw him at parties and didn't know him that well so maybe it's not that weird, but at the same time, she strikes me as the type of person who would go visit even a friendly acquaintance. It sounds like his disease was serious, too.
a) Maybe she/other people thought he would still have several weeks left;
b) Maybe something happened and she didn't want to see him for some reason. A fight, perhaps? This may not be related to the case but I think it's odd and something does not match up.

I looked back again at a Columbus newspaper article in the Lola Celli case. I believe that I may have overlooked something here that may or may not be important.

In the Columbus Citizen on March 2, 1946, Lola’s best friend also mentioned in that article that three weeks before Lola disappeared, Lola didn’t stop to see her but had been over the Melfi home which wasn’t far from where her best friend mother lived.

Lola’s best friend said that she was at her mother’s home that day.

Lola told her best friend that she had already passed by her mother’s house when Lola thought that she should have stopped to see if her best friend was there.

Lola also told her friend that there were children on the sidewalk and she hated to turn around and come back as she felt the children would have thought she was acting funny.

It is also my understanding from the same newspaper article that Dr. Melfi had been in and out of the hospital. He had been ill with influenza and his condition became critical with complications two weeks before Lola disappeared.

Another report says she worked at Bokes Creek Township Rural School which is also in Logan County - but it's not the same as West Mansfield High School, is it? So which one did she teach at after all?

Lola taught school at West Mansfield High School in the village of West Mansfield.

The person who wrote the article in the Columbus Star meant that the school district in West Mansfield was in Bokes Creek Township in Logan County.

 

[nerosleuth]

Here's an attachment of a color map which shows the route that Lola Celli and her neighbor both took when they left their homes on Saturday February 23, 1946.

I hope this map will give everyone a better idea of where everything is in the neighborhood on the day Lola Celli disappeared.

The Big Green Arrow is where the neighbor and childhood friend of Lola Celli lived.

The Black Square is where Lola Celli lived on West Third Avenue.

The Pink Square is where Lola Celli was last seen by her neighbor at Wyandotte Road & West Third Avenue.

The Purple Square is Lola’s bus stop at Cambridge Blvd. & West Third Avenue.

The Red Square is where the neighborhood tavern is on the corner of Westwood Avenue & West Third Avenue.

The Black Line is where Lola walked from her home to the bus stop at Cambridge Blvd. & West Third Avenue.

The Blue Line is where Lola’s neighbor either took Glenn Avenue or Wyandotte Road from his house to reach the bus stop on West First Avenue. He would not have gone by Lola’s house where the Black Square is.

The Red Line is where Lola’s neighbor took West Third Avenue to Westwood Avenue to reach the bus stop on West First Avenue. He would have gone by Lola’s house and the neighborhood tavern.

The Green Line is the direction that the Arlington bus route was going from Cambridge Blvd. & West Third Avenue to Downtown Columbus.

 

[Veidt]

I looked back again at a Columbus newspaper article in the Lola Celli case. I believe that I may have overlooked something here that may or may not be important.

In the Columbus Citizen on March 2, 1946, Lola&#8217;s best friend also mentioned in that article that three weeks before Lola disappeared, Lola didn&#8217;t stop to see her but had been over the Melfi home which wasn&#8217;t far from where her best friend mother lived.

Lola&#8217;s best friend said that she was at her mother&#8217;s home that day.

Lola told her best friend that she had already passed by her mother&#8217;s house when Lola thought that she should have stopped to see if her best friend was there.

Lola also told her friend that there were children on the sidewalk and she hated to turn around and come back as she felt the children would have thought she was acting funny.

It is also my understanding from the same newspaper article that Dr. Melfi had been in and out of the hospital. He had been ill with influenza and his condition became critical with complications two weeks before Lola disappeared.




Lola taught school at West Mansfield High School in the village of West Mansfield.

The person who wrote the article in the Columbus Star meant that the school district in West Mansfield was in Bokes Creek Township in Logan County.

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying. When you say Lola walked past the house but didn't turn back - you're referring to what happened three weeks before, right? She went to visit Dr. Melfi and then kept walking so she walked past her friend's house.

If that's the case, I think that what I said still holds, it sounds sort of strange to me that she couldn't go visit him the weekend she disappeared because she was going to be "busy". Especially if she was aware that his condition was much worse by that point than it had been when she had last seen him, and considering she spoke with her best friend, she may have known. I wonder if she just wanted to be alone with her family for a while and think about her life, it sounds like she was trying to figure out what to do next - get a Master's degree, be an interpreter, etc. I'm not saying this to imply that she disappeared of her own volition because I doubt that.

The part about her not wanting to turn back because the children would think she was acting strangely is really interesting. I think that someone who cared about what impression she gave to that extent, would definitely not have accepted a ride from a stranger (as she thought it wasn't proper to do so) and much less elope with a mystery boyfriend nobody knew about without ever telling her family that she was safe.

Thanks for clarifying the school thing, by the way.

''&#8226; A former ace investigator with Columbus Police compared Lola Celli&#8217;s disappearance with the May 4, 1937 disappearance of Ruth Baumgardner, an Ohio Wesleyan coed from Delaware, Ohio.

&#8226; The former ace investigator explained that Ruth Baumgardner and Lola Celli both had a background involving educational institutions and both involve sudden and unexplained disappearances''

Ruths thread

OH OH - Ruth Baumgardner, 21, Delaware, 1937 - Page 15 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

You're right, I can see things in common between the two cases. The part that struck me most was the fact that someone reported hearing screams near the Olentangy River, and in Lola's case, the Red coupe and the shoe being thrown out was also reportedly seen near the river. In this case, it was on a road that isn't too far away from it.

I was looking through old cases today and I found Virginia Carpenter's. I don't think that the two are related because in Virginia's case the cab driver sounds very suspicious as does the possibility that the same person who murdered some of her friends/acquaintances went after her. However there are some things that reminded me of Lola's case. Virginia was by all accounts a good student at the university she attended, she was wearing red shoes when she was seen for the last time, a cab driver had a sighting involving a car in an unusual colour that was never found, etc. TX TX - Virginia Carpenter, 21, Denton, 1948

nerosleuth, thanks for the map! It's really helpful. Thanks for clarifying their respective routes and addresses as well as the bus's route, I was confused about that as it seemed odd that a bus could make so many stops in the same area.

 

[GuyO]

The bus route was, and still is for that matter, Cambridge Blvd to W First to Northwest Blvd to Goodale St. the route north of Fifth ave and from Goodale St into downtown have changed numerous times over the years.

 

[Robin Hood]

What if Lola thought she had missed the bus and got into a cab ? Was it raining ? I often grab a cab if I can't chance I've missed the bus or if the weather is off.
I just finished reading the link from Veidt about Virginia Carpenter .

 

[nerosleuth]

I created a map of the areas where Lola Celli was reportedly seen in the Columbus area on Saturday February 23, 1946 after she left her parent's home in Grandview Heights.

The freeway system in Columbus did not exist in 1946. So ignore the freeways on the current map.

The purple highlight on the map is the route that one would have took in 1946 going from Point A to Point D by car.


Point A: Lola Celli left her home at West Third Ave in Grandview Heights at 10:30 am.

Point B: Olentangy River Road & Thomas Lane in Clinton Township. Place where motorist saw woman struggling in a red coupe & red shoe was thrown from car.

Point C: North High Street & Chase Road in Sharon Township. Place where gas station attendant saw woman in red coupe with a man. The red coupe had a broken window on the right side of the car.

Point D: Twin Lakes on Dublin Road in Concord Township in Delaware County. Place where a man saw a couple in a red coupe at Twin Lakes.


The distance from Lola's home (Point A) to Olentangy River Road & Thomas Lane (Point B) is 5.10 miles.

The distance from Olentangy River Road (Point B) to North High Street & Chase Road (Point C) is 3.88 miles.

The distance from North High Street & Chase Road (Point C) to Twin Lakes (Point D) is 11.45 miles.

The total distance on that route from Lola's home to Twin Lakes is 20.44 miles.

I must point out that the areas where Lola was seen in a red coupe were in rural areas outside of the Columbus city limits.

After looking at the map, you can see that the sightings of Lola (Point B,C, and D) were north of her parent's home.

If Lola got into a car with someone that went North all the way up to Twin Lakes in Delaware County, I wonder if Lola got into a car with someone she knew from West Mansfield.

 

[nerosleuth]

I created a map of two possible routes that one could take by car from Twin Lakes to West Mansfield.

The first map has a route going from Twin Lakes to Marysville and then going from Marysville to West Mansfield. The total distance for that route is 36.04 miles.

The second map has a route taking State Route 745 & State Route 257 from Twin Lakes to Prospect and then taking State Route 47 from Prospect to West Mansfield. The total distance for that route is 40.30 miles. The route from Twin Lakes to Prospect is a scenic route that mostly follows the Scioto River.

Even though Lola did not have a car, I also created a map showing the route one would have took by car in 1946 going from the Celli Home in Grandview Heights to West Mansfield.

The distance from the Celli Home to West Mansfield is 46.49 miles.

I must point out that in 1946, U.S. Route 33 from Dublin to Marysville was a two lane highway rather than a freeway as it shows on a map today.

 

[Veidt]

What if Lola thought she had missed the bus and got into a cab ? Was it raining ? I often grab a cab if I can't chance I've missed the bus or if the weather is off.
I just finished reading the link from Veidt about Virginia Carpenter .

I don't know if the weather has been remarked upon. However I found this article from that time which has a monthly break down of weather conditions: http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/074/mwr-074-12-0205.pdf .

As to the cab, that's a good question. Although, since she lived in a residential area there may have been fewer cabs just coming and going at any given time. She was also close enough to home that she could have headed back inside and waited for the next bus. But I don't think it's impossible, she certainly had enough money on her to do it.

nerosleuth, thanks for the map. Clearly I got the Olentangy River Road wrong - I thought it was the one in my map but you're right. The way street names work in the states is so weird to me.:waitasec:

 

[nerosleuth]

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying. When you say Lola walked past the house but didn't turn back - you're referring to what happened three weeks before, right? She went to visit Dr. Melfi and then kept walking so she walked past her friend's house.

Yes, that was three weeks before Lola disappeared. Lola went to visit Dr. Melfi.

After Lola visited Dr. Melfi, Lola walked past the house where her friend’s mother lived.

Lola’s friend was at her mother’s house when Lola walked past that house.

 

[Veidt]

Yes, that was three weeks before Lola disappeared. Lola went to visit Dr. Melfi.

After Lola visited Dr. Melfi, Lola walked past the house where her friend’s mother lived.

Lola’s friend was at her mother’s house when Lola walked past that house.

Yes - I got that. I was just making sure that the time when Lola visited Dr. Melfi and that you said you forgot to mention had been three weeks before, not the weekend she vanished. I do think it's strange that she told her friend she couldn't go visit him because she was "busy" when nothing about her doings that weekend indicates that she was too busy. Maybe that's just me, but I wonder if there had been a fight or if Lola simply wanted to be alone for a while (with just her family around).

 

[nerosleuth]

I don't know if the weather has been remarked upon.

As to the cab, that's a good question. Although, since she lived in a residential area there may have been fewer cabs just coming and going at any given time. She was also close enough to home that she could have headed back inside and waited for the next bus. But I don't think it's impossible, she certainly had enough money on her to do it.

It was remarked in the Columbus Dispatch on Saturday February 23, 1946.

The Columbus Dispatch published that the expected weather forecast for February 23 was cloudy with moderate temperature. The temperature was expected to be 36 degrees Fahrenheit when Lola left home in Columbus. Sunrise was at 7:15 a.m. and Sunset was at 6:17 p.m. on that day.

On Sunday February 24, 1946, the Columbus Dispatch published the weather temperature for February 23 was a high of 40 degrees Fahrenheit and a low of 34 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no precipitation on February 23.

Yes, that's a good question about taxi cabs. I don't think a taxi cab would be in a residential neighborhood unless one called for a cab by phone either from home or from a pay phone inside a business somewhere.

I also don't know if taxi stands existed on main drags back then. I think the closest main drag would be either West Fifth Avenue or Grandview Avenue if Lola decided to catch a taxi from a taxi stand.

If Lola felt uneasy that her neighbor and childhood friend was following her, it could be possible that Lola took a taxi cab.

 

[GuyO]

Twin Lakes is a red herring, anybody dumped in there would have gassed out and eventually surfaced, which never happened.
As far as the car supposedly seen North Broadway and Olentangy River Rd with a woman kicking out a window and losing a shoe, purely supposition as the shoe itself was never found.
Many of the people who claimed to have seen her had only seen poor quality newspaper pictures of her before reporting to have seen her later. The human mind has a way of filling in the blanks and allowing you to see what you want to see, illusionists count on this fact in their acts.