DAYTON, Ohio (AP) – A suspect wanted in Ohio in the shooting deaths of four people, including a teenage girl, has been arrested in Kansas, authorities said.
Montgomery County Butler Township police said Saturday night that 39-year-old Stephen Marlow was arrested by local police in Lawrence, Kansas. Chief John Porter said Marlow will be extradited to Ohio to face charges in the murders.
Court documents do not list an attorney representing Marlow; Saturday, a message seeking comment was left at a number listed in his name.
Officers were called to the Ohio neighborhood shortly before noon Friday on a report of shots fired and found four victims with gunshot wounds at multiple crime scenes, police said. The Dayton Daily News reported that the victims were found in two separate homes where they lived near Marlow’s parents’ home.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office on Saturday identified the victims as Clyde Knox, 82, Eva Knox, 78, Sarah Anderson, 41, and a 15-year-old girl, whose name has not been released make known All were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police had warned anyone who saw Marlow, who had fled, “not to approach him as he is likely to still be armed and dangerous”.
Lawrence police said they “had reason to believe” Marlow might be in town and began looking for him. An officer spotted his vehicle, and after it turned into a parking lot and the suspect emerged, he was “safely taken into custody” shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Porter called the shootings “the first violent crime in this neighborhood in recent memory” and said investigators were trying to determine a motive and whether “mental illness played a role.” He expressed gratitude to residents for their support and advice and also thanked other police forces involved in the case.
The Dayton Daily News reported that Marlow was out on parole in February on aggravated robbery and aggravated menacing charges stemming from a July 2019 incident in the Dayton suburb of Vandalia, according to Montgomery County court records. Vandalia closed several public areas Saturday as a precaution.
Vandalia School Superintendent Robert O’Leary said the district provided counselors and therapists for students and their families after the teenager’s death and would continue to do so for the next week. He called her a “ray of light” who was “as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.”
