Dellmus Colvin

People

• Dellmus Colvin (also written as Dellmus Colvin; truck driver): convicted serial killer and long-haul trucker who admitted killing multiple women.

Timeline

• September 1987 — Atlantic County authorities indicted Dellmus Colvin for a murder in South Jersey in September 1987 involving Donna Lee White.
• September 15, 2002 — Joan Elaine Palacio’s body was found in a weedy East Toledo lot.
• January 6, 2000 — Valerie Jones’s skeletal remains were found near the Ottawa River and Hoffman Road landfill.
• September 2, 2000 — Jacquelynn Thomas’s body was found just across the Michigan line near Smith and Telegraph roads in Bedford Township.
• April 23, 2003 — Jackie Simpson’s decomposed body was found under bushes near a tanning business on Creekside Avenue.
• July 2003 — Sexual assaults of a 31-year-old city woman were alleged.
• April 2004 — Sexual assaults of a 47-year-old Toledo woman were alleged.
• August 5, 2000 — Dorothea Wetzel’s skeletal remains were found near the Maumee River in South Toledo.
• December 24, 2000 — Debra C. Dixon’s battered and severely burned body was found in an empty wooded lot in the 4100 block of Creekside Avenue.
• January 6, 2000 — Valerie Jones’s skeletal remains were found.
• September 29, 2006 — A Toledo man accused of aggravated murder and sexual assaults was described as preying on prostitutes who needed money for drug addictions.
• October 2, 2006 — Dellmus Colvin admitted responsibility for multiple murders and was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences immediately.
• October 3, 2006 — Colvin was described as pleading guilty to aggravated murder and complicity to commit murder, receiving life terms without parole.
• October 4, 2006 — Investigators said Colvin admitted “his involvement” in a sixth prostitute’s death and described it as an intended overdose.
• October 9, 2006 — Colvin confessed to killing another two women and was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole in exchange for a plea.
• June 25, 2010 — Atlantic County authorities indicted Colvin for a 1987 murder involving Donna Lee White.
• Fall 2009 — The prosecutor’s office reviewed a cold case and linked Colvin to murders in Toledo, Ohio.

Background

Dellmus Colvin was serving time in an Ohio prison. Atlantic County authorities indicted him for a murder in South Jersey back in September 1987. The Medical Examiner’s Office determined Donna Lee White’s death to have been caused by acute cocaine intoxication, and the case was closed.

After prosecutors went back to review the cold case in the fall of 2009, Colvin was linked to murders of five women in Toledo, Ohio from 2000 to 2005. It had been believed for years that he had many other victims across the country.

A separate account described the cases against Colvin as involving women who worked as prostitutes to feed their drug addictions, and it stated that the victims were strangled or smothered, wrapped in sheets and blankets, and dumped in secluded industrial areas.

The offence

Donna Lee White (Atlantic County; September 1987)

• Dellmus Colvin was indicted for murdering Donna Lee White, a Somers Point resident.
• White’s death had been determined by the Medical Examiner’s Office to have been caused by acute cocaine intoxication, and the case was closed.

Toledo-area murders (prostitutes; 2000–2005)

Colvin admitted strangling and suffocating multiple prostitutes and dumping their bodies in remote areas in and around Toledo. The women’s bodies were described as wrapped in sheets and blankets and dumped.

Colvin admitted killing:

• Jackie Simpson (33): body found April 23, 2003 under bushes near a tanning business on Creekside Avenue (at 4200 Creekside Ave was also referenced). Her disappearance was reported as mid January 2003.
• Melissa Weber (37): body found May 9, 2005 in a vacant trucking terminal behind 1045 Matzinger Rd; her decomposed body was wrapped in a sheet and hidden under a vinyl turquoise couch. Her disappearance was described as early February 2005 after she left the South Toledo home where she was staying with another woman.
• Valerie Jones (38): skeletal remains found January 6, 2000 near the Ottawa River and Hoffman Road landfill.
• Jacquelynn Thomas (42): body found September 2, 2000 just across the Michigan line near Smith and Telegraph roads in Bedford Township.
• Lily Summers (43): body found April 8, 2002 in a 45-foot tractor-trailer behind B&B Repairs, 4400 Martin-Moline Rd. near Metcalf Field in Lake Township, Wood County.

Colvin’s confession was described as involving the deaths of those five women.

Dorothea Wetzel / “Angel” (sixth murder)

Police said Colvin admitted his involvement in the death of 40-year-old Dorothea Wetzel of Toledo. Her skeletal remains were found August 5, 2000 by a man walking his dog near the Maumee River in South Toledo. Wetzel was also referenced as going by the last name Oviedo and being nicknamed “Angel.”

Investigators reported that Colvin told them the method of Wetzel’s death, described as “an intended overdose.” Police declined to elaborate on Colvin’s role in her death due to the ongoing investigation.

Debra C. Dixon (possible seventh murder; investigation)

Police said they were investigating Colvin’s possible role in a seventh murder: 44-year-old Debra C. Dixon, a prostitute whose battered and severely burned body was found in an empty wooded lot in the 4100 block of Creekside Avenue early Christmas Eve, 2000.

Investigation

Investigators connected Colvin to the murders through DNA analysis.

Prosecutors and police described a pattern:

• The victims were strangled or suffocated.
• Their bodies were wrapped in sheets and blankets.
• The bodies were dumped in desolate areas in the city’s industrial north end.
• For at least two victims, forensics indicated the victims were dead long before their bodies were discarded.

A Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester statement included a description that Colvin “preferred to kill prostitutes.”

In the trial account, it was also stated that:

• Genetic testing linked Colvin to homicides via fingernail clippings of Melissa Weber and vaginal swabs of Jackie Simpson showing the existence of Colvin’s DNA profile.
• The police scientific investigations unit detectives said the murder victims appeared to have been dumped in locations about two miles apart.
• Jackie Simpson’s linens were tagged with the logo of the Toledo Budget Inn Motel on South Reynolds Road.

A separate assault detail said that during an attack, a woman urinated on the sheets in Colvin’s cab to leave her DNA, and she memorized details of the truck Colvin drove at the time. Investigators eventually matched the assailant’s DNA with evidence in a string of rapes of local prostitutes and to the murder of Melissa Weber.

Investigators coordinated with a wider network, including the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program’s Truck Driver Serial Killings meeting, where investigators nationwide swapped information about still-unsolved murders and still-unidentified bodies.

Police said they contacted more than 100 police departments nationwide where the Toledo truck driver was known to have traveled.

Arrest

Colvin’s case proceeded through a trial for murders of Jackie Simpson and Melissa Weber, alongside charges including sexual assaults.

Trial

Colvin was described as being on trial for murdering two Toledo women and as charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of Melissa Weber and Jackie Simpson. The charges included death-penalty specifications.

Charges described in trial context

• Aggravated murder in the deaths of Melissa Weber and Jackie Simpson, including death-penalty specifications.
• Sexual assaults of two Toledo women:
  • a 47-year-old Toledo woman in April, 2004
  • a 31-year-old city woman in July, 2003

Statements and arguments (verbatim quotes)

Timothy Braun, an assistant prosecutor, said in opening statement:

“To put it simply and use a general term, he is a serial killer,”

Timothy Braun also described the victims:

“But these women were people and they were all victims of Dellmus Colvin,”

Defense attorney Jack Viren cautioned the jury about the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt:

“You have to listen to the evidence the state presents. We ask that you afford Dellmus the same rights you would expect if you were sitting in Dellmus' seat,”

Defense attorney Jack Viren also said:

“Nobody knows how it got there. No one can testify when it got there,”

During the trial timeline described in the text, Colvin’s jury trial was interrupted when attorneys finalized a deal and Colvin admitted to killings.

A quoted description of motive and conduct attributed to assistant prosecutor Tim Braun compared Colvin to Jack the Ripper:

“It's the same motivation. This is having sex with women you hate. He blames them for having sex for money, but he's paying for them. Then, to feel superior, he kills them,”

Investigator Tom Ross agreed:

“I think it's a control thing. It's 'I kill because I can.'•"

Witness testimony and family statements (verbatim quotes)

Barb Angel said questions about her daughter’s murder:

“Why? 'She was such a nice, bubbly, happy girl,'”

Theresa Weber, victim’s mother, said about the plea deal and death penalty:

“They all had families.”

Theresa Weber also said:

“I hope he'll rot in hell. The eternity of fire,”

Judy Simpson testified:

“I feel that my daughter is gone forever and he'll still be alive,” “Maybe [investigators] will be able to find more [victims] and other families will have some closure,” “In that case, it's a good thing.”

A woman described as a former prostitute who provided critical details after an attack said:

“I wanted him to get the death penalty,” “I didn't get a choice. Those other girls didn't get a choice on whether they lived. Why should he get a choice?”

Michael Riebie said about the possibility of more victims:

“My question is, 'Are there more?' I mean, in addition to this, how many? I can't believe this is just it,”

Sharon Ratliff, Haufe’s sister, said:

“For the first time she was cleaning up her life,” “She was going to school to be a paralegal. She was in rehab. She'd just gotten saved. In church she turned her life over to Christ.” “I don't know why anyone would have done this terrible thing,” “I want to see [her killer] found. I'd like to see him put out of business completely.” The quoted text about her daughter also stated:

Helen Zedaker said about her daughter’s killing:

“I think about her all the time,” “I don't know if it will ever get solved.”

Barb Angel also said:

“Then you realize: I have to accept that I may never have those answers.”

“She was going nuts” was described through quotes attributed to Ms. Angel:

“First you go nuts. It's all you can think about. You can't sleep. You can't drive well. You're crazed,”

Sentencing

Colvin entered a guilty plea under a plea agreement. The plea agreement resulted in prosecutors lifting the death-penalty specification.

Sentences imposed

• One account said Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Osowik immediately sentenced Colvin to five consecutive life sentences in prison.
• Another account said Colvin was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison with no chance for parole.
• Another account said he was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole on October 2, 2006.

The sentencing described as occurring on October 2, 2006 included immediate sentencing by Judge Thomas Osowik.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Colvin was described as admitting to the murders of five Toledo-area prostitutes and involvement in the death of Dorothea Wetzel. He was also described as being linked to a possible seventh murder involving Debra C. Dixon.

Aftermath

A rape trial against Colvin on two rape charges ended in a mistrial in November.

Prosecutors dismissed rape charges in the sexual assaults of a 47-year-old Toledo woman in April, 2004, and a 31-year-old city woman in July, 2003, as part of the plea agreement. Both women lived through their attacks.

Police said the confessions prompted investigators to examine other cold-case murders, particularly those involving prostitutes. Investigators relied on forensic databases and new technology to connect missing persons reports to unidentified bodies.

Colvin declined to be interviewed by media unless he was paid. A telephone conversation with a Blade reporter included this exchange:

“Oh, they will. Believe me, they will,” “There's a lot of things you don't know [that] people want to know. Thank you and good-bye.”

Colvin sent a letter from jail to The Blade criticizing the newspaper's unwillingness to pay him for an interview.

In Harrisburg, Pa., Colvin’s case was presented at the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program’s Truck Driver Serial Killings meeting.

Other details

• Colvin was described as repeatedly denying requests for media interviews unless he was paid.
• The text described a case where a Monroe County jury found Michael Bates not guilty of the murder of Connie Baker Slayton after a four-day trial, and it included a statement from Detective Dave Davison explaining the jury’s reasoning:

• A Cumberland County probe was described as looking into whether Colvin was linked to the June 2004 slaying of Vesta Haufe, whose body was found along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in West Pennsboro Twp.; State police Cpl. George Cronin would not comment on possible suspects.
• The Haufe investigation involved exhumation granted by a Cumberland County judge and DNA testing; Cronin said the probe was making “absolutely” progress and that there were more than 150 open cases and that there was “no statute of limitations on murder.” Cronin said:

• Toledo police Sgt. Steve Forrester said:

• John Helm was quoted describing portable crime scenes:

• Lake Township Police Chief Mark Hummer said:

• Lt. Clarke Fine said:

“A random act of violence is very hard to solve, and compound that with [a killer] who might travel 1,200 miles a day every day all over the country,”

“Your crime scene literally is portable. The crime scene might be in Nebraska by the time you find a body,”

“He preferred to kill prostitutes”

“absolutely” “There's no statute of limitations on murder,” “We never forget our victims.”

“The jury felt it was proved that he was the last person who had sex with her but not the person who killed her,” “Because she was a prostitute, I believe that weighed in the jurors' minds.”

“All your lives you tell your children, 'Don't talk to strangers' and 'For God's sake, don't ever get in a car with strangers.' Then these people go up and try to talk their way into the car with those strangers,”