Twenty-three-year-old Lynn Vest and her 18-month-old nephew, Jeremy Pickens, left the house on Nov. 12, 1980, to go to the bank and run a few errands. They never returned. Late that night, their bodies were found in the back of Lynn's car.

She had been strangled, and Jeremy had been smothered. Lynn was the daughter of Columbus Burglary Detective Don Hochuli; Jeremy was his grandson.

The Columbus Police detective bureau threw all its resources at the case, but it would remain unsolved for more than four decades before DNA evidence identified one of the suspects in the case.

Be sure to check out robinyocum.com for all the latest news, books, and updates from Robin.

For nearly 40 years, the Belle in the Well was a mystery in Lawrence County, Ohio. In 1981, two girls playing in the woods near their house lifted the cap on a cistern and discovered the body of a woman.

She had been strangled and dumped in the cistern. Her body was too badly decomposed to make an identification.

The decades-long efforts of Bill Nenni, an investigator for the coroner's office, came to fruition in 2019 when DNA evidence identified the woman as Louise Virginia Peterson Flesher.

While she has been identified, her murder has never been solved.

(Note: Yes, it was a cistern and not a well. However, Belle in the Cistern lacked the rhythmic cadence of Belle in the Well.)

Donette Crawford went out for a night of fun with a friend and never came home. She was just twenty and a young mother when she disappeared. Police searched for weeks, but had few clues and no suspects.

Things changed when a criminal named John Glenn Roe was arrested breaking into a Radio Shack in Dayton, Ohio. He said he had information on Donette's disappearance, which he was willing to trade for leniency on the burglary charges.

As it turned out, there was a reason why Roe had inside information on Donette's disappearance.

Be sure to check out RobinYocum.net for all the latest news from your host Robin.

Randy Walker was destined to become the chief of police in Columbus, Ohio. Anyone who knew him would validate that claim.

Then, on July 23, 1975, an assailant's bullet slipped through an opening in his bulletproof vest, paralyzing him from the chest down.

It was during his next career as a civilian polygraph expert that Randy made his biggest contribution to law enforcement.

Florida officials were ready to throw in the towel on their murder of 10-year-old Stacy Weinstein, but Randy had other plans.

He extracted a confession from an unlikely suspect.

As always be sure to check out robinyocum.net for all the latest from host Robin Yocum!

Legends exist in opposite ends of Ohio – northwest and southeast – about the hidden loot of two of America's most notorious gangsters, John Dillinger and "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Dillinger supposedly buried his loot on a Leipsic, Ohio, farm owned by the family of his wingman, Harry Pierpont.

Floyd reportedly buried his loot on a farm in the unincorporated coal-mining community of Rush Run, near the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Ohio. Your host, Robin Yocum, has a family connection to the legend of "Pretty Boy" Floyd's buried loot.

Be sure to check out robinyocum.net for all the latest news from Robin.

Catherine Wanner was a freshman accounting major at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. She was carrying a 3.56 GPA. On Feb. 22, 1982, she was found shot to death in a Columbus apartment. She was 75 miles from her dormitory, but less than a mile from her parents' home.

How did a beautiful 18-year-old end up dead in the apartment of Roy Sage, an unemployed carpenter nearly 30 years her senior? Sage had superficial bullet wounds. He claimed it was a botched double suicide. Columbus homicide detectives believed otherwise.

Be sure to check out robinyocum.net for the latest updates from Robin.

The Latest Hitman

Welcome back to Dead Before Deadline! Host Robin Yocum and cohost Jaclynn Yocum Wilson are back for Season 4 of DBD!

We are excited to have you here. Get ready for some wild stories that host Robin Yocum covered while being on the crime beat in Columbus, OH! This first one starts out with a bang...buckle up!

William Wickline was nightmare fuel. He didn't get his nickname, The Butcher, because of the way he sliced your pork chops at the meat counter. Wickline had a nasty habit of killing and dismembering those who displeased him. He would ultimately be executed for the murder and dismemberment of a Columbus, Ohio, couple, Christopher and Peggy Lerch. However, authorities believe he could have been responsible for many more murders.

Be sure to check out robinyocum.net for all the latest news on Robin and his books!

There were few times when my interactions on the crime beat ended in friendships.

Many of the people I interviewed associated me with the worst days of their lives.

There were, however, a few exceptions. Jaclynn and I discuss some of the stories that had a personal impact on me.

In Episode 14, Robin and Jaclynn shift gears and discuss the real-life characters he met on the crime beat that have been inspirations in his fiction writing.

Be sure to pre-order Robin's latest book, "The Last Hitman" - Here

In Episode 13, we delve further into the lives of attorney and physician Dr. David Ucker and Dr. Donald Plotnick and their bizarre lives of crime. Also, we'll introduce a new character, Linda Lee Walden, who is accused of murdering her former boyfriend to conceal the fact she had been dating a black man. Who ends up defending her and, ultimately, marrying her? Tune in to see.

Pre-Order "The Last Hit Man" Here