In the late hours of a November evening, 19-year-old Richard Banyots was at his family's home in Girard, Ohio. After taking a phone call in his bedroom, he left the house suddenly and was never seen or heard from by his loved ones again. When he didn't return by 3:00 a.m., his brother began to search for him, initiating a quest for answers that would uncover a brutal and senseless crime. Richard, who worked as a UPS driver and a part-time stockbroker, had traveled to a brothel in the nearby city of Youngstown that night. The events that transpired there marked the final, tragic chapter of his young life.
The narrative of what happened to Richard Banyots was pieced together through witness accounts and subsequent police investigations. At the Youngstown brothel, he was reportedly in an upstairs room with a woman named Michelle Miller before he was confronted downstairs by two men, Clarence 'Vince' Coleman and Jerome Davis.
The men, who worked as procurers for the establishment and were disguised with wigs and sunglasses, viciously pistol-whipped and robbed Richard. They then forced him into the trunk of his own car. With Miller and another woman accompanying them, they drove to a desolate location along the Monongahela River in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. There, on the riverbank, Clarence Coleman shot Richard to death, and his body was discarded into the water, which was experiencing flood conditions at the time.
The investigation into Richard's disappearance eventually led to the arrests of those involved. Bloodstains found at the brothel were a match for Richard's blood type, and following his arrest, Coleman provided a detailed confession of the homicide to the police. In February 1987, Jerome Davis was charged with aggravated robbery and kidnapping, with the charges later being upgraded to murder. Clarence Coleman was charged with murder in June of that year. While Coleman's first trial resulted in a mistrial, he was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, theft, and conspiracy in his second trial. Davis was also convicted on the same charges in a separate trial, and both men received sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Michelle Miller, who had initially been granted immunity for her testimony, had the agreement rescinded after she refused to testify and was subsequently charged. She later pleaded no contest to robbery, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy and was sentenced to 35 to 70 years in prison. Despite the convictions and a handgun matching the description of the murder weapon being recovered from the river, Richard Banyots's body was never found, believed to have been washed away by the floodwaters, leaving his family without the closure of a proper burial.Last Seen: Nov 3, 1985
