Do you know who murdered Cheryl Thompson? Cheryl Thompson, a 19-year-old female University of Cincinnati student, was reported missing on March 25, 1978, after she failed to return home from a night out at a bar in Oakley. Her body was discovered two weeks later on April 8, 1978, along the banks of the Little Miami River in Loveland, Ohio. The Hamilton County coroner determined that Cheryl Thompson had been raped and died from strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head.
For decades, the case remained unsolved due to the
forensic limitations of the time. However, in 2022, advancements in DNA technology allowed investigators to revisit the evidence collected from Cheryl Thompson’s rape kit. The DNA sample was submitted to a genealogy company, which helped narrow the search to a specific family tree. This led investigators to Ralph Howell, a man who had died in a car accident in 1985. Howell had previously been arrested in 1983 for abducting a woman and attempting to strangle her, though the victim managed to escape.
To confirm Howell’s involvement in Cheryl Thompson’s murder, authorities exhumed his body and extracted DNA from his jawbone. The sample matched the DNA found in Cheryl Thompson’s rape kit, leading prosecutors to posthumously indict Howell for rape and aggravated murder. Investigators also suspect Howell may have been responsible for the deaths of three other young women—Charmaine Stolla, Nancy Ann Theobald, and Victoria Hincher—who were raped and strangled between 1976 and 1978. Although there is no DNA evidence linking Howell to these additional cases, authorities believe the similarities in the crimes suggest he was a serial killer.
The resolution of Cheryl Thompson’s case after 44 years brought some closure to her family and the investigators who had worked tirelessly to solve the crime. Despite Howell’s death preventing a trial, the identification of her killer marked a significant breakthrough in cold case investigations, demonstrating the power of modern forensic science in uncovering long-buried truths.
