Chapter 1The Disappearance

October 4, 1982, started out as an ordinary autumn evening, for this mined-out Appalachian region in southeastern Ohio. The sticky summer was gone. The ground was blanketed with gold and red leaves, and the last full moon before All Hallows’ Eve, was complete. A cosmic cycle said to stir passions in some, anger and rage in others.

"Beggars’ Night," was just around the corner. Homes were elaborately decorated with Paper-Mache witches and goblins, as carved pumpkins of all sizes sat on porches and in yards, made even creepier with lit candles.

Yes, it would have been an average evening, if not for two unnerving events. First, the arrival of the notorious motorcycle gang, The Devil's Disciples. The group frequented The Home Tavern, a sordid bar on the corner of Gallagher and Motherwell.

According to police reports, having a thirst for alcohol, the bikers and their sweaty, leather-clad women produced numerous problems while in town. Calls from residents, concerning fistfights and disorderly conduct, flooded the police station. Locals reported spotting some members of the gang roaming the streets as the reports of vandalism kept the police busy.

Originally the Depot Hotel, The Home Tavern, sat directly across the street from a twenty-five acre "infamous" cornfield. A common place for knife-fights, pot parties, and hanky panky from all ages. Running through the cornfield was the murky and meandering Hocking River. On the edge of the cornfield, and going with the flow of the river, was the once well-traveled train track-a transportation device that accommodated the small town to far-off destinations until 1959, when city buses and taxi-cabs went into effect.

The second incident, involved sex, lies, lust, and murder as gunfire emanated

from the opposite end of the cornfield. The pleasant conversation between mother and daughter abruptly ended as they looked toward the woods only a few hundred yards away. The sounds of shots echoing from the nearby cornfield was such a common sound that it caused them little concern.

"That’s just kids hunting rabbits," said the young daughter, "They do it all the time."

Somewhat farther away, a part-time security guard, Charles Bartow, heard the same shots as he locked up The Armo Steel Company, for the day. He clearly remembered the time, because it was his job to lock-up each evening.

All the robust tobacco chewer had on his mind, was the ice-cold brew with his name on it, waiting for him at The Home Tavern. He would later tell authorities that he heard a volley of three shots that seemed to come from a small caliber weapon-followed by four or five more.

What the trio, and others living nearby heard, was a series of grisly, mysterious, and baffling scenarios that horrified the nation and were dubbed "the crime of the century" for a small industrial town in Ohio.

Why those who heard the shots, remembered the facts so differently, stumped police, and angered townsfolk, making the lengthy investigation even harder to control and solve.

~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, a worried Don Shultz and his estranged wife Sandra Shultz, a stay-at-home mom, drove to the police station. They reported as missing-their nineteen-year-old-son, Todd, and his eighteen-year-old fiancée, Annette Cooper

Johnston.

Don lived in an apartment on the outskirts of Logan, population 6,557. His three other children, were two sons, ten and seventeen, and a twelve-year-old daughter; they, resided with their mother on the opposite end of town, near the cornfield, and the Home Tavern.

Many described Don and Todd as "geeky" looking. Both wore their dark straight hair with bangs and sported large glasses. Sandra was an obese, plain-Jane woman, and wore her thin brown hair as short as Don wore his. She had large dark eyes, and sported the same large glasses, as her husband and children.

Some described Annette as "outgoing, pretty, and ambitious." She wore her shoulder length, sandy-colored hair parted in the middle. Standing medium height, she was slim and bosomy like her mother Sarah Johnston, who worked as a receptionist for Logan Optometrist, Dr. Milton Mason.

Annette lived in the bedroom community of New Plymouth, population 247, located seven miles from Logan. Also in the home were her domineering and possessive stepfather, Dale Nolan Johnston-her stepbrother twenty-year-old Dale Ray Johnston, a tall, slim introvert, with long, stringy dark hair and deep-set eyes-and fifteen-year-old Michelle Cooper Johnston.

Once at the police station, Don, a lieutenant firefighter and part-time diver, talked with the burly Police Chief William Barron.

Chief Barron had climbed the ranks of "Logan’s finest," and came from a long line of lawmen. The brown-eyed, chubby-cheeked peacekeeper, reached his goal of becoming Chief of Police in 1980. The bushy, dark-haired officer with a mustache to

match relished his position.

According to the chief, Don hurriedly explained that the last time he saw Todd, was around 1:30 p.m. the previous day. Don reminded Todd about the 6:30 meeting at the Fire Station, where Todd volunteered. "He drove off and waved to me," Don said, before leaving the chief the names and telephone number of Sarah and Dale Johnston.

After taking the missing persons report just before his 8 am. shift ended, the chief passed it along to his tall, brawny Lieutenant Steve Mowery.

As were most of Logan’s police officers, many described Lt. Mowery as a family man resembling a lumberjack. When not in uniform, he often wore a baseball cap, blue jeans, and clunky work boots covered in mud. He wore his thick, curly brown hair to his collar, which matched well with his bushy eyebrows and mustache.

That same morning across town, Sarah received a disturbing telephone call at Doctor Mason’s office. The receptionist wore her bleached blonde hair around her shoulders. According to Sarah, Sandra immediately berated her about her husband, calling Dale everything but a white man. Sarah later said she was totally taken back by Sandra’s rude ranting. The two had only met once before that phone call. That meeting was also uncomfortable, for the families that obviously disliked one another from the start and even more so after Annette moved in with the Shultzs’.

Co-worker Elizabeth Dewey was present and recalled to police, the phone call from Sandra Shultz. She claimed Sarah immediately telephoned her husband and seemed "genuinely concerned," about her missing daughter.

According to Sandra, her recollection of that phone call differed greatly from Sarah’s, and Elizabeth’s. She described the short conversation with Sarah as "without

concern." When she told Sarah the kids never came home the following evening, she said Sarah told her to "check the river."

Dale and Sarah Johnston moved to Hocking County, population 24,300, shortly after marrying in Xenia, Ohio, in 1977. They had met in the mid-1970’s, while married, but separated from their respectful partners. Dale hired the petite bosomy blond to help train his horses, which turned into a full-blown sex-capade. Rumored to possess an unbridled lust for sex, a trail ride through the forest that turned into something x-rated was normal for Sarah.

The residents of Xenia, were more then appalled at Sarah’s lack of dignity and choice of men. She was known to bar-hop looking for just the right chap for a roll-in-the- hay, after a long night of drinking. Her shady past might have sickened her relatives, and New Plymouth neighbors, but it enticed the equally perverted Dale. Their courtship was short and a second marriage for each.

A former U.S. Air Force mechanic, Dale’s physic resembled that of Andy Griffith. Standing a trim six-foot, with a thin grey mustache, and a gaunt-like face, he was described by some women as a "silver-haired fox." When living in Xenia, he was known as "The Window Man."

After moving to the county, known for its abundant deer and natural cave wonders, the horse enthusiast, became self-employed, mostly in construction. When a recession hit the county, Sarah went to work for Dr. Mason.

According to Sarah, Dale wanted to be his own boss, and "hated working for others." What some of Sarah‘s co-workers knew about her home life sounded hard and cruel to them.

According to Elizabeth Dewey, when not working for Dr. Mason, Sarah stayed on their large remote farm doing chores and catering to Dale.

Forty-year-old family friend and bachelor, Earl Sheets echoed that belief. Known for being a heavy drinker, Earl was a small, wiry man who was used to hard labor. He described the stepfather as "a strict disciplinarian," who completely controlled his home.

With Annette and Todd being adults, a twenty-four hour wait was in place before the search could begin. During that time, Don and Sandra notified friends of the kids.

Some reported they felt the lovebirds had eloped. Others thought they were shacked-up in a motel room somewhere, frolicking. Very few believed they were actually missing or in danger.

Known as the neighborhood "busy-body," was Clara Anderson. The homemaker lived just doors down from Sandra Shultz. She would tell police, that she remembered seeing Todd and Annette on the afternoon of October 4, around 4:30.

She recalled Annette running from the Shultz home toward Gallagher Avenue, and the Home Tavern Bar. Seconds later, Todd ran from the house, catching up with her. Clara said she and George Groves, a tenant, watched the teens argue for several minutes before "patching things up." Afterward, they held hands as Sandra emerged from her home. She and Todd waved to one another before she, Clara, and George, watched the kids walk off toward Logan’s industrial district. What soon took place resembled horror movies and took nearly thirty years to solve.