An inmate in Marion County pled guilty and was convicted of murder for the death of a Toledo woman 39 years ago.
Wood County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Dobson announced that on Thursday (Oct. 27) Kenneth Holmes was convicted of a charge of murder by Wood County Common Pleas Judge Matthew Reger for the August 1983 death of 30-year-old Patricia Ann Heer. Holmes pled guilty to the single count and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
The case was opened in September 1983 when the skeletal remains of Ms. Heer, a resident of South Toledo, were found near the intersection of Poe and Custar roads in Wood County, Wood County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Dexter Phillips told the court.
The remains were identified as Heer’s through dental records. Because of the deteriorated state of Heer’s remains, the coroner ruled her death as undetermined—presumed homicide.
During an investigation of a separate case related to Holmes, investigators obtained a search warrant on a cabin owned by Holmes along the Maumee River west of Grand Rapids in Henry County near the Henry- Wood County line. During the execution of that search warrant, articles of the clothing in which Heer was last seen and other items belonging to her were located. Ms. Heer was known to be familiar with Holmes who, at the time, also lived in South Toledo.
Despite multiple continuing investigations throughout the years, law enforcement was never able to find evidence directly connecting Holmes to the death of Heer. Recent investigations by Henry County Sheriff Bodenbender and former Wood County Sheriff Detective Sergeant Ginnie Barta had made strides in developing the case against Holmes.
Based upon that work, Barta and Wood County Prosecutor’s Office Investigator Todd Curtis interviewed Holmes, who is currently serving prison sentences at the Marion Correctional Institution for 1984 convictions for Aggravated Murder and Rape out of Henry County and a 1990 convictions for Kidnapping, Felonious Assault, and Attempted Rape out of Warren County.
As a result of the interview, Holmes confessed to murdering Ms. Heer at his cabin and abandoning her body in Wood County.
Dobson issued a statement about the case: “Law enforcement never gives up on a case, especially a homicide case. Cases get handed down from detective to detective, from sheriff to sheriff, sometimes from generation to generation. But those lost lives are not forgotten and they are not abandoned. The friends and family of Patricia Ann Heer now know what happened to their loved one and can now at least rest in knowing that justice is being served upon him. Kenneth Holmes is now serving sentences for a fuller picture of the crimes he has committed. I want to thank the detectives and investigators over the years who have kept vigilance over this case. I want to also thank Sheriff Wasylyshyn and Sheriff Bodenbender for keeping cases like Ms. Heer’s a priority and seeing this one to its conclusion.”
Holmes entered his plea and was sentenced through his appearance via video from Marion Correctional.
