The Abduction and Murder of Betty Jane Mottinger.

First news reports indicated that Mrs Mottinger was abducted and the post office safe and cash drawer had been cleared out.

Sheriff Brittsan stated that local authorities are looking for a man seen in the area at the time of robbery in his late forties or early fifties, wearing glasses, with dark hair streaked with grey.
Further description puts him at approximately 6-foot-3 and around 235 pounds, wearing a long-sleeved blue shirt and blue pants.
He is driving a tan-over-brown Chevrolet Monte Carlo and was headed south at the time he was observed by local residents.
The Sheriff's department was in charge of gathering information at the robbery scene, but the Postal authorities quickly took over the entire investigation.
The first news article about the case came out on the 9th August 1982, the very day Mrs Mottinger went missing.
The headline for this first article was "Elgin Post Office Robbed. Postmistress Missing; May Be Kidnap Victim".
On the 10th August 1982, The Times Bulletin published an on the scene photograph of the Post Office interior. This photograph was taken by a J. Swygart, a photographer with the Times.
The post office was photographed after law enforcement officials had finished their on-the-scene investigation and they had then gone to try to find some clues about the whereabouts of Mrs Mottinger and the man believed to be her abductor.
Postal Authorities at this point had not released details of what money or valuables where missing but a source at the time said that that less than $200 was missing.
In this same article there was also a photograph of the search party looking for Betty Mottinger and the man believed to be her captor.
On Tuesday,10th August 1982 also, The Lima News also published details of the case.
Details which later on would be denied had ever been seen in public by prosecutors and the State of Ohio. Details, that would become a matter of life and death for an innocent man.
The Lima News reported, "When Brittsan arrived, he found the safe open, the cash drawer rifled and the contents of a purse believed to be Mrs. Mottinger's dumped on top of the desk.
The purse and any money that might have been inside were missing while the rest of the contents were left behind. "
Authorities say Mrs. Mottinger was wearing a light colored blouse with a design on the front and dark slacks when last seen on duty about 8:20 a.m. Monday
A suspect sought in connection with the case is a white male, about 45 years old, approximately 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 240 pounds. He had black hair and wore glasses, according to investigators, and was believed to be driving a two-tone brown coupe.
Tom Strausbaugh, a postal inspector from Columbus, said an audit of the post office is under way to determine what is missing. He said stamps and cash are believed to have been taken.
There was no evidence that a struggle had taken place or that Mrs. Mottinger had been injured at the post office, Brittsan said.
The Times Bulletin reported on Wednesday 11th August 1982, that a search over two States had produced no leads.
Aircraft was used to help comb the area as far as the Indiana border.
"We don't even have a witness who saw her get into the car. Just the car and a description of the driver," sheriff's Detective Ralph Eversole said Tuesday. "All we know is, she's disappeared and we're treating it like a kidnapping."
The suspect in the case is described as a white male, age 45-50, 6 foot 3 inches tall, weighing approximately 240 pounds with graying dark hair. The suspect wore glasses, a long sleeved blue work shirt and blue pants. He was driving a two-toned brown full-sized coupe believed to be a Monte Carlo or a Buick.
Authorities have revised their description of the suspect and have indicated that he may have reddish hair, a husky build, wire glasses and a light colored mustache.
The description concerning the suspect was given authorities by Mrs. Elmer (Opal) Seibert who lives across the street from the post office and by Mark Lewis of Rt. 1, Venedocia, a truck driver for Elgin Grain Co
The assistant postmistress, Amy Baker, who lives next door was called and she went to investigate.
It is believed that she found the post office empty, the safe opened and empty and the cash drawer rifled.
The contents of Mrs. Mottinger's purse including her driver's license were dumped on a desk, however, the purse was missing, postal officials said.
.The Postal Inspection Service offered a reward up to $5,000 for information concerning the postal robbery.
Citizens in the county have started a $10,000 reward fund for information in the case.
Those wishing to donate may do so at any office of the Van Wert National Bank. They will be issued a receipt and in event the reward is not claimed, those contributing will be refunded the amount of money they donated, Sheriff Brittsan said.
The additional money would increase the reward up to $15,000, with up to $5,000 coming from the Postal Service.
DAVID SMITH is the 27-year-old son of the owners of the Elgin Grain Co,. one of two businesses in Elgin. He and about a dozen other employees were weighing trucks loaded with wheat early Monday.
"A few guys saw some people they didn't know, but that's about it. It's a shame. She was a nice lady, always talking." he said.
"Nothing like this has ever happened in Elgin," Smith said. It's a nice, quiet, peacefull community, the kind of place where you think you don't have to lock your doors or you car."
Added grain elevator worker Daniel Taylor, 25, of Van Wert, "She (Mrs. Mottinger) was the sweetest thing you'd ever want to know. I guess I shouldn't say 'was.' I've still got some hopes she'll be found alive."
On 12th August 1982, three new drawings of the suspect where published after a hypnotist from Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy and a police artist re interviewed two or three witnesses. One witness was hypnotised.
On Sunday 19th August 1982, tragically Betty Jane Mottinger's body was discovered. The Lima News reported this news on Monday 20th August 1982.
The search ended in a soybean field near Findlay on Sunday, when Mrs. Mottinger's tarpaulin-covered body was discovered.
Officials who identified the decomposed body said Mrs. Mottinger died of multiple stab wounds.
The body was found wrapped in a tarpaulin and bound with a cord and silver duct tape near the edge of a soybean field near the Blanchard River along Liberty Township Road 89 just south of U.S. Route 224 and west of I-75. The tarp was first discovered about 1 p.m. Saturday by a Findlay man hunting insects with his wife and sAn autopsy Sunday at the Medical College of Ohio in Toldeo confirmed the body was that of Mrs. Mottinger. She was identified through comparison of dental records. Hancock County Coroner, Dr. William Kose said Mrs. Mottinger died from at least 13 stab wounds to the chest. Additional tests on the body were to be conducted today on along the river.
Based on the condition of the remains, investigators believe the body had been discarded in the field the day of the Elgin post office robbery, Aug. 9.
Postal inspectors are still seeking a Kentucky man, Marion "Sonny" Baumgardner Jr., 45, for the questioning in connection with the incident. Baumgardner, who also is being sought by U.S. marshals in McClean, Va., for a parole violation, served a federal prison term for the 1975 robbery of the post office in the small community of Dupont in western Putman County
On Tuesday 21 Sept 1982, The Times Bulletin printed a photograph of the scene where Mrs Mottinger had been found.
The reported that, "Officials also stated Monday that the tarpaulin in which the body was wrapped also contained two cinder blocks, causing speculation that Mrs. Mottinger's abductor's had planned to place the body in the river."
Also on 21 Sept, The Lima News also ran a story about the case.
Investigators feel they might have the first break in the 11-week investigation into the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, with the identification of the material in which her body was found wrapped as an expensive theater curtain.
The 48-year-old Elgin postmaster disappeared from her post office about 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9 and her body was found in a soybean field near Findlay on Sept. 19. She had been stabbed at least 13 times.
The U.S. Postal Service Crime Laboratory in Washington, D.C. has identified the cloth as a "very expensive theatrical type backdrop curtain," said Postal Inspector Tom Strausbaugh, who heads the task force investigating the crime.
"It is sold by very few outlets in the U.S. and is used primarily for traveling production companies and some of the better known rock bands," Strausbaugh said. "It is cost prohibitive, we understand, to install this material in smaller theaters," he said.
Investigators first thought the postmaster's body was wrapped in a painter's tarp because of paint splatterings on the material. Laboratory tests are still being conducted on the paint which covered the cloth.
Srausbaugh also said lab work is continuing on the gray duct tape which was used to bound the cloth around the body. "It's standard duct tape, but it's somewhat unique in that the adhesive on the tape is a dark gray color," Strausbaugh said.
"We were not aware that that was uncommon until we started purchasing duct tape locally and sending it to the lab along with tape samples that we found at various locations," Strausbaugh said. "We found out that most adhesive is white or an off-white," he added.
He said it will be possible to match up the tape and its manufacturer and perhaps even the same manufactured batch if investigators can find which matches that found on the postmaster's body.
Investigators are still seeking a suspect wanted for questioning in connection with the case, but as yet have been unable to locate Marion "Sonny" Baumgardner, 45, formerly of Louisville, Ky., fits the general description of a man seen sitting in a car in front of the post office just before Mrs. Mottinger disappeared.
Baumgardener served five years in prison for the Oct. 24, 1975, armed robbery of the Dupont post office, less than 20 miles from Elgin
The Times Bulletin reported on 2 December 1982, with a headline of, "Fingerprints strong evidence"
Postal Inspectors said that they had discovered finger prints which could be vital in the case. They stated they had unidentified prints which was encouraging to them.
The curtain is unique and is a painter's curtain. Postal inspectors said they where checking if an itinerant painter from Florida is connected to the case. They say he has a strong resemblance to the artist drawings of the suspect. Authorities also stated they where looking into the background of two Michigan men and a man from California in connection with the case.
On December 9th 1982, The Times Bulletin once more printed an article on the Mottinger case and suspects.
Postal inspectors had determined that the Florida Painter was in Indiana around the time of the killing but they are unable to find him.
The man hadn't been seen in Florida since December 1981. The Indiana border is 20 miles from Elgin, Ohio.
Police where still looking for 2 Michigan men and a man from California, although one of the Michigan men had been all but ruled out and the California man is questionable since he doesn't look like the suspect drawings but he does have links to Elgin and had been there when Mrs Mottinger was abducted.
One more time the newspaper revealed she had been stabbed 13 times.
On December 10th, The Times Bulletin reported that the Florida painter had been working in nearby Indiana at the time of the murder. The police could not find him.
They also reported that Sonny "Marion" Baumgardner, who was wanted by police on a parole violation resembled the police drawings. This man had an alibi but the police where interested in him because he had robbed a post office in 1975 in Dupont Ohio.
On December 23 1982, The Times reported that a dagger type knife was found in Spencerville, Ohio in a clump of weeds. This they said was the possible murder weapon.
The knife was not badly weathered, leading police to believe it hadn't been there longer than 6 months. The blade appeared to have rust on it but
When the substance was touched it flaked rather than chipped, indicating it could be blood. The crime lab was testing the dagger to see if this was the murder weapon.
Once more the Times reported that Betty Mottinger was stabbed 13 times.

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