Investigators in Ross County say they've received numerous tips in the last 24 hours related to the disappearance and deaths of several women. Those tips came in after they declared the death of Tiffany Sayre a homicide.
Sayre was found over the weekend in a drainage culvert.
The circumstances around her discovery reinforced suspicion that her case may be related to others, including Tameka Lynch, whose body was found not far from there. It's been more than a year since Tameka Lynch disappeared and was later found dead.
In that time, four other women have disappeared from Ross County. Two of them have been found dead in bodies of water.
Lynch's mother Angela Robinson believes there has to be a connection. Which is why after two days of not hearing from Tameka in May of last year, she knew something was wrong.
Tameka disappeared from Chillicothe May 16th. Eight days later, she was found dead in the Paint Creek, west of Bainbridge, some 20 miles away.
"She had her whole life ahead of her. It's not right that somebody just took her and threw her away like a piece of trash," her mother says.
A coroner's investigation found Tameka died of a "likely multiple drug overdose," but that she was dead before she was put in the water.
The timing and circumstances have led many to speculate there is a connection between her case and several others involving missing or murdered women in Ross County over the last year. Their families say the women struggled with addiction, and some had turned to prostitution.
Investigators add that they had people and places in common. "They're all connected,” said Robinson. “Nobody can tell me different."
It’s a feeling that grew stronger with the discovery over the weekend of Tiffany Sayre's body, in a culvert just three miles from the creek Tameka was found in last May.
At the heart of that nightmare, she says, is the agony of the unknown.
"Nothing can bring her back, but somebody needs to pay. She deserves justice, like the others. They deserve justice. We need to know who did this to our women, our girls."
A third woman, 20-year-old Shasta Himelrick, was found dead in the Scioto River in January.
The coroner ruled her death a suicide, but investigators with Ross County's Missing Women Task Force say her case is still being actively investigated along with these others for possible connections.
If you have any information on this story you can call Chillicothe Police at 740-773-1191, email drugtips@chillicothepolice.com, leave an anonymous tip at www.southernohiocrimestoppers.com or log on to the Chillicothe Police Department website at www.chillicothepolice.com. The Ross County – Chillicothe Missing Persons Task Force has also set up a tip line at 740-774-FIND (3463) and an e-mail address at findme@rosssheriff.com.