COLUMBUS, Ohio — Police confirmed Tuesday that viral posts about a serial killer in Columbus are not true.
The rumors began circulating after a man and three women were killed in south Columbus last week.
“We have been made aware that over the past several days there have been some rumors circulating on social media that some incidents are connected to a serial killer. I can tell you definitively that’s not the case,” Columbus Division of Police Deputy Chief Smith Weir said.
Darrell Hambrick, 45, was fatally shot outside a home in the 700 block of East Moler Street on Dec. 10. Then four days later, three women were found dead with gunshot wounds inside a home on South Ohio Avenue, about a half a mile away from where Hambrick was shot.
The women were identified Monday as 34-year-old Sierra Muse, 49-year-old Dawn Clover and 36-year-old Tiffany Parrish.
A friend of Hambrick said he’s the one who found the women in the home and called 911.
Deandre Herndon went to check on what he said was Hambrick’s home on South Ohio Avenue after he heard that he was killed and he said he found the women dead inside.
The day after the women were discovered, 39-year-old Haikiem Graham was charged with murder in connection to Hambrick’s death.
While police say they believe the homicides are connected, they believe there are other suspects involved.
“There is not a serial killer associated with either of those incidents,” Weir said.
Another woman was found dead in the area of Harrisburg Pike in southwest Columbus on Monday, according to police. Police say this incident is not related and is believed to be domestic-related. They have a person of interest in custody in Athens County, Weir said.
“In today’s day and age, unfortunately sometimes these rumors that circulate can take on a life of their own,” Weir said. “It's our job to be transparent with the community, but also in the case where maybe there are some people that are afraid these rumors may be true, if we know definitively they are not, it’s not necessarily responsible for us to let that fester.”
One of the rumors going around Facebook, X and TikTok showed a picture of a man, alleged to be a serial killer, with a warning to the public about him attacking people and trying to gain people’s trust, targeting the Columbus area. Police told 10TV that they are not investigating any “active serial killers” in their jurisdiction and are not aware of an investigation on the man named in the posts.
Deputies in a Florida county debunked a post showing the same man with similar text.
Anyone with information on the cases is asked to call Columbus Police’s Homicide Units at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477 (TIPS).