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Police search for body that may be suspect's missing girlfriend
Thursday, April 3, 2008 11:19 PM
By DEBBIE GEBOLYS

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Authorities have been searching for a body on the banks of the Olentangy River just south of the Delaware County line for the past three days.

Sources have said the excavation is for the body of a woman who has been missing nearly four years, but police won't confirm that.

Efforts are to resume Friday.

In a wooded area of Mount Air off Olentangy River Road, Columbus homicide detectives have been poring over the marshy ground just west of the river since Tuesday, neighbors said. Law-enforcement officers have told them it is a crime scene.

Columbus police and Franklin County deputies refused to give details tonight, but Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis said homicide detectives called his office earlier this week.

"We did get a call about some possible remains," Lewis said. Police called in an anthropologist, Lewis said, to direct digging efforts. The skeletal remains haven't yet been excavated, he said.

Sources told WBNS-TV (Channel 10) that police were searching for the body of Ashley Howley, whose boyfriend had lived immediately adjacent to the search area.

Howley, 20, disappeared from her North Side home in June 2004, and police have said they believe she is dead.

As recently as January, police called Howley's ex-boyfriend, Robert P. MacMichael II, their only suspect in her disappearance.

MacMichael, 25, was living with his father in Mount Air until he was arrested in January for the slayings of his mother and her boyfriend at their home in Minerva Park.

Barbara Rush and Greg Bartee were found beaten to death in their bedroom in December. MacMichael was charged with aggravated murder in the deaths and remains in the Franklin County jail awaiting an August trial date.

MacMichael also was charged with assaulting his mother in December 2006, a charge that was later dropped. But his history of violence dates back to an arrest when he was 15 that included an attempted murder charge.

Howley called police the month that she disappeared to report that MacMichael had assaulted her. She spoke to a girlfriend the following afternoon and hasn't been seen since.

Lewis said he expects the coroner's office to join the investigation in Mount Air, maybe as soon as Friday.

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Searchers find human remains along Olentangy River
Friday, April 4, 2008 1:29 PM
By John Futty and Theodore Decker

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Investigators confirmed today that they have uncovered human remains near the Olentangy River just south of the Delaware County line, but they stopped short of saying the remains belong to a woman missing for nearly four years.

Neighbors said homicide detectives have been searching since Tuesday in the thick woods between Olentangy River Road and the river, in an area north of Edgecliff Drive.

Investigators have told them it is a crime scene, and two tents have been erected several hundred feet north of Edgecliff Drive.

Police are releasing little information but said the largely skeletal remains were found in what they described as a shallow grave.

“We have confirmed that we have found human remains,” said Sgt. Richard Weiner, a police division spokesman. “There is a probability that the remains belong to Ashley Howley.”

Howley, 20, disappeared from her North Side apartment in June 2004. The search location is directly behind a home linked to Robert P. MacMichael II, Howley's former boyfriend and the prime suspect in her disappearance.

MacMichael lived at one time with his father at 8250 Olentangy River Road, a home perched on a hillside that overlooks the woods now being searched

Franklin County Coroner Brad Lewis said Thursday night that homicide detectives called his office earlier this week about the remains.

Weiner said the remains were being painstakingly removed, and police were expected to remain on the scene all day today.

“We're not going to rush it for any reason,” he said. “We're treating the area very gingerly right now. It would be ideal if we could wrap this up today.”

Weiner said determining whether the body is Howley's will take more time, likely due to the need to identify it using DNA testing.

“We're not going to jump to any conclusions,” he said.

Police called in an anthropologist, Lewis said, to direct digging efforts.

Police have long said they believed Howley, 20, had been killed but were unable to move forward because her body was never found.

Howley called police to her apartment off Schrock Road on June 16, 2004, to report that MacMichael had assaulted her. She spoke to a girlfriend the following afternoon but hasn't been seen since.

Earlier this year, police said MacMichael remained their only suspect in her disappearance.

MacMichael, 25, was living with his father in Mount Air until he was arrested in January in the slayings of his mother and her boyfriend at their home in Minerva Park. Barbara Rush and Greg Bartee were found beaten to death in their bedroom in December.

MacMichael was charged with aggravated murder in the deaths and is in the Franklin County jail awaiting a trial in August.

No one answered the door at his father's home near the search area, and messages left there seeking comment were not returned. A large picture window overlooks a deck and faces the woods where the remains were discovered.

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Remains found near river identified as missing woman
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 2:28 PM


Investigators have confirmed through dental records that skeletal remains found beside the Olentangy River in northern Franklin County last week are those of a woman missing for nearly four years.

Police have long believed that Ashley Howley had been murdered and several times have named her former boyfriend as their only suspect.

Robert P. MacMichael II sometimes lived with his father at 8250 Olentangy River Rd., which is adjacent to the undeveloped property where the remains were found.

Police have said only that "information received" led them to search the property off Edgecliff Road near Rt. 315 last week. They spent several days there, finishing with the site on Friday night.

Howley, 20, disappeared in June 2004, one day after calling police to her North Side apartment to report that MacMichael had assaulted her.

Although he hasn't been charged in the crime, MacMichael, 25, was referred to by a homicide sergeant in January as "our only suspect in the case." He has been jailed since then on charges that he killed his mother and her boyfriend in December.

Police spokeswoman Amanda Ford said the investigation into MacMichael is ongoing.

"Obviously he was the prime suspect all along," she said.