NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio — On Feb. 1, 1998, the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call from a group of children who had found a suitcase in the middle of dense woods along Winkler Hill Road in Dover Township. Inside were the severed remains of an unidentified man, including a pelvis and part of a leg. Six days later, a second suitcase containing a torso was found in another remote area, along Boltz Orchard Road in Jefferson Township.
For 28 years, the grisly discoveries yielded few clues, and the case went cold. Detectives collected fingerprints from the luggage and DNA from the remains, but for decades, neither the limited evidence they had nor the leads they chased were enough to unearth the victim’s name or identify any suspects.
But now, authorities say, that’s changed. Subsequent DNA testing finally confirmed that the remains were those of Lawrence A. Drotleff, who was born Aug. 6, 1904. He would have been about 93 years old when the suitcases were discovered.
According to a press release, in February 2023, a private lab conducted new DNA analysis on the remains, which yielded a match. The genetic profile from the remains offered a clue to the identity of the victim, which was traced to a possible living relative in the Euclid area: Drotleff’s son, Larry J. Drotleff, now 81. He had previously been caught collecting his late father’s retirement and Social Security benefits, telling officials at the time that his father had simply moved away.
The Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office was not immediately available to comment.
In January 2024, Captain Adam Fisher and Detective Sergeant Ryan Hamilton traveled to Euclid to interview Larry Drotleff, and that’s when the story came together. Drotleff told investigators that in 1998 he had been living with his father when he came home one day to find him dead. He then dismembered the body with a manual hand saw, disposing of some parts in the suitcases and others in bags dumped near his workplace, and spent the next several years collecting his father’s social security benefits and pension. Drotleff voluntarily provided a DNA sample that confirmed he was the victim’s biological son.
Because the statute of limitations has expired, Drotleff cannot be charged in state court with abuse of a corpse. Instead, investigators turned to federal authorities to pursue financial crimes linked to his father’s death and disappearance.
Federal prosecutors have now charged Drotleff in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio with two counts: stealing $111,485 in Social Security benefits, in violation of Title 18, Section 641 of the U.S. Code, and stealing $135,040.36 in pension funds from his father’s General Electric pension, in violation of Title 18, Section 664. The case is pending.
In the press release, Sheriff Orvis L. Campbell said the disturbing treatment of the victim’s body and the years-long deception surrounding his disappearance kept the case a priority through the long years investigators spent looking for answers. The Sheriff’s Office credited the persistence of Det. Sgt. Hamilton, Captain Fisher, the Detective Bureau, former Sheriff Walt Wilson, the Tuscarawas County Coroner’s Office, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office and BCI’s DNA section, analysts Savage and Dillion, as well as FBI Special Agent Jake Kunkle and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Baeppler for bringing the case to a long-awaited resolution.
