MANSFIELD — The brutal 1981 murder of Deborah L. Miller was one that retired Mansfield police Lt. Dale Fortney could not forget.
The 18-year-old’s dead naked body was found bludgeoned to death in her West Third Street apartment on April 29, 1981. It was a homicide that went more than 40 years unsolved, and was eventually pushed into the department’s cold-case files.
The former officer approached current Det. Terry Butler in 2021, asking about Miller’s death.
“This was one case he he felt that needed just that one little piece for it to be solved,” Butler said Monday afternoon.
That conversation began a fresh look at the entire homicide by Butler and Mansfield police DNA analyst Dawn Fryback. The renewed work led to the identification of the suspect, subsequent interviews and a planned arrest and prosecution by the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office.
It was a prosecution that suspect James Vanest, 68, may have chosen not to endure, dying instead during a standoff and shootout on Nov. 18 with Canton police, seeking to arrest him on unrelated gun charges stemming from a car stop in West Virginia.
“This is purely speculation, but my thought is when Mr. Vanest left West Virginia heading back to Canton, he would have not known that there was a federal indictment pending or coming his way,” Mansfield police Chief Jason Bammann said Monday.
“He had bonded out on state (gun) charges, so my gut feeling says that day when the (police) showed up in Canton that he thought they were there for him for the Debbie Miller case, not for a federal gun charge case out of a car stop a month and a half earlier,” the chief said.
The ending to the 43-year-old murder mystery was spelled out during a Monday afternoon press conference that included Bammann, Butler, Fryback, Richland County Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher, Assistant Prosecutor Chris Brown and prosecutor’s office intern Jaclyn Jakubic.
‘A brutal murder’
Miller was a senior at Malabar High School and had plans to to attend college after graduation. She also worked at the former Mr. T’s coffee shop on Park Avenue West, a short walk from where she lived in a first-floor apartment building at 151 W. Third St.
Her body was found by the building’s owner and maintenance person during a morning visit. The bloodied apartment showed clear signs of a struggle, but no murder weapon was found, according to published reports.
An autopsy revealed Miller had died from blunt trauma to her head and neck. Then-Richland County Prosecutor John Allen said she had been beaten to death by a burner grate off a gas stove.
Authorities called it at the time one of the most gruesome local crime scenes they had encountered.
Vanest lived in an apartment above Miller. He was questioned during the investigation, but was never considered a suspect for reasons Butler could not explain on Monday.
“I can’t answer that. Actually, I was 10 years old when this happened,” said Butler, a veteran officer and the department’s 2024 Detective of the Year. His great-uncle was one of the first officers who investigated the original crime scene.
(Below is audio from Monday afternoon’s press conference.)
Bammann said the case has been re-examined several times over the past 40 years, including in 2017 when the FBI identified a fingerprint from the scene. That person was deceased and the lead didn’t trigger an arrest.
“One individual continued to draw investigators attention, but not enough evidence could ever be provided to sustain an indictment,” Bammann said Monday.
(Above are photos from a press conference on Monday afternoon at the Mansfield Police Department regarding the 1981 murder of Deborah Miller.)
‘Cold Case’ revisited with new DNA technology — and gumshoe work
Spurred on by Fortney’s suggestion, Butler worked the case with Fryback.
“They started completely over. They examined the case as if it had happened yesterday, through an entirely new lens,” Bammann said. “Their findings were staggering.
“With the continual progress in DNA technology and some innovative techniques, a firm DNA profile began to show itself on numerous pieces of evidence. This DNA profile was linked to the suspect. After further investigation, it was determined the profile belonged to James Vanest,” the chief said.
Fryback said she performed more than 80 different analyses on evidence collected from the scene back in 1981 — in work that spanned a couple of years and multiple rounds of testing.
“A lot of the DNA profiles that came back to match Mr. Vanest were mixed with Debbie Miller’s DNA, and were present on some of the items directly related to the homicide.
“She was brutally beaten. There were stains located around her body, as well as some of the items she was beaten with,” Fryback said.
The DNA expert said the 1981 investigators had done an excellent job preserving evidence collected at the scene.
Brown said the original investigation focused on blood types. DNA was not used anywhere in a criminal case until 1986 in England.
“It’s a very bloody crime scene, as you heard from Detective Butler, and they were looking at who had ‘B’ blood, ‘A’ type blood. When Dawn was looking at this, it was much more focused on DNA,” the assistant prosecutor said.
“So, we actually met with someone who was a former serology expert. Serology is a study of fluids, including blood, from the FBI. What I learned is that the FBI no longer even trains people on serology.
“In fact, the person that we spoke with from the FBI is the last person currently employed by the FBI to still know about serology, to still be trained in it.
“So when it comes back to the DNA, we were looking at things that the victim was bound up in. We were looking at bodily fluids, including the blood that was found there. We also talked about what we perceived to be murder weapons, which in this case were pots, pans, and oven grates, and so some of that DNA was collected from there,” Brown said.
The assistant prosecutor said an old VHS tape made at the crime scene by the Mansfield Fire Department was helpful in terms of determining the layout of the apartment.
“We were able to pinpoint around the room where other suspects, as well as where Debbie’s DNA was found and where James Vanest’s DNA was found.
“When we were able to pinpoint that around her apartment, the picture of his culpability became very clear,” Brown said.
An interview with the suspect in Canton
Butler went to interview Vanest in his Canton home in November of 2021.
“When I approached him, I approached him as I was just looking at the case. I didn’t bring out any DNA (evidence) or anything like that.
“He started rehashing stuff just like it was yesterday. Mind you, it was 40 some years ago. He gave me a story that there was a homeless guy that was trying to break into her apartment and that he had ran this guy off.
“He had told Debbie about it and she was appreciative of it. Early in the morning of April 29, he’s coming back from a bar and he says she invites him in. (He said) they had consensual sex and he said he got sick and left,” the detective said.
“I assume that he’s talking about the consensual sex part because of DNA … it’s got to be. He rehashed it like it was yesterday (when it was) 40 some years ago. So we got him in the apartment that day in the early morning hours of the day she was found,” Butler said.
Bammann said it seemed clear Vanest was trying to establish an alibi “by justifying his DNA being present in the apartment, even though Det. Butler never breached that topic.”
Butler met with the prosecutor’s office to discuss the case. Schumacher and Brown asked him to interview Vanest again and discuss the DNA findings, a session that was done in June of 2024.
“Mr. Vanest ended the second interview in 2024 before it could even begin. He stated he felt like Det. Butler was building a case against him and he refused to speak and requested an attorney,” Bammann said.
Butler said, ” Before I could even ask anything, it was over and done with.”
Suspect takes flight — and meets his end
After the second interview, Vanest apparently decided it was time for him to go. He quickly sold his residence, bought a pick-up truck and enclosed trailer and headed to West Virginia.
A convicted felon, Vanest is not allowed to possess a gun.
“During his abrupt departure, Mr. Vanest left several firearms in his residence in Canton. During his travels, he was stopped by West Virginia authorities and found to have two firearms,” Bammann said.
The chief said Vanest was arrested on state charges and later posted bond. ATF agents took over the case and later indicted Vanest on federal gun charges.
Bammann said Vanest was later located in the North Canton area. The U.S. Marshal’s Service and Canton police SWAT officers attempted to serve the indictment at a hotel located in the Stark County city.
Vanest decided not to surrender, barricading himself inside the room and opening fire. He wounded Canton SWAT officer Patrick Lewis, a nine-year veteran who later underwent multiple surgeries on his right arm.
Officers returned fire and killed Vanest inside his Roadway Inn room. Marshals said two firearms and multiple spent bullet casings were found inside the hotel room.
According to a story in the Canton Repository, Vanest was described as a fugitive with an extensive and violent criminal history dating to the 1970s, according to U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott.
Grand jury session had been planned
Schumacher said her office was working closely with Butler and Mansfield police on the case.
“We were to the point where we were reviewing the available evidence, the necessary witnesses that would need to testify to those key items, making sure they were still available as we were preparing to go to grand jury … when Nov. 18th happened,” the prosecutor said Monday.
“That was the next step.”
The prosecutor said her office wanted to make sure it had its case ready … more than four decades after the murder.
“That’s what we are ensuring prior to proceeding to grand jury was in fact the witnesses that were necessary to essentially link up those key elements or testify or get over any of those hearsay type of objections,” she said.
“It would have been a circumstantial case, based on the evidence, the physical evidence that we had, but I think that’s becoming more and more common anymore. Just look at our recent convictions in our homicide trials.
“They’re all pretty similar in that sense that they are evidence-based and cumulative of all the evidence,” Schumacher said.
Bammann is convinced the killer has been brought to justice.
“The DNA evidence collected from multiple items, when analyzed alongside the findings in Det. Butler’s investigation, establishes proof beyond a reasonable doubt that James Vanest committed the murder of Debra Miller,” Bammann said.
“Because of this, we now consider the case closed,” the chief said.
“As law enforcement officers, you always want to see the handcuffs on the bad guy. That’s what we do for a living. But I can tell you, seeing the family with a little bit of relief and closure certainly supersedes our need (for an arrest),” he said.
“(The family) is grateful that this case has finally been resolved.”