At around 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2015, Rebecca Cade’s body was discovered hanging by the sleeve of her sweatshirt on a chain-link fence at the American Electric Power substation on North Brownell Street in Chillicothe, Ohio. An examination of the body revealed Cade, 31, was suffering from injuries to her face, neck, and torso. She had five cuts and two 2-inch stab wounds to her face. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma to her head and neck.
Police almost immediately identified Donnie Cochenour Jr. as the prime suspect and arrested him the same day Cade’s body was found. Cochenour admitted to having sex with Cade the night she died. He claimed they had an argument after and he struck her. But he said he did not kill her.
Cochenour’s sister, Lisa Frost, told investigators he showed up at her house wearing blood-stained clothing the night Cade died. Frost said she cleaned up blood from her bathroom and disposed of the bloody clothes Cochenour was wearing. Frost was convicted of evidence tampering and spent 12 months in jail. Police recovered the jeans from the trash and determined the blood on them did come from Cade. Despite this, Cochenour was found not guilty in 2017 and set free. Cade’s case is currently unsolved.