First Posted: 2/22/2015
SPRINGFIELD (AP) — Family members of an 18-year-old girl found strangled in a ditch in western Ohio 30 years ago continue to meet with investigators in hopes that the case can be solved.
Denise Chance’s sister and mother met recently with several generations of detectives who have investigated Chance’s slaying, the Springfield News-Sun (http://bit.ly/1CKDf5V) reported.
The teen disappeared from her Springfield home early Jan. 7, 1985, leaving behind her shoes, coat, purse and car keys. The door to the garage was ajar. Chance’s body was found submerged in melting ice and snow in a drainage ditch 10 weeks later.
Chance’s sister, Dena Daugherty, was 11 when her sister was killed and has met with detectives about the case since she was a teen.
Daugherty hopes that bringing attention to the 30th anniversary of her sister’s death will prompt someone to come forward with information.
“Somebody out there knows something,” Daugherty said. “Thirty years we’ve lived this way. There has to be closure. I don’t want to die not knowing.”
Detective Ron Jordan met with Chance’s family last month, telling them that he received a voicemail recently from someone wanting to talk about the case. He wants to find out what that person or anyone else might know.
“I encourage them to contact me,” Jordan said.
Chance played pool with her brother and friends at the Forest Lake Fishing and Camping game room the night before her disappearance. She then drove her brother home, speaking with her mother as she dropped him off there.
“It was Jan. 7, my birthday was Jan. 9,” Chance’s mother, Linda Phillips, said. “She said, ‘I’ll see you for your birthday,’ and I said OK.”
The high school graduate then went to her home, talked to her boyfriend by phone and stayed up talking to her roommate until shortly after 1:30 a.m., according to reports. The roommate discovered her missing only hours later.
Police say the investigation hasn’t stopped.
“People know,” said Sgt. Jeffrey Flores, head of Springfield’s Crimes Against Persons division. “And we need them to come forward.”
