April 1997

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/102295334/

he Cincinnati Enquirer UNION TOWNSHIP Services will be today for a young family killed in a weekend fire at their rural Clermont County home. Marshall Beach 32, his wife, Laurie, 34, and their two daughters, Mara, 5, and Mckenzie, 3, perished in the blaze. Investigators were still trying to determine the cause of the fire, which consumed the two-story home at 4971 Tealtown Road. Mr.

Beach was a groundskeeper for 12 years at the Cincinnati Nature Center, which owned the house. "It's been really hard," Mr. Beach's mother, Linda Reed, said Tuesday as she shared memories of her son, a hard-working man who was always on the job but still found time to cut wood for his parents so they could heat their home. Mrs. Reed described her daughter-in-law as a loving mother who, with the children, often tagged along with Mrs.

Reed on trips to local flea markets. Mrs. Beach was employed for eight years at the Clermont County Juvenile Detention Center, where she cooked meals and helped young inmates with their homework, Mrs. Reed said. The children were regulars at their grandmother's house, often accompanying their father for overnight visits there after Mrs.

Reed had a heart attack six months ago.

June 1996

 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/102205583/

BATAVIA A Clermont County grand jury on Wednesday indicted a Goshen teen who authorities say has confessed to beating, strangling and slashing the throat of his 59-year-old grandmother. JR Collins Cooper, 17, was indicted on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated robbery and one count of grand theft in connection with the slaying of Dorothy Cooper, Clermont County Prosecutor Don White said.

Mr. White said the youth could be convicted of only one of the two counts of aggravated murder. One charge involves premeditation; the other, the robbery and theft charges. Those charges assert that JR took money and a vehicle belonging to his grandmother at the time of her slaying. During a hearing last week, Goshen Township Police Lt.

William Johnson, the department's acting chief, testified that the Goshen High School sophomore had confessed to the killing. Authorities have said Mrs. Cooper was likely killed between 10 p.m. and midnight May 19 at the Goshen Township home she shared with her grandson, in the 6700 block of Wood Street. Mrs.

Cooper was found dead late May 20, and authorities picked up the boy in Union Township for questioning early May 21. The youth told police that before killing her, he lured her to his room by burning some incense, knowing that the smell irritated her. Apparently, Mrs. Cooper was struck with a board. Police say Mrs.

Cooper fell on the boy's bed, and he punched her. The youth took a "telephone-type" cord and strangled his grandmother, then took out a pocket knife and slashed her throat, he told police. The preliminary cause of death was determined to be strangulation. For now, authorities are not saying what might have prompted JR to allegedly plot the death of his grandmother. The boy had been charged as a juvenile, but was turned over to adult court because state law requires that anyone 16 years and older charged with such a crime be automatically bound over as an adult.

If convicted, he could face 32 years to life imprisonment, Mr. White said. JR would not be eligible for the death penalty because he was a minor at the time of the slaying. He is being held at the Clermont County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond set last week by Judge Stephanie Wyler of Clermont County Juvenile Court. The teen's attorney, R.