Man Stabbed to Death on West Harrison Street
The city of Newark has recorded its second homicide of the year. The latest happened around 10:15 Monday night on West Harrison Street.
A disconnected 911 call alerted authorities to a problem at 59 West Harrison Street. When police arrived they found the many residents of the rooming house, but didn’t see a victim.
“They did a very good job It would have been easy turn around and say well there’s no disturbance, but they did an excellent job in
continuing the call and locating the victim,” says Sgt. Scott Snow, Newark Police Department.
After searching the house, 25-year-old John Stouffer was found stabbed to death in his room. For neighbor Donna Queen, whose boyfriend lives at the home the discovery was shocking.
“I was scared, because I live here by myself and I was scared. I mean that’s too close to home,” says Queen.
Neighbors say with people going to and from the house it’s hard to tell if there’s anything suspicious going on.
“Sometimes it’s kind of scary because you don’t know who’s going in and out. There’s always quite a bit of traffic. You don’t know who lives there and who don’t,” says Queen.
Sgt. Snow says the public should not be worried, because they don’t believe this was a random act of violence, they are interviewing multiple residents of the house.
“The investigators are kind of wading through the scene and wading through the evidence and they’ll be doing extensive interviews with each resident,” says Snow.
Neighbors say it’s some of the homes residents they’re concerned about.
Authorities say the victim Stouffer was a convicted sex offender who was arrested for propositioning a child.
Queen says several residents of the home are criminals and she’d like to see the buildings owner take action.
“For the owner to like know the person that’s going to be renting there, to know their background, you know a little bit more about who she’s letting rent there.”
Licking County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward up to $1000 for information leading to the arrest of Stouffer’s killer. If you have any information on the murder call the Newark Division of Police Detective Bureau at (740) 670-7215.
