Post by Graveyardbride on Feb 11, 2018 2:03:07 GMT -5
Arrest in Brutal Murder of Aspiring Funeral Director
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus police say they have arrested a 53-year-old man in connection with the murder of an aspiring funeral director. Anthony Pardon (above right), of 1338 E. 15th Avenue, is a registered sex-offender and has been charged with the murder of Rachael Anderson. According to the Columbus Division of Police, SWAT officers arrested him at a Linden-area home on Thursday, February 8.
Anderson’s co-workers became concerned when she did not show up for work January 29, the day after her 24th birthday, at Shaw-Davis Funeral Homes. Police did a welfare check at Cardinal Creek Apartments, 3044 Allegheny Avenue, and when they entered Apartment B, they found the young woman’s corpse stuffed in a closet.
Anderson died of asphyxiation and Sgt. Stan Latta confirmed she died “a violent death.” She had been tortured, suffocated and likely raped, however, Latta declined to go into details concerning the torture or confirm whether she had been sexually assaulted.
DNA evidence gathered in Anderson’s apartment tied Pardon to the crime. He stole her vehicle and used her debit card to withdraw cash, according to investigators. “He [Pardon] has a girlfriend who lives in the neighborhood,” Latta explained. “She’s not associated with any part of this crime, but it’s within a short walking distance of where Rachael’s apartment is at.”
Anderson was a 2012 graduate of Warren G. Harding High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. She attended Youngstown State University and received her bachelor of mortuary science degree from the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science in 2016. Anderson was nearing the end of her apprenticeship at Shaw-Davis Funeral Homes at the time of her death. She was on the verge of becoming the first funeral director at the business who was not a member of the Shaw family. “This was a really big deal for our family,” said Amy Shaw, a colleague and friend. “We knew Rachael was the one. She was the perfect fit.” Shaw described Anderson, a native of Warren, Ohio, as a great listener, passionate worker and someone who was like a member of her own family. “Every time I think of Rachael, I see her,” she added. “I just see her beautiful face, smiling, because that’s basically what she was always doing.”
Pardon, who has an extensive criminal history, is being held in the Franklin County jail on a $5 million bond. Latta said he was not cooperating with investigators.
In March 1979, when Pardon was 14, he was temporarily committed to the Ohio Youth Commission for raping an 8-year-old girl. In July 1979, he was made a ward of the court and temporarily committed to Franklin County Children Services. In December 1979, he was found guilty of menacing, permanently committed to the youth commission and placed in a foster home. In February 1980, at age 15, he was convicted of raping the 9-month-old son of his foster parents. He was babysitting when his foster mother went grocery shopping. He told Columbus police he raped the baby because he was upset following a fight with a girlfriend. A court-ordered psychiatric report indicated he needed treatment and should be watched closely.
In November 1981, when Pardon was 16, he kidnaped, raped and attempted to drown the 39-year-old mother of a girlfriend who allowed him to enter her Ontario Street home to use the telephone. He pulled a butcher knife on her, raped her and stole $100 from her purse. He bound her feet and hands and gagged her before placing her in the trunk of her car. He then drove to Alum Creek off Sunbury Road, untied the woman’s feet and threw her into the water. She was only partially clothed at the time. When Pardon saw she was still able to keep afloat, he waded into the creek and held her head under water. Another man came on the scene when he saw the woman’s car with the trunk open and called police, but Pardon was gone when they arrived. At the time of the attack, Pardon was a student at Linden-McKinley High School and used the cash he had stolen from his victim to purchase tennis shoes and a jogging outfit. He was on probation from the youth commission at the time. A psychologist told the court that Pardon could not control his anti-social and aggressive behavior and had a “strong resistance to change.” In May 1982, at the age of 17, Pardon was tried as an adult and convicted of rape, attempted murder and aggravated robbery and sentenced to 25 years. In 2006, he was released from the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield where he had served in excess of 24 years. The following year, he was convicted of forgery and failure to register as a sex offender in Georgia.
Sources: Dan Pearlman and Ted Hart, WCMH, February 9, 2018, and Hunter Wallace, Occidental Dissent, February 9, 2018.
