Two double homicides in Union play out nine years apart

Map showing scenes of two double homicides in Union

Scott Mink, shown in this undated photo from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, is dropping his appeals after pleading guilty to beating his parents to death with a hammer in September 2000 and could be executed next week.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Gary Kyle Marshall. Union police found his parents - David Marshall, 65, and Susie Marshall, 61 - dead in their home around 11 p.m. Saturday after a neighbor hadn't seen the couple for several days and noticed mail piling up outside the house, and called police to check on the Marshalls' welfare.

Jim Witmer Photo from the scene at 53 Greencliff in Union-- the home of David and Susie Marshall who were found slain.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Neighbors: Slain couple’s son addicted to heroin, often fought with them
Share condolences for Susie Marshall At legacy.com
Share condolences for David Marshall At legacy.com

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By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 9:41 PM Saturday, August 8, 2009

UNION — An older, married couple are bludgeoned to death in their home. Their 36-year-old son, a drug addict still living with his parents, is accused of killing them, stealing their belongings and fleeing in a truck.

This scenario has played out twice with eerie exactitude in the generally peaceful town of Union, population about 6,000.

It happened in the deaths of David and Susie Marshall, whose bodies were found Aug. 1 in their home at 53 Greencliff Drive. Their son, Gary Kyle Marshall, has been charged with two counts of aggravated murder and numerous theft and assault charges, and is being held in the Montgomery County Jail.

About nine years earlier, six-tenths of a mile from the Marshall home, Scott Mink beat and stabbed his parents and stole their property to raise money to buy crack cocaine. Mink, who waived appeals of his subsequent conviction and death sentence, was executed by lethal injection in 2004.

The slayings of William and Sheila Mink were the last homicides in Union until the Marshall killings, said Police Chief Mike Blackwell. He said he “absolutely” found it striking that two such similar crimes would happen in the small town north of Englewood.

“They (Scott Mink and Gary Marshall) may have even been friends,” he said. “They both did drugs. Maybe (the Minks’ murders) crossed (Marshall’s) mind, for all I know.”

Blackwell was a lieutenant with the Union police when Scott Mink killed his parents. “He wanted drugs and the parents cut him off” from the ability to buy them. Blackwell said the same thing may have happened in the Marshall case.

Tony Ballard of Union said the whole town has been talking about the homicides. People are saying, “Don’t let your kids move back in with you in Union, Ohio,” he said.

“It’s quite the coincidence,” Ballard said of the two double homicides. “It’s just a fluke — it may not happen (again) for the next 500 years.”

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