No arrests have been made in the May homicide of a 68-year-old Miami Twp. man and family members are concerned about the wait.

Miami Twp. police said they are expected to approach the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office this month to discuss possible charges in the death of Melvin “Red” E. Allen.

Allen allegedly was in a physical confrontation with a 52-year-old man inside a residence at 2989 Asbury Court on May 18, days before he died. His death was ruled a homicide in June when it was determined that he died as a result of complications from multiple blunt-force head trauma.

Lack of witnesses and waiting on evidence to be tested at the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab has caused delays in the investigation, according to Detective Sgt. Scott Fitzgerald.

“All evidence is transferred to the appropriate section where one of our scientists will analyze it. The time for analysis varies from section to section,” said Denise Rankin, assistant director of the crime laboratory. “After each scientist finishes their analysis, they generate a report of their findings.”

She said those findings then go through several reviews. “Across all sections of the laboratory, it takes on average, 27 days to work a case,” Rankin said.

“It’s sure taking a long time for this,” said Allen’s 76-year-old brother William Allen. “It just seems like they had all the evidence right there.”

Allen lived at the Asbury Court address with his girlfriend, according to William Allen.

“We don’t have a lot of witnesses. Unfortunately, there were only three people in the condominium at the time this occurred,” Fitzgerald said. He added that besides Melvin Allen, and the 52-year-old man, there was also a 59-year-old woman present, who was listed as a victim in the redacted police incident report issued by police last year.

A 911 call recording of the incident suggested that someone from the Asbury Court residence called 911. A female caller told a Montgomery County Sheriff’s dispatcher that Melvin Allen attacked “us.”

When police arrived, Melvin Allen was taken to Kettering Medical Center, where he later died on May 26, according to the county coroner’s office.

William Allen said when he went to see his brother in the hospital, he had two long scars on his head and a bruised left eye.

Specific details of what happened during the confrontation have not been released, but Fitzgerald described the incident as being a one-sided encounter. The other man and woman in the home were were not seriously injured.

William Allen said his brother was in poor health at the time of his death and was a victim of Agent Orange. Last year, he told the newspaper that his brother received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army as a young man after being wounded, that he walked bent over and had problems straightening his fingers.

“He was a nice fellow and a good friend. He wasn’t big enough to hurt anyone,” said Melvin Allen’s 71-year-old friend Ralph Taylor.

Fitzgerald said his department doesn’t like the wait in the case either, but the thoroughness of the evidence testing was necessary in order to help them find out what happened.

“There is such a gravity placed on all of this that this just has to be done right,” he said.