During opening arguments Wednesday, prosecuting attorney Jacob Mosher said that 24 years ago Anderson was brutally murdered when her head was bashed in, her skull fractured into pieces and her head wrapped in a towel in trash bags and a belt before she was dumped on the side of a road about an hour and a half away outside Chillicothe in rural Ross County.
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
“And 24 years ago, this defendant, Jonathan Eric Link, thought he got away with that,” Mosher told the jury. “And ladies and gentlemen, for what this defendant did between the days of July 28, 2001, and Aug. 16, 2001, he is facing two counts of murder.”
Anderson and Link were in a relationship during the summer of 2001, when they along with Anderson’s two daughters, then ages 7 and 9, moved in together at a house in the 4500 block of Far Hills Ave., just south of David Road, in Kettering.
Link reported on July 30, 2021, to Montgomery County Children Services that Anderson left that Saturday, on July 28, and that he could not care for the girls. He said he did not know where she was and had not heard from her. Children Services said to call the police.
That day, Link reported to the Kettering Police Department that Anderson was missing along with her 1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette.
What started as a missing persons case evolved into a homicide investigation a little more than two weeks later. A decomposed body was discovered Aug. 16, 2001, which later was identified as Anderson through DNA testing. A few months later, on Oct. 23, 2001, Atlanta police found Anderson’s minivan abandoned in their airport parking lot.
The first witness the prosecution called to the stand was the forensic pathologist who formerly worked at the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office who performed Anderson’s autopsy. He testified that Anderson died of blunt-force injuries to the head.
Link did not look at either of the two monitors that showed photographs of Anderson’s skull, the towels and belt that had been wrapped around her head and the grassy area where her body was found during the forensic pathologist’s testimony.
In opening statements, Mosher said that Link held a memorial for Anderson at his church on Oct. 10, the same day the Kettering Police Department searched the house and reportedly discovered the crime scene in the master bedroom.
“What appeared to be blood was found on the entertainment center, on a dresser, on the footboard of the bed, on the closet track … (and) what appeared to be blood on the ceiling,” Mosher said.
A cadaver dog reportedly alerted to the presence of human decomposition in Link’s vehicle, and police found a receipt showing that Link bought a new mattress two days earlier. The furniture store still had Link’s mattress in the dumpster, which Mosher said crime lab analysts cut open to examine layer by layer.
According to the prosecution, witnesses in the case would include Anderson’s then 7-year-old daughter, who was expected to testify about what she heard the night of July 28 in the bedroom next door; other witnesses who would recount inconsistencies in Link’s statements; and others who would testify about Link’s actions during the investigation.
“After you carefully consider all of that evidence, it is going to tell you that the defendant is guilty of the murder of Shannon Anderson,” Mosher said.
The death of Anderson happened a long time ago, specifically 24 years, four months and nine days before the start of Link’s trial, said his attorney Dennis Lieberman.
“A lot of things change over time. And memory is one of them,” he said.
The defense is expected to call an an expert witness to testify about how memory works and can be influenced.
Anderson and Link did have a relationship, Lieberman said, but it began before the summer of 2001. While they were seeing each other earlier, Anderson left, married a man in Florida and stayed with him for about four months before leaving him and coming back to be with Link, he said.
“The evidence is going to show you that (Anderson’s estranged husband) was not particularly happy. They weren’t even divorced,” Lieberman said.
Anderson’s estranged husband followed her to Ohio, and they talked while she was here, he said.
On July 28, the last day Link saw her, Anderson reportedly cleaned out her desk where she worked at Voss Chevrolet and left with a box of her belongings. Later that evening, Lieberman said that Link and Anderson did not have an argument, but that Anderson and her estranged husband did, after which Anderson left.
The case against Link has more questions than answers, Lieberman said, such as how Anderson’s minivan got to Georgia, where Lieberman said she had family and her estranged husband had previously lived.
“When it’s time to deliberate, you cannot ignore those questions. You must look at all of the evidence and you must determine whether or not it is simply suspicion, or whether it’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt. … There isn’t proof beyond a reasonable doubt in this case. Isn’t. Because Eric Link did not murder Shannon Anderson," Lieberman said.
Link remains held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail
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