Police are searching for any clues to what happened in the teen’s final hours and who stabbed her.
This is the second homicide in Fairfield in the past four weeks and just the second since 2009.
Fairfield Police Chief Mike Dickey declined to comment on details, noting the homicide investigation is ongoing. But he said it is not connected to last summer’s disappearance of a 22-year-old college student.
“It’s definitely not related to Katelyn Markham,” Dickey said. Markham was last seen at her Dorshire Drive townhouse in Fairfield on Aug. 13.
Dickey said Tuesday night that there is also no indication other children are in danger from the perpetrator.
“The act was directed toward Chelsea,” Dickey said.
Dickey said detectives need help from anyone who saw the Fairfield Options Academy freshman, who weighed about 100 pounds and had long brown hair.
“We are trying to track her movements ... to develop a time line for her last hours,” he said.
As police continue to look for clues in the slaying, Chelsea’s family and friends try to cope with the trauma of her sudden death.
Her body was found about 6 p.m. Monday near a creek adjacent to the Heritage Glen Apartment complex on Brookfield Drive and Pleasant Avenue, according to Fairfield police. The site is about two miles from where Chelsea lived on Southgate Boulevard.
In a 911 call, an unidentified man screams and cries for help.
“Oh, my God,” the man said. “I have a body in the creek ... a little girl’s body in the creek.”
The caller said “we” just reported her missing Monday morning and was able to tell the dispatcher that it was Chelsea.
“She’s not moving,” the man cried.
Fairfield police Lt. Kevin Haddix said he couldn’t release information related to evidence recovered from the scene or possible suspects.
Haddix said Tuesday there were attempts by police patrols in the area to locate the missing girl, but it wasn’t until police received a call at 6 p.m. Monday that they were led to the body.
An autopsy was performed Tuesday, according to the Butler County Coroner’s Office, which ruled that the teen had been stabbed.
The girl’s mother, Vicky L. Fible, 38, reported her daughter missing around 9 a.m. Monday after she didn’t return home after leaving late Sunday morning, police said. According to the report, Chelsea left her apartment in the 5300 block of Southgate Boulevard about noon.
Before talking to the police, Fible went to her daughter’s school, trying to find out if classmates had heard from her daughter or knew where she could be, said Fairfield Options Academy Principal Bob Polson. Students attempted to call or text message her, and both staff and students were concerned because Chelsea wasn’t the type of girl who would run away or not keep in touch, the principal said.
Fible said she last saw her daughter around 11:30 a.m. Sunday when she returned home from work - she is a home care provider for a disabled man - to make her daughter grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Fible said she also has an 11-year-old son, Bryan, and the family has lived in Fairfield for two years after moving from Ross Twp.
Fible said she moved her family from Ross because of the high drug crime and SWAT raids.“I thought I was moving to a safe neighborhood; Fairfield is not what they say it is,” Fible said. “I hope somebody comes forward with information, it’s not fair to my girl.”
Fairfield City Councilman Mike Oler, a former Fairfield police officer, said he is concerned about what appears to be more frequent crime in the city, but does not fault the current police department.
“You can’t solve every crime. You just can’t,” Oler said. “I’m not concerned about the work done on it.”
Chelsea’s mother described her daughter as someone who was “always trying to make people laugh.”
“She was my best friend and would always write me notes telling me she loves me,” Fible said.
Grief counselors were available at Options Academy on Tuesday.
“It’s been a horrible day,” Polson said, having had to deliver grim news to the close-knit group of 90 students.
“With kids, you have to be up front, tell them the truth and then go from there,” he said. No vigils had been planned as of Tuesday; Poslon said it was “too soon” to consider that.
The Heritage Glen Apartment complex where Chelsea was found has been under construction and no one is living in the buildings. Construction crews were working in the area Tuesday and few signs were visible of a police investigation. One building in that complex was severely damaged in a fire and had been left standing as an empty shell. The complex, under new ownership, is in the midst of a $2.5 million renovation project.
The site where Chelsea was found is less than a quarter of a mile from where Markham was last seen Aug. 13 at her Dorshire Drive townhouse. Markham’s disappearance drew national attention and prompted extensive searches.
Damien Terrell Taylor was found dead March 15 in the 5100 block of Winton Road. Dickey said the fatal shooting was not random and that Taylor suffered at least one gunshot wound. Dickey said there are no suspects.
Phil Johnson, Chelsea’s grandfather and Fible’s father, said every summer Chelsea spent a couple weeks with her grandparents at their rural home in Ripley County, Ind. Chelsea was one of Johnson’s six grandchildren.
“She loved to fish and camp,” he said. “She wanted to be a veterinarian; she loved animals. She had two hamsters and we bought her a Cockatoo (bird).”
Johnson said he gave his granddaughter a Kindle e-reader for Christmas and the teen had almost 5,000 books loaded onto it. Fible said her daughter loved reading the “Twilight” vampire series.
Johnson said as Chelsea grew up he was the father-figure in her life, as her biological father has not been in her life, or paid child support in 15 years.
“She trusted people to a fault, which might have been what happened,” Johnson said.
Chelsea has been enrolled in Fairfield City Schools since 2010. She transferred to the alternative school in January from the freshman campus, and worked as a cashier in the school store, Polson said.
She found the smaller class sizes and individual attention suited her better, Ruth Gronostaj, a teacher at Options said. Johnson said his granddaughter was maintaining a B-plus average.
Chelsea had not been at Options long, but she definitely made an impression, said Gronostaj.
Like Chelsea, Gronostaj had been at Options only a short while. She had been a teacher at Fairfield Freshman School, where Chelsea had also attended.
“She and I talked about that (similarity),” said Gronostaj.
“She found this to be her niche, because, as Chelsea said, there was less drama,” said Gronostaj, who teaches English and career-based intervention. The latter means directing students in a work environment, and she supervised Chelsea’s work at the school store, which sells snacks, such as chips and corn dogs.
Chelsea was “very kind and sensitive to others. She was all about following the rules. She was a person you enjoyed being with,” said Gronostaj.
Ironically, English was “maybe not her favorite subject,” the English teacher said with a smile. “But she was good about asking questions. You knew what she was thinking. She was very polite and very courteous.”
Chelsea was still trying to figure out what her career goals were, but whatever she ended up doing, she was going to thrive, said Gronostaj.
“I told her, ‘I’ve given you a lot of responsibility, and you’ve gone beyond my expectations.’ She was one of three people I thoroughly trusted,” said her teacher.
“She just had a gentle approach and was always smiling. She was extremely polite, and very courteous. She will be greatly missed,” Gronostaj said.
Polson said the 90 students are divided into two sessions of about 40 to 45 students, and Chelsea was with the afternoon session. Students there take a typical high school curriculum, some of which is online so students can work at their own pace, Poslon said. Some students also participate in work placement programs, as Chelsea did.
Almost weekly, Polson said she would come into his office, asking him to write a note home, telling her mother and grandmother how well she was doing, he said, noting she was proud of her school work.
“She was a really good student for us,” he said. “She seemed very happy here, she seemed proud of herself.”
Donations are being accepted at any PNC bank location under the Chelsea Johnson Memorial Fund.
Staff Writer Jen Roppel contributed to this report.
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