Arrest made in 23-year-old Warren County cold case

On Thursday, Sam Perone, 67, of Phoenix was arrested and charged with murder in the case, according to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.

However it was unclear when Perone would be brought back to Ohio to stand trial in the case.

“We’re just in a holding pattern,” Lt. John Faine of the sheriff’s office said Thursday. “We’re waiting on the extradition, whether he’s going to fight that or not fight that and come back with our guys.”

Detectives from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office went to Phoenix, and with the help of the Phoenix Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, served a search warrant on Perone’s home and took him into custody. On Oct. 1, a Warren County grand jury issued a secret indictment of Perone for Woods’ murder.

Perone is to face one count of murder in the case, begun after Woods was reported missing on Oct. 8, 1992 when he didn’t return home after wrapping up a business trip in Lebanon.

On Oct. 8, 1992 Woods called and told his wife he was headed home to Dublin, a Columbus suburb, after a call at a store in Lebanon.

Woods was shot twice that evening and his body was found in a ravine off Middleboro Road near the Interstate 71 exit ramp, about 1.5 miles from the rest stop where his 1990 Lexus had been found.

Invesitigators questioned Perone, the last person reported to have seen Woods alive and a man who allegedly threatened Woods before his death. Perone and his wife, Deborah, who owned Just Living Rooms in Lebanon, told officials they last saw Woods between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Oct. 8, 1992.

Both denied any involvement in the slaying.

Blood stains were found in the back room of Just Living Rooms, but DNA evidence was inconclusive at the time.

The case was one of those taken on by a cold-case team headed by Chief Deputy John Newsom, a former Cincinnati police detective. Newsom’s teams have solved the murders of Vickie Barton and Troy Temar.

In 2006, Newsom, who retired this year, said his team had no suspects and planned to reconstruct the last 72 hours of Woods’ life.

Last August, investigators returned to the spot on Middleboro Road in Washington Twp., Warren County, where Woods' body was found on Nov. 9, 1992.

Authorities are expected to provide additional details on the case during a press conference today .