Hayton was five months pregnant, according to Burkhart’s older sister Courtney Burkhart.
Montgomery County Coroner Kent Harshbarger said Hayton’s unborn child died because Hayton died, meaning it was not hit by bullets.
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Dayton Police Lt. Jason Hall said Larry Rodgers is the sole person of interest in this case. Officers arrested Rodgers on Friday for having a weapon as a convicted felon. There have been no other charges approved against Rodgers at this time, said Greg Flannagan, spokesman for the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.
Rodgers appeared in court yesterday. His bond was set at $100,0000. He remains in the Montgomery County Jail.
Harshbarger has ruled both deaths homicides. Burkhart and Hayton were each shot in the head and appear to have died around the same time. The coroner’s report said Burkhart was killed on Nov. 16.
Family members of Hayton and Burkhart said the two dropped off Hayton’s 4-year-old daughter Nov. 16 in Columbus. They were supposed to return for the child Nov. 17.
Relatives told Mansfield police they may have been trying to get a gun in Dayton for protection, a report stated.
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Courtney Burkhart said the couple told everyone they were going to Columbus and, as far as she knew, her brother didn’t know anyone in Dayton.
Dayton police said Burkhart and Rodgers were “acquaintances.” Todd Burkhart served seven years in prison for burglary and attempted arson, and Courtney Burkhart said she thought the two men met in prison.
“There’s a lot of details I can’t divulge at this time,” Hall said.
Rodgers was convicted of a burglary charge and went to prison in 2012, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC). From 2014 to 2015, he was incarcerated in the Mansfield Correctional Center.
Burkhart was also held in the Mansfield Correctional Center during that time, an ODRC spokeswoman said.
Dayton police believe Burkhart and Hayton were killed in the two separate houses they were found in. There were no weapons found in the vacant houses, Hall said.
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