Ohio AG announces new crime initiative

CELINA, Ohio (WDTN/AP) - A new emphasis on Ohio's more than 5,000 cold-case homicides will include the listing of cases on the a ttorney general's website and help from state crime experts to crack them.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced the plan in Celina Thursday morning.  Two of the cold cases occurred there, the slayings of Richard Grube, 70, and Colleen Grube, 47, his daughter.

The two were bound with duct tape and shot to death in November 2011.  Their killer was never caught.

In addition to listing cold cases on the Ohio Attorney General's website , local authorities can now tap into the expertise of investigators at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

"One thing I've found in doing this for 30 years is that information is the key," DeWine says. "It's the key to investigations. You get matches you'd never think you'd get. Things come up."

Right now the database only includes 166 cases, but already the Dayton Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office have agreed to add their unsolved homicides, which total more than 400.

As for the Grube homicides, the reward being offered has now been raised to $20,000.

Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Gray remains confident those responsible will be brought to justice.

"I still have a very positive outlook that we're going to find Robert and Colleen's killers," Grey says.