Dayton police investigate Cincinnati-area man’s homicide poetry

A Cincinnati-area man’s poem about accidentally shooting a friend and placing him in the trunk of a vehicle prompted social workers to contact Dayton police, who called two Ohio sheriffs to check unsolved cases.

Sheriff’s offices in Hamilton and Brown counties told Dayton police they were unaware of any unsolved homicides matching the poem, according to a police report reviewed by this news organization.

Staff at a Dayton rehab center, Woodhaven, on Thursday told police a client with an out-of-county address read a written poem during a therapy session. The poem suggested the client and an unnamed friend were using drugs in a vacant building when the friend brandished a gun, possibly a revolver.

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The client said he “requested to see the gun,” and when the friend handed it over the client “accidentally pulled the trigger causing the gun to go off,” killing him. The man “continued with the poem stating he wrapped his friend up in the carpet or rug and placed him in the trunk of a vehicle.”

After the session ended, the client asked the social worker what part of the conversation is covered under HIPAA, the federal health privacy law, before telling the social worker “that the poem was about his dog.”

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