FREMONT — Heather Bogle laughed at Daniel Myers, so he killed her.
She’d failed a nursing exam shortly before she was found dead on April 10, 2015, and he said later he wanted to console her. Myers thought there was a romantic connection, he later told an inmate in jail.
He frequently drove by her house. He knew her because they worked on the same factory line. But she didn’t think of him that way. She laughed at him, he told the inmate, and it offended him.
And so he brutalized her, leaving her with bruises all over her body. He shot her twice in the back, put her in the trunk of her car, and left her at a Clyde, Ohio apartment complex.
The grisly details of the crime were laid out Wednesday by Sandusky County Prosecutor Tim Braun as Myers, 49, pleaded guilty to multiple crimes related to Ms. Bogle’s murder.
Myers showed no remorse Wednesday. Not while he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated murder, or additional counts of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, or evidence tampering. He showed no remorse when he was sentenced by Sandusky County Common Pleas Judge John Dewey to life without parole for the murder charges, and additional years for the other crimes.
He showed no remorse while Mr. Braun showed in court pictures of 28-year-old Ms. Bogle’s body in the trunk of her car, of the marks left from the handcuffs Myers put on her wrists, of the bruises all over her body. He showed no remorse as her family and friends wept behind him.
He showed no remorse when they detailed the pain and anger they’ve felt since she was murdered.
And, when it was his time to speak, he showed no remorse.
“I have nothing to say,” he told Judge Dewey.
As part of Wednesday’s negotiated plea agreement, aggravated murder specifications that could have resulted in the death penalty were dropped, though Myers, of Green Creek Township, will never be freed. Ms. Bogle’s family members were in support of the plea agreement.
Mr. Braun led the court through the evidence that ultimately brought Myers to justice. Cell phone location data, saved by the cell phone company from when Ms. Bogle was first reported missing, gave investigators a general idea of where she was between her disappearance on April 9, 2015 following her shift at the Whirlpool plant in Clyde.
Location data from Ms. Bogle’s open Gmail account — originally ignored while former Sheriff Kyle Overmyer led the department — later showed her phone had been at Myers’ home for about an hour while she was missing.
Ms. Bogle fought back during the attack, Mr. Braun said, and DNA evidence under her fingernails eventually pointed to Myers.
After the murder, Myers bought plywood to build a new floor at his home and a new mattress to cover-up his crimes. And he told a fellow jail inmate, accounts gathered after his arrest, that he lost a tooth while Ms. Bogle fought back.
After the murder, Myers went to Ms. Bogle’s funeral, and donated $125 to a GoFundMe campaign, expressing his sorrow over her death. That, Ms. Bogle’s mother, through a victim’s advocate, told the court, made her sick.
“I thank God every day that Heather fought you, so that no one will ever have to feel this pain again,” she said.
When Myers was arrested, Mr. Braun said, more women came forward to say they’d been assaulted by Myers. Anytime a woman told Myers no, he became violent. That explains why Ms. Bogle’s hair was found cut; while Mr. Braun said there was thought first that it was from a sexual fetish, instead investigators now believe Myers cut her hair after pulling it during the assault, and cut it to hide DNA evidence.
The investigation into Ms. Bogle’s death took so long, and became controversial, because of then-lead investigator Sean O’Connell focus on persons of interest who ultimately had nothing to do with the crime. In September, O’Connell was sentenced to two years in prison for tampering with evidence during the investigation.
Mr. Braun said in court Wednesday that the initial investigation assumed there was a criminal conspiracy, and relied on confidential informants to prove that theory. The second investigation, led by Sheriff Chris Hilton, was centered on “good old fashion police work.”
The original case became entangled with questions regarding former Sheriff Overmyer’s conduct.
Overmyer pleaded guilty in November, 2016 to felony charges of theft in office and deception to obtain dangerous drugs, among other crimes, and was sentenced a month later to four years in prison. He had sought re-election despite the charges. Sheriff Hilton, who won the election, partially campaigned on a renewed investigation into Ms. Bogle’s death.
“I promised we would do this,” he said Wednesday.
Sheriff Hilton praised the collaboration between his office, the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, area police departments, and Mr. Braun’s office, and said that teamwork and long hours led to the conviction.
An expression of contrition by Myers, the sheriff said, would have been a fruitless effort.
“I thought there might be some exhibition of remorse, but I've seen none,” Judge Dewey said Wednesday, adding later, “[That’s] pretty sad commentary."
First Published February 13, 2019, 11:32 p.m.
