FREMONT — The day before she was found dead 10 years ago, Leigh Ann Sluder sent a text message to Daniel Myers: “U win — do what’s right”.
On March 1, 2009, Myers — the father of Ms. Sluder’s youngest child and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, according to Sandusky County authorities — found her dead in her bed in her home in Clyde. Her death was initially ruled a suicide by gunshot wound to her chest.
Officials then reopened the investigation into her death after Myers was arrested for the 2015 murder of Heather Bogle and at the urging of Ms. Sluder’s family members who found her death suspicious. But on Wednesday, Sandusky County Sheriff Christopher Hilton and Prosecutor Tim Braun announced that Ms. Sluder’s death was likely a suicide as initially ruled, and officials were closing the case for good.
Sheriff Hilton said investigators received a suicide note on Feb. 26 that they believe was written by Ms. Sluder. Myers’ relatives found the note in 2017 while cleaning out his belongings after his June arrest for Ms. Bogle’s murder.
“Upon Daniel Myers’ plea of guilty in the Heather Bogle case, the family reached out to us and said they had this suicide note and that they believed it was Leigh Ann Sluder’s,” the sheriff said.
Prosecutor Braun said investigators heard talk of a suicide note in 2017, but no one asked Myers’ family members about any such note at the time. Myers’ conviction on Feb. 13 in Sandusky County freed up resources dedicated to that case and allowed investigators to pursue the reopened investigation into Ms. Sluder’s death, the prosecutor said. That’s when they discovered the existence of the suicide note.
The prosecutor said investigators interviewed witnesses again, studied the physical evidence, and took a second look at the crime scene.
“When we reopened the case, we were not happy with the original investigation,” Mr. Braun said.
In the note, which was addressed to Myers, Ms. Sluder purportedly wrote that she felt like an empty shell inside, that Myers had beat her down, used her for money, and “kick me to the side when the next best thing came along.”
“... no one really knows how it was for me because I put on a happy face @ work so they all thought I was happy happy joy joy Leigh Ann,” she wrote. “But all I ever wanted was to just die for that the hurt would stop.”
In addition to the note, Sheriff Hilton said Agent Gary Wilgus with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation analyzed the rifle that investigators believed Ms. Sluder used on herself as well as her measurements and the position of both at the crime scene. The agent found that she would have been able to pull the trigger and that the wound and blood flow were consistent with a self-inflicted wound.
Ms. Sluder’s sister, Loriann Haley, though, doesn’t believe she killed herself. She has never believed her sister killed herself, Mrs. Haley said.
“They botched that whole investigation back in 2009,” she said. “Anybody can write a note.”
The day before Ms. Sluder was found dead, Mrs. Haley talked to her on the phone. Ms. Sluder’s last words to her were, “I’ll talk to you later,” Mrs. Haley said. Myers called her on March 1, 2009, to tell her that he found Ms. Sluder dead, but he wouldn’t let her talk to the investigators at the scene on the phone, Mrs. Haley said. He kept the note, which wasn’t dated, she pointed out, for years before it was given to authorities. She also believes it’s possible her sister was coerced into writing the note.
Mrs. Haley is grateful that Myers was sentenced to life in prison and that he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. The justice that Ms. Bogle’s family received is well-deserved, she said.
The announcement that the investigation into her sister’s death was closed for a final time came 10 years to the day of her burial, March 6, Mrs. Haley said. Her sister loved her two sons and loved animals. She was planning her oldest son’s 16th birthday party at the time of her death, Mrs. Haley said.
“So, that’s where it ends,” she said about the case. “There’s nothing more I can do about it.”
First Published March 6, 2019, 3:06 p.m.
