COLUMBUS — A police detective who investigated the kidnapping and murder of Reagan Tokes expressed doubt on Wednesday as to whether her killer would have been captured if Ms. Tokes’ car had not had a front license plate, something that will no longer be required by Ohio law starting this summer.
A digital reader, likely attached to a commercial vehicle like a garbage or tow truck, had routinely captured the front license plate of the abandoned car in a Columbus neighborhood and dumped that information into a database later accessed by police.
That became a key piece of evidence in the investigation that quickly led detectives to Ms. Tokes’ killer: Brian Lee Golsby. Within hours of the discovery of her body in a Grove City park early on the morning of Feb. 9. 2017, police had recovered from her car a cigarette butt. On that butt they found the DNA of Golsby, a registered sex offender.
“At one point, he asked us how we found him so quickly,” Grove City Police Sgt. Richard Forney told the Ohio House Transportation, Commerce, and Workforce Committee.
“Golsby tried to burn the car twice to destroy the evidence inside it, but was unsuccessful,” he said. “He didn’t say he was going to try to burn it a third time, but we believe he would have.”
On July 1, 2020, Ohio’s current mandate that every vehicle has a front license plate — in addition to a rear plate — will end absent a change of heart by lawmakers. Senate Bill 179, sponsored by Sen. Jay Hottinger (R., Newark), seeks to preserve the mandate.
“I ask that you do your due diligence and not merely be swayed by emotion, be swayed by aesthetics, be swayed by arguments that this is all about revenue or money ...,” Mr. Forney told the committee. “If you look at the evidence and see that two plates makes us twice as effective in utilizing the technology in solving serious crimes than one plate, why would we not err on the side of continuing to help our law enforcement?”
Ms. Tokes, just months from graduating from Ohio State University, was kidnapped as she walked to her car after work at a restaurant near campus.
Golsby had recently been released from prison after completing a sentence for attempted rape. Although it was not monitored in real time, he was equipped with an ankle GPS device that was later used to place him at every spot on a digital map where Ms. Tokes was known to have been the night before her body was discovered.
Ultimately, the evidence against Golsby turned out to be overwhelming, leading to his conviction and multiple life sentences.
“There was overwhelming evidence, but the only way to get to him was the cigarette butt,” Sergeant Forney said. “The DNA evidence found on the victim, on Reagan, was not significant enough for [an automated] match. It had to be manually compared to Golsby.”
Absent finding that cigarette butt and his DNA, he said, law enforcement may not have been pointed in Golsby’s direction.
“They would have to have someone to look at in order to pull the GPS evidence,” Sergeant Forney said.
The idea of getting rid of the two-plate mandate has been a perennial issue in the Statehouse, but last spring repeal supporters succeeded in having it inserted into the current two-year transportation budget.
“All of the surrounding states don’t require it,” said state Sen. Kristina Roegner (R., Hudson), a committee member. “We’re like an island in that case. People don’t really want to drill, necessarily, holes into their front bumpers where there’s often sensitive equipment.”
She suggested Ohio should allow the repeal to take effect as scheduled on July 1 and see what happens.
Testimony on Wednesday was limited to those supporting the bill to keep front license plates.
A number of law enforcement organizations urged the state to keep the two-plate requirement. Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn and Fulton County Sheriff Roy Miller were among those submitting letters.
The front plates are used to search for suspects, respond to Amber and Silver alerts, identify drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses, and crack down on package thieves thanks to the growing popularity of home video surveillance systems.
“As you know, package thieves do not typically back into driveways,” Sheriff Miller wrote.
First Published December 11, 2019, 5:39 p.m.
