Cold case yields indictment
A Springfield man has been indicted on several charges in connection to a 2011 unsolved Urbanamurder.
Josiah Mathews, 29, was indicted by a grand jury in Champaign County Court of Common Pleas onMonday. He faces charges of aggravatedmurder, three counts of murder, aggravated robbery, felonious assault, grand theft of a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence.
He was arrested on Tuesday and is currently being held without bail at the Champaign County TriCounty Regional Jail where his first court appearance is pending.
According to a statement fromthe OhioAttorneyGeneral’s office, which is handling the case in conjunction with the Urbana Police Division, Mathews is accused of breaking into the home of Louis Taylor on Oct. 24, 2011 and badly assaulting the 87-year-old man.
Taylor was found inside his home in the 500 block of Dorothy Moore Avenue the next morning. He was flown by medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital inDayton before his family later transferred him to Hospice in Daytonwhere he died as a result of his injuries on Nov. 17, 2011.
Despite collecting evidence from Taylor’s home and locating his 2006 Jeep Liberty at the Long John Silver’s on South Limestone in Springfield shortly after his death, Taylor’s case ran cold.
At the time of Taylor’s death, Urbana Police Chief Matt Lingrell told the SpringfieldNews-Sunhehad“never had a case like this.”
“The scene— very pristine residence, very wellkept residence, very bloody residence,” Lingrell said in 2011. “Yes, there’s violence inUrbana. Dowe have home invasion assaults in Urbana? No.”
Inastatement, Lingrellsaid over the course of the last nineyears, Taylor’scase,“has alwaysremainedonourminds and in our work efforts.”
“We have never lost sight of our duty to Mr. Taylor and his family to find justice for his killing. Monday’s criminal indictments and (Tuesday’s) arrest of Josiah Mathews moves us into the judicial portion of trying to answer that calling,” Lingrell said.