Killer of Licking County woman in 1969 dies at 74
PRISONS /
A man serving a life sentence for sexually assaulting and killing a Licking County woman nearly 50 years ago has died.
William Siddle, 74, was pronounced dead Saturday at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, where he had been transferred about a week earlier.
Grant Doepel, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, confirmed Siddle’s death but could provide no other details, saying a death certificate was not yet available.
Siddle was convicted in the 1969 murder of Mary Laca, 49, who worked at the same Newark company and lived about a block from Siddle. The coroner at the time called the bloody scene at Laca’s home the most brutal thing he had seen.
Siddle pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted and sentenced to death. He avoided execution after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1972 that all states’ death-penalty laws were unconstitutional, and he was serving a life sentence in the Chillicothe Correctional Institution. His next parole hearing was scheduled for December 2021, according to the correction department.
Siddle was released for a short time in the late 1980s under a state work furlough, but he was returned to prison after he was denied parole.
The people of Licking County did not forget the crime, and prosecutors and others were vocal in their opposition during parole hearings through the years, most recently in late 2016, said Licking County Prosecutor Bill Hayes.
“Every time it came up, the community just came out in large numbers, sending letters of objection,” he said. “It was never difficult to get public support to make sure he stayed” in prison.
Testimony submitted to lawmakers by state prisons Director Gary Mohr in late 2011, in response to legislation concerning parole eligibility for older offenders, noted the significant opposition to Siddle’s release. Mohr wrote: “Given the sexually sadistic nature of this murder, the (parole board) found him unsuitable for release.”