Child rapist and killer up for parole

“The family was totally blown away by it.” — Brent Vinocur, founder of blockparole.com

A Sheffield Township man serving time for raping and killing a 9-yearold girl is getting another chance at parole years before scheduled.

Timothy Papp, 66, is serving two life sentences at the Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima for the rape and murder of Roxie Ann Keathley in 1973.

Papp’s last attempt at parole in April of this year after serving 44 years proved unsuccessful.

But rather than waiting to try again in five years as prescribed by law, the question of his release will be considered once more in September, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections website.

Papp’s last hearing resulted in a rescind/rehearing, the website said.

Joellen Smith, a representative of the corrections department, said Papp was scheduled for another hearing in April 2023, but things changed when he sent a letter to the parole board.

Within the letter, Papp rightly claimed that one of the charges he has been held on was incorrectly identified in the hearing, Smith said.

Thus, he was granted a rehearing on the case in September, but officials have not set a specific date.

For Brent Vinocur, founder of blockparole. com, who has made it his life’s work to keep people like Papp behind bars, it’s a disturbing trend that destroys any sense of peace or closure the families of victims may find following a parole denial.

“Basically, what this means is, we have to start over again,” he said. “All that work, we have to start from square one again and I have no idea why.”

Vinocur’s website hosts the stories of various grisly crimes usually with children as victims.

As part of blockparole. com’s goal to keep offenders incarcerated, staffers collect digital petitions which they present to the parole board in an effort to inform board members about the danger these offenders would be to the community if they returned.

This isn’t the first rescind/rehearing work Vinocur’s Cleveland “The and family dealt was a recent particularly was with one totally in his in brutal. blown these the the Vinocur past, parole situations away but board said by mainly it,” happen he’s failed he when said. seen to in contact have “What The screwed parole the could victim’s up?” hearings these he family. said. guys are usually great of care rehabilitation undertaken and the department with and correction assurance office has a to quality ensure these not occur, sorts Vinocur of instances said. do

“How do you not, on a case like this, do it correctly the first time?” he said in desperation. “You’re going to subject a little girl’s family to this?”

The heinous crime

Roxie and her sister Tammy were collecting pop bottles from their neighbors at Kimberly Gardens on O’Neil Boulevard to make money March 12, 1973, when they saw Papp in the parking lot.

The girls asked if he had any pop bottles, and he responded saying they’d have to come back later for them.

As Tammy went home for dinner, Roxie said she would be back later.

She was last seen alive at 5 p.m. and her parents reported her missing five hours later.

About two weeks before she went missing, Papp had told another man that he would like the 4-foot-tall, 50-pound Roxie to perform a sex act on him when they saw her playing in the parking lot.

He was repeatedly questioned as the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office searched the area for Roxie without success. In his third interview with police, Papp gave information on a “missing” blue footlocker. Roxie was found March 24, 1973, naked, buried in fallen leaves less than a mile from her parents’ home. When Papp was questioned again two days later, he drew a map showing the location of the footlocker and told police, “Man, I am sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt the little girl.” The footlocker was found less than 1,000 feet from Roxie’s body. He was formally charged with murder the same day and subsequently convicted of killing the girl. Then-Lorain County Coroner Dr. William E. Kishman testified during Papp’s trial and concluded Roxie’s death was caused by strangulation. Kishman also said Roxie was raped either before her death or during the act of dying. Papp’s claims that he was denied legal representation during his interviews with police led to a retrial in 1978, but he again was convicted.

A year later he was indicted and pleaded no contest to charges that he conspired to pay a fellow inmate $100,000 to murder his ex-wife and former Lorain County Prosecutor Joseph Grunda.

Less than 40 years later in 2014, Papp wrote letter to the editor of the Lima News extolling the need for the department of rehabilitation and correction to release aged inmates.

“The problem with this guy is he wants out bad,” Vinocur said.

A petition will be available for signing to keep Papp in jail at blockparole. com, and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website said written statements concerning the hearing can be sent to Ohio Parole Board, Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 770 W. Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43222.

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