Prosecutor ‘100% certain’ of body’s ID
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said he is “100 percent certain” the body found in a West Chester Twp. field Friday afternoon is that of 23-year-old Ellen Weik.
And the prosecutor said it was his decision to charge Michael Strouse with murder early Saturday morning after questioning by police.
“I do not want this fellow out on the street . ... I didn’t want to take any chances,” Gmoser told the Journal News on Sunday.
The prosecutor declined to say what statements Strouse made to detectives. According to West Chester police, the 29-year-old Liberty Twp. man was charged at 4 a.m. on Saturday.
Strouse lives at 6054 Bluffs Drive, not far from where the body was found Friday on Millikin Road.
West Chester police said the investigation into Weik’s disappearance led them to the body, but could not confirm last week if it is Weik.
Weik, who graduated from Lakota East High School in 2013, was reported missing by her family in July. She loved hiking, said a longtime friend and fellow Lakota East High School graduate.
Raychel Murray said she had been friends with Weik for years, including high school, but had lost contact with her in recent months.
“She was a free spirit and a beautiful soul who loved being outdoors,” Murray said. “She made you feel important and that you meant something in this world.”
While an autopsy performed by the Butler County Coroner’s Office will determine a positive identity, Gmoser said, “I am 100 percent confident that is her based on the evidence I have circumstantially.”
Gmoser also said, “I know enough of the circumstances of the case for the charge of murder.”
Strouse was convicted in 2015 for public indecency for exposing himself to a woman in the Voice of America shopping center. He was placed on a year of probation and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and follow-up treatment, according to Butler County Area Two court records.
West Chester Police Chief Joel Herzog said Friday his officers would be “following up feverishly” to search for additional evidence that connects the body to Weik or to some other crime.
The chief said tips led authorities to the Millikin Road location. Owners of the farm property near where the body was found declined to comment Saturday.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, FBI and Butler County Sheriff ’s Office assisted, Herzog said.