Family offers $2,500 in death of OSU senior
Takar Underiner was months away from graduating from Ohio State University with degrees in Spanish and marketing when he was shot and killed in January 2017.
More than two years later, his homicide remains unsolved. And Central Ohio Crime Stoppers and Underiner’s family are hoping to change that.
A $2,500 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case is being offered.
Police said Underiner, 20, was shot multiple times and died just before 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2017, at the East Northwood Avenue home Underiner shared with several housemates.
Todd Underiner, Tarak’s father, said there were no indications that Tarak, an Eagle Scout and honors student at Colerain High School near Cincinnati, had ever been involved in illegal activity. Police collected narcotics, firearms and cash from the home.
Todd Underiner said his son had sought to have concealed carry of firearms permitted on college campuses, even speaking at the Ohio Statehouse a few months before his death.
“We were starting to see him get a little more civically minded and active,” Todd Underiner said. “He was doing things bigger and broader than school.”
Tarak Underiner had followed his two older sisters to Ohio State, which awarded him a posthumous degree. He had planned to go on to law school before deciding on a particular career path.
Deciding to offer a reward for information and the possibility of getting justice will be reopening “wounds that have been scabbed over,” Todd Underiner said.
“There was a lot of evidence collected, so in the first year there was some hope,” he said. “As time goes by and one year stretches to two, it’s harder to maintain that hope.”
He said someone knows something about the shooting, and the perpetrator likely spoke about it within the last two years.
“Whoever did this is going to have to face a higher power, but at the same time, he might be putting other people’s lives at risk and should not be out living his life while the rest of us have had our lives thrown into chaos,” Todd Underiner said. “We just want some justice.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 614-461TIPS, email a tip on Crime Stopper’s website at www. stopcrime.org or submit a tip through the free P3 tips mobile application.
Calls to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.