The Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office announced on Friday that a 1998 cold case involving body parts found in a suitcase had been resolved.
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY, Ohio - The Tuscarawas County Sheriff ’s Office announced on Friday that a 1998 cold case involving body parts found in a suitcase had been resolved.
On Feb. 1, 1998, the sheriff’s office received a complaint about a suitcase found by a group of kids along Winkler Hill Road in Dover Township. According to the release, that suitcase contained a male pelvis and a part of a leg, which were taken for processing. On Feb. 6, 1998, a second suitcase with a torso inside was found along Blotz Orchard Road in Jefferson Township.
Investigators determined that DNA would be the most effective, so using the money seized from an older drug case, the sheriff said he authorized DNA work through a private company.
“It should be noted during this time the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office was working closely with Ohio BCI and I Criminal Intel Analysts Lisa Savage and Jen Dillion. The expertise held by Savage and Dillion were critical to evaluating the DNA technology then led us to a family member of the deceased,” Sheriff Orvis Campbell said in a release.
Additional DNA collected in October 2023 confirmed that a man named Larry J. Drotleff of Euclid was a living family member of the unidentified body parts. In the release, the sheriff’s office shared that investigators learned Larry Drotleff had previously been caught collecting retirement and social security funds from his deceased father, Lawrence A. Drotleff. Larry Drotleff told social security investigators that his father had moved away, according to the release.
DNA testing confirmed that the unidentified victim was Lawrence A. Drotleff, who would have been approximately 93 years old at the time the suitcases were discovered. In January 2024, investigators interviewed Larry J. Drotleff in Euclid, where he stated that he was residing with his father and had left for work one day, and when he came home, he found his father dead.
Larry Drotleff indicated that he then cut up his father’s body with a manual hand saw and disposed of some body parts in the suitcases and others by just putting them in bags in a dumpster near his workplace, according to the release. The sheriff’s office said that Larry Drotleff cooperated in providing his own DNA, which confirmed he was the biological son of the victim.
While the statute of limitations prevents him from being charged with abuse of a corpse, detectives worked with the FBI to pursue federal charges. Larry Drotleff was charged with stealing $111,485.00 of social security benefits and stealing $135,040.36 worth of pension funds from his father’s pension from General ElectricWhile the case did not prove to be a murder, it should be noted that the inhumane treatment of the Corpse was conduct so inexcusable that this case remained a priority for the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office.
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Tuscarawas Sheriff Body Parts In Suitcases Winkler Hill Road 1998 Dover Township Jefferson Township Blotz Orchard Road Euclid Police Larry J. Drotleff Lawrence A. Drotleff
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