CLEVELAND — Samuel Legg has now been charged with a murder and a rape, and authorities say DNA evidence links Legg to at least three more murders. Cold cases across Ohio are heating up as families that have waited decades for justice wonder if they’ll finally get some closure. This is what we know so far…
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost calls Legg a serial killer
During an interview with News 5 at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab in Richfield, Yost was asked how many murders Legg could be connected to. "It's an open question at the moment. There may be more than three (in Ohio)," Yost said.
The AG said "it's fair" to call Samuel Legg a serial killer and believes more indictments are coming against the former long-distance truck driver. More.
The first charge was for a 1997 rape in Medina
Legg, 50, who had been living in Arizona, was indicted in January and extradited to Northeast Ohio to appear in Medina County Common Pleas Court for a Feb. 14 arraignment on charges linked to the rape of a 17-year-old hitchhiker from 1997. Legg lived in Northeast Ohio and was working as an independent truck driver at the time. Legg is being held in Medina on a $1 million bond. A judge has issued a competency hearing for April. More.
Records show Legg was on probation for receiving stolen goods when the 1997 assault occurred. More.
Charged with the death of Sharon Lynn Kedzierski
Hours after being arraigned in Medina, Legg was indicted in connection with the death of Sharon Lynn Kedzierski. On April 9, 1992, a woman’s body was found at a truck stop on I-80 near Route 46 in Austintown. Authorities say she died from multiple blunt force injuries to the head, face and chest. Kedzierski would be listed as a Jane Doe for more than two decades before she was identified. More.
On Tuesday, Feb. 26, Legg pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and one count of murder in connection with the Kedzierski case. Legg is currently being held in jail without bond. His jury trial is scheduled to start on April 29. More.
Legg’s step-daughter was murdered in 1992
Legg’s 14-year-old step-daughter Angela Hicks was missing for more than a month until her naked body was discovered lying in a fetal position in a wooded area in Elyria during the summer of 1990. Authorities never figured out what happened. More.
There could be more than four murders
The Ohio attorney general’s office said DNA evidence links Legg to the rape and four murders. A retired Austintown detective said the M.O. in the Kedzierski murder is similar to more than 10 other unsolved murders around that occurred around that time, and he believes authorities ought to take another look at those deaths. Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains also believes the case could expand in scope. "I'm assuming that there are other jurisdictions now actually looking to determine if he may be a suspect in any of their cases because of the fact that he was a truck driver and he was mobile," Gains said.More.
