Published in The Toledo Blade on February 5, 1992.
By Michael D. Sallah and Jennifer Feehan, Blade Staff Writers.


Melissa Anne Herstrum had been nearly stripped of her clothes before her body was found face down in the snow in a remote corner of the University of Toledo Scott Park Campus.

The student's jeans and panties were pulled down to her knees and her sweater was hugging her neck when her bullet-ridden body was discovered Jan. 27, said Dr. James Patrick, county coroner.

There were no obvious signs she had been sexually assaulted by her killer, the coroner said.

So far, investigators do not know why Miss Herstrum was nearly stripped but apparantly not raped

"Whoever did it could have done it to make people think she was raped." said a police detective.

Details of the murder have surfaced from police sources three days after police charged UT Police Officer Jeffery Hodge with last week's shooting death.

Officer Hodge, 22, arrested Saturday and in jail on a $1 million bond, is accused of stopping Miss Herstrum in his patrol car as she drove her 1989 Ford Taurus about 4 a.m. on Jan. 26.

He allegedly drove her in the patrol car to the rear of the satellite campus a mile away.

There she was handcuffed on the ground, where he allegedly shot her 14 times in the legs, head, and trunk with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

Four of the bullets penetrated her head, with at least one shot fired from only a few inches away.

Though investigators have yet to find a weapon, sources say the grandparents of Mr. Hodge bought a 9mm handgun for the officer when he graduated from the police academy last spring.

Officer Hodge had told detectives who questioned him that he owned such a gun, but they could not find the weapon when they searched his police locker last Saturday, according to sources.

In his home, they found an empty Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun box.

New of the murder and arrest of a University of Toledo police officer had been reported across the country and yesterday a crew from the television show A Current Affair was in Toledo interviewing police officers and University of Toledo officials.

Police Captain Thomas Gulch refused to talk about details of the murder, saying only that detectives were “actively pursing the weapon used in the offense.”

Crime technicians say the found particles of lead and copper on the officer’s handcuffs that appear to be from a bullet.

In addition, Officer Hodge’s police jacket was found with traces of what appears to be blood and body tissue.

Experts at the Medical College of Ohio are attempting to see if there are enough particles to allow for DNA testing to see if the tissue and blood were from the victim.

Toledo police say they still do not know the motive for the killing of Miss Herstrum who was buried last week near her hometown of Rocky River, Ohio.

The search for Miss Herstrum’s killer turned to the campus police after Toledo police detectives found her wallet still in her car, but missing her driver’s license and student identification, which she likely would have shown an officer after being pulled over. Abrasions found around the victim’s wrists suggested that she was handcuffed.

Detectives also learned that a tip phoned into a local cab company the morning after the murder came from a room in University of Toledo main campus that only a police officer or janitor could have entered.

The tipster, who is believed to be Officer Hodge, warned the cab company to call University of Toledo police and gave the campus police number because a cab was being robbed at Scott Park in lot 23.

Officer Hodge also is expected to be charged in the shooting attack on a woman’s dormitory a week before the murder, say police sources close to the investigation.

Ballistics tests show that the same 9mm gun used in the murder also was used to fire six bullets at a first floor room at MacKinnon Hall on January 20.

Officials also are trying to find out if Officer Hodge is connected to nine arson fires on campus last Labor Day weekend.

The fires were set in at least two buildings in which the perpetrator would have needed keys to get in.

“We’re looking at a lot of past occurrences on campus to see if there are connections to the suspect, said Frank Pizzulo, University of Toledo director of public safety.

Alan Konop, the attorney representing Officer Hodge, said he did not want to comment on any evidence gathered by detectives.

He said because of extensive pre-trial publicity, including an editorial and cartoon that ran in The Blade last Thursday, he may ask for a change of venue.

The cartoon of an electric chair with the words, “This seat reserved for Melissa Anne Herstrum’s killer,” was “one of the most irresponsible acts of journalism I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Konop said. “I have no problem with reporting the facts, but those comments were inflammatory,” he said.

Return to University of Toledo police corruption.