ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — Mystery surrounds the 2006 killing of Gail Susan Knam.

Five years ago today, Knam, 43, was found by a passerby lying in a ditch on a desolate rural road. It was about 11:30 a.m. on a Saturday.

“They dumped her like she was nothing, like she was trash with a feeling of disgust,” said her sister, Joanne Osborne, 50, of Kingsville. “That’s how we felt when we heard (she was murdered) It haunts us every day.”

Police found few clues on LaBounty Road, where her body was discovered. She was fully clothed and it did not appear to be a traffic fatality, Sheriff’s detective Lt. Joe Bernardo said at the time.

The death was ruled a homicide.

Bernardo has since retired from the department.

When Knam’s family saw her, blood soaked her hair and she had mud on her hands and under her nails, Osborne said.

“I don’t know if she was still alive when they dumped her in that ditch or gully, and she tried to claw her way out, but she was a mess,” she said. “She had bruises all over and most of the back of her head was missing.”

The Cuyahoga County Coroner’s autopsy report showed Knam died from blunt force impact to the head and trunk because of an altercation with another person or persons, said Richard Mongell, an investigator with the Ashtabula County Coroner’s Office.

She also had cocaine in her blood, but not enough to kill her, he said.

Knam’s siblings knew she was doing drugs. In fact, Knam unwittingly attended “an intervention” at her sister’s house on July 8, 2006.

“I had her over for her birthday and we had an intervention,” said Karen Starcher, 52, of Jefferson. “I invited friends and family and we talked with her.”

Knam was mad at first, but quickly got over it, Starcher said.

“She wanted help but she was an addict,” Osborne said.

Any hope of finding help for their sister diminished throughout the next few weeks.

“She had no insurance and we couldn’t get her help,” Starcher said. “We only talked a few times after that.”

Osborne said, “It was the last time I actually saw her.”

Drugs had consumed Knam’s life. She had no known address and her siblings believe she was living with fellow addicts in an Ashtabula Township trailer park.

In an Oct. 6, 2006 Star Beacon article, both the sheriff and the coroner asked anyone with information about the crime to come forward or call.

“No one called,” Mongell said.

Sheriff William Johnson said the detectives interviewed several people, to no avail.

“It’s still an open case,” he said, urging anyone who may know something about what happened to Knam to call the sheriff’s department.

Johnson wants to solve the murder.

Her siblings haven’t given up hope.

They still talk about their sister as if she were that girl growing up on Stumpville Road in Lenox Township. She liked helping people, especially the elderly, Starcher said.

They said Gail came into their lives as a happy baby on July 8, 1963. Their parents are Howard and (now deceased) Dorothy (Mihely) Knam. There were three girls, Sandy, Karen and Joanne — born before Gail, and then later, the family was blessed with a boy, Timothy.

Gail Knam graduated from Jefferson Area High School in 1981.

After high school, she worked at local factories and a discount store. She fell in love with a longtime boyfriend and they had a baby girl, Heather.

“When (the boyfriend) relationship failed, she got more into drugs,” Starcher said. “She started avoiding us.”

Osborne believes Gail Knam was trying to protect the family from her lifestyle.

When Gail died on Sept. 30, 2006, she not only left behind her grief-stricken father, four siblings and a daughter, but also three young grandchildren.

Knam’s family buried her ashes with their deceased mother in Eagleville Cemetery, Eagleville.

Today, Timothy Knam wants to see justice done.

Gail Knam’s death was ruled a homicide and that means there is someone out there who got away with murder, he said.

“Who would do something so terrible to our sister? It’s difficult to understand,” he said.

He also believes that despite her lifestyle at the time of her death, his sister was just as important as anyone else. He would like to see the case reinvestigated.

Anyone who has information about the murder of Gail Knam, or saw something out of the ordinary on LaBounty Road Sept. 29-30, 2006, should call the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Office at 440-576-0055. You can call anonymously.