NEW LYME TOWNSHIP —
The sun hung low in the west Monday after a day of searching for a murder suspect in the fields, woods and valleys of southern Ashtabula County by a heavily armed force bent on bringing the manhunt to an end.
Authorities had been hoping for a lucky break in their effort to find the suspect, 55-year-old Thomas J. Propst, somewhere in the backwoods, said Sheriff Lt. Van Robison.
“We are checking certain areas he might be in,” Robison said Monday from temporary headquarters set up at the Ashtabula County Highway Department’s Southern Maintenance Outpost on Dodgeville Road.
About 40 deputies, U.S. marshals, Division of Wildlife and SWAT team members from Lake and Ashtabula counties came back to the site after a day of combing the woods for the man they believe shot and killed his estranged wife, Paulette Propst, at her home Aug. 30 at 1414 Dodgevillle Road.
“We didn’t locate him today,” Robison said.
Paulette Propst was 55 years old and the mother of four grown children. The youngest of the four children, an 18-year-old daughter, was home at the time of the shooting.
Sheriff William Johnson has said he believes Thomas Propst would have killed her too, if she hadn’t escaped through a bathroom window.
Propst also went to a barn and shot and killed his horse.
The shooting occurred a few hours after Propst was served with a temporary protection order, Johnson said.
When police arrived, Paulette Propst was dead, Johnson said. She had been shot multiple times in the head, neck and trunk with a .45 pistol, according to the coroner’s reports.
Since that day, the public has tried to help, calling in all sorts of possible leads, but so far, police haven’t been able to locate him, Johnson said.
“We are following up all of the sightings in every area, but nothing confirmed,” he said. “Every one has been negative, but we are working on it.”
On Monday, Robison said he “plotted off” the southern part of the county and law enforcement scoured the area on foot and with all-terrain vehicles, to no avail.
Authorities believe he may have gone there because of family ties, but they ask for the public to be vigilant and to keep an eye out for him, Johnson said.
Thomas Propst left the scene of the crime driving a white Toyota pickup truck with a black cap on the bed.
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Related Photos
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BILL WEST / Star Beacon ASHTABULA CONTY SWAT team members, U.S. Marshals, Trumbull Ashtabula Group (TAG) officers, Lake County Sheriff's Deputies reassemble after searching a grid on Fee Road for alleged killer Thomas Propst in New Lyme.
Discussion
Search for a killer
SWAT team, other officers unsuccessful in quest
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