William Vernon Bates, a 32-year-old accountant from Lima, Ohio, was reported missing on September 3, 1974, after leaving home to go to the Ohio Power Company office. His body was found on November 28, 1974, in a wooded area east of Lima; the Allen County coroner, Dr. William Noble, determined Bates had been strangled.

Witnesses placed Bates the evening he vanished with a red-haired man at Scott’s Inn, a roadside pub near Lima. Investigators later linked the killing to Paul John Knowles of Georgia, a 28-year-old who was on a multi-state killing spree that summer and fall of 1974. Bates’ car, money, and credit cards were taken after his murder and were used by Knowles during subsequent crimes.

Knowles confessed to multiple murders, including Bates, and forensic evidence and witness accounts tied him to this case.