William Bill Comeans was 14 when he was found dead along the railroad tracks at the dead end of Buena Vista Avenue in Columbus on January 7, 1980. That evening he had been helping his father with a family car, went out to get his sister from a birthday party, was reported missing, and was discovered a short distance from home. The coroner ruled the death a homicide: he had been strangled with his own scarf, tied so tightly his brother had to cut it off, and showed petechial hemorrhaging consistent with asphyxia.

In the months before his death William had survived two violent attacks by unknown males in which he was strangled, once with a plastic bag and a bicycle inner tube and once with a rope after being jumped by two men from a car. No suspect has ever been identified or arrested. Investigators found no signs of a struggle at the scene, and items recovered near his body — the scarf, a beer bottle, and a knife — were submitted for DNA testing that has not produced definitive results. The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office continues to list the case as open.

Did anyone who knew William or who lived near Buena Vista Avenue in 1980 see or hear anything that night?