Mark Mellick was a 35-year-old business owner and a devoted father to twin daughters who were nine years old at the time of his death. A White man, he owned the Lehr Awning Company in Mansfield, Ohio, where his mother, Betty, also worked as the office manager. Mark had an identical twin brother, Mike Mellick, with whom he was very close. A year before his death, Mike had moved back to the area from Georgia, and the two spent every day together for a year. Mark’s family, including his parents, Robert and Betty Mellick, longed for answers in his case for decades.
On the evening of Wednesday, March 13, 1985, Mark was at Scotty’s Tavern in Mansfield, where he ate pizza and had drinks with a female acquaintance. He was seen leaving the tavern around midnight. In the early hours of Thursday, March 14, at approximately 1:00 a.m., he was attacked at his rural home on Amoy Ganges Road. When Mark failed to show up for work that morning, an employee went to his house to check on him.
The employee made a grim discovery, finding Mark’s body in the fenced-in area of his yard.
Evidence at the scene pointed to a violent and brutal struggle. A trail of blood led from Mark’s pickup truck to his body. The Richland County Coroner’s report determined that he had been viciously beaten to death with a blunt object. The cause of death was ruled a homicide due to a subdural hematoma to the right cerebrum resulting from blunt force trauma. Investigators learned that Mark had been involved in a relationship with a married woman, which was considered a possible motive, though other factors may also have been involved.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit has been investigating the homicide since 1985. Over the years, information about possible suspects has been developed, but no arrests have ever been made and no charges have been filed. The case grew cold, leaving Mark's family in a painful state of uncertainty. For years, they offered a $10,000 reward for any information that would lead to an arrest and conviction in the hope of finding justice.
Decades after the murder, the family’s hope for closure began to fade. Mark’s father, Robert, passed away without knowing who killed his son. In 2015, thirty years after the killing, the Ohio Attorney General's office featured Mark's case on its cold case website to generate new leads. At the time, Richland County Sheriff’s Maj. Joe Masi said detectives were re-examining evidence to see if new technology could shed light on the crime. Mark's twin brother, Mike, expressed his deep frustration, saying, "It's been demoralizing." He spoke of the pain his nieces endured growing up without their father and the toll the unresolved case had taken on their elderly mother.
In May 2017, Mark’s mother, Betty Mellick, passed away at the age of 92, also without seeing justice for her son. Her death was a heavy blow to the family, who had hoped for a resolution before she died. "I wish we could have resolved it prior to her (Betty's) death," Maj. Masi stated. Following his mother's death, a disheartened Mike Mellick announced that the family had rescinded the $10,000 reward. "I'm pretty well resigned that this isn't going to be taken care of," he said in a June 2017 interview.
As of June 2017, the murder of Mark Mellick remains unsolved. Detectives with the Richland County Sheriff’s Office continue to review the case, believing that someone still holds the critical information needed to finally bring closure to his loved ones. The investigation is ongoing.
