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MARIETTA – Exactly 34 years ago, on a cold February night, Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. Ray “Joe” Clark was killed by a shotgun blast through the kitchen window of his Dodd’s Run Road home.
Today marks the first anniversary of the death since an arrest has been made in the case.
Three decades of investigations into the murder finally culminated in the arrest of the alleged shooter, 64-year-old Mitchell Ruble, also a former sheriff’s deputy, in September 2014.
The arrest has brought some measure of comfort to Clark’s family.
“A lot of what happened back in 1981 is kind of a blur for me. I had moved away from home by then,” said Clark’s stepdaughter, Cathy Rees of Marietta. “But after so many years we never gave up hope, and it was a great relief when they announced the suspect had been arrested.”
When Feb. 7 rolls around each year there are no candlelight vigils to mark the day, but the events of that night are never forgotten.
“We don’t really get together on that date, but everybody’s always well aware of it,” said Dave Huffer, Ray Clark’s nephew, who was serving in the U.S. Air Force at the time of his uncle’s death.
After his discharge from the military in 1983, Huffer also became a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
“But I was never allowed to take part in the investigation because I was part of the family,” Huffer said. “And I was kind of upset that the individual who reportedly did this was allowed to freely live his life for all of these years.”
He said Ray Clark was his mentor, someone he often went to for advice in his younger years.
“He touched a lot of people and never had a hard time dealing with anyone,” Huffer said. “He also liked working with young people and even started a youth program through the sheriff’s office at one time.”
Although there was no chief deputy position in the sheriff’s office at the time, Lt. Clark had that responsibility, Huffer added.
“He was directly below the sheriff and often served as acting sheriff, which would have included a lot of extra duties,” he said.
Huffer said Ruble’s arrest and upcoming trial, slated for May 11, has provided some solace for the family.
“We have that, although it won’t bring my uncle back, but we’ll be following the case,” he said. “And we have to give kudos to the investigators with the sheriff’s department who went above and beyond their call of duty to help bring this to light.”
Huffer noted a monument, memorializing local law officers who died in the line of duty, stands on the corner of Third and Putnam streets near Marietta’s City Hall. And Lt. Clark’s name is among those engraved on the stone.
“It’s kind of ironic that Ohio’s current Attorney General, Mike Dewine, was a speaker during the monument dedication ceremony in the 1990s,” Huffer said. “And now the Ohio Attorney General’s Office has assisted in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
Ray Clark’s brother, Robert “Butch” Clark, said he’s glad the years-long investigation may be coming to an end.
“When the trial occurs, if (Ruble) is found guilty I’ll be satisfied, although it won’t bring Ray back,” he said. “They’ll have to go on the evidence, and I don’t think he’ll ever admit he did it. But I really hope to learn why it was done.”
Butch recalled the night his brother died.
“It was around 10 p.m. when mom called,” he said. “We rushed to the hospital, but when we got there they told us he didn’t make it. It was a shock. We were born 12 years apart, but we were close; he was my big brother.”
Butch said one of the saddest things that resulted from his brother’s untimely death was that Ray Clark did not get to see his grandchildren.
“But we do go out to the gravesite and visit, just to spend some time remembering him,” he said. “And we know he’s in a good place now.”
Washington County Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Seevers, deputy Bruce Schuck and detective Jon Jenkins with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation made up some of the cold case team that followed up on the murder, resulting in Ruble’s arrest in September.
The officers are assisting prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office who are handling the case at the request of Washington County Prosecutor Jim Schneider.
“We’re all part of a team that will continue to work with this case, even after the trial is completed,” Seevers said. “We meet with the prosecutors about every two weeks, continuing the investigation and interviewing witnesses. There’s a lot of trial prep that goes on beforehand.”
Ruble was arrested by sheriff’s deputies on Sept. 16 and charged with Lt. Clark’s murder.
Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said investigators believed the murder was a revenge killing and Ruble was a prime suspect because he had been dismissed from the sheriff’s department in 1979 after a report issued by Clark cited Ruble for “inappropriate conduct while on duty.”
That conduct was allegedly using excessive force on a suspect he’d had in custody.
After leaving the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Ruble served 25 years as a correctional officer at the Noble County Correctional Institute near Caldwell.