MARIETTA — The person responsible for the 1992 murder of 18-year-old Ronda Manley began serving his time in Ohio this week for that crime. His 2002 conviction resulted from the work of cold case detectives with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office along with the Marietta Police Department.

But the Manley murder is just one of the cases which the cold case squad continues to investigate, including the 25-year old homicide of Patsy Sparks, which is the current focus.

The Cold Case Unit formally became a part of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in January 2011.

“It’s a policy that we only concentrate on one cold case at a time,” said Det. Jeff Seevers with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. “With the Patsy Sparks case right now, we are still conducting interviews and trying to put things together.”

On April 22, 1992, 18-year-old Patsy Sparks of Marietta was last seen at the Wheel Club in Parkersburg and was accompanied by Randy Joe Slider of Marietta. She was reported missing on April 26, 1992, and the case went cold until two years later when hunters stumbled onto her skeletal remains in a remote wooded area near Ohio 564 in Noble County.

“We’ve been working with the Attorney General’s Office among others,” said Seevers. “And we will continue to concentrate on this case for now.”

Meanwhile, Manley’s murderer, Aubrey Davis Sr., now 48, pleaded guilty to the murder in Washington County 15 years ago and was transferred to the Orient Correctional Reception Center on Monday following completion of a prison sentence in Tennessee. His sentence in Ohio is life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

“I’m glad to know that her killer is serving time for this regardless of how many years later it is,” said Toni Brown-Crump, 43, of Watertown, who had been a friend and classmate of Manley’s. “He needs to be held responsible for the heartbreak he’s caused so many people.”

Davis was charged with aggravated murder after raping and stabbing Manley on that August morning in 1992. Manley was found dead in Oak Grove Cemetery. Ten years after the Marietta Police Department investigated the murder, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office received a tip stating an inmate in jail with Davis in Tennessee insisted Davis killed Manley.

Davis was already serving a 20-year sentence in Northwest Correctional Complex located in Tiptonville, Tenn. for aggravated kidnapping and attempted aggravated sexual battery stemming from a 1998 incident in Chattanooga, Tenn.

After that conviction in 2000, his DNA was was entered into a national database and a match was made in May 2002 with DNA evidence from the murder of Manley.

“We got a tip at our office that Davis was linked to the murder of Ronda Manley,” said Seevers. “I took many trips to and from Cleveland and even went down to Tennessee only to really tie Davis to the murder. With the DNA match, everything just fell into place after that.”

Former Marietta Police Department Chief Brett McKitrick said use of DNA wasn’t very common at the time of Manley’s murder. McKitrick was one of the first law enforcement officers on scene on that August morning in 1992.

“Oak Grove Cemetery is a big cemetery and I remember we started by walking from the street,” said McKitrick about the day Manley was found. “I remember seeing something laying on the path close to the top of the hill and honestly had no idea what it was. This is Marietta so I really didn’t expect to find what I did.”

Davis was 23-years-old and living in Washington County at the time of Manley’s death.

“It was 20 minutes to quitting time for me that morning and I had worked all night but said I’d go check it out when a couple of guys came in and said they saw a body in Oak Grove Cemetery,” said McKitrick. “She was definitely deceased at the time we got there.”

According to a confession Davis later made at the time of his guilty plea, he and Manley had consensual sex and then he killed her because he was worried she would turn him in to authorities.

McKitrick said Marietta was certainly rattled by the tragedy.

“It was a scary thing at the time. People didn’t feel as safe as they once did,” he said. “The thing that was strange about this case was that usually murders instantly have a suspect in mind and we had no idea.”

Patrolling the cemetery at night didn’t seem just routine anymore.

“There was a lot of weird talk going around the town because she was found in a grave yard,” he said. “There were so many ideas going through people’s heads at the time but we continued to do a lot of heavy patrolling through there.”

Manley attended Amesville Elementary School, but most of her schooling had been in the Warren Local school district. She was a 1992 graduate of the Washington County Career Center.

“Ronda had such a great sense of humor but was shy so I don’t know how many people really got to see that side of her,” said Brown-Crump. “She was also very sweet and had the ability to make people laugh without it being at the expense of anyone else. I always thought that was a really great quality about her.”

Brown-Crump said she used to walk home with Manley before she became home-schooled.

“Even after I left public school, Ronda would still stop by and was really one of the few people I kept in touch with from public school,” said Brown-Crump. “I remember the whole town being in disbelief that this happened and once it was confirmed, it really put the scare in everyone.”

According to Brown-Crump, after Manley’s death was a confirmed homicide, everyone couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

“It was kind of shocking and everyone was very skeptical of what happened. Was Ronda targeted? How could this happen to someone who kept to herself and was so friendly? I really hope the family found peace after learning the truth.”

In addition to the Sparks case, there are two more unsolved cases in Washington County, including that of Terri Roach, found bludgeoned to death July 11, 1990, near Cole Coffman Road. The same person suspected in the Roach death is suspected in the Sparks case, police said. Even though police suspect the individual, they say more evidence is still needed to convict.

The other case involved 28-year-old Kimberly Fulton and her 17-month-old son, Daniel, who were discovered in the charred remains of their Palmer Township mobile home that caught fire around 4:50 a.m. in 1995. They were buried in Gravel Bank Cemetery, but the bodies were exhumed later for a secondary autopsy which indicated that both mother and son had been killed before the fire. That led investigators to believe their home was set on fire to cover up a homicide.

Anyone that has information regarding any of these cases is encouraged to contact the Washington County Sheriff’s Office at 740-376-7070 or The Ohio Attorney General’s Office at 855-BCI-OHIO.