BELLEVUE, OH (Toledo News Now) -
For
25 years, a cold case in Sandusky County has gone unsolved. The murder of a
local wife and mother has puzzled investigators, but now a national television
show is shining a new light on her death.
Isabel
Cordle was found dead at her home on West Main Street in Bellevue. Her murderer
has not been found, but that could change now that the case has been reopened.
"A
husband woke up in the early hours of January and found his wife had been
murdered on the front couch in the living room," said Sandusky County Sheriff
Kyle Overmyer.
Cordle
was struck in the head with a hatchet. Pictures of the home-turned-crime scene
have been pulled out of storage at the sheriff's office.
"I
was only 14 years of age then," Overmyer said. "My father was working here as a
deputy, as well, and he was one of the first responders on scene that day."
Producers
of the TNT show "Cold Justice" reached out to the sheriff's office to help with
the investigation. The show looks at unsolved murders in small towns across the
country.
"I
think a lot of times, like any investigation, people are reluctant to want to
come forward initially and talk to the authorities, and provide them with that
information we need to make a case," said Detective Sean O'Connell, from the
Sandusky County Sheriff's Office. "Then, when time starts to lapse, people
realize, ‘You know what? Maybe I should have done something that I didn't do
back then that I need to do now.'"
The
sheriff's office says the show has helped them dig deep, narrowing down a list
of suspects from eight to one: Cordle's husband Richard, who married a coworker
eight months after his wife's death.
The
story of Isabel Cordle will air October 15 at 10 p.m. on TNT.
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Copyright 2013 Toledo News Now. All rights reserved.
Photos of Isabel Cordle and the crime scene.
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