MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — A Middletown man has been arrested for the death of a person found in a trash can discovered by people searching for a woman missing since June, according to court records.
Perry Hart, 58, was taken into custody today on a warrant issued Tuesday for aggravated murder. He is being booked into the Middletown City Jail.
While DNA testing for identification and no cause of death has been released by the Butler County Coroner’s Office, the complaint against Hart accuses him of the death of Asiah Slone, who officials preliminarily believe is the person found dead.
Butler County prosecutor Mike Gmoser said based on what he personally reviewed of the remains, including what appears to be two bullet holes in the skull, one with a bullet in it, and other physical identification of the missing woman, he “gave the opinion to the police agency in Middletown that based upon my review of the evidence that we had despite the absence of DNA results, I had in my opinion sufficient evidence to establish and inference that he should be charged with aggravated murder.”
He said police were looking for him “green light” the investigation and he did.
The prosecutor added he did not want the suspect free on the streets and if DNA results prove to be wrong “that is on me. I was my determination. If I happen to be wrong in this it will be on me,” Gmoser said.
The decomposed remains were found July 1 in the 1000 block of Centennial Street near Yankee Road.
On July 11, Hart was walking in the same area and was arrested by Middletown police for having weapons under disability when two guns were found in his backpack, according to police and court records.
According to a police report, the women who found the remains, “stated on (July 1), while driving through the alley, they stopped to look into a large brown Rumpke trash can, where they believed they had located what appeared to be human remains,” according to the police report.
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