Goodnight, Sugar Babe

Vera Jo Reigle was 24 and had the cognitive abilities of a child when she was killed in Findlay, Ohio. She had spent about five years in the crowded household of Cheri Brooks, who controlled her Social Security disability money. In 2009 Vera gave birth to a daughter fathered by Cheri’s son Zachary. Officers were called to the home at least ten times in the two years that followed and logged bruises, cuts, and a broken nose.

On March 26, 2011, Daniel Bixler, 21 and three weeks out of prison, and his 17-year-old girlfriend Nicole Peters walked Vera from the house to the CSX trestle over the Blanchard River. Before leaving she had written her daughter a goodbye note. She was beaten and stabbed and left lying between the rails. Just after two the next morning a freight conductor saw a shape on the bridge and stopped his train in time. Both suspects were arrested within a day.

Bixler pleaded guilty to aggravated murder, felonious assault, evidence tampering and two kidnapping counts, and in 2012 was sentenced to 40 years to life, with parole eligibility in 2050. Peters admitted conspiring to commit the murder, plus kidnapping and evidence tampering, and received 23 years. Zachary Brooks got four years for obstruction. Cheri Brooks and two other relatives were convicted only of obstruction and served 30 days or less.