A renewed review in 2023 turned old DNA evidence into a family lead.
TUSCARAWAS COUNTY, Ohio — A cold case review ordered in 2023 has identified a 93-year-old man whose dismembered remains were found in two suitcases along rural roads in 1998, authorities said.
The announcement closes one of the central questions in a case that had long troubled the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office: who was the man found by children and later by investigators in separate townships. Authorities now say he was Lawrence A. Drotleff, born in 1904. His son, Larry J. Drotleff of Euclid, has been charged federally with stealing his father’s Social Security and pension funds after investigators say DNA testing connected him to the victim.
Sheriff Orvis L. Campbell’s decision to reopen the file set the latest phase in motion. He assigned Detective Sgt. Ryan Hamilton and the detective bureau to determine whether science that did not exist in 1998 could move the case forward. The question was practical and narrow. Investigators already had DNA from remains found in two suitcases, and they had fingerprints and other evidence from the luggage. What they lacked was an identity. After years of dead-end leads, the department authorized advanced DNA testing, using seized drug money from an older case to cover the cost.
The testing produced a possible family lead in the Euclid area, north of Cleveland. The sheriff’s office worked with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and criminal intelligence analysts Lisa Savage and Jenn Dillion to build out the connection. From there, detectives identified Larry Drotleff as a living relative. Additional testing confirmed that the remains belonged to his father, Lawrence Drotleff, and that Larry Drotleff was the victim’s biological son, authorities said. The finding did what earlier evidence could not: it gave the man in the suitcases a name and gave detectives a person to interview.
The interview came in January 2024. According to the sheriff’s office, Larry Drotleff said he had been living with his father when he left for work one day and returned to find him dead. He denied killing him, authorities said. He told investigators he cut up his father’s body with a manual hand saw and placed some remains into suitcases. Other remains, he said, were put into bags and thrown in a dumpster near his workplace. Investigators have not said they proved a homicide. Campbell said the case did not prove to be a murder, though he condemned the treatment of the body.
The original case file began with a call on Feb. 1, 1998. A group of children had found a suitcase along Winkler Hill Road in Dover Township. The suitcase contained several unidentified male body parts. Days later, a second suitcase with more remains was found along Boltz Orchard Road in Jefferson Township, roughly 15 miles away. DNA showed the remains came from the same person. But the victim’s age, name and final days stayed unknown. Without a match to a missing person, detectives had few ways to narrow the case. The suitcase locations suggested disposal, but they did not reveal the home where the death happened.
The renewed review also uncovered a financial trail. Authorities said Larry Drotleff had previously been caught collecting retirement and Social Security funds connected to his father. When questioned years earlier, he allegedly said Lawrence Drotleff had moved away. After the DNA identification, investigators worked with federal partners to pursue charges tied to those payments. Prosecutors allege Larry Drotleff stole $111,485 in Social Security benefits and $135,040.36 from his father’s General Electric pension. Those figures form the basis of the federal case now pending in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
The case left investigators with a sharp limit. The conduct Larry Drotleff allegedly admitted involving the body could not be charged as abuse of a corpse under Ohio law because the time limit had passed, authorities said. That meant the local case could be solved as an identification and disposal mystery without producing a state corpse-abuse prosecution. The federal route offered a remaining path because the benefit payments created a separate legal theory. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland joined the effort after the sheriff’s office connected the remains to Lawrence Drotleff and the payments to his accounts.
Campbell said the case stayed important because of the nature of the discovery. “While the case did not prove to be a murder, it should be noted that the inhumane treatment of the corpse was conduct so inexcusable that this case remained a priority for the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office,” he said. Capt. Adam Fisher said time can make the public believe a case has been forgotten, but that was not true here. “Justice is always one of those things that we want to see happen immediately,” Fisher said, adding that investigators continued to care even after years passed.
The work also shows how cold case reviews depend on older decisions made at the first scene. Investigators in 1998 preserved DNA even though it could not solve the case then. They kept records from both suitcase locations. They followed tips even when the tips did not produce an arrest. When new testing became available, detectives were not starting from nothing. They had evidence that could be retested and a timeline that could be compared with modern databases, benefit records and interviews. The new science did not replace the original case work. It gave old evidence a new use.
For Lawrence Drotleff, the identification changes the public record after decades in which he was known only as an unidentified man. For Larry Drotleff, the next steps are legal. The federal charges do not accuse him of murder. They accuse him of stealing government and pension funds after his father’s death. He is presumed innocent unless convicted. Prosecutors will need to prove the financial allegations through records, witness testimony or other evidence in federal court.
The sheriff’s office says the remains case has been resolved, but the federal prosecution is still open. The next updates are expected through filings and hearings in the Northern District of Ohio.
Author note: Last updated May 19, 2026.