“We are confident about who did it, it is just a question of getting enough evidence to prove it,” said Major Scott Reeve.
He likened the case to another of the city’s unsolved homicides - the shooting death of Benny Barefield in December 2018. Barefield, 48, was shot and killed in his red Buick Lucerne on Dec. 14, 2018 near the corner of Ninth Avenue and Yankee Road.
Suspects were charged for Barefield’s slaying, but a Butler County grand jury declined to indict the men on murder charges, and they were released.
“We are kind of looking at this one the same way as the Benny Barefield homicide, we know who did it it’s just a question of proving it,” Reeve said.
In the deaths of Brown and Paige, a man called 911 about 6:20 a.m on April 2 reporting a four-door sedan was wedged between two parked cars in the 100 block of Euclid Street.
“We woke up this morning and there is another car facing the opposite direction on the wrong side of the road between (a neighbor’s) two cars with the headlights on. It has been there for about an hour and I am not sure if they hit a car or not … but it is really bizarre,” the caller told dispatchers.
Police arrived at the scene about 7:15 a.m. That’s when they found the two victims, who had suffered gunshot wounds. The car rolled forward and hit at least one vehicle parked on the street, causing minor damage, according to witnesses.
The Butler County Coroner’s Office ruled Brown and Paige died of gunshot wounds.
The white 2016 Hyundai in which Paige and Brown were found was stopped about 12:48 a.m. by Middletown police at the intersection of Grand and Marshall, and Brown, the driver, was issued a warning for lack of headlights.
The caller, whom the Journal-News is not identifying for his safety because an arrest has not yet been made, said in an interview that the car had tinted windows that were rolled up, and the front doors were locked.
Reeve said last week that detectives have been to Cleveland during the ongoing in investigation and are working with other agencies.
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