With advanced DNA testing a decades old case has been solved.
Investigators with the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office have identified the dismembered human remains found in two suitcases along Winkler Hill Road in Dover Township and Boltz Orchard Rd in Jefferson Township back in 1998.
Sgt Ryan Hamilton advanced DNA testing confirmed the remains belonged to Lawrence A. Drotleff, who would have been 93 years old at the time.
“Technology that’s out there in present day versus what was out there in 1998. Noticing a lot of old cold cases were being solved with updated technology made us start looking into our old cases again.”
In January of 2024, Hamilton and Captain Adam Fisher travelled to Euclid and interviewed his son, Larry J. Drotleff, who’s now 81, and he told detectives he did not kill his father, claiming he discovered him deceased when he came home from work. He admitted to cutting up his father’s body and disposing of the remains. Investigators say he continued collecting his father’s retirement and Social Security benefits afterward.
Hamilton notes that the statute of limitations has expired for an abuse‑of‑a‑corpse charge.
“It’s completely frustrating that we’ll not be able to get the charge on him because of the circumstances of what he had actually done after his father’s death.”
federal prosecutors have now charged him with stealing more than $246,000 in Social Security and pension funds. The case is currently pending in federal court.
Larry Drotleff (left) and Lawrence A. Drotleff (right)
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