The body of Jonathan Minard — the 14-year-old Dellroy, Ohio teenager who was first reported missing on Sunday, April 14 — has been found.
According to police, the body of 14-year-old Jonathan Minard was found in a shallow grave on a farm in Washington Township, Ohio, on Friday, April 19.
Authorities say that Minard was last seen on Friday, April 12, when he traveled to a New Harrisburg farm that he occasionally worked at with an unidentified 29-year-old person.
WKYC reports that after spending the night of Friday, April 12 with his friend, Minard called his mother on Saturday, April 13, to complain of a toothache and ask to return home.
However, Minard’s mother never received that call and Jonathan was not seen or heard from again until his body was found on Friday, April 19.
At the time of this writing, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner is performing an autopsy to determine Minard’s official cause of death. Police indicated that it could be “several weeks” until the results of the autopsy are released to the public.
Additionally, authorities in Carroll County authorities have launched a criminal investigation into his untimely death.
At this time, police have identified one person of interest, according to Fox 8 Cleveland: “a 29-year-old man with a criminal record consisting of mainly drug offenses.”
It was not immediately clear whether or not the 29-year-old person of interest is the same 29-year-old that Minard frequently worked with.
Additionally, while this person of interest was questioned twice by police and agreed to take a polygraph test, he later changed his mind, News 5 Cleveland reports.
Authorities have asked anyone who believes they have information about Minard’s death to call the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office at 330-627-2141.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Minard’s friends, family, and various loved ones during this extremely difficult time.
That is all the information that is available at this time. This article will be updated with new and relevant information should it become available at any time. If there is anything that we missed, please feel free to send an email to editor@teamcoed.com and we will respond as soon as possible.