Link reported to the Kettering Police Department on July 30, 2001, that his girlfriend, 29-year-old Shannon Noel Anderson, had not been seen since July 28, 2001, and that her 1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette also was missing from their shared home in the 4500 block of Far Hills Avenue in Kettering, just south of David Road. Anderson’s former sister-in-law also reported her missing, on Aug. 2, 2001, Kettering police said.
What started as a missing persons case evolved into a homicide investigation a little more than two weeks later. A decomposed body with “severe trauma” was discovered Aug. 16, 2001, in rural Ross County in south central Ohio, about an hour and a half from Dayton. It was later identified as Anderson through DNA testing. A few months later, on Oct. 23, 2001, Atlanta police found Anderson’s minivan abandoned in their airport parking lot, Heck said.
Anderson was the mother of two daughters, then ages 7 and 9, and she was estranged from her husband. Her cause of death was ruled multiple blunt force trauma to the head, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“Although extensive investigative efforts were made at the time of the murder, including evidence collection and witness interviews, the case went unsolved,” a release issued Tuesday from Kettering police stated.
Link was the prime suspect in Anderson’s death, detective Greg Stout of the Kettering Police Department confirmed.
In 2002, a Montgomery County grand jury found there was not sufficient evidence for an indictment.
“Homicide cases are never closed investigations,” said Lynda Dodd, deputy chief of the criminal division of the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. “They always remain open, and this case right here is an excellent example of that.”
Dayton attorney Dennis Lieberman is representing Link, who he said works for an insurance company, has been married since 2008 and is the father of a couple children.
“He has had a stable life ever since this young lady passed away,” Lieberman said. “He certainly did know her but is not involved in her death.”
Lieberman said he is not able to comment specifically about the case because he has not yet received discovery as to why authorities believe his client is responsible.
The investigation was a collaboration of the Kettering Police Department and the Tactical Crime Suppression Unit — made up of officers from Centerville, Germantown, Kettering, Miamisburg, Moraine, Oakwood, Springboro and West Carrollton — plus the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Ross County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Secret Service.
“This has been reviewed regularly by the Kettering Police Department ever since it happened,” Stout said.
Most recently, Dodd said, the TCSU and Kettering police “have done an enormous amount of follow-up work, and that follow-up work has been fruitful and has led us to the point where now the Montgomery County grand jury has said there is sufficient evidence to indict for two counts of murder.”
Investigators uncovered additional witnesses and completed further interviews. And new digital forensic evidence testing was done that was not available two decades ago.
“Justice delayed is not justice denied,” Dodd said.
Link was booked late Monday morning into the Montgomery County Jail. Heck said prosecutors will be asking for a $5 million bond when he is arraigned Thursday morning.
Lieberman said Link will be pleading not guilty.
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
Credit: Montgomery County Jail
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