Pieces of charred bone may be linked to murder

Star Beacon

By MARK TODD and Stacy Millberg July 24, 2008 10:06 pm

— DENMARK TOWNSHIP — The Cuyahoga County coroner’s office will spend the next several months trying to determine if pieces of charred bone and clothing found in trash bags along a lonely gravel road belong to a Cleveland man reported missing last week, officials said.
Eight large garbage bags containing the items were found by a farmer early Wednesday evening along Stollaker Road in Denmark Township, Sheriff William Johnson said. The bags contain bone fragments and pieces of clothing that may be connected to the disappearance of 25-year-old John Maruschak, he said.
The bags and their contents have been sent to the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office for DNA analysis, Johnson said.
“The (Cuyahoga County coroner’s office) Trace Evidence Team will sift through that debris,” said Rich Mongell, Ashtabula County Coroner’s office chief investigator.
Paul Ceasar of the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office said the office received three specimen bags, but it is unknown what those specimens are at this time.
“I don’t know if there are (human) remains in there or not,” he said. “We are in possession of specimens.”
Ceasar said the coroner’s office will not know what the specimens are until testing is completed, which could take anywhere from two to three months. Officials have not begun testing yet, he said.
The bags were found a short distance from property on Route 167 searched by Cleveland police detectives and divers earlier this week. The bags were found at the edge of the road east of Route 193, Johnson said. A farmer who went to check his property after reading accounts of the search made the discovery, he said.
“(The farmer) saw debris off the side of the road,” Johnson said.
Deputies were summoned to the scene at 8:37 a.m., he said.
An affidavit filed in Eastern County Court this week by detectives seeking a search warrant indicates police believe Maruschak was beaten to death with a baseball bat at a Cleveland home on July 16. The affidavit states Alex Wulff, 25, admitted striking Maruschak with a bat after he broke into his home.
Wulff eventually took the body to land owned by his father on Route 167, according to the affidavit. After spending six hours burning the body, Wulff indicated he disposed of the ashes at a spot “around the corner” of the fire site, according to the affidavit.
Wulff and his brother, Aaron Wulff, 19, pleaded not guilty in a Cleveland court this week to charges of felonious assault and kidnapping. Bond was set at $750,000 for each defendant.

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