Home invasion investigation continues

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

MIDDLE POINT — Although preliminary reports painted a home invasion burglary as a minor stabbing incident, only the miraculous escape of the victim in the case kept the incident from becoming murder.

Van Wert County Sheriff Stan D. Owens has confirmed that Middle Point area resident Daniel Hemker, who was secured in an unidentified manner, was placed in the back of his Honda Accord and the car then driven into Middle Point Quarry.

Sheriff Owens said Hemker’s initial report was so fantastic that he felt his department needed to check some elements of the story before releasing it to the media. “I don’t like to release anything I don’t know to be factual,” he noted.

Part of Hemker’s story was corroborated on Tuesday when divers from the Putnam and Allen County sheriff’s departments located Hemker’s car in the quarry and a backhoe from the Van Wert County Engineer’s Office hauled the vehicle out so a crime scene investigator from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation could process it.

“I can’t say enough for all the help we had,” Sheriff Owens, noting the divers and Wendel’s department deserved lots of credit for getting the vehicle out. “I don’t know how we could have gotten it up (without the backhoe).”

“It’s kind of a complicated process when you lift cars out of quarries,” said Putnam County Sheriff James Beutler, who coordinated the process of getting the Honda out of the quarry. “We have to go down, evaluate where the car is, how it is positioned and stuff like that, then we come up with a plan as to how we’re actually going to get it out of there.”

Sheriff Beutler said rock quarries also pose unique problems, including sharp ledges and edges, and noted that Middle Point Quarry was known for years as a dumping ground for cars and other unwanted items, although not recently.

Several things did help Tuesday’s operation, Sheriff Beutler added, including the fact that water in the quarry is clear at this time of the year, and that the car landed on its top, allowing divers to more easily hook straps to the underside of the vehicle.

“We wanted to bring it out face up, and we wanted to bring it out from the back end, simply because we knew the back windshield was broken,” Sheriff Beutler explained. “We didn’t want to lose anything that could be evidence.”

It also was a positive for Hemker that the back windshield broke when the car turned over in the water, he noted.

According to Sheriff Owens, Hemker reportedly surprised two men who were burglarizing his residence at 12734 Dog Creek Road early Sunday morning. The two men were able to secure Hemker, although the sheriff said he wouldn’t provide details on how that was done, and then placed him in his car, drove to the quarry and used something to press down on the Honda’s accelerator as the car was driven into the quarry.

The fact that the back windshield broke when the car overturned in the quarry allowed Hemker to escape and swim to shore. Sheriff Owens said Hemker then walked the 2½ miles back to his residence and called 9-1-1. He was taken to Van Wert County Hospital by the Middle Point EMS squad, and later life-flighted to Lutheran Hospital of Indiana in Fort Wayne for further treatment. He was then released.

Meanwhile, similarities between this burglary and two burglaries in Mercer County — including one near Fort Recovery in which Robert Grube and his daughter, Colleen, were killed — has Sheriff Owens coordinating with Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey on the case.

A similar case in the Mendon area involving William Fair and his daughter, Kathy, is also under investigation.

The burglaries and murders also have residents of rural areas locking their doors and taking other precautions for safety.

Hemker described the two men as being white, with one 6-1 and weighing 180-190 pounds, and the other 5-7 to 5-8 and weighing 240-250 pounds. He also described the vehicle the men were driving as a dark-colored mid- to late 1990s Ford Ranger pickup truck with an extended cab and short bed.