Ohio college locked down amid case of 4 missing

[November 12, 2010]  HOWARD, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities were searching for an Ohio woman, her two children and a female friend in an investigation that prompted an overnight lockdown on the campus of a college where the woman's pickup truck was found nearby, a sheriff said Friday.

The 32-year-old mother, Tina Herrmann, was reported missing by her boyfriend on Wednesday, and her co-worker at a Dairy Queen went to her home in Howard to check on her when she didn't show up for work on Thursday, Knox County Sheriff David Barber said told WBNS-TV. Also missing are the woman's 13-year-old daughter, Sarah Maynard, her 10-year-old son, Kody Maynard, and a 41-year-old woman who is a friend, he said. The sheriff did not immediately return messages seeking to confirm the friend's name.

"When (Herrmann's co-worker) went in, she saw some things out of place," the sheriff told the television station. A subsequent police search of the house determined that it was in an "unusual condition" for a place where a woman and two children were living, Barber said.

It was unclear what led to their disappearance, and Barber did not elaborate.

The friend's vehicle was found parked at the home.

Herrmann's pickup truck was at the home Wednesday when the boyfriend reported her missing, the sheriff said, but it was found abandoned Thursday night on property owned by nearby Kenyon College, about 50 miles northeast of Columbus. The college ordered a lockdown of all students until 7 a.m. Friday.

The truck was discovered at the Brown Family Environmental Center, across the road from campus, but was later removed. The sheriff's office told the school that the vehicle was believed to be connected to a crime scene.

An e-mail sent to Kenyon students, provided to The Associated Press, says "local law enforcement advised of a potentially dangerous person in the vicinity."

Shawn Presley, a Kenyon College spokesman, said authorities were referring to a suspect linked to the missing women and children.

He said the college did not believe there was any threat to students and that the lockdown was done strictly as a precaution. Authorities did not say whether they found anyone, Presley said.

David McCabe, 18, a Kenyon freshman from New York, said the college sent vans to take students to their dorms from the campus library and student center.

"At first people were a little nervous, but I think in general most people felt pretty safe," McCabe said, speaking of the students in his dorm. The college radio station kept students updated on the situation, McCabe said.

"As it became clear that the lockdown was more a precaution than a threat, people became a little calmer," he said.

The sheriff's office declined to comment on the situation. The state's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation was providing crime scene assistance, said spokesman Ted Hart, who deferred other questions to the sheriff.

Sarah Maynard is a seventh-grader at East Knox Middle School, where her brother is in the 5th grade, school officials said. The district had staff available if any students were upset about their missing classmates and wanted to talk, Superintendent Matt Caputo said Friday.

Bill Miller, a bus driver for the East Knox local schools, said he was very familiar with the two children and said he picked them up every day as part of his route.

"(They are) perfect kids, never had any trouble with the kids. They were great," Miller said, stopping to talk in his car Friday morning while driving to his bus. "They're always out in the yard, playing ball back and forth, kicking stuff around. No problems I ever saw."

Kenyon College is a private liberal arts school in central Ohio with an enrollment of about 1,600.

[Associated Press; By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS]

Associated Press writer Doug Whiteman in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

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