Unless witnesses come forward with new information or Alvin Darrow’s body is found, charges are not likely to come in his 2017 disappearance and presumed homicide.
That’s apparently what Michael Bahner with the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office told Mr. Darrow’s siblings, Ron Darrow and Cheryl Bonk, during a meeting on Tuesday.
“He asked us to wait a little longer for a little bit better proof,” Mr. Darrow said after the hour-long meeting. “You only get one good chance to prosecute.”
The family has largely given up on the idea Alvin Darrow’s body will be found and properly laid to rest, or that they’ll ever know the full story about what happened to him. But they haven’t given up on the idea that they may be able to get justice against the person they believe to be responsible for his presumed death.
Alvin Darrow and his youngest son, Tim, were fighting over a stolen motorcycle just before his father disappeared.
As reported in eight episodes of The Blade’s true crime podcast, Code 18: Unsolved, Tim Darrow has given conflicting accounts of those final moments.
First, he told his brother, Jeremy Darrow, that some men who were presumably trying to retrieve the stolen motorcycle chased his father away with guns. Then, he said he left immediately after the fight, at which point nothing was amiss with his father. He later told The Blade he was pulling out of the driveway when he saw men pulling up with another stolen motorcycle for his dad.
None of those accounts have been corroborated.
One new piece of information that did surface last year is that the fight over the motorcycle turned physical, at some point.
“I punched him, he punched the bike,” Tim Darrow recalled in an interview with The Blade, part of which can be heard in episode 5. Mr. Darrow’s blood was found on the bike.
As he headed into the meeting with the prosecutor, Ron Darrow said he hoped the office would file charges. That didn’t happen. No charges have been filed in the case and no suspects have been identified.
The Toledo Police Department turned its investigation over to the prosecutor’s office for consideration of charges in July. At the time, Detective Bill Goodlet, the lead investigator on the case, told The Blade that he’d exhausted every potential source of evidence and interviewed every witness he’s aware of.
That hasn’t changed. Now, they’re left waiting for new information to surface before they can move the case forward.
“At this point, the prosecutor’s office has reviewed everything that we have and feel it’s in the best interest of the case to continue to leave it open, (and) continue to take any new information that comes in,” Detective Goodlet said. “But we’re hopeful that something else will come in to strengthen what we already have.”
Assistant prosecutor Mr. Bahner declined to comment on the case, other than to say, “It’s an ongoing investigation and we’re still following up, and I had a nice meeting with some members of the family.”
In the meantime, Mr. Darrow’s family remains hopeful that there’s a “chance that we might get the right person in” to provide the information needed to hold someone responsible for his death.
Michael Johnson may be that person, they said, but he’s stopped cooperating with police. Johnson last told authorities that he helped Tim Darrow dump a heavy barrel in a field in Michigan on the night Mr. Darrow disappeared, but he denies knowing what was in the barrel.
He later hinted in an interview with The Blade that there may be more to the story.
“I ain’t lied about nothing,” Johnson says in episode 7.5. “Now I ain't told everything and I’m not obligated to, until somebody can show me that I can trust them.”
Tim Darrow denied the trip outright. Since the release of the podcast, he has not responded to The Blade’s requests for comment, and he has not agreed to be interviewed by police.
The barrel in question has never been found.
Members of the Darrow family say they haven’t heard from Tim Darrow since the day his father disappeared, but they want to talk to him. They question whether Mr. Darrow’s presumed death could have been an accident.
“We won’t give up,” Ron Darrow said. “We’ll raise the reward if we have to. We’ll hire a private detective if we have to. We’re not going to give up.”
For more details about the case and to listen to the interviews mentioned, subscribe to Code 18: Unsolved for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever else you listen.
Anyone with information about Mr. Darrow’s case can leave an anonymous tip with Toledo Crime Stoppers at 419-255-1111.
First Published September 29, 2021, 10:37 p.m.
