Monday, July 17, 2000
Stabbing brings up concerns of councilman
Prostitution's a big problem in crime area, Holzberger says
By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — The neighborhood where a woman was found stabbed to death early Saturday is one of this Butler County city's biggest problem areas for prostitution, a city official said Sunday.
In the third homicide in a week, the body of Tracey Roark, 38, was found behind a trash bin near Pershing Avenue and Seventh Street. She had been stabbed more than 20 times.
The discovery came shortly after officers stopped a van driven by Martin Delores Rivera-Carrillo, 34. Mr. Rivera-Carrillo, of High Street, was covered in blood but appeared to be uninjured, police said.
He was later charged with Ms. Roark's slaying and booked into the Butler County Jail, where he remained Sunday.
“It was that very neighborhood that I was talking about,” said Hamilton Councilman Richard Holzberger, of when he advocated publishing the photos of prostitutes and their customers.
However, the plan was scrapped in April after council couldn't agree how to pay for it.
Ms. Roark had been arrested on prostitution charges at least once, in 1998, and she regularly worked the Pershing and Seventh area, said Mr. Holzberger, a former Butler County sheriff.
“I would like to see the bicycle patrols on a more frequent basis over there to break that up,” he said.
Two homicides last week — both shootings — are believed to be drug-related.
Bruce Hennig, 58, of West Chester was killed Wednesday just a couple of streets from where Ms. Roark died, at Ludlow and Ninth streets in the Fourth Ward. A 16-year-old has been charged.
The third victim, Donald Lee Downard, 34, of Ross Avenue, was killed on Beckett Street in the city's Second Ward. Lewis Ray Patterson, 25, of Butler County has been charged.
“I think it's just coincidental,” Sgt. Thomas Kilgour said Sunday of the string of slayings. “I don't think it's a trend.”
The past week accounts for three of Hamilton's five homicides so far this year, said Dr. Richard Burkhardt, the county coroner. The city averages seven slayings a year.
Police released no new information about Ms. Roark's slaying Sunday, including whether she knew Mr. Rivera-Carrillo. The Mexico native listed his employer as a drywall company in Crosby Township and his residence as an apartment in a converted Victorian house.
Ms. Roark lived on Race Street — actually, an alley — a block from Champion International's paper mill. Her husband did not wish to comment Sunday on her death, a relative said.
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