By Susan Vela
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The recovery of an 81-year-old murder victim's identification card led Cincinnati Police to comb the woods Saturday morning at Rapid Run Park in West Price Hill.

For four hours, police officers sifted through damp debris and hoped that their meager findings - including a broken VCR tape, Tupperware bottle and tattered pages of flowing penmanship - would hold some connection to the grisly March 19 killing of Laverne Jansen of Covedale.

"It's been so hard ... just not knowing. Hopefully, we can find something today that will put an end to this," said a 45-year-old Western Hills man, who said he was related to Jansen.

The man said it gave his family hope to see a group of 30 people join him, other relatives and investigators in Saturday's search.

Along with Jansen's identification card, a wallet was found in the park Friday and reported to police. Lt. Roger Wolf said the findings could imply that Jansen's killer traveled through the woods after leaving her apartment, about a mile away. The clues could also mean that someone discovered the items elsewhere and dumped them in the park.

Jansen was found beaten to death on March 19. A neighbor across the hall dialed 911 and reported that a thin, 6-foot-tall African-American man knocked on Jansen's door, ordered her to lie down on the floor and keep quiet and then closed the door. The neighbor dialed 911 at 2:12 p.m. but police did not arrive until 2:32 p.m.The neighbor, watching in the meantime through a peep hole, said she saw the man leaving the apartment on Clevesdale Drive at 2:26 p.m. with a white plastic bag and walking fast up the drive.

The delay in police response was blamed on a miscommunication among the call taker, dispatcher and responding officers, which incorrectly coded the call as low priority.

To leave an anonymous tip, call CrimeStoppers, (513) 352-3040.

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E-mail svela@enquirer.com