The Ghost of Southern Ohio

0:00 The Ohio Road Sniper, the hunter who turned humans into prey. Southern Ohio was the kind of place where people felt safe. Rolling hills, thick forests, winding country roads, and quiet little towns made it a paradise for hunters, fishermen, and joggers. Violent crime belonged to big cities not here. Doors stayed unlocked, neighbors trusted one another. But in the spring of nineteen eighty nine, that sense of peace vanished forever. Somewhere in those woods, a man carrying a high powered rifle had begun hunting people.

0:35 On the morning of April first, nineteen eighty nine, thirty five year old Donald Welling laced up his running shoes and headed out for his usual jog along a quiet country road in Tuscarawas County. The morning was calm, Birds chirped from the trees. There was no warning. A single rifle shot echoed through the valley. The bullet tore through Donald's chest, killing him instantly. Investigators rushed to the scene, expecting a robbery or personal dispute, but they found nothing. His belongings were untouched.

1:06 There were no footprints, no shell casings, and no witnesses. The riflemen had simply vanished. Authorities couldn't explain why anyone would murder a harmless jogger. They had no idea. It was only the beginning. Nineteen months later, on November tenth, nineteen ninety, twenty one year old Jamie Paxton left home before sunrise to go bow hunting. He parked his car near State Route nine and walked through the tall grass toward his favorite hunting area. He carried no firearm. Hidden nearby, a stranger watched him.

1:39 A red pickup truck had quietly pulled over. The driver stepped out with a scoped rifle. Jamie never even knew he was being hunted. The first shot struck him in the chest. As he collapsed, the gunman fired again, then a third time. Sheriff Tom McCourt knew immediately this wasn't a hunting accident. Gun sea hadn't even started. Someone had deliberately executed a young man. The entire community was horrified. Jamie was popular, kind and had no enemies. Detectives searched for tire tracks, bullets, and shell casings, even bringing in metal detectors.

2:17 They found absolutely nothing. The killer had erased every trace Jamie's mother, Jeene Paxton, refused to let her son's death become another unsolved case. Instead of giving in to anger, she began writing emotional letters to the local newspaper. She addressed them directly to the murderer. I don't hate you. One letter read, I feel sorrow because you took my son away from me. She begged the killer to confess before facing God's judgment. Most people believed the letters would never reach him. They were wrong.

2:52 Nearly a year later, the newspaper received a typed confession. It began, I am the murderer of Jamie Packx's. The writer claimed Jamie had been a complete stranger. He admitted that he had left home that day knowing he was going to kill someone he simply didn't know who. He described carefully aiming his rifle through the scope. He described firing the first shot, then the second, then calmly drinking a beer afterward, as though nothing had happened. The letter shocked investigators. The killer called himself an ordinary family man with a job and a home, but inside his head, he said, lived something that turned him into a merciless killer.

3:34 While police analyzed the confession, the murders continued. On November twenty eighth, nineteen ninety only eighteen days after Jamie's death, hunter Kevin Luring walked into a field during a hunting trip. A hidden sniper put a bullet into his head. At first, authorities believed it was another hunting accident. No one realized the same killer had struck again. Then came another victim. On March fourteen, eighth, nineteen ninety two, factory worker Claude Hawkins finished his overnight shift and drove straight to his favorite fishing spot below Wills Creek Dam.

4:08 He never returned home. His wife and four children were left without a husband and father. Because the killing happened on federal property, the FBI joined the investigation. Soon investigators realized they weren't looking at separate crimes. They were hunting a serial killer. The victims shared eerie similarities. They were always alone, hunters, fishermen, joggers, always outdoors, always in isolated locations. Most attacks happened on weekends. The killer left behind no evidence. He picked up every shell casing, He robbed no one.

4:46 He simply hunted human beings. Then another man died. Steel worker Gary Bradley crossed into Ohio, from West Virginia for a quiet day of pond fishing. He too was shot dead from a distance. By now, five innocent people had been murdered. The FBI's behavioral Science unit at Quantico was called in. Their profile painted a disturbing picture. The killer was likely a white male, intelligent, an outdoorsman himself, someone who blended naturally into rural settings, someone who avoided confrontation and preferred attacking from far away.

5:22 The profile also suggested he committed acts of random vandalism, cruelty to animals, and perhaps arson. Alcohol likely fueled his violence, but a profile wasn't enough. They still needed a name. The break came in August nineteen ninety two. After a major press conference, the task force received a phone call from a man named Richard Frye. He believed his old high school friend was the killer. His name was Thomas Dillon. Fry described Dylan as deeply disturbed. As teenagers, they drove around, drinking beer and shooting road signs and animals.

5:58 Dylan idolized burial killers. He talked about murdering strangers and how easy it would be to avoid capture by killing people in different counties. Fry also mentioned one detail investigators couldn't ignore. Thomas Dillon drove a red pickup truck, the same kind witnesses had reported near one of the murder scenes. Detectives quickly discovered that Dylan worked as a draftsman in Canton, Ohio. They checked his work records. He happened to be off work during multiple murders. Even more suspicious, he had taken vacation days on the exact dates connected to other attacks.

6:35 The FBI began secretly following him weekend after weekend, Dylan drove hundreds of miles along lonely back roads, drinking beer and wandering through the countryside. Agents watched him shoot road signs and smash car windows. He fit the FBI profile perfectly. Then came a terrifying moment. One day, surveillance aircraft spotted Dylan driving toward a lone female job. The agents knew she matched the exact profile of his previous victims. They raced toward her. From the air, they watched Dylan slow down.

7:09 He pulled alongside her. The agents feared they were seconds away from witnessing another murder. Instead, he drove past. Relief washed over them, but only briefly. Dylan turned onto side roads, making several right turns. He was circling back. The agents panicked the jogger had disappeared from view. Then the plane radioed in. Dylan had stopped. He was holding something. Shiny shots rang out. The agents believed he had killed again. Seconds later came the update. He was only shooting at a stop sign.

7:44 The jogger had unknowingly left the road. She had survived by pure chance. Investigators finally discovered something else. On the anniversary of Jamie Paxton's death. Someone had been videotaped visiting his grave. Reviewing the footage, agents recognized the visitor immediately. It was Thomas Dillon. Still, they lacked the physical evidence needed for a conviction, so they arrested him on a weapons violation. Their plan was to overwhelm him with evidence and force a confession. Instead, Dylan demanded a lawyer.

8:19 The investigation seemed ready to collapse. Then luck finally changed everything. A wildlife officer followed up on an old tip about Dylan shooting a deer years earlier. He searched a grassy field inch by inch with a metal detector. Against impossible odds, he found two rifle shell casings. Laboratory testing connected them to the murders of Gary Bradley and Claude Hawkins. Almost simultaneously, another witness came forward he had purchased a rifle from Thomas Dillon shortly after one of the murders.

8:52 The FBI test fired the weapon. Microscopic markings on the bullets matched fragments recovered from the victims. Finally, after three years of terror, investigators had their killer. Faced with overwhelming evidence and the possibility of the electric chair, Thomas Dillon agreed to confess on July ninth, nineteen ninety three. He admitted to murdering Donald Welling, Jamie Paxton, Kevin Luring, Claude Hawkins, Gary Bradley. He showed almost no emotion. Witnesses said he actually smirked as he entered the court room.

9:27 The only victim he claimed to regret killing was Jamie Paxton, not because of guilt, but because he later discovered the young man was only twenty one years old. Jamie's mother finally spoke directly with the man who murdered her son. Instead of screaming or cursing him, she spoke calmly as a mother. Dylan later admitted her words affected him more than anything else. Gene Paxton didn't stop there. She successfully fought to have Dylan sent to Ohio's toughest prison and helped create legislation preventing murderers or their fe families from profiting from their crimes.

10:02 Today, Thomas Dillon remains behind bars. The quiet roads of southern Ohio are peaceful once again, But for three long years, an invisible hunter stalked the countryside, turning ordinary mournings into scenes of unimaginable horror, and for the families of his five victims, the echo of a single rifle shot never truly faded.