Man convicted of 1974 murder of Huron teen up for parole

HURON – The man who was convicted of murdering a 17-year-old Huron girl in 1974 and assaulting other women in later years may soon be paroled.

Dennis Dussell will be up for parole in April. He has been convicted of the 1974 murder of Jodi Auble and the assaults of multIple other women.

In 1974, Auble was a 17-year-old high school senior, an active member of her church, a cheerleader, the president of the concert band, and was a member of both the Girls’ Athletic Association and the girls’ track team.

Auble and several of her friends spent the night of Friday, October 4, 1974 hanging posters and signs around the community in anticipation of a high school football game on Saturday. After hanging up the posters, Auble dropped off several of her friends at their homes, with the last one being dropped off at approximately 12:30AM. However, by the morning of the following day, Auble hadn’t returned home yet. Her father reported her missing to police that morning.

Shortly after Auble was reported missing, a group of hunters called police and reported that they had found a body in a heavily wooded area with high weeds. Police identified the body as Jodi Auble.

Auble had been beaten with a large, heavy tree branch found near her body, and she had been run over multiple times by a car. There was large gaping hole in her right check and tire marks across her chest. Her hands were clenched, as it appeared that she fought her attacker. Her blouse was opened and twisted around in back.

Erie County Coroner Joseph Bruder stated that it appeared Jodi was held from behind as she struck with the branch. Bruder also stated Jodi was hit at least 10 times on the head and was either dead or unconscious when she was run over with the car.

Auble’s car was found a mile away from her body. Her purse with money in it was on the front seat of the car. While the coroner found no evidence of sexual assault, Erie County Sheriff Harold Gladwell believed evidence showed sex was the motive for the crime.

Five days later authorities arrested 19-year-old Dennis Dussell. Dussell became a suspect after it was reported he had been seen at a car wash at 3:30 AM on the day of Jodi’s murder. The witness told police Dussell was not wearing a shirt or jacket.

Dussell said he was not involved in Jodi’s death. However, human blood was found on a tire and the undercarriage of Dussell’s car, and tire tracks found near the scene were similar to those made by a tire on Dussell’s vehicle.

A three-judge panel found Dussell guilty of killing Jodi Auble. He was sentenced from 15 years to life in prison. Dussell was paroled nine years later in 1984.

On July 9, 1986 Dussell was identified as the man who assaulted a woman at a Cleveland Ohio Metropolitan Park. Dussell allegedly punched a woman off her bike and then beat her until other people saw what was happening and came to her aid. At the time, charges were not filed in relation to the incident. The woman claimed it was because Cleveland Metroparks Rangers never contacted her to advise her that she needed to sign a paper to have Dussell arrested.

In November 1986, Dussell was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend. His parole officer violated state policy and did not tell his supervisors about the conviction; as a result, Dussell was not returned to prison for violating parole.

In 1989, Dussell was charged with sexual abusing his three-year-old daughter. Dussell’s daughter was ruled incompetent to stand trial, due to her young age. He was acquitted on charges of felonious sexual penetration and gross sexual imposition.

After Dussell’s arrest for the assault of his daughter, authorities found his 1986 assault conviction and reported it to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. Dussell’s parole was revoked and he was sent back to prison. He successfully contested his parole revocation, due to the fact three years had passed since the assault.

On the night of October 5, 1990 Dussell allegedly kidnapped a woman in a Lakewood parking lot. He allegedly put a sharp object to her throat and ordered her into his van. He then allegedly pulled into an alley, forced the woman into the back of the van, and raped her. After the rape, Dussell allegedly allowed the woman to go back to her car. She then went to the hospital, where she was able to identify Dussell as the man who raped her by photos given to her by police.

After the woman identified her rapist as Dussell, Lakewood police were able to connect him to two other attacks.

The first of the incidents occurred in 1985, where a man who punched a woman in the face while she was walking down the street and attempted to drag her toward bushes in a back yard. She was able to escape after people saw the attack and came to her aid.

The second occurred in 1987. In this incident, a woman was kidnapped from a bus stop and raped in the Rocky River Reservation.

For these three crimes, Dussell was indicted on 24 counts for his assault on the three women which included 12 counts of rape and five counts of gross sexual imposition, and one count of abduction. The charges for the 1985 case were later dropped, and Dussell acquitted on all charges, except one weapons charge, related to the 1987 case.

However, for the 1990 kidnapping and rape, Dussell was found guilty of six counts of rape, two counts each of felonious sexual penetration and gross sexual imposition, one count of felonious assault and one count of kidnapping. He was sentenced to 65-90 years for his crimes to be served in addition to his murder sentence.

Due to a revoked parole decision by the Ohio Department of Corrections, Dussell will now be up for parole in April 2022.

“Dennis Dussell is a cold-blooded killer and rapist,” Block Parole, Inc writes on their website. “Dussell was granted parole after serving only nine years in prison for murdering 17-year-old Jodi Auble which resulted in the assaults of at least five additional victims. In the 46 years since Jodi’s murder, Dussell refuses to take any responsibility for his actions and has shown no remorse for his horrific crimes. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should this monster be given a third opportunity to attack more women.”

Block Parole has created a petition for people interested in blocking Dussell’s parole. The petition can be found here.