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Widmer vigil draws crowd

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By Danielle Wilson, Staff Writer Updated 8:09 AM Friday, April 24, 2009

WEST CHESTER TWP. — The man responsible for creating the “Free Ryan Widmer” Web site and the family of the man convicted of drowning his young wife welcomed a few hundred supporters at a candlelight vigil Thursday night, April 23.

“This is the best I’ve felt in eight months,” Jill Widmer said, looking at the strangers convinced of her son’s innocence.

Ryan Widmer was convicted April 2 of murdering his wife — Edgewood High School graduate Sarah Widmer — in a bathtub in their Hamilton Twp. home in August.

Mike Mayleben created freeryanwidmer.com and organized the vigil on what would have been the eve of a court date to hear arguments to determine whether to give Widmer an acquittal or a new trial based on allegations of juror misconduct. Jill Widmer has said Mayleben did not know the family until the murder trial.

Yet, Warren County Common Pleas Judge Neal Bronson decided Thursday, April 23, to postpone the hearing.

Jill Widmer — along with Ryan Widmer’s father, Gary, and brothers Ayran and Kyle — spoke to the crowd of nearly 250 supporters. Some in the Cincinnati Printers parking lot were family, but many were strangers to the Widmer family and each other.

Some children tagged along, sporting black-and-white “Free Ryan Widmer” T-shirts. Oksana Helms of Morrow took her daughter to the vigil.

“I’ve followed it from the beginning,” said Oksana Helms, 28, who lives in Morrow near Widmer’s neighborhood. “I just really want to support the family.”

In a letter his mother read, Ryan Widmer wrote, “The support, prayers, love...give me so much encouragement... I am stuck in this world I don’t belong in.”

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