A diamond ring could be the key that leads detectives to the killer of 87-year-old Barbara Howe, the Middletown Journal has learned.

The missing ring — Mrs. Howe’s wedding ring of more than one karat — has been a focus of investigators’ three-month homicide probe and could be the key to finding the person, or persons, responsible for killing the Monroe woman and placing her body in the trunk of her red Cadillac.

“It was her signature piece, and it is missing,” Monroe police Detective Gregg Myers told the Journal in an interview. “She always wore it. It was her favorite. It was not with her, and it is not in her house.”

Myers stopped short of saying robbery was the motive for Howe’s slaying. He said taking the ring could have been a crime of opportunity after the fact. Myers noted that when Howe was found, she had other jewelry on her person that was not disturbed.

He said whoever took Howe’s ring may have taken the large diamond out of the setting as a way to sell the gem. Police have been scouring area pawn shops and other avenues that could be used to sell the diamond.

“The ring is important to the investigation,” Myers said.

Police have released few details concerning the Howe investigation. They haven’t said where or how she was killed, and have even kept her family members from viewing or burying her body or entering her home, a cottage at Mount Pleasant Retirement Village.

Even within the police department, some details of the case “are on a need-to-know basis,” Monroe police Lt. Brian Curlis has said. The diamond ring represents the first significant piece of evidence from the investigation that police have revealed.

Howe’s daughter, Donna Wesselman of Cincinnati, said family members always suspected that robbery might be the motive behind her mother’s death and asked police early on if they had found Howe’s wedding ring along with her body.

“They didn’t answer,” Wesselman said, adding she believed then the diamond had been taken.

Wesselman said she didn’t know her mother’s ring was missing until she was contacted Wednesday by the Journal. She said Howe always wore the ring or had it close by.

Monroe police were aided by Middletown police and state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation early on in the investigation and say they continue to receive tips.

Curlis said more the 100 DNA samples have been taken from people investigators have talked with. Investigators are also processing evidence from at least three crime scenes — Howe’s home, her car and the parking lot of Woodridge Apartments in Middletown where she was found in the trunk of her car on Nov. 1.

Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said last week “there is potentially another crime scene,” though he would not disclose the location.

Howe, who was born in Hamilton, dedicated her life to her husband, Bill, and three daughters, and enjoyed cooking, sewing, traveling, playing tennis and reading. She was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, Middletown Symphony Women’s Association, Cotillion Mixers, and a former member of Brown’s Run Country Club and Wildwood Golf Club.

Her husband of 51 years owned and operated Howe Motor Co. in Middletown.