Police believe Middletown mother was killed in home’s basement

Residence has been searched by police multiple times for evidence.

Middletown police have searched a residence on Woodlawn Avenue multiple times for evidence that Lindsay Bogan died in the basement of the home, this news outlet has learned through newly released documents related to the case.

“We believe she was killed in the basement of 1504 Woodlawn Avenue and was later taken to Madison Twp.,” Middletown police Lt. Jim Cunningham told the Journal-News. Detectives believe Bogan may have been dead in the house for about a week, before her body was moved, he said.

MORE: ‘Suspicious’ fire at house search in Bogan case

Last week marked one year since the 30-year-old mother went missing.

Middletown police followed leads for months after Bogan was reported missing in September 2015 by her boyfriend Eric Sexton. That search came an end this past July when Bogan's remains were found by a farmer who was plowing a field in Madison Twp.

But what happened to the woman is still a mystery and an ongoing investigation.

Butler County Sheriff’s detectives are assisting Middletown police, who told the Journal-News that they continue to prepare a case to present to a grand jury.

The Butler County Coroner’s Office identified Bogan’s remains but has not determined how she died.

Police are investigating Bogan’s death as a homicide.

Cunningham said police were led to the Woodlawn Avenue house in connection with the Bogan case as early as the end of September 2015 when a suspect ran from police in that area. Police suspected drug activity at the residence and say they believe Bogan was a methamphetamine user.

Police searched the house on Feb. 26 to “seize property of evidentiary value involving the investigation of Lindsay Bogan, due to detectives receiving information she was known to frequent the residence to use and purchase meth,” according to a search warrant obtained this week by the Journal-News.

That court document also said police were looking for evidence of illegal manufacture of drugs or cultivation of marijuana at the residence.

Bogan’s body was not found during that February search, but detectives seized four marijuana plants, a box containing six bags of marijuana, pipes, a tablet, camera and phone, miscellaneous documents and a bag of a white substance from the home.

The Woodlawn Avenue house was search again in May for evidence of the manufacture of counterfeit checks that were being passed in Middletown and Madison Twp.

During that search, an envelope of counterfeit checks, drug paraphernalia, cell phones and a green bag containing marijuana pipes were seized.

On July 28, when Middletown police returned to the Woodlawn residence for a search, they found raw sewage in the home that was pumped out before any investigation could occur. The court document states officers were looking for a cell phone, rental payment receipts for the residence, letters or items of communication discussing the disappearance of Bogan, and clothing and personal property belonging to Bogan.

Taken from the residence in July were: a green folder and a pink folder with letters, a notebook, three flip phones, a candy holder containing pills, a tablet, SD cards, a digital scale, a marijuana pipe, a white cell phone and a yellow plastic bag containing an unknown substance.

Most recently, police served a search warrant last week to collect DNA from a former resident of the home, Cunningham told the Journal-News. That resident’s DNA was sought “to match DNA evidence in the case,” according to the search warrant. The woman is in jail on an unrelated charge, according to police.

The Woodlawn Avenue house caught fire in August in what fire officials have called a suspicious fire

Sexton is currently in jail on a probation violation and continues to be a person of interest in the Bogan homicide investigation, according to Cunningham.

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