Robert Anthony Buell
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Robert Anthony Buell (September 10th, 1940 – September 24th, 2002) was a serial rapist and child murderer responsible for abducting, raping and murdering two young girls: 11-year-old Krista Lea Harrison and 12-year old Tina Marie Harmon. He is also a suspect in murder of 10-year old Debora Kaye Smith in 1983.
Biography edit
On July 17, 1982, Buell was reportedly seen abducting Krista Harrison in a park in Marshallville, Ohio. Harrison's body was found six days after her kidnapping. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Two other young girls have been thought to have also been victims of Buell: Tina Marie Harmon, age 12, murdered in 1981 and Debora Kaye Smith, age 10, murdered in 1983. Although strong evidence is present linking Buell to all three cases, Buell was only charged with the murder of Krista Harrison. He has since been linked by DNA evidence to Tina Harmon's murder. Buell was also a serial rapist. In 1984, Buell raped a woman who was able to escape and notify police, an event that ultimately led to his arrest.
In 1984 Buell was put on trial for the murder of Krista Harrison. In April of that year Buell was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Krista Harrison. It was said that the carpet fibers found on her body matched those inside Buell's van. Prosecutors had also discovered that less than a week prior to Krista's murder Buell had received custom made seats for his van and that the packaging was the same type of material used to dispose of her body. Prosecutors claimed that the seats were rare and few had been ordered and packaged this way.
The jury convicted Buell and sentenced him to death. In addition to the death sentence, Buell would be sentenced to 121 years in prison for two crimes related to the abduction and rapes of two women in two other cases. In one Buell pleaded no contest and in the other he pleaded guilty.
Buell died by lethal injection on September 24th, 2002. His final meal was a single black unpitted olive. Ironically, convicted murderer Victor Feguer, who was hanged on March 15th, 1963, also requested a single unpitted black olive for his last meal. It is believed that Buell requested this meal intentionally as an homage to Feguer.