NEWS

Decades-old Warren County mystery solved?

Keith BieryGolick
kbierygolick@enquirer.com
Sam Perone

Police believe they've have solved a homicide that has mystified residents and authorities alike for more than 20 years.

Warren County Sheriff Larry Sims will conduct a news conference Friday to discuss an arrest in the 1992 death of Richard Woods.

Woods' body was found in the county's rural Washington Township about a month after he disappeared from Lebanon. First, detectives found his car. Then, his empty wallet.

Eventually, the 41-year-old furniture salesman, of Dublin, Ohio, was found shot in the head. The father of four was in the area to discuss a business venture, according to Enquirer archives.

Police arrested Sam Perone in Arizona, where he now lives, Thursday. He was charged with murder and indicted by a grand jury. Perone is the same person police questioned a few days after Woods' body was found decades ago.

Deputy sheriffs searched the furniture store, Just Living Rooms, Perone's wife owned in Lebanon. They seized a number of items and also searched the Perone home, dragged a pond there and dug up a part of the back yard.

In 1992, Perone's attorney, Mark Florence, told The Enquirer Woods met with Perone to discuss a mutual business venture. Florence said the family closed their store after rumor and innuendo about them flooded the small town. He once said the only people who came to the store were ones who wanted to "see where it happened."

But the Lebanon lawyer said Woods and Perone were not on bad terms and insisted on numerous occasions his client had nothing to do with Woods' death.

That same year, one of Woods' daughters told The Enquirer Perone had been "hostile" to her father. She said that's why her mother hired a private detective to look for her father when he didn't return home from Lebanon, according to Enquirer archives.

Florence could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Authorities previously described Woods as a charismatic, wealthy and well-liked figure whose sales territory covered Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

"We've been hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't like him - and he knew literally hundreds of people throughout our whole region. We hear over and over, a big 'sigh,' then, 'Wow, Dick Woods - that was a shame,' " said Col. John Newsom in 2006. "I had one guy refer to him as 'the perfect salesman.' Being a good salesman means you're good at connecting with people - and he had a real talent for that."

Investigative records in the case, a seven-foot-tall stack of documents and a closet-full of evidence, take up more storage space than any other case in the county, Newsom previously told The Enquirer.

Sheriff Sims declined further comment until the news conference.