Fear of home invasions in Richland Co. ''has people here scared''

The Mansfield News Journal has published an update on progress concerning the investigation of a spate of home invastions in Richland County.

Once victim, Eunice Wilburn, told the News Journal she lives in fear after being victimized in a recent home invasion.

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"I'm scared every time someone pulls in the driveway," the 57-year-old Washington Township woman told the newspaper. "It has people around here scared. I can't blame them."

According to the story, an armed, masked man who wore camouflage clothes and sunglasses knocked on Wilburn's door and tied up her, her mother and an 18-year-old visitor Dec. 10.

Wilburn says he was in the house for 30 minutes before fleeing with three purses and an undetermined amount of money.

The story goes on to say Richland County sheriff's detectives are working on that case and a second home invasion Dec. 28 in Shenandoah. In that incident, two white men reportedly held a retired farmer and his wife at gunpoint and took an undisclosed amount of cash, some paperwork and checks. The two men tied up the couple.

Detective Bob Mack told the newspaper they have made some progress in the Shandoah investigation but that the Washington Township case is going a bit slower.

"It's pretty much at a standstill until we locate two key people that we need to talk to that have some knowledge on this," he is quoted as saying.

In the meantime, the newspaper says Wilburn has taken precautions to protect herself.

"My doors are locked. The windows are locked," she said. "I'm also getting a security system.

"It's really bad when they come in on older people. That put the fear of God in me."

Wilburn said she hopes the suspect doesn't come back.

"When he left, he took the combination to the safe..."

Elsewhere in Ohio, the attorney for another home invader is upset with Licking County Common Pleas Judge Thomas M. Marcelain because he imposed a 33-year sentence on his client, Roger G. Millette. Millette, who the Newark Advocate says "spent the better part of the last 25 years in prison for a series of violent crimes." Millette pled guilty to charges related to storming into a pregnant Johnstown woman's home on Dec. 18, 2003, tying her down to a bed and robbing her at knifepoint. His attorney was expecting a lighter sentence in return for his cooperation.

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Woman answers knock, finds gun at her head

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