COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Columbus saw a higher number of homicides, noticeable changes in the demographics of victims and what a state official called “serial killings” during the course of 2023.
The Columbus Division of Police shared its total count of homicides in 2023 during a Jan. 11 news conference. The number of victims outpaced the count for 2022 by 10, but was still nowhere near breaking the city’s all-time record from 2021.
Assistant Chief Greg Bodker acknowledged some significant developments from the year's data, including a jump in the number of homicides stemming from domestic violence cases. However, he also took a silver lining from the data.
"Our team worked selflessly, collaboratively to solve over 75% of those cases in-year, and overall 92.6% of the cases that they investigated in 2023," Bodker said. "Some of those they investigated, like Imperial Stewart, Alejandro Fajardo-Torres and Renee Benedetti, were very complicated and prolonged investigations."
Public records from police back up Bodker's statement. Still, they also showed that 35 homicides reported within 2023 remained unsolved as of Thursday.
While 2022 had a lower overall number of homicides, gun violence claimed a higher number of lives compared with 2023. Police did not gather a percentage to compare from its 2021 data.
Gunshot wounds were cited as the cause of death around 5% less but still overwhelmingly made up the majority in both years. Stabbings accounted for just seven homicides in 2023, while Columbus police records did not share a clear cause of death in eight cases.
Another cause of death -- overdose -- was unique to one high-profile case, which led to the suspect being tied to multiple Columbus homicides and receiving the label of serial killer from the Ohio Attorney General. A task force of detectives from the CPD and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was formed to investigate and ultimately accuse Rebecca Auborn, 33, of meeting men for sex and then drugging and robbing them.
The task force has implicated Auborn in at least four deaths, as well as an initial incident before them:
- An attempted overdose on Dec. 13, 2022
- A fatal overdose on Jan. 15, 2023
- A fatal overdose on April 1, 2023
- A fatal overdose on April 13, 2023
- A fatal overdose on June 17, 2023
A Franklin County grand jury charged Auborn with 28 felonies on Oct. 25. She pleaded not guilty to every charge against her, including:
- Four counts of murder
- Four counts of involuntary manslaughter
- Five counts of aggravated robbery
- Five counts of felonious assault
- Five counts of corrupting another with drugs
- One count of tampering with evidence
- Four counts of trafficking in drugs
Her case was still making its way through the court system as of Thursday. While she was originally scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 13, a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge rescheduled it for Feb. 7. Both Auborn's defense team and prosecutors agreed to reschedule for "further investigation," according to court documents.
The demographics of suspects and victims also changed between 2022 and 2023. While 2023 saw fewer victims under the age of 21, a higher number of the city's homicide suspects skewed on the younger side.
"The numbers of victims under 21 years of age, about a quarter of our homicide victims," Bodker said. "Our suspects that we've identified, about 43.6% of those were 21 years of age or under."
While there were, racial demographics of the homicide victims remained roughly the same as in 2022. Of the 149 reported, 100 victims were listed as Black, nine were Hispanic and 30 were white. An identical number of victims were identified as white in 2022, while CPD reports listed 97 as Black and five as Hispanic.
View the full list of 2023 homicide victims from Columbus Division of Police records -- in chronological order -- below:
