Evil in the Twin Cities: The 1944 Murder of Naomi Freed

A Dennison, Ohio family was shattered, and a community shocked, when the family’s nearly ten-year-old daughter was murdered on her way home from a movie in the spring of 1944.

The Freed family, originally from Pennsylvania, settled in Tuscarawas County after the Civil War with the arrival of Henry Freed (1833-1909) and his wife Catherine (1834-1915). Henry worked as a coal miner near Port Washington and when his son Daniel Freed (1867-1948) became an adult he did the same. Daniel married Adeline Lawver (1866-1944) in 1890 and the couple lived in Union Township, Tuscarawas County before moving to Dennison, Ohio by 1920.

One of Daniel and Adeline’s sons was James Freed (1903-1983) who, when an adult, worked in the nearby sewer pipe factory. James married Florence Bridgeman (1904-1985) in 1923 and the couple lived in the twin cities of Dennison and Uhrichsville from 1920 until the mid-1940s. James and Florence had six children by 1940, and among them was a daughter born in 1935 named Naomi Freed. The Freed family lived on South 2nd Street in Dennison in the spring of 1944 when the unimaginable happened.

The evening of Tuesday, April 18, 1944 nearly ten-year-old Naomi left home to walk to Uhrichsville to visit her grandmother and go to a movie. A man standing near a blacksmith shop noticed her as she crossed the bridge over Center Street between Dennison and Uhrichsville. After the movie ended, around 9:30 pm, Naomi stopped in an Uhrichsville ice cream shop before beginning the short walk to the family home on South 2nd Street. Around 10:00 pm, patrons at the City Auto Restaurant near the Center Street bridge heard what they thought were screams for help. Naomi never made it home that night.

Local authorities, once informed that Naomi did not return home, believed that she had fallen into the Little Stillwater Creek and possibly drowned. Three days later searchers discovered Naomi’s body in the creek downstream near the Dennison baseball park. At first, the belief was that she had drowned but an examination by the County Coroner revealed that Naomi’s death was far from an accident and her remains were sent to Cleveland for further analysis. Within hours of determining her wrongful death, local authorities had a 54-year-old man in custody, though they did not immediately charge him with a crime.

The man they took into custody had lived in the twin cities area his entire life, except for two years when he served overseas during World War One. After the war, he became very well-known to law enforcement because he had a habit of heavy drinking and berating and threatening strangers on the street. His violent and unstable behavior got him permanently banned from the city of Dover. After two weeks of investigation and interrogation, authorities charged the man with assaulting and murdering Naomi Freed. Naomi’s killer, Elmer C. Gray (1890-1963), was charged with first degree murder in June 1944.

It was clear to the court that, despite the gravity and viciousness of his crime, Elmer Gray was not competent to stand trial. He was sent to the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane for evaluation, an evaluation that determined that he was indeed insane and likely would remain so for the rest of his life. Gray was sent, permanently, the the Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane until his death in 1963. The Freed family, shortly after Naomi’s murder, moved to Franklin County, Ohio. Naomi Freed rests in Union Cemetery in Uhrichsville, Ohio, her death a reminder that evil can occur anywhere and in any era.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2024.