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Update: Noble County Craigslist Murder Scheme Victim Was From Florida

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Update Friday 5:00 a.m.

A sheriff says a jobseeker from Florida has been killed and another from South Carolina has been shot after they responded to a Craigslist ad for a job on an Ohio cattle farm.

Noble County Sheriff Stephen Hannum said Thursday that two men had been taken into custody after cadaver dogs found the body of the Florida man this week in a shallow grave in a remote area.

Hannum says the search was undertaken after the South Carolina man escaped from the same area on Nov. 6 and police found a grave they believe had been dug for him.

He says the two victims had responded to a bogus listing for a job as cattle caretaker at a 688-acre farm. He suspects robbery was the motive.

Names are still not being released.
 

 

 

Two men are in custody in Noble County in connection with a Craigslist scheme to rob and kill people from across the country.

Sheriff Stephen Hannum says law enforcement learned of the scheme after a victim escaped on Nov. 6.
 
The South Carolina man told investigators he had responded to a Craiglist ad to work at a Noble County cattle farm.
 
The victim says he met the men for breakfast in Marietta and then rode with them to the farm.
 
Hannum says the men pulled over on Don Warner Road, telling the victim they needed to continue walking through the woods on foot.
 
The victim told investigators he was able run away when the men pulled a gun on him.
 
The man sustained a gunshot wound to the arm. 
 
Hannum says detectives are also investigating if two shallow graves found near the site of the shooting are related.
 
Officers found the body of a man in the second grave on Tuesday.
 
The man has not been identified, though Hannum says a woman had called in a missing person's report on Nov. 11 to his office after her brother responded to a similar Craiglist ad and was not heard from since.
 
The Licking County Coroner is conducting an autopsy.