What happens in Akron doesn’t always stay in Akron.
“Ohio mom jailed for sending kids to better school district” ABC News told its national morning audience in January.
“Madman in Copley massacre identified,” the South learned in August from Louisiana’s Bayoubuzz.com.
“Ohio police find third body investigating murder spree,” the Telegraph reported to its London readers in December.
For a region more used to seeing the spotlight cast on its Goodyear blimp, the All-American Soap Box Derby or LeBron James, it was an unsettling twist to hear the area’s top crime stories becoming talk of the town from Boston to Bellingham, Wash., according to a sampling of media reports.
Here’s a recap of three stories from Greater Akron that rose to national prominence in 2011:
School saga
The tumultuous new year started quickly with the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, an Akron mom who used her father’s address to illegally enroll her two daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district.
On Jan. 15, a jury found her guilty of tampering with records. That set off a national discussion of inequities in public education and landed Williams-Bolar on the Dr. Phil show.
After only days in office, Gov. John Kasich directed the state parole board to review the case. He questioned whether the punishment — a 10-day jail sentence, two years of probation, 80 hours of community service and a felony record that might prevent Williams-Bolar from fulfilling her dream of becoming a teacher — fit the crime.
The Ohio Parole Board decided against recommending a pardon, but in June, Kasich reduced her convictions to misdemeanors.
Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward Williams, also was tried for his role, but the jury deadlocked. In a separate case, however, he was sentenced in June to one year in prison after being convicted of illegally receiving more than $100,000 in Social Security and state welfare benefits.
Eight dead in Copley
As soon as the national spotlight dimmed on Williams- Bolar, it flared again on a horrific shooting that topped evening news reports from coast to coast.
In August, 51-year-old Michael Hance went on a 10-minute rampage in Copley Township, killing seven family members and neighbors before a Copley police officer shot and killed him.
A final investigative report released in October portrayed Hance as a depressed, eccentric, sometimes paranoid loner who hadn’t worked in three years and was facing mounting financial issues and a possible breakup with his longtime girlfriend.
Despite Hance’s mental troubles, police believe he planned the assault. He purchased a second pistol and ammunition from a pawn store and honed his shooting skills at a local firing range just days before the killings.
The carnage played out in a peaceful neighborhood on a Sunday morning. The dead included two 16-year-old girls who huddled in a parked minivan and an 11-year-old boy Hance had pursued into a neighbor’s home.
Craigslist killer
In November, deputies in Noble County in southeastern Ohio began investigating the robbery and shooting of a South Carolina man who said he was lured to Marietta to meet two men who advertised on Craigslist about a job on a cattle ranch.
The man escaped the shooters, but his story caused a Boston woman to call police in search of her brother, whom she believed answered the same Internet ad. Deputies returned to the area of the first shooting and found a body in a shallow grave.
Within the month, the investigation led to an Akron suspect, a Stow teenager and two more dead bodies.
Richard Beasley, 52, of Akron, is being held on unrelated charges, but police believe he hatched the scheme that led to the deaths of two men in Noble County and a third man who was found buried near the former Rolling Acres Mall.
He has not been formally charged in the shootings, but Summit County prosecutors said they expect to do so and to seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors have charged 16-year-old Stow-Munroe Falls High junior Brogan Rafferty with aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in Noble County. He will be tried as an adult.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.