COLUMBUS – A man authorities say is a serial offender has been sentenced to life in prison for the murders of two central Ohio women more than 30 years ago.
Robert Edwards, who is now 68 years old, was convicted on July 14 of the 1991 murder of Alma Lake, found dead on an Urbancrest street corner, and the 1996 murder of Michelle Dawson-Pass, whose body was found in a remote area in Granville, according to the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Edwards was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 45 years and was also convicted as a sexually violent predator, Yost said.
The case was solved when Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation lab personnel conducted advanced DNA analysis.
Both victims had signs of blunt force trauma, were sexually assaulted and died by asphyxiation. Their bodies were left in residential areas.
Lake, 30, was found dead on June 3, 1991, lying in the grass on the northwest corner of Olive and Craig streets in Urbancrest.
Dawson-Pass, then 36, was found on Nov. 11, 1996, in a remote area near 1740 James Road in Granville, in Licking County after last being seen on Kelton Avenue, walking to a friend’s house on the East Side of Columbus.
These similarities led investigators with the Franklin County and Licking County sheriff’s offices to suspect that the crimes were connected to the same offender, but the homicides remained unsolved.
In 2020, the offices of Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin and Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp asked the BCI’s Cold Case Unit to apply new technology to the case and the laboratory conducted advanced DNA analysis, which ultimately led investigators to identify Edwards as the offender in both cases.
Investigators believe that Edwards likely has additional victims, as he was known to have lived in Ohio, Georgia and Virginia, traveled for work and was known to engage in drug use and solicit sex, Yost said.