Venango County District Attorney Shawn White said Friday his office and local police are working around the clock investigating the murder of Oil City woman Marcy Suzette Nellis, whose body was found Monday morning in the area of the West End bike trail in Oil City.
Meanwhile, law enforcement officials and the president of the local trails association continue to urge caution while using area trails, and there is some increased police presence as the investigation continues.
And Oil City officials plan to discuss placing cameras on the West End trail at the next city council meeting.
State police, Oil City police and county detectives are on the case and the district attorney’s office has also “consulted with other agencies,” White said.
The Erie Crime Lab is “currently expediting” processing evidence related to the case, White said.
“We are working on this as diligently and thoroughly as possible,” he added.
“This is an ongoing investigation, generally speaking I have no comment,” White said, adding that he is bound by rules of professional conduct and protecting the integrity of the investigation not to comment on the specifics of ongoing investigations.
Police have said Nellis, 76, was reported missing on Sunday after she left her West First Street home at about 3:30 p.m. that day “for an afternoon walk.”
She had lived in her home near the trail and across the street from PennWest Clarion’s Venango Campus for 46 years and had been known to walk the trail on a near daily basis.
Numerous people and agencies were involved in a search for Nellis on Sunday night, and her body was found Monday morning.
The initial investigation at the scene was not conclusive to the manner and cause of death, but based on autopsy findings Wednesday, the case was upgraded to a homicide investigation.
Law enforcement officials said Wednesday in a joint press release that no further information will be released regarding the cause and manner of death.
White reiterated Friday that since no arrests have been made, people should refrain from using the trails at this time while the investigation is continuing.
He added that if any walkers or bikers feel they must use the trails they should do so in pairs and that “all caution should be used when going out, especially on the trails.”
When asked if security has been upgraded on the trails following the murder, White replied, “Yes, but I don’t want to say how. If I divulge the methods they will become ineffective.”
Oil City police chief Dave Ragon told the newspaper Friday that police have an “increased presence” along the bike trail in part for public safety and in part for investigative purposes.
Bill Weller, president of the Allegheny Valley Trails Association, said Friday the association has a safety patrol, although he is not in charge of it, and “they patrol the trail whenever they get the chance to do it.”
In addition, he said the county sheriff’s department has a bicycle patrol that goes out “occasionally.”
Weller said the all-volunteer Trails Association patrol hasn’t sent a special group out to patrol the trail. The association is in charge of the portion of the trail from Franklin south to Emlenton, and while people have suggested the group put up call boxes or cameras for increased security along the trail, he noted that the association doesn’t have the “financial stability” to pay for those measures.
“Being that we’re a nonprofit, we don’t have that money,” he said. “And we’ve found when we do stuff like that, everything gets vandalized,” he added.
Putting in call boxes would also mean maintaining them, and Weller said nobody on the volunteer board has the technology to repair phone boxes.
And he reiterated the urgency for caution.
“There’s always safety in numbers,” he said.
However, he added that “if I were to decide this afternoon that I wanted to go on a bike ride, it wouldn’t bother me.”
Anytime there is criminal mischief on the trail, the association reports it to police, but “with safety, it’s never been an issue before,” he said.
“These are such rare occurrences, and since the police investigation is private, as it should be, everything is just speculation,” Weller said.
“My feeling is yes, it’s safe, but common sense would say ‘Don’t go alone.’ If you’re planning on using the trail, go with somebody,” he said.
Oil City manager Mark Schroyer told the newspaper Friday that at the next city council meeting, on April 13, there is “going to be a discussion regarding placing cameras on the trail.”
The area under discussion would be the portion that is under the authority of the City of Oil City, he said, which would be from the Oil City wastewater treatment plant north to the city limits.
“The matter is under total investigation,” Schroyer said. “The entire Oil City administrative staff and mayor and council, our thoughts go out to her family. We will pursue this matter to bring the perpetrator or potential perpetrator to justice, and that will be swift.”
Officials are encouraging anyone with information concerning any suspicious activity in the West End bike trail area to contact Oil City police at (814) 678-3080.
Trooper Cynthia Schick, community service officer for the Franklin and Meadville state police barracks, could not be reached for state police comments for this story.
