The Lima News Serving Northwest Ohio More Than 97 Years ** October 21, 1982 20 cents Material Could Be Key To Elgin Case VAN WERT -- Investigators feel they might have the first break in the 11-week investigation into the murder of Betty Jane Mottinger, with the identification of the material in which her body was found wrapped as an expensive theater curtain. The 48-year-old Elgin postmaster disappeared from her post office about 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9 and her body was found in a soybean field near Findlay on Sept. 19. She had been stabbed at least 13 times. The U.S. Postal Service Crime Laboratory in Washington, D.C. has identified the cloth as a "very expensive theatrical type backdrop curtain," said Postal Inspector Tom Strausbaugh, who heads the task force investigating the crime. "It is sold by very few outlets in the U.S. and is used primarily for traveling production companies and some of the better known rock bands," Strausbaugh said. "It is cost prohibitive, we understand, to install this material in smaller theaters," he said. Strausbaugh said he is optimistic that this information will develop into something more positive in the investigation. "With the material information and with the help of the manufacturer of the cloth we are going to located [sic] the companies that install this type of material in an attempt to run down their installations and find out if the material is still installed, if any of it has been stolen or given away during the remodeling of a theater," Strausbaugh said. Webmaster's Note: Remember, that Marjorie Clymer saw Betty Jane Mottinger with her neighbor, who is a painter who does remodels. Investigators first thought the postmaster's body was wrapped in a painter's tarp because of paint splatterings on the material. Laboratory tests are still being conducted on the paint which covered the cloth. Webmaster's Note: Larry M. Duhus, A forensic scientist with Law-Science technologies in West Milton, Ohio, testified that the spots on it matched paints on four different houses in Findlay where the tarp had been used. Srausbaugh also said lab work is continuing on the gray duct tape which was used to bound the cloth around the body. "It's standard duct tape, but it's somewhat unique in that the adhesive on the tape is a dark gray color," Strausbaugh said. Webmaster's Note: This is information that the Prosecution said was not public knowledge, and that only the killer would know. "We were not aware that that was uncommon until we started purchasing duct tape locally and sending it to the lab along with tape samples that we found at various locations," Strausbaugh said. "We found out that most adhesive is white or an off-white," he added. He said it will be possible to match up the tape and its manufacturer and perhaps even the same manufactured batch if investigators can find which matches that found on the postmaster's body. Strausbaugh said investigators now are as busy as they were during the first two weeks of the investigation, and still receive and [sic] average of four or five calls a day from people who believe they had seen people resembling the artist composite drawing of a suspect sought in connection with the case. "Our files are becoming so voluminous that we are now writing a computer program to have them computerized, which will save a lot of hand searches, time and duplication on some of the look-alike calls," Strausbaugh said. Investigators are still seeking a suspect wanted for questioning in connection with the case, but as yet have been unable to locate Marion "Sonny" Baumgardner, 45, formerly of Louisville, Ky., fits the general description of a man seen sitting in a car in front of the post office just before Mrs. Mottinger disappeared. Baumgardener served five years in prison for the Oct. 24, 1975, armed robbery of the Dupont post office, less than 20 miles from Elgin. View Original Newspaper Article Email: Tracy Spirko, John Spirko's Representative