State of Ohio v. James D. Tench, Case No. 2016-0899
Medina County Common Pleas Court

James D. Tench of Brunswick, Ohio, was convicted for the 2013 kidnapping, murder, and aggravated robbery of his mother. Tench appeals his convictions and sentence of death to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Women Disappears After Work
Tench's mother, Mary, was employed at a retirement community in Lakewood. On Nov. 11, 2013, she worked from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. A coworker said she and Mary clocked out and left the facility shortly after 11 o'clock that night.

Tench, who lived with his mother, went to the Brunswick Police Department early on the morning of Nov. 12 to report her missing. He told police she never arrived home from work the night before. He indicated he awoke in middle of the night, noticed she wasn't home, drove around looking for her, and called 911 and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Later that morning, employees at a Brunswick marketing company noticed a sports-utility vehicle in an empty field next to their office, and police were contacted. Officers discovered Tench's mother's body face down and curled up in the back of the SUV, which was her vehicle. The medical examiner determined that the cause of death was multiple blunt impacts to the head, neck, trunk, and extremities with skull, brain, skeletal, and soft-tissue injuries.

Detectives talked with Tench in his home before his mother's body was found, and again afterward. Based on the conversations, the detectives arrested him.