Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer have announced the arrests of two Ohio brothers in connection with a recent double homicide in Miami Township, near Yellow Springs.
Authorities charged 25-year-old Dustin M. Merrick with two counts of aggravated murder in connection to the deaths of William Brown and Sherri Mendenhall. The suspect’s brother, 24-year-old Bret S. Merrick, has also been charged with two counts of complicity to aggravated murder; two counts of complicity to aggravated burglary and felonious assault.
Authorities served two search warrants Tuesday, including one at Dustin Merrick’s Xenia home on Parnell Drive, and another at Bret Merrick’s home on Eagle Ridge Drive in Montgomery County’s Miami Township.
“This is a great tragedy for the Brown and Mendenhall families as well as the Yellow Springs community,” Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement. “The arrests are the result of old-fashioned police work and modern forensics. This has been a great team effort with twenty of our BCI criminal analysts, agents – from crime scene, investigations, and cyber units – and scientists in the BCI laboratory assisting Greene County Sheriff Fischer and his team.”
Officials say evidence suggests Sherri Mendenhall, William Brown’s neighbor, may have been shot when she came to investigate noises coming from Brown’s Apartment. According to investigators, a DNA sample and results from a forensics analysis of a 9-mm Taurus firearm owned by Dustin Merrick connected him to the murders.
Dustin and Bret Merrick were both scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in Xenia court.
In addition to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and BCI, other agencies assisting with the investigation include the Greene County Regional SWAT Team, Greene County ACE Task Force, Xenia Police Department, Yellow Springs Police Department, Dayton Police Department, and Miami Township (Montgomery County) Police Department.
Anyone with information that may help police in the investigation is asked to call the Greene County Sheriff’s Office at 937-562-4815, or the BCI at 855-BCI-OHIO.
