A look at prominent strangulation murders in Franklin County, Columbus

Danae King, Columbus Dispatch
·4 min read

Strangulation is a leading sign of escalating violence in a relationship, researchers and law enforcement say.

Strangulation also increases the victim's chances of facing a violent death.

In fact, those who have survived a strangulation are 750% more likely to be subsequently killed by their attacker, according to the Training Institute on Strangulation Prevention.

Here's a look at several of the most prominent Franklin County homicides that involved strangulation:

Renee Benedetti

Renee Benedetti, 40, was missing for weeks before homicide detectives discovered her body in a southern Ohio landfill in early 2023.
Renee Benedetti, 40, was missing for weeks before homicide detectives discovered her body in a southern Ohio landfill in early 2023.

Renee Benedetti, 40, was missing for weeks before homicide detectives discovered her body in a southern Ohio landfill in March 2023. Her boyfriend, Gene Scott, was charged with murder and the two had been living together in a North Columbus apartment before she disappeared on Jan. 31, 2023. Scott told detectives that he had a fight with Benedetti on Jan. 29 and grabbed her throat and "choked her until she was motionless."

Daivena Clay

Daivena Clay, 22, was killed in March 2013 and her body, naked and partially covered in a sheet with tape over her eyes, was found in an East Side home after a 911 call prompted a Columbus police visit. At first, police determined her death was likely accidental and happened during a consensual sex act. Then-Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak, said the cause of death was undetermined but that Clay asphyxiated due to compression of her neck, cutting off her breathing. More than a decade later, Breyon Bryant was arrested and charged in Franklin County Municipal Court this past January with Clay's death, following his wife saying he confessed to strangling Clay to death.

Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak, pictured in this file photo, declared that Daivena Clay's cause of death was undetermined but that Clay asphyxiated due to compression of her neck, cutting off her breathing. Clay was killed in March 2013.
Franklin County Coroner Jan Gorniak, pictured in this file photo, declared that Daivena Clay's cause of death was undetermined but that Clay asphyxiated due to compression of her neck, cutting off her breathing. Clay was killed in March 2013.

Rene Combs

Rene Combs, 36, was found strangled to death in Grove City in 1991. Her homicide remains unsolved.
Rene Combs, 36, was found strangled to death in Grove City in 1991. Her homicide remains unsolved.

Rene Combs, 36, was found on Aug. 12, 1991, nude and hidden by foliage in a wooded lot of Holt Road near Grove City. She had been strangled and hit on the head with a blunt object and had been missing since Aug. 4. Her car was found abandoned three days after she went missing, parked at an apartment complex in Grove City. Her homicide is unsolved, according to the Ohio Attorney General's website.

Michelle Dawson-Pass

Michelle Dawson-Pass, 36, was found dead on Nov. 11, 1996 after she was strangled.
Michelle Dawson-Pass, 36, was found dead on Nov. 11, 1996 after she was strangled.

Michelle Dawson-Pass, 36, was found dead on Nov. 11, 1996, lying naked near a field in remote Granville. In 2023, Robert N. Edwards, 68, was sentenced in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to life in prison for strangling her and another woman. DNA evidence linked Edwards to her death in 2021, when the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation found a familial DNA match on her body.

Robert Edwards, 68, is seen here in 2023 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, where a jury convicted him of murdering Alma Renee Lake in 1991 and Michelle Dawson-Pass in 1996. The jury also found him guilty of raping Dawson-Pass.
Robert Edwards, 68, is seen here in 2023 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, where a jury convicted him of murdering Alma Renee Lake in 1991 and Michelle Dawson-Pass in 1996. The jury also found him guilty of raping Dawson-Pass.

Fatoumata Diallo

Mamadou Diallo, left, 43, was sentencedin last July to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 27 years for strangling his wife and setting her body on fire inside a Madison Township home in 2021.
Mamadou Diallo, left, 43, was sentencedin last July to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 27 years for strangling his wife and setting her body on fire inside a Madison Township home in 2021.

Fatoumata Diallo, 32, was strangled to death and then her body was set on fire in the Southeast Side home she shared with her husband, Mamadou Diallo, in 2021. He was convicted of her murder in 2023, with a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors said he strangled her with a USB cord and that both had filed for divorce in the year before her death, but they didn't follow through.

Margaret Durant

Margaret Durant was found dead at 21-years-old in Grandview Heights in 1987. Her homicide remains unsolved.
Margaret Durant was found dead at 21-years-old in Grandview Heights in 1987. Her homicide remains unsolved.

Margaret Durant, 21, was found dead in a vacant lot in Grandview Heights on the morning of Dec. 11, 1987. The coroner determined she died from cardiopulmonary arrest due to strangulation and her death remains unsolved, despite several leads being investigated. WBNS 10TV reported in 2014 that the Grandview Heights police department was looking into the case again and submitting old evidence to the state crime lab in hopes of DNA making it possible to reopen the case. The Ohio Attorney General's office lists her case on its site as unsolved and asks that anyone with information on Durant's death contact Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 855-BCI-OHIO (224-6446) or the Grandview Heights Police Department at (614) 488-7901.

Alma Renee Lake

Alma Renee Lake, 30, whose body was found June 3, 1991, lying in the grass at the northwest corner of Olive and Craig streets in Urbancrest, a village in southwest Franklin County.
Alma Renee Lake, 30, whose body was found June 3, 1991, lying in the grass at the northwest corner of Olive and Craig streets in Urbancrest, a village in southwest Franklin County.

Alma Renee Lake, 30, was found dead on June 3, 1991, lying naked in the grass on a street corner in Urbancrest, a village in southwest Franklin County near Grove City. In 2023, Robert N. Edwards, 68, was sentenced in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to life in prison for the strangling of Lake and Dawson-Pass. DNA evidence linked Edwards to her death in 2021, when the Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation found a familial DNA match on her body.

Akron Beacon Journal Reporter Stephanie Warsmith contributed to this story.

dking@dispatch.com

@DanaeKing

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 6 women who died by strangulation in Franklin County, Columbus