Three weeks after Barbara Howe’s body was found inside the trunk of her car abandoned at a Middletown apartment complex, police are still searching for the 87-year-old Monroe woman’s killer.

Howe’s death is one of five homicides in Butler County this year that remain unsolved. The rash of killings, and the fact police have yet to arrest any suspects, has many area residents worried about their safety and the possibility of violent offenders being on the loose in their neighborhoods.

But if local law enforcement’s arrest and conviction record in recent years holds true to form, there’s a good chance police, ultimately, will catch the culprit in the majority of these unsolved cases.

There have been 46 homicides in Butler County since 2008 and police have solved 70 percent of them, or 32 cases, according to a Middletown Journal/Hamilton JournalNews analysis of coroner, police and court records. So far this year there have been eight homicides, three of which police have solved.

Fairfield police revealed Wednesday that they are close to an arrest in the Chelsea Johnson homicide investigation. Johnson, 15, was found stabbed to death in a creek near the Creekside Village of Fairfield apartments in April.

“We are at a point where we have probable cause to charge someone,” Fairfield Police Chief Mike Dickey said. “But whether there is enough to convict, we are in discussions with the prosecutor’s office on. We’re close, but in today’s day and age you have to have a lot more than probable cause.”

Solving homicides cases involves time and lots of investigation, police said. In some cases, there are no direct witnesses or witnesses who are willing to talk, Dickey said, which can make investigations take longer.

The 2008 gang-style killings at the Casa Tequila Restaurant in Fairfield are a good example, he said, because it took two years to solve that case. Dickey added that most violent crimes are committed by people who have some relationship or connection to the victim. The trick, he said, is getting people to come forward and share that information.

While Monroe police have been tight-lipped about the Howe investigation, a week ago, they asked for the public’s help in identifying a suspect in the case. They put out a call to anyone who might have seen or picked up a suspicious person walking on the morning of Oct. 29 along Ohio 122 and Cincinnati-Dayton Road, near where Howe’s red Cadillac was found.

“We believe someone may have seen something and don’t know they saw it,” Monroe police Lt. Brian Curliss said. “We are looking for a hot lead.”

There is also a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of a suspect or suspects involved in Howe’s death.

Dickey said every case is different and circumstances dictate whether rewards are a help or a hindrance.

“If a third party has information about the homicide, sometimes the reward is enough to bring them in to talk to us,” Dickey said. “In other instances they may have a relationship with the offender, so no amount of money is going to get them to talk to the police.”

The other unsolved cases in Butler County this year include: Joseph Oakley, 19, of Fairfield, who was shot several times in the chest last August and was found near the same apartment complex as Johnson; Damien Taylor, who was shot to death in Fairfield last March; and 11-month-old Brittany Humphries, who died on Jan. 14 in Middletown from blunt force trauma to the head.

Because the cases are ongoing, police would release very few, if any, details about any of them. Of the Fairfield cases, Dickey would only say, “We’re still working on it.”

Vicky Fible, the mother of Chelsea Johnson, said Fairfield police have kept her abreast of any new developments in her daughter’s murder. Fible said she is “crossing her fingers” on the new leads police have and hopes they’ll arrest the perpetrator soon.

“I already know in my heart who did it,” she said. “But you have to wait on evidence. I still won’t have closure, but at least I’ll feel a little somewhat relieved that he is going to pay for what he did.”

Many local residents remain hopeful police can solve the murders soon. Residents of Mount Pleasant Retirement Village in Monroe, where Barbara Howe lived, say they are watching out for one another, especially those who live alone.

Stan Kappers, executive director of Mount Pleasant, said he has been communicating with the residents frequently to answer any questions they might have.

“Unfortunately, most of their questions have been about the investigation,” Kappers said. “I understand that the police are in the midst of their investigation and can’t share much, so I have very little new information for the residents.”

Ann O’Neill, a neighbor of Howe’s, simply said: “We miss her and we hope it’s (the case) resolved soon.”

But some cases don’t get solved quickly, or at all.

Some older unsolved homicides in Butler County include: Spencer Davis, 26, who was shot in the parking lot at Grand Illusions in Middletown in 2008; Steven Denmark, 30, who was shot in his Hamilton home in 2010; and Joe D’Angilo Patterson, 34, who was gunned down in his Fairfield Twp. townhouse in 2010.

Denmark’s is the only unsolved homicide (out of 13) in the past five years in Hamilton. There was a $2,500 reward offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction, but so far, nothing has broken in the case.

Hamilton Police Chief Scott Scrimizzi said his detectives are working just as hard today to find a suspect as they did when the killing occurred.

“Since 2009 that case has never been handled as a cold case,” Scrimizzi said. “There has been continued work on that for the past three years.”

Scrimizzi said a case goes cold when there is absolutely nothing left to uncover. But Hamilton police review their cold cases routinely, he said, and tenacity, technology and even the rumor mill can reopen a cold case. He said providing his detectives with specialized training in the various aspects of crime solving and treating assaults and even apparent suicides as homicides hones their skills and boosts their clearance rates.

Middletown has had similar success solving homicide cases, with just two unsolved cases out of 11. All of the suspects arrested and tried in those cases were found guilty, according to police and court records.

Of the 32 homicide cases solved by police in Butler County since 2008, 31 of them resulted in convictions when the suspects went to trial, records show. Andy Gobran was acquitted for the murder of Alisa Traylor in 2009, and although it is technically an unsolved homicide now, Scrimizzi said he’ll never be convinced Gobran is innocent.

“There is no question in our minds that is who committed that homicide,” Scrimizzi said.

Three of the eight homicides committed this year have been solved and the cases closed. Ed Stevens, 75, of Hamilton — who suffered from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease — was shot and killed after he broke into 84-year-old Charles Foster’s home in January. A grand jury deemed the killing justified.

Trials were held in the two remaining cases, with Stephen Haley being found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s infant son James Smith in Hamilton, and Michael Ray being found guilty of killing his stepfather Brian Schmidt on Father’s Day in St. Clair Twp.

Local police said they want the grieving families of victims to know, for them, the book is never closed until a case is solved.

“We don’t give up within the police service, and that’s not just the Fairfield police,” Dickey said. “I don’t know of any police agency that has an open homicide that totally gives up on it.”