Divorced Couple Separately Vanish 10 Years Apart; Son Remains Person of Interest
In the spring of 1994, 71-year-old Melvin Leroy Shoemaker disappeared from his home on Main Market Road in Parkman Township.
In the spring of 1994, 71-year-old Melvin Leroy Shoemaker disappeared from his home on Main Market Road in Parkman Township.
He has not been seen nor heard from since. He left his home and vehicles behind — and roughly $1 million in the bank.
Almost a decade later, his ex-wife, Florence, then 76, vanished from her Portage County childhood home on Winchell Road in Hiram Township. Like Melvin, she has not been seen nor heard from since.
Despite thousands of hours of investigative work — including execution of multiple search warrants over the years in both Geauga and Portage counties — no leads have been developed, no suspects identified and authorities are no closer to answering what happened to them.
The only person of interest remains Glenn Roger Shoemaker, now 68, the couple’s only child, whom law enforcement said has been uncooperative and of little help in locating his parents.
But detectives from Geauga and Portage counties are hoping a members-only crime-solving club in Philadelphia can provide a fresh set of eyes in helping them solve these cold-case mysteries.
The Vidocq Society — named after a 19th century French former-criminal who is credited as being the first private detective and the father of modern criminology — comprises some of the world’s foremost criminologists with an intense passion for the profession. Its members include current and former FBI profilers, homicide investigators, scientists, psychologists, prosecutors and coroners who use their experience to provide new insights for investigations that have gone cold.
They meet in Philadelphia every month to provide pro bono expert assistance to the law enforcement community in solving cold-case murders from all over the country.
The society does not conduct independent investigations, but rather acts as a catalyst to assist law enforcement agencies only at their invitation, according to the society’s website.
“They reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to be one of the nine investigators to present a cold case this year,” Geauga County Sheriff’s Office Detective Don Seaman told the Geauga County Maple Leaf. “I didn’t realize how big of a deal it is. They only take nine cases a year and that’s from across the country.”
Seaman said the Vidocq Society had read about his work in solving the murder of Geauga’s Child in 2022, as well as his work in 2018 on the Samuel Little murders. The FBI has confirmed Little — who confessed to 93 murders between 1970 and 2005 — to be the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history.
“I talked to our administration and it was agreed that they wanted me to present the Shoemaker investigation into the missing persons of both Florence and Melvin,” Seaman said. “And because it is a joint investigation, I reached out to Portage County and they also assisted with the presentation to the Vidocq Society.”
Last month, Seaman, accompanied by Portage County Sheriff’s Office Detective Trent Springer and Sgt. Marsha Zwick, made the trip to Philadelphia and presented the cases to about 80 society members over a three-day period.
“Now, they will put together a group of people to try to give us new leads, investigative techniques and try to help us figure out what happened to these two individuals,” explained Seaman. “And they have a couple hundred other volunteers and will put together a group they think has the expertise or has previously worked on similar cases in the past to try to help bring these cases to a resolution.”
But, Springer made clear investigators are not “resting on our laurels” waiting for that feedback.
“Now that we’ve gone over the case file, we’re going to get together and see if there are other interviews we can do while we’re waiting on this, people we can talk to that maybe we can further the investigation and get some more information as we go,” he said. “We’re just not going to sit and wait for Vidocq to call us up and go, ‘Hey go do this.’ We’re looking at it from a different eye than the original investigation.”
Melvin and Florence Divorce
A Mantua native, Melvin married Florence (maiden name Converse), of Warren, in 1951, according to Portage County Common Pleas Court records.
Four years later, Florence gave birth to Glenn. The couple moved to Geauga County in 1970 and lived a quiet, simple life in Parkman until the late 1970s, when they divorced. Florence got little in the divorce, about $30,000, Seaman said.
Florence — and Glenn — moved into her childhood home at 5846 Winchell Road in Hiram Township. Around that same time, Florence’s mother died and she got the deed to her childhood home, Seaman said.
Glenn, who was in his early 20s at the time, was still actively involved with Melvin. Seaman said investigators found a documented history of domestic disputes between the two, including reports that Glenn had locked his father in his house around the time of his parents’ separation and subsequent divorce.
“In May (of 1978), we go there,” said Seaman, who inherited Melvin’s case file this spring, two decades after he went missing. “Dad denies being locked in the house, but then we go back in July and we find dad locked in the house. Our deputies break a window to get him out and he says his son has had him locked in the house since April, which is before the first time we were there.”
Seaman noted Melvin had a key and told investigators he could get out but if he did, his son would kill him.
A 1995 article in the News-Herald said Melvin was almost fired from his job as a welder at a manufacturing company after his son allegedly locked him in the house.
Seaman said Melvin’s boss had called the sheriff’s office because he had not shown up to work.
Melvin also was “tied up and chained in the basement at times during the month” in 1978 when the incidents occurred, the News-Herald reported, quoting a GCSO affidavit supporting a search warrant executed in 1995 after Melvin went missing.
Melvin escaped at one point, the affidavit said, but Glenn “caught him in the driveway and sprayed Mace in his face.”
Glenn allegedly “told him that if (Melvin) ever tried anything like that again, (Glenn) would kill him and hide his body where no one would ever find it,” the News-Herald reported, quoting the affidavit.
In addition, Melvin’s diary, which investigators found after he disappeared, said Glenn “threatened his father with a gun and forcibly took records from him during a dispute,” the News-Herald reported.
Notably, Melvin never pressed charges against his son.
Seaman also said two women had filed police reports against Glenn in the early 1980s. The first woman filed a report in 1981 alleging he had made some threats against her because he thought she was cooperating with the police and giving the police information. She further alleged Glenn told her he had an associate who was going to take care of her. The woman refused to press charges.
Then, in 1982, a woman filed a report alleging she was receiving unwanted calls and letters from Glenn, and that he had told her he was watching her all the time.
“She had a friend who was at her house, his tires were slashed in her driveway,” Seaman said. “And there is another witness . . . at that time, the investigators talked to him, and he said, ‘Glenn told me he was going to cut this woman’s head off and put it in a jar.’ But again, she refused to file any charges.”
Melvin Goes Missing
In May 1994, one of Melvin’s neighbors, Bill Snyder, noticed he had been missing for several days and called the police.
Someone reportedly saw Melvin — who was described as looking distraught and upset — and Glenn together at a bank in Chardon on April 17.
“But that’s an unsubstantiated report,” Seaman said. “We cannot confirm that.”
Agents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, along with sheriff’s deputies from Geauga and Portage counties, began looking into Melvin’s disappearance. A search warrant was executed in August 1994.
“All of Melvin’s stuff is there, his car is there, his reading glasses are sitting on the kitchen table,” said Seaman, adding investigators also found his diary.
The FBI added his name to a list of missing persons, possibly the victim of a violent crime.
Armed with a search warrant, authorities searched the Winchell Road property — which had no electricity, no running water and dirt floors — in January 1995, seizing 11 firearms and “a large amount of ammunition,” but nothing indicating Melvin’s whereabouts.
Seaman noted Melvin also owned many guns and ammunition.
A search dog alerted deputies to three spots in the earthen floor of the basement at the home, “a sign that something may have been buried there,” the News-Herald reported in its 1995 story. A backhoe was brought in but nothing was found.
During this time, investigators continued to monitor Melvin’s bank accounts.
“They thought, well, maybe he is in Arizona and we could see that he made a transaction,” Seaman said. “There are no transactions in his bank accounts from 1994 to 1996.”
In 1996, Glenn produced a signed blanket power of attorney and liquidated all of Melvin’s assets, Seaman said. He uses some of the money he took to buy guns.
“It’s a signed power of attorney and Melvin still can’t be located and Glenn won’t say where Melvin is,” he added. “And with that power of attorney, what I can tell you is Glenn is able to liquidate all of Melvin’s assets.”
Melvin’s Parkman home transferred to Florence via a quick claim deed in December 2000 and then in February 2003, it transferred to Glenn via a quick claim deed, according to the Geauga County Auditor’s Office.
Seaman cannot add many details about the transfers “because right around that time is when Florence went missing and we were never able to talk to her.”
In July 2004, a foreclosure complaint was filed against Glenn in Geauga County Common Pleas Court, but it was dismissed in September 2004, according to court records.
In April 2008, Glenn sold the Parkman home.
Florence Goes Missing
In 2005, Project LINK (Linking Individuals Not Known) at the Ohio Attorney’s General’s BCI contacted investigators to request they obtain a DNA sample from Glenn so it could be compared to DNA taken from unidentified remains from crime scenes, other potentially suspicious circumstances and coroners’ offices to see if there was a match.
“And our investigators go to Glenn’s house in 2005. He refuses to give DNA and now we can’t find Florence,” said Seaman. “So, they start looking into it and the last person who saw Florence was her hairdresser in Aurora at the end of 2003.”
Seaman said Florence’s disappearance was not discovered until 2005 because Glenn never reported her missing.
“They (investigators) start talking to family and friends, and family and friends say they tried to contact her in the summer of 2004 and were unable to, and Glenn would not tell them where she was,” explained Seaman
Investigators asked Glenn about her whereabouts. She had worked as a home health aide and Glenn would tell them she was in Youngstown or Florida taking care of someone.
“And they say, OK, give us a name and address or a phone number, and he refuses to,” Seaman said. “He would never give us a name, address, phone number of anybody to contact, to try to locate her and make sure she is alive.”
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office added her name to its list of missing persons.
With Florence missing, in 2008, law enforcement obtained another search warrant to search the Parkman home, which had transferred out of Glenn’s name and the new owners granted access to the home.
“Glenn got behind on the taxes and he sold the property to get out from underneath it,” Seaman said. “And at that time, the new owner allowed us access. They were going to get rid of the septic and connect to the public sewers, so we were able to get back in the house and the investigators looked again at things and they dug up the septic and found nothing.”
Years passed and both cases went cold, until 2018, when another search warrant was obtained for the Winchell Road property.
An undercover operation also was conducted to get Glenn’s DNA. To date, there has been no match in any national database, Seaman said.
“We searched the house for several days and we actually dug up several areas of the yard. We searched the house and we’re not able to find anything,” said Seaman. “One thing that is of note is there are basically padlocks on the outside of the house, there’s padlocks on the bedroom doors and there’s actually like a hasp on the door to go up the stairs to the second story where the bedrooms are.”
He added, “But, there’s nothing of evidentiary value ever located at any of the houses.”
Seaman also noted Glenn was asked to take a polygraph but refused. In addition, he said Glenn’s guns were gone.
“At this point, both of them (Melvin and Florence) just vanished and there’s no evidence of what happened to them,” Seaman said.
Springer, who, like Seaman, began working on these cases this spring, does not know what happened to Melvin and Florence, but said “people don’t normally just disappear.”
“I can’t say that these deaths aren’t natural, I can’t say that they are,” he said. “Right now, I don’t have enough of a grasp to determine what happened. We’re just looking, but it’s not normal for people to just disappear. It’s not normal for someone to wander away from his property in 1994 and, in 2024 . . . he hasn’t been found, nothing’s been found, nothing’s been heard of. That’s not normal.”
He added, “Can I say it’s not foul play? No. Can I say it’s foul play? No. I don’t know what it is. That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Springer also reiterated Glenn has not been cooperative to the degree law enforcement would like.
“We’re interested in what he knows and what he has to say because we firmly believe he knows more than he’s said,” said Springer.
Notably, Glenn has not been charged with any crimes in his parents’ disappearances.
Asked what he thought happened, Seaman answered, “We don’t know, but the biggest thing out of this media exposure and the Vidocq Society is somebody knows something, and we’re really hoping that somebody will eventually come forward and give us that one tip that will lead us to that outcome, to know what happened to them.”
If you have any information on Melvin or Florence Shoemaker’s disappearance, call the GCSO detective line at 440-279-2084 or PCSO detective line at 330-351-2821.
