Van Voorhis is accused of fatally shooting 44-year-old Clinton James “CJ” Pierce of Dayton around July 14 and then concealing Pierce’s body under multiple layers of flooring material and other items in a detached garage in the 400 block of Burkhart Avenue, according to a Dayton Municipal Court affidavit.
Dayton police found Pierce’s body on Aug. 18, more than a month later, after Pierce’s girlfriend reported a bad odor coming from the garage.
“The body was badly decomposed, but from the cause of death, it appears to be a homicide from the evidence at the scene,” Dayton police Maj. Brian Johns said in August following the discovery.
An arrest warrant was issued Aug. 29 for Van Voorhis, who was taken into custody Aug. 24 following an hourlong three-county police chase that began in Lima and ended when he stopped his vehicle and surrendered in Anna, according to a release from the Allen County Sheriff’s Office.
He had been held in the Allen County Jail, where he faces one count of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, according to Lima Municipal Court records.
Van Voorhis was brought Wednesday to Montgomery County ahead of his arraignment hearing but has since been returned to Allen County, where he is held on a $200,000 bond, jail records show.
