Arraignment for suspect in body dumping case postponed
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (April 22, 2022) – Court proceedings in the case against one of the suspects in the dumping of a Dover woman’s along a Goshen Township road last October body are on hold
38-year-old Daniel Fitzgerald was scheduled to be arraigned in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court this morning on a criminal indictment charging him with gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. That didn’t happen though, because he hadn’t yet seen the document.
Fitzgerald is accused of helping 26-year-old Cekoyia Riechers dump the body of 38-year-old Amber Sherrell along White Bridge Road days after her death from a drug overdose. He appeared for the hearing by video from the Lorain Correctional Institution where he’s being held for a parole violation.
Fitzgerald wanted to know what he had been charged with, but Judge Michael Ernest said couldn’t discuss the matter until he had been served with a copy of the indictment.
Assistant Prosecutor Scott Deedrick told the judge the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections received the indictment, so he wasn’t sure Fitzgerald hadn’t gotten it. He says they may end up sending a deputy to Lorain to retrieve him so he can enter a plea to the charges in person with the document in front of him.
Reichers, who lives in Akron now, pleaded not guilty to the same charges last month. She’s on pretrial supervision with a GPS ankle monitor.