Nonprofit agency helping Ohio family seek justice in cold case

PAULDING COUNTY, Ohio (WPTA) - It has been nearly 60 years since Nancy Eagleson was murdered and her family is hoping for a last chance for justice.

A nonprofit agency is trying to help.

When the 14-year-old was kidnapped, raped, and killed DNA evidence was not an option.

With the help of the Porch Light Project, what was believed a longshot a few months ago, is now moving forward. The organization is based out of Ohio and serves as a victim advocacy program.

The group has worked with one family to successfully solve one homicide, now the Porch Light Project is working with the Eaglesons. Representatives of the group met with Paulding County Sheriff Jason Landers and felt there was work that could be done to crack the case.

It is their hope, along with the Eagleson family, that the body will be exhumed, DNA evidence will be found, and it will be sent to a lab that will detect evidence that could not be found in 1960.

“We sit here in September, one day removed from a judge granting the greenlight for us,” Nicholas Edwards of the Porch Light Project said. “We could be doing another interview in a couple months and this perpetrator could be sitting in a jail cell waiting for trial come this Christmas.”

Exhumation is expected to cost several thousand dollars. Money was raised with the help of the Porch Light Project, the Eagleson family and the community.

Scheduling the exhumation will likely take place in October.

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