FORT RECOVERY, Ohio -- Neighbors are being asked to look out for one another and parents won't allow their school children to be dropped off at empty homes after the deadly farmhouse shootings of a disabled man and his 47-year-old daughter shook their rural Ohio community.
Both victims were bound with duct tape and shot during what appeared to be a robbery, said authorities, who were hesitant to release details.
Colleen Grube lived in the house, where she took care of her father, 70-year-old Robert Grube, authorities said.
The house where the bodies were found is on a lonely country road and surrounded by farm fields in west-central Ohio near the Indiana state line. It's an area dotted with small farming towns and home to dozens of soaring Roman Catholic churches built in the late 1800s and early 1900s with cross-topped spires.
Investigators think the killer or killers came through an unlocked door or were invited in the house by the victims Tuesday night or early Wednesday. The house had been ransacked and it looked like whoever went through it was after something specific, said Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey.
Authorities have no suspects. A message seeking an update on the investigation was left with the sheriff on Friday.
"It is going to take the whole community to solve this crime," Grey said a day earlier.
"This kind of stuff is not supposed to happen in Mercer County, and the nice thing about a small community is people realize when something looks out of the ordinary," Grey said.
Colleen Grube's sister-in-law found the bodies after she didn't show up to babysit her niece Wednesday morning.
"The house door was open, and I knew right away something was bad," Cassandra Grube told a 911 operator. She said she found Robert Grube dead in his wheelchair and his daughter's body on a couch.
The sheriff has asked neighbors to be vigilant and warned residents not to allow strangers in their house. Those living around the town of Fort Recovery told The Daily Standard newspaper of Celina that they don't feel safe.
Parents have asked school bus drivers to drop their children off at neighbors' or grandparents' homes so the kids won't be home alone, and others told the newspaper they are keeping shotguns or baseball bats nearby at home.
"I would assume doors throughout the area will be locked tonight and for a long time to come," said Rob Uhlenhake, a restaurant owner who said the victims were frequent customers. "Feeling safe again will be a long time coming."
