SUSPECT IN 1985 COLD CASE INDICTED FOR AGGRAVATED MURDER

Posted on 4/10/2017

Defendant: Douglas E. Krumlauf

Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said, “When a killer’s fingerprints were entered into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) following an unrelated arrest in 2015, Columbus Police Cold Case Homicide Detectives were able to connect him to an unsolved murder that occurred in Franklin County in 1985.”  Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announced today that the Franklin County Grand Jury has returned an indictment on Mt. Vernon, Ohio resident Douglas E. Krumlauf, age 63, in connection to the murder of Sharla R. Spangler, age 24, that occurred on January 30th, 1985.  Krumlauf has been indicted for one count Aggravated Murder and one count Murder, both with Firearm Specifications, for a total of two counts.  Spangler was employed at the Gold Fox Lounge in Gahanna and was last seen leaving that business in the early morning hours.  Other employees observed her car running in the parking lot shortly after she left.  “Spangler was shot to death and her body was found a few hours later in the area of 161 and Hamilton Road.  Her unlocked car, with her purse inside, was later recovered in the parking lot of the Gold Fox Lounge where it had run out of gas,” O’Brien stated.