Lisa Weber thought she had escaped Franklin Saunders.
After their break-up on Mother's Day, she moved to a mobile-home park in Fairfield, hid her car at her ex-husband's house in Hamilton and drove to work most days with her 19-year-old son, Justin.
"We thought we lost him, basically," said Mark Weber, Lisa's ex-husband.
Until Tuesday.
Police and family members say he pulled her into a car Tuesday evening and later shot her in the woods north of Muhlhauser Road. Union Township police and officers from four other agencies searched 12 hours for Mr. Saunders Tuesday night. He turned himself in Wednesday morning and is being held in Butler County Jail.
Mr. Saunders, 39, of Blue Ash, was charged with aggravated murder and kidnapping Wednesday. During an arraignment later in the day, Butler County Judge J.B. Connaughton set bond at $500,000.
His attorney, Rodney Harris said Mr. Saunders intends to plead not guilty.
The drama, Lisa Weber's family says, began when the man known as Frankie showed up at Home Care Pharmacy, 5549 Spellmire Dr., West Chester, where Lisa Weber handled claims and Justin Weber works in purchasing. Both mother and son knew it meant trouble. Here is what family and police say happened:
Lisa and Justin Weber raced for their cars as Mr. Saunders gave chase, trying to run Lisa off the road on Provident Drive while Justin slammed his car into Mr. Saunders' Honda Accord to stop him.
"I'm not playing," Mr. Saunders said, pulling a shotgun from his trunk.
Begging for her life, Ms. Weber was dragged by Mr. Saunders into a car he commandeered from relatives who followed him there, concerned about his state of mind.
As the car sped away with Ms. Weber at the wheel, Justin ran to call police. It was the last time he would see his mother alive.
Ms. Weber, 38, was found dead hours later and less than a quarter-mile away in a wooded area behind a Muhlhauser Road subdivision. Police say she was shot in the neck.
"(Justin) did everything he could to get him away from her," Mr. Weber said. "The first thing I heard out of him was, "Why couldn't I do more, why couldn't I do more?' "
The shooting was a violent end to a stormy six-year relationship, marked by physical and mental abuse against Ms. Weber, said Mark Weber and the Webers' 17-year-old daughter, Shannon.
Since Ms. Weber moved out of his Blue Ash apartment in May, Mr. Saunders has been stalking her, her family says.
"He's been on a constant search for her," Mr. Weber said.
Yet Ms. Weber was afraid to call police.
"We begged her to file charges or a restraining order," Mr. Weber said.
She finally moved to a mobile home next door to her mother on Pauline Drive in Fairfield, but would not let anyone but the children and her ex-husband know where she was.
Ms. Weber had lived with Mr. Saunders in Blue Ash for about a year after they moved from Fort Thomas in Northern Kentucky, where they lived about five years.
They moved north after Mr. Saunders was hired by Procter & Gamble. Company spokesman Michael Whiting confirmed that Mr. Saunders works for P&G at its Ivorydale food plant in St. Bernard, but said company policy prohibits him from revealing Mr. Saunders' position or length of employment.
Family members remembered Ms. Weber as a devoted mother, "bubbly" and "fun-loving."
"She'd like to relax and go on picnics," Shannon said. "She attended everything, all our functions."
Josephine Berry, a neighbor in Mr. Saunders' building at 3817 Fox Run Drive, said she saw him on Mothers Day with the miniature pinscher puppy he bought Ms. Weber at Christmas.
"He said she packed her clothes and left," Ms. Berry said. "He said he was very depressed."
Police have not recovered the shotgun used in Ms. Weber's death, Union Township Capt. John Bruce said. Officers spent part of Wednesday combing the woods.
Fraklin Saunders is led from a Butler County Courtroom, where he was charged in the death and kidnapping of Lisa Weber.
(Gary Landers photo)
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Butler County Coroner Dr. Richard P. Burkhardt on Wednesday ruled Ms. Weber's death a homicide and said her spinal cord was severed near the neck. The shooting took place shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Police, called to the scene by Justin, heard two gunshots from the area behind the Woodland Hills subdivision.
That touched off a 12-hour manhunt led by Union Township police, its SWAT team and two-dog canine unit. Helicopters from Hamilton and Butler counties were deployed as 40 officers from Butler County, Sharonville, Springdale and Fairfield searched the swampy, residential and commercial areas between Ohio 747 on the west, Crescentville Road on the south, the subdivision on the north and Windisch Road on the east.
Police believe he walked to an undisclosed Fairfield home and called his friend, Hector Vega, a police officer with the Woodlawn Police Department. Mr. Vega drove Mr. Saunders to the Union Township police station just before 6 a.m. Wednesday, where he turned himself in. "My kids will suffer the rest of their lives because of this," Mr. Weber said.
Enquirer reporters Marie McCain, Janice Morse, Steve Kemme, and Jane Prendergast contributed to this report.
