By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT WRIGHT - A convicted drug dealer's honesty has led police to recover a burglar's haul of jewelry that may have been lying beside a road since at least 1989.

Kenton County jail inmate Brandon Chaney, 33, of Fort Wright was on a work detail Thursday picking up trash along Highland Avenue when he found a pillowcase filled with jewelry.

It was covered in dirt and crawling with ants.

Chaney "could have left it behind and had someone else pick it up," said Fort Wright Police Chief Dan Kreinest. "... We probably would have never known."

Inside was one clue - a 14-year-old receipt from Elder-Beerman with the name of Dorathea Burton and a Bond Hill address. She died of cancer in 1990, but her 81-year-old husband still lives there.

Nelson Burton said he didn't remember exactly when his home was hit.

"But I definitely remember the theft. I had to pay the bill to replace the items."

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com