Two women and an 11-year-old boy were stabbed to death and dismembered before their remains were put in garbage bags and lowered into a hollow tree, a coroner said Saturday, the latest gruesome details of the murders that have stunned this tiny town.
Preliminary autopsy reports show that Tina Herrmann, her son, Kody Maynard, and her friend Stephanie Sprang were stabbed multiple times with a knife in the back and chest Nov. 10, Knox County Coroner Jennifer Ogle said.
“They were then placed inside large plastic garbage bags and later lowered into the hollow of a large tree,” Ogle said in a statement. It’s unclear exactly when they died or when their remains were put in the tree. There were no signs of sexual assault.
The remains of the family dog — a miniature pinscher named Tanner — were found in the tree with the bodies, said Joe Pejsa, a family friend.
The victims disappeared Nov. 10 along with Herrmann’s daughter, 13-year-old Sarah Maynard, who was found bound and gagged several days later in the basement of an unemployed tree-cutter, Matthew Hoffman. Hoffman is accused of kidnapping the girl and keeping her in the basement of his home in Mount Vernon, about 10 miles west of Howard in central Ohio.