Crystal Caudill ran from her home, at 207 E. Main St. in DeGraff, to a neighbor’s for help after she was allegedly stabbed and attacked with a baseball bat by her son . The neighbor called police shortly after 7 a.m., said Dodds.
“Before the EMS did arrive she did speak to our officers and said she had been stabbed by her son,” Dodds said.
Crystal Caudill was transported to Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine where she died, Dodds said. It’s unclear how many times Caudill was stabbed.
“It sounds to me like it was multiple times,” Dodds said.
After Crystal Caudill was transported to the hospital, police began the search for Brycen Caudill, who had fled the scene.
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“We weren’t sure where he went. He left on foot,” Dodds said.
While deputies were looking for the boy, nearby Riverside Local Schools was placed on lockdown, the Superintendent Scott Mann said. Brycen Caudill attended Riverside High School, were Dodds said he, “was a good kid and a good student.”
Police were, “pinging,” or tracking the teen’s cell phone when they received a 9-1-1 call from Brycen Caudill confessing to the stabbing, Dodds said. The teen asked a man mowing his lawn if he could borrow his phone, Dodds said.
“He made a 9-1-1 call into the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office and told him where he was at,” Dodds said. “I think probably the young man had come to terms with what he had done and was tired of running.”
Brycen Caudill was taken into custody around noon on Trestle Road in St. Paris.
Investigators interviewed the teen Friday and he said he had no reason for wanting to kill his mother, Dodds said. The teen said he had been thinking about it the night before and just did it, Dodds said.
During the interview with Brycen Caudill, Dodds said the teen was very calm and showed no signs of remorse.
“From what I understand he came down the steps and she was down in either the living room, I don’t think she was in the bed, and he attacked her.”
Buddy Beer, his girlfriend, Tammy Kopus, and their three children live three house’s down from the Caudill’s.
Beer said he’s seen the Caudill’s before, but hadn’t had much interaction with them outside of passing them occasionally in the street. He said he’s, “baffled.”
“In a little town like this, and wondering what would cause something like this. The people didn’t sound like anything like this would happen to them,” Beer said.
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While incidents of violence like this are rare in Logan County, Dodds said he believes it’s a bigger issue than violence.
“Of course it’s rare, but I will tell you folks, it’s this mental health issue that we are dealing with. And I see it in the young people we deal with more and more and more,” Dodds said. “I think we are all to blame for this somewhat.”
Dodds said he thinks violent acts, like stabbings, also have to do with what he refers to as, “the juice box era.”
“I think the break down of family, and no one knows life skills, and no one has to deal with what I call the, ‘juice box era,’ where everyone gets a trophy. I think there is a lot to say about that,” Dodds said. “We are going to fall in life. But you pick yourself up and go on. I think there is a lot to that. This, of course, is rare for us. We haven’t seen anything like this much and hopefully we don’t see anymore of it.”
Brycen Caudill is being held in the Logan County Juvenile Detention Center and is expected in court early next week, Dodds said..