There he was. Andrew Isaac Griffin. He was wearing a ballcap, a white, long-sleeve fishing shirt with a bass on it, khaki shorts, and flip-flops, and he was walking out of a Home Depot on February 18th with his little brother, Zach, in Hilo, Hawaii.
Belmont County Chief Detective Ryan Allar and Detective Sergeant Jordan Blumling were there, too, along with officers with the Hilo Police Department, and that’s where Griffin was apprehended nearly one month on two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Angela and Thomas Strussion of Belmont, Ohio. The wife and husband were discovered deceased by firefighters on September 21, 2021.
Initially, Griffin was shocked, Allar reported, and his younger sibling was worried he’d be accused with harboring a fugitive, but Hilo officer placed the primary suspect in handcuffs without incident. It was the arrest Allar and Blumling worked for over the three-and-a-half years since the murders took place, and it was the development many doubted would ever take place.
“We did talk to Andrew’s younger brother, Zach, and he was a very nice person,” Allar said. “His big thing was he didn’t want people to think he was hiding his brother or that he was part of anything nefarious. We’ve never had any intelligence that suggests that whatsoever, and he seemed like a pretty upbeat person. But he was shocked, too.
“Once we took care of contacting the good people in Hilo, we decided we were going to try to minimize any type of dangerous apprehension,” the chief detective explained. “That’s why we waited until they left the brother’s house and went to Home Depot in Hilo, and along with the local PD, we were able to get him into custody without incident. Mr. Griffin was shocked, and he really didn’t say anything, but he knew what it was about, especially when he saw me there.”
Allar and Blumling traveled to Hawaii on Feb. 16 but had planned to make the arrest in the suspect’s home state of Oklahoma.
“Once we obtained the arrest warrant out of Western Division Court, we knew he was in Hawaii but we wanted to see if he was going to return to Oklahoma for a court date he had there over a domestic case that was about two years old. But he missed that court date, so that’s when we knew we were going to Hawaii.
“We had planned to arrest him in Oklahoma, but we realized he had no clear plans to return. So, we decided to go to Hawaii to apprehend him,” the detective explained. “He wasn’t in Hawaii to hide out, though. I hope people come to understand that. He was staying there with his younger brother, and we believe he was planning to move there, too.”
Allar hoped at the time he and Blumling would be able to escort Griffin back too Belmont County once he made a court appearance, but the suspect opted to fight against the return to East Ohio.
“After the local police took him to jail, we stayed because we were hoping we could get his extradition hearing the next day since we were there, and we could have taken him back right then and there. But that didn’t happen,” he said. “It was his right to do so when he refused to waive extradition, so we came home because more court dates were going to be necessary.
“The next hearing was supposed to be on (March) 24th, but it was moved up and he was brought back Friday morning,” he said. “He was incarcerated in the Belmont County Jail by 11 a.m.”
It’s a CSI One-Hour World
“There’s a five-hour difference between here and there,” Allar explained. “It beat me up pretty bad, honestly.”
That was his impression of his first trip to Hawaii. The chief detective didn’t have a lot time to notice much of anything else.
“I mean, it was nice. Super pretty. There was a nice gazebo at the hotel that was a great place for us to work, but we weren’t there to be tourists and there wasn’t any downtime,” Allar said. “But I’ve a lot of people keep saying, ‘Oh, so rough to go to Hawaii …’, but I can tell you traveling back and forth in a few days with a five-hour time difference really messes with ya.
“We did drive around the island once, and the people were really nice, but it was like a different country in a lot of ways,” Allar reported. “We did see a few waterfalls and a volcano, but we were there to see Andrew Griffin.”
Now that Griffin is a resident of the Belmont County Jail, the detectives will work directly with Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan and his staff in preparation for the expected trial that’s not yet scheduled.
“I have worked multiple murder cases in my career, and when an arrest takes place, it’s like the case changes and focuses on the courtroom,” he explained. “When it comes down to it, my job is to find the truth no matter what, and that’s why I’ll keep working it by looking into every tip we receive.
“This case will not be over for me until everything is resolved in court,” he added. “We’ll get there.”
Allar insisted that anyone – ANYONE – who believes they may know something about anything they believe could be connected information is more than welcome to contact him, Blumling, or anyone else with the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office.
“It does feel good to make an arrest in a case that looks like it’s headed toward a trial eventually, but on TV it all takes an hour and not three-and-a-half years. But that’s not how it works in real life,” Allar said. “We will continue living with this case until it’s concluded, and that’s the way it’s been from the very beginning. I have no idea how many hours me and Jordan have in on this case right now, but we’ve not finished.
“There is no such thing as a bad tip, and if anybody has any information whatsoever, we urge them to reach out to us. We know there’s more information out there, so if you think there might be something you should tell us about, please contact us so we can talk,” he added. “Our job is to get these families the justice they deserve, so reach out to us because it might be something we already know about, or maybe it’s something new.
“Just pick up the phone instead of making comments on Facebook.”
