The investigators traveled thousands of miles, slept a number of nights in hotels, took multiple flights to and from Oklahoma and Hawaii, and consumed meal after meal at gas stations, local eateries, and from vending machines, too.
Since September 21, 2021, when Tom and Angela Strussion were murdered inside their home in Belmont, Ohio, Chief Detective Ryan Allar and Detective-Sergeant Jordan Blumling have visited multiple states, spoken to hundreds of individuals, examined and collected considerable amounts of evidence, and the investigators lost a lot of sleep, too, because stalking truth forced most other priorities to drop a notch.
There was a killer to catch, after all, and Allar, Blumling, and Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan believe they apprehended the responsible individual when 32-year-old Andrew Isaac Griffin was arrested on February 18th while he was shopping inside the Home Depot in Hilo, Hawaii. He was then extradited to Belmont County and jailed in mid-March, and now Griffin is incarcerated without bail and awaiting a trial with no timeframe.
It wasn’t cheap, but expense wasn’t an issue either.
“Ever since this tragedy took place more than three years ago,” said Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack, “we’ve known we’ve had the full support of the Belmont County Commission, and that’s something we’ve been very grateful for while our detectives have gone about what they’ve needed to do to get the answers.
“I know our residents see us out on the roads doing what we do on a daily basis, but an investigation like this one goes way above what’s normal for us on a daily basis,” he explained. “This investigation has taken a lot of extra funds, and we’ve worked with our commissioners from the beginning so we could inform them of what we needed to do along the way. There’s never been an issue and that’s allowed us to do our jobs the way we’ve needed to do our jobs.”
Commissioner J.P. Dutton concurred.
“There’s been a great amount of communication between the Commission, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Prosecutor’s Office, and it started when our former sheriff, Dave Lucas, came to us and told us about the potential with the investigation,” the commissioner said. “Sheriff Lucas came to the Commission for some perspective and we had a great conversation, and we continued to hear from him, the new sheriff, James Zusack, and from our prosecutor, Kevin Flanagan, too.”
Examples of unexpected expenditures during the investigation are the trips to Hawaii. Instead of traveling to the popular vacation destination, Allar and Blumling planned to arrest Griffin in or around his hometown of Whitesboro, Oklahoma, once a Belmont County Grand Jury returned the 14-count indictment that included aggravated murder. Griffin, though, was staying with his brother, Zach, at his home in Hilo, Hawaii, with no apparent plans to return to the mainland anytime soon.
So, Allar and Blumling flew to Hawaii on February 16, arrested Griffin two days later, returned on February 20, and a different BCSO crew flew back and forth between Columbus and Hawaii to bring the defendant back to Belmont County.
“We had no idea what kind of curveballs were going to come up, but not having to worry about the extra expenditures was definitely a plus for our detectives. That allowed them to go about their investigation the way they needed to go about it,” Zusack said. “In an investigation like this one, you just never know where a lead or a tip is going to take you as a detective. And it did take them to several states along the way until they traveled to Hawaii.
“Our commissioners have had our back throughout this investigation, and I know they’re there for us and for the Prosecutor’s Office as this case moves toward trial,” he said. “They support us, and I can’t say enough about that.”
Broken Fences & Burned Bridges?
The first sighting of Andrew Griffin in the Upper Ohio Valley was on Oct. 31, 2020 when a Facebook photo of him holding a tray of nine “Mini Beers” on Oct. 31, 2020, was posted during a Halloween party at Salsa Joe’s Smokehouse 740 in Belmont.
It was one of several photographs in which he appears as a member of the “Salsa Joe” family, and most of the other pictures feature Griffin toasting, promoting, or joining his business partner in thumbs-up poses.
That’s because the Oklahoma native partnered with 52-year-old Tom Strussion on a Salsa Joe’s Smokehouse location in the Elm Grove area of Wheeling. The announcement about what would be named “Salsa Joe’s Smokehouse 304” was made on Facebook in late March 2021, renovations were performed on the former Undo’s Italian restaurant for a few months, and the eatery finally opened on May 25, 2021.
The final social media posts for both the “740” and “304” Facebook pages were made on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021. Despite the online advertising, neither restaurant even opened again.
The Belmont property was transitioned into the “My Way Café” by Tom’s sister, Lisa Strussion Balog, but the tasty Italian eatery closed in late 2024, and an event center and a limited video lottery parlor now operate inside the former Elm Grove location.
So, after the Wheeling location was operational for only four months, what do detectives believe destroyed the relationship between Strussion and Griffin?
“No comment,” said Allar, a member of the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office since the late 1990s. “We can’t talk about those kinds of specifics right now, but I promise those type of facts will come out during the trial. I know people want to know now because of the time that’s passed since the tragedy, but this all takes time and patience.
“There are a lot of people who are following this case because this is something that doesn’t happen around here very often,” he said. “This story will be told, though, but only when it’s time.”
Dutton is aware there’s still work to be done and money to be spent.
“We’ve talked with our county prosecutor (Kevin Flanagan) and we’ve talked about the funds he would like to see available for the process that takes place between now and the trial. So, that’s what we have planned for as this moves forward,” Dutton said. “We’ve discussed as much as $50,000 to $100,000, but that won’t be known until the end.
“The goal is justice for the families,” he said. “There’s been travel and hotels and food and expenses like that so far, but that’s to be expected when you have a case like this one. Of course, our Sheriff’s Office has the Commission’s full support with this (investigation) and with everything else they do to keep our residents safe.”
On The Record
The victims and the defendant both have been in the news since the murders took place three-and-a-half years ago, but for very different reasons.
Less than a week after the Strussions were found murdered in their Trails End Road home, deputies with the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office arrested a male and female in Bellaire and charged them with extorting Tom Strussion. Anthony Michael Dibacco and Miana Maylyn Smith later pleaded guilty and were sentenced to three years after threatening to reveal that Strussion had an alleged extramarital affair with Smith.
It was reported during the proceedings that Strussion had paid the pair $25,000 to conceal the information.
While Griffin and his former bride Stacee were married on September 26, 2020, in Oklahoma, the wife filed a divorce petition in May of 2023, according to documents filed in LeFlore County. Just three months later, the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma announced that Griffin was reported missing just days after telling a family member he was leaving the area to report to work near Midland, Texas.
According to an article written by reporter Jennifer Compston-Strough and published in the Wheeling papers on July 12, 2023, the sheriff’s office posted on its Facebook page, “Andrew Isaac Griffin was last seen in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. He left a family member’s residence in Shawnee, Oklahoma, headed to a job in Texas (Midland/Odessa area) driving a company vehicle (Texas Plate SSK5533). The vehicle is a 2023 Dodge Ram pickup truck white in color with a black toolbox in the bed. If you know where Griffin is, please call our office at (405) 273-1727 or your local enforcement agency.”
Griffin was then located in October 2023, at the George Bush International Airport in Houston, while de-boarding a flight from Honduras, and he was arrested and charged with kidnapping and domestic violence in a case completely unrelated to the Strussion murders.
And now, Griffin resides inside the Belmont County Jail for allegedly killing the Strussions less than four years after moving to East Ohio and investing in their restaurant business, and the detectives and prosecutor believe they can prove it true come time for the trial.
“Justice is a major expenditure of county government,” Dutton said. “You can go county by county in the state of Ohio, and I’m sure law enforcement is one of the biggest line items in their budget. You just have to look at the expenditures for the Prosecutor’s Office, the court system, the sheriff’s office, and jail operations.
“As a county, we have to make that kind of investment in safety if we expect to retain and attract residents,” the commissioner added. “We do our best to work together here in Belmont County, and this double homicide case is a perfect example.”
