Chief Detective Ryan Allar made a modern-day mix tape for his driving trips to and from areas of Oklahoma during the investigation into the double homicide of Tom and Angela Strussion.
He preferred the classics from the 1960s through the 80s, a few country “sad songs” and some tunes by The Clash and The Kinks, too, on his smartphone while navigating through five states and more than a thousand miles each way at least five times while trying to figure out who killed the husband and wife in their own home three-and-a-half years ago.
Allar and Detective-Sergeant Jordan Blumling apprehended Andrew Isaac Griffin on February 18th in Hilo, Hawaii, on two counts of aggravated murder while the suspect was staying with his younger brother, Zach. After fighting his extradition back to Belmont County, Griffin was returned last Friday and incarcerated in the Belmont County Jail.
Griffin, represented by public defenders during his Monday arraignment, pleaded not guilty to 14 charges in front of Judge Chris Berhalter. Griffin’s bond hearing is scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m. on the second floor the Belmont County Courthouse.
“I feel as if I did enough travel for a lifetime while working this case, and I felt that way before I realized I needed to go to Hawaii to make the arrest,” Allar said. “It took me and Jordan all over the country, and hey, I’m just a kid from Barnesville, Ohio. I’ve traveled more in the last two years than I have in my whole life put together, and living out of a suitcase is something I had never experienced before.
“Working in Oklahoma was really interesting because it was like two different countries there because they have the Choctaw Nation and they have the Oklahoma authorities there, too,” he explained. “So, there were two police departments and, of course, officers from both departments and working with everyone was a great experience. It taught me a lot, plus, there was a lot of travel in Oklahoma alone because everything is so spread out there. There were times when I had to drive three hours to just talk with someone.”
The Strussions were discovered deceased on Sept. 21, 2021, by firefighters who responded to a 9-1-1 call made by a neighbor in Belmont, Ohio, when smoke was seen seeping from their home on Trails End Road. Tom Strussion owned two Salsa Joe’s restaurants, one in Belmont near their home and another in the Elm Grove area in Wheeling.
It was the Elm Grove eatery that was co-owned by Griffin, a native of Oklahoma who worked in construction and in the gas and oil fields “back home” in the Sooner State.
“During the investigation, we took seven trips to Oklahoma, one to Texas, and we went to Kentucky, to Tennessee, and to Illinois, too. Some were just day trips, but I’ve gone for weeks at a time sometimes, too,” Allar said. “We were very lucky to have the support of our former sheriff, Dave Lucas, and the full support of Sheriff James Zusack and the Belmont County Commission. They’ve let us do what we needed to do.
“I know it was expensive, but I did a lot of driving when it was possible, too, because there were a lot of stops we needed to make in different places along the way so we could follow up on the tips we received,” he explained. “I can’t be too specific, but this case touched a lot of places.”
Step By Step
Initially, it was a fire. Then it involved death. One day later, retired sheriff Dave Lucas ruled what took place at the Strussion home as a double homicide, but that’s all Lucas would say. He refused to discuss the autopsy reports or what state and federal agencies were assisting his investigators,
When it came to what evidence was collected at the crime scene, Lucas was silent.
Residents of the Upper Ohio Valley were shocked, too, because Salsa Joe’s 740 in Belmont County had won rave reviews from customers, and Tom was active with charitable efforts on both sides of the state border.
There was a buzz, too, about a new Salsa Joe’s location in Wheeling and Tom’s new partner, Mr. Andrew Griffin. He was in his late 20s at the time, wore a cowboy hat often, spoke with a twanged accent, and he was a friendly host once the Elm Grove eatery opened.
The popularity of the Strussions and Griffin, Allar believes, was why so much information often flowed to him and Blumling for a little more than a year following the murders.
“One thing about this case is that there were all kinds of tips that were coming in soon after these tragedies took place, and we checked out every single one. The information we received during the first year of the investigation sent us in all kinds of different directions, and we went in every one of them. It was very time-consuming, but you have to check out everything because you just never know,” Allar explained. “A lot of people knew Tom and Angela, that’s for sure.
“But after the first year, the calls slowed down,” he said. “There have been times when people get arrested for whatever and they tell us they know something about a bigger case. They do that in hopes their cooperation might help them with what they’re in trouble with, but that was non-existent in this case. That didn’t happen. We even did a press conference asking for tips, and we got nothing. Some people called to tell us what they thought happened, but the calls with tips just stopped.
“Things really didn’t start jumping again until we got out of Belmont County.”
Whenever media members requested updates on the Strussion investigation, Allar, Lucas, and Sheriff Zusack offered a similar answer: “The case is being worked every single day.”
That was it.
Now, though, Allar is able to offer some explanation as far as the procedures followed and the efforts made that resulted in Griffin’s arrest in Hawaii and his incarceration in Belmont County.
“We reached out to so many people along the way because we were willing to talk to anyone at any time to check what they wanted to tell us. We interviewed people in hotel rooms, in restaurants, and in police departments when we could,” Allar reported. “I interviewed one guy at a gas station because that’s where he wanted to meet, and we talked with some (people) without even leaving our car. That isn’t normally how we do our business.
“I can tell you I don’t think I’ll ever drive to Oklahoma again. I drove out there five times because of opportunities to speak with some people,” the detective added. “It’s a nice drive and all, and I listened to books and music on the way there and back, but I hope I don’t have to do that drive again.”
