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GPS Data Help Columbus, Ohio, Police Solve Cases

Columbus County Sgt. Rich Weiner said he isn't sure how data from the ankle bracelet are collected and that the GPS data may only be recorded every few hours.

(TNS) -- Columbus police are working with other area authorities to review GPS monitoring data to see whether the man accused of killing an Ohio State student is responsible for a series of attacks and robberies in the German Village area.

GPS data from an ankle bracelet that Brian Golsby was required to wear when he was released from prison in November show he was at the Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City where OSU student Reagan Tokes' body was found Feb. 9.

Now, Columbus police officials, Grove City police and the Franklin County prosecutor's office are investigating whether the data from the monitor will show his whereabouts in relation to a string of other recent crimes, Columbus police spokesman Sgt. Rich Weiner said Thursday.

Golsby is charged in the rape and killing of Tokes less than three months after he was released from prison, where he served a six-year sentence for attempted rape and robbery. Authorities say Golsby abducted Tokes in the Short North, forced her to withdraw money from an ATM on South High Street and took her in her car to Grove City, where he raped and shot her.

Authorities found her car Feb. 10 on Oakwood Avenue, near where Golsby lived. The next day, police arrested Golsby at his South Side home based on DNA found on a cigarette left in Tokes' car, according to court records.

Weiner could not say how many other crimes Golsby is being investigated for in Columbus, though they include robbery-assault incidents in German Village and near Nationwide Children's Hospital. The department has had victims of the other incidents come in and say they think Golsby is the man who assaulted or robbed them, Weiner said.

Golsby, 29, was monitored from Nov. 22 until Feb. 11, and he admitted that he abducted Tokes, according to a criminal complaint. He has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder, rape, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and receiving stolen property -- charges that could result in Golsby facing the death penalty if convicted.

Weiner said he isn't sure how data from the ankle bracelet are collected. It also is unclear what the conditions of Golsby's controlled release -- or any limitations on Golsby's movement -- might have been. The state has yet to say what the conditions of his parole were.

"Hopefully, it will show the exact location, hopefully it will show movement," Weiner said of the data. "Some show the location every 15 minutes, some every hour, some every eight hours."

He said each attack in the German Village area and at Children's Hospital was different. In one, the attacker punched a woman. In others, a knife or gun was shown. They were "a little" spread out geographically, Weiner said.

"You can't rule anything out," he said. "From day one, the investigators started looking into it, not knowing what the result would be."

Weiner said there is no timeline for the investigation.

U.S. officials have offered their assistance in the Golsby criminal case, including whether it could or should be prosecuted in federal court.

"Whichever venue is best," Assistant U.S. Attorney David DeVillers said on Thursday.

©2017 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.