CINCINNATI -- Mary Griffin-Able expected James Able back within minutes when he left home May 30. Her husband of 12 years, whose smile and laugh she recalled fondly Wednesday night, told her he was going to the store for a pack of cigarettes.
Those minutes passed; Able didn't return.
Griffin-Able's phone rang.
"(The police) asked me the relationship with him," she said. "They said, ‘I am sorry. Your husband is deceased.'"
She broke down crying with the phone in her hand.
According to police, Able was shot multiple times on Green Street in Over-the-Rhine that night. First responders rushed him to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he died.
He was the second of four people shot to death in Over-the-Rhine in a period of just six days.
Over a month later, clustered around the spot he was found, his family members said they still have no idea who killed him or why.
"We need closure on this case," sister-in-law Betty Griffin said. "Not just our family -- other families out here. When we speak for James, we speak for all out here that have lost a loved one."
She urged anyone with information about Able's death or other unsolved homicides to call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.
