Christopher Lerch
Christopher Lerch
Name: Christopher Lerch
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: August 14, 1982
Location Last Seen: Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio
Date of Birth: August 24, 1953
Age: 28 yrs old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: N/A
Weight: N/A
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: N/A
Nickname/Alias: N/A
Distinguishing Marks/Features: N/A
Dentals: N/A
Fingerprints: N/A
DNA: N/A
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Lerch was last seen at an apartment in Columbus, Ohio on August 14, 1982.
Christopher and Peggy Lerch had been at the apartment of William D. Wickline on August 14, 1982. According to records, Wickline was using cocaine with the couple when he stabbed and decapitated Christopher and strangled Peggy during an argument over $6,000 in drug money. He then cut up their bodies and disposed of them in dumpsters throughout the city of Columbus, according to investigators.
Wickline was executed for the murders on March 30, 2004. Wickline was also indicted in West Virginia in April 1985 for the November 1979 decapitation of Charles Morgan Marsh.
The bodies of Peggy and Christopher Lerch were never found.
Agency Name: Columbus Police Department
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 614-645-4600
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: N/A
NamUs Case Number: N/A
NCIC Case Number: N/A
William Dean Wickline #906
March 2004 Executions
Added: 1/28/2006; Last Updated: 11-13-2021 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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