A jury was scheduled to be selected Tuesday, Jan. 12, to hear the retrial of Frank Bowen, 26, of rural Tipp City in the 2014 murder of Joseph Graley III of Bethel Township, Miami County.

Another jury deliberated around 14 hours over three days in county Common Pleas Court before telling Judge Christopher Gee on Aug. 4 it would not be able to reach agreement on charges of murder, gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence against Bowen.

Gee declared a mistrial. That jury found Bowen guilty of safecracking.

The body of Graley, 31, was found Oct. 23, 2014, under brush in the backyard of his home. He had been reported missing to the sheriff’s office the previous day.

During the trial, investigators said Graley died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Prosecutors said a sledgehammer found in a wooded area behind the house with the DNA of both Graley and Bowen was the murder weapon.

Bowen, formerly of the Tipp City area, returned to the county in late September from South Carolina. Prosecutors said he moved in with friend Graley because he had no place to stay days before Graley disappeared.

Defense lawyers questioned prosecution witnesses about differences in their recorded statements to investigators looking into the missing person and the death and the testimony made in court.

They also repeatedly asked about the investigation. They questioned witnesses why the area around Graley’s house was not secured as a crime scene before Graley’s body was found but after he had been reported missing and items – a towel, pillow and the sledge hammer - with what was believed to be blood on them found in the wooded area.

The retrial was scheduled for November but continued at the last minute due to a medical situation faced by the judge.

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