From Court T.V.
Vincent Doan faced the death penalty when prosecutors believed the Ohio man with a history of abusing his 22-year-old girlfriend murdered her. But a key piece of evidence was missing from the state's case — a body.
Carrie Culberson vanished, but her body was never found — leading the defense to contend there was no proof that Carrie was even dead, much less that her boyfriend murdered her.
A Clinton County jury was left to decide whether to convict Doan of four counts of kidnapping and two counts of aggravated murder in a trial that began July 21, 1997.
The Disappearance
On the evening of Aug. 28, 1996, 22-year-old Clarissa Ann ("Carrie") Culberson spent an enjoyable evening with friends from her hometown of Blanchester, Ohio. Carrie, an outgoing, athletic and popular young woman, belonged to a volleyball league and she and two companions played a game that night in the nearby town of Morrow.
Following the game, she and her friends rode around looking for something to do, but with few options on a quiet Wednesday night in a small town, Carrie was dropped off at around 11:30 p.m. at the home she shared with her mother, Debbie, and teen sister, Christina.
One of Culberson's neighbors saw Carrie get dropped off that night — and says a few moments later Culberson's 1989 red Honda CRX backed out of the driveway and headed down the block.
The next morning at around 6 a.m., Debbie Culberson noticed her daughter's car was not in the driveway. She immediately began to drive around Blanchester searching for Carrie — and the first place she drove was passed the home of Carrie's longtime boyfriend, 24-year-old Vincent Doan.
He wasn't home, nor was Carrie's car in front of the house. But Debbie caught up with Doan later that day at the home of his father, Lawrence Baker. According to Debbie, Vincent first told her he hadn't seen Carrie in three days.
But later that morning, she says he changed his story, telling her Carrie had driven by his home honking her horn at about 12:30 a.m. Doan allegedly claimed Carrie was drunk, so he just closed his door and ignored her. Friends who Carrie was with that evening say she only drank one beer and was not drunk.
His purported account, according to Debbie Culberson, changed again when she went back to see him a third time. Doan maintained Carrie drove by, but this time allegedly said he came out of the house wrapped in a towel to talk to her — and that she sped off when he declared he no longer loved her.
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