Darke County authorities began seeking Rodeheffer on Friday, after they found Topp's body buried 6 feet deep on the edge of a wooded area on his farm, 2335 McFeely-Petry Road. Topp, 19, disappeared Feb. 21 after leaving her home near North Star about 8 a.m. to walk and jog.
Her death has been ruled a homicide, Darke County Prosecutor Jon Hein said, but details of the autopsy report will be withheld.
Rodeheffer, 43, has apparently lived quietly on the farm near Rosehill with his wife, Maidra, who is the Mississinawa Twp. clerk. They have a grown son and daughter. The son, Shawn, 20, is charged with obstruction of justice in this case.
In 1983, Rodeheffer admitted to authorities that he'd entered a woman's home in Randolph County, only a few miles to the west, across the Indiana state line, and forced her to have sex with him.
The incident happened about 5 a.m. Oct. 21, 1983.
Rodeheffer told police that he had earlier drunk 15 beers and a half-pint of whiskey, and drove to a house in rural area, northwest of Union City.
According to court records, a 27-year-old woman was at home with her three daughters, ages 10, 7 and 4, when she heard noises outside. She phoned a co-worker. During the call, Rodeheffer broke in through the back door and hung up the phone. The co-worker told police he heard screaming before the hang-up. The woman sent her children to their rooms, but the 10-year-old later came out and saw some of the assault, court records said.
Rodeheffer told authorities, "After the children went upstairs, (the woman) and I ended up in her bedroom and she was frightened of me and I wanted to have sex with her and I made her have sex with me. After, she asked me why I was making her do this. I became angry and choked her."
Probation officers wrote the attack "affected (the woman's) daughters significantly."
Police and sheriff's deputies arrived just as
Rodeheffer was walking out the front door, still holding onto the woman.
"He was kind of quiet, he kept to himself and didn't show any emotion when I told him what he would be charged with," Randolph County Sheriff's Sgt. Kenny Carter said. "He just wanted to know when he could go to work."
Rodeheffer was charged with rape, criminal trespassing, burglary, battery and unlawful deviant conduct.
But prosecutors did not want to put the victim through a trial, "Especially when you remember one of the prime witnesses was a 10-year-old," said attorney Linda Stemmer, who was named a special prosecutor on the case.
The prosecutor agreed to drop the other charges in exchange for guilty pleas to burglary and battery. The plea agreement spelled out Rodeheffer would be sentenced to 10 years in prison for the burglary, with five years suspended. He had been in jail almost a year awaiting trial, and with time off for good behavior spent from July 1985 to January 1987 in prison. At his sentencing, Rodeheffer sobbed before Judge J. Brandon Griffis, Stemmer said.
The victim sued Rodeheffer for lost wages and pain and suffering, and in 1986, a Randolph County court awarded her $50,000. The victim told court investigators she was glad he admitted his guilt, but the incident still affected her family two years later. Rodeheffer himself wrote the court asking for leniency, saying, "I realize I have a drinking problem or that I am an alcoholic and I need some help."
He said he could not be separated from his family for long because many people depended upon him. "If given the chance, I will not let anyone down, for I have learned a lot from this and I need a chance to prove it," he wrote.
Two years earlier, in 1981, a Union City, Ind. woman had claimed Rodeheffer came into her house through an unlocked patio door about 6 a.m. and raped her. The Indiana State Police decided not to pursue the case, according to Randolph County court records. The woman knew Rodeheffer and had registered an earlier rape complaint against him, the records said.
Investigators gave the woman a polygraph test in 1981, but the results were inconclusive.