On the morning of Sept 3, 1994, Rhoda Nathan, 67, of Toms River, New Jersey, in Blue Ash for a bar mitzvah, was found badly injured in her room at the Embassy Suites hotel. She died that day. A hotel employee was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 to 1997. In 2022 a judge vacated the convictions and in December 2025 the prosecutor dismissed the case.
The conviction rested on a pendant, a hand injury and expert opinions. A judge found that more than 4,000 pages of police files had not been disclosed, including accounts of other people at the hotel. DNA did not implicate him or any alternative suspect. The Hamilton County prosecutor dismissed the case and said she is not convinced he killed Rhoda Nathan.
Editorial assessment of public sources, not a finding of fact. Nobody named here has been charged unless this page says so.
Details come from the National Registry of Exonerations, Spectrum News and WCPO. We do not name the man who was convicted; the charge against him was dismissed.
Rhoda Nathan, 67, a grandmother from Toms River, NJ, in town for a bar mitzvah, is found nude and badly injured on the floor of her room at the Embassy Suites in Blue Ash. She dies later that day. Her pendant is missing and money is gone from her purse.
A 42-year-old hotel employee with a prior record becomes the sole focus. Police point to a hand injury he reported that day and a pendant they say was in a toolbox in his car. He denies involvement.
He is convicted of aggravated murder and aggravated robbery after a trial that relied on the pendant, the hand wound, and expert comparisons.
The judge imposes the sentence the jury recommended.
A woman tells a fellow inmate that her husband admitted the killing and framed another man. The registry reports it; we could not confirm it. -Maybe
A Hamilton County judge vacates the convictions, finding more than 4,000 pages of police files were not disclosed, including a hepatitis B finding in the autopsy, accounts of two men leaving the victim's room, and a guest's account of a man fleeing a side door. He is freed.
The prosecutor announces modern testing excludes him. The coroner issues and then withdraws a statement about a lab report. The dispute is about the victim's test, which the defense says supports their position. -Maybe
Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich dismisses the case and says she is not convinced he killed Rhoda Nathan. The registry lists him as exonerated.
The freed man sues the city of Blue Ash and former officers. Local headlines say the suit alleges evidence was planted and that officers had tunnel vision. These are allegations in a lawsuit, not findings, and we have not read the complaint. -Maybe
A visiting grandmother, killed in a hotel room.
A grandmother from Toms River, New Jersey, in the Cincinnati area for a bar mitzvah. She was staying at the Embassy Suites in Blue Ash.
We found no freely licensed photo, so a silhouette is shown. Family members or others who want a photo added, changed, or removed can use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
What exists, and what each piece may or may not mean.
| Item | What is known | Disputed or unknown |
|---|---|---|
| The injuries | Found nude and badly injured; died that day. Ruled a homicide. | Autopsy details beyond a hepatitis B finding: not public. |
| The pendant | Missing from the room. Police said they found one in a toolbox in the convicted man's car. | A police review found the pendant not unique and likely not an heirloom. |
| The hand wound | Trial testimony linked it to a bite. | A later review said it was more likely a strep infection. |
| DNA | Tested after the case was reopened. | Did not implicate him or any alternative suspect, per the registry. |
| Undisclosed police files | More than 4,000 pages, including accounts of other people at the hotel. | Whether police followed those leads: not public. |
Court rulings are public and are the best records.
| Document | Holder | What it shows | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Registry of Exonerations, case 19211 | National Registry of Exonerations | Detailed case summary. | Online, free |
| Spectrum News 1: Case dismissed (2025) | Spectrum News 1 | The dismissal. | Online, free |
| Dec 2022 ruling vacating the convictions | Hamilton County Common Pleas Court | The judge's findings on undisclosed files. | Request needed |
Access labels: Online, free = we could open it. Fan-hosted copy = a private researcher posted scans; originals are held by the named agency, and we cannot vouch for completeness. Quoted in news = reporters read it; we did not see the document itself. Request needed = held by an agency or court. Withheld = the holder has not released it. We cannot reach non-public records, and we do not try to.
Where people talk about this case online, and how to read it.
| Platform | Live search | What you tend to find |
|---|---|---|
| Google: Reddit | site:reddit.com search | Public Reddit threads that Google has indexed, including old discussions. |
| Google: X and Twitter | X and Twitter posts | Public posts and profiles that appear in search results. |
| Google: Facebook | Public Facebook pages and posts | Only public pages and groups that Google can see. Private groups never appear. |
| Google: Instagram and TikTok | Instagram and TikTok | Public posts, memorials, and videos. |
| Google: forums | Forums and message boards | Long-running true-crime forums. |
| Google News | Latest news | Newest reporting, which is usually more reliable than posts. |
| Search Reddit | Long discussion threads and theories, often by amateur researchers. No sign-in needed to read. | |
| X (Twitter) | Search X | Short posts, news links, and anniversary notes. May require sign-in. |
| Search Facebook | Public groups and family or community pages. Requires sign-in. | |
| Search #rhodanathan | Memorial and true-crime posts. Requires sign-in. | |
| YouTube | Search YouTube | Documentaries, news clips, and interviews. Quality varies widely. |
Be careful with online theories. Naming a private person as a suspect can harm an innocent family, and many "identifications" on forums have been wrong. Our own tools could not read these platforms: Reddit blocks automated access, and the others require an account. The Google searches above work from your browser. To get new public mentions by email, make a free Google Alert for the case name in quotation marks.
What local and national reports say, and when we last checked for a solution.
| Date | Outlet | What it reported | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 20, 2022 (registry summary) | |||
| National Registry of Exonerations | |||
| Conviction vacated; DNA did not implicate him or an alternative suspect. | |||
| Read | |||
| Dec 12, 2025 | |||
| Spectrum News 1 | |||
| Prosecutor dismisses the case. | |||
| Read | |||
| July 30, 2026 | |||
| WKRC; WLWT (headlines in our news feed) | |||
| The freed man sues Blue Ash and former officers, alleging planted evidence. Allegations only; we have not read the complaint. | |||
| Read |
Status is re-checked on a regular schedule. If you know of a development we missed, use the clue form near the top of this page or the contact form, and include a link.
No one is currently charged. Several unidentified people appear in the withheld files.
Why named: A hotel employee on duty that day. Police pointed to a hand injury and a pendant in his car.
Against: Conviction vacated in 2022; charge dismissed in Dec 2025; DNA did not implicate him; he has always denied it.
Why named: Hotel employees said two men, one white and one Black, left the victim's room.
Against: Per the registry these accounts were in files not disclosed at trial.
Why named: A hotel guest saw a white man flee a side door and run into the woods.
Against: No identification has been reported.
Why named: Police did not investigate an employee who left the day after the killing.
Against: Nothing shows this person was involved.
Where a card shows a silhouette, we found no photo. Anyone who wants a photo added, changed, or removed can use the contact form at the bottom of this page.
The most important development is not a new suspect. It is that the long-accepted answer has been withdrawn.
We put the chance that the killer was a non-employee who entered the room at roughly 40%, a hotel worker other than the convicted man at roughly 30%, and the convicted man at roughly 10%, given the judge's findings, the DNA result and the dismissal. These are not findings and the remaining 20% covers other scenarios.
Editorial judgment, not statistics.
"—" means no public information, not a clean result.
| Person or idea | At the hotel | Physical link | Legal outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Man convicted in 1996 (unnamed) | ✓ employee on duty | ✗ DNA did not implicate him | ✗ dismissed Dec 2025 |
| Two men seen leaving | ? employee accounts | — | — unidentified |
| Man fleeing the side door | ? guest account | — | — unidentified |
✗ excluded or contradicted · ✓ supports · ? disputed · — nothing public. No cell is an official finding.
Editorial reading of public records. A working theory, not a finding, and it names no individual.
Judgment, not statistics.
Questions raised by gaps in the public record.
A full review of the files that were not disclosed.
Whether the sample can be used with genetic genealogy.
Who the hotel employees saw leave the room.
The man seen fleeing a side door.
Why and where he went.
Where it came from, and whether another was in the room.
"Not public" means we could not find a report.
| Item | Tested | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Scene evidence | Collected in 1994. | Full inventory: not public. |
| DNA | Tested after 2022. | Results reported only in summary. |
| Autopsy | Hepatitis B finding disputed. | Full report: not public. |
| Police file | Blue Ash Police. | Public index: not available. |
| Tool | What it could do | Status here |
|---|---|---|
| DNA from retained evidence | Identify a donor or exclude people. | Unknown; not reported |
| Forensic genetic genealogy | Identify an unknown donor from relatives. | Needs usable DNA; none reported |
| Ballistics database (NIBIN) | Link recovered casings or bullets to other crimes. | Not reported |
Local cases that moved after decades.
Investigators say a private genealogy investigation helped them identify Thomas Dunaway, who died in 1990, as the man who killed the 16-year-old. He cannot be indicted, so prosecutors sent a letter saying he would have been charged. The lesson: genealogy can name a killer after decades, even when no trial is possible.
In 2024, local investigators were being trained in the technique, which has already helped solve Cincinnati-area cases, according to FOX19. The lesson: the tool is now local, so cases with usable DNA have a real path forward.
Old crime-scene DNA matched relatives in a public database and led to a 2018 arrest. The lesson: a usable sample can still work after decades.
Case details come from public news coverage and the Boone County Sheriff's cold-case list. Confirm in court records.
| Claim | Source and date | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| The convicted man killed her | The 1996 trial | Vacated in 2022 and dismissed in 2025. |
| A woman's husband confessed | Inmate account, 2016 | Reported by the registry, unverified. |
| The coroner's lab report | WCPO | Withdrawn and corrected; see the dispute. |
The killing happened at the Embassy Suites hotel in Blue Ash, a suburb north of Cincinnati in Hamilton County.
Open in maps: Embassy Suites, Blue Ash. We show no photograph of the scene.
| Source | Type | Rating | Use with care because |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Registry of Exonerations | Research database | A- | Detailed. Summarizes court findings. |
| Spectrum News 1, Dec 12, 2025 | Local news | B+ | Reports the dismissal and the prosecutor's statement. |
| WCPO (undated copy) | Local news | B | Describes the hepatitis B dispute; date not stated. |
Lead agency for the 1994 investigation.
Reviewed and dismissed the case in Dec 2025.
The 2022 ruling vacating the convictions.
Under the Ohio Public Records Act, I request copies of non-exempt records relating to the September 3, 1994 homicide of Rhoda Nathan at the Embassy Suites hotel in Blue Ash, including incident reports, laboratory reports, and any evidence inventory. Please send electronic copies. If any part is withheld, please identify the exemption relied on and release all reasonably segregable material.
Agencies often withhold records of open investigations, so expect partial answers.
Rhoda was 67 and a grandmother from New Jersey.
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Every fact on this page comes from one of these. Where they disagree, we say so above.
We do not name the man who was convicted, though he is named in the cited reports and is a plaintiff in a civil suit against officers. We describe the hepatitis B dispute as reported and could not date it. The 2016 inmate account is unverified. We found no news of a new suspect or DNA match.