Trotwood Police Department

The Trotwood Police Department is a local law-enforcement agency whose role in the novel is established through its response to the Howard sisters’ murders and its cooperation with investigators pursuing a possible connection to the Frank Peterson case. The supplied evidence identifies Sergeant George Highsmith as its representative in that interagency exchange; it does not describe the department’s broader structure or other operations.

Role in the Cross-Jurisdictional Inquiry

While Holly Gibney is in Dayton, State Police Detective Yunel Sablo reports that he has spoken with Captain Bill Darwin of the Dayton Police Department and Sergeant George Highsmith of the Trotwood Police Department. Once Sablo explains that Flint City has a similar case and that a stolen van may link the crime scenes, the two departments are willing to assist. Information is transmitted electronically, allowing the investigators to review material from the out-of-town case without relying solely on local accounts.

The Howard Sisters’ Case

The material shared through that cooperation concerns Heath James Holmes, who was arrested for the murders of Amber and Jolene Howard. The girls’ bodies had been discovered in a ravine near their home after a postman noticed a large gathering of crows and stopped to investigate. The case gives the Flint City investigators a concrete point of comparison: another pair of young victims, another jurisdiction, and a possible vehicle connection to the crime under investigation.

The discussion also supplies context about the sisters’ circumstances. Their family was poor, their mother struggled with alcoholism, and the girls had been identified at school as at risk; they had skipped school on April 23. Those details are presented as background to their disappearance, not as evidence of responsibility for what happened to them. The Trotwood Police Department’s participation helps make the case details available across jurisdictional lines while the investigators assess whether the similarities reflect a connection.

Significance and Limits of the Department’s Role

The department’s narrative function is specific but consequential: through Highsmith’s cooperation, the Howard murders become part of the wider investigation rather than a distant, unrelated case. The exchange supports comparison between crimes and attention to the stolen van as a possible link, but the available evidence does not establish what further investigative steps the department took, whether it confirmed a connection, or what became of its personnel after the consultation. Its contribution is shown as practical interagency assistance, not as an independent resolution of the mystery.