Name: Peggy Anne Lerch
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: August 14, 1982
Location Last Seen: Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio
Date of Birth: October 15, 1957
Age: 25 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Unknown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Lerch was last seen at an apartment in Columbus, Ohio on August 14, 1982.
Peggy and Christopher Lerch had been at the apartment of William D. Wickline on August 14, 1982. According to records, Wickline was using cocaine with the couple when he stabbed and decapitated Christopher and strangled Peggy during an argument over $6,000 in drug money.
He then cut up their bodies and disposed of them in dumpsters throughout the city of Columbus, according to investigators.
Wickline was executed for the murders on March 30, 2004.
Wickline was also indicted in West Virginia in April 1985 for the November 1979 decapitation of Charles Morgan Marsh.
The bodies of Peggy and Christopher Lerch were never found.
Agency Name: Columbus Police Department
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 614-645-4670
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: N/A
William Dean Wickline #906
March 2004 Executions
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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