Sheriff Jeffrey D. Paden announced that detectives from his Investigations Division have solved a homicide that occurred in Guernsey County in the summer of 1990. In August of 1990 firefighters and deputies responded to the former Raven Cafe which was located on Old National Road in Cambridge Township, after reports of a vehicle on fire in the parking lot with a man trapped inside the car. When first responders arrived on scene they found the vehicle fully engulfed and the sole occupant in the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene by the county coroner.
The victim was identified as James D. Bradley age 30 of Cambridge. At the time of the incident, following a brief investigation, the county coroner at the time ruled the manner of death as “Natural” and the cause of death was “massive body burns”.
Sheriff Paden said that his investigators reopened the case in late 2021 after receiving information that the fire was not accidental and had been started intentionally. Over the course of the past two years investigators have been working on the case and earlier this week believed that they had established sufficient evidence for criminal charges to be filed. Investigators met with the Guernsey County Prosecutor to review the case and based on those meetings, the Prosecutor agreed and charges were filed on Carl “Butch” Hoopingarner, age 60 of Cambridge. He was formally charged with Aggravated Murder, a felony of the first degree. Hoopingarner is currently in the Belmont County jail on unrelated drug charges as well as being held on charges of Murder for Colorado Authorities.
Sheriff Paden praised the efforts of the investigators on this case, Lieutenant Sam Williams, Sergeant Bill Patterson and Detective Ryan Patterson. He added that all homicide investigations are extremely difficult to investigate, but cold case investigations are even a greater challenge.
