DANIEL E. WILSON | Locked A Girl In Her Car Trunk, Drove Around For Hours, Punctured The Car’s Gas Tank, Stuffed A Rag Into The Tank, Set The Car On Fire And Walked Away Allowing Her To Be Baked Alive | EXECUTED by lethal injection in Ohio on June 3, 2009

Dan Wilson. Lot of 2: (1) Typed Envelope. Commercial #10 (4.125” x 9.5”) envelope. 0.8 oz Pmk: August 30, 2006. SEALED. Content unknown. Pristine; and (2) D. Wilson. Handwritten ALS. Commercial #10 (4.125” x 9.5”) envelope. 0.5 oz. Pmk: September 14, 2006. SEALED. Content unknown. Pristine.

• Classification: Murderer

• Characteristics: Kidnapping – Alcohol

• Number of victims: 1

• Date of murder: May 4, 1991

• Date of arrest: 5 days after

• Date of birth: September 10, 1969

• Victim profile: Carol Lutz (female, 24)

• Method of murder: Burning the victim alive in the trunk of her car

• Location: Lorain County, Ohio, USA

• Status: Executed by lethal injection in Ohio on June 3, 2009

DETAILS OF THE INCIDENT OFFENSE:

The following account of the incident offense was obtained from the Ohio Supreme Court opinion:

In Elyria, on Saturday, May 4, 1991, around 1:30 pm, Daniel Wilson (hereinafter referred to as (“Dan”), killed Carol Lutz (“Lutz”) by locking her in the trunk of her car, puncturing the gas tank, and setting the car on fire. Dan then walked away, allowing Lutz to be baked alive.

On the previous afternoon, Dan was drinking at the Empire Tavern, a bar he frequented. Between 5:00 and 6:00 pm, he went to the home of Angie Shelton, a girl he dated. As they argued, Dan got mad, “slammed” her “against the wall,” threw her on the bed, and “went to hit” her. Shelton told him that if he hit her, she “would be the last person that he hit.” Dan then left, and later returned to the Empire Tavern.

That evening, Carol Lutz drove her 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass to the Empire Tavern to meet Douglas Pritt, an old boyfriend, and Dan, apparently a new friend. Pritt, Lutz and Dan played pool and drank together. Pritt left the bar sometime between 12:30 am and 1:00 am Lutz left close to 2:30 am, and Dan left right after she did. According to Dan's confession, Lutz offered him a ride home. She drove with him to the trailer where he lived. Once there, they drank one or two beers. Dan vaguely recalled driving to Lorain to search for a party, and stopping at his father's house.

Darlene DeBolt, a service station cashier in Stow, stated that Dan stopped at the station around 5:55 am on May 4. He was driving a black Oldsmobile Cutlass and appeared to be alone. DeBolt did not hear any noise coming from the Oldsmobile. Dan told DeBolt, an old friend, that the car was his, that he had just driven from Canada, and that he “stopped a few states back for a few beers.” DeBolt smelled alcohol on him. Dan tried to get DeBolt to go out with him and was “persistent and pushy.” DeBolt refused to leave work and after sixty or ninety minutes, Dan left.

When Dan woke up on May 4, around 7:30–8:00 am, he was in a parking lot, sitting in the driver's seat of Lutz's Oldsmobile. Lutz, who was locked in the trunk, asked him to let her out, but he did not. Dan could not recall how she got there. He drove to various places including a park where he took a walk. He remembers thinking, “How am I going to get out of this?” Throughout this time, Lutz remained locked in the trunk.

Later that morning, Dan drove to a school and parked the Oldsmobile. After awhile he took off the gas cap, stuffed a rag in the open neck of the gas tank and lit the rag. This time, the fire burned out. Lutz told him “she really had to go to the bathroom.” He “took the rag back out” of the gas tank and “let her (out to) go to the bathroom.” When he “told her to get back” in the trunk, “she stood there-she begged and pleaded with me. She begged-she'd turn around for 30 seconds and let me run like hell.” Lutz told Dan, “she'd go home and forget about it.” Dan didn't believe her and thought to himself, “How can you forget about being locked in a trunk?” Dan stated that he did not just leave her in the trunk because he “figured somebody would find her. She'd get out and tell who I was.”

When Dan told her to get back in the trunk a second time, she complied. She sat in the trunk for fifteen to twenty minutes with the lid up. They talked, and “[s]he asked me why don't I just let her go?” He “even gave her a cigarette.” Then he closed the trunk lid, “poked a hole in the gas tank,” stuffed a towel or blanket into the gas tank, “let it soak with gas and lit it.” Then he “walked away from the car” and went to a nearby park.

While out driving that day, Janette Patton and her mother noticed smoke and saw Lutz's Oldsmobile enveloped in fire. Within a short time, an ambulance arrived. A paramedic opened a door to check for people and saw that there were none in the passenger compartment. At 1:34 pm, the Elyria Fire Department responded to reports of a car fire. Firemen extinguished the fire and forced open the trunk of the Oldsmobile. Steam and smoke poured from the opened trunk obscuring their view. When firemen extinguished the remaining flames, they found Lutz's body. Lutz died from third-degree burns and carbon monoxide poisoning. Her body was almost totally covered with third-degree burns. Her clothing and hair had mostly burned off and portions of her skin “had burst open as a result of the buildup of heat in the tissues of the body.” Lutz's body had been, essentially, cooked “in a metal container just as if it were in an oven.” Her soot covered body emitted a petroleum odor.

Lutz had no alcohol in her system, nor had she eaten recently. An arson investigator estimated that the flames could have heated the trunk to over 550 degrees, which could cause combustibles there to ignite and catch fire. There were no holes in the trunk, but there was a puncture in the gas tank. Investigators found a gas cap under the driver's seat and a tire iron and cross bar in the back seat. Several samples of materials taken from inside the car tested positive for kerosene.

Police Detective Ray Riley traced the car to Carol Lutz and learned that she had last been seen with Dan at the Empire Tavern. On May 9, police took Dan into custody. Riley interviewed Dan after advising him of his Miranda rights. Dan waived his rights and agreed to talk with the police. Riley tape-recorded the interview. Dan confessed to keeping Lutz locked in the trunk of the Oldsmobile intermittently from 7:30 am on May 4 until the time of her death. It appears that around 1:30 pm, he killed her by setting the Oldsmobile on fire.

Final meal:

A well-done porterhouse steak with steak sauce, a baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits, salad with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, green peppers, carrots and French dressing, corn on the cob with butter, grapes, macaroni and cheese, dinner rolls and Cool Ranch Doritos with a jar of salsa, strawberry ice cream and strawberry cheesecake—both with real strawberries, a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper with ice and one tea bag.

Final Words:

I want to say to the Lutz family that I'm very sorry for what I did to Carol. I want to say to my family that I'm sorry for how things turned out. I love you. I believe in Jesus. He's my Lord and Savior. I'm going home ...ⁱ

Archiving Protocol:

• Handled with White Gloves ab initio

• Photo Pages/Sheet Protectors: Heavyweight Clear Sheet Protectors, Acid Free & Archival Safe, 8.5” x 11”, Top Load

• White Backing Board – Acid Free

Shipping/Packaging: Rigid Mailer 9.5” x 12.5”. White, self seal, stay flat, kraft cardboard, no bend. Each rigid mailer is made of heavy cardboard, which has strong resistance to bending and tearing. Thicker that the USPS mailers. Shipping cost never more than it absolutely has to be to get it from me to you.