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Charlotte’s Web

By DEEJAY Published 3 years ago 19 min read
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Charlotte Pollis 7/4/65-3/12/94

Charlotte Pollis was born 7/4/1965, Independence Day in North America. It certainly did not turn out to be a freedom filled life for Charlotte Pollis by any stretch of the imagination because she came up missing on March 12, 1994, from her home in the small town of Girard, Ohio merely four months before her 29th birthday. She just disappeared. It was almost as if she’d never existed. I guess for people who do things like, “make people disappear,” they would love for you to forget that Charlotte Pollis existed. That makes getting away with her disappearance, and unsolved murder that much easier for them to get away with. I know that I am calling this an unsolved murder. This is something that the Girard Police have never done to date because they continue to feel that it lacks the evidence to even call it more than a missing person’s case. I on the other hand, out of respect for Charlotte and her family, want to call this case exactly what it is. I want to be realistic, and honest about this case in particular because, it appears to involve some improprieties with that very police department, but it also involves a trend during an earlier time frame in this country when men got away with murdering their spouses and no one did anything about it. Women had at one time been considered to be property of their husbands and what went on in a home, stayed there in many cases. Being abused, and beaten by spouses has gone unreported, underreported, unchecked and unprosecuted for years and years in this country. There are cold cases that have started to be solved involving spouses in recent years that are just now being prosecuted today.

Charlotte Pollis is not going to walk back into her home after being missing for 27 years. Charlotte Pollis is dead. Charlotte Pollis’ case is a homicide. There is no unsolved mystery about this. She can remain on the Doe Network as an unsolved case forever. She’s never used a credit card, taken out money from her bank or opened a new one, written a check, or a letter. She has never contacted her family who she spoke to every day of her life. She had no plan, no money and two children she adored. Paul Pollis, the only suspect who has ever been named in this case, and the last person to see her alive is the person who did it, and he had help. He had help from his mother and father. Now let’s see how I came up with this conclusion. I am not alone in this conclusion … many people who have indulged in, and poured over this case along the way feel the same, and have come to the same conclusion as I have. So why won’t Girard Police Department change the ruling to Homicide and charge him?

Charlotte Pollis had 2 kids and was a year younger than me when she disappeared. It really hit me like a gut punch when I read about it in the newspaper the day after it happened. It literally could have been me. She did everything right at first glance. She married a doctor’s son when she married Paul Pollis. His father worked as a Coroner at the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office, a well-connected pillar of the community if you must. How much more respectable of a man could you possibly bring home to your parents to meet, and eventually wed? They were probably pretty proud one would have to think. They lived a modest life in a middle-class neighborhood, like mine, and were raising two small children. Everything on the surface gleaned a wonderful life for them. That certainly is what someone like Paul would love for you to believe. Looking beneath the smoke and mirrors depicted something quite different though. It had just started to rear its ugly head according to Charlotte’s family, and Paul’s world was crumbling.

Charlotte’s family reported that Charlotte had started speaking up about an unhealthy relationship, with a controlling husband who didn’t work, collected welfare, made no effort to work, nor had any motivation to work in the weeks prior to her disappearance. He was emotionally immature, expected handouts from his family, and did little at home. They came to find out years later but had suspected that he struggled with substance abuse issues. These surfaced during arrests on drug charges for Cocaine and failed positive urine drug testing at his probation officer’s office. He was married to an increasingly unhappy wife who always put others first, was gaining large amounts of weight eating in a self-destructive attempt to pack away her misery and sadness she wasn’t dealing with. They found out after her disappearance to their surprise that she had in fact been considering divorce and had drawn up papers in an effort to get one.

Charlotte had discussed with her family that she wanted Omar her brother to raise her children in case something were to happen to her in the days prior to her disappearance. Her family was sure there was domestic violence occurring that Charlotte foresaw and predicted the outcome of. She like many other victims of domestic violence had presumed that her death was inevitable from this man and could not conceive a way out. Hopelessness renders immobility when it finds you in these conditions. And Charlotte had found hopelessness if nothing else at that time. Even though they feared for her, they knew Charlotte loved her children, and was well connected with her family. That kept them hopeful that she would be able to manage to get through whatever issues that she was having with Paul.

The thing that struck me, and probably most people about this case was the blatantness of it all. It was so deliberately in your face out in the open, what had occurred, and by WHO. Paul Pollis was daring you to challenge his story. Yes, he was a doctor’s son. That doctor was the coroner of Trumbull County. Paul used that and knew it would give him a pass in the community alone. Who was even going to stand up and doubt him? He was also a white doctor’s son. So, he bet heavily on his odds that no one would care about what occurred to the person he shared a home with. Unfortunately, he was correct, at the time. Money, white privilege, connections in the community and being male have enabled people like Paul more opportunity than people like Charlotte. The arrogance is evident in his interviews. His parents also defend every single thing that occurred in those days after she disappeared. He knew that he was not going to have to answer for her being missing. They all were daring you to question their reputations. Paul looks dead into the camera and asks why no one is concerned about him?

Paul has managed over the years to destroy any attempts at his credibility with drug arrests, charges of embezzlement that he managed to evade by turning state’s witness on his second wife, and other assorted criminal activity like gun charges. Yet he has yet to be prosecuted with a good circumstantial case that law enforcement has used and been the standard before DNA was ever revolutionized for the murder of Charlotte.

There was one thing that Paul, his family and crooked connected attorney did not factor in but should have: Charlotte’s family was intricately involved in her life, and they weren’t having his excuses that he doled out to the police as truths. Her family did not intend on Charlotte being killed and forgotten without them fighting to find out what occurred in that home on the last day of her life. They had no intention of letting Paul, the only suspect, get away with her murder if they could help it. Charlotte’s family was uneasy about Paul right from the beginning. They weren’t excited that Charlotte was marrying a doctor’s son. Paul set off alarms from the start, so they were never far from Charlotte, and they spoke with her daily, multiple times daily. They knew immediately that something was wrong from the first message that Paul left and the reactions that Paul had. They sounded the alarm, and have not let up since. They intend on continuing until there is no one left to sound that alarm.

Here’s what we do know- FACTS IN THE CASE:

· The day Charlotte disappeared she was sick and had been in bed. She had been to the ER the previous evening. Charlotte’s parents had come to watch their grandkids at the home Paul and Charlotte shared on March 11, 1994, in order for Paul to take Charlotte to the hospital. She was sick and suffering from an acute ear infection accompanied with nausea and dizziness. They returned sometime after midnight March 12, 1994.

· After the parents left, Charlotte phoned her mother at 1:25AM and spoke with her. She told her mother she’d speak with her in the morning, because they communicated daily. This is the last time she’d ever speak with her daughter.

· Her mother called at 9:00AM and Paul answered. Paul told Charlotte’s mother she was still sleeping, and he was taking care of the kids. He states that shortly after this call was the last time that he sees his wife prior to her disappearance.

·{ I believe that Charlotte is already dead, or she would have answered the phone. She knew her mother was going to call, Paul had no friends. I believe that this is a very significant sign that she did not answer.}

· Paul claims he buckled both kids into the car seats just before 11:00AM and left for a day of errands. Per Paul they made stops at the pharmacy, the laundromat, and a scrap yard, then burgers at a fast-food restaurant, and finally a couple of hours spent looking at houses for sale.

•{I don’t know anyone who would run all these errands with two young children under the age of three in car seats for 5 hours. Getting them in and out at every stop, and feeding them last... Right....This didn’t happen. }

· A neighbor, Nancy Hubbard, denies seeing the kids in the car. Instead, she reported Paul being backed up to the front porch and having boxes and bags stuffed to the top of the trunk, and insides of the car. The children and car seats aren’t in the car. Paul looks are her strangely as she drives by and waves.

· Paul’s story is also disputed by Charlotte’s mother who called the house multiple times between 10-11AM and got no answer and no answering machine, attempting to contact Charlotte and check on her.

· A laundry matt attendant states Paul brought a comforter in with a large dark red stain on it and insisted no one go near the washer he was using. He was very adamant about it.

· The scrapyard was closed that day.

• Paul drops off but never picks up Charlotte’s antibiotics for the ear infection that he had taken her to get treatment for the previous night.

· Paul and Charlotte were on Welfare. There was no reason to look at houses. They had no money to purchase a home, no savings, and no credit.

· Paul states he came home around 4:00 with the kids and had no concerns for wife’s safety. Calls for her and thought she must have been feeling better and went out. Puts kids down for a nap, cleans house.

· At 7:30PM he finds her purse. He states this is what made him concerned because, “Charlotte never leaves the house without her purse”. Calls Charlottes family and leaves a voice message to see if anyone has seen her because he’s concerned that he has found her purse, family finds his concern disingenuous.

· Amriah Nagi, Charlotte’s sister notices two sets of footprints in the snow leading to a shed in the back yard that’s locked. Shed is bulging and appears overstuffed with items. One set match boots of Paul’s in shape and size. She feels the other to be close in appearance to his father’s. Paul gets angry when Amriah asks for a key to search the shed for her. He tells family that the shed has nothing to do with Charlotte. Paul denies that he was angry in interview with Dennis Farina and Robert Stack of Unsolved Mysteries.

· Later, Charlotte’s brother a Trumbull County Deputy Sheriff comes to ask about it with Paul and the shed is not bulging, the items are all pushed up against one side of the shed, and Paul agrees to open the shed at this time, It’s now cleaned.

· Paul’s family shows up and cleans the home from top to bottom prior to the search warrant is conducted on the home. “They are clearing everything from the attic to the basement. They were washing walls. He had washed, he did laundry. He had washed, scrubbed up the kitchen real good and stuff, which isn’t, it’s not characteristic of Paul to do that.” Omar Nagi, Charlotte’s brother

· Paul’s mother was interviewed and said that she just came to help her son. Blood found in the home was hers per the mother- it was menstrual, so Girard police disposed of that evidence.

· The police describe the home as being extraordinarily clean. Paul states, “he likes his home to be clean because he lives there.” Charlottes family describe Paul as lazy, and demanding, not wanting to do much of anything, let alone clean. They did not believe that Paul was cleaning to do anything but cover up the murder of Charlotte.

· Paul agrees to take a polygraph then doesn’t show up. Leaves note on dresser saying, “I would never intentionally hurt my wife…”. Paul disappears for three months and returns one day saying that all of this was taking a mental toll on him. Paul is arrested for obstruction of justice but charges are dropped because of his fifth amendment rights to not answer or incriminate himself.

· Paul states, “I had a lot of mental anguish I was going through. And I wanted some time alone. People were driving in front of the house nonstop. They didn’t come by to give me a hug or a pat on the back and say, “We’re with you.” They just came by to look”.

· The fact that Paul always directs things back to how things affected him and that he disappeared in the middle of an active investigation for the disappearance of his wife is a telltale sign of narcissistic personality disorder and indicative of a substance use disorder at the very least. He was shielded by the attorney provided by the family and therefore not made to answer for anything that occurred but did make sure that he was front and center on all of the news broadcasts and the Unsolved Mysteries Episodes.

· Charlotte’s young daughter who was 3-4 years of age at the time was said to be afraid of black garbage bags and she claims to have said to her grandparents that “daddy and grandpa hurt mommy and put her in trash bags.” Paul’s attorney insisted that Charlottes family manipulated her daughter and was coaching her regarding the information. When Paul’s family attempted to gain custody the Nagi family feared so much for her life that they took her and left the country for several years prompting a missing child bulletin on the child, leaving them with the possibility of facing potential criminal charges in the case in order to protect the only witness that they had in the case.

· Charlotte’s brother Omar received a call at 10:00PM one night instructing him to go to the Girard PD dumpster. He did just that. In the dumpster was Charlottes police file and several other files. He climbed in and removed them and took them home. He called the News to set up an interview about his find. He was sure that they had finally tried to do away with Charlotte for once and for all.

· The Girard PD contacted Omar and said that these were tossed in error, and a janitor had done so. This was unlikely since someone had tipped him off, but they then threatened him with prosecution if they were not returned ironically so he had to comply with returning the files.

· Charlotte’s brother Omar notes that there are pictures missing and statements from the file. There is no explanation for the missing evidence. This is the second occasion for missing evidence from Charlotte’s police file.

This case has not been easy on the Nagi family. Paul Pollis has been riddled in crime since this incident and has done his share of time in and out of jail and on probation. He has been no stellar success story, but I didn’t expect him to be. He was interviewed several times for this case for Unsolved Mysteries in two different episodes starring Robert Stack and Dennis Farina. Her family has done whatever it takes to try to keep this case in the forefront and pertinent from memorials to news articles hoping one day someone will actually do what is right for Charlotte Pollis.

In one online forum about this case a relative of Paul Pollis commented that his family has disowned him and although he has drug problems, he is not violent however he does fail to mention the gun charges/arrests in his post. He also said in that forum that Charlotte’s family was responsible for her disappearance. I was just flabbergasted that the Pollis’ family rendition had gotten to that place. The place where the perpetrators blame the victims for their own misfortune. I honestly almost lost my lunch.

Maybe the Pollis family felt that Charlotte in some way deserved what she got because if they didn’t believe that Charlotte deserved that, then they might have to actually believe that their son, the one that they raised, had actually become something that even they couldn’t face. A murderer. And WHO, who among us wants to believe that they have raised a child that is ultimately capable of that?

In Closing:

Why did this happen? I honestly think this happened because Paul had the typical attributes of a partner with control issues, low self-esteem, substance abuse and a potential narcissist personality disorder. He was not going to allow someone to walk out on him. Paul had a privileged life and his parents obviously did not make him accountable for his behavior. He knew that they would clean up after him no matter what. This is why Paul was 29 with no job, no ambition and nothing happening in his life. I think initially it was probably an accident that occurred during a fight sometime after they returned home from the hospital and prior to her mother calling in the morning. Paul was probably tired of having to do something for someone else and it most likely infuriated him that his wife was getting more attention than he was, just like she got after she was missing.

There was some discussion that his parents car had been at the home that entire night before she came up missing. His father being a coroner could have easily come into the house, and like he does at work disassembled her body, placed the parts into bags and helped load them into the car. Just as the neighbor described the car was filled with garbage bags and boxes. Charlotte weighed 300 pounds. The police had found a spot of blood in the trunk but lost the sample after it had been too small to test at one point, but it was determined to be human.

To Paul’s father I’m sure he could look at it like it was a job, not a murder, or even a cover up. To him, she became another cadaver. You have to build a tolerance in the medical field to do that kind of a job, so this wasn’t even difficult for him. He does this every day. He was very familiar with the process, tools, cuts and so forth. He could have very easily done what he needed to do at their home, then taken the kids to his home while Paul disposed of the body parts that day. That would explain Charlotte’s daughter saying daddy and grandpa hurt mommy and put her in the garbage. It would also explain where the kids were the entire day that he said they ran errands with him, but no one else saw the kids with him.

The last thing his parents did for him was to obstruct justice during the search and involved themselves in the search. During the search warrant Paul’s father was seen by telling them where in the house they could and could not look as well as should and should not look. They explained away the cleaning of the house to the police and the news making statements to all in support of their son. It didn’t appear that the warrant was a very objective based one. Afterwards they described the house as being exceptionally clean as if he lived that way daily. Being a medical examiner I’m sure Paul’s father made sure that that house was scoured with bleach. The blood that was found his mother said belonged to her because she had a heavy menstrual cycle that she had an accident with. That explanation was accepted at face value and evidence wasn’t kept. This was a terribly sketchy investigation and poorly done crime scenes.

My wish is that the Girard Police Department stops all of their political hoopla, poor criminal justice tactics, lousy antics and finally classifies this case as a Homicide. They have protected the Pollis family long enough. It’s time to put together a circumstantial case with the witness statements, timelines, and remaining data from the file, and present the information to a Grand Jury to seek to prosecute the only person of interest that they have ever had in this case. Even if they have to bring a special investigator and prosecutor in to look at this case. This is a wrong that Girard Ohio needs to right to prove that Justice is for all including Charlotte Pollis and her family. My hope is that they do so while her family is still alive to see that justice occurs. It may never happen to his parents for shielding him, and that is a crime that they have had to live with. At some point in their lives I hope that they both looked within their hearts to see what those choices cost this family, and their grandchildren. It was a very selfish decision to help their son based on their own fear of being shamed within the community. Pride is a terrible thing to behold and it has cost everyone involved in this story. In the end, their son was the piece of garbage he was going to be because of their outright refusal to make him accountable for his adult behavior. He was going to embarrass them no matter how prideful that they were.

But the real root of the issue Domestic violence will never be taken seriously in this country or any community until we as a country stop taking privilege and community standing over lives and doing what is right for everyone involved. Charlotte Pollis and everyone like her deserves better.

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About the Creator

DEEJAY

Creating the life that I imagine through my words. Creating the world that others imagine and need through my words, hope and actions. ☮️

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  • Traci Desiderio9 months ago

    I went to Howland high school with Paul. I also lived in Girard in 1994. This city was run by the Youngstown mob along with niles, Ohio. I worked at a bar called the Itam on 422 going into Girard. I myself know how corrupt the environment was because I got a ticket fixed in Girard. Nothing would surprise me in this small town. I would bet my last $ that Paul's daddy was a huge contributor to the party in charge. Ray Ragozzine was the "man" of Girard. My hope would be that they followed the $$. Thanks

  • Ben O'Brien2 years ago

    Dr. Steven A. Pollis - This is Pauls father - This is the guy who is responsible for thi never being able to be solved..... I hope the POLLIS family and all their relatives etc rot in KARMA hell. They are scum - Paul is Scum - The mother is an absurd piece of shit....Jane, u are the worse mother I have ever seen....and the father can rot in hell......What a fucker doing that to a family, just to civer yoyur grub of a sons crap deeds....F U mate

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