DAYTON, Ohio: A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted Jesse James Lockley Jr., 70, on three counts of murder in the 2003 killing of Arlene Hall, court records show, marking the latest turn in a homicide investigation that went unsolved for more than two decades until new DNA testing revived it. Hall, a Dayton mother, was last seen alive on March 19, 2003. Her son reported her missing on April 3, 2003.

In the weeks between those dates, a vehicle registered to Hall was found unoccupied in downtown Dayton on March 27 and ticketed for expired plates. Court documents later stated the vehicle was towed on March 30 and that the expired plates were registered to Lockley’s sister in law. Detectives discovered Hall’s body on April 21, 2003, in the basement of a property at 2027 Germantown Street in Dayton. Authorities ruled the death a homicide by strangulation.

Police say investigators pursued multiple leads in 2003 but identified no solid suspect, and the case went cold. Physical evidence from the scene, including Hall’s clothing, was retained. Court records cited by local news outlets describe an unusual development the same day the body was found. Lockley had been arrested on April 16, 2003, in an unrelated case.

On April 21, according to an affidavit summarized in those reports, he contacted a jail corrections officer and asked to speak with a Dayton homicide detective. The officer reached a Dayton detective and an FBI agent. Investigators said Lockley then provided information that led them to the Germantown Street address where Hall’s body was discovered. Even so, police later said the original investigation produced no charging case that could be proven, and the file sat unresolved for years.

The investigation advanced again in December 2025, when Dayton Police Department cold case investigators reviewed the file and submitted preserved evidence for DNA testing. On July 10, 2026, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation crime laboratory notified Dayton police that DNA from an unknown male had been found on Hall’s clothing. Later that month, the state lab told detectives the profile matched Lockley.

Dayton police homicide and cold case investigators, working with FBI agents, located Lockley on September 15, 2026, and brought him to the Public Safety Building for questioning. Police Information Specialist James Rider said Lockley made incriminating statements about the 2003 homicide during that interview and was then arrested and booked into the Montgomery County Jail. Some later reports listed the arrest date as September 16. Murder charges were approved after the interview.

State records reported after the arrest identify Lockley as a registered sex offender tied to a 2000 conviction for gross sexual imposition. Prison records cited in subsequent coverage also show prior terms for attempted rape, aggravated robbery, robbery, and felonious assault. Those earlier convictions have not been presented in public statements as proof of the Hall killing.

The murder case against him rests on the DNA match reported by the state crime lab, the statements police say he made in 2026, and the 2003 investigative record now before the court. A judge set bond at $1 million after Lockley’s arrest. His lawyers asked the court to consider electronic home detention, citing medical issues that include a pacemaker. The request was not granted at that hearing.

He has remained in the Montgomery County Jail. The grand jury’s three murder counts, returned in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, are the formal charges now pending. In Ohio practice, multiple murder counts in a single victim case often reflect alternate legal theories of the same death rather than multiple victims. Court records have not publicly detailed the specific statutory theories attached to each count.

Dayton Police Chief Eric Henderson credited the department’s homicide and cold case units and outside agencies for keeping the investigation alive. “This case is another example of the great work by the men and women in our Homicide and Cold Case Units, as well as their commitment to the never ending pursuit of justice,” Henderson said. “While an arrest cannot erase the pain of losing a loved one, we hope that this development can bring some closure to Ms. Hall’s family.

I appreciate the hard work of everyone both within the Dayton Police Department and outside agencies who helped play a role in seeking justice for Ms. Hall.” Lockley is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, September 29, in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. Prosecutors have not issued a detailed public statement beyond the charging action itself.

The indictment is an accusation. The case now moves into the trial court, where Lockley is expected to enter a plea and where the DNA evidence, the 2003 investigative file, and the statements police attribute to him will be tested under the rules of criminal procedure.