Missing pregnant Mansfield woman found dead in apparent homicide

The body of a missing Mansfield woman was found Monday in an abandoned home on West Stewart Street, a few days after her boyfriend was found shot to death in a different house in the same block.

Dayton police officers were in the area around noon Monday.

The body was that of 20-year-old Kyla Hayton, Dayton police Lt. Jason Hall said. Hayton’s death is being investigated as a homicide. She was pregnant.

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Todd Burkhart, 28, was reported missing earlier this month along with his girlfriend Kyla Hayton.

Burkhart’s body was found Friday inside a house at the corner of West Stewart Street and Wildwood Avenue. Earlier Monday, the Montgomery County Coroner said he died Nov. 17 from multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide.

Montgomery County prosecutors said they have met with Dayton police detectives about Burkhart’s homicide, but the investigation is ongoing.

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A person of interest in the case, 30-year-old Larry Dwayne Rodgers, was arrested early Saturday morning on unrelated gun charges and is being held in the Montgomery County Jail. However, Rodgers has not been charged in the Mansfield couple’s deaths, police said.

Rodgers bond was set at $100,000 during his initial court appearance Monday afternoon on a single charge of having weapons under disability.

Police arrested Rodgers after they obtained a search warrant for a house in the 600 block of Groveland Avenue “in relation to an ongoing homicide investigation,” court records read.

A .40 caliber handgun with an extended magazine was found in the closet of the bedroom Rodgers shared with his girlfriend, court records show.

Rodgers was not allowed to have a weapon because of his previous 2012 burglary conviction.

Detectives worked through the weekend on the case and cadaver dogs from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources led police to Hayton’s body, Hall said.

Federal officers also were involved in the case, Hall added.

Hayton and Burkhart are believed to have been killed in the abandoned houses where their bodies were discovered, Hall said.