DAYTON — An autopsy report from the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office this week showed Raymond Walters died at the Montgomery County Jail from a meth overdose.
Walters was accused of killing two girls, while leading police on a 100 mph chase in a stolen Riverside police cruiser on Aug. 26, 2019. He ended up crashing in front of the downtown Dayton Public Library branch.
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Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said they can’t prove how the drugs Walters used got into the jail and the department found no wrongdoing on the part of the staff or other inmates at the jail.
Now, in an exclusive interview with News Center 7, Walter’s daughter is speaking for the first time with News Center 7′s Mike Campbell about her father, his death, the fatal crash and the backlash she’s faced.
“He was a loving, caring person,” Walters’ daughter said. “I deal with these comments, saying he’s a murderer; he is this and that, the whole family is a bad seed and they don’t even know us.”
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Raymond Walters became a lightning rod in Dayton after the end of the chase he created caused the deaths of two little girls. But, Raymond Walters had two daughters of his own caught up in all of this.
Walters’ daughter wouldn’t allow News Center 7 to use her name or show her face, because of the abuse, threats and hate that she said has been directed toward her and her family. Most of it has come on social media, she said.
“It really breaks my heart seeing these comments but to doesn’t make me feel any different, its still my Dad at the end of the day,” Walters’ daughter said.
She said she’s not asking for sympathy. She said she is well aware of what happened that August day, where two 6-year-old cousins, Penelope Jasko and Eleanor McBride, died.
It stunned her then and makes her angry and confused at her father even now.
“What were you thinking? Who gave you these drugs ? You just ended two peoples lives, two little girls but then thats my Dad and I know he wasn’t that person,” Walters’ daughter said.
His daughter also doesn’t understand how, after two years of waiting for trial, her dad never made it to that day.
“I don’t think he should have died , he was young,” she told News Center 7.
She said she doesn’t know if the family will take any legal action against the sheriff’s office for her father’s death. Streck said the county is prepared to deal with that if it were to happen.
“There’s always a concern because it is taxpayer money, it is one of those things where people can file a lawsuit on us for anything they want to,” Streck said.
Raymond Walters’ daughter, who told News Center 7 her younger sister is pregnant and expecting what would have been his first grandchild, said she is not thinking of legal issues now. She’s thinking about what has been lost for her family and the families of two little girls killed in a senseless crash.
“That’s the only word I have, is heartbroken, thats for my family and theirs, they didn’t get to watch their babies grow up,” Walters’ daughter said.