Tipster makes allegations

NORWALK — Someone emailed Norwalk police accusing the Huron County sheriff, the county prosecutor and the Ohio attorney general of criminal wrongdoing in the Amanda Dean case. It's unknown if the allegations have any credibility, however, or if they will be investigated. The anonymous tip was forwarded to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation earlier this week. It suggests an unlikely connection between Amanda to another mysterious death. "I reviewed the information and will be forwarding the email to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is handling the Amanda Dean investigation," Norwalk police Chief Scott Dahlgren said. "It does not appear, at this time, that this would be a matter that should be investigated by our department." Sheriff Todd Corbin, prosecutor James Joel Sitterly and assistant attorney general Dan Kasaris all did not respond to an email asking them about the anonymous tip. Kasaris was secretly named special prosecutor overseeing the Amanda Dean investigation earlier this year. It's unclear if he would be able to address the issues raised in the email without a concern that he has a conflict of interest in deciding whether to investigate an allegation against himself. It's unknown why Kasaris was picked to serve as special prosecutor. Steven Irwin, a spokesman for Attorney General Dave Yost, also did not respond to questions about whether the information the anonymous emailer provided will be investigated. Pasela, at one time, worked with Kasaris when he was an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, according to a website that contends she was the victim of foul play. She was found dead on April 25, 2012, in her Midtown Towers apartment in Parma. The Cuyahoga County coroner's office ruled her death was caused by acute ethanol intoxication and alcoholic steatohepatitis, a liver disease, according to a Cleveland.com news article. She had a blood alcohol content level of .537%, according to the article. Amanda was first reported missing in July 2017, but Corbin closed down the search for her after just a day, contending she had been located. In a supplemental report, a deputy wrote that Corbin informed her he'd spoken with a women's shelter director who assured him Amanda was safe but that she did not want to talk with family members. Amanda has never been seen or heard from since. Corbin late last year still claimed she was alive after her family asked him again for help finding Amanda. The request led to a confrontation between Corbin and Amanda's mother, Caroline Tokar and sister, Shannon Dean, at the sheriff's office. After the Register reported about the confrontation and the family's desire to get the search for Amanda restarted, Corbin asked the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation to help find Amanda late last year. The bureau assigned an agent in January but has not had any comment or provided any update on the investigation since then. Last month, agents from the crime lab brought a backhoe and crime lab trucks to a property on Wells Road in Collins and spent two days digging for evidence. It's unknown what they were looking for because the search warrant and affidavit requesting it were sealed by the court for 90 days. While the search was underway, it looked as if agents removed items from various dig sites on the property. But it's unknown what evidence might have been found because the court also sealed those records. The search warrant filed in Norwalk Municipal Court was the first notification that Kasaris had been appointed special prosecutor. When he was contacted last month he said it was not his job to comment on pending investigations and referred questions to Irwin. Irwin has not provided much information on the case and usually states he cannot or will not offer comment. The Wells Road property is Amanda's last known address where she lived with a boyfriend who had allegedly abused her in the past. It's also where Amanda's family and friends wanted to search the day they reported her missing but were stopped from doing so by Corbin.