Ex-Mentor officer Gary Stroud indicted on 12 counts related to wife's death

MENTOR, Ohio - Retired Mentor police officer Gary Stroud has been indicted on 12 counts related to the death of his wife.

According to the indictment, 57-year-old Gary Stroud killed his wife, Diane Stroud, 53, sometime between Oct. 9 and Nov. 27. The indictment includes three counts of aggravated murder, three counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping and two counts of assault.

Last week, the Strouds’ 25-year-old daughter called police about a smell coming from her parents’ garage that she thought was a dead dog, according to a court affidavit. Mentor-on-the-Lake police officers found Diane Stroud’s body in the garage of the couple’s home in the 5600 block of Marine Parkway. During their investigation, officers discovered that Diane Stroud had been missing for about six weeks and Gary Stroud told his children that their mother joined a cult, court documents said.

Crime scene investigators took guns, golf clubs and blankets from the couple’s house, Lake County Crime Lab reports said.

The Lake County Grand Jury also indicted Gary Stroud for tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. His bond is set at $1 million.

Diane Stroud was once the council president for Mentor-on-the-Lake, while her husband retired from the Mentor Police Department a couple years ago.