'Saved my own life': Woman raped as teen shares story of her rape solved 37 years later

Content warning: This story includes details about rape cases. If you experienced these crimes and need support, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network at 1-800-656-HOPE or https://rainn.org. 

The sun was setting as 17-year-old Michelle Puett pulled into a park in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, to spend some time contemplating her college choice. 

But during her brief walk, she was stopped by a man who pulled a knife, forced her into the woods and raped her repeatedly.  

When Michelle saw her chance to run, she took it, sprinting back to the parking lot. There, she was met with a sight that seemed miraculous: A police officer parked next to her car.

After 37 years, Michelle never expected to learn the name of her attacker. And yet this past summer, police called to tell her they knew his identity. Even more shocking, the rape kit she gave back in 1987 had also been used to solve the rape and murder of another local woman.

DNA tests proved that Thomas Collier Jordan, a Cleveland native who died in Arizona in 2009, was responsible for both crimes. 

Detectives asked Michelle, now a 55-year-old wife, mother and businesswoman living in Oklahoma, if she wanted to know more about the stranger who attacked her over three decades ago.  

She did not. 

“I don’t want to humanize him in any way,” Michelle, whose last name is now Puett-Howard, said in a recent interview. “You know, he was inhumane, and he doesn’t deserve that much of my brain space.”  

Michelle does, however, want to know about anyone else Jordan targeted. It's because of her belief that more victims are out there that she offered to share her story. 

“I am so hopeful there are families with cases not solved who will see it is possible and not to give up hope,” she said.  

The murder that Michelle's case solved was one of the Akron area's biggest mysteries. Janice Christensen, a 31-year-old Cuyahoga Falls woman, was raped and stabbed to death on a hiking trail three months after Michelle's attack. DNA evidence from Janice's rape and murder wasn't enough to solve the case on its own.

Records revealed Jordan had a criminal career that spanned nearly half a dozen states. As a result, state investigators have sent out a nationwide bulletin so investigators in those states can consider him in their cold cases. Investigators have determined Jordan lived — and committed crimes in — Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona and California.

Michelle is raped at Cuyahoga Falls park

Michelle was just days away from her graduation and prom at Akron's Firestone High School when she went to the Top O' the World area of Hampton Hills Metro Park on the evening of May 25, 1987.  

She had been accepted to several colleges and had an offer of a full-ride scholarship to one. Her family thought that would be the best choice, but she wasn’t sure.  

“I was kind of on the fence,” she recalled. “So, I went to that park that day to sit with my thoughts and make a decision.” 

Michelle and her friends had often been to the park. She didn’t think twice about going by herself.  

“I was 17 and had no fear,” she said.  

Michelle sat on a bench and watched the sun go down. Then she decided to take a walk around an old barn that still stands on the park property.  

A man passed her, so she said "hello" and kept walking. 

The man jumped her from behind and put a knife to her neck.   

“Do everything I say!” he warned her.  

“OK,” she responded.  

The man forced her into the woods, pushed her down on the ground and tied her hands and feet with shoelaces. Michelle shut her eyes and kept them closed.  

Over the next couple of hours, he repeatedly raped her. In between each assault, he walked away, then returned. When he was done, he urinated on her.  

The man asked Michelle which car was hers in the parking lot and she told him. He took her car keys from her purse and left.  

By now, it was dark, and Michelle dug deep for the courage to save herself. She rolled onto her side and snapped the shoelaces from around her ankles. With her arms tied behind her back, she ran through the woods.  

Michelle found the parking lot and, incredibly, a police cruiser next to her vehicle. She ran to the cruiser screaming, catching the attention of an officer who had simply pulled over to have his dinner break. 

Soon, the park was filled with lights and activity from Cuyahoga Falls police officers, flashlights and a helicopter circling overhead. They didn’t find Michelle’s attacker but recovered her purse, car keys and the laces that were used to bind her feet.  

Michelle went to the hospital where a rape kit was done. DNA testing wasn’t available in 1987, but the vaginal smears were saved as evidence. 

Michelle also gave a description of her attacker to a sketch artist. It was difficult; she had kept her eyes closed through most of the assault. But she'd seen enough to tell police he was a white male, 55 to 60 years old, 5 foot 8 inches and 155 pounds. 

She told police he had a thin build, dark but graying hair, light-colored eyes, silver-frame, wire-rim glasses with thick lenses, a full mustache and wrinkles on his face, and a ruddy or sunburned complexion.  

After her assault, Michelle had her first Pap test and hoped she wasn’t pregnant. She was later relieved to learn she was not.  

Michelle tries to move on with her life after being raped

In the days after the attack, Michelle was faced with difficult decisions. Her action-packed senior year was coming to an end. Should she go to prom? Walk across the stage and collect her diploma? 

She did both. She donned her cap and gown and posed for pictures with her family, though holding a smile was difficult. She went to prom, which she later regretted.  

“It was a disaster, and I’ve always felt like I needed to apologize to my prom date because I was emotionally wrecked,” she said.  

When Janice Christensen's murder on the Hike and Bike Trail made headlines that summer, Michelle didn’t hear about it. She thinks her family may have tried to shield her from the news and any thoughts that her attacker might also have been a killer.  

Michelle started going to counseling — a practice she continued throughout her life — and chose to attend Ohio State University because the campus was less wooded than other colleges she was considering. She found that being near woods spooked her.  

She struggled through the end of her sophomore year, then took her parents’ suggestion to go to Florida and live with her older brother, Roger Puett Jr., who had been seriously injured in a National Guard training accident. 

She never returned to Ohio. She earned a degree in women’s studies from the University of South Florida and got her first "big girl job" doing fundraising for the American Cancer Society.  

Michelle met her husband, Tom Howard, and they eventually settled in Oklahoma, where she now runs an advertising agency called Independent Brands.   

The couple had difficulty getting pregnant but found success with in vitro fertilization. Their son is now 19 and in college.  

Michelle struggled over the years with panic attacks, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and intimacy issues. She said it took her a long time to get to the point where her rape wasn’t “the central part of my identity.”  

“Eventually, I was able to get to the point where I would choose to just stay focused on — I don’t want to say the best part about what happened — but to stay focused on the fact that I got up, that I saved my own life, and to be proud of that,” she said.  

The May 25 anniversary of her rape now comes and goes without her noticing.  

Michelle learns case is solved after more than three decades

Michelle said she never thought detectives would be able to figure out who raped her.  

“Even though I’m certainly aware that there are cases being solved and cases being overturned all over the place these days with the new DNA technology that’s advanced, I never thought that would apply in my case,” she said. “I just wanted it to be over in the rearview for me.”  

When investigators asked her in 1997, and again in 2014, to come to Cuyahoga Falls and look at photo arrays of her potential rapist, she declined. Because she had kept her eyes closed so much, "I knew that I would never be able to come up with a confirmed choice.”  

In June, Michelle got a call from her cousin who lives near Cuyahoga Falls in Silver Lake. The cousin said detectives wanted to talk to Michelle about her rape case.  

The next day, Michelle called detective Kevin Lohse, the latest of numerous detectives who have investigated her case over the years. 

Lohse told Michelle investigators had determined through DNA testing that Jordan was responsible for both her rape and the rape and murder of Christensen a few months later.  

“I was stunned and overwhelmed,” Michelle said. “It took me about a week to wrap my head around it. I didn’t know how to react.” 

Detectives say Michelle was spot on in the description she gave of her attacker, except for his race. Jordan was a light-skinned Black man.

Detectives told Michelle they hoped knowing the identity of her rapist gave her closure, though Jordan wasn’t alive to be prosecuted.  

“You don’t get closure from things like this,” she responded.  

“I feel bad,” Michelle later said about what she told the detectives. “I felt like I rained on their parade. This certainly is good and I’m happy and thrilled and grateful police did not give up on my case.”  

Michelle willingly participated in the announcement of the DNA results, using her name and even appearing in a video that accompanied the press release. She said she did it because she hopes her openness will encourage other potential victims to come forward. 

Still, Michelle is filled with questions, and even a touch of survivor's guilt.  

“I wish somebody could answer the question: Had he just not ramped up to murder yet?” she said. “Or did he just not want to murder me? Why? Was he going to come back and murder me?”  

Lohse wishes he could answer Michelle’s questions.  

“Why did Thomas Jordan not kill her?” he asked. “You can always sit here and say, ‘Well — it’s like any criminal — things progress over time. They get away with something and then something might trigger them to do more. So, yeah, that’s one thing we’ll never know. I’ll never be able to answer that for Michelle.”  

Lohse praised Michelle for being brave when she was attacked in 1987 and for her willingness to speak out now.  

“She’s very courageous in being able to break free and run and provide the information to detectives that she was able to back then,” he said. “And then, even now … I think she’s very courageous coming forward and speaking out in hopes that other people can come forward.”

Keep reading: Serial rapist and killer: Who was Thomas Collier Jordan? 

Resolved: The trail of a serial rapist. How many more victims are there?

• Part 1: 'Saved my own life': Woman raped as teen shares story of her rape solved 37 years later
• Part 2: Serial rapist and killer: Who was Thomas Collier Jordan? 
• Part 3: 'That's him!' Mother raped by stranger in home gets closure. Police seeking other victims
• Part 4: Treat rape like murder: Should statutes of limitations be eliminated?

Resolved is a collaboration of the Akron Beacon Journal, part of the Paste BN Network, and the Ohio Mysteries podcast. Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com. Paula Schleis can be reached at feedback@ohiomysteries.com.