PASTOR FOUND: Rhodenizer found inside Ohio strip club

Local News

March 29, 2008

By Dan Miner/minerd@gnnewspaper.com The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sat Mar 29, 2008, 01:26 AM EDT

Susan Rhodenizer had finally fallen asleep Thursday night.

Two phone calls from police later, the wide-awake Rhodenizer had her missing husband back.

“We are ecstatic that this was the outcome,” she said. “I thought, earlier, that I was going to be planning a funeral.”

Craig Rhodenizer, a 48-year old Town of Lewiston resident and pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lyndonville, was found early Friday morning inside a strip club near Dayton, Ohio, the apparent victim of a mental health crisis.

Before he was found, Rhodenizer was last heard from in a phone call to his wife at around 4:15 p.m. Wednesday as he was driving to Best Buy in Amherst to have a computer fixed. Police have no idea what he did in between the time he went missing and when he was found.

“He drove his vehicle there, as far as we can determine,” said Sgt. Frank Previte of the Lewiston Police Department. “The time in between, we have no answer for, since he was saying he didn’t remember anything or how he got there.”

When officers from the Riverside Police Department approached him, Rhodenizer appeared distraught and told him he didn’t know who he was or how he got there. He was checked out at Grand View Medical Hospital and found to be physically fine. He was picked up by friends in the area and was staying at their home.

“It’s a situation of stress over time from his job,” Susan said. “With working with people in crisis, this unfortunately happened and this is how it manifested itself.”

Since Rhodenizer was reported missing, an investigation was initiated involving the Lewiston police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His cell phone registered several “pings” Wednesday night from towers in Pennsylvania.

In a Thursday interview, Susan described her husband as an “outgoing and gregarious” person. Before he went missing, the couple had been set to take a work trip and vacation to Florida. Their 9-year old son, Stephen, was ready for his first trip to Walt Disney World.

Contact reporter Dan Minerat 282-2311, ext. 2263.

Text Only

Local News

Shovel-ready park has perks
At first glance, the big, orange road sign announcing vacant property on Lockport Road as a “shovel ready certified” building site seems a bit gratuitous.
To companies looking for new places to launch a business, it’s not. The sign in their eyes is a welcome mat, for in three words a community pronounced itself ready, willing and able to make a deal quickly.

February 3, 2012 1 Photo
Roy-Hart to play the big stage
A group of local students will be performing this month at Kleinhans Music Hall just before a BPO concert.
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will welcome the Royalton-Hartland High School Mixed Chorus as part of the BPO’s Community Spotlight program on Feb. 19 at Kleinhans in Buffalo. The chorus will perform under the direction of Carolyn Unitas Roos and accompanied by Janice McKinney.

February 3, 2012
Former NFTA cop sentenced
A former Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police officer will spend six years on probation for sending a sexually explicit photo to a teenage girl, a girl he later had a sexual encounter with.
In addition, John W. Ingham will spend 25 weekends in the service of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office Work Program. Ingham was sentenced Thursday by State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch, Sr. Ingham will also register as a sex offender.

February 3, 2012
Speakers address SPCA contract
Animal rescue volunteers want the City of Lockport to hit the SPCA of Niagara where it hurts — in the pocketbook — and help force reform of the troubled animal welfare organization.
Volunteers from multiple small, private rescue groups, and the SPCA itself, descended on the Common Council Wednesday to talk about the city’s ongoing involvement with SPCA.

February 2, 2012 4 Photos
Liberty Tire cited for 'multiple' violations
The City of Lockport will require Liberty Tire Recycling to obtain an operating permit in order to avoid being declared a hazard.

February 2, 2012
Instant millionaire
Paul Schneider had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend when he called her back with some breaking news.
“She was teasing me and said, ‘so you hung up the phone with me to scratch your scratch offs?’” Schneider said. “And I said, ‘It’s a good thing I did because I won a million dollars.’”

February 1, 2012 1 Photo
Fire code crackdown vowed
City code enforcement officers are planning an inspection blitz at the multi-building Liberty Tire Recycling complex, in the hope of helping the company avoid another huge fire, officials said Monday.
Liberty Tire, 470 Ohio St., likely will be cited for one or more fire code violations after fire struck the facility this past Friday. A large pile of tires, stored behind one of the buildings, caught fire when a live industrial power line fell on the pile. The power line had partly melted due to a short circuit inside a building.

January 31, 2012 2 Photos
NFTA cuts will make transportation difficult
NFTA cuts will make it difficult, if not impossible for Buffalo-area commuters to get to work in Lockport and Lockport residents to get to Buffalo.
Millie Spencer, who lives near the Walden Galleria, takes four buses and an NFTA train to get to Lockport for her job as a graphic artist four days a week.
“This will threaten my job,” said Spencer who is married and has four children. “We’re down to one car and my husband’s job takes him all over the place. What would I do? I don’t know.”

January 31, 2012 1 Link
Prepared patriots
At mobilization ceremonies across the state this weekend, hundreds of servicemen from the Army National Guard were cheered on their way to training for a possible overseas deployment.
More than 1,800 soldiers assigned to the 27th Brigade Combat Team mobilized before heading to Camp Shelby in Mississippi to train for an expected deployment to Kuwait this spring. In Lockport, nearly 75 men from Company A of the Brigade Special Troops Battalion were thanked for their previous — and coming — service to the nation at a ceremony Sunday. Likewise, 90 were sent off in Geneseo Saturday, and more in Buffalo and Rochester.

January 30, 2012 1 Photo
Town recycling numbers are up
The Town of Lockport seems to have taken a bigger interest in recycling.
At a Town Board meeting Wednesday, Councilman Paul W. Siejak said for all of 2011, the town recycled 27.55 more tons than it did a year ago. Electronics recycling, which the town started in July, totaled 4,914 pounds.
For the electronics recycling, the town receives 5 cents per pound, which means Lockport was paid $245.70.

January 30, 2012
More Local News Headlines

Local News

Search Results

PASTOR FOUND: Rhodenizer found inside Ohio strip club

Site Map

Contact Us