Why is the Shawnee Township, Ohio area so murdery, by murders?

Shawnee Township sits in Allen County in north-west Ohio, near Lima, closer to Fort Wayne than to Columbus. It was remote enough that it wasn't officially settled until 1854, and wasn't platted until 1872, when an investor bought a farm and decided to build a town. About 12,105 people live there now, under the motto 'where nature meets history'.

The total is five murders in five episodes, one in each of five towns: 101st overall and third in Ohio. The dates run from February 1987 to May 2014, three of the five inside a three-year stretch. One killing per episode, so five cases add up to the total.

The Shawnee Township area reaches 15 to 19 miles to Edgewood, Dillsboro, Fairfield and Highland Heights, and three of those cases point at Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Edgewood is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, the Fairfield case is a waitress who lived and worked in the city, and the Highland Heights case is a lawyer with a practice downtown. The Dillsboro case is a horse trainer who grabbed a twelve-foot alligator and put it in a barn.