MANSFIELD — John Boyle was sentenced to life in prison in 1990 for the murder of his wife, a murder that remains one of the most sensationalized crimes in Richland County history.
The former osteopathic physician completed that sentence on Saturday morning, dying behind bars at the age of 83.
Collier Landry, Boyle’s son, told Richland Source the doctor died at 7:52 a.m. Saturday.
Boyle was transferred to a medical facility in Columbus on Friday afternoon from his cell at the Marion Correctional Institution.
Landry, who lives in Los Angeles, told Richland Source his father was taken off the ventilator on Friday. A Do Not Resuscitate order was in place.
His death comes less than a year after his most recent parole denial.
In 2025, Boyle was denied what turned out to be his last attempt at freedom by a five-member panel of the Ohio Parole Board after an Aug. 20 hearing. That decision was announced in September.
Boyle would not have been eligible for parole again until 2030.
His death on Friday concludes one of the most sensationalized murder cases in Richland County history.
Boyle killed his wife, Noreen, on New Year’s Eve in 1989 and then drove her body to a new home he was buying in Erie, Penn. He used a rented jackhammer to dig a hole in the concrete floor of the basement and put her body inside it.
He then covered the spot with indoor-outdoor carpeting and placed a shelving unit on top of it.
Mansfield police Lt. David Messmore, who died in January, worked to solve the crime and the resulting trial in June of 1990 drew national attention.
Boyle was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for aggravated murder and also abuse of a corpse. He was never approved for parole.
“The board recognizes Mr. Boyle’s conduct, education and rehabilitative efforts,” the board cited in its latest rationale.
“Nonetheless, the board finds that the unique elements of the offense, the community opposition communicated to the board, and the lack of insight relative to the degree of victimization release would not promote the interest of justice rendering him unsuitable for release at this time,” the board wrote in its decision.
The board said “there is substantial reason to believe that as the unique factors of the offense of conviction significantly outweigh (Boyle’s) rehabilitative efforts, the release of (Boyle) would create undue risk to public safety and/or would not further the interest of justice nor be consistent with the welfare and security of society,” the board wrote.
When the parole board unanimously denied Boyle’s release in 2020, it said, “given the seriousness of Offender Boyle’s crimes, marked by extreme brutality, callousness reflected in his treatment of the victim’s body and extended victimization, his release at this time would create an undue risk to public safety, thereby rendering him unsuitable for release.”
Authorities believe Boyle struck his wife in the head and then suffocated her with a plastic bag. He was sentenced immediately after the jury’s conviction by former Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge James Henson.
For nearly three decades, Boyle publicly denied any role in the death of his wife, who had filed for divorce in November 1989. For a long time, he even denied the body found in Erie was Noreen.
However, during a prison interview with his son, Collier Landry, for the documentary, “A Murder in Mansfield,” Boyle said he and his wife were arguing and she “came at me” with a knife.
Boyle said he pushed Noreen Boyle and she fell, striking her head on a wooden table. He claimed to have attempted to administer CPR, but “she was lifeless, she was dead.”
“I panicked,” he said in the documentary. “I put the plastic bag over her head because I was afraid to look at her, scared to look at her.”
