Springfield and Huber police continue their investigations and say they are not sure the cases are connected.
Here are three things to know about Cedric Holt Jr.:
Man found in park
According to public records, Holt had recently moved to Huber Heights from Springfield.
One of his children told his mother around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning that Holt had left the home in Huber Heights around 11 p.m. Monday night and had not been heard from since.
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A 9-1-1 call from a Springfield park worker came in around 9 a.m. Tuesday. The caller said his coworker had found an abandoned car back in a wooded area of Mabra Park with the doors wide open and a body laying inside.
Holt is the father of at least four children.
“Cedric is a good dude, he would give you the shirt off his back,” a friend of Holt Jr. told News Center 7. “He is the No. 1 dad … he never left his kids home alone.”
In a 9-1-1 call made by one of the juvenile’s mothers — she says Holt Jr.’s son said he hadn’t seen his father since 11 p.m. Monday night.
Holt Jr.’s death has been ruled a homicide.
His background
Holt does have a criminal background and was a victim of a bizarre robbery five years ago.
In 2013, Holt was playing dice in Virgil Mabra Park —the park where he was found dead Tuesday — when two men pulled up to his car, pointed a semi-automatic weapon at him, handcuffed him and made him get in the back of their car, police said at the time.
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Police said during that incident, one of Holt’s children walked home from school to find Holt being held with a gun to his head while the men demanded money. The boy said his father told him to run after the men pointed a gun at the boy, then the men forced Holt back into their car, according to police.
Holt then took the men to a storage unit, where he told them he had some money stored, according to police. Investigators said the men took thousands of dollars from the storage unit then abandoned the man.
Also this year, Holt was found guilty of a January domestic violence charge involving his 16-year-old son, according to an affidavit. A child endangerment charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement, according to court records.
In that incident, Holt was accused of repeatedly punching his son’s body while filming the incident on the boy’s Snapchat.
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