BELMONT COUNTY Sheriff Dave Lucas, left, talks with the media during a press conference announcing details of the Barnesville murder-kidnapping case.

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BARNESVILLE — When 69-year-old Norma Matko of St. Clairsville was found apparently shot to death at her family home along Ohio 800 outside Barnesville during Thanksgiving, Belmont County’s law enforcement officers joined with multiple agencies from inside and outside Ohio and the FBI in searching for a suspect and for Matko’s kidnapped daughter, Nicole Bronowski of Cuyahoga Falls.

The manhunt would culminate in a shootout in Louisiana where the suspect, James Hawley, also known as Ahmad Ben David, was killed in a gunfight with FBI agents. Bronowski was found with Hawley. She was not harmed and is now safe with her family.

Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas, a Barnesville resident who knows the family, was visibly emotional in early December when he described the investigation during a press conference.

There had apparently been a relationship between Hawley and Bronowski at one point. Law enforcement believes Matko was visiting her daughter when the kidnappings allegedly occurred in Cleveland, then the women were brought to Belmont County where Matko was killed.

“Wrong place, wrong time,” Belmont County Chief Detective Ryan Allar said.

“She being assaulted and stuff like that, then the mother shows up, it just goes from there,” Lucas said. “It started in Cleveland, and because the mother showed up, it expedited from there, from Cleveland down to Belmont County.”

Matko was a retired nurse from Wheeling Hospital. She was a member of the Barnesville Assumption Church, Barnesville Rotary Club, and an Auxiliary member of the American Legion Post 159.

Agencies cooperated on the case. The Cuyahoga Falls Police Department was notified of a missing person and Matko’s car was found burned in Cleveland.

Police officers observed Hawley had made posts of himself with firearms on social media and stated that he wanted to “kill some cops.”

“Law enforcement was able to determine the fleeing suspect’s location. He was traveling with the abducted victim. They were finally put down (and) located at a hotel in Pineville, Louisiana,” Jeff Fortunato, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI Cleveland office, said during the press conference.

Fortunato said officers attempted to execute an arrest warrant on Hawley for threatening communications and being a felon in possession of firearms. The shootout followed and an FBI agent was also wounded.

Later that month Belmont County deputies assisted in an investigation that led to the arrests of Andrew Welch, 28, and Lester Foster, 27, both of Cleveland. The two men each were indicted on two counts of kidnapping and one count of tampering with evidence. It is believed the men were associates of Hawley and he obtained their help in kidnapping the two women, provided Hawley with alternate identification, and disposed of evidence.

The case closed, Lucas commended the Cleveland and Cuyahoga Falls police, FBI and Belmont County deputies including Allar and Detective Doug Cruse worked together to follow all leads in the investigation.

“It was nothing but good police work, boots to the ground,” Lucas said. “It just all came together.”