The Perfect Murder spotlights the mistaken identity murder of Daniel Ott

This week The Perfect Murder examines the tragic case of mistaken identity that led to murder.

Geauga County in 2006 and 31-year-old Daniel E. Ott was asleep at home with his fiance when a man broke into hi house and bound him at gun point. Ott managed to get free but but was shot dead by the man.

Ott’s fiance was unharmed and initially the case left detectives a bit baffled, he’d been planning to move the next day and didn’t seem to have any links to criminal activity.

It turned out that serial criminal 60-year-old Joseph Rosebrook, who was serving prison time for attempted murder for hire, had hired a hitman to kill the man who helped put him in prison. This former associate was a 70-year-old named Daniel C. Ott and hitman Chad South mixed the pair up, shooting the wrong man.

Evenutally South was found guilty of murdering Ott and kidnapping his girlfriend, he received a sentence of 15-years to life. The woman who drove him to the hit, 37-year-old Mindie Mock Stanifer was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and kidnapping, she was given 18 years.

Joseph Rosebrook, who commissioned the hit, was not found guilty until 2016 but he was given a life sentence.