Beloved art teacher strangled to death by boyfriend, OH cops say. ‘A great woman’
.png "Rachel Prince was found dead in her Ohio apartment, police say. Her boyfriend has been charged with murder.")
An Ohio man was arrested after police say he strangled his girlfriend to death.
Around 1:20 p.m. July 13, officers responded to a home for an “unknown type of complaint,” according to a police report from the Columbus Division of Police.
When officers arrived, they found an unresponsive person, later identified as 46-year-old Rachel Prince, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
On July 15, Prince’s boyfriend, Jason Palmer, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with her death, according to police.
Attorney information for Palmer was not available.
According to court records, around 10:30 p.m. July 12, Palmer was seen on top of Prince, who was lying on the concrete walk outside of their apartment, The Columbus Dispatch said. He then picked her up and carried her inside before leaving around 7 a.m. the next morning, court records said, according to the outlet.
Prince’s cause of death was determined to be strangulation, according to the Franklin County Coroner’s Office, WCMH reported.
Just a month prior, Palmer pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge in connection with an assault on Prince in 2024, WSYX reported. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail but released and given credit for time served, according to the outlet.
“I was in an emergency room with Rachel in December,” Prince’s sister-in-law, Jennifer Belemu, told WSYX. “I was in court. I wrote letters to the judge. I did everything. We have to change the system.”
Prince was a mother of two and an art teacher at Marion-Franklin High School, according to the outlet.
A news release from the school said she was a “favorite amongst the students.”
“Her presence brought hope and guidance to countless lives, and her loss is deeply felt throughout the Marion-Franklin community and beyond,” Principal Tanita Fleming said in the release.
Fleming said Prince had a “deep love for her craft,” enjoyed working with the students and touched their lives with her kindness.
“She was a great woman, a great teacher, a great friend,” Careem Elkins, a former student of Prince, told WBNS. “To some of us, she was more like a parent, a best friend.”
Palmer was given a $10 million bond, court records show.
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Beloved art teacher strangled to death by boyfriend, OH cops say. ‘A great woman’."
