The prison inmate from Hancock County, who sent a letter to a Columbus newspaper confessing to killing a fellow inmate, has been charged in the slaying. A Warren County Grand Jury indicted 37-year-old Joel Drain on aggravated murder and other charges in the April slaying of 29-year-old Christopher Richardson. Both were then inmates at a state prison near Lebanon. The Columbus Dispatch reported in July that they received a letter from Drain confessing to Richardson's slaying.

A Findlay man who was found guilty of murder in 2016, sent a letter to a Columbus newspaper admitting to killing a man in prison this past spring. According to the Columbus Dispatch, 37-year-old Joel Drain sent them a letter and said he attacked 29-year-old Christopher Richardson in the Warren Correctional Institution in April. Richardson died two days later in the hospital. The investigation is on-going into Richardson's death. The Ohio State Highway Patrol says that Drain is connected to the investigation, but will not say that he is a suspect.