VERMILION — The Ohio Farm Bureau is offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to the arrest of whoever killed Jeremy Simko or later burglarized his home.

Orrin Leimbach, treasurer of the Lorain County Farm Bureau, said he recalled delivering a farm bureau sign to Jeremy Simko in the months before Simko’s death two weeks ago at his home at 2001 North Ridge Road. The sign is posted on a fence surrounding the home, and it offers the reward for the arrest and conviction for any felonies committed on the property.

Simko, who ran a tree-trimming service with his wife, Julene, was not a farmer but that isn’t a requirement for membership.

“The farm bureau’s main thrust is to support quality of life in rural areas,” Leimbach said. “This (reward) is one of the many benefits we have.”

Leimbach said anyone with information about the killing or break-ins at the Simko home should call Vermilion police at (440) 967-6116.

Meanwhile, detectives continue working on the case and weren’t releasing additional information about the case Tuesday, Vermilion Police Chief Bob Kish said.

Authorities found Jeremy Simko shot to death after police responded to a frantic 911 call from his wife Julene just after 6 a.m. on Nov. 18.

During the call, Julene Simko told a dispatcher that her husband had been shot in the front of the head, and that he was on their bed.

The day after 36-year-old Jeremy Simko was killed, Lorain County Coroner Paul Matus ruled the death a homicide, but authorities have been tight-lipped on theories about how he died and who might have killed him.

On Friday, Jack Bradley, an attorney for Julene Simko, said she was sleeping on a couch on the third floor of the home when her husband was killed and that she had fired a warning shot to scare off the intruder or intruders.

Julene Simko had gone upstairs earlier in the evening because her husband was snoring, Bradley said.

Evidence including firearms, DNA and video from surveillance cameras installed outside of the Simkos’ home was submitted to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation for review, Kish said.

After police finished processing the home and the Simko family was allowed to return, police say someone twice tried to break into it. About $2,000 in cash was taken during one of the break-ins, and the thief or thieves also tried to force open a safe, which police already had emptied, Bradley said.

Staff writer Alicia Castelli also contributed to this report.

Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.

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