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Convicted killer 'Tattoo Vince' dies in prison
By David Hedges, publisher thetimesrecord.net
Any secrets Alex Vincent Golosow may have had regarding the disappearance of a Spencer woman 15 years ago went with him to his grave.
Known as "Tattoo Vince" for the markings that covered much of his body. Golosow was serving a life sentence without parole when he passed away recently at the state's maximum-security prison.
Golosow was 56 according to a death certificate filed rencently at the Roane County Clerk's office. He died shortly after 8 a.m. on May 12 at the Mount Olive Correctional Center. Although he was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, the probable cause of death was listed as heart disease. His body was cremated.
 Originally from New York state. Golosow moved to the Tariff area of Roane County several years ago to live on a farm purchased by his brother, who remained in the New York area where he worked as a heavy equipment operator.
Tattoo Vince did odd jobs for people, like putting siding on homes. Sometimes he worked with Judson Reid, a man described as his best friend. Police said Golosow was also heavily involved in the local drug culture.
Reid died of a gunshot wound outside of Golosow's home in 2012.
Golosow's attorneys said Reid was a depressed Vietnam vet who took has own life.
A 12-member jury in Roane Circuit Court found otherwise, and convicted Golosow for the murder of his best friend.
Although he was never charged with her death, rumors have linked Golosow with Christian Dawn Starcher Seabolt, who was 18 when she disappeared in 2002. She left her mother's apartment in downtown Spencer one evening to get a pack of cigarettes and returned.
Her father, Jesse "Moe" Starchier said he spoke with the warden of the St. Mary's Correctional Facility, where Golosow was housed a few years ago. He told Starcher that Golosow wanted to speak with him.
Starcher said he could not bring himself to have the conversation.
After years of enduring unsubstantiated stories about has daughter, including that she was put into wood chipper and fed to the hogs or chained up for weeks inside a chicken coop on Golosow's property, he said he could not endure another agonizing tale.
"I never did go see him," Starcher said. "I regret it, but I didn't want to hear anymore stories like that."
"I'm afraid be would have said something that would have stayed in my mind the rest of my life and remind me of what happened to her," said Starcher, who remains haunted by his daughter's death, which has never been solved.
Her remains were found seven years after her disappearance in a remote location in Wirt County, not far from the Roane and Calhoun county lines.
Starcher has long suspected that police corruption played a role in his daughter's death. He believes she was cooperating with police looking into illegal drug activity in Clay and Roane counties at the time, and a few officers may have been involved in that activity.
He says there are around five questionable deaths that occurred in the region around that time.
Golosow reached out to a Parkersburg newspaper in 2013. He told a reporter that Seabolt's family was on the right track, but he refused to provide any details to the newspaper.
He denied any relationship with Seabolt, estranged from her husband who was in a Florida prison at the time of her death.
But Golosow said he did know Seabolt, and she had been at his home in the past.
He told the newspaper that, before she disappeared, he and Read gave her money to travel to Florida to visit her husband. Golosow also continued to deny any involvement in Reid's death. He used every opportunity he had to appeal the verdict, before running out of options.
He was transferred from Mount Olive to St. Mary's after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2006. The already large man had gained 135 pounds and used a wheelchair to get around.
He was sent back to Mt. Olive sometime before his death.
Jesse Starcher has never stopped looking for answers about his daughter's death.
He had been told she made a call to 911 in Roane County the day she disappeared.
He hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit in order to listen to the tape. After a legal battle that went on for over a year, be heard a tape.
He said the call played for him was from another woman named Starcher and had nothing to do with his daughter.
To this day he feels there is more to know about his daughter's
disappearance than what he has been told, but he's running out of options.
The death of Tattoo Vince has eliminated another potential source of information.
"I believe there are reasons they don't want the truth to come out, and it probably never will," Starcher said "There's no doubt in my mind she had information and they wanted her disposed of."
Starcher said he contacted the warden at St. Mary's a few years ago.
"He told me, Vince has been wanting to talk to you." Starcher
said, "I think he wanted so tell me what happened. The warden told me he believed Vince's story and I should talk so him," he said.
But Starcher, who never spoke with Golosow. before or after his daughter's disappearance, could not force himself to have that
conversation.
"My family's been through a lot, and I just didn't know if I could tolerate it," he said.
"You want to know what happened," he said, "but at the same time...
As his voice trailed off into silence, the grieving father sounded like one who had just lost his last chance to solve the mysteries around his daughter's disappearance.
And he may be right.
See
FLASHBACK 2004: A RETURN TO CLAY'S MURDER MOUNTAIN - "All Hell Broke Loose"
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