THE FORMER business partner of two Belmont County residents who were murdered in their home is missing from Oklahoma.

The Pottawatomie County (Oklahoma) Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in the search for Andrew Isaac Griffin. He was reported missing Friday after leaving a relative’s home to report to work in Texas.

Lisa Strussion Ballog, sister of the late Thomas Strussion, confirmed Tuesday that Griffin was a partner in the Elm Grove Salsa Joe’s restaurant business.

Thomas and Angela Strussion were found dead inside their home on Trails End Drive, Belmont, after a structure fire was reported there early on Sept. 21, 2021. Days later, Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas announced that their deaths were the result of a double homicide.

At that time, Lucas said Tom Strussion was 52 years old and the owner of two local Salsa Joe’s restaurants — one near his home along U.S. 40 east of Morristown and one on Lumber Avenue in the Elm Grove section of Wheeling.

Angela Strussion was 49 years old, according to Lucas.

The Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office posted information about Griffin on its Facebook page.

The post states: “Andrew Isaac Griffin was last seen in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on Thursday, June 29, 2023.

He left a family member’s residence in Shawnee, Oklahoma, headed to a job in Texas (Midland/Odessa area) driving a company vehicle (Texas Plate SSK5533). The vehicle is a 2023 Dodge Ram pickup truck white in color with a black toolbox in the bed. If you know where Griffin is please call our office at (405) 273-1727 or your local enforcement agency.”

Efforts to contact the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office for comment on Tuesday evening were unsuccessful.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, via its website at namus.gov, describes Griffin as a 30-year-old white man, 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 200 pounds. He goes by the nickname “Drew” and has short, brown hair, blue eyes and a red beard.

“He has a scar to the right his right eye on cheek bone from a childhood accident,” the website states.

Less than a week after the Strussions’ murders, Lucas announced the arrests of 31-year-old Anthony Michael Dibacco and 25-year-old Miana Maylyn Smith, both of Guernsey Street in Bellaire. The two were charged with extortion after detectives investigating the homicides linked them to an alleged plot to extort Thomas Strussion. Both initially pleaded innocent to the third-degree felony charge, but they later changed their pleas to guilty and each were sentenced to three years in prison. Smith and Dibacco reportedly had threatened to reveal that Strussion had an affair with Smith. Assistant Prosecutor Chris Gagin said Strussion paid them a total of $25,000 to conceal that information.

According to Gagin, the extortion was treated as an entirely separate crime that was unrelated to the murders. In February 2022, he said Dibacco and Smith had “at this point and time, been eliminated as suspects in the murder.”

Neither Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas nor Chief Deputy James Zusack could be reached for comment on the status of the double homicide investigation late Tuesday.