ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The former Salsa Joe’s business partner who was recently arrested for the 2021 double homicide of Thomas and Angela Strussion in their Belmont home was scheduled for an extradition hearing in Hawaii on Friday, but no information on the outcome of those proceedings was available at press time.
The hearing was planned in Hilo Circuit Court on Friday before Hilo Circuit Judge Henry Nakamoto. Calls and text messages to Belmont County Sheriff’s Department officials seeking information on whether suspect Andrew Isaac Griffin succeeded in a bid to resist extradition did not receive any response. However, the department has scheduled a news conference to address the case at 1 p.m. Monday.
If he is returned to Belmont County, he will face two counts of aggravated homicide.
Griffin, 32, of Oklahoma was arrested in Hawaii on Feb. 18 by the Hawaii Police Department in cooperation with Belmont County Sheriff’s Office Chief Detective Ryan Allar and Detective Sgt. Jordan Bluling on an extradition warrant.
Hawaii Police Department Capt. Rio Amon-Wilkins of the East Hawaii Criminal Investigation Division believes Griffin had been staying with a family member there, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Thomas Strussion and Griffin were business partners at the Elm Grove location of Salsa Joe’s restaurant, which opened in May 2021.
The Strussions and their pets were found dead inside their home on Trails End Drive, off National Road outside Belmont, after a structure fire was reported there early on Sept. 21, 2021.
Days later, former Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas announced that their deaths were the result of a double homicide.
Strussion also owned and operated a Salsa Joe’s location along National Road east of Morristown near his home. It was later converted by Strussion’s sister, Lisa Strussion Balog, to become the My Way Cafe restaurant, which recently closed.
In July 2023, Griffin was declared a missing person by the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma in July 2023. Law enforcement in Harris County, Texas, informed the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office in October 2023 that Griffin had been located, was safe, and had been taken into custody on outstanding warrants out of LeFlore and Oklahoma County.
According to KOTV News 6 in Tusla, Oklahoma, Griffin was arrested in a Houston, Texas, airport while deboarding a plane from Honduras in 2023. At that time he was charged with kidnapping and domestic violence.
