Katie Wohlfarth of Akron left a cryptic phone message for her sister this week.

She talked about having a handyman come to stay at her home for a few days and having to feed him and give him money. Her sister, Pat Wohlfarth, said the message was out of character; Katie Wohlfarth, 68, would not have let a man stay at her home.

Now, after Mary Kay “Katie” Wohlfarth, a local antiques dealer, was found dead Wednesday inside an Akron storage facility, her sister and niece wonder if she feared for her life and was leaving a clue.

“It was just really odd … we think maybe she was leaving us a breadcrumb,” said Maria Boscia, Katie Wohlfarth’s niece, on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Summit County sheriff’s deputies arrested Michael J. Olson, 35, of Coventry Township, charging him with murder.

Katie Wohlfarth's body was found in a storage unit that Olson rented at the facility in the 500 block of East Tallmadge Avenue in Akron's North Hill neighborhood. She also rented a unit there. Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards said Olson apparently is a handyman.

When Akron detectives questioned him Wednesday, Olson confessed that he killed Wohlfarth, Edwards said.

“We don’t have a motive for why he did this,” Edwards said. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday.

Olson was seen driving Wohlfarth’s 2012 Kia Sedona minivan from the storage facility, Akron police said. He apparently was spotted on surveillance tape.

The minivan was found early Thursday in the 800 block of Whittier Avenue on Akron’s west side, Edwards said.

Olson, who also was charged with theft, is in the Summit County Jail. A judge set his bond at $1 million, Akron Municipal Court records show.

Olson is scheduled to appear in court Friday morning. Court records show he was charged with domestic violence in 2015 and later pleaded guilty to an amended charge of disorderly conduct. He also has a couple of minor drug convictions.

Pat Wohlfarth, the victim’s sister, and Boscia, the niece, who live in Pennsylvania, said they had never heard of Olson.

“We don’t know what was said between the two of them,” Boscia said. “We’re numb and we’re in shock and we’re angry.”

Katie Wohlfarth, who was single and did not have children, was a generous person who loved her two cats, said Boscia and Pat Wohlfarth, who is Boscia’s aunt.

“She was very good at fixing things,” Pat Wohlfarth said. “People would come to her with problems” — from antiques that needed fixed to household plumbing issues.

Dave Verner, a local antiques dealer, said he was concerned when Katie Wohlfarth didn’t show up Tuesday afternoon to help set up an auction the two had been planning.

The two were good friends and it was unlike her to not let him know she had changed her plans.

After she didn’t show, Verner said, “I was calling [her] constantly,” said Verner, who anxiously began searching for her.

After he went to Wohlfarth’s house and saw she had not retrieved her mail from Monday, he contacted Pat Wohlfarth and Boscia.

Also Tuesday, Verner went to the storage facility and asked the owner if he could review surveillance tapes. The owner didn’t have access to the video, so Verner returned Wednesday morning and asked the manager to review it.

“We were just double-checking everything at that point,” he said.

On Wednesday, Pat Wohlfarth and Boscia arrived in Akron to help search for Katie Wohlfarth.

“For her to not contact Dave was very unusual,” Boscia said.

Shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday, Boscia filed a missing persons report with Akron police.

Police found the body at the facility later in the afternoon.

On Thursday, Akron police released a 911 call made Wednesday morning from the manager of the storage facility. The manager said he knew Wohlfarth was missing and reviewed the surveillance tape, which showed an “individual” had entered Wohlfarth’s storage unit Monday.

“To my knowledge, that individual has no permission, reason, authority to go in there,” the caller said.

Wohlfarth received an undergraduate degree from Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania.

She enjoyed going to tag and estate sales, her sister said, and her interest in antiques evolved into selling them.

The news of Wohlfarth’s death spread quickly Wednesday night among area antiques dealers.

“She was a very well-known antique dealer … she was just a generous, helping, knowledgeable person,” said a dealer who did not want to be identified.

Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.