And there was more. Top Columbus Zoo and Aquarium executives not only had allowed relatives to live in houses owned or controlled by the zoo, but they also sought zoo-controlled tickets for their family members to attend various entertainment events. The thousands of people who read that story wouldn’t have known about this breach of public trust without the work of Jennifer Smola and Alissa Widman Neese. That apparently includes the zoo board, whose leaders indicated they weren’t aware of the information revealed by The Dispatch and launched an investigation of their own. The Dispatch reported earlier this month that for several years, Stalf's in-laws rented a home that had been donated to the zoo, and Bell's daughter was a tenant of another home controlled by the zoo. The properties were never advertised for rent or offered to outsiders or other zoo employees, the Dispatch reporters learned.