[elcamino72]

Ohio doesn't keep records for long as you found out. Your best bet is to find the guy that your buddy and you bought the car from or any relatives of his (if you can remember the guys name or street address perhaps you can look him up in the public records). If you can't find any of that information you are probably out of luck. If you think the car was registered in KY, you can try filing form # TC96-16A with the KY DMV and see what happens. Likely though they'll say those records were purged.