Darren Deon Vann Accused Of Killing 7 Women, Possibly More Victims.

[addm]

ETA: lots of info coming out about this. Changed the title because it was inaccurate lol. Im still learning this thread posting shit.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-gary-three-women-dead-20141019-story.html

3 unidentified women's bodies were found late Saturday and early Sunday in Gary.

The bodies were found [...] after Gary police received "information that there were bodies in three different locations,"

The cause of death and identities of each of the women are currently unknown,[...]

The cause of death of each of the women was pending investigation, the coroner's office said

Hammond police say they have a person of interest in custody in the deaths of one woman there and three [...] in Gary

[...] discovered the body of a woman about 9:30pm Friday at a motel 6.[...] evidence there led police to a 43-year-old gary man who was taken in for questioning


[...]the man confessed to that killing and also told them where several more victims were located. That led police in Gary to find the bodies of three more women late Saturday and early Sunday. None of the women have been identified and the coroner has not determined how they died.

http://abc7chicago.com/356600/

 

[Whisper]

more from that link ^^^^

[...]
police say they have a person of interest in custody in connection with the deaths of four women whose bodies were found over the weekend at various locations in Gary and Hammond.
The 43-year-old man, whose name is being withheld pending charges, led police to the bodies of three women in locations throughout Gary after he was taken into custody in connection with the Hammond death, Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda
[...]
The bodies were discovered after Hammond police were notified at about 9:30 p.m. Friday of a person who was found unresponsive at a Motel 6 in the 3800 block of 179th Street in Hammond, Hoyda said. The unidentified woman was found in a room of the motel
[...]
Hammond police detectives then "developed a subsequent lead in that case that led them to seek a search warrant," which was executed Saturday afternoon at a home on 49th Avenue in Gary, Hoyda said. The man and a vehicle were taken into custody, Hoyda said. The search warrant was executed at a location near the man's home
[...]
An interrogation "led to the man making a confession and then leading detectives" to places in Gary where three other female bodies were located, Hoyda said. Hoyda would not say if the man had confessed to any of the possible murders.

Hammond and Gary police are still investigating
[...]
The bodies of the three women in Gary were found late Saturday night and early Sunday morning in the 2200 block of Massachusetts Street, the 400 block of East 43rd Avenue and the 1800 block of East 19th Avenue
[...]
The body discovered on Massachusetts Street was clothed in a pair of blue jeans and white Nike shoes, according to the coroner. The body on East 43rd was wearing a black long-sleeved Dereon shirt and Dereon blue jeans and white socks along with three rings on her fingers and a bellybutton ring, the coroner said. She also had multiple tattoos. The body on East 19th Avenue was wearing a green hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.

The identities of each of the women are currently unknown, the Lake County coroner's office said in a news release.The cause of death of each of the women was pending investigation, the coroner's office said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-gary-three-women-dead-20141019-story.html

 

[Whisper]

Police say man confesses to killing four women in Ind.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...Rss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomnation-topstories

 

[Whisper]

Victim Afrika Hardy, 19, was found at this Motel 6 in Hammond, Indiana

The killer led police to several abandoned home in Gary where they found the bodies of three other victims​

Police in Indiana may have just caught a prolific serial killer who targeted women there and in Illinois, it was reported Sunday.
[...]
43-year-old Gary man confessed to killing a woman whose body was found in a Motel 6 and told investigators where the bodies of three more women could be found.

Cops found the three bodies at different locations in Gary late Saturday and early Sunday, following up on information the 43-year-old man provided during questioning, Hammond police Lt. Rich Hoyda
[...]
The badly-decomposed bodies were found inside three abandoned homes.
The man, who has not been identified pending charges, may have killed many more victims over several years
[...]
His latest victim — 19-year-old Afrika Hardy, who was strangled — may have been prostitute he met on the Craigslist-like website Backpage.com
[....]
He is reported to have acted alone in killing 'many others' in Indiana and Illinois
[....]
The Lake County coroner's office said second victim had been identified by family members as 35-year-old Anith Jones
[...]
Cops were led to the bodies of two other women.

Autopsies had not yet been completed on her or the other two women, who have not yet been identified.
[....]
Merrillville reported Jones had been missing since Oct. 8 and Gary police had searched a block recently looking for her.

Police discovered Hardy's body about 9:30pm Friday
[...]
'A friend of the deceased called us and she was concerned when she didn't respond to her calling,'
[....]
'We were sent there and found that person dead.'

Police investigating her death obtained a search warrant for a home and vehicle in Gary.
[..]
conducted a search late Saturday afternoon and took the man into custody.
[...]
the man confessed during questioning and then told police 'where several other female victims of possible homicide were located.'

Hoyda wouldn't comment on how the man knew the women, on a possible motive or on whether the man confessed to killing any of the other three women.
[....]
Cpl. Gabrielle King said police received information that there were bodies in three different locations in Gary.

Those locations were within a four-mile radius. The motel in Hammond where the other body was found is about six miles west.

Hoyda said the man's name is not being released because he has not been charged. He would not say when charges will be filed. He is being held in the Hammond City Jail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-detain-man-deaths-4-women.html#ixzz3GdsVGoxu

Anith Jones, 35, was identified by relatives as one of the victims. It is unclear how she met the killer
Anith Jones FB

https://www.facebook.com/anith.jones?fref=ts

 

[addm]

Thanks @Whisper ! you're much better at this than I am lol. Why would he readily confess to three others I wonder. Nothing to lose? Seeking attention? What a sick fuck.

 

[Kathy]

QUOTE: Hoyda said the man's name is not being released because he has not been charged. He would not say when charges will be filed. He is being held in the Hammond City Jail.

They are probably waiting to charge him because there very well could be more victims not yet found or found and trying to see if he's connected to those too. Serial Killer no doubt and hard telling how many victims could still be out there and never found.

 

[Whisper]

Bodies of 7 murdered women found in northwestern Indiana over the weekend convicted sex offender in custody

Darren Deon Vann, 43, of Gary, Ind., is thought to be behind the murders of seven women in northwestern Indiana.​

[...]
bodies of three more women were found at two locations in Gary, Ind., Sunday night, authorities said early Monday morning.
[...]
lake County coroner's office determined that all three women were murdered: one from strangulation, the others from unspecified injuries.
[....]
brings the total number of dead bodies found in northwestern Indiana this weekend to seven
[...]
It is possible that the investigation will lead to more victims,” Doughty said
[...]
Doughty said Vann had been soliciting prostitutes through Backpage.com, a classified ads website, so he could murder them.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said the suspect had been convicted of sex crimes in Texas and moved to Gary from Austin in 2004.
Darren Deon Vann, 43, of Gary, is suspected of being behind the murders, said Hammond Police Chief John D. Doughty.
[...]
he cooperated with investigators and helped lead police to the other women after he was arrested in the murder of Afrika Hardy, 19.

Her body was found at a Motel 6 in nearby Hammond about 9:30 p.m. Friday.

"A friend of the deceased called us and she was concerned when she didn't respond to her calling," Hammond police Lt. Rich Hoyda told
[...]
"We were sent there and found that person dead."
Police took Vann into custody after executing a warrant for a home and vehicle in Gary Saturday afternoon.

During questioning, he told investigators the locations of three bodies that were found late Saturday and early Sunday
[...]
Family members identified the second victim as Anith Jones, 35
[...]
The police departments of Hammond and Gary are seeking murder charges.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...orthwestern-indiana-weekend-article-1.1980292

Police took a 43-year-old man into custody in connection with the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, whosebody was found in a Motel 6 in Indiana on Oct. 17.

 

[Whisper]

Indiana suspect hints at more killings

they took Vann into custody Saturday afternoon after obtaining a search warrant for a home and vehicle in Gary.
Hammond Police Chief John Doughty said at a news conference that the suspect is 43-year-old Darren Vann
[....]
who was convicted of a sex offense in Texas in 2009. His confession to the slaying of a woman in Hammond led police to the grisly discovery of six other bodies in Gary, including three in on the same block
[.l..]
He said the Gary slayings appear to have happened recently, though Vann indicated there could be earlier victims. He said police are not actively looking for more bodies and have no indication that any murders have occurred in another state. He said Vann is cooperating with investigators in the hope of making a deal with prosecutors.

“It could go back as far as 20 years, based on some statements we have, but that has yet to be corroborated,”
[...]
Charges were expected to be filed later Monday in the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy,
[...]
Doughty said she was involved in prostitution and had arranged to meet Vann at the motel through a Chicago-area website. Police were called by someone who attempted to reach Hardy and “was provided suspicious text responses that she believed to be from the suspect while he was still inside the motel room.”
[...]
Vann allegedly confessed to killing Hardy, then told investigators where more bodies could be found in abandoned homes in Gary, a deteriorating former steel town about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, police said.
[...]
found the body of 35-year-old Anith Jones of Merrillville, Indiana, on Saturday night in an abandoned home. She had been missing since Oct. 8.

Five more bodies were found on Sunday in other homes, said Doughty, who identified two of the women as Gary residents Teairra Batey, 28, and Christine Williams, 36. Police have not determined the identities of the other three women, including two whose bodies were found on the same block where Jones’ body was found on Saturday.

Hardy’s mother, Lori Townsend, said police told her that Vann asked that she perform a certain sex act, and “when she said ‘no’ and put up a fight, he snapped and strangled her,” she said
[..]
“This man is sick.”

Hardy graduated from high school in late 2013 and planned to go on to college to study music
[...]
“She was full of life. She lit up a room with her smile and her beauty,”
[..]
“And she had a voice like a songbird.”

[...]
One of the houses where police found a body was overgrown with trees in the front and there was trash strewn in the back of what looked like a falling down garage or shed.
[...]
Monday, people in Gary tried to make sense of the tragedy.

“That’s devastating. That’s sick,” said Jay Jackson, 25, a health care worker visiting a woman a few houses from where one of the bodies was found. “All we can do is pray for the city and hope for recovery.”

http://wavy.com/2014/10/20/police-indiana-suspect-hints-at-more-killings/

 

[Whisper]

Indiana serial killer suspect's ex-wife shocked by murder spree: 'I never knew him to be violent, never'
Darren Deon Vann's ex-wife could not believe he allegedly murdered at least seven women in Gary and Hammond, Ind. 'He was a real friendly person, that's why all this is a shock to me,' she said.

A suspected serial killer's ex-wife was shocked to learn of her former flame's alleged violence.
[.....]

He told investigators that his crime spree dates back two decades, officials said at a press conference Monday.

Vann's ex-wife, who did not want to be named, said she knew a much different man while they were together
[...]
"This is all unbelievable to me," she told the
[...]
"A total shocker. I never knew him to be violent, never."
She last spoke with Vann in 2009 shortly before he went to prison in the sexual assault of a woman at an apartment complex
[...]
Authorities say he strangled a 25-year-old woman until her body went limp and raped her.

But his ex-wife apparently never saw this darker, violent side.

"He was so protective of those around him," she told
[...]
"He was a real friendly person, that's why all this is a shock to me. He had a job all the time; if he lost one, he would quickly get another one."
Vann returned to his home state of Indiana in July 2013 after being released from prison.
[...]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...x-wife-shocked-murder-spree-article-1.1981515

 

[Whisper]

Indiana police were contacted about a potential serial killer back in 2010
Scripps News reached out to Gary police four years ago

[...]
string of unsolved strangling cases from the early 1990s to 2007 sit in the files at the Gary, Indiana police department. Four years ago, when confronted with details suggesting this might be the work of a serial killer, police declined to respond.
Now, their investigation of Darren Deon Vann and his possible role in the murders of seven women are forcing them to consider cases that have been cold for two decades.
[...]
earlier killings were detailed four years ago as part of a Scripps investigation into patterns of unsolved murders that suggested possible serial killings.
[...]
provided the list to Gary police and the Lake County Coroner’s Office at the time. Afterward, Gary police declined interviews and refused to return phone calls.
Asked about those cases Tuesday, Gary police spokesperson Corporal Gabrielle King said she would have to check. “I don’t know that we have unsolved strangulations,” said King. Police Chief Larry McKinley
[....]
Retired Lake County Assistant Coroner Jackie DeChantal said the 2010 report raised suspicions,
[...]
“we couldn’t get anyone else to say that they were connected.”

The department says it is now taking another look. “I might have been on the right road, but I just didn’t get far enough along it,”
[...]
Chief Deputy Coroner George Deliopoulos said among the cases he’s working as part of the Vann investigation is the 2007 strangulation of an unidentified woman found in an abandoned garage that had been set on fire.
[...]
killing was part of the Scripps investigation.
[...]
This week’s cases and those from the past bear similarities.

Most of the recent killings that are part of the Vann investigation involved bodies found in abandoned properties. All the victims were women and all identified so far have been in their 30s or younger.

At least seven of the older, unsolved strangulations involved women who were found in abandoned properties, alleyways or empty lots, the same kind of areas police are searching
[...]
Most of the rest were found killed in or just outside of their own homes.

Of the group of 15 identified by Scripps four years ago, nine occurred between 1991 and 1998, and six others between 2005 and 2007. Vann was living in the nearby town of Hammond, just west of Gary, in the 1990s. He moved to Texas at some point and in 2009 was charged and convicted of sexual assault after raping a woman in Austin.
[...]
The Scripps study was part of a multi-year investigation into America’s growing backlog of unsolved homicides.
[....]
to the latest FBI estimates, there are more than 200,000 unsolved homicides committed since 1980. The rate at which police solve murder has generally been declining in recent years, despite improvements in forensic science such as DNA tracing.

The Scripps study in 2010 identified an alarming number of unsolved killings of women in 161 clusters nationwide involving 1,247 deaths of women of similar age who were killed by similar means.

http://www.wxyz.com/decodedc/scripp...-police-about-potential-serial-killer-in-2010

read the PDF letter of the news paper reaching pout to Indiana police 4 years ago
at that link

At least seven of the older, unsolved strangulations involved women who were found in abandoned properties, alleyways or empty lots, the same kind of areas police are searching
[...]
Most of the rest were found killed in or just outside of their own homes.

while Im sure they may connect one or more to this guy
the locations the bodies were found in that investigation really sums up where EVERY body is found dumped
only one left out was shallow graves

 

[Whisper]

Darren Vann A Possible Suspect In North Carolina Murder 22 Years Ago

Police detectives in North Carolina tell WBBM they are looking at Darren Vann as a possible suspect in an unsolved murder from 22 years ago.
From 1991 to 1993, Darren Vann was a Marine based at Cherry Point Air Station
[...]
He was given an “other than honorable” discharge.

Police in the town that borders the Marine base, Havelock, North Carolina, still have a cold case on the books from that time.

“The cold case we have is back in 1992. It was a female by the name of Camille Whalen. And she was murdered.”
[....]
Police Lieutenant Brian Woods says investigators have just learned about the Darren Vann case – and that Vann has told detectives in Northwest Indiana he may have left victims in other states.
Now Havelock Police are looking at Darren Vann as a potential suspect.
[...]
definitely encouraging news, but you just have to keep an open mind and you have to just look into all the aspects of it and see if it matches with what we have.”

Camille Whalen was 25 – a hitchhiker – her body dumped near a baseball field in August 1992. The autopsy said she was strangled and stabbed.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/10...uspect-in-north-carolina-murder-22-years-ago/

Camille Whalen​

more info on her murder
Dec 17 2012

Police in Havelock, Jacksonville, and elsewhere are investigating whether the unsolved homicides of women are linked to a convicted killer already serving a life sentence for a grisly murder and facing charges in another.
[...]

http://www.havenews.com/news/local-...-linked-to-unsolved-havelock-homicide-1.66264

 

[Whisper]

Shocking Image: Darren Vann Threatens To Set Girlfriend On Fire

Darren Vann threatens to light himself and his girlfriend on fire in 2004​

​

[...]
decade ago, before he became known as a suspected serial killer, Darren Vann was an abuser of women, who at one point threatened to set himself and his girlfriend on fire.
In the grainy image, Vann is speaking with Gary police outside a home as he grips the terrified woman around her neck.
[...]
an investigator in the 2004 incident, former Gary police officer Joe Hamer.
Hamer doesn’t need to see the photo to recall exactly what happened 10 years ago.
[...]
Madison in Gary that Darren Vann doused himself and his girlfriend with gasoline and threatened to ignite them both.
[...]

then a patrolman, responded to a 911 call.

“He throws the gas can he says ‘everybody get back or I’ll light this woman on fire’ and obviously he use a different wording,”
[...]
“She was irate. She was screaming, ‘Get him off of me, get me out of here, Help me! Help me! Help me!”

Vann said his name was Harvey and Hamer tried to reason with him.

“’I said Harvey, let me talk to you. I don’t want this to go bad. Just let me come closer.’ He said, ‘No you’re going to shoot me,’”
[...]
So Hamer gave his gun to a colleague and got closer. He and other officers eventually grabbed Vann, now a suspected serial killer.

“I really don’t know what to think. my mind has not stopped,” .
[...]
Joe Hamer left the Gary Police Department three years ago and now works for Lake County Sheriff. The Lake County prosecutor’s office told us Vann was charged with a felony in that incident. He was given probation. They didn’t explain why the sentence was that light.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/10/21/shocking-image-vann-threatens-to-get-girlfriend-on-fire/

 

[Kathy]

Like I quoted on the last report on this nut, there are probably more victims out there to find.

QUOTE: Darren Vann threatens to light himself and his girlfriend on fire in 2004.
QUOTE: Authorities say he strangled a 25-year-old woman until her body went limp and raped her in 2009.

Geeeee, if there had been just some type of warning about this guy's potential for harming women................

 

[AllElseFailed]

Vann's ex-wife, who did not want to be named, said she knew a much different man while they were together
[...]
"This is all unbelievable to me," she told the
[...]
"A total shocker. I never knew him to be violent, never."

She last spoke with Vann in 2009 shortly before he went to prison in the sexual assault of a woman at an apartment complex
[...]
Authorities say he strangled a 25-year-old woman until her body went limp and raped her.

And the ex-wife is shocked? Especially after reading that in 2004 he threatened to set himself and girlfriend on fire?!? Wtf? Get off the crack, bitch... She's lucky she's alive.

 

[addm]

The guy is a lunatic and we've hit the tip of the iceberg. im glad whisper is on it and updating frequently, as I'm interested in knowing how many victims he has and how he managed to get away with it for so long.

 

[Azryhael]

Oh, Gary, Indiana. How far you've fallen from your glory days...
*the earwormy bit starts at 2:29

 

[Whisper]

​

Jane Does remain unidentified in Indiana murders

The Lake County coroner is still working to positively identify the bodies of three of the women found in abandoned Gary homes over the weekend.
So far, four women have been identified;
19-year-old Afrikka Hardy; 35-year-old Anith Jones; 28-year-old Teaira Batey and 36-year-old Christine Williams.
“Jane Doe #5” is still unidentified. The victim was found Oct 19 in the 400 block of 43rd Ave in Gary was was wearing a silver linked bracelet with “Best Aunt” on the top of the bracelet. Also a silver ring with a heart shape on the top of the ring, and a silver ring with scalloped engravings.
[...]
Also found in that same abandoned home was a second woman’s body, now known as “Jane Doe #6,” who was so badly decomposed, she can only be described an African American—no approximate height can be determined.
[...]
coroner says her office has leads on the third unidentified woman after concerned family members came forward. For now she is referred to as “Jane Doe #3,” who was wearing a pair of Rue 21 jeans and Nike shoes. The coroner’s office is now working with individuals who believe they’re related to Jane Doe #3 to do a DNA analysis.
[...]
coroner say many of these bodies were so badly decomposed it makes identification that much harder.
“Our hope is 100% that we’ll have identification,” said Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey. “We feel confident. The public is working very well with us and we hope to continue to have that relationship. The phone calls are coming in.”
[...]
cause of deaths for two of the victims have been ruled as strangulation. Experts are being brought in from Indianapolis to help determine the cause and time frame of death for the other five victims.
So far the office has heard from 17 families who believe their loved ones may be one of these two unidentified Jane Does the coroner’s office needs help with.

http://wgntv.com/2014/10/22/jane-does-remain-unidentified-in-indiana-murders/

 

[Valasca]

Dang kindle.

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/cr...oman-likely-victim-of-serial-killer/17669097/ says that this woman may also be a victim. St Paul, Minnesota. Dang

 

[LarzlovesJahi]

Dang kindle.

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/cr...oman-likely-victim-of-serial-killer/17669097/ says that this woman may also be a victim. St Paul, Minnesota. Dang

Her family filed a missing person report last winter...and I agree with them, it might have prevented further murders if the police had fully investigated their daughter's disappearance.

 

[JackBurton]

Convicted of rape in 2009, murderin women in 2014.

American justice system, some victims families would like an apology. They won't get it though.

 

[Whisper]

Authorities examine cold cases for links to suspected Indiana serial killer

The trial of Darren Deon Vann, who is under investigation for at least seven deaths of women around Gary, Indiana, is now reaching across several states. Authorities in Austin, Texas and North Carolina say they are reviewing cases of unsolved killings for possible links to Vann.
[...]
FBI computer files found 11 unsolved cases in which women were strangled since 1980 in the Austin area. However all but one of the victims were white in contrast to the recent Indiana killings linked to Vann in which most of the victims identified so far were black.

Lt. Scott Ehlert, chief of the Austin Police cold case squad, said his department began researching the old cases at the request of authorities in Indiana.
[...]
declined to provide details of any unsolved cases receiving particular attention and said officers are gathering information to try to reconstruct when Vann lived in the area.

Vann was accused of sexually assaulting a Texas woman in 2007 and was convicted in 2009, when he began serving a five-year prison sentence. After being released early in July of 2013, he returned to northern Indiana. He was arrested there last week and is now under suspicion for multiple murders.
[...]
also are reviewing unsolved murders in North Carolina, where Vann lived in the early 1990s while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, according to several press reports.

Ehlert said differences in the race of victims in the Indiana and Texas cases wouldn’t rule out reviews.

“As an investigation at this point, I would not exclude victims of any race,” Ehlert said
[....]
The patterns of unsolved killings around Austin are in stark contrast to those in Indiana. Northern Indiana experienced at least 15 unsolved strangulations, mostly of black women, from 1991 through 2007, according to a 2010 Scripps study of the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report. Nine of those killings were in Gary. The report is a computer file that provides the details of 590,118 homicides since 1980.
[...]
contacted the Gary Police Department and the Lake County Coroner’s office four years ago about the pattern, suggesting the possibility of one or more serial killers. Police refused to discuss the cases at the time despite repeated requests for interviews over several months. The department has twice this week delayed scheduled interviews to discuss what, if any, reviews were done at the time.
[...]
the coroner’s office began an investigation based on Scripps’ information. It was unable to produce new leads in the killings until Vann was arrested Friday and charged with the strangulation death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy
[...]
Vann appeared briefly before Magistrate Judge Kathleen Sullivan in Crown Point, Ind., Wednesday for his initial court appearance and was found in contempt of court when he refused to answer any of Sullivan’s questions, according to the Associated Press. She ordered Vann to appear before her again next week.

http://www.wxyz.com/decodedc/author...-for-links-to-suspected-indiana-serial-killer

 

[starry1]

I hope the ID Channel is following this one closely. I'd love to see a documentary on this freak.

 

[Whisper]

Alleged Indiana serial killer breaks silence in court
Darren Vann refused to speak the last time the alleged serial killer appeared in Lake County Superior Court after leading detectives to the bodies of six women scattered throughout Gary, Indiana in abandoned houses. He has now acknowledged two counts of murder in connection to the deaths of An ith Jones, 35, and Frika Hardy, 19.

The alleged serial killer speaks.
[...]
Sleepy Darren D. Vann pleaded not guilty Wednesday after giving an Indiana judge the silent treatment at a hearing last week.
“Yes, ma’am,” are the few words spoken by Vann in Lake County Superior Court,
[...]
as Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan asked if he understood the charges against him: two counts of murder in the death of Anith Jones, 35, and Afrika Hardy, 19.
[...]
43-year-old initially faced contempt in court for refusing to acknowledge the charges after reportedly spending several days cooperating with detectives
[...]
He is suspected of killing both Hardy and Jones after meeting them through an escort service,
[...]
He then led detectives to the abanonded home where Vann, and a friend he paid $500 in cash and drugs, dumped the body to “make Jones disappear,”
[....]
after allegedly having sex with her and then strangling her
[....]
Vann is charged with robbery, murder and murder in the perpetration of a robbery in connection to the death of both women.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/cri...killer-breaks-silence-court-article-1.1991523

Darren Vann hasn’t been charged in the death of Teaira Batey, but she is one of the six women located by Vann for detectives.​

 

[CbabyRKO]

Indiana prosecutors filed a request Friday seeking the death penalty against a man charged in the slayings of two women and suspected in the deaths of five other women whose bodies were found last fall in abandoned homes in Gary.
[...]
The 44-year-old Gary man did not attend Friday's hearing in Crown Point. A judge had recorded not guilty pleas on his behalf in October.

During the hearing, Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Ross Boswell agreed to allow prosecutors to file amended information that consolidates the two murder cases under one charging document and adds two counts that seek the death sentence for the two homicides.

The case consolidation means one jury will determine whether Vann murdered Hardy and Jones. His trial is set for June 22.

Carter argued that the two cases were similar in that both women had been strangled, they were killed within 10 days of each other and DNA analysis shows the same weapon — a brown cord — was used in both slayings.

He also said similar kinds of victims were targeted. Both Hardy and Jones had advertised as prostitutes on social media, according to court documents.

Vann's attorney, Teresa Hollandsworth, opposed the motion, arguing that joining the two cases would be highly prejudicial to her client. She said Jones' strangulation appeared to be a murder-for-hire and not a rage killing as prosecutors contended in their filing.

Boswell said joining the cases could lead to prejudice against Vann, but added that could happen even if the cases weren't joined because of the wide media coverage the killings received.

"From a practical standpoint, we would be hard-pressed to find two juries with no exposure to this case," the judge said.

Hardy was found strangled in the bathtub of a Hammond motel on Oct. 17. While being questioned by police in her death, Vann led investigators to the bodies of Jones and five other women in abandoned homes scattered across Gary. He has not been charged in connection with the other five homicide victims.

Boswell scheduled a May 6 hearing to advise Vann of the amended information and death sentence request. She also took under advisement until May 6 a letter that Vann is suspected of writing to Carter.

The contents of that letter are not part of the public case file, and authorities are prevented from discussing the case outside of court because of a gag order.

Prosecutors are seeking a handwriting sample from Vann to determine if he wrote the letter addressed to Carter.

Hollandsworth told Boswell she objected to the handwriting sample, but she did not deny the letter was written by Vann.

https://news.yahoo.com/death-penalty-sought-suspected-indiana-serial-killings-194732568.html

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Vann, 47, chose not to attend his hearing Friday morning as a judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of seven women.

Vann didn’t ask his attorneys to make a statement on his behalf, either. The sentencing hearing took less than an hour in the nearly-4-year-old case.

“Mr. Vann has effectively been removed from society forever,” Judge Samuel Cappas said.

Rather than going to trial this fall and facing the death penalty, Vann struck a plea deal with the state and pleaded guilty earlier this month to seven counts of murder.

“Darren Vann, by all accounts, is an evil, psychotic, serial predator,” Prosecutor Bernard Carter said.


Marvin Clinton, fiance of Teaira Batey, 28, one of Vann’s victims, read each the women’s names aloud: Afrikka Hardy, 19, of Chicago; Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville; Batey, of Gary; Tracy Martin, 41, of Gary; Kristine Williams, 36, of Gary; Sonya Billingsley, 52, of Gary; and Tanya Gatlin, 27, of Highland.

After Hardy’s body was found in October 2014 in the bathtub of a Motel 6 in Hammond, Vann led investigators to the six other women’s bodies left in abandoned houses in Gary.

Vann told investigators he strangled the women after having sex with them, the plea deal states.

“He had no right to play God on none of these women,” Clinton, who has a son with Batey, said.

Indiana serial killer sentenced to life in prison for murders of 7 women

His victims’ families and attorneys shared their thoughts Friday about Darren Vann in Lake Superior Court, but Vann wasn’t there to hear it. Vann, 47, chose not to attend his hearing Fr…

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