Man, 19, Found Murdered Inside Home
GARY, Ind. (STMW) - Police found a 19-year-old man dead inside his home in Gary, Ind., Friday afternoon.
Julian Nava, 19, was found dead shortly after 1 p.m. Friday in a house in the 4200 block of West 22nd Avenue in Gary, Ind. The Lake County Coroner's office said Nava sustained unidentified trauma in an apparent homicide. Nava suffered injuries to his ribs and head, according to the police report.
Police said the death may have been prompted by a home invasion.
Gary police Lt. Sam Roberts said the man's mother found him in the. Nava's mother told police he stayed home Friday morning to clean out the family's car before it was scheduled to get picked up for repairs. His mother, Lori Lampkin, called about 11:40 a.m. Friday to see if he was finished, but Nava told her that he wasn't ready.
About 12:40 p.m. Friday, she called again, advising that she was on her way.
Lampkin arrived around 1 p.m. Friday and parked her school bus in the driveway. She walked around the back of the house and saw that the glass panel to the rear security door was on the ground and the rear door was kicked in. She called out to her son but received no response.
Lampkin waked into the kitchen and saw her son's flat-screen TV on the floor. She found her son's body lying in a pool of blood by the bathroom door.
Nava was unresponsive, so police and medics were called.
Police noticed that several dresser drawers had been pulled out in a bedroom, and there were items strewn about in another room.
Witnesses told police that two men arrived at the house in a gray car between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Friday. They noticed that Nava was talking and laughing with a man in the driver's seat and a man in a gray hooded sweatshirt, who was standing outside the car. The man in the hooded sweatshirt was playing with something in his hands, according to a witness.
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