Two More Victims Of Accused Gary Serial Killer Identified
CHICAGO (STMW) -- The final two women classified as Jane Does who officials say were slain by suspected Indiana killer Darren Vann have been identified, the Sun-Times is reporting.
Sonya Billingsley, 53, and Tanya Gatlin, 27, were both identified using DNA traces from an abandoned house at 413 E. 43rd Ave. in Gary, Ind. they were found in last October, according to a statement from the Lake County Coroner's office. Both women were last known to live in Gary.
Last October, Darren Vann, 43, helped police find the bodies of six women after he was arrested in the death of Afrika Hardy, 19, whose body was found in the bathtub at a Hammond motel. The women had been left in abandoned, run-down buildings all over Gary.
Billingsley and Gatlin were the final two of the seven women to be identified.
Vann, of Gary, has been charged with murder in the deaths of Hardy and 35-year-old Anith Jones of Merrillville, whose body also was found in the same abandoned home as the two women whose identities were released Friday.
In a sworn affidavit filed last year, Gary police said that Vann told authorities he was promised cocaine and $300 in cash by an unnamed person to make Jones "disappear."
Court records show Vann has a history of violence toward women in both Indiana and Texas. He served a five-year sentence in Texas for sexual assault. During his 2009 sentencing hearing, prosecutors brought up another attack in which he hit a woman in the face and attempted to force her into his apartment in Austin, Texas.
During a 2004 standoff with Gary police, Vann doused himself and his then-girlfriend with gasoline and threatened to set them both on fire, according to court records and an officer who was at the scene. He was later convicted of the minor offense of misdemeanor residential entry.
U.S. Marine Corps records show Vann was trained as a Hawk missile system operator. But it also shows his service in the Corps was abbreviated. Vann was discharged in September 1993, less than two years after enlisting in December 1991, after he failed to live up to the military's "expectations and standards." He held the rank of private and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2015. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
