Police: Boyfriend Stuffed Pittsfield Twp. Woman In Suitcase
PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP (WWJ/AP) - Divers found the body of a competitive billiards player from Michigan inside a suitcase in an Indiana pond on Thursday, and her boyfriend - who helped lead authorities to her body - was charged with murder.
Dawn Fital, 45, of Pittsfield Township was reported missing Monday. Police arrested her boyfriend, Gregory Noack, the next day about 210 miles away after he was found acting suspiciously behind a bank in Merrillville, Ind.
But an open murder warrant wasn't filed for Noack until Thursday by prosecutors in Washtenaw County, Mich., said Pittsfield Township police Deputy Chief Gordon Schick. Noack, 44, shared a home with Fital.
Noack, who remained jailed in Indiana's Lake County, was expected to appear in court there Friday, Schick said.
Divers with the sheriff's department in Lake County discovered Fital's body about 10:15 am Thursday.
"The body was located in a swampy area behind the Toys 'R' Us in Hobert Indiana, which is a commercial shopping retail area. The female body was discovered in about four feet of water," Deputy Commander Rob Arnold told WWJ's Chrystal Knight.
Information from the boyfriend "led to the discovery of the body," Arnold said.
The body was inside a large suitcase, said chief deputy coroner T.J. Adams, who declined to disclose any other details. An autopsy was planned for Saturday so Michigan authorities can attend.
Fital lived with Noack and her ex-husband at an apartment complex near Ann Arbor, about 35 miles southwest of Detroit, Pittsfield Township Public Safety Chief Matt Harshberger said.
Police removed boxes, computers and other items from the Pittsfield apartment Wednesday. Fital's former husband told police that he hadn't been in contact with her since Monday.
On Fital's Facebook page, she says, "I know I am a pool playing bum, but that's how I roll." She won at least $600 at an event this month in Las Vegas, according to results posted online by the Valley National 8-Ball League Association.
"She's just below the upper tier" of players, said Nick Leider, managing editor of Billiards Digest, after looking at Fital's results from the past few years. "She hasn't won anything big."
Francine Bowles, 27, a cousin of Fital's ex-husband, recalled playing with Fital's children years ago while their mother sharpened her game.
"It was definitely her passion," said Bowles of Kimberly, Wis. "She'd be in the basement practicing while we were watching a movie. She was just really good at it."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
