Suspected Ind. serial killer hit with second murder charge
CROWN POINT, Ind. - A man who allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indiana was hit with a new murder charge Wednesday - his second.
Prosecutors say Darren Vann, 43, has been charged in the death of 35-year-old Anith Jones. Her body was found in an abandoned house in Gary on Saturday night. She had last been seen Oct. 8. An autopsy showed she had been strangled.
Authorities say Vann led to them to Jones body after he was arrested on murder charges stemming from the death of another woman - 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, whose body was found in a Motel 6 on Friday, after she had been strangled.
Vann made an initial appearance in court Wednesday where he refused acknowledge his name or answer questions. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Sullivan found Vann in contempt and said she would schedule another hearing next week.
Before entering the courtroom, Vann had peered through a window at spectator benches, asking his guards why so many journalists were there and refusing to even enter, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich told reporters later. Vann's lawyer finally convinced Vann to at least enter the room, he added.
Until Wednesday morning's hearing, the sheriff said Vann's demeanor had been "quiet, calm and collected," which included confessing to investigators and leading police to abandoned homes where several bodies were hidden.
Vann is being held in isolation and is on 24-hour-a-day watch at the county jail, Bunich said, so it's unclear how the contempt charge will alter his status. His silence, if it persists, could raise complicated legal questions that might severely slow the prosecution process.
At the less than 10 minute hearing, the judge also issued a gag order, meaning investigators can no longer interview Vann unless they first get his permission through his attorney, Buncich said.
Vann, a convicted sex offender, was arrested Saturday and charged with the strangulation death of Hardy, whose body was found Friday in a bathtub at a Motel 6 in Hammond, 20 miles southeast of Chicago.
Officers found the body of 35-year-old Anith Jones Saturday night in an abandoned home. Five more bodies were found Sunday in other homes, said Hammond Police Chief John Doughty, who identified two of the women as Teaira Batey, 28, and Kristine 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 Saturday.
Lake County Coroner Merilee Frey told reporters Wednesday that two of the three unidentified bodies were skeletonized and pose the biggest challenge in determining an identification. She says both bodies are of African-American females. One had a silver-colored bracelet with the words "Best Aunt."
Frey says skeletonization can occur in just weeks in some cases or take years, so when the deaths occurred isn't clear. She added that 17 different families have called her office inquiring about the bodes. One of those calls led to DNA tests that are currently being done on the third unidentified victim.
Investigators in Indiana and Texas, where Vann also lived, have been pouring over cold case files and missing person reports to determine if there are more victims. Buncich said Wednesday his staff has fielded called worried family members "from all over the Midwest" about whether their relatives could be among Vann's victims.
Vann was convicted in 2009 of raping a woman in his Austin, Texas, apartment. He was released from prison last year and moved back to Indiana. Before that conviction, he served a year in prison in Indiana after he grabbed a Gary woman in a chokehold in 2004, doused her with gasoline and threatened to set her on fire.
In both cases, the charges against Vann were reduced in plea bargains, and Texas officials deemed him a low risk for violence. Vann registered as a sex offender in Indiana and police made a routine check in September that he lived at the address he provided.
Sherriff Buncich said he wished registered sex offenders, like Vann, could be monitored more closely than they are but that budgetary and legal constraints make that difficult.