Category: homicide

Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Dutch Soldiers

The crime scene outside the downtown Hampton Inn.

An Indianapolis man has been arrested for the shooting of three Dutch soldiers.

According to a news release from the Indianapolis Metro Police Department, Shamar Duncan, 22, is the man suspected of killing one Royal Netherlands Army soldier and wounding two others last weekend.

At approximately three-thirty Saturday morning, officers were called to the scene of a shooting outside the downtown Hampton Inn, two blocks south of Monument Circle. The gunshot victims were rushed to a local hospital where one of them, Simmie Poetsema, 26, later died. The other two soldiers were treated for non-life threatening wounds. Although the shooting occurred at the hotel where the victims were staying, detectives believe the men were deliberately targeted because of an earlier altercation at a separate location.

Members of the Royal Netherlands Army’s Commando Corps were in town for a combat exercise at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a 1,000-acre military complex outside of Indianapolis. The Indiana National Guard reportedly stated the facility is used for training by the Department of Defense “as well as other allies.”

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact IMPD Homicide Detective Michael Wright at 317-327-3475 or email Michael.Wright@indy.gov .

This Day in Infamy: The Murder of Terry Lee Chasteen and Her Children

Young mother of three, Terry Lee Chasteen

April 28, 1978 – Divorced mother Terry Lee Chasteen was taking her three small children – Misty (5), Stephen (4), and Mark (2) – to the babysitter when another driver motioned for her to pull over. Terry pulled to the side of I-465, and the man pulled in behind her, explaining something was wrong with one of her rear tires. He offered to look at it for her, and the young mother gratefully accepted.

Tragically for Terry and her children, their supposed Good Samaritan was actually a conniving, violent criminal named Steven Timothy Judy. Once he had access to Terry’s car, Judy disabled it under the guise of fixing the nonexistant problem with her tire. Then, when she was unable to drive away, he convinced her to accept a ride.

Within an hour, Terry and all three children were dead.

After initially proclaiming his innocence, Judy later confessed to raping Terry before strangling her to death in full view of her children. Then the remorseless killer threw each of the kids, one by one, as far as he could into the cold water of White Lick Creek and watched as they drowned.

Steven Timothy Judy was executed in Indiana’s electric chair on March 9, 1981.

After Surviving Cancer, She Wanted a Happier Life. Her Husband Wanted Her Dead.

New details were recently released in the case against Andrew Wilhoite, the Lebanon resident accused of murdering his wife.

Cancer survivor Elizabeth Nicole “Nikki” Wilhoite, 41, first came to the attention of police on Friday, March 25th after she didn’t show up for work that morning. A concerned coworker at Indiana Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery contacted them, explaining that Nikki “was having issues with her husband” and had recently filed for divorce.

When Boone County Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Fouts went to the Wilhoite home to do a welfare check, he encountered the couple’s children. The kids told Deputy Fouts they had been unable to reach their mother and did not know where she was. Nikki’s stepdaughter suggested she might be at her sister’s because “Elizabeth leaves when she gets upset.”

As Fouts was preparing to leave, Nikki’s husband of 12 years pulled into the driveway on his tractor. Andrew Wilhoite told the deputy he last saw his wife the night before, around 11 pm. According to the probable cause affidavit later filed by the Boone County Prosecutor, “Andrew stated that they had a pretty good fight last night, and she was drunk.” He pointed out scratches on his neck, indicating they were evidence of Nikki’s aggression.

In this version of the story, Andrew said Nikki physically attacked him after learning about his affair. He claimed she went to sleep on the couch after their argument ended and, supposedly, was still asleep when he left that morning to work around the farm. He denied knowing why his wife wasn’t at work or where she might be. He did, however, volunteer the information that she had withdrawn $3000 from her retirement account the previous week and filed for divorce. Perhaps not coincidentally, Nikki’s petition for legal separation coincided with her last chemotherapy session.

If Andrew was trying to suggest that Nikki had simply left, a subsequent search of the property quickly cast doubt on that idea. Investigators found bloodstains on a mattress, set of sheets, and pillow. Blood was also found in the master bath. But the real damage to Andrew Wilhoite’s story occurred when Nikki’s cell phone, purse, and vehicle were discovered in the garage.

After collecting the evidence, the Boone County Sheriff’s Office declared Nikki an endangered missing person then recused itself from the case. Andrew Wilhoite’s mother is Marcia Wilhoite, a member of the Boone County Council. As councilwoman, she influences the budgets of other county officials, including the sheriff and prosecutor. Rather than risk a possible conflict of interest, Boone County Sheriff Mike Nielsen asked the Indiana State Police to assume lead on the case.

In the interview by state police, Andrew initially repeated his story, telling investigators Nikki typically consumed a large container of rum “every two days after work,” and it caused her to act belligerently. He insisted she “came at him,” during an argument about the affair she’d recently discovered. Investigators confronted him with pictures of the blood evidence from their bedroom, and Andrew said the blood was his. His confidence quickly wilted under continued questioning, though. He asked to speak to a lawyer.

After conferring with an attorney, Wilhoite told police he wished to make a statement and show them where to find Nikki’s body.

Andrew maintained that the couple had argued most of the night when Nikki (who, it should be noted, was physically weakened from both cancer and chemotherapy) attacked her much-larger husband and told him to leave. He responded by bodily throwing her out the front door. She allegedly turned to charge at him, and he struck her in the face with a gallon-sized concrete flowerpot, knocking her unconscious. He said he “didn’t know what to do” at that point, so he picked her up off the ground and threw her in his truck. Then he drove to Ross Ditch and dumped her over the bridge on Boone County 400 East, just south of County Road 350 North. According to the affidavit,“Andrew was asked if Elizabeth was still breathing, and Andrew stated he didn’t know because he didn’t check.”

Nikki’s body was found partially submerged in about 3 feet of water a few miles from her home. An autopsy later found she died of blunt force trauma.

The Boone County Prosecutor has filed murder charges against Andrew Wilhoite. He faces 45-60 years in prison if convicted.

If you or someone you love is the victim of domestic violence, please reach out for help at by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233).

This Day In Infamy: A Mother Wrongly Convicted of Murder

Kristine Bunch, photographed during her incarceration

March 4, 1996 – A Decatur County jury deliberated only three hours before sentencing 22-year-old Kristine “Kristi” Bunch to 60 years in prison for the death of her son Anthony.

Although Prosecutor William O. Smith had not presented evidence of a motive during the trial, Indiana Fire Marshals Bryan Frank and James Skaggs asserted they’d found evidence “the fire was deliberately set, that accelerants had been used to cause the fire, that there were ‘pour patterns’ in the burned-out home where accelerants had been poured, and that the fire had started in two separate locations, one of which was the bedroom in which Anthony was sleeping.”

A report by William Kinard, a forensic chemist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, had further substantiated those findings.

Ten years later, Bunch filed a petition challenging her conviction. It was then revealed that Kinard had initially disagreed with Skaggs and Frank’s conclusion of arson. However, key portions of the ATF chemist’s report were later deleted or altered in order to coincide with the opinions of the fire marshals.

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed Bunch’s conviction on March 21, 2012, and all charges were dropped later that year.

By then, she had already lost seventeen years of her life behind bars.

Kristine, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest, is a free woman today and has reconnected with the son she gave birth to in prison.

This Day in Infamy: The Meat Market Murder

1934 article from The Indianapolis Star

February 26, 1934 – The body of Lloyd C. Gleason (40) was found in the basement of his Yorktown meat market by his sister, Pearl Jefferson. The butcher had been shot three times – once in the forehead, once behind the left ear, and once in the back of the head – and had bruises consistent with a beating. Additionally, his lower left leg and shoe had been severely burned. “A long-barrel .22 caliber pistol” was found nearby.

The victim’s son, James “Marvin” Gleason (21), was taken into custody the next day. Marvin admitted to ownership of the gun but initially denied having anything to do with his father’s death, despite saying the older man had been an abusive alcoholic and adulterer who had caused the family hardship. Marvin’s story changed a few hours later, however, when police found his bloodstained clothing.

This time, Marvin claimed he’d been in an altercation with his father over a bottle of whiskey, and the fight had culminated in the shooting. He also admitted to trying to dispose of his father in the furnace, but he’d had to abandon that part of his plan when he couldn’t lift the corpse high enough to clear the furnace door.

After Marvin confessed, his mother told reporters her son had previously been to a psychiatric clinic in Detroit. Dora Gleason also claimed a physician there had recommended committing Marvin to a sanitarium to cure his dementia praecox, a generic term used for schizophrenia at the time, but the family lacked the funds to do so. The young man, who had been awarded but did not accept a Rector Scholarship at Depauw University, stayed instead at his grandparents’ home after graduation.

Within days of Dora’s statement to the press, Marvin gave another confession, this time implicating his mother as an accessory. He claimed that he and his mother had “reached an understanding” that he would kill his father, and she’d given him the idea of cremating the body in the furnace. On March 5th, one week to the day after the death of her husband, Dora was arrested . A grand jury later failed to indict her though, and charges against her were dismissed.

The following May, Judge L. A. Guthrie ruled Marvin Gleason “mentally incapable of standing trial” and confined him to the hospital for the criminally insane at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where he would remain for almost six years. After his release, he changed his name and went to stay with his mother, who had remarried.

Breaking News: Chuck E. Cheese – A Traumatizing Place to Be a Kid

Only the second-most terrifying thing at Chuck E. Cheese’s this week

At least, that was the case for patrons when a murder occurred at a Chuck E. Cheese on Indianapolis’s far eastside early Sunday evening.

Shots were reportedly fired from outside into the children’s-birthday-themed restaurant around 5:30 p.m, shattering an exterior window and creating chaos as children screamed and parents attempted to rush them to safety. One witness, Jessie Humphries, said she tried to escape out a back door only to find it locked.

“After that, nobody knew where to run, didn’t know who in the building was shooting,” said another woman who was there celebrating the birthday of her twin granddaughters.

Thankfully, only one casualty occurred. A man tentatively identified as Anthony Tinnin was found dead in the parking lot. Police believe he had been inside the Chuck E. Cheese then walked outside shortly before the shooting started. It’s unknown at this time if he was intentionally targeted.

Many of the children present were further tramatized when they saw the victim’s body as they exited the scene.

The perpetrators fled in a white SUV and remain at-large.

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to contact IMPD Detective Lottie Patrick at 317-327-3475 or lottie.patrick@indy.gov. You can also anonymously leave information with the Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana by calling 317-262-TIPS (8477).