Sex offender's confession leads Indiana police to six more bodies

A convicted sex offender suspected of murdering at least seven women and leaving the bodies in abandoned houses in northwest Indiana may be a serial killer who has killed others in the state as far back as 20 years ago, police said on Monday.

Darren Vann, 43, of Gary, Indiana, was charged in Lake County with one of the seven murders, according to online court records. He was being held in custody, said John Doughty, police chief of the neighboring city of Hammond.

Vann, a registered sex offender from a 2008 assault in Texas, was arrested in Gary on Saturday, a day after police were led to the body of 19-year-old Afrika Hardy at a Motel 6 in Hammond.

Doughty said Hardy had advertised sexual services on the classified ads website Backpage.com, and that she and Vann met at the motel. When Hardy did not return from the appointment, a woman who had helped to arrange the encounter went to track her down and found her dead. She had been strangled.

Once in custody Vann was cooperative, admitted his involvement in Hardy's murder and led police to the bodies of six other women, all in abandoned houses in Gary.

"It could go back as far as 20 years, based on some statements we have and that are yet to be corroborated," Doughty said. "It is possible other victims could surface."

Abandoned houses

Doughty said the victims included Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville; Teiarra Batey, 28, of Gary; and Christine Williams, 36, also of Gary. Three other victims have yet to be identified.

Doughty was unable to say whether the other victims were sex workers.

Abandoned houses overgrown with trees and weeds are a prominent feature of Gary's landscape - as they are in much of the US Rust Belt of formerly well-off manufacturing and steel towns that have fallen on hard times. More than 35 percent of Gary's residents live under the federal poverty level.

Doughty said it was not known if the victims were murdered in the abandoned houses or if their bodies were dumped there.

Vann lived in a ranch-style home in Gary with his brother and his brother's girlfriend, said a neighbor who asked not to be identified. The neighbor said he was shocked that Vann was a suspect and that he was a nice person who took care of his brother's young children.

Vann was a convicted sex offender in Texas, where he pleaded guilty to raping a woman in 2009. He was released from prison in July 2013.

On the online Texas Department of Public Safety sex offender registry, Vann's risk level was listed as "low".

Reuters - AP

(China Daily 10/22/2014 page12)