Indiana police say more victims possible after seven bodies found
By Mary Wisniewski HAMMOND Ind. (Reuters) - Police in northwestern Indiana said on Monday they could be dealing with a serial killer with victims going back as far as 20 years after a man suspected in one woman's murder led them to six more bodies over the weekend. Darren Vann, 43, of Gary, Indiana, was in custody and police were seeking murder charges against him, said John Doughty, police chief of the neighboring city of Hammond. Vann was arrested after police were called on Friday to a Motel 6 in Hammond where friends had found the body of Afrika Hardy, 19. Vann is a registered sex offender in Texas, Doughty said. The police chief said Hardy had advertised sexual services on the Backpage website 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 the body. 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 Gary, Indiana, in abandoned houses, Doughty said. "It could go back as far as 20 years based on some statements we have," Doughty said. "It is possible other victims could surface." 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 not been identified. Gary is an economically struggling city on Lake Michigan, 30 miles (50 km) south of Chicago. The city's population has fallen sharply to about 78,000 people, from a peak of 178,000 in the 1960s. "There are six victims in the city of Gary and by any estimation that certainly amounts to a person being a serial killer once evidence is confirmed this one individual is responsible," Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said in an interview on CNN. "There are multiple deaths and they are likely at the hand of this individual." (Additional reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas and Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
