Hammond Police Chief John Doughty identified the man allegedly responsible for the slayings of seven northwestern Indiana women whose bodies were found over the weekend. The suspect is 43-year-old Darren Vann of nearby Gary, Indiana, who is accused of killing a woman Friday at a Motel 6.
Vann, who was convicted of a sex offense in Texas in 2009, led authorities to a string of dead bodies dumped in abandoned homes in Gary, including three in on the same block. Police said the Gary slayings took place in the recent past, however, Vann said there are earlier victims.
“”It is possible the investigation could lead to more victims,” Police Chief Doughty said. “It could go back as far as 20 years, based on some statements we have, but that has yet to be corroborated.”
Charges were expected to be filed Monday in the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, whose body was found at approximately 9:30 PM Friday when Hammond police responded to a call of an unresponsive person at a Motel 6. The Lake County coroner’s office said she was strangled, and Doughty said she was involved in prostitution. She had arranged to meet Vann at the motel through a Chicago-area website.
Police were called by someone who attempted to reach Hardy and “was provided suspicious text responses that she believed to be from the suspect while he was still inside the motel room.”
Vann told police where to find three other dead women, which led police to discover the body of Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville, late Saturday in an abandoned home. Her family had reported her missing on Oct. 8. Police found the next body at approximately 1:00 AM Sunday and a third body less than an hour later.
On Sunday, five more bodies were found in other homes, and Doughty identified two of the women as Gary residents Teairra Batey, 28, and Christine 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 on Saturday.
The victims’ families are struggling to understand what motivated Vann to commit these murders.
Jones’ sister, Yolanda Nowell, described her as “very street savvy” and told reporters her sister had moved 10 years ago from Chicago to Indiana, and that she was operating a stand at a nearby flea market. Hardy’s mother, Lori Townsend, said police told her that Vann asked that she perform a certain sex act, and “when she said `no’ and put up a fight, he snapped and strangled her.”
“This man is sick.”
Speaking from her home in Colorado, she said Hardy graduated from high school in late 2013 and had plans to go on to college to study music.
“She was full of life. She lit up a room with her smile and her beauty,” she said. “And she had a voice like a songbird.”
The town of Gary used to be a product of a thriving steel industry, a town that boasted 178,000 good-paying jobs in the mills. However, following the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement adopted in the 1990s, its population has shrunk to just over 78,000 and its poverty rate is stuck at upwards of 40 percent.
