‘Weird and evil’: 2 women found dead in same area within days of each other – NewsNation Now
NewsNation
Eric Graves, Russ McQuaid
Thank you for signing up!
Subscribe to more newsletters here.
Subscribe Now
INDIANAPOLIS — Indy police are investigating two separate deaths along Mitthoeffer Road within days of one another. Both people killed were women and their bodies were found only a few hundred yards apart.
Last Saturday morning, officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were called to the 2200 block of N Mitthoeffer Rd. just between I-70 and 21st St. for a report of a dead body.
Upon arrival, in the parking lot of a dentist’s office at 2236 North Mitthoefer Road, IMPD discovered the body of Shannon Lassere, 58, stabbed to death.
An employee of a nearby business told FOX59/CBS4 she was driving to work around 9 a.m. Saturday when she spotted Lassere’s body lying in a parking lot just off of Mitthoeffer.
“She had left the house about ten thirty, eleven, Friday night,” said the victim’s son, Justin Smith. “I had a bad feeling in the morning. Got ahold of my sister and the rest of my siblings and then we got the news.”
Shannon and her family had moved from Seattle to the East Side three years ago.
“Funny. Beautiful. She was handicapped. She was deaf. The most amazing woman ever,” said Smith as he stood watching police work a second homicide scene just a half block away from where his mother’s body was found days before. “There’s been another woman. There’s been another case very similar to my mother’s. So, somebody’s out here, somebody’s out here doing something.”
”Sickening that somebody would do that to another person,” said Greg Hopkins. Hopkins said he and his wife Lorena lived in the area for more than 30 years and two killings so close to each other shocked him. They were doing laundry Thursday afternoon between where both scenes where when we talked to them.
Homicide detectives weren’t away from the area for long.
The body of a second woman, later identified as 52-year-old Marianne Weis, was discovered behind a nearby strip mall Thursday morning when police got another call to the 2100 block of N Mitthoeffer Rd.
Weis’ body was found between a Dollar General and a laundromat near the back of an apartment complex. Yellow evidence markers were plentiful as IMPD worked a large scene.
”We did have somewhat of a smaller scene but we’ve expanded that,” said IMPD Public Information Officer William Young.
More than six hours later, investigators remained on the scene looking for clues.
Lorena Hopkins said she saw the area when there were just a few cops there, and what the officers were focused on.
”All of a sudden, I saw feet up in the air and said, ‘Oh no, not a body,’” Lorena said.
With both women being found so close and IMPD saying both were found with “trauma” some think there could be a connection.
”It has to make you wonder,” said Greg Hopkins. “Has to make you wonder until the police find out for sure or otherwise.”
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Young said detectives don’t believe the two deaths are connected but that could change as the investigation goes on. Police do want anyone who saw anything suspicious in this area recently to give them a call.
”This is a heavily traveled area,” Young said. “You could have seen something, any suspicious vehicles, anything that didn’t sit well with you.”
While IMPD won’t say if the two cases are connected, Justin Smith will.
”I feel like there is somebody out here doing something. It’s not a coincidence. Something’s wrong.”
The crime scenes lie in the middle of IMPD’s East District Beat 62 where there have been eight homicides since the start of 2023.
All across the East District, from 46th Street on the north, down Post Road on the west to Washington Street on the south, IMPD has investigated 26 homicides since the start of last year.
Three have been solved.
”There’s a lot of intimidation out there, people who have information have to be protected,” said Rev. James Jackson of Fervent Prayer Church. ”It is disheartening though. It really works on you to see it happen as regularly as it’s happening.”
Jackson, who flirted with running in last year’s mayoral race, said he’s seen community anti-violence programs and community policing work at curbing eastside violence in the past.
”It is disheartening though. It really works on you to see it happen as regularly as it’s happening,” he said. ”We’re seeing these things happening every other day, every other week I’m getting an alert on my phone that someone has been killed or something like this has happened.”
Near 21st and Mitthoefer, it has happened twice in six days.
”It was just so callous the way they took her. She didn’t deserve it. She wouldn’t have prompted it,” said Smith. “That reaction from whoever did that. You didn’t have to do that.
“There’s somebody weird and evil walking around out here doing something.”
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
TOKYO (AP) — Look for Lionel Messi to play on Wednesday in Tokyo where Inter Miami meets Japanese club Vissel Kobe in a friendly. And don’t look for another public relations disaster as happened on Sunday when Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain sat on the bench for an entire match against a selection of players from […]
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Tylor Perry scored eight of his 26 points in overtime and Kansas State beat No. 4 Kansas 75-70 on Monday night in the 300th matchup of their heated rivalry. “It was a fun environment to be in,” Perry said. “Our fans did a very good job of packing it in and […]
The change is not confined to the personal sphere, as businesses adapt to the evolving preferences of their clientele.
LINCOLN, Ill. (AP) — Women stream into the courtroom and sit shoulder to shoulder, coats bunched and bags on laps. Crystal Martinez, a human trafficking survivor, enters accompanied by a guard. Her face breaks into a teary smile at the sight of benches full of supporters. Martinez, who has been incarcerated for more than two […]
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Brock Purdy went overtime on Super Bowl opening night. The San Francisco 49ers’ second-year quarterback began by saying he’s ready to spoil Taylor Swift’s trip to Las Vegas and finished by remaining at the microphone to answer questions for several minutes after Monday’s media extravaganza concluded. With rowdy Niners fans chanting […]
Beginning with the class of 2029, the Ivy League college will require applicants to submit SAT or ACT scores for consideration.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — One night after Taylor Swift earned her fourth career Grammy for album of the year, her boyfriend was feeling pressure to secure his own triumph in the Super Bowl. “She’s unbelievable, she’s rewriting the history books herself,” Travis Kelce said Monday night at Allegiant Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs will […]
The mom of convicted school shooter Ethan Crumbley is on trial for involuntary manslaughter.
LONDON, Ontario (AP) — The police chief of London, Ontario, issued a public apology on Monday to a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by five hockey players on Canada’s 2018 world junior team — including four now currently in the NHL — for the length of time it took to complete an investigation […]
