Indiana authorities say serial killer suspect spree dates back decades

Police investigating the slayings of seven northwestern Indiana women whose bodies were found over the weekend said Monday it could be the work of a serial killer, and that the suspect has told them there could be more victims going back two decades. Hammond Police Chief John Doughty said at a news conference that the suspect is 43-year-old Darren Vann of nearby Gary, Indiana, who was convicted of a sex offense in Texas in 2009. His confession to the slaying of a woman in Hammond led police to the grisly discovery of six other bodies in Gary, including three on the same block, authorities said.

It could go back as far as 20 years based on some statements we have, but that has yet to be corroborated.

John Doughty, Hammond Police chief

Vann was jailed in Texas in July 2008 after police said he sexually assaulted and tried to strangle a 25-year-old woman in an Austin apartment the previous December, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark told Reuters. He was sentenced to five years and released in October 2009. On the online Texas Department of Public Safety sex offender registry, Vann’s risk level was listed as “low.”

This man is sick. She was full of life. She lit up a room with her smile and her beauty. And she had a voice like a songbird.

Lori Townsend, mother of one of the victims

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