Police say man arrested in one slaying led them to 6 other bodies; he is now charged with murder
A registered sex offender convicted in Texas of aggravated rape was quickly linked by police in Hammond, Indiana, to the slaying of a prostitute at a motel there Friday.
But when Darren Deon Vann, 43, was taken into custody Saturday, police said he confessed not only to killing Afrikka Hardy, 19, who was found dead in a bathtub at the motel, but six more women, according to CNN, the Indianapolis Star and WLS.
After locating six bodies in Gary, Indiana, over the weekend with Vann’s help, most of them in abandoned homes, authorities charged him Monday with Hardy’s murder.
An investigation is continuing in both Gary and Hammond, and police elsewhere are reportedly looking at cold cases that might potentially be connected to Vann.
“It could go back as far as 20 years based on some statements we have. That has yet to be corroborated,” police chief John D. Doughty of Hammond told WLS. “He’s claimed crimes he committed in Indiana go back that far.”
