Larry Self

Larry Self

Man's body found buried in home's backyard

Victim's sister had reported him missing; partner is arrested

By Vic Ryckaert
Posted: June 17, 2010

Backyard burial victim had been shot

A man found buried in the backyard of his Near-Southside home had been shot, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police said this morning.

Larry Self, 46, was shot in the midst of a fight on March 14 with his partner, Anthony Sachse, 41, Sgt. Matthew Mount said today in a press release. Police do not know what the argument was about.

Police say Sachse confessed to his role in the killing, but are not releasing his statements.

Police recovered Self’s body on Wednesday and arrested Sachse, who is held without bond in the Marion County Jail.

(Earlier -- Man's body found buried in home's backyard)

An Indianapolis man accused of killing his partner and burying his body in the backyard of a Near-Southside home was arrested Wednesday on a preliminary charge of murder, police said.

Anthony Sachse, 41, is suspected of killing Larry Self, 45, on March 14, police said. Sachse was being held without bond Wednesday at the Marion County Jail.

Sachse admitted to the killing Wednesday morning after detectives served a search warrant at the home he shared with Self in the 1700 block of South Meridian Street, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Thompson said.

Police recovered Self's body, and an autopsy was performed Wednesday, Thompson said. Police would not disclose the cause of death.

Police stepped in when Self's sister filed a missing-person report June 4, telling officers she had last spoken to her brother by phone March 6.

"He buried him in the backyard," Patricia Self, 56, told the Indianapolis Star on Wednesday. "What kind of monster does that?"

Larry Self was on disability, his sister said, and she thinks Sachse cashed her brother's Social Security checks after his death. Patricia Self, Springfield, Ill., said her brother and Sachse had been in an off-and-on relationship for more than two decades.

"I really didn't believe he would just throw him in the ground, someone who loved him for 20 years-plus," she said.

Patricia Self said she spoke to her brother often by telephone, and she became concerned when the calls stopped. She said she received e-mails from her brother's account, starting in April, that she now believes Sachse wrote.

In late May, her brother's doctor's office called, saying it could not reach him and that someone had told the office he had died. About a week later, she said, she got a message from her brother's e-mail account that seemed suspicious.

"It was a nasty e-mail . . . saying he didn't want to talk to me," she said. "My brother would never send me a hateful e-mail. Never."

She filed the missing-person report later that day. According to the June 4 report, she told police she feared her brother had become a victim of foul play.

Police dug up Self's body with help from University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologist Stephen Nawrocki. Officers also seized a 9 mm handgun from the home, the report said.

According to a police report, Sachse called a suicide hotline and threatened to kill himself March 25. Police went to the home and took Sachse to St. Francis Hospital -- Beech Grove.

"Mr. Sachse stated that his partner passed a couple weeks ago, and he has had a very hard time getting past this," officer Klinton Streeter wrote in the report.

Patricia Self said Self relocated from Texas about five years ago in hopes of helping Sachse get away from bad influences.

"My brother had a big heart. He didn't have any enemies," she said. "He was HIV-positive and . . . stayed with Joe because he didn't want to endanger anyone else."