Tammy Sue Birdsell

 Tammy Birdsell

Arrest made in case that's 4 years old

October 10, 2011

CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) - There's been an arrest made in connection with a shooting death committed 4 1/2 years ago. Victim's family said they feel as if they are one step closer to justice.

Dan Fassnacht, whom police said the victim was in a relationship, was arrested Friday on preliminary charges of voluntary manslaughter. He was bonded out on $50,000 bond.

43-year-old Tammy Birdsell from Flora was found dead outside of Dan Fassnacht's home at County Road 200 East around 3:00 on the morning of April 4, 2007.  The Carroll County Sheriff's Department said Birdsell died from a single gunshot wound.

Indiana State Police Sergeant Kim Riley said Fassnacht and Birdsell had a relationship, but he's not sure why Birdsell was at his house at that hour.  Police said Fassnacht claimed to have heard something going on outside in his shed when he called police and asked them to come check it out.

Police found a rifle lying next to Birdsell that was from Fassnacht's property.  Carroll County Sheriff Tony Burns said detectives questioned Fassnacht about the death of Birdsell, but then released him.

Birdsell had three children, ages 13, 15, and 20.

Obituary:

Nov. 30, 1963 - April 4, 2007

Tammy Sue Birdsell, 43, Flora, passed away early Wednesday morning, April 4, 2007, in Bringhurst. She was born Nov. 30, 1963, to Jim Jenkins and Carolyn Tyra. She was previously married to Jim Prater.

She had been employed as a day care worker. Her hobbies included fishing, camping and sewing. Tammy was a 1982 graduate of Delphi High School.

Surviving are her mother, Carolyn Tyra, Flora; father, Jim Jenkins, Yeoman; two sons, Dustin Prater, Flora, and Joseph Prater, at home; one daughter, Tabatha “Tabby” Prater, also at home; three brothers, James Jenkins, Jeff Jenkins, and T.J. Brower, all of Lafayette; two sisters, Lynn Simms, Burlington, and Teresa Sisson, Bringhurst; and two grandchildren.

Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Reinke Funeral Home, Flora, following two hours of visitation. Creta Hollis will officiate the service.

Suzanne Saunders

Woman, Estranged Husband Identified In Carmel Shootings

Police: Handgun Found Near Man

October 11, 2011

CARMEL, Ind. -- Police are investigating the fatal shootings of a woman and her estranged husband in a Carmel condominium as a murder-suicide.

Carmel police said the bodies of Aaron Saunders, 46, and Suzanne Saunders, 50, were found Tuesday morning in a home at the Traditions on the Monon in the 900 block of 3rd Avenue, near 136th Street and Rangeline Road, 6News' Julie Pursley reported.

"Both bodies appeared to have gunshot wounds. A handgun was found in close proximity to the deceased male," Carmel police Lt. Jeff Horner said.

Police rushed to the home about 6:45 a.m., when the oldest of Suzanne Saunders' three children, boys ages 16 and 11, along with a 12-year-old girl, heard gunshots and called 911.

"(The children) were at home getting ready for school when their stepfather stopped by the house," Horner said. "They heard an argument break out between their mother and stepfather."

Soon after the argument began, the children heard the gunshots and heard their mother scream, police said.

Neighbor Debbie Edstrom described the horror of what she witnessed.

"I heard a woman scream, and I called 911, and I heard a young boy, a voice say, 'Mom,'" Edstrom said. "(The boy) had walked to the end of our building, and he met the police as they were coming into the complex and he was directing them to his house, and I heard him say it was his stepfather had come into the house and shot his mother."

Investigators said the boys ran out of the home after the shooting and that the girl hid in an upstairs room. They were not injured.

Autopsies are planned.

Latrice Long-Payton

 Latrice Long-Payton

Man accused of dumping woman's body in trash pleads guilty

Police said Coleman killed Long-Payton by strangling her and then put her body in the garbage.

September 29, 2011

A man accused of murdering a woman and then putting her body in the trash entered a guilty plea Wednesday.

Joseph Coleman, 29, pleaded guilty to the murder of Latrice Long-Payton, 29, in September 2010.

Police said Coleman killed Long-Payton by strangling her and then put her body in the garbage.

In October 2010, officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department received an anonymous tip there might be a dead body inside a home in the 5900 block of East Rawles Avenue. The caller told police the female was chocked and beat to death and then wrapped in plastic. The caller also stated there was a strong smell of rotting flesh inside the home.

According to a probable cause, Long-Payton was paying Coleman rent to stay in his house. He told police he last saw her three weeks before her body was found. He also told police the foul smell in his home was from dead possums he killed.

When police searched the trash can in the back of the home, they found the body of missing Long-Payton.

Police said Coleman told them he and Long-Payton got into a verbal argument, because he wanted her to move out of the home. He said she hit him in the face so he began beating and choking her until she died. Coleman also stated Samuel Taylor, 33, helped him wrap the victim’s body in plastic and place the body in the crawlspace of the home.

Taylor was charged with assisting a criminal.

Coleman will be sentenced October 28.

Tina Williams Daniels

Indy man held in shooting death of his wife

October 9. 2011

An Indianapolis man was arrested early this morning in connection with the shooting death of his wife on the city's Eastside, according to Indianapolis metropolitan police.

The suspect, identified as Kenneth Daniels, 62, was taken into custody after police arrived at a house in the 4700 block of East 30th Street. That’s where they found 50-year-old Tina Williams suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to her chest and arms.

She was pronounced dead at the scene when emergency services personnel arrived.

The suspect was holding a gun at the time officers arrived, according a news release from Ptl. Kendale Adams, a spokesman for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Daniels told homicide investigators that he shot his wife during an argument, the release said, and he subsequently was arrested and preliminarily charged with murder.

Officers also discovered an unharmed four-year-old child in an upstairs bedroom. The child’s relationship to the victim or the suspect was not immediately known.  Daniels was transported to the Marion County Arresting Processing Center, where he awaits the filling of formal charges.

Child Protective Services arrived and took the child into custody. Tina Williams’ next-of-kin has been notified, police said.