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   GARY, Ind. (AP) — 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 indicated there could be more victims going   
   back 20 years.   
      
   Hammond Police Chief John Doughty said at a news conference that   
   the suspect is 43-year-old Darren Vann of nearby Gary, Indiana,   
   who pleaded guilty to a Texas sexual assault in 2009 and was   
   released from prison in July, 2013. 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.   
      
   Doughty said the Gary slayings appeared to have happened   
   recently, though Vann indicated there could be earlier victims.   
   He said police are not actively looking for more bodies and have   
   no indication that any slayings have occurred in another state.   
   He said Vann is cooperating with investigators in the hope of   
   making a deal with prosecutors.   
      
   "It could go back as far as 20 years based on some statements we   
   have, but that has yet to be corroborated," Doughty said.   
      
   Vann is registered as a sex offender in Texas, where the   
   Department of Public Safety listed his risk level as "low." He   
   did not register in Illinois.   
      
   Court records in Travis County, Texas, show that Vann served a   
   five-year prison sentence, with credit for the 15 months he was   
   in jail awaiting trial, after pleading guilty in 2009 to   
   sexually assaulting a woman at an Austin apartment two years   
   earlier.   
      
   The woman told police that she went to Vann's apartment, where   
   he asked if she was a police officer. After she told him no, he   
   knocked her down and began to strangle and beat her, hitting her   
   several times in the face and telling the woman he could kill   
   her.   
      
   He then raped her.   
      
   Vann allowed the woman to leave and she called police the next   
   day.   
      
   Charges were expected to be filed in Indiana later Monday in the   
   death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, whose body was found about   
   late Friday at a Motel 6 in Hammond, Doughty said. The Lake   
   County coroner's office said she was strangled.   
      
   Doughty said she was involved in prostitution and had arranged   
   to meet Vann at the motel through a Chicago-area website. Police   
   were called by someone who attempted to reach Hardy and "was   
   provided suspicious text responses that she believed to be from   
   the suspect while he was still inside the motel room."   
      
   Police said they took Vann into custody Saturday afternoon after   
   obtaining a search warrant for a home and vehicle in Gary.   
      
   Vann allegedly confessed to killing Hardy, then told   
   investigators where more bodies could be found in abandoned   
   homes in Gary, a deteriorating former steel town about 30 miles   
   southeast of Chicago, police said.   
      
   Police found the body of 35-year-old Anith Jones of   
   Merrillville, Indiana, on Saturday night in an abandoned home.   
   She had been missing since Oct. 8.   
      
   Five more bodies were found on Sunday in other homes, said   
   Doughty, who identified two of the women as Gary residents   
   Teaira Batey, 28, and Christine Williams, 36. Police have not   
   determined the identities of the other three women, including   
   two whose bodies were found on the same block where Jones' body   
   was found on Saturday.   
      
   Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said only Jones was reported   
   missing, perhaps indicating that Vann "preyed on individuals   
   that might be less likely to be reported missing."   
      
   Hardy's mother, Lori Townsend, said police told her that Vann   
   asked that she perform a certain sex act, and "when she said   
   'no' and put up a fight, he snapped and strangled her."   
      
   "This man is sick," Townsend said from her home in Colorado.   
      
   Hardy graduated from high school in late 2013 and planned to go   
   on to college to study music, Townsend said.   
      
   "She was full of life. She lit up a room with her smile and her   
   beauty," she said. "And she had a voice like a songbird."   
      
   Gary, once a thriving steel town of 178,000 where thousands   
   worked in the mills, has been struggling for decades. Its   
   population has shrunk to just over 78,000 and its poverty rate   
   hovers around 40 percent. Thousands of homes are abandoned, many   
   with weeds choking broken sidewalks — often on the same streets   
   where other homes are tidy and well-kept.   
      
   On Monday, people in Gary tried to make sense of the tragedy.   
      
   "That's devastating," said Jay Jackson, 25, a health care worker   
   visiting a woman a few houses from where one of the bodies was   
   found. "All we can do is pray for the city and hope for   
   recovery."   
   ___   
   Tarm reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Tom Davies   
   in Indianapolis, Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and Tammy Webber   
   in Chicago contributed to this report.   
      
   http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Bodies-of-3-more-slain-   
   women-found-in-NW-Indiana-5834176.php#photo-7025397   
      
       
      
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