12:11 PM -- Fall Creek body an unknown black woman
Preliminary results from an autopsy this morning on a body discovered Sunday in Fall Creek indicate the victim was likely an African American female -- and not missing IU student Lauren Spierer or Noblesville great-grandmother Dorothy Mae Heard, according to Alfarena Ballew, Marion County chief deputy coroner.
"Based on preliminary results of the autopsy we did today, it does not appear to be either" woman, Ballew said.
Ballew said that determination was based on an examination of the "external; characteristics and body structure" of the body fround in Fall Creek
Ballew said examiners also had Speirer's dental records and a preliminary check revealed they did not match.
Spierer, 20, has been missing since June 3. The 74-year-old Dorothy Mae Heard has been missing since June 11.
Ballew said the victim still has not been identified.
Earlier -- Missing-persons detectives await body identification
The Marion County Coroner's office is expected to complete an autopsy today on a body discovered Sunday floating in Fall Creek -- a discovery that has piqued the interest of investigators in at least two Indiana missing person's cases.
A family looking for clams while wading in Fall Creek Sunday night found the woman's body floating face up, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police report. They immediately called police.
The discovery occurred near 6500 E. Fall Creek Parkway, on the city's Northeastside.
Some 65 miles away, in Bloomington, investigators searching for missing Indiana University student Lauren Spierer, 20, took notice of the discovery. So did investigators 15 miles away in Noblesville who are looking for 74-year-old Dorothy Mae Heard.
That investigators searching for an underage college student and a great-grandmother could both be interested in the Fall Creek discovery says a great deal about the extent of the decomposition of the body in Fall Creek and how little police could do to initially identify it.
The scene was such that Indianapolis police requested a chaplain be sent to the scene to speak with the family who made the discovery.
The Bloomington Police Department issued a statement Monday saying it was aware of the body in Indianapolis. The statement came after the department received several media inquiries about whether the body could be that of Spierer, who went missing June 3 from Bloomington after a night out with friends.
Although Spierer's disappearance has garnered massive publicity in Indiana and beyond, she isn't the only missing woman in the area.
Heard, a 74-year-old great-grandmother from Noblesville, has not been seen or contacted family members since June 13. She was last seen about 8 a.m. that day but did not respond to a phone message left by a relative 30 minutes later. Heard apparently took her purse, police have said, but nothing else appeared to be missing from her home. She left her car in the driveway.
Heard's nephew, Donald L. Burns, 47, Elwood, was arrested the following day on unrelated charges. Police subsequently learned that Burns pawned Heard's wedding ring on the day she went missing. The ring was recovered at the EZ Pawn in Marion, police reported, and the shop's records indicated Burns pawned it there at 5:23 p.m., about 81/2 hours after Heard was last seen.
Spierer, 20, went missing in the early morning hours of June 3 after a night of partying. She was last seen about 4:30 a.m., walking in the vicinity of 11th Street and College Avenue, just blocks from her upscale, off-campus apartment building.
The Bloomington Police Department issued a statement Monday saying it was aware of the body in Indianapolis. The statement came after the department received several media inquiries about whether the body could be that of Spierer, who went missing June 3 from Bloomington after a night out with friends.
Although Spierer's disappearance has garnered massive publicity in Indiana and beyond, she isn't the only missing woman in the area.
Heard, a 74-year-old great-grandmother from Noblesville, has not been seen or contacted family members since June 13. She was last seen about 8 a.m. that day but did not respond to a phone message left by a relative 30 minutes later. Heard apparently took her purse, police have said, but nothing else appeared to be missing from her home. She left her car in the driveway.
Heard's nephew, Donald L. Burns, 47, Elwood, was arrested the following day on unrelated charges. Police subsequently learned that Burns pawned Heard's wedding ring on the day she went missing. The ring was recovered at the EZ Pawn in Marion, police reported, and the shop's records indicated Burns pawned it there at 5:23 p.m., about 81/2 hours after Heard was last seen.
Spierer, 20, went missing in the early morning hours of June 3 after a night of partying. She was last seen about 4:30 a.m., walking in the vicinity of 11th Street and College Avenue, just blocks from her upscale, off-campus apartment building.
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