TERRE HAUTE — A 26-year-old Terre Haute woman was shot to death outside the front entrance of Terre Haute’s Drury Inn and her alleged killer died about an hour later after a police chase that ended near Monrovia late Wednesday night.
Vigo County Coroner Dr. Roland Kohr said the woman, whose identity will not be released until relatives have been notified, died of multiple gunshot wounds, at least one to the head. Five casings were found at the scene.
“It appears to be a domestic shooting with either a boyfriend or ex-husband,” Kohr told the Tribune-Star at the crime scene at about 1 a.m. Thursday. “The relationships are not really clear at this point. It’s being sorted out.
“Apparently, she had been in a vehicle with this individual and she jumped from the vehicle or tried to run and he followed her.”
Bill Bergherm, assistant chief of criminal investigations for the Terre Haute Police Department, said the initial vehicle was a van, but the suspect drove it to the Ramada Inn, a motel across from the Drury Inn at 3040 S. U.S. Highway 41, after the shooting and switched to an SUV.
“Multiple shots were fired … and she has multiple gunshot wounds,” Kohr continued. “The exact number that hit her, it’s kinda hard to say at this moment.”
An autopsy was scheduled for later Thursday.
Kohr said the female victim was Caucasian and the alleged killer was a black male. He did not know the age of the alleged killer.
“Apparently, there are also three children who were involved that belong to them,” Kohr added. “Whether they were in the van or in the vehicle at the time the shooting occurred, we’re not really clear on at this moment. My understanding is a chase ensued [with police] along the interstate [70] after the shooting that made it almost as far as Monrovia.”
Kohr deferred questions about how the alleged killer died to the Indiana State Police.
A spokesperson at Terre Haute’s ISP headquarters said the suspect’s vehicle was stopped at 11:47 p.m. Wednesday at the 62 1/2-mile marker of eastbound I-70 and the driver died from a gunshot wound at about 12:04 a.m. Thursday. The spokesperson said four children, a different number than what Kohr gave, were inside the vehicle and all were found alive.
The spokesperson said other details, such as whether the wound was self-inflicted or originated from shots fired by a law-enforcement officer, were unavailable early Thursday morning.
Kohr and Bergherm described other events that led to the shooting.
“At least one of the parties had been staying at the Ramada,” Kohr noted. “There was a chase on foot and vehicle that ended up here [at the Drury Inn]. She was trying to get in the door, as far as we know, and multiple shots were fired.
“From what we understand, there are multiple witnesses who actually saw the shooting, both from inside and outside the hotel here … Witnesses said they heard five or six shots.”
Bergherm confirmed that witnesses at the Terre Haute and Monrovia scenes would be interviewed through mid-day Thursday.
He also mentioned that the victim was banging on the locked front door of the Drury Inn before she was shot. Because the victim was not staying at that motel, she did not have a room key to enter late at night.
Terre Haute police received its first call to respond to a disturbance, involving a man abducting a female at the Ramada Inn, at about 10:50 p.m. Wednesday. Later, a female’s body — partially covered by a sheet that revealed bare feet and her right arm — blocked the front outside entrance of the Drury Inn. A stream of blood flowed in front of her and yellow crime-scene tape surrounded the area as curious onlookers in the motel parking lot tried to figure out what happened.
A Terre Haute woman, who asked not to be identified, said she was paying for gasoline for her car between 10:45 and 11 p.m. at the nearby Marathon gas station when she heard a noise that sounded like firecrackers originating from the Drury Inn parking lot.
“It sounded like the Fourth of July,” she said.
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