By Lisa Trigg
REELSVILLE — A Reelsville man has been formally charged with murder in the Wednesday morning shooting death of his wife at their western Putnam County home.
Jeremy Bledsoe, 31, was arrested without incident late Wednesday after a day-long manhunt that prompted area schools to go on lockdown as a precaution for student safety.
During Thursday morning’s initial hearing, Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley entered a not-guilty plea, set Bledsoe’s next hearing for March, and appointed attorney Todd Sallee as his public defender.
Bledsoe was returned to the Putnam County Jail, where he is being held without bail on one count of felony murder.
Chief Deputy Doug Nally of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department said Bledsoe’s arrest came after Deputy Mike Downing saw the suspect’s minivan in southern Putnam County.
“It was completely random,” Nally said. “Downing identified the van and started following it, and called for backup. He wasn’t going to stop [Bledsoe] by himself.”
Indiana State Police responded to the area west of Cloverdale on Indiana 243 near Burma Road (Indiana 42) south of Interstate 70. Downing followed the minivan, which pulled over on Indiana 42 just south of Cataract Store. Bledsoe got out of the vehicle and surrendered, and Nally said a gun was visible inside the vehicle.
Police reported Wednesday morning that Bledsoe was the prime suspect in the shooting death of Kathryne Kay Bledsoe, 32, who died of a single gunshot wound to the head. The incident occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. in a house across the county road from Reelsville Elementary School, just south of U.S. 40 in western Putnam County.
Jeremy and Kathryne Bledsoe and their three children lived with Jeremy Bledsoe’s grandmother at her residence. The grandmother and two of the children, a 3-year-old boy and a 20-month-old girl, were at the home during the incident. They were not harmed. The third child was in school at the time of the shooting,
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com.
