MUNCIE—
Police in Muncie say a woman was killed during an apparent homicide inside her home. Monica Brown, 35, was found dead hours after telling police her life had been threatened and hours before she was to celebrate Christmas Eve with her family."This is the worst Christmas I've ever had, and I really love my mom," said Stephanie Brown, the victim's 11 year old daughter.
Stephanie and Kimberly Brown, 17, said they planned on celebrating Christmas Eve with their mom at their grandmother's house Thursday, but their dad, Monica Brown's ex-husband Mike Brown, took them to their mother's house before noon because something wasn't right.
"She hadn't answered her phone and I called my grandmother to see if she had talked to her and she said she hadn't," Kimberly Brown said. "So I went over there with my little sister and we found her."
The two girls discovered their mother's body in her bedroom, with their six month old and two year old half siblings in the house unharmed.
Before Monica Brown's home was a murder scene, she told police it was the scene of a burglary. Brown told police two men broke in on Tuesday and took the prescription drugs Oxy Contin and Xanax, along with some other items. She didn't report the crime until Wednesday, when she said one of those men threatened her life.
"That's who we're trying to find at this time," said Captain Mark Vollmar with the Muncie Police Department.
Vollmar says Monica Brown knew the two men, which likely explains the delay in the report and why they found no signs of forced entry on Thursday.
"I think she just wanted it documented," Vollmar said. "They weren't able to find those two people that evening, so I don't know what else could have been done yesterday morning."
