Woman found dead in Eastside apartment

Police are searching for a killer after finding a 40 year old woman dead inside her apartment late Saturday morning.

The woman lived in a building located in the 1700 block of North Ritter Avenue. Her body was discovered after apartment managers opened her door for a routine extermination. Police say the call originally appeared to be a death by natural causes.

"It took about three hours before they actually physically moved the body and it was at that time they determined she had injuries that indicated she was a victim of a homicide," said Sergeant Paul Thompson with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.


Detectives aren't releasing what those injuries are, how they believe the victim was killed, or who might be responsible. Neighbors like Jeff Holland who lives two doors down, says the woman had a lot of visitors.

"It was always men and they'd come and stay five, ten or fifteen minutes and be gone," Holland said. "Then it was like another car would pull up. It was like on and on."

Things seemed to change a little more than a week ago. Jeff says his neighbor stopped getting the mail and seemed to stop answering the door when those visitors came by. Still, police say somebody paid a visit very recently.

"The detective believes that this crime occurred in the last 24 hours," Thompson said.

Sarah Hotseller tells FOX 59 she was standing outside on Friday night when a man stopped and knocked at the victim's apartment. Instead of leaving when there was no answer, Hotseller says the man walked around the backside of the apartment.

"He was gone about 20 minutes and came back around front running," Hotseller said. "I mean running, not jogging, running very fast and then got in his car and left."

Hotseller didn't speak to investigators about the suspicious activity until Saturday. She says all the activity at apartment A3 seemed suspicious to her.

"I mean, she would have guys in and out constantly, all night every night, 24 hours in the day," Hotseller said. "So you're putting your own self at risk right there."

But no matter the risk, she says nobody deserves this.

"She didn't have to die in that way. Period," Hotseller said.

Police aren't releasing many details about the investigation. They won't comment on what might have been going on inside the victim's apartment, or whether they have identified any suspects. They expect to release more information on how the victim died once an autopsy is complete.