Parents' damning texts about their children lead officials to grisly fire pit discovery: Court docs



A mother and father from Indiana have been charged with murdering two of their children.

Steven Valle, 31, and Samantha Sebella, 25 — both of Wheatfield — were arrested last week and charged with murder, neglect of a dependent causing death, abuse of a corpse, and failure to report a dead body.

'YOU KILLED OUR BABIES, I HAVE THEIR DNA IN MY BODY FOREVER.'

On Sept. 20, deputies with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the pair after a tipster informed authorities about a horrifying confession. The informant allegedly told police that Valle told friends he killed two of his children.

Detectives located Valle at a hotel in Newton County. He denied the allegations. However, police obtained a search warrant and seized the couple's cell phones, which allegedly contained damning evidence. Turns out there were text messages between the pair on the phones that appeared to indicate Valle murdered the two children, according to court documents.

“You killed my kids cause you are a fa****, you never loved me,” one message read, WXIN-TV reported.

“YOU KILLED OUR BABIES, I HAVE THEIR DNA IN MY BODY FOREVER,” another message between Sebella and Valle reportedly read.

According to WXIN, the police report "insinuated that Valle had smothered his first-born child and drowned his second-born."

A judge determined there was enough evidence to arrest Valle and Sebella on Friday, Law & Crime said. The couple was taken to the Jasper County Detention Center, where they remain without bond.

Both suspects allegedly denied ever having more than one child, telling investigators their child was born in their home without documentation. The Indiana Department of Child Services removed this child from the couple's custody.

Indeed, the Jasper County Health Department informed investigators there wasn’t any record of Sebella ever having given birth.

The pair reportedly also told investigators Sebella never had a miscarriage or a stillbirth.

But during a second police interview, Sebella allegedly admitted that she had given birth to a boy in 2018.

Valle claimed to police that he found Sebella passed out with an infant lying between her legs, according to court documents

Valle reportedly claimed the baby was not awake or breathing, so he cleaned up the infant, placed him in a blanket, and put him in a box. Valle claimed to have buried the child in the backyard three days after the birth because he “knew the child wouldn’t be coming back to life.”

According to court documents, Valle claimed to investigators Sebella got pregnant a second time, but the baby was prematurely born in a bathtub while he was at work. Valle allegedly buried the second baby in the backyard near the first deceased infant.

Police say Valle informed them that he dug up the corpses of his children three to five years after their deaths and burned them in a fire pit. He saved some of the ashes to make a necklace as a memento, according to court docs.

On Sept. 30, the sheriff’s office, Indiana State Police, Jasper County Coroner’s Office along with two cadaver dogs went to the Wheatfield property where Valle and Sebella had previously lived. The couple reportedly was evicted from the property earlier this year.

“With the cooperation of the landowner and the current residents, the search began, and the cadaver dogs alerted to three separate locations on the property. A preliminary search at these locations uncovered partial bone fragments,” deputies wrote, according to Law & Crime.

The outlet added that authorities took the bone fragments to a specialist in Indianapolis for testing to determine whether they were from an infant or animal, and the sheriff's office said the fragments were human.

Deputies said the couple did not inform authorities about the births, deaths, burials, or burnings of their children.

You can view a video report here about the case.

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Indiana mother charged with homicide after second baby dies when she fell asleep while breastfeeding



An Indiana mother has been arrested and charged with homicide after a second baby died when she fell asleep while breastfeeding.

Aaliyah Lykins, 21, has been charged with reckless homicide and neglect of a dependent, according to court records. If convicted on both counts, Lykins faces up to eight years in prison.

On the morning of Oct. 9, 2023, police and firefighters responded to an emergency call at Lykins' home in Muncie, and encountered a baby who was "limp with no signs of respiration."

According to an affidavit, Lykins told first responders that she had been breastfeeding her daughter when she fell asleep.

"Oh, no, I did it again," the mother told EMS personnel, according to the affidavit.

First responders attempted to resuscitate the 2-week-old baby, and then the infant was rushed to Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“Aaliyah Lykins was fully aware of the danger of co-sleeping with her infant … as she had a prior born child die while co-sleeping," the affidavit reads, according to the Kansas City Star.

In 2020, another one of Lykins' children reportedly died in the same manner.

She fell asleep with her 7-week-old son and he too died.

According to the affidavit, Lykins told police officers at the time "that she should not have placed (her son) in bed with her, and that she knew it was wrong."

Lykins was not charged with any crimes in connection with her son's death in 2020.

According to Law & Crime, Lykins has a criminal record that includes battery resulting in bodily injury to a pregnant woman and neglect of a dependent in January 2021, neglect of a dependent and leaving the scene of an accident after crashing into an unattended car in November 2021, and using a computer network or other form of electronic communication for harassment in February 2023.

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Parents charged after 5-year-old son, who had cocaine in his system, shoots and kills 16-month-old brother, who had marijuana in his system: Police



Indiana parents have been charged after their 5-year-old son allegedly shot and killed his 16-month-old brother. Police say both young children had drugs in their systems.

Around 3:00 p.m. on March 28, officers from the Lafayette Police Department responded to a report that a child wasn't breathing at an apartment building in Lafayette — about an hour north of Indianapolis. Cops discovered a 1-year-old boy deceased and determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

After an investigation, police said that 16-month-old Isiah Johnson had been shot and killed by his 5-year-old brother.

Law & Crime reported, "Following the death, toxicology results reportedly showed the toddler tested positive for marijuana. His older brother allegedly had cocaine in his system."

Deonta Johnson, 27, and Shatia Welch, 24, were arrested on Monday afternoon during a traffic stop in LaPorte, Indiana. According to a statement by the Lafayette Police Department, the parents were charged with neglect resulting in death, neglect resulting in bodily injury, conspiracy to commit dealing a narcotic drug, dealing a narcotic drug, possession of a narcotic, conspiracy to commit dealing marijuana, dealing marijuana, possession of marijuana, and possession of paraphernalia. Johnson was also charged with obstruction of justice.

Welch wasn't at the apartment at the time of the shooting, and Johnson was asleep on a couch inside the apartment, according to NBC News.

Johnson allegedly told investigators that he was awakened by a "loud boom" and found his youngest son in the bedroom.

Lafayette police lieutenant Matt Gard told Journal & Courier, "When I arrived on scene, I don't believe any life-saving measures were taken" on the toddler.

WXIN reported, "At the time, he denied that Isiah Johnson had been shot and denied that he had a gun in the apartment. However, he later told officers that Welch, the leaseholder of the apartment, did own a gun.

Welch allegedly told police that the gun was locked away under her bed in a box. According to the affidavit, the mother admitted to investigators that she had lost one of the two sets of keys — but that her 5-year-old son "would not know what the keys belonged to."

Police said they found 93 fentanyl pills, marijuana, and paraphernalia inside the apartment.

Authorities stated that surveillance footage from the apartment complex showed Johnson leaving his unit with a bag after the shooting and placing it in a car. A search warrant was obtained, and police reportedly found marijuana stashed inside the same vehicle.

The father's trial is scheduled to start on Nov. 28, and the mother's trial is expected to begin on Dec. 12.

Indiana 5-year-old tests positive for cocaine after shooting babywww.youtube.com

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Indiana funeral director pleaded guilty to theft of 48 decomposing corpses and cremated bodies, allegedly lied to families about cremains



An Indiana funeral director pleaded guilty to the theft of 48 decomposing corpses and cremated remains. The funeral director is also accused of lying about the cremains to the families of the deceased.

Randy Lankford – the owner of Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana – pleaded guilty to more than 40 felony theft charges.

Lankford faces a sentence of 12 years: four years in prison and eight years of home incarceration, according to Clark County Circuit Court Judge N. Lisa Glickfield. Lankford is ordered to pay $46,000 in restitution to 53 families.

Last year, local residents told authorities there was a potent odor emanating from the funeral home. Law enforcement officials investigated the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center.

Authorities say they discovered 31 decomposing bodies and 17 cremated bodies at Lankford's funeral home in July 2022. Police found dozens of bodies unrefrigerated in different rooms of the funeral homes, according to court records.

"The funeral home's air conditioning also went out, potentially causing others in the area to smell the odor," Fox News reported. "Many of the corpses had been there for an extensive amount of time."

Lankford repeatedly lied to clients about the disposal or cremation status of the remains of their deceased loved ones, according to court docs.

Lankford reportedly provided cremated ashes to clients – telling them it was the remains of their deceased loved one. However, the person's actual remains were allegedly found in the Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center.

Cynthia Faye Cook and Jeffrey Lorey claimed that the Lankford Funeral Home gave them misleading information about the cremains of their daughter – Nicole Dallas Lorey. The family alleged that the funeral home told them that they didn't have a suitable container to send her remains. The family purportedly learned that their daughter hadn’t been cremated, and her body was decomposing at the funeral home.

Lankford faces multiple lawsuits from the families who claim the remains of their loved ones were compromised.

Clark County Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said, "We wanted to get justice for the families. And this, it’s a case where there were so many charges. We had to come to some sort of resolution that got justice now for those people. My goal as the prosecutor has been simply getting him convicted, getting him sentenced to jail and getting him to the point where these people are going to get their money back."

Randy Lankford agreed to surrender his personal license and the facility's license in 2022.

Lankford is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

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Horowitz: 43% of Indianapolis murder suspects were out on pretrial release at time of murders



The Indiana governor and legislature have no interest in holding a special session to deal with COVID-related human rights violations, but perhaps they will have an appetite to deal with the record crime. For those who think the crime wave is limited to blue states, many have forgotten that red states have signed onto the same jailbreak de-incarceration agenda items most directly responsible for the crime bubble. Now the chickens are coming home to roost, with the same career criminals who are released early going on to commit the lion's share of the crime.

For those wondering why a city like Indianapolis is experiencing record homicides, look no farther than the percentage of felons let out of jail. A new Fox 59 investigation found that 43% of murder suspects arrested in Indianapolis through October of this year were either out on pretrial release or serving post-conviction sentences. And this report does not even include the juvenile suspects who almost assuredly would have gotten a lenient sentence or pretrial release stemming from prior criminal charges.

Nor are these criminals necessarily released pretrial for nebulous crimes. Marcus Garvin, who is accused of brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend, Christie Holt, in July, was charged with stabbing a random person seven months earlier but was released on low bond.

Republicans like to focus the debate on crime exclusively on funding for the police, but most of them tacitly agree with the Democrat premise that somehow we have an over-incarceration problem, when in fact we have a de-incarceration problem. Career criminals are not being properly deterred with tough sentences any more. Moreover, too many criminals are being released on low bail, and then it takes forever for a trial to commence.

The bottom line is we need more funding for courts and prosecutors. At a time when we are spending trillions of dollars on COVID fascism and welfare, our governments – even in red states – are ignoring their most sacred job of preventing dangerous people from harming innocent citizens. They need to fund prosecutors' offices with special grant programs designed to enforce specific statutes against repeat offenders that will result in the longest prison times. After years of weak-on-crime policies, there is a massive backlog in cases of violent felons. There's an even greater need to fund prosecutors than to fund the police.

There is also a need to build more prisons and courts. If there are years' worth of backlogs in the courts, that will result in the worst criminals remaining on the streets indefinitely. Legislators should use some of the COVID funds to pay for this, because even Biden blessed the reprogramming to combat crime. Why not use it to lock up more criminals that he likes to coddle?

Just as of Nov. 17, Indianapolis was on the verge of breaking its murder record for the second straight year, at 244 homicides year-to-date. For its relatively small size as a major city, that is a homicide rate almost as high as Chicago's. According to a mid-year report from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, 75% of the victims and suspects were known to law enforcement. Indiana, like many other states, has dramatically shrunk its incarcerated population. According to the Indiana Department of Corrections, the incarcerated population has declined by approximately 20% over the past two years. This, despite the fact that carjackings are skyrocketing in Indianapolis. They simply are not being locked up, and the lack of deterrent encourages more crime.

Last year, Indianapolis blew out the previous homicide record by 37%. The overwhelming majority of those murders remain unsolved. Republicans have stupidly shied away from their traditional tough-on-crime stance in recent years, in part out of fear of alienating black voters. But the reality is that as in most major American cities, the growing homicide bubble resulting from jailbreak "reform" policies disproportionately harms black people. Although black people compose less than 30% of Indianapolis's population, they accounted for 75% of all homicide victims in the city in 2020.

Overall, across the nation, murder increased 29.4% and aggravated assaults rose by 12% in 2020, according to the FBI. By all accounts, this year appears to be continuing on that dangerous trajectory.

Perhaps if allegedly Republican governors like Indiana's Eric Holcomb would focus on punishing criminals as much as on enforcing injections and masks on behalf of the new "Pfizer constitution," Hoosiers would be safe from violent crime. As for the GOP supermajorities in the legislature, they as may as well hand over the keys to the Democrats.