A twisted and gruesome incident that took place in Indiana involving allegations of kidnapping, rape, murder and ‘suicide by cop’ was sparked by a threesome between a woman and a couple she met on a dating app, court documents revealed.
Heidi Carter, 36, was booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail on Wednesday on counts of murder, rape, confinement, abuse of a corpse, assisting a criminal, and carrying a handgun without a license, after a man was found restrained with duct tape, beaten and strangled to death inside a house on Stinson Avenue in Evansville.
Responding officers rescued a woman who was discovered shackled and injured at the same address. She was taken to a hospital for treatment but her condition was unknown as of Thursday afternoon.
According to an affidavit, police believe that the two victims first connected with Carter on an unspecified dating app and arrived at her home to drink alcohol, do drugs and have sex.
Heidi Carter, 36, faces charges of murder, rape and abuse of a corpse after police found a dead man and a shackled woman inside an Evansville, Indiana, home. Her boyfriend, Carey Hammond, was shot and killed by police
A cleaner discovered a man’s dead body beneath a pile of blankets and pillow at this home on Stinson Avenue and went to the police
Carter’s boyfriend, Carey Hammond, allegedly caught the trio in the act, flew into a rage and began attacking his girlfriend and the two victims with a baseball bat, according to police, as reported by 14News.
Hammond then allegedly shackled both victims and repeatedly raped the woman throughout the day, according to WANE.
Carter allegedly brandished a gun, threatened to kill the victims and bragged that she knew someone who cold get rid of a dead body, reported Evansville Courier and Press.
While Carter was away from home, Hammond allegedly grew angry because the male victim was trying to free himself, and he strangled the man to death with his belt, the affidavit alleged.
When Carter returned, she allegedly helped Hammond move the body to another room and hide it under some bedding.
Hammond emerged from the home brandishing an object made to look like a gun and was shot by police, in what was believed to be ‘suicide by cops’
On Tuesday, a woman had arrived at the home on Stinson Avenue to help Carter clean the residence for a landlord inspection.
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She became alarmed when she saw blood on Carter’s boots and heard a woman begging for help.
At one point, the cleaner sat down on what she mistook for a pile of pillows and blankets.
‘She found after she sat down that under the blankets was a dead body,’ the affidavit stated.
The witness told police the male suspect tried to prevent her from leaving, but she managed to escape and flag down an Indiana State police trooper to report the gruesome find.
Officers who responded to the scene of the incident encountered a man outside the front door brandishing what appeared to be a gun and fatally shot him.
Jason Harvey, the owner of the home, emerged from the residence with his hands raised
During a press conference on Wednesday, Evansville Police Department spokesperson Sgt Anna Gray revealed that the object in the suspect’s hand was, in fact, a piece of metal or plastic shaped to look like a gun.
Gray said police believe the suspect extended the object like a firearm so that police would shoot him.
When police executed a search warrant at the house, they found two teenagers and their father, who is the owner of the house where Carter had been staying.
Jason Harvey, the homeowner, on Thursday released a statement to 14News, saying that he had invited Carter into his home because she had been staying at a motel and needed help getting back on her feet.
Harvey said when Carter’s boyfriend began coming around, ‘things got bad with them fighting a lot.’
Harvey insisted that he did not know he had a dead body and a shackled woman in his house until police arrived.
Court records indicate that Carter has a criminal history, which includes domestic battery, breaking and entering, and resisting arrest charges stemming from two separate incidents in 2017 and 2018 resulting in two brief sentences.
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