A 17-year-old
Center Township boy has been formally charged with the murder of two missing
Lake County teens, the remains of whom are believed to have been found on
Saturday morning in a vehicle found abandoned and burned in a field in rural
Hebron, the Porter County Sheriffs’ Police reported just before deadline
today.
Connor Kerner, with
an address on Kinsale Ave., was charged this morning with two counts of
murder and waived into adult court, the PCSP said.
Kerner was detained
for questioning at 6:15 p.m. Saturday by the PCSP but has “refused to answer
questions,” the PCSP said. He is being held without bond and no initial
arraignment has yet been scheduled.
The charges follow
an intensive investigation this weekend, which began after information from
an anonymous source was forwarded to the PCSP by the Cedar Lake Police
Department, in connection with the disappearance of Molley Lanham, 19, of
St. John; and Thomas Grill, 19, of Cedar Lake. Lanham was last seen on
Monday, Feb. 25; Grill on Tuesday, Feb. 26.
According to that
anonymous source, Kerner killed Lanham and Grill, placed their bodies in the
Honda Civic in which the two had been riding, drove the Honda to a field in
rural Hebron, and then set it on fire.
The car was
discovered on Saturday morning and inside it the remains of two persons.
“The identities of
the two individuals inside the vehicle have not been confirmed,” the PCSP
said today. “However, all evidence obtained at this point at the scene and
through statements given point to the individuals being Thomas Grill and
Molley Lanham. DNA is being sent to the lab for processing and the Porter
County Coroner’s Office will be working on a forensic autopsy with medical
records to confirm the identities. The Grill and Lanham families were
notified on Saturday, March 2, of our findings and the evidence pointing to
their murders.”
At least three
different search warrants have been obtained in the course of the
investigation, the PCSP said: one for the Honda Civic; one for Kerner’s
residence on Kinsale Ave.; and one for a residence in rural Hebron, in Boone
Township, where investigators believe the murders occurred. “Investigators
recovered what they believe to be substantial evidence during the execution
of these search warrants,” the PCSP said. “Further information and testing
are pending on items located during the execution of these warrants.”
Assisting in the
investigation are the Cedar Lake and St. John PDs, the Valparaiso PD’s Crime
Scene Investigations Team, the ATF, the Porter County Prosecuting Attorney’s
Office, and the Porter County Coroner’s Office.
“I want to commend
the work of our Criminal Investigations Division, the Crime Scene
Investigators, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Coroner’s Office, and the
additional agencies that assisted, for working throughout the weekend and
for working together cohesively, in obtaining statements, locating and
processing evidence, locating the suspect, and successfully apprehending
him,” Porter County Sheriff Dave Reynolds said. “I want to send my sincere
condolences to the Thomas Grill and Molley Lanham families on the tragedy
they are now facing with the heinous deaths of their children.”