Oct. 31--Indiana officials identified the remains of a woman found slain and buried in the backyard of a Fowler, Ind., home nearly three weeks ago as the mother of a woman who had committed suicide and whose son-in-law was found dismembered in a Far South Side Chicago garbage can, officials said Thursday.
The Benton County coroner's office confirmed through DNA evidence that the woman found at 500 E. 5th St. in Fowler on Oct. 11 is Nena Metoyer, 68, of Dunedin, Fla., Fowler police Chief Dennis Rice said in a statement.
The exact date of her death has not been determined, and officials are awaiting further testing to determine a time frame into her death. An earlier autopsy determined Metoyer died of a gunshot wound to the head, and her death was ruled a homicide, officials said.
Additional information will be released in the upcoming weeks about this investigation, the chief said.
It is the latest development in what started as a puzzling missing persons case and turned into two homicides and a suicide.
In September, police broke into the Indiana home of Metoyer's daughter, Teresa Jarding, and discovered that her husband, Milan Lekich, 51, and her mother were missing. Lekich was later found dismembered in a garbage can in a South Side garage.
Jarding died the next day, and authorities initially thought it was of natural causes. But in a statement released later, police said Jarding committed suicide by "acute mixed drug toxicity." It included no details.
Rice said officials were not sure why she would have taken her life.
"We don't know. We're still digging,'' Rice said earlier. "The unfortunate thing is that the people who know the most are no longer alive. There are very few people we can talk to to learn more about her," Rice said.
A gun that was found lying next to Jarding is being analyzed at the Indiana State Police crime lab to find out if it was used in the shooting deaths of Lekich or Metoyer.
Their bodies were discovered days after Jarding was found.
"We've asked them to hurry along their testing so we can get some answers,'' Rice said.
"We hope it will lead to the answers,'' he said earlier. "I know we probably won't have all the answers. "This has taken so many twists and turns.''
One person police plan on speaking with again is a Lafayette, Ind., man who she once called her "fiance." He was interviewed a few days after Jarding died, Rice said. During that time, Rice said the man was "in shock.''
Lekich's dismembered remains were found Oct. 5 stuffed in a garbage can in the garage of the home where he once lived in Hegewisch in the 13300 block of Avenue M. The medical examiner's office determined that he had been shot several times in the head.
On Oct. 11, Metoyer's body was found buried in the backyard of Jarding's home in Fowler, Ind., a small town about 100 miles southeast of Chicago.
Rice said earlier that police do not know when Lekich and Metoyer were killed and are still investigating how their deaths are related. His department has been sharing information with Chicago police, and no arrests have been made.
Lekich had been reported missing by his family in June 2013, several months after he got married to Jarding in Las Vegas, according to police.
Jarding later moved to Fowler, but it's not known if Lekich accompanied her. About a year ago, Jarding met someone else in town and "developed a romantic relationship," according to Rice.
The missing person case got renewed attention last month, on Sept. 20, when Lekich's sister called Fowler police about her missing brother, Rice said.
Both of Lekich's legs were severed above or below the knees, and the remains were "mummified," one source said. They were wrapped in sheets or blankets, the source said. The body was discovered when a relative or neighbor forced their way into the garage after noticing a strong odor, the sources said.
