Two women found dead days apart on same road as son fears same suspect to blame for both: ‘Weird and evil’
Two women have been found murdered “in a similar manner” along the same Indianapolis road just five days apart — with a grieving son of one fearing “somebody weird and evil” might be on the prowl.
The body of Marianne Weis, 52, was found behind a strip mall Thursday, around 450 feet from where Shannon Lassere, 58, was discovered stabbed to death in the parking lot of a dental office on Jan. 27, the local outlet Fox 59 reported.
Indianapolis police have not specified how Weis died — but Capt. Roger Spurgeon said both women “were killed in a similar manner.”
The women — both white and in their 50s — had signs of trauma on their bodies, officials said, without elaborating.
Interim police Chief Christopher Bailey said that while detectives have not officially connected the murders, there are “similarities in these two cases.”
“We’re here out of an abundance of caution to share information with the community,” he said, hoping “for information that will help move these investigations forward.”
Lassere’s son, Justin Smith, believes the same killer is to blame for both.
”I feel like there is somebody out here doing something. It’s not a coincidence … Something’s wrong,” he told Fox 59.
“There’s somebody weird and evil walking around out here doing something.”
Lassere, who was deaf, had moved with her family from Seattle to Indianapolis three years ago. She left her home on the night of Jan. 26 to walk to a nearby gas station and never returned, he said, with his mom’s body found across from her home.
“I had a bad feeling in the morning,” her son said of “the most amazing woman ever.”
”It was just so callous the way they took her. She didn’t deserve it. She wouldn’t have prompted it.”
Lassere’s daughter, Cecilia, also suggested it was too much of a coincidence for the two murders not to be linked.
“For my mom to be found and then for someone else to be found in the same area later, something is definitely going on, and I hope they find justice,” she told WTHR.
“Why would someone hurt her?” the grieving daughter asked of her “best friend.”
“She was so welcoming. Any of my friends that was ever in my life, she welcomed them in. She was just the best person ever. Like, she made me the mom I am today.”
Police are stepping up patrols in the area where the two back-to-back murders took place and are asking neighbors to check their security cameras for anything suspicious.
Residents are being urged to stay aware of their surroundings and not walk alone at night.
