HOBART, Ind., June 17 (UPI) -- A Michigan man was charged Thursday with killing his girlfriend, stuffing her body in a suitcase and dumping it in a pond in Hobart, Ind., authorities said.
The victim was identified as Dawn Marie Fital, 45, of Pittsfield Township, Mich. Authorities said she was killed after returning from work early Monday to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend and ex-husband, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Police said the boyfriend, Greg Noack, 44, is suspected of killing Fital, duct-taping her body and putting it in the suitcase. He then allegedly drove to Hobart where he put the suitcase in a pond behind a Toys R Us store, police said.
Noack allegedly spent the night in the store parking lot before driving to nearby Merrillville the next day. Tuesday night, he was spotted digging a hole in a wooded area behind a bank, possibly to bury some of Fital's belongings, said police who arrested him there.
After questioning Noack, investigators started searching for Fital and found her body Wednesday morning, the Free Press said.
"The exact cause of death won't be known until the autopsy, but she appears to be the victim of a homicide," said P.J. Adams, chief deputy coroner in Lake County.
While a motive had yet to be established, Washtenaw County prosecutors charged Noack with murder and he was being held in the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Ind., the newspaper said.
