Indianapolis cops arrest, charge man in slayings of 2 women found on same road

Feb. 10 (UPI) -- Indianapolis police have arrested and charged a man in connection with the slayings of two women whose bodies were found days apart along the same road.

David Hiner, 30, was charged Friday with the murders of two women whose bodies were found about 400 feet from each other on the city's East Side two weeks ago, prosecutors announced.

Police found Shannon Lassere, 57, dead across the street from her home on Mitthofer Road on Jan. 27, and the body of Marianne Weis, 52, was located on the same street on Feb. 1.

Both women were stabbed to death, which for police signaled a connection.

Lassere's son, Justin Smith, said she had gone to the gas station for cigarettes the night of her death. She was reportedly hard of hearing, which may have made her an easy target for her killer.

"She was harmless," Smith told the Indianapolis Star. "They could have taken whatever they wanted from her, and she couldn't have put up a fight. Whoever it was is a monster. The disregard for life. I don't understand it."

Meanwhile, witnesses told detectives they saw Weis leaving with a man down the alley of a pub on the night of her death. Women seated on the back patio of the pub asked Weis, who was homeless, if she knew the man and if she was alright.

Weis responded, "He's OK, he's family," and walked away, the witnesses said.

IMPD officers arrested Hiner on Tuesday after they had obtained a warrant to search an apartment where he had been staying.

Detectives said they found bloodstained shoes in the apartment, as well as other clothes that were either soaked in bleach or stained with blood. Preliminary tests from the blood on Hiner's shoes matched that of both victims.

Hiner had been on probation since September and had spent the past 10 years in prison for aggravated battery, police said.