UPDATE: Elderly woman murdered in Mishawaka
MISHAWAKA, Ind. -- The autopsy results released Friday afternoon confirmed, 84-year-old Lois Hickey was beaten and stabbed inside her home on the 300 block of East Donaldson Avenue.
“She was stabbed in various places on her body, upper torso area.” Lt. David Wells with the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit said.
Neighbors told ABC-57 News Hickey’s house had been dark for four days. Kimberly Housand said, “You would know she was okay, she was all right because her lights would be on.”
Worried, Housand went over to Hickey’s home on Thursday morning to check on her elderly neighbor. When she got there, Housand noticed the screen was off a window over the porch and the window broken. “I did call her name, and I was like oh this is not good,” Housand said, “So I backed away and when I didn’t hear a response from her I called 9-1-1.”
Officers found Hickey dead on the floor of her home, beaten and stabbed. Investigators said she had been dead for at least a couple of days. “Who would do this?” Housand said, “It’s just horrific.”
Investigators said the killer was also injured, cut during the attack. Wells said, “The person that did this cut themselves in some fashion and caused bleeding.”Blood was found in other parts of the house that could not have belonged to the victim.
Housand asked, “Why prey on an elderly woman if there wasn’t a purpose?” Hickey’s car was stolen from her garage, officers found it Thursday afternoon, the same day the woman’s body was discovered. The 2002 gold Saturn was dumped at the Courtyard Place Apartments in South Bend, two miles from Hickey’s house. That area is now the focus of the investigation Lt. Wells said it was a common sense decision, but really the suspect could be anywhere.
Lt. Wells said there was no indication that the killer knew the 84-year-old woman, but Housand said her elderly neighbor was targeted. “They did seek her out whether she it was because she was alone or because she was alone.”
In response, Lt. Wells said, “I don’t think we can make that leap… We don’t know.”
Investigators have the car and the blood samples, but still no suspects, “We do not and that’s why we’re asking for the public’s help,” Lt. Wells said.
Police ask anyone who has noticed someone with a free wound or cut to come forward, especially those who live around the Courtyard Place Apartments.
The blood samples have been sent off to the Indiana State Police for forensic analysis, but investigators still need a suspect to compare the blood to.