The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a Warsaw man for allegedly strangling his roommate to death. Deputies arrested Robert Edward Hurley, 54, without incident and preliminarily charged him with the murder of Lionel Dale King, 51, in their Hide-Away-Hills mobile home. Kosciusko County Sheriff’s deputies responded to lot 34 of the mobile home park at 2441 W. CR 250S at about 12:47 p.m. Sunday to conduct a welfare check. Officers found a deceased male, identified as King, who appeared to have been strangled by a cord according to investigators, and contacted the KCSD crime scene investigator, detectives, and the county coroner’s office. Following an investigation, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s detectives determined that Hurley contacted a family member about his involvement in the strangling earlier in the day. Family members contacted the sheriff’s department with this information, leading to the initial welfare check on King. KCSD crime scene technicians obtained evidence that was indicative of King’s body being strangled by a cord and subsequently dragged into a bedroom inside the mobile home. Detectives obtained search warrants for the residence as the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office placed a prosecutorial hold without bond on Hurley for the preliminary charge of murder due to the conclusionary evidence obtained. An actual cause of death has not formally been determined, pending an autopsy scheduled this morning at the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center in Fort Wayne. Kosciusko County Coroner Michael Wilson stated that his office will provide more information as it becomes available.
