Warsaw Woman Murdered

Charged with murder, a Warsaw teen is being held in the Kosciusko County Jail in lieu of bond.

Christopher L. Thompson, 19, is accused in the shooting death of Jamie Sloan, 21, of Warsaw.

Thompson, of 306 S. Buffalo St., was taken into custody without incident Thursday night on Buffalo Street, near the Warsaw branch of the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Thompson has reportedly confessed to the murder.

Sloan's body was found about 2 p.m. Thursday in a cornfield off CR 800S by a farmer who was harvesting his crop. She was shot in the head. Thompson allegedly shot Sloan with a sawed-off shotgun while she was seated in a car with him on Oct. 1. Thompson allegedly dumped Sloan's body in the field on CR 100E, between CRs 800S and 900S. Thompson was taken into custody about 9 p.m. Thursday and was booked into the jail at 1:30 a.m. today.

Although Kosciusko County Coroner Larry Ladd declined identification of the body until completion of an autopsy today at St. Joseph Medical Center in Fort Wayne, officials said they believe the victim to be Sloan.

Thompson is the man police have been looking for since Friday with the assumption that he was injured.

The car Thompson was driving was reportedly involved in a minor accident on Ind. 15S in Warsaw. Thompson reportedly fled on foot and appeared to be bleeding. Blood, bone fragments and body tissue were found inside the car Thompson was reportedly driving, authorities said.

Before the public was made aware that Sloan's body was found, Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department Cpl. Floyd Knafel received an anonymous telephone call that the man police were looking for was Thompson and that he had committed a murder. A composite drawing of the suspect was printed in Thursday's Times-Union.

Kosciusko County Prosecutor Chuck Waggoner said the investigation came together "surprisingly well."

According to the probable cause affidavit filed by Detective Thomas Littlefield of the Indiana State Police, the anonymous caller said: "I saw the body this morning. I saw the farmers in the [nearby] bean field. The head was [nearly] blown off. I never saw anything so nasty."

The court document also contained allegations that the shooting resulted because Sloan had stolen a stereo from Thompson and that she was a cocaine dealer. Charges of dealing cocaine were pending against Sloan in Kosciusko County after a countywide drug bust that took place in September 1998.

Another informant told police that Thompson told him that he had shot Sloan because she "screwed him on a cocaine deal."

Police knew that Sloan had access to the vehicle police found Oct. 1 on Ind. 15S and questioned friends and relatives as to her whereabouts. A search was under way Thursday morning near the area where the car was abandoned as a continuation of that incident, but police still were looking for the male who was believed injured. They were led to where Sloan's body was found by the anonymous caller, whom police later identified and interviewed.

The caller, Brian Hoeck, told police that another man, 20-year-old Gary Miller of Claypool, told him that Thompson had killed a woman and that Thompson had showed Miller the body. Miller then showed Hoeck where the body was located.

Miller told police Wednesday that Thompson had come to his house and told him that he killed a woman with a .410 shotgun. Miller saw the body Thursday.

Police also talked to Philip G. Meade, the tenant of the South Buffalo Street apartment that Thompson gave as his address when being booked. Meade said Thompson doesn't live there, but he does stay there on occasion. Thompson's official address is reportedly 1136 E. CR 700S.

Meade told police that Thompson, Sloan and another male were at the Buffalo Street residence for about 45 minutes between 6 and 7 p.m. Oct. 1. The car they were in was found between 7 and 8 p.m. that night and Thompson didn't return to Meade's apartment until about 10 a.m. Saturday. At that time, Thompson was reportedly wearing black pants and a camouflage coat. Police said that a pair of black pants "crusted with a substance which resembles dried blood" was found in the kitchen closet of Meade's residence.

Thompson appeared before Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed this morning and a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. Attorney Jay Rigdon was named as Thompson's public defender for the time being. Reed told Thompson that he could employ his own counsel, but would have to do so within 20 days.

The penalty for murder is 45 to 65 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

A preliminary attorney conference in the case is set for 9:30 a.m. Nov. 12, with an omnibus date set for Dec. 10.