Heidi Kathleen Carter
An Indiana woman is facing a slew of felony charges after police say a meeting set up on a dating app turned into the nightmarish, jealousy-fueled rape and murder scene that left two people dead and a town in shock.
According to a recently released police affidavit, the horrific ordeal began when 36-year-old Heidi Kathleen Carter connected with a woman on a “lesbian dating app” and invited her and the woman’s boyfriend to her home, located at 1801 Stinson Avenue, Tuesday afternoon.
When the couple arrived at Carter’s home, the three of them drank alcohol and took drugs before engaging in consensual sexual activity. The couple’s names were redacted from the police affidavit.
As the three were engaging in sexual activity, Carter’s boyfriend, Carey Hammond, unexpectedly arrived at the home and allegedly became enraged. The surviving female victim told investigators that Hammond grabbed a baseball bat and began ruthlessly beating her boyfriend.
Hammond then restrained the couple using duct tape “beating and abusing them for hours,” according to the affidavit. Carter allegedly helped Hammond restrain the couple and held a gun on them, repeatedly threatening to kill the victims.
Hammond raped the woman several times while she was restrained, Sgt. Anna Gray of the Evansville Police Department stated during a Thursday press conference. Sgt. Gray described the crime scene as “gruesome.”
She said Carter left the home for “a couple of hours,” during which time Hammond beat the male victim, repeatedly “kicking [him] with steel toed boots” before using a belt to strangle him to death after he saw him trying to escape his restraints.
“He had been restrained, duct-taped, beaten, and strangled,” Sgt. Gray said. “They also tied and shackled the female victim while the male suspect raped her multiple times throughout the day.”
Gray added that Carter told police she only “pretended” to help Hammond and held the gun on the victims as a way to “appease” him.
When Carter returned, Hammond had allegedly wrapped the man’s body in blankets and moved him into another room in the home.
In a shocking turn of events, police say Carter then invited another woman over to help her clean the house in preparation for an impending inspection by the landlord. Carter and the woman cleaned at least two rooms in the house after ordering a pizza. That’s when the woman allegedly heard a strange noise coming from the bathroom and went to investigate. There, the witness made a grisly set of discoveries.
“[The woman] stated she heard a female asking for help and begging to use the restroom,” the affidavit states. “She then went to sit down on what she thought was a pile of pillows and blankets. She found after she sat down that under the blankets was a dead body.”
Despite Hammond’s efforts to prevent her from leaving, the woman was then able to flee the home and alert an Indiana State Police trooper about what she had seen, police said.
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies were dispatched to the location and surrounded the home. Police then ordered everyone to exit the home.
Body camera footage released by Evansville Police show a man coming out of the home with his hands up. Sgt. Gray said he was a resident but not a suspect. He told police his two juvenile teen daughters were upstairs in the house.
According to Sgt. Gray, Hammond “disregarded the commands” from police and exited the house in “an aggressive manner” and was “holding an object in his hand” that was shaped like a pistol. Officers open fire and Hammond was pronounced dead at the scene. Gray said the object was later identified as a metal and plastic object made to look like a gun, adding that she believed his death was “suicide by cop.”
Police then searched the home.
“Officers located an adult female victim who had been tied up, shackled, and had visible injuries. She was taken to the hospital for treatment,” Sgt. Gray said. “Another individual was located inside the residence, but was unfortunately deceased and beyond help.”
Carter is currently being held in the Vanderburgh County Jail without bond.
Read the police affidavit below.
[images via Vanderburgh County Jail]
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