VINCENNES, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — What was once a relationship has now turned into a tragedy.
Vincennes resident Dylan A. Smith has been charged with the murder.
Vincennes Police Chief Jon Hillenbrand said Smith was formally in a relationship with the victim, Taylor Hendershot.
“She had left him several months prior”, Hillenbrand said. “She had left on a break from her work and we’re trying to figure out at this time what took her to that location. Of course, he was there or showed up shortly thereafter and committed this terrible tragedy.”
Just before 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, Vincennes police, fire, and ambulance were called to the parking lot of Cardinal Liquor store.
“They found a gunshot victim in her vehicle being attended to by a couple of citizens”, Hillenbrand said. “They immediately started to render aid by getting her out of the vehicle and began doing compressions until the fire department arrived and allowed them to take over at that point for life saving measures.”
Hendershot was pronounced dead on the scene shortly after.
According to court documents, residents standing by identified the shooter as the man fleeing the scene in a black SUV. About a block away, that SUV was involved in a single vehicle accident, causing the suspect to enter a home on Carbon Street.
“We learned that there was a person inside the house”, Hillenbrand said. “We were able to make contact with that person over the phone, and he said that our suspect was inside the house, armed with a knife at that point.”
Vincennes police were able to guide the resident out safely, before a standoff with Smith ensued.
“Over the next couple hours, we made contact with that subject and tried to have him exit the house on his own accord”, Hillenbrand said. “However, he failed to do that, so then our district team, ERT team, decided to deploy some less lethal devices into the basement. That was able to entice him to come out the back door to officers where he was placed in handcuffs and taken into custody without any other incident.”
According to detectives on the case, Smith never directly admitted to shooting Hendershot, but stated he was being physical assaulted and chose this way to defend himself.
Smith had an initial hearing on Wednesday and submitted a plea of not guilty. His next court appearance is October 9th, and a jury trial has been scheduled for November 4th.
Chief Hillenbrand went on to say this investigation is still ongoing, even with Smith in custody, as detectives are still locating the murder weapon and piecing together why the two were together at the time.
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