stabbing

Missing Mother Found Stabbed to Death in Gary Home

Samantha Fleming, 23, went missing with her 3-week-old daughter in early April

A 23-year-old mother who went missing with her newborn daughter in early April has been found stabbed to death in a home in Gary, Indiana, police said.

The body of Samantha Fleming, of Anderson, Indiana, wrapped in plastic, stuffed in a storage bin and soaked in bleach at about 3 p.m. Friday, according to Lieutenant Thomas Pawlak of the Gary Police Department. The body was found in a home in the 1900 block of Cleveland Street.

Pawlak confirmed multiple stab wounds as the cause of death.

Fleming left her home in Anderson on April 6 with a woman claiming to be with the Indiana Department of Child Services who told Fleming she had a hearing in Lake Superior Court, police said. Fleming's boyfriend reported her missing soon after.

Anderson Police investigators found no record of an employee with the Department of Child Services at Fleming's residence on April 6.

Fleming's cellphone records led police to Gary to investigate the young mother's whereabouts. A groundskeeper at an apartment complex in Gary also found Fleming's wallet the day she went missing.

The woman who lived in the house has been identified as "person of interest," but she is currently hospitalized in a mental health facility in Texas for treatment of depression, police said. She has not been charged.

The suspect's family members said she had previously claimed to be pregnant with twins, but they became suspicious after inconsistencies in her alleged due date. In recent weeks, the woman told family members she delivered one child and lost the other one in birth, police said. She then requested that no one visit her at the hospital.

Fleming's three-week-old daughter, Serenity, was found safe in the care of the alleged supsect's sister, who was in the home.

When police arrived at the home, they found a woman holding an infant girl. The woman could not identify the baby and said she belonged to her sister, who left for Texas a week before, police said.

The sister also said she had only been in the house 30 minutes before police arrived and complained of a foul odor coming from within the home.

Police then discovered the body of a young woman in the home who was later identified as Fleming. The infant appeared unharmed and has been returned to family in Indianapolis.

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