News and HeadlinesIndianapolis Local NewsCrime

Actions

Kentucky man charged in 1994 killing of northwest Indiana woman

crime scene tape police line generic
Posted

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A Kentucky man has been charged in the 1994 rape and murder of a northwestern Indiana woman found strangled to death with an electrical cord.

Sixty-year-old Gerald L. Smith of Madisonville, Kentucky, is charged with rape and murder in the killing of 69-year-old Gloria Hansell of Gary, Indiana.

Hansell, a widow who lived alone and relied on an in-home oxygen machine, was found dead in her home in June 1994. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with an electrical cord attached to a box fan.

The Times of Northwest Indiana reports Smith was charged after his DNA matched DNA obtained from Hansell's sexual assault kit.