INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis police say a man has been taken into custody in connection with a triple murder on the city’s east side last June.
Kenneth Lavar Lancaster, 24, was reportedly in custody in Hamilton County on Friday on charges of murder in connection to the deaths of Mark Higgins, 64, Keith Higgins, 34, and Jessica Carte, 34, at their home in the 1800 block of Forsythia Drive in June 2017.
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According to a probable cause affidavit filed Friday, investigators believe Lancaster was Carte’s drug dealer, and that he had been giving Carte money to rent vehicles for him under her name. Carte was reportedly keeping the money – which Lancaster allegedly discovered when he was pulled over while driving one of the rental vehicles.
In response, detectives learned Lancaster allegedly called Carte to a house near Keystone and English avenues, where, they say, he tied her up and took her phone and purse. Lancaster then reportedly took Carte to the house where she and Mark and Keith Higgins were killed.
Detectives later spoke with a witness who reportedly overhead Lancaster saying that, “she (Carte) should have thought about that and made the funeral arrangements when she stole the money from us.”
Other witnesses described hearing Lancaster talk about and admit to the homicides on multiple occasions.
Lancaster was taken into custody in Hamilton County in January for failure to appear on an unrelated charge. A criminal history filed in the case lists previous arrests for Lancaster in Marion County on charges of possession of cocaine, dealing in a narcotic drug, unlawful possession of a firearm by a domestic batterer, battery, domestic battery, strangulation and alteration of handgun identifying marks.
On Friday evening, IMPD detectives traveled to Hamilton County to question Lancaster. No initial hearing date had yet been set.
It was not immediately clear whether any other charges were expected in the case.
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