ATLANTA, Ind. — Indiana State Police announced Thursday they have arrested a second suspect in the 1992 murder of Tony Bledsoe, marking another breakthrough in the decades-old cold case.
Steven Andrew Emmert, 55, was arrested on murder charges in connection with Bledsoe's death. The arrest comes after years of investigation that intensified following a 2018 tip.
At a news conference Thursday morning in Atlanta, ISP Sgt. John Perrine called ISP Lt. Josh Watson the "driving force" behind the investigation, saying Watson received a crucial tip in 2018 that connected the missing person case to a body found in Putnam County.
According to court documents, the investigation began when Tony Bledsoe was reported missing by his wife on March 16, 1992, from their Arcadia home. Bledsoe had left in his gray 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass." Neither Bledsoe nor his car were ever found.
The breakthrough came through witness testimony from Tommy Anderson, who told investigators that Emmert killed Bledsoe during a dispute over stolen car stereo equipment. Anderson, who has already been arrested in the case, provided detailed accounts of the murder and disposal of Bledsoe's body.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Anderson told investigators that Emmert had traded stolen stereo equipment to Bledsoe for auto parts. When Bledsoe learned the equipment was stolen, he demanded his parts back and threatened to contact police, leading to an ongoing feud.
Anderson described luring Bledsoe to Emmert's duplex on Cicero Road in Noblesville under the pretense of returning the auto parts. Once inside, Anderson said Emmert shot Bledsoe in the head with a rifle, then stabbed him multiple times with a fixed-blade knife.
The affidavit details how the suspects dismembered Bledsoe's body, removing his head, hands and feet and placing them in a bucket of concrete. They painted the torso black for camouflage before dumping it at an illegal trash site near Greencastle.
The case remained unsolved until human remains were discovered at a dump site in Putnam County on April 3, 1992. The body was found without a head, hands or feet, tied up and covered in a black substance.
DNA testing in 2019 confirmed the remains belonged to Bledsoe through a comparison with DNA from his mother.
An investigative grand jury conducted in fall 2024 heard testimony from multiple witnesses, including Anderson's sister and nephew, who said Anderson had confided details of the murder to them.
Dr. Scott Wagner, who performed the 1992 autopsy, testified that the victim suffered six stab wounds to the back. A knife matching Anderson's description was recovered from Emmert's residence during a search warrant in October 2024.
The investigation revealed that Emmert and Anderson had been involved in an interstate car theft operation, stealing vehicles in Wisconsin and Indiana for insurance fraud purposes.
Watson noted that crucial details about the body being dismembered, tied up and painted black had never been released to the public, lending credibility to the witness accounts.
The case represents a significant breakthrough in what had been a cold case for more than three decades.
