INDIANAPOLIS -- Dwight Shotts has offered police two different stories about how the body of a missing Indianapolis came to be in the bathtub of his southeast side home, according to documents filed in Marion County court Tuesday.
Shotts, 42, was one of two callers who informed 911 dispatchers Sunday that the body of a man had been in the bath tub of a home on Tabor Street near Raymond Street and Churchman Avenue.
According to dispatchers, Shotts said he had shot a man in his bathroom a week ago and didn’t want to call the police. He also said he was suicidal, armed and would not come out of the house.
Officers arrived a short time later and located the body of 35-year-old Anthony Cline, who had been reported missing a week earlier, in the home’s bathtub. They also found Shotts in the home’s detached garage, along with a loaded revolver.
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A witness, who also called 911 Sunday, told police Shotts had told him he shot Cline because he thought he was going to rob him.
Shotts’ house sits directly across the street from the church where Cline’s car was found. Shotts himself was interviewed on April 26 as part of Cline’s missing person case.
Despite allegedly confessing to both 911 dispatchers and to a witness, when Shotts was brought to IMPD’s homicide office for questioning, police said he denied having shot Cline.
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According to police, Shotts claimed a second person had shot Cline and then given Shotts the gun on his way out the door. Shotts told police he was scared of the shooter, which is why he didn’t call police.
Police said Shotts asserted that was the truth even after police pointed out he had admitted to the killing during the 911 call and to a witness in front of a police officer at the scene.
Shotts also allegedly told police he was purchasing oxycodone pills from Cline at the time of the shooting. He said he had “essentially set up Cline for this other person to collect monies owed.”
As of Wednesday afternoon Shotts was being held at the Marion County Jail without bond on a charge of murder.
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