Pending investigation will determine how many homicides Delaware County saw in 2023

MUNCIE, Ind. — When 2023 comes to an end, local authorities might not yet know the precise number of homicides committed in Delaware County during the year.

Muncie police are awaiting results from forensic testing before reaching final conclusions about the events that led to the shooting deaths of three people in a westside home on Nov. 3.

Found deceased in a home in the 500 block of South Rambler Road were Sarah R. Barnes, 45; her 76-year-old father, Douglas L. Starr, and Kevin L. Humphrey Jr., 32.

Investigators apparently found no evidence that others were in the house when the shooting deaths took place, and have not ruled out that one of the deceased shot the other two victims before committing suicide.

Barring additional violence before year’s end, the resolution of the Rambler Road case would leave Muncie and Delaware County with either seven or eight homicides in 2023.

That would represent a drop from the county’s homicide total in both 2022 — a year that saw, over a 19-day period in July, seven people slain in Delaware County — and 2021, when the county had 11 killings.

In the other 2023 cases:

∎ Tristan Nathaniel Twilley Jr., 29, was fatally shot in a duplex in the 1300 block of East 10th Street, east of Heekin Park, on the early morning of March 15.

An arrest has not been made in that homicide.

∎ On May 12, Angela K. Clymer, 47, was fatally shot outside her home in the 14400 block of West Corner Road, in Salem Township south of Daleville.

Jeff Stanley, chief deputy of the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department, said Brook Kristopher Linton, 47, of rural Marion, shot Clymer before turning his gun on himself. He died the following day at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital.

A man Linton found sitting with Clymer on her porch was also shot, but he survived.

∎ When gunfire broke out at a block party on the early morning of July 30 at an eastside intersection, Joseph Bonner, a 30-year-old Muncie man, was fatally wounded, and 17 other victims were hit by gunfire.

John L. Vance Jr., 36 — reportedly seen fighting with Bonner before the gunshots were heard — faces charges including aggravated battery stemming from the shootings.

Also facing a related firearms charge is Bonner’s brother, Justin, who told police he fired shots in Vance’s direction after witnessing his brother’s shooting.

Melissa Criswell, deputy police chief in Muncie, recently said the case remains under investigation.

∎ In mid-September, Muncie police found the battered remains of 46-year-old Marcia Curtis outside an abandoned mobile home in southeastern Delaware County.

Her former husband, Ceaser Lewis Curtis, 50, is accused of killing her several days before the body was discovered. Charged with murder, he is set to stand trial Feb. 26 in Delaware Circuit Court 4.

∎ On Sept. 22, the body of Jack R. Simpson, 55 , was found in a home in Elgin Manor Apartments, in the 2500 block of South Elgin Street.

Authorities said Simpson — who was in the process of moving from Muncie to Missouri — had been shot to death, apparently on Sept. 16.

Adonis L. Logan, 18 — a resident of a Detroit suburb — was later arrested by Muncie police and is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. His trial is set for March 18 in Delaware Circuit Court 4.

Logan reportedly told police the shooting took place because Simpson years earlier had molested the Michigan teen’s girlfriend when she was 14, the court document said.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter for The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.