INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A man wanted in connection with the fatal shootings of his niece and her young son in their suburban Indianapolis home killed himself Wednesday at a downtown Indianapolis hotel, police said.
The attack at the home followed what a sheriff said was an ongoing dispute over a family trust involving millions of dollars.
State police Capt. Dave Bursten said 61-year-old Lucius Oliver Hamilton III fatally shot himself inside a hotel room one block from the Indiana Statehouse just after officers knocked on the door. Hamilton had been the subject of a manhunt since shortly after the bodies of 31-year-old Katherine Giehll and 4-year-old Raymond Peter Giehll IV were found Wednesday morning in their home near Zionsville, just northwest of Indianapolis.
Boone County Sheriff Mike Nielsen said Katherine Giehll was found dead just inside the home in an upscale neighborhood of large houses and her son was found in the living room. Nielsen said investigators believed the dispute over the family trust led to the attack.
“I think there are millions of dollars involved here,” he said. “It is a lingering issue that has been going on for the last few years.”
Investigators were still working to determine details of the financial dispute, he said.
Hamilton was employed by Wabash College in nearby Crawfordsville, where the campus was placed on lockdown while police officers searched buildings. Classes there were canceled for the rest of the day.
Hamilton was the senior major gifts officer for the private, all-male liberal arts school, according to the college’s website.
Bursten said Hamilton acknowledged officers after they knocked on the door of a fourth-floor room in a Hilton hotel and that two shots were fired from inside about 3 p.m. Wednesday.
No other injuries were reported, and Bursten said only one other hotel guest was on the floor when officers arrived.
Bursten said Hamilton was the brother of the Katherine Giehll’s father.
“I think what tears into anybody in the community or any police officer is when you have such a young innocent life and the mother, it goes beyond comprehension and words what goes into somebody’s mind to make them do something like that,” he said.
Nielsen said a neighbor found the bodies around 8 a.m. Wednesday.
“In my 32 years in law enforcement I have never witnessed a crime so heinous and heartbreaking,” he said.