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Gary killings put spotlight on abandoned buildings

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2014 file, photo demolition continues at the Sheraton Hotel, closed since 1985, in Gary, Ind. Officials estimate there are hundreds of vacant buildings and thousands of abandoned homes in Gary, where police say Darren Vann has confessed to killing seven women, which make it harder for a community to spot criminal activity. (AP Photo/The Times, Jonathan Miano, File) MANDATORY CREDIT FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2014 file, photo demolition continues at the Sheraton Hotel, closed since 1985, in Gary, Ind. Officials estimate there are hundreds of vacant buildings and thousands of abandoned homes in Gary, where police say Darren Vann has confessed to killing seven women, which make it harder for a community to spot criminal activity. (AP Photo/The Times, Jonathan Miano, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

By Associated Press October 23, 2014 1 min read

GARY, Ind. (AP) – The arrest of a northern Indiana man who police say confessed to killing seven women has put a spotlight on the large number of vacant homes in Gary and other U.S. cities that have faced hard times.

Forty-three-year-old Darren Vann has been charged in two of the seven killings. Six of the bodies were found in abandoned houses in Gary, where they had gone unnoticed. Officials say the estimated 10,000 abandoned dwellings in Gary serve as magnets for drug dealers and squatters seeking cover for criminal acts.

In Illinois, investigators have been checking vacant buildings in Chicago’s south suburbs as they track Vann’s movements.

Eliminating blight – and cutting the crime associated with abandoned buildings – has been a focus in Detroit, which has over 40,000 vacant and abandoned houses.