Investigators have launched what they termed as “a very complex investigation” after making a gruesome discovery of three deceased males left in extremely hard-to-reach woods south of Indianapolis.
An off-duty officer on a routine check first found two deceased men at around 8 p.m. Tuesday and alerted fellow officers before a third body was discovered.
William Young, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police spokesperson, said that law enforcement had to ride ATVs to get to the crime scene.
The following day, the Marion Coroner’s Office identified the victims as Joseph Thomas, Michael James, and Abdulla Mubarak, aged respectively 18, 22, and 17. James was reported missing on Tuesday while Thomas had vanished two days earlier.
All victims were shot to death, police said while suspecting the murders may have taken place at separate times.
“This is going to be a very complex investigation,” Young said. “As you can imagine, with a rural area or a wooded area next to an interstate, it makes the investigation much more though.”
