Missing mother’s body found over a year after her boyfriend ‘murdered her’
Police believe Flores's death is connected to six other murders in the area.
The body of a mother missing for over a year was discovered in a wooded area and her then-boyfriend has been charged with her murder, police said.
Jessica Flores’s skeletal remains were found earlier this month in Gary, Indiana after a city worker stumbled across a skull. Police were called in and found more bones as they combed the area with a cadaver dog. Flores’s identity was later confirmed using dental records.
Flores, a 36-year-old mother-of-six, disappeared from a neighborhood just outside of Chicago on February 25, 2019. She was last seen with a friend in Gary, Indiana, who was also reported missing, although the friend was found alive days later. Authorities have not discussed any information regarding the friend or their disappearance.
Police have since charged Drew ‘Tiny’ Carter, Flores’s boyfriend a the time, with murder, according to PEOPLE.
Investigators reportedly found Carter’s car abandoned in Chicago Heights last year. The vehicle had been set on fire and authorities discovered a ‘large amount’ of blood in the backseat after they extinguished the blaze. Officers also recovered some of Flores’s personal items in the car.
Carter, 42, was originally arrested over a year ago for Flores’s death after a witness claimed Carter shot Flores because she said he could not have sex with the witness. However, those charges were dismissed in September when prosecutors learned some of the evidence in the case had not been analyzed.
According to The Times of Northwest Indiana, authorities believe Flores’s murder is somehow involved with six other homicides. One of the victims, George Heath, was a potential witness in the case. He was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in his home in Gary. Three of the victims were members of the same family and all seven of the killings occurred between February 20 and March 11, 2019.
Carter is currently being held without bond. It is unclear when he is due back in court.