A mother got her teenage kids to help clean up the crime scene after she shot and dismembered their stepdad, reports say.
The 34-year-old mother shot her husband, chopped up his body, and then ordered her two children to help hide his corpse, according to court documents seen by several publications.
Thessalonica Allen is accused of shooting her husband, Randy Allen, inside an apartment in LaPorte, Indiana, after an altercation broke out over the woman’s internet history, WCAX 3 reported.
She now faces several charges, including murder, abuse of a corpse, and child neglect.
During Allen’s initial court hearing, the judge entered a not guilty plea on her behalf, says The Insider.
On Tuesday, July 27, Allen’s teenage kids were woken up by a loud bang and found their stepdad lying on the ground in the LaPorte apartment, according to WXAC 3.
The dying man asked the children to call 911 but their mother told them not to, Complex reported.
According to an autopsy, his injuries suggested that he was shot and a bullet had entered his spinal cord area, causing him to bleed to death.
Later that night, Allen reportedly awoke her children again to ask them to help her drag his corpse into her car. His body was too heavy for them to shift it, court documents said.
The next day, the children said that their mother returned home with an ax and cleaning products, according to the Associated Press. Allen asked them to help fit the body, which had been dismembered, into a tote bag, court documents said.
She also asked for help cleaning up the crime scene, ABC 7 reported.
On Thursday, Allen called an ex-partner, the father of one of her children, and claimed that her husband had been beating their child, the Associated Press reported.
He traveled to the apartment, where he was shown the dead body, and declined an invitation from Allen to help move the corpse into the trunk of her car, police said, according to The Northwest Indiana Times.
Allen then drove her ex-partner to his home in Michigan, where she admitted to shooting her husband, according to a probable cause affidavit seen by ABC 57.
After dropping him off, she threw her gun out of the vehicle. He kept the weapon, according to reports, and then called the police.
Officers later found Allen outside a homeware store, where she told officers that her husband had choked her. She confessed to shooting him, court documents said.
When police searched her apartment, along with the legless body, officers found a handwritten to-do list. “Hit him with a hammer and stab him,” and “roll up body in sheets and plastic bags,” said the note, according to WCAX 3.
