A Plymouth man, 35-year-old Duane Longacre, was formally charged with murder, a Level 4 Felony charge of arson and a misdemeanor count of resisting law enforcement following an investigation conducted Sunday morning.
In court documents filed in Marshall County Superior Court No. 1, Plymouth Police Department officers arrived at the scene on Plum Street shortly after 9 a.m. where they found Longacre yelling out of a window to the backyard. Officers say they saw smoke coming from the home and attempted to get Longacre to come out of the house, but he barricaded himself inside the residence. Court documents say he then attempted to flee out of the rear entrance when he was eventually taken into custody. Police reportedly saw blood on his hands.
When the fire was extinguished by the Plymouth Fire Department, firefighters found a woman’s body in a bathtub. Witnesses later told investigators that Longacre hit the victim, Jill McCarty, with what was believed to be a machete on both sides of her neck, and drug her body from a bedroom and into the bathtub, according to the Probable Cause Affidavit. That report also states that Indiana State Fire Investigator Fred Sumpter determined that three different areas inside the home were set on fire.
Police say Longacre only admitted to dragging the body and applied pressure to the wounds. He also reportedly told police that he thought the victim had a bounty on his head. He stated he needed to speak to a higher power, like President Donald Trump.
Longacre was apparently combative with police as he was taken into custody and as he was being booked into the Marshall County Jail.
Longacre’s initial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
Suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
