Possible murder, suicide probed

By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

Bodies of divorced couple found at home, church parking lot.

LaPorte County Sheriff's deputies and Michigan City police are investigating the second shooting incident involving a couple within two days.

A 911 call to Michigan City police at 9:25 a.m. Tuesday sent officer David Fleck to the parking lot of St. John's United Church of Christ, 101 St. John Road, where he found the body of Keith Metheny in a red Jeep.

Detectives Tony McClintock and Jennifer Maxey arrived at the scene and determined Metheny was dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. LaPorte County Deputy Coroner Dennis Durnell assisted at the scene.

Investigators are handling the incident as a suspected suicide. It was reported by a Comcast Cable employee who had dropped his child off at the St. John's preschool.

Michigan City police went to Metheny's listed address at 808 E. Sportsman Lane in rural LaPorte County, to notify family members. Finding a door open, they entered the house and discovered the body of Angela Metheny, who also died of a gunshot wound to the head. The Methenys were recently divorced and it is not clear whether Keith Metheny lived there at the time of the shooting.

LaPorte County Sheriff Mike Mollenhauer said investigators are handling the death of Angela Metheny as a suspected homicide. Details about the shooting will not be released until after an autopsy is performed on Thursday. Chief Detective Kevin Ulam handled the investigation for the Sheriff's department and was not available for comment Tuesday night.

Fish Lake shooting victims identified
Wednesday, April 11, 2007 12:57 AM CDT
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Times Staff Report

LAPORTE COUNTY | The victims of a double shooting in Fish Lake near Walkerton on Monday were identified by the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department as Kathryn Perkins, 18, and Timothy Schaub, 19.

A LaPorte Hospital spokesman said Perkins was still in critical condition Tuesday. The hospital had no information on Schaub, and a hospital spokeswoman would not say whether he was or was not at the hospital Tuesday night.

He also was taken to the hospital following the shooting. The investigation of the incident is ongoing, but police said the two victims knew each other.

Perkins' father found the two at his home on County Road 700 East. He called police about 3:13 p.m. Monday. Both victims were apparently shot once in the head.

Police said they suspect the shooting involved only the victims and a single gun.

Man apparently shot ex-wife, self

By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

ROLLING PRAIRIE - Investigators continue to piece together the details of what happened sometime before 9:25 a.m. Tuesday when Keith Metheny, 47, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Jeep parked at St. John's United Church of Christ, 101 St. John Road.

Later on Tuesday, Metheny's former wife, Angela, 37, was found dead when police went to her home in the Hunter's Run subdivision near U.S. 20 and Fail Road, west of Rolling Prairie, to notify her of the death.

Police said she had been shot in the head, but haven't said anything further in the case, which appears to be a murder-suicide.

The brother of Keith Metheny, Dennis Metheny, the Coolspring Township trustee and host of a cable talk show as well as co-host of a radio call-in show, declined to comment until autopsies were completed in South Bend today.

According to Superior Court records, Keith Metheny filed for divorce on March 7, 2003, after the couple separated on Feb. 20. The divorce was finalized March 1, 2006. The couple was married July 21, 1990, in Michigan City, and had no children.

The divorce decree awarded the house on Sportsman Lane and a 2002 Ford Taurus to Angela Metheny, and a 2003 Jeep Wrangler to Keith Metheny. The couple agreed to the division of other property.

Angela Metheny did not request to have her name restored to her maiden name of Avila. Her mother, Jeanette Avila, and a sister would not comment Wednesday, saying they were still in mourning.

The St. John's church office manager, who preferred not to be named, said Wednesday that she called Michigan City police at about 9 a.m. Tuesday, at the time the church's preschool started. A mother had dropped off her child and came to the church office to report that a Jeep was parked in the back of the lot with a man who was “either asleep or dead.”

The mother was concerned for the safety of children.

A short time later, a Comcast Cable employee whose child attends the preschool called 911 to report that he saw a man with a wound to the head inside the Jeep.

Michigan City police officer David Fleck arrived at the scene at 9:25 a.m. to begin an investigation that eventually led to the discovery of Angela Metheny at her home at 808 E. Sportsman Lane, in the Hunter's Run subdivision.

Neighbors across the street and immediately west of the Metheny home on Sportsman Lane also would not comment, saying they were close to both parties.

Contact Laurie Wink at lwink@thenewsdispatch.com.

Teens still critical

By Stan Maddux, For The News-Dispatch

LaPORTE - Two teen-agers clung to life Wednesday as evidence of a murder-suicide attempt continued to mount.

On Wednesday afternoon, Katherine Perkins, 18, and Timothy Schaub, 19, were still listed in critical condition at LaPorte Hospital. No official word has been given on their prognosis.

Terry Long, 56, who lives next door to the Perkins family, said he has not seen her father, Scott, since the shootings.

“He must be staying up there. I hope she's doing good,” he said.

Scott Perkins found the teenagers Monday afternoon with gunshot wounds to the head when he returned home from work.

LaPorte County Sheriff Mike Mollenhauer said Wednesday the investigation gives strong reason to believe Schaub shot his former girlfriend and turned the gun on himself. The sheriff said it appears Perkins and Schaub had recently broken up and that Schaub was making threats against Perkins.

“With what was learned yesterday and what I was briefed on, that has all of the markings of a murder-suicide,” said Mollenhauer, who would not elaborate further.

LaPorte County Police Chief of Detectives Kevin Ulam said further specifics will be provided once the investigation has run its course.

“There is no change in the status of the case or the investigation or on the condition of the individuals,” Ulam said.

Perkins, a senior at LaPorte High School, is a member of the symphonic orchestra at the school, playing the French horn.

Long said he often saw Perkins playing sports outside with her younger sister and father and driving tractors around the yard.

“She has a good head on her shoulders I know that,” Long said.

Schaub is a 2006 graduate of New Prairie High School.

Just before the shooting, Mollenhauer said it appears Schaub parked his van at the Fish Lake Conservation Club and walked to the Perkins residence.

Larry Wysocki of Fish Lake said he happened to see the vehicle when he arrived to make coffee a few hours before a meeting at the conservation club about a half mile from where the shootings occurred.

He said he doesn't know Perkins or Schaub but hears the great deal of talk the case has generated in the small community.

“Nobody can understand why or what's going on,” Wysocki said.

‘I didn't like him as a person'

By Stan Maddux, For The News-Dispatch
Daughter speaks out about man who killed her mother

Tiffany Kappel considered Keith Metheny to be her real father, but as she grew older, she said she noticed changes in his personality that led her to view him in a more negative light.

That's what Tiffany Kappel said Thursday about the 47-year-old Metheny, who she feels simply couldn't handle life without her mother, Angela.

“He just couldn't take it. That's what I believe. He didn't want to see her happy,” said Kappel, 19.

On Thursday, LaPorte County Chief Deputy Coroner John Sullivan confirmed that the incident was a murder/suicide.

According to autopsy results, Keith Metheny committed suicide with a single gunshot wound to the head. Sullivan said Angela Metheny's death was ruled a homicide. She was shot once in the chest and once in the head.

Dr. Joesph Prahlow, a forensic pathologist at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, South Bend, performed the autopsy.

Keith Metheny is the brother of Dennis Metheny, Coolspring Township trustee and host of a cable talk show as well as co-host of a radio call-in show.

At about 9 a.m. Tuesday, Metheny was found dead from a gunshot to the head inside a red Jeep in the parking lot of St. John's United Church of Christ across from Marquette Mall, near the busy intersection of Franklin Street and St. John Road.

About five hours later, Michigan City police officers went to the couple's former home at Hunter's Run subdivision along U.S. 20 near Rolling Prairie to notify the family about his death.

That's when police discovered a basement door had been forced open. Inside, they found Angela Metheny fatally shot.

Married in 1990, the couple divorced in 2006 but neighbors said they had tried reconciling but Keith Metheny had moved out several weeks ago.

“I knew he was having problems but I didn't think it was anything he couldn't handle,” said Darrell Cleek, vice president in charge of production at Jet Fabricators in Michigan City where Metheny had been employed as a welder since 1994.

Cleek said sadness and disbelief best described the mood among the 35 employees at the plant.

“He never missed work. He was very dependable. He was the last guy I would expect to do this,” Cleek said. “He wasn't just a good employee, he was a friend.”

Kappel said she was still a baby when her mother and Keith Metheny married and for many years considered him like a father.

Things changed, Tiffany said, when she grew up. She said she began noticing what she described as Keith Metheny's “sour personality.”

“I didn't like him as a person. He was very negative. My mother, she always taught us to be positive people,” Kappel said.

She said she didn't want to elaborate on why she believed Keith Metheny's outlook was so down, saying, “That's all I want to comment on that.”

She did say that Keith Metheny was angry at being away from her mother and broke things, but she never believed things would go this far.

“He wasn't necessarily making threats or anything. That's why nobody saw it coming,” she said.

Kappel added, “He was just wanting her back and he realized he lost the best person in his life, so he took her from all of us.”

Angela Metheny was a licensed practical nurse at The Arbors nursing home in Michigan City. Her daughter said her mother eventually wanted to become a registered nurse.

“She loved her job. It was her dream to help people out. She was a good, loving person,” Kappel said.