Indiana teacher charged with helping in double-slaying

SYRACUSE, Ind. — A northern Indiana schoolteacher has been arrested in connection with the double killings of a young couple.

Forty-nine-year-old third-grade teacher Joan DeHart of Syracuse is being held without bond on one count of assisting a criminal in the Feb. 19 shootings of 19-year-old Joshua Knisley and 23-year-old Tara Thornburg of Syracuse.

DeHart was arrested Wednesday. Milford Elementary School officials have placed her on paid leave.

Dehart in the mother of an acquaintance of 22-year-old Brandon Thomas Woody, who faces two counts of murder. An affidavit says she told investigators she gave Woody a ride from her home to Warsaw after the shootings at Thornburg’s Syracuse home about 35 miles southeast of South Bend.

Woody has pleaded not guilty.