4 arrested in quadruple homicide

Motive in the quadruple homicide last week on the Southeastside became clear Monday after police said four suspects had been arrested in the fatal shootings.

Anthony Larussa, 26; Kenneth Rackemann, 24; Valencia Williams, 21; and Samantha Bradley, 20, were arrested Sunday in what police described as a "sensitive and complex investigation."

"The suspects went to the house with the intent to rob the victims of drugs and monetary profits from the sale of illegal narcotics," Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Lt. Christopher Bailey said Monday in a statement. "During the robbery, the victims were killed."

Indianapolis residents Walter Burnell, 47; Jacob Rodemich, 43; Kristy Mae Sanchez, 22; and Hayley Navarra, 21, were found Thursday night with fatal gunshot wounds at a home in the 3400 block of South Parker Avenue, near Keystone Avenue and I-65.

"Investigators have been working nonstop and without sleep to identify and arrest those responsible," Bailey said.

All four suspects have had run-ins with the law. Larussa served time in prison on a felony firearms charge from May 2012 until at least last August, his earliest release date.

A troubled past

According to IMPD reports, Larussa's crime streak started early. He was 13 when he admitted to throwing rocks at a pickup truck to make it "appear stolen."

At 14, he stole his first car — a silver Pontiac Grand Am, according to an IMPD report. A year later, police say, he stole a blue Chevrolet Caprice and fled police, refusing to be handcuffed until police blasted him with a chemical spray.

Police chronicle a criminal history that continued through the past decade, including a six-month prison sentence he served on a burglary charge in 2007. By 2010, Larussa had met another suspect in last week's homicides: Rackemann.

According to another police report, the two were arrested in 2010 in connection with the assault of a business owner on the Southside.

Rackemann, meanwhile, had his own run-ins with the law dating to a criminal mischief arrest when he was 12. And like Larussa, Rackemann was arrested as a teenager after he tried to steal a car, police said.

According to online Indiana Department of Correction records, Rackemann does not appear to have served any prison time in Indiana, but he spent at least some time in the Marion County Jail.

The two women accused in the quadruple homicide, Bradley and Williams, have never served prison time in Indiana, according to DOC records. However, Bradley was arrested in 2008 after being accused of stealing from an Emerson Avenue Wal-Mart and again in 2010 after she refused to leave a doctor's office and screamed obscenities at police officers, according to an IMPD report.

Williams was accused of involvement in a 2012 hit-and-run, but the report does not say she was formally charged.

Bailey said detectives confirmed that the suspects and the victims were associates.

Burnell had served time in prison for several drug convictions dating to 1997. Most recently, in July 2012, he was convicted of drug possession, according to Department of Correction records.

Rodemich was convicted of forgery in 2005 and 2008. He also served time for possession of a controlled substance in 1996 and for theft in 2006, records show.

The Thursday shootings unnerved many in the neighborhood. A memorial around a tree near the home featured candles, a teddy bear and garlands of artificial flowers.

Neighbor Brian Ford, 30, said Monday that he was worried immediately after the shootings that the killings were random. He said he was somewhat relieved after word spread that most likely the people responsible knew the victims.

He said it's not easy to explain the recent events to his children.

"I just tell them there's crazy people out there."

'The nicest person'

Cousins Elizabeth Hill, 25, and Becca Hill, 24, stopped by the house to visit the memorial, which they said had been set up Sunday. The two grew up knowing one of the victims, Burnell, whom they called "Buddy." He had been a friend of one of their uncles.

"If anyone needed somewhere to go, Buddy let them in. If they were hungry, he would feed them," Elizabeth Hill said. "He was the nicest person I ever met in my life."

Becca Hill, whose mother had dated Burnell and who had lived at the house on Parker for several months, said "everybody knew Buddy."

"He was the best," she said. "He was a big-hearted person."

They acknowledged Burnell's missteps but angrily said that didn't warrant his slaying.

"None of them deserved this," Becca Hill said.

Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis.

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