Backpack holds clues in alleged murders
The lead detective in the murder case against Connor Kerner went over the items Kerner allegedly purchased at local hardware stores in an attempt to cover up the crime scene, including items later found in a backpack hidden in the yard of his Valparaiso residence.
Brian Dziedzinski, a detective sergeant with the Porter County Sheriff ’s Department, shared the details in Porter Super i or Court Judge Roger Bradford’ s courtroom Thursday.
Kerner, 19, of the 100 block of Kinsale, has pleaded not guilty and remains in Porter County Jail without bond, held on two counts of murder and additional felony counts of intimidation, arson, murder in the perpetration of a robbery and attempted robbery.
Kerner was 17 when he allegedly killed Molley Lanham, 19, of St. John, and Thomas Grill, 18, of Cedar Lake, on Feb. 25, 2019, at his grandparents’ Hebron-area home after a drug deal went bad, then loaded their bodies into the Honda Civic they arrived in and set fire to the vehicle in a wooded area a couple miles away.
During two trips to Ace Hardware on Valparaiso’s north side, the morning of Feb. 26, 2019, and the next afternoon, Kerner purchased a hard-to-find brand of muriatic acid, cans of white and gray spray paint and a stain-removing agent, Dziedzinski said, presenting receipts and pictures of the products.
Kerner’s grandfather Gerald Dye testified Tuesday that when he returned from an out-of-town trip, there was evidence that portions of the garage doors and service doors from the garage had been painted.
Additionally, police found a receipt in the backpack for Menards, Dziedzinski said, and surveillance video from the Valparaiso location the evening of March 1, 2019, showed Kerner entering the store with two other people. The two others left, and Kerner is seen on the footage purchasing a tarp and tarp tape, Dziedzinski said.
Both items were in the backpack along with the Menards receipt, he said, adding later that neither were opened. The backpack also contained oven cleaner.
Tony Vendramin, who said he was a longtime family friend of the Kerners, told the jury that Roxann Kerner came to stay at his house in the wake of her son’s arrest.
He went with her while she picked up clothing and other items and offered to walk around the yard to see if he found anything of interest. Under a collapsed shed wall about 100 yards from the house, he found a backpack.
He told Roxann Kerner, who notified police.
“I didn’t touch anything,” Vendramin said, adding a police officer pulled out the tarp, tarp tape, oven cleaner and a couple other things he wasn’t familiar with out of the backpack.
Vendramin said he had “no idea” whose backpack it was.