Charge upgraded to felony murder
Change comes after assault victim Shanelle Burns dies
A Valparaiso man’s attempted murder charge was upgraded to murder Friday after the victim of a battery earlier this week, identified in court records as his mother, died.
Shanelle Burns, 43, of Valparaiso, died around 3:27 p.m. Wednesday at Northwest Health-Porter, according to charging documents and a release from the Porter County Coroner’s Office. An autopsy was performed on Friday and preliminary results show the cause of death is asphyxiation secondary to manual strangulation and the manner of death is homicide, according to the coroner’s office and charging documents.
Burns, according to court documents, was found unresponsive and not breathing by first responders, had small ligature marks on her neck, suffered “substantial brain damage” and had a body temperature of 93 degrees when paramedics transported her to the hospital on Feb. 5, the day Conner Kobold, 19, of the same address on Diamond Boulevard in the Greenfield Creek subdivision, was arrested.
Kobold was charged Tuesday with aggravated battery and attempted murder. His bond was set during a Wednesday initial hearing at $500,000 cash and $250,000 surety; he remains in custody at Porter County Jail.
The aggravated battery charge, a Level 3 felony, stands, while the attempted murder charge has been upgraded to murder, a Level 1 felony. Kobold has an initial hearing on the new charge at 9 a.m. Monday before Porter Superior Court Judge Michael Fish.
Kobold called police to his home the afternoon of Feb. 5 and told them he “killed somebody in that house,” according to charging documents.
According to a no-contact order filed in the case Tuesday, Burns is Kobold’s son.
Kobold was served with an eviction notice Monday, according to records in that case, after Burns sent Kobold a Dec. 26 letter outlining conditions he needed to meet during a 30-day timeframe to avoid being evicted from their home.
Among the conditions listed were securing full-time employment, keeping his room clean, and contributing to the cleanliness of the residence’s common areas, as well as treating others who lived in the household “respectfully without swearing and/or calling names/raising your voice.”
Around 3:48 p.m. on Feb. 5, Valparaiso Police were dispatched to the area of Diamond Boulevard for a report of a male stating, “I need you to send a police car here right now,” according to court documents.
Police found a heavy police presence outside of Kobold’s residence. Officers already on the scene said Kobold was waving them down at the intersection of Goodrich Road and Diamond Boulevard and said
he confirmed he had called police.
Kobold “immediately asked to be placed into handcuffs and in the back seat of the patrol vehicle,” charging documents state.
Unprovoked, Kobold told police, “There is a dead person inside of the house on the corner,” according to the charges. When an officer asked to confirm there was a dead person, Kobold said, “yeah, I killed somebody in that house,” which the officer also confirmed.
An officer observed superficial scratches on Kobold’s face, documents said.
Police conducted a protective sweep of the residence and found Burns in the living room, where she was unconscious and unresponsive, with no pulse and not breathing.