Suspected serial killer silent at Indiana court hearing

By Mark Guarino CROWN POINT Ind. (Reuters) - Serial killer suspect Darren Vann was silent on Wednesday at a preliminary court hearing in Lake County, Indiana, and the judge warned him he could be held in contempt and ordered him to appear again next week to be informed of his rights. Vann was arrested on Saturday and has been charged in the murder of Afrikka Hardy, 19, whose body was found a day earlier, in a motel in Hammond, Indiana. Over the weekend, Vann, a 43-year-old convicted sex offender who served five years in prison in Texas and was released in 2013, led police to six additional bodies of women in abandoned houses in Gary, Indiana, about 25 miles southeast of Chicago. Police expected Vann to be charged soon in more murders and are looking into his claims that he killed more people in the past two decades. Three of the bodies found in Gary have yet to be identified. Vann, wearing black and gray prison stripes, appeared with a public defender at the brief hearing in Lake County Superior Court, Criminal Division 4. Judge Kathleen Ann Sullivan asked Vann multiple times if he understood the proceeding was an initial hearing where he would be advised of his rights but he refused to answer. "Are you choosing not to speak?" she asked. Vann looked straight ahead and did not answer. "I may be compelled to hold you in contempt ... I'll try this in a week," the judge said. Vann's next hearing was set for Oct. 29. Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said Vann initially refused to enter the courtroom because he was upset at the heavy media presence. Buncich said Vann was no longer speaking to authorities after cooperating with Gary and Hammond detectives during the weekend. He is under 24-hour watch in an isolated cell in Lake County jail, the sheriff said. The judge also granted the public defender's request for a gag order on everyone involved in the case. Indiana police have been using a dog trained to hunt for cadavers to search more than 120 vacant structures in Gary, an economically depressed city about 25 miles southeast of Chicago that is dotted with thousands of abandoned buildings. (Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Leslie Adler)