Investigation reveals homeless man was killed in Bloomington with a machete

Near sunset on Dec. 7, police were called to the homeless camp in the wooded area behind Wheeler Mission. There, they found a man's body face down in a creekbed. His head, partially submerged in water, had multiple deep cuts.

The homicide victim, apparently killed by someone wielding a machete, still hasn't been identified.

"Based on the injuries to Victim 1's face and head, it was suspected that he had been struck multiple times with a sharp object of some kind," a police detective's report says.

Witnesses confirmed the sharp object was a machete wielded by 42-year-old Craig Allen Pearson, an unhoused man charged with murder in the violent attack about 200 feet northeast of the homeless mission on Westplex Avenue.

Judge: Man charged in Bloomington homeless camp killing 'impulsive', 'violent'

When questioned by detectives after being arrested Dec. 7, Pearson denied being involved. He "repeatedly said he neither had knowledge of nor was present for Victim 1's murder," the report, filed in Monroe Circuit Court, said.

Pearson insisted he had last seen the man at Wheeler Mission on Dec. 6 and had no idea who killed him or how he died.

Pearson, whose last address was in Gary, is being held without bond at the Monroe County Jail. He was charged in court Tuesday with murder.

A probable cause affidavit in the case filed by Bloomington Police Department Detective Josh Burnworth alleges Pearson "repeatedly stabbed him (Victim 1) in the torso and back before bludgeoning him in the head with a machete."

The affidavit said the body was discovered in an area where several tents had been erected for housing. Witnesses to the murder discussed it inside one of the tents, Burnworth reported, "which was mere feet from where the victim was found."

They said Pearson always carried a machete and had spoken of "chopping up" a body. Three people claimed to have been there when the murder happened, identifying Pearson as the killer.

From July: It's legal to carry a machete, and more people in Bloomington are doing just that

The four-page affidavit gives the following account of what several people present at the camp before and after the killing told police.

A 56-year-old man who had been jailed returned to the homeless camp Dec. 6 and was told the man who was later killed had possibly stolen and sold some of the man's possessions while he was incarcerated.

The recently jailed man, who had a machete in his possession when he was arrested in September on a warrant, said he confronted the victim about the allegations about 11 a.m. on Dec. 6. He said Pearson, who another witness said acted as a security guard of sorts for the homeless camp, suddenly attacked the victim with a machete, stabbing him as he fled.

"Within seconds … Craig burst around his right side and began stabbing Victim 1," who fell to the ground. He got back on his feet and tried to flee as Pearson followed and "continued stabbing him in the torso area." The victim fell on his back.

Pearson retrieved his machete from the creek as the three witnesses left to the sounds of what they told police was Pearson bludgeoning the victim with the machete.

None of them reported what they saw to police until the next day, after the body was found.

Contact H-T Reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Witnesses: Homeless man was killed with machete near Wheeler Mission