Police investigate connection between body found by Portage Township pond, crash of stolen car in Cincinnati
Police in Porter County and Cincinnati, Ohio are working to put together the pieces of a case that started with the discovery of a body near a Portage Township fishing pond Tuesday morning and ended with a highway crash early Wednesday in Cincinnati.
Porter County warrants for felony auto theft have been issued for a man from Gary and another from Virginia after they allegedly stole a car from a Hobart man whose body was found in the pond and later crashed the car one state away.
The case is “an isolated incident” and there are no concerns to the public, Timothy Manteuffel, chief deputy with the Porter County Sheriff’s Department, said in a release. Both suspects were arrested in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The two-state case — according to online records, police and media reports out of Cincinnati — began around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday when a fisherman reported finding a body on a trail at the Chustak Public Fishing Area, 331 West County Road 600 North. The area, according to Manteuffel, is a 76-acre public fishing area just off Indiana 149.
The deceased has been identified as Derek William Hartz, according to Manteuffel. Hartz was identified through an FBI fingerprint scanner. Additionally, the sheriff’s department database had a photo of Hartz with a tattoo on the right side of his chest that matched one on the deceased.
Deputies found Hartz just off a small trail. He was confirmed deceased with trauma to his body, Manteuffel said. Investigators worked throughout the evening and into the early morning hours at the scene.
Additional information from the Porter County Coroner’s Office on the cause and manner of death for Hartz were not immediately available.
A preliminary investigation by Porter County police shows that a Virginia identification card was located at the scene and Hartz’s cellphone and car were missing. Using technology and with cooperation from law enforcement officers in Ohio, the stolen car was located in Cincinnati.
Police there took Jada Monroe, also known as Jawon Martin, 28, of Danville, Virginia, and Domonic Weaver, 27, of Gary into custody after the two, according to media reports out of Cincinnati, got into a police chase on Interstate 75 and crashed the car they were in.
Police in Cincinnati were warned late Tuesday night to be on the lookout for the stolen vehicle, according to a news report from Fox 19 NOW. An officer in a neighboring community saw the car at a Kroger grocery store around midnight Tuesday and contacted Cincinnati police.
Police spotted the car near I-75 and it fled southbound on the interstate, with police in pursuit. Monroe was driving and got off the highway and crashed on a ramp when he tried to pull back onto the interstate. Police arrested him at the scene.
Weaver allegedly bailed from the car and ran across the highway. He refused to show his hands and reached for his waistband when Cincinnati police used a stun gun to get Weaver under control and into custody, according to Fox 19 NOW. Both men were taken to a nearby hospital because of the crash
Weaver was charged with obstructing official business, according to Lt. Jonathan Cunningham, public information officer with the Cincinnati Police Department, while Monroe was charged with fleeing and eluding, receiving stolen property and failure to control a vehicle, according to online records from Hamilton County.
Cunningham confirmed that Monroe is in jail and that Weaver was arrested but could not confirm that Weaver was still in custody and there was no record of him being in the jail in online jail records.
“This case would not have ended the way it did if we didn’t have the cooperation of our local, state and federal law enforcement partners,” Manteuffel said in the release.
He expects more details about the case in the coming week, adding investigators are going between states to gather evidence and it will take some time to put it all together.
“But I may say, they are doing an awesome job,” he said in an email. “I’m very proud of the PCSO Investigations.”
The sheriff’s department asks that anyone who was in the area of the Chustak fishing area from 4 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday call investigators at (219) 477-3140.
