A much-loved and highly respected Gary police officer died Thursday at his Griffith home. 
 
 His wife, also a Gary officer, found Sgt. Donald Peter, 42, a 15-year veteran, after the two were doing yard work and he went inside because he didn't feel well. 
 
 An autopsy was performed Friday, and officials said Peter died of apparent natural causes. 
 
 His death comes in the wake of another loss earlier this week. 
 
 Former Gary officer Burt Sanders, who graduated from the police academy with Peter in 2000, was found dead in a church sanctuary after calling 911 and complaining of chest pain. Sanders left the force about five years ago to join the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District police department. 
 
 Peter had recently been promoted to sergeant. His professional appearance, calm attitude and sensible response to situations drew praise from co-workers and supervisors alike. 
 
 During his probationary period in his new rank, Peter, who spent his entire career working the midnight shift, was temporarily moved to a daytime assignment. 
 
 "When I saw him, I told the deputy chief, 'Now that's a sergeant,'" patrol Cmdr. Samuel Roberts said Friday. "He was a wonderful officer, level-headed." 
 
 Peter met and fell in love with his wife while they both worked in the patrol division on midnights. They were married almost six years. Hours after his death, Detective Cpl. Shauna Poirier-Peter spoke to the midnight turn at roll call. 
 
 "She wanted to talk to the guys, tell them how much he loved all of them," co-worker Patrolman Emmanuel Figueroa said Friday. "He really did love midnights. He never wanted to work anywhere else." 
 
 Even before Peter obtained rank, he showed his leadership skills and encouraged officers to always look out for each other. 
 
 "I can't remember a time when he lost his cool," Figueroa said. 
 
 His deep, resonant voice was easily recognized on the radio, and no matter what the scene, his tone stayed the same, Figueroa said. 
 
 "He never got that high-pitched voice, if it was a pursuit or anything else," he said. "He was always cool, calm and collected." 
 
 Figueroa said he will miss Peter. "He was a great officer. He was an even better friend." ||||| The aunt of a Chicago teenager found strangled to death in Gary Tuesday night said her family last heard from her Sunday. 
 
 Kizzie Richardson said that Connita L. Richardson, 17, had spent part of the day with her before she dropped her niece off at her grandfather's place in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. 
 
 From there, Connita Richardson went to her boyfriend's house, Kizzie Richardson said, and at some point, a cousin from her mother's side of the family came and got her. 
 
 Richardson's aunt and grandfather told her to check in with them and got worried when they hadn't heard from her on Monday. 
 
 Then Richardson's grandfather heard about a body found in the former Emerson High School Tuesday night that had tattoos of the word "gorgeous" with a bird and another of the word "love" with flowers, both of which matched Richardson. 
 
 "That's when my dad put it together," she said. 
 
 Someone called Gary police Tuesday night about a woman's body in the former high school at 716 E. 7th Ave., and the Lake County Coroner's office pronounced Richardson dead at 8:20 p.m. They ruled Wednesday night that she had been strangled. 
 
 Gary Sgt. Thomas Decanter said Thursday that police are still investigating the case and working with her family to determine why she was in the area. He added that no arrests have been made. 
 
 A Chicago woman can't understand how her daughter ended up dead in an abandoned building in Gary, Indiana. (WGN-TV) A Chicago woman can't understand how her daughter ended up dead in an abandoned building in Gary, Indiana. (WGN-TV) SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 "I don't think they have anything close (to a suspect) yet," he said. 
 
 He added that police had several interviews scheduled for Thursday afternoon. 
 
 Kizzie Richardson said the fact that her niece's cousin hasn't been seen since her body was discovered makes her suspicious of him. She added that she hopes her niece gets justice. 
 
 "They're going to get what they deserve," Kizzie Richardson said. 
 
 She added that it's hard processing her niece's death, especially as she just saw Richardson on Sunday. 
 
 Richardson was getting ready to start her senior year at Dunbar High School in Chicago and was still trying to decide what she wanted to do after graduation, her aunt said. 
 
 She was a normal teenager, hanging out with friends and playing on social media. 
 
 "She was an intelligent young girl; she was very smart," Kizzie Richardson said. "My brother called her my baby." 
 
 The empty school has been a hit a number of times in the past few years by vandals, but a neighbor said Wednesday that a police officer patrols the area almost every day. The high school is just one of more than 20 buildings that the Gary Community School Corp. has had to close in recent years, leaving them vacant. 
 
 Vacant houses have also been a problem for Gary. Police found the bodies of six women in vacant houses last summer, and Darren Deon Vann is charged with two of their deaths. Police say he led them to five sites where he left the bodies after killing the women. 
 
 Contact Teresa Auch Schultz at tauch@post-trib.com. ||||| Burt Sanders dialed 911 at 2:03 a.m. June 5 and told the dispatcher, "I need an ambulance real quick. I'm having chest pains," a recording released Friday shows. 
 
 In the recording, communications technician Sherrie Williams said she needed him to slow down as he spoke so she could get the correct address. 
 
 Officials said a Prompt ambulance arrived within minutes at the Church of God in Christ on W. 9th Avenue in Gary's Brunswick neighborhood, but the door was locked. Medics couldn't get in and without further information, they left, according to reports. 
 
 Sanders, 44, a Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District police officer for five years, who previously spent 10 years at a Gary officer, was found dead in the back row of his family's church the next morning when his niece arrived to clean the sanctuary for upcoming services. Sanders' father is the pastor there. 
 
 Brian Hitchcock, executive director of the Lake County 911 Department, said Friday that Williams has been terminated. Her supervisor, Vanessa Reese, will serve a three-day unpaid suspension. Their punishment is based on "the manner in which (they) handled the call," Hitchcock said in a news release Friday. 
 
 Williams had six years of experience as a technician and Reese has 12 years. Reese was responsible for relaying information to the medics. "When Prompt Medical announced they cleared the scene, Ms. Reese failed to take any additional action," Hitchcock's release states. 
 
 Hitchcock said Friday he was meeting with police commanders to review the situation and possible changes in protocol. "This the first serious incident we've had," he said. 
 
 When Sanders called, he said he could make it to the door to unlock it and Williams offered to stay on the phone with him until help arrived. 
 
 "I'm sending them. I just need you to be letting them in," Williams told Sanders in the recording. 
 
 About three minutes into the call, Sanders can be heard, apparently in distress, calling out, "Jesus" more than once. 
 
 Williams tells her co-worker, "He threw the phone down." She repeats his name in the recording, but there was no response. 
 
 When relatives arrived Saturday morning, they found Sanders sitting on the floor, his phone next to him. 
 
 He had attended a church service Friday night, telling members he was grateful to be there praying and not "laid out in front," his sister, Ruth Sutton, said earlier this week. He decided to spend the night there, to continue prayer and do some chores, she said. 
 
 Sanders had spent the previous week hospitalized for pneumonia, but was out the day before he died to see his son graduate from high school. 
 
 He is survived by his wife, Sarah, and five children. A celebration of life is set for 6 p.m. Sunday at The Church of God in Christ. Visitation will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Monday at the Genesis Convention Center with the funeral service to follow. ||||| Five more police officers are leaving the understaffed Gary Police Department as the city struggles to offer competitive salaries for public safety workers. 
 
 The Board of Works and Safety approved the resignations of Sgt. Pete Sormaz, Patrolman Diego Alvarez, Cpl. Jeffery Hornyak and Cpl. Daniel Quasney on Wednesday. About 20 officers have resigned so far this year. 
 
 Last week, probationary officer Edward Maldonado Jr. resigned. 
 
 The City Council learned Tuesday the police roster has dropped below 200. The city's budget allows for 235 officers. Because of its financial troubles, Gary has not kept pace with raises for its public safety workers in the past several years. As a result, experienced officers are taking jobs with other police departments where the pay is better and the duty less dangerous. Or they're joining private industries. 
 
 Gary is the lowest paid, but busiest department in Lake County. Probationary officers earn $35,646 while a 1st Class Patrolman makes $39,304. The town of Merrillville's website lists its entry level police officer salary at $48,000. 
 
 Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said she's been working to come up with possible solutions with the leadership of the Gary Fraternal Order of Police and Chief Larry McKinley. 
 
 "Anytime you're $10,000 less than a neighboring department and have arguably the greatest risk, you don't have to do the math," she said of the pay disparity. "We get that. They need a sense that they're valued." 
 
 Contact Carole Carlson at ccarlson@post-trib.com 
 
 Twitter: @ccwriterPT
– Times are tough for at least one American police force. With five recent resignations, the force in Gary, Indiana, has seen 20 cops quit this year. Now the city budgeted for 235 officers has fewer than 200, the Chicago Tribune reports. Seems it's about money: In the city of about 80,000 just 30 miles southeast of Chicago along Lake Michigan, first-class patrolmen earn just $39,304, making it Lake County's busiest but lowest-paid department. In nearby Merrillville, Indiana, entry-level officers are pulling in $48,000. Financial problems have left Gary unable to compete with raises offered to other public safety workers in recent years. "Anytime you're $10,000 less than a neighboring department and have arguably the greatest risk, you don't have to do the math," says Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson. "We get that," she adds. "They need a sense that they're valued." Meanwhile, Gary police are investigating the death of a 17-year-old Chicago girl whose body turned up at her old high school in Gary, the Tribune reports. According to her aunt, Connita Richardson was picked up from her boyfriend's house by a cousin last Sunday, and went missing until her body was found at the school on Tuesday. "I don't think they have anything close (to a suspect) yet," says a Gary police sergeant. Adding to Gary's woes, "much-loved and highly respected" 15-year veteran Sgt. Donald Peter, 42, died at home of apparent natural causes Thursday, reports the Tribune. And last month, ex-Gary officer Burt Sanders called 911 from a Gary church about chest pains, but when medics arrived, the church door was locked, and they left; Sanders was later found dead in the sanctuary, officials tell the Tribune.