The man arrested in connection with the deaths of seven women whose bodies were found over the weekend across northwest Indiana was charged Monday in one of the cases. 
 
 Darren Deon Vann, 43, of Gary, was charged with one count of murder, as well as murder in the perpetration of a robbery and robbery resulting in serious bodily harm, all related to the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy. 
 
 Though Vann hasn't yet been charged in the deaths of the other six women, Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. told reporters Vann is "what I would label a serial killer." 
 
 Hammond Police Chief John Doughty said Vann met Hardy last Friday in a room at a Motel 6 on the 3800 block of 179th Street in Hammond after arranging a sexual encounter online. Hardy had been strangled, and Hammond Police Lt. Richard Hoyda said Sunday that as part of the investigation into her death, police served a search warrant on a home on 49th Avenue in Gary, where Vann was taken into custody. 
 
 
 
 According to a probable cause affidavit, Hardy's naked body was found in a bathtub with what appeared to be a black piece of clothing covering her arms and around her neck. 
 
 While being questioned, Doughty said Vann came forward with information about six other dead women, all in Gary. Aside from Hardy, three of the victims were publicly identified by midday Monday: 35-year-old Anith Jones, 28-year-old Teairra Batey, and 36-year-old Christine Williams. 
 
 "During his initial arrest in the city of Gary, Mr. Vann told Hammond police officers at the scene that he had 'messed up' by committing the crime in Hammond and was surprised at how quickly he was located after the incident," Doughty said. 
 
 
 
 Doughty said Vann has been a registered sex offender in Texas since a September 2009 conviction. 
 
 He did not rule out the possibility that the ongoing investigation would reveal more victims. 
 
 "It could go back as far as 20 years, based on some statements we have," Doughty said. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Police discovered Jones' body at around 11:20 p.m. Saturday. Her family had recently reported her missing, and a group of about 30 Gary police officers searched the 4900 block of Louisiana Street, where her car was found sitting in a driveway of an abandoned house, looking for her. She had been missing since Oct. 8. 
 
 Jones’ sister, Yolanda Nowell, did not wish to speak Sunday afternoon, but said last week that her sister was "very street savvy." 
 
 Jones had a stand at the 41st Avenue and Calumet Street flea market, Nowell said, and had moved from Chicago to Northwest Indiana about 10 years ago. She was one of seven siblings. 
 
 Police then discovered Batey's body at around 1 a.m. Sunday in the 1800 block of E. 19th Avenue. She was found wearing a green hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. 
 
 A third body was found in the 2200 block of Massachusetts Street at 1:50 a.m. Sunday. The woman was found wearing a pair of blue jeans and white Nike shoes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Late Sunday, the coroner’s office confirmed the discovery of three additional women. 
 
 Williams was found at about 7:50 p.m. in the 4300 block of Massachusetts Street in Gary, according to the coroner’s office. Hours later, at 10:05 p.m., two additional female bodies were discovered in the 400 block of East 43rd Avenue in Gary. 
 
 Two of the areas in which police found bodies were similar in that they contained blocks comprised of badly blighted, sometimes fire-damaged abandoned houses. The house near where Jones was found is the only one in a thriving neighborhood, although the exact house is camouflaged behind grass and weeds at least 5-feet tall. 
 
 Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said in two Facebook posts Sunday afternoon that the man, who he called a serial killer, has “admitted to a couple of homicides in Hammond,” some of which date back 20 years. He also said in his posts that the man is a convicted sex offender. 
 
 Gary Cpl. Gabrielle King tried to defuse concerns among citizens, noting that the man is in custody and that Gary and Hammond police are working together to bring charges. 
 
 “We would like to dispel the rumor that there is a serial killer on the loose. There is a 43-year-old man in the custody of The Hammond Police Department, who led officials to 3 deceased female victims who has claimed responsibility for their demise. Gary Police are closely working with Hammond Police to assist in covering every area of the investigation needed to pursue charges as expeditiously as possible,” the statement read. 
 
 In a joint statement, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and Gary Chief Larry McKinley asked for calm and patience. 
 
 “We commend the officers for their work thus far and ask the citizens to remain calm and patient as our teams work this investigation and do what they do best,” their statement said. 
 
 On two Facebook posts, McDermott praised the Hammond Police Department’s investigation in the case, especially as it comes soon after a lawsuit filed against the department claiming several officers used excessive force and falsely arrested a man during a traffic stop. 
 
 “As you hear the details of this grisly murder in a Hammond motel room and discover how this murder was solved by our police, it will make you proud of the Hammond PD,” McDermott wrote. “...Hammond, and NWI, are safer today because this murder case was solved. Our condolences and prayers go out to the victims, and to the families of the victims.” 
 
 Copyright SunTimes / NBC Chicago ||||| GARY, Ind. (AP) — The bodies of seven women have now been found in northwestern Indiana after a man confessed to killing one woman who was found strangled at a motel and leading investigators to least three other bodies, authorities said Monday. 
 
 The Lake County coroner's office said three of the bodies were found Sunday night at two locations in Gary, in addition to the four bodies found earlier over the weekend. The coroner's office called the new deaths homicides, with one victim strangled and unspecified injuries for the other two women. 
 
 It wasn't immediately clear Monday whether the man directed police to the three bodies Sunday night. Phone and email messages seeking comment from Gary police spokeswoman Cpl. Gabrielle King weren't immediately returned. 
 
 Police said Sunday that a 43-year-old man confessed to killing a woman whose body was found in a Motel 6 in the neighboring city of Hammond and told investigators where the bodies of three other women could be found in Gary. Those women were found late Saturday and early Sunday. 
 
 Gary police found the bodies of three women at different locations in Gary late Saturday and early Sunday, following up on information the man provided during questioning, Hammond police Lt. Rich Hoyda said Sunday. The county coroner's office on Sunday identified the victim found in Hammond as 19-year-old Afrika Hardy and ruled she had been strangled. 
 
 The coroner's office said a second victim had been identified by family members as 35-year-old Anith Jones of Merrillville. Autopsies had not yet been completed on her or the other two women, who have not yet been identified. Jones had been missing since Oct. 8, and Gary police had recently searched a block looking for her, the Post-Tribune of Merrillville reported. 
 
 Police discovered Hardy's body about 9:30 p.m. Friday at a Motel 6. 
 
 "A friend of the deceased called us, and she was concerned when she didn't respond to her calling," Hoyda said. "We were sent there and found that person dead." 
 
 Police investigating her death obtained a search warrant for a home and vehicle in Gary. Police conducted the search Saturday afternoon and took the man into custody. Hoyda said the man confessed during questioning and then told investigators "where several other female victims of possible homicide were located." 
 
 Hoyda wouldn't comment on how the man knew the women, on a possible motive or on whether the man confessed to killing any of the other women. 
 
 Hoyda said the man's name wasn't being released because he had not yet been formally charged. He would not say when charges will be filed. He was being held in the Hammond City Jail. ||||| Murder and robbery charges filed against suspect in NW Indiana slayings Sun-Times Media 
 
 Darren Deon Vann | Lake County, Indiana, sheriff's office 
 
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 HAMMOND, Ind. — Police believe a suspect in seven murders in Northwest Indiana used an online prostitution service to lure some of those women to several locations in Hammond and Gary — typically abandoned buildings — before they were killed. 
 
 Murder and robbery charges were filed Monday afternoon against Darren Deon Vann, 43, in the death of 19-year-old Afrika Hardy, who was found strangled to death on Friday night at a Motel 6 at 3840 179th St. in Hammond. 
 
 Detectives from Hammond and Gary are still gathering evidence to charge him in six other killings. Vann was convicted of sexual assault in Texas in September 2009, and is listed on the Indiana sex offender registry. 
 
 At a Monday news conference, Hammond Police said Vann apparently solicited prostitution services on Chicagobackpage.com and arranged a meeting at the motel. The female facilitator of the transaction tried to contact Hardy on Friday night, but she received suspicious text responses she believed were from Vann. She sent a man to see what was wrong and he found Hardy dead, police said. 
 
 The facilitator provided police with Vann’s phone number and that’s how police were able to locate him. Police executed a search warrant in Gary on Saturday and arrested Vann, police said. 
 
 Vann was charged in Lake Superior Court with murder, murder in perpetration of a robbery and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury after he admitted he met Afrika Hardy for sex at the Hammond Motel 6, where her body was found in the bathtub at about 9:27 p.m. Friday. 
 
 Vann had sought the services of the escort “Octavia,” who was Hardy, the night before her death, but he’d contacted her and said he couldn’t get a babysitter. The witness told police Hardy the same man who used the name “Big Boy Appetite,” called Friday to meet her, the probable cause affidavit states. He arrived at about 5:13 p.m. The witness told police she’d tried to call Hardy five to eight times afterward, but got no response, so she went to the motel with a friend and discovered Hardy dead. Her cell phone, which had a pink cover, was missing. 
 
 Surveillance footage showed a man later identified as Vann arriving at the motel and later running from the room to a 2013 blue Jeep, which drove away. The SUV was registered to Vann’s sister in the 600 block of West 49th Avenue in Gary, where police set up surveillance, the probable cause affidavit states. 
 
 Inside the room was a broken finger nail, a light-colored shirt button and torn condom wrapper.| 
 
 A search warrant at his sister’s residence, where Vann was arrested, netted a white glove, key to the Jeep, an Indiana Sex Registry sheet with Vann’s name on it, listing him as a sex offender through Lake County, and a gray puffy jacket and dark-colored hooded sweatshirt that looked similar to the man in the motel surveillance footage. Inside the hoodie was a pack of condoms that were the same brand and style as a wrapper found in the motel room. Police also found a cell phone in a pink case similar to the one described by the witness, and a shirt with a missing button that matched the button from the motel floor, records state. 
 
 In a statement to police, Vann admitted he met “Octavia” at the motel where her body was found after driving his sister’s Jeep there. They had sex, which got rough, and Hardy began to fight with him. Vann told police he strangled the woman with his hands and then an extension cord before placing her in the bathtub and leaving in his sister’s Jeep. He admitted he used white gloves during the killing and that the brown extension cord was used to kill Hardy, court records state. 
 
 Upon his arrest, Vann told police he had “messed up” and was surprised he was located so quickly. 
 
 Hardy turned out to be the first of seven women who would be found dead this weekend across northwest Indiana. 
 
 Once in custody, officials said, Vann provided information on where police could find three more bodies. 
 
 Hammond Chief John Doughty told reporters that Vann is cooperating with police and that Hammond authorities are pursuing charges against him in the death of Afrika Hardy, 19, whose body was found Friday. 
 
 But with the identities of most of the bodies not yet released, the Lake County Coroner’s office has received about 15 calls from family members of missing persons, a spokesman for the office said. 
 
 “We’ve got a pretty good idea of who these people are from all the work that detectives have done, but there will probably have to be some DNA testing done because several of the bodies are severely decomposed,” said a source at the office. 
 
 Vann was taken into custody after Hardy was found fatally strangled Friday night at a Motel 6 in the neighboring city of Hammond. 
 
 Vann was released from a Texas prison in July last year, after serving a 5-year sentence for sexually assaulting an Austin woman in his apartment, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark. 
 
 Vann tried to strangle the woman, who was Hispanic, and struck her several times during the assault, Clark said. He served the full five years of his sentence. 
 
 Federal court records indicate Vann was denied time off for good behavior after a confrontation at a prison in Marlin, Texas. Vann sued prison officials for allegedly mishandling the incident, but the case was tossed out by a judge. 
 
 He remains on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s sex offender registry, but is described as a “low” risk on the department’s website. 
 
 Vann’s ex-wife was stunned Monday to learn he might be connected to a string of homicides. 
 
 “Oh my gosh, it would shock me,” said the woman, who said she was married to the suspect from 1995 to 2011 and didn’t want her name used. “I can’t see him doing that.” 
 
 The woman said she first met Vann in Hammond and married him in Texas. At the time, the suspect had recently been discharged from the U.S. Marines, she said, and had no criminal history that she knew about. The couple lived together in Indiana, she said. 
 
 “He always took care of me,” she said. “I never had any problems with him. He was never a violent person to me. He was sweet to me.” 
 
 Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said authorities aren’t certain how long Vann has been in northwestern Indiana, although he does have a conviction for residential entry in the area. The mayor said she doesn’t know whether more bodies might be found. 
 
 The Lake County Coroner is expected to finish her examinations of the last of the seven bodies Monday afternoon. 
 
 A cousin of Hardy’s said the teen, who spelled her first name “Afrikka” on some social media sites, originally was from the Chicago area but had grown up in the Denver area, graduating from high school there. She recently had moved back to Chicago, the cousin said. 
 
 Police discovered the body of Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville, at 413 E. 43rd Ave., around 11:20 p.m. Saturday. Jones’ family had recently reported her missing, and a group of about 30 Gary police officers searched the 4900 block of Louisiana Street, where her car was found sitting in a driveway of an abandoned house. She had been missing since Oct. 8. 
 
 Monday, one of Jones’ sisters, Yolanda Nowell, said she’s glad to hear police have someone in custody and said she wanted to be “left alone to grieve.” 
 
 “She was a kind, loving woman,” Nowell said of her sister. “She was my favorite sister. She was everybody’s favorite aunt.” 
 
 Jones had a stand at the 41st Avenue and Calumet Street flea market, Nowell said, and had moved from Chicago to Northwest Indiana about 10 years ago. She was one of seven siblings. 
 
 Police then discovered the third body around 1 a.m. Sunday in the 1800 block of East 19th Avenue. The woman was found wearing a green hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. 
 
 She has since been identified as Teaira Batey, 28, of the 700 block of Martin Luther King Drive in Gary, the Lake County Coroner’s office said Monday. 
 
 A fourth body was found in the 2200 block of Massachusetts Street at 1:50 a.m. Sunday. The woman was found wearing a pair of blue jeans and white Nike shoes. 
 
 Late Sunday, the coroner’s office confirmed the discovery of three additional Jane Does. 
 
 At 7:50 p.m., a female body was discovered in the 4300 block of Massachusetts Street in Gary, according to the coroner’s office. 
 
 Hours later, at 10:05 p.m., two additional female bodies were discovered in the 400 block of East 43rd Avenue in Gary. 
 
 -Contributing: Teresa Auch Schultz, Christin Nance Lazerus, Michelle L. Quinn, Lori Caldwell, Carole Carlson, Mitch Dudek and Stefano Esposito
– After Afrika Hardy, 19, was found strangled to death in a motel room in Hammond, Indiana, on Friday night, police took a man into custody. The 43-year-old admitted to the killing, then provided information that led police to the bodies of three more women in separate locations in nearby Gary, reports NBC Chicago. Two of the bodies were found in areas full of abandoned, fire-damaged houses, while a third was found in a "thriving" neighborhood in a house that was obscured by 5-foot-tall grass and weeds, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. And the count didn't stop at three new bodies: Police last night found three more in abandoned homes in Gary, though it's not clear if the man directed police to them, the AP notes. The suspect is from Gary but is a convicted sex offender in Austin, Texas, reports WGN. Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson says several law enforcement agencies are now investigating the case. "We have evidence that he was in Texas and all over the United States," she says. "I would like them to complete the investigation, and I don't want to taint it with the prospect of calling this person a serial killer." Hammond's mayor was a little looser on Facebook, calling the suspect "an admitted serial killer" who "also admitted to a couple of homicides in Hammond back in '94 or '95." The man is still being questioned by police, who are expected to formally charge him and release his name later today.