The Bloomington Police Department Wednesday night arrested Bloomington resident Robert Evan Lee in connection with the slaying of a woman found dismembered late Sunday morning.
Lee, 506 N. Adams St., is being held in the Monroe County Jail without bond, after being charged with murder at 8:30 p.m.
Murder is punishable by up to 60 years in prison and a $10,000 fine or death in aggravated circumstances.
Capt. Keith Eads, who is in charge of the detective division, confirmed that Lee was charged in connection with the death of 30-year-old Ellen Sear Marks, a former IU graduate student.
Eads would not comment further on the investigation.
Marks was identified earlier Wednesday by Monroe County Coroner Dennis Troy, as the woman who was found dismembered Sunday in a vacant lot on West 10th Street.
She died from apparent multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen, Troy said.
The body was decapitated and badly mutilated, Troy said. Police are continuing to search for the woman’s head and hands.
Eads said Wednesday afternoon his department could soon request a heat-sensing device from the Crane Naval Base to search for the missing body parts. He said the machine can determine if parts are buried in the area.
Troy estimated the woman died between Sept. 15 and Saturday.
Eads said early Wednesday evening police were still in the process of questioning a suspect in the slaying. Detectives had been questioning Lee since 1:45 p.m.
Jalon DeLeury, a friend of Marks, said the woman ate many of her meals at the community kitchen in the Christian Center at 14th Street and Blair Avenue, not far from the area where her body was found.
“It was her only meal,” DeLeury said.
Marks also had been a frequent visitor to Dunn Meadow’s shantytown.
Senior Dean Bowman said the last time he saw Marks at the protest settlement was about three weeks ago.
Although she wasn’t involved in many of the shanty-sponsored protests, she did offer the group other forms of support, he said.
“She used to bring us food and help us clean up out there,” Bowman said.
Kevin Coughlin, a junior who has live in shantytown since last spring, described Marks as unassuming.
“I talked to her a few times,” Coughlin said. “She was always really quiet and laid back.”
The autopsy and analysis were conducted by Drs. John Pless and Dean Hawley of the forensic pathology division of the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis. Doctors still were examining the body Wednesday afternoon, Troy said.
He said no evidence of sexual assault was found on the decomposed body.
Factors that helped pathologists determine the woman’s identity included a comparison of her height and weight to previous reports and a positive identification of the clothing on the body as hers.
Marks’ body was found outside a shack she was living in at West 10 th and North Summit streets on the city’s west side.
“The single most conclusive piece of evidence that determined her identity was X-rays,” Troy said.
Marks had fractured a bone in 1979. An X-ray taken Tuesday in Indianapolis showed the same fracture.
Marks, who had lived in Bloomington for at least two years, was last seen alive Sept. 15.
She lived in the shack without electricity or indoor plumbing.
Two friends reported her missing early last week and found the body while they were searching for her.
Marks was born in Columbus, Ohio, and attended graduate school here from fall 1978 to spring 1980.
Her parents, who live in Michigan, were told of her death Tuesday.
