Around The Region

Woman dies while stuck outside in cold\nVALPARAISO -- A woman froze to death when she tried to climb in through her basement window and got stuck after she apparently locked herself outside, authorities said.\nPolice found 43-year-old Mary Balliard dead about 7:30 p.m. Monday. The temperature was about 20 degrees, and she was not wearing a coat, hat or gloves.\nCo-workers called the Porter County Sheriff's Department on Monday after Balliard failed to show up for work following the long holiday weekend. She had moved to Indiana from Oklahoma about three weeks ago.\nShe was still stuck in the basement window when officers found her. There were cuts, scrapes and bruises on her body and police believed she had struggled to free herself.\nBalliard's home was in a new subdivision with houses that are still vacant or under construction. Residents said neighbors did not know one another well.\n"I don't know if anyone really knew her," said Nick Markoff, who lives down the block.\nBuilder Jack Runion said he was puzzled why Balliard hadn't asked neighbors for help before trying to enter the house.\n"It's one of those freak things," Runion said Tuesday. "Why she tried to crawl in that window, I don't know."\nProsecutor to pursue death sentence in Muncie murder\nMUNCIE -- A prosecutor said he will seek the death penalty for an Illinois prison inmate whose DNA was linked to evidence in the 1999 murder of an eastern Indiana teenager.\nLouis Verner, 34, is scheduled to go to trial June 15 on rape and murder charges in the slaying of 19-year-old Heather Teegarden.\nDelaware County Prosecutor Richard Reed filed the death penalty request Tuesday. Reed said he did not anticipate reaching a plea agreement in the case.\nAuthorities said Verner's DNA matched a profile developed from semen and hair found at Teegarden's apartment after she was raped and strangled.\nVerner has denied killing Teegarden.\nVerner is currently serving a seven-year prison term for a robbery conviction in Illinois.\nHe previously had received a six-year sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in the Chicago area and had been found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender.\nJudge orders recount in Delaware County\nMUNCIE -- A judge ordered a recount in a disputed county commissioner's race.\nDelaware Circuit Court Judge James Jordan ordered the recount Tuesday in the race between Democratic incumbent Ron Bonham and Republican challenger Larry Crouch.\nCrouch defeated Bonham by 85 votes in the Nov. 5 election for Delaware County commissioner.\n"I think it's something we need to do," said county Democratic Party Chairman Dennis Tyler, who sought the recount. "We need to move forward and be done with it."\nCrouch's attorney, Charles R. Clark, said he had no comment.\nThe judge ordered the recount to begin Monday morning.\nBonham, who has not attended three commissioner meetings held since the election, has not commented.\n"He told me to do what was best for the party and he would support it," Tyler said.\nWabash student dies after collapsing\nCRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. -- A Wabash College student who collapsed during a basketball game and died this week had a heart disease.\nIt is believed that David Shawn Mixon, 21, died from symptoms related to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Montgomery County Coroner David Hunt said. The disease can be caused by a variety of defects in the proteins involved with cardiac muscle contraction. The condition carries a low to moderate risk of sudden death, Mixon's doctor, Frank Fish, said.\nBoth Mixon, who was from Nashville, Tenn., and his brother, Michael, were diagnosed with the disease, and their father died from the condition.\nMixon was playing a pickup basketball game with some fraternity brothers Monday evening when he collapsed, fraternity member Brian Lawlor said.\n"He used to play basketball all the time. He didn't think it was a big deal, and we didn't either," Lawlor said. "He scored then was running down the court and collapsed."\nAlthough Mixon participated on sports teams in high school, he was discouraged from participating in competitive sports in college because of his condition, Fish said.