Man arrested for student's 2000 murder

MARTINSVILLE -- A Morgan County grand jury has indicted a suspect in the 2000 murder of IU sophomore Jill Behrman. \nIndiana State Police arrested John R. Myers II, 30, in his Ellettsville home without incident Sunday. He is currently being held in the Morgan County Jail.\nMyers was charged with one count of murder. The grand jury also indicted Alisha T. Evans on two counts of perjury, both class D felonies, for allegedly lying to the grand jury about her relationship with certain witnesses involved in the case. \nThe indictments came only four weeks after Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega called a grand jury to investigate the case. In that time, Sonnega said the grand jury interviewed more than 90 witnesses.\nThough authorities have not previously mentioned Myers as a suspect in any press coverage of the Behrman case, Indiana State Police Detective Rick Lang said the investigation began to point to Myers in December 2004. \nBerhman disappeared on May 31, 2000 after leaving her parents' Bloomington home for an early-morning bicycle ride. The disappearance shocked the community and led to a massive search that yielded only her abandoned bicycle. In March 2003, hunters found Behrman's remains in a woods in rural Morgan County near Paragon, Ind.\nSonnega said he believes Myers "knowingly and intentionally" killed Behrman.\nThis information seems to dismiss a previous theory that the IU student had been hit by the car and her body dumped in Morgan County. Lang said police also believe Myers had never met Behrman before she disappeared in May 2000.\nPolice and prosecutors emphasized that Myers' indictment only begins a long legal process and he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. His first court appearance, the arraignment, is slated for today at 1:30 p.m. in the Morgan County Superior Court. \nLang, the principle detective in the case, said the Behrman investigation is not complete. He is still looking for an anonymous caller who told police she had seen a red compact car near where searchers found Behrman's bicycle the day Behrman disappeared. In a March 1 press conference, the detective and Behrman's parents, Eric and Marilyn, appealed to the public for that person and other witnesses to identify themselves. As a result, a mail carrier the investigators had wanted to interview and about a dozen other witnesses came forward.\nDespite the request for more information about the suspicious red car, police took Myers' red car into custody.\nProsecutors and police were tight-lipped about the evidence that led them to Myers, citing grand jury confidentiality laws; the public will have to wait until the trial for the details of Behrman's death to come to light. \nBut, Behrman's father said he and his wife know many of the details of the case that have yet to be released to the public, and he believes Myers is the man who killed his daughter.\n"I think a lot of people will be shocked when the details of this case come out," he said.