Vincennes man charged with 3 murders in Evansville

EVANSVILLE -- Authorities have charged a Vincennes man with three counts of murder in the slayings of a woman and her two children, police said Thursday.\nDaniel Ray Wilkes, 37, was being held in the Vanderburgh County Jail Thursday, Evansville police said. Vincennes police had picked up Wilkes the day before on a Pike County warrant for failure to pay child support, Police Chief Robert Dunham said.\n"He gave information to investigators that implicated his participation in the triple homicide," Dunham told The Associated Press.\nVanderburgh County Coroner Don Erk identified the three killed as Donna Claspell, 38, and her two daughters, Avery Pike, 13, and Sydne Claspell, 9, who lived in a home on Evansville's west side.\nAutopsies were under way, but Erk said it appeared the three died from stab wounds and blunt force trauma.\n"It appears one of the younger girls might have been strangled," he said. "Until we complete the autopsies, there's no way we can know for sure."\nWilkes was an acquaintance of Claspell and may have spent time in an addiction recovery program she had attended, Dunham said. Talsma said Clapsbell just got out of alcohol rehabilitation.\nVincennes police also executed a search warrant at the home of Wilkes' brother, whom the suspect had been staying with, Dunham said.\nMeanwhile, a second man had been detained for questioning in the case. Michael A. Baker, was not immediately identified as a suspect.\n"They're still doing some interviews," Assistant Police Chief Rob Hahn said Thursday.\nOfficers went to Claspell's home after the woman's mother called to report that she had not heard from her daughter for a few days, said Evansville police spokesman Brian Talsma. Officers discovered the bodies after a family member let them inside.\nInvestigators believed the bodies had been in the house at least a day, Talsma said.\n"There is blood in the home, in various places," he said on Wednesday while detectives searched the home several hours after the bodies were discovered.