Inmate David Hayden at New Castle Correctional Facility has come forward with information on Daniel Messel, the accused killer of IU student Hannah Wilson. He claims to have information on Messel’s past criminal history, according to letters found in Messel’s case file.
Hayden, an inmate in the psychiatric unit of the prison, has written the prosecutor five letters over the course of the Messel case. In the letters he states he has knowledge that Messel has previously picked up intoxicated women, assaulted them and left them in various locations.
Hayden has a criminal record that includes driving while intoxicated, forgery and theft. He is also not listed as a possible witness in the Messel case, according to court documents.
His letters begin in late May 2015 and continue through August 2015. In them, he claims to have met Messel during a previous incarceration at the Indiana Department of Corrections in 1996. Later, Hayden claims he met Messel in 2005 at an LGBT bar in Terre Haute, Indiana. A week later, at Night Moves in Bloomington, Hayden claims to have met Messel again.
At Night Moves, and in subsequent meetings, Hayden wrote in letters Messel confided to him that he would troll IU’s campus wearing a shirt with a “campus security” logo on it. Messel would also cruise campus looking for women.
“During the time spent in, Daniel E. Messel’s, company and subsequent run-ins with him, this affiant learned that, Daniel E. Messel, was a sadist and a rapist,” he said in a letter.
Hayden also said he has information on the death of IU student Lauren Spierer. In a letter, he claimed that in 2012 a friend hit a woman he believes to be Spierer with her vehicle, killing her. The friend later disposed of the body along Highway 46.
Hayden said he “relocated her remains during a camping trip to the Brown Co. Area, Memorial Weekend 2012.” He also said he is in possession of photos of two ID's found on the body — one with the name ‘Rebecca.'
