Woman allegedly fatally shot husband, dismembered his body and forced her kids to help clean up crime scene

A woman in Indiana is accused of killing her husband, chopping up his body and then making her two children help clean up the crime scene, authorities said.

On July 29, Rory Walker called 911 to report his ex-girlfriend, Thessalonica Allen, 34, had murdered her husband, Randy Allen, South Bend’s WBND-LD reported, citing a probable cause affidavit.

When Walker arrived at the couple’s apartment in La Porte, Indiana, the affidavit states, she allegedly led him to a closet and showed him the victim’s body. She reportedly alleged her husband had choked and attacked her so she shot him. An autopsy showed Randy Allen likely bled to death after the bullet hit his spinal cord, likely paralyzing him, according to WSBT-TV.

Court documents state the murder suspect’s kids were present during and after the incident. The children allegedly told investigators their mother asked them not to call 911 when they woke up and saw Randy Allen lying on the floor. She allegedly later woke them up so they could drag the victim’s body to a car, but it was too heavy.

The following day, according to investigators, the mother allegedly said she panicked and used an axe to cut off the victim’s legs before asking her children to help her put the victim’s remains in a bag and clean up the scene.

Detectives serving a search warrant discovered Randy Allen’s remains stuffed in a tote bag, the documents state. They also allegedly recovered what investigators believe to be checklists detailing what to do to the victim, including “hit him with a hammer and stab him” and “roll up body in sheets and plastic bags.”

Randy Allen’s mother, Theresa Tyler, told WBND she knew there was something wrong with her son because they always talk but he wasn’t answering her calls. When officers and Tyler’s landlord showed up at her house on Aug. 2, she said, “I knew something was wrong with my son. I lost it.”

Sharon Colmen, the dead man’s sister, said loved ones are suffering in the wake of the news. “Nobody can understand the pain and the trauma that our family is going through right now knowing that the person that you loved was taken away from you in such an awful, awful manner,” she explained. “He didn’t deserve that.”

Thessalonica Allen faces multiple charges, including murder, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, abuse of a corpse, interfering with the reporting of a crime, alteration of a death scene, and neglect of a dependent.