Indiana man allegedly said he was drunk, ‘unsure’ how he killed his girlfriend before burying her body: Cops

A man in Indiana allegedly murdered his girlfriend, buried her body where he worked with the victim’s father, and then sent messages from her cell phone to cover up the crime, investigators said

On Aug. 26, the mother of 26-year-old Heather Ann Steuver reported her missing after she hadn’t had contact with her for days.

Steuver’s boyfriend, Patrick Even David Doyle, 38, told an investigator with the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office he last saw her that morning, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Later that day, Steuver’s mother called deputies back to the home her daughter lived in with Doyle and told them she had found wall damage and what she thought was blood on the floor, a chair and a Clorox cleaning bottle in the bedroom the couple shared, the documents state. An investigator wrote what appeared to be blood was then also found on the carpet, a comforter and mattress.

According to the mother, her daughter’s cell phone was on the bed. She also stated, according to the affidavit, that she hadn’t heard from Steuver “in quite some time” but recently had received texts from her daughter’s number, which she believed Doyle had sent.

On Sept. 8, the investigator met with Doyle about the case and got his permission to download the contents of his cell phone as part of the investigation, the affidavit states.

A short time later, the affidavit shows, the investigator received a call from his sergeant notifying him that “he had located child pornography within the data downloaded from Patrick’s cell phone.”

The following day, Doyle was arrested for possession of child pornography. During a police interview, according to the affidavit, Doyle said he woke up early in the morning on Aug. 22 and “discovered blood on himself and observed injuries to Heather’s face.”

Doyle allegedly explained that morning “he awoke and discovered Heather deceased in the bed next to him,” an investigator wrote, claiming, “Patrick was adamant that he had physically caused Heather’s death but he was unsure how he did so because he was intoxicated at the time.”

According to the affidavit, Doyle allegedly explained in detail how he then “removed Heather’s body from the residence by wrapping her in a sheet” and “transported Heather’s body to Nugent Sand Company,” where he and the victim’s father both worked.

He allegedly then “concealed her body by covering it with rocks,” and “had thrown [a] pillow case containing Heather’s possessions in the lake on Nugent Sand Company property,” the investigator claimed.

The affidavit states Doyle allegedly admitted he sent texts from his girlfriend’s cell phone after her death.

Steuver’s body was recovered from the sand company property and an autopsy determined the victim suffered blunt force trauma to the head and her death was the result of a homicide.

Doyle is being held without bond on murder and child pornography charges in the Bartholomew County Jail.