ELKHART, Ind. (AP) - The Latest on the deaths of two children whose bodies were found in a vehicle in northern Indiana (all times local):
5 p.m.
Prosecutors say a woman facing preliminary murder charges in the deaths of her two young children is cooperating with authorities and has provided helpful information in the investigation of a neighbor’s shooting death.
Police arrested 29-year-old Amber Pasztor of Fort Wayne after the bodies of 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor were found in a car with their mother in Elkhart. An autopsy has found the children died of asphyxiation.
Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill says the deaths are “a senseless tragedy.”
Hill appeared at a news conference Tuesday afternoon with Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards in Fort Wayne. Richards says Amber Pasztor had been driving a car belonging to 65-year-old Frank Macomber. His body was found Tuesday morning in woods north of Fort Wayne.
No charges have been filed in Macomber’s death.
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4:10 p.m.
Elkhart police say autopsies on a young girl and boy found dead in the northern Indiana city have determined that they are the children of a woman facing preliminary murder charges in their deaths.
Elkhart police Sgt. Chris Snyder says the autopsies conducted Tuesday also determined that 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor died of asphyxiation and their deaths were homicides.
Police arrested 29-year-old Amber Pasztor of Fort Wayne on Monday on two preliminary murder counts after the children’s bodies were found in her car in Elkhart.
Prosecutors are expected to formally charge her in the case later this week.
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4:10 p.m.
A northern Indiana coroner has identified a body found in a wooded area as that of a man believed to have been in the company of a woman who faces preliminary murder charges in the deaths of her two children.
Senior investigator Rebecca Stuttle of the Allen County coroner’s office says the body is that of 65-year-old Frank Macomber and he died from a gunshot wound. His death has been ruled a homicide.
His body was found early Tuesday in a wooded area northwest of Fort Wayne near his home.
Authorities believe Macomber spent some time with 29-year-old Amber Pasztor. She was arrested on two preliminary murder counts after the bodies of her son and daughter were found Monday in her car in Elkhart.
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4:10 p.m.
Elkhart police say they are trying “to put the pieces together” in the investigation of an Amber Alert case that ended with the discovery of two children’s bodies in the northern Indiana city.
Sgt. Chris Snyder says officers are trying to determine what happened between the time 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor were abducted in Fort Wayne and when their bodies were found in Elkhart, about 70 miles to the northwest.
The children’s mother, 29-year-old Amber Pasztor, was arrested Monday on two preliminary murder counts after police found the bodies in a car she pulled up in outside Elkhart’s police department.
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2:10 p.m.
Northern Indiana prosecutors say they will file formal charges later this week against a woman arrested after two children believed to be her son and daughter were found dead in a car.
Elkhart County Prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Shelley Murphy says a magistrate will review probable cause information in the case Wednesday and formal charges will be filed later this week against 29-year-old Amber Pasztor.
Murphy says police “are still actively investigating the case” and prosecutors haven’t received their findings.
Pasztor was arrested on two preliminary murder counts Monday after Elkhart police found two children dead in a car. The bodies are believed to be those of Pasztor’s 7-year-old daughter Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old son Rene Pasztor. Autopsies were to be conducted Tuesday.
The children had been the subject of an Amber Alert earlier Monday warning that their mother may have abducted them.
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2:10 p.m.
An Indiana woman arrested after children believed to be her son and daughter were found dead in a car missed a court hearing earlier this week in a separate case.
Court records show 29-year-old Amber Pasztor of Fort Wayne received a one-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $200 in court costs and fines after pleading guilty to criminal trespass Aug. 1.
An arrest warrant was issued for her Sept. 13 after she was found to in noncompliance. Pasztor then failed to appear in court Monday for a collection hearing in that case.
Allen County prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Robyn Niedzwiecki says Pasztor had not paid the $200 in court costs and fines.
Court documents show she was arrested in July for criminal trespass for visiting an apartment complex she had been banned from visiting.
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9:40 a.m.
Police in northern Indiana have found the body of an older man believed to have been in the company of a woman arrested in the deaths of two children.
Capt. Steve Stone of the Allen County Sheriff’s Department says officers were searching for 65-year-old Frank Macomber when they found the body early Tuesday in woods on Fort Wayne’s northeast side. Macomber lived in the same area. An autopsy is planned Tuesday.
Stone says authorities believe Macomber had spent some time with 29-year-old Amber Pasztor who was arrested in the deaths of her son and daughter on Monday. Pasztor did not have custody of the children and police believe she abducted them from Fort Wayne early Monday. Their bodies were found in her car in Elkhart, 70 miles away. She awaits formal charges.
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12:35 a.m.
Two Indiana children who were the subject of an Amber Alert have been found dead and their mother has been arrested on murder charges.
Elkhart, Indiana, police say they believe the two children found dead on Monday afternoon were seven-year-old Liliana Hernandez and six-year-old Rene Pasztor. They had been the subject of an Amber Alert earlier in the day warning that their mother may have abducted them.
Police say their bodies were found in a car matching the description of the car in the Amber Alert.
Later Monday evening, police say their mother, 29-year-old Amber Pasztor, was arrested on two counts of murder.
Police declined to say who the children were living with when they were abducted or why she may have taken them.
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