A quickly planned, busy, and tiring round-trip flight to Texas was worth it, despite the limited encounter with the Gary woman accused of scheming to lure a young mother and her newborn daughter to Gary where she allegedly killed the mother and claimed the baby as her own, Detective Alexander Jones said.
Jones, a Gary Violent Crimes Unit investigator, last month flew with Anderson Detective Scott Sanderson to Bedford, Texas, to speak to Geraldine Jones, 36, charged last month with murder, kidnapping and confinement in the death of Samantha Fleming, 23.
The Gary woman will face a trial in Madison County, where police believe the bizarre events began. She was arrested in Bedford, where she fled days before police discovered Fleming’s decomposing body in a plastic storage bin in a closet at Jones’ home in Tolleston.
Having waived extradition, Jones is expected to make an initial appearance in Madison County Court the week of May 4, Madison County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Steve Koester said Friday. She is being held without bail on charges filed April 20 in that jurisdiction.
“She seemed very depressed, very down and out,” Detective Jones said. He and the suspect attended Wirt High School together, but graduated two years apart and are not related, he said.
The suspected killer left Fleming’s then 17-day-old baby daughter with relatives here before leaving for Texas, where her mother lives. Once there, she tried to kill herself by swallowing more than 100 acetaminophen pills that contain a sleeping medication, police said.
Sanderson and Detective Jones met with the suspect in her Tarrant County jail cell where she told them she wouldn’t talk about the incident. “She said she wasn’t comfortable speaking to us without a lawyer,” Jones said. “I tried to be buddy-buddy, asked her if she remembered me from school. She did, but she didn’t want to talk.”
But while they were there, investigators began the process of obtaining the woman’s medical records and also interviewed her mother, as well as the police and medics who responded to the suicide attempt.
Although Anderson police are leading the investigation, Gary detectives are continuing to assist, piecing events together.
They know that on April 6, Geraldine Jones visited Fleming at her home in Anderson. She claimed she was a case manager for the Indiana Department of Child Services, police said. Fleming’s boyfriend told police Jones had a binder filled with papers that she brought with her when she convinced Fleming to return to Lake County, with her newborn, for a court hearing on a Child Services Department case pending locally. That case involved Fleming’s estranged husband, of Crown Point, and a child they share, police said.
Although she didn’t open the binder during the visit, police said later it contained a great deal of personal information about Fleming.
And that’s a big missing piece of the puzzle, police say. How did Geraldine Jones obtain the information and why was Fleming the alleged target?
Investigators say Geraldine Jones had a child welfare case in Lafayette previously. She lived alone in her home in the 1900 block of Cleveland Street and had started telling people she was pregnant last fall. When her January due date came and went, she then said the baby was due in March – and she was having twins, police said.
Jones was a part-time employee at the Calumet Township Assessor’s office and worked “a couple of weeks” early this year as part of the agency’s cyclical reassessment. As all part-timers, Jones was assigned to field work, which this year was in the Miller area, chief deputy Edward Gholson said Friday.
Gholson said police have not spoken to him about her employment history.
After she obtained a newborn baby girl of mixed race, Jones allegedly told family the other twin had died and complained of depression. She left the infant with her sister when she went to Texas. Her sister had coincidentally returned to Jones’ home for more baby supplies on April 17 when Sanderson happened to arrive. Once inside, both he and her sister noticed a distinctive smell, which led to the discovery of Fleming’s body in a back bedroom closet. She had been stabbed at least 10 times, police said.
Gary police recovered Fleming’s wallet at Woodlake Village apartments, where Jones’ sister lives.
More Top Picks Best Study Desks For Small Bedrooms
Fleming’s boyfriend reported her missing after not hearing from her for two days. He provided a detailed description of the supposed case manager and even a partial license plate, noting it was marked with the pink nurses’ designation. When police found Jones’ car, it had a nurse’s vanity plate, court records state.
And while Geraldine Jones declined to discuss the case with her former schoolmate, Detective Jones said the whirlwind trip was worth it. “We tried. One more thing on the case done,” he said.