Indiana slayings evoke memories of ‘98 crime

WAYNESVILLE — Residents in a small Indiana town where four people were found fatally shot Saturday say their deaths are bringing up memories of a previous case.

Associate pastor Justin Ackeret of the Waynesville Chapel Mercy Missionary Baptist Church tells The Republic that the shootings of 53-year-old Katheryn Burton, her boyfriend, 39-year-old Thomas Smith, and two friends are hitting too close to home. He says many residents in the town of about 950 still remember the 1998 discovery of four bodies in shallow graves just outside the town.

The victims in that case included three children, and Ackeret says memorials still are regularly maintained at the site.

Police Monday said they had no new information to release about the weekend slayings.

Ackeret says the area is generally quiet.