What happened Katie Collman? We discuss what happened to the 10-year-old girl and who killed her. This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.
Katie Collman was a 10-year-old girl who went missing in 2005. She was later found dead and raped in Lake Cipers. After months of searching, the police arrested Anthony Stockelman, who pleaded guilty to murder and rape.
The town where Katie lived, Crothersville, is small, where many of the residents know each other. As a result, this crime shocked the local area and devastated Katie’s family.
Who is Katie Collman?
Katie Collman was a 10-year-old girl who lived in Crothersville, Indiana, United States. She lived with her mother, Angela, her father, John Neace, and her older sister. John worked at the local factory.
Before January 25, 2005, the family lived a normal and happy life in their town, a place that they thought was safe because everyone knew everyone else.
What happened to Katie Collman?
The events that followed January 25, 2005, would shatter this illusion of safety. At around 3 p.m., Angela sent Katie to go to the nearby store to pick up some items for her, a task and place she’d been to before. As such, her mum knew that this should take about half an hour. After half an hour, Katie had not returned home. This wasn’t an immediate cause for concern as sometimes she met friends. But as John arrived home after finishing work and Katie wasn’t back, her parents began to worry.
They attempted to find Katie by themselves, ringing friends and going to places where she might be. When they couldn’t find her, they got the police involved. A huge number of volunteers joined the search, too. After 24 hours, the police believed that Katie had been abducted.
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Two days after the disappearance, a witness said she’d seen Katie in a white pickup truck with a skinny white man. On January 30, a policeman found the body of Katie in Lake Cipers.
Three days later, Charles Hickman came forward and admitted that he and his accomplice had grabbed the girl and taken her to a lake when she walked in on them cooking meth at an abandoned house. He said they tried to scare her, but she accidentally fell into the lake.
A medical examination showed Katie was raped, but the DNA of the semen didn’t match Charles or his accomplice. Three months later, detectives found DNA of a Roger-brand cigarette butt near the lake that matched the semen.
Only four stores sold this brand within a 60-kilometer radius.
The police used this to find Anthony Stockelman. He gave a DNA sample that matched the DNA of the semen found in Katie and was arrested.
Detectives were unsure what linked him with Charles Hickman and later decided the constant use of drugs clouded his consciousness. After Charles spent three months in prison, he withdrew his testimony.
Who killed Katie Collman?
After being charged with the murder and rape of Katie Collman, Anthony Stockelman agreed to a deal with prosecutors. If he pleaded guilty to the molestation and murder charges, they would not seek the death penalty. Therefore, he was sent to prison and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Stockelman attempted to appeal this sentence, saying he was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, but this was rejected.
By coincidence, Stockelman had been sent to the same prison as Katie’s cousin, the then 22-year-old Jared Harris. On September 22, 2006, Harris put a sharpener to Stockelman’s throat and tattooed the words “Katie’s revenge” on his forehead. Harris received an extra seven years in prison for this.
Stockelman was transferred to solitary confinement and remains in prison.
