An Indiana woman allegedly murdered her husband, chopped him up with an axe and got her two children to help bag up and dump his remains.
Thessalonica Allen, 34, stands accused of shooting dead husband Randy Allen in the bedroom of their LaPorte apartment on July 27, according to court documents obtained by The South Bend Tribune.
Her kids, described in the documents as teenagers under the age of 16, heard gunfire and walked into the bedroom to find Randy dying. Their mom allegedly told them to go to their room and ignore his desperate pleas for them to call 911.
Allen later woke the children up in the dead of night to help move Randy’s body to the car but discovered it was too heavy to carry, prosecutors said.
She then allegedly returned home the next day with an axe and chopped off Randy Allen’s legs before getting the kids to help stuff the remains into a tote bag. Cops later found the bag stowed in a closet in the daughter’s bedroom, according to The Northwest Indiana Times.
“The children stated that mom had plans to take the vehicle and body to South Bend and set it on fire,” police said, the Times reported.
Thessalonica Allen was arrested after her ex-boyfriend alerted authorities.
The ex, the father of one of Allen’s children, said he went to her apartment after she allegedly told him Randy Allen was beating their kid. Once inside he was shown Randy Allen’s body in a closet, police said.
Allen allegedly drove the man home after he refused to help carry the body into a car. During the journey he claimed she threw a gun out of the window and told him she had shot Randy because he was “beating up on her and the kids,” court documents state.
When Allen was arrested, she reportedly told officers that her husband was physically abusive and that she shot him after some kind of fight.
The children allegedly told investigators that prior to the shooting Randy had been helping them on a computer when he noticed a website that their mom had visited. The couple then got into an argument in the bedroom before the kids heard a gunshot.
A police search of the apartment also uncovered what looked like a checklist under the daughter’s pillow, with items such as “hit him with a hammer and stab him” and “roll up body in sheets and plastic bags,” charging documents show.
Thessalonica Allen has been hit with a slew of charges, including murder, abuse of a corpse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
She pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, WSBT reported.