Suspect sought after woman, 3 children slain in Indiana home

Three children and a woman have been found slain in a Fort Wayne home, and police are asking for the public’s help finding a man they call the suspect in the killings

Fort Wayne Slayings

Three children and a woman were found slain Wednesday morning in a Fort Wayne home, and police asked for the public’s help finding a man they called the suspect in the killings.

Police said Cohen Bennet Hancz-Barron, 21, was last seen driving a stolen pickup truck and is “considered armed and dangerous."

The victims' bodies were discovered by police about 10:45 a.m., after authorities received an initial report of an “unknown problem" at the residence, said Fort Wayne Police spokesman Sgt. Jeremy Webb.

He called the scene that officers found in the home “gruesome" but did not indicate how the victims were killed.

“When you have murdered children, it’s going to be gruesome," Webb said.

Webb said Hancz-Barron knew the woman and the three children, whom he said were “very young,” but police do not know what his relationship was to the four victims. He said friends and family had identified Hancz-Barron as a suspect in the killings.

Fort Wayne is located about 130 miles (209 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis

A database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University that tracks mass killings — defined as four or more dead, not including the perpetrator — shows this is the 16th mass killing so far this year in the U.S. Four of those occurred in Indiana.

Indiana's three other mass killings during 2021 include the April fatal shootings of eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis and the March fatal shootings of three adults and a child inside a home in Indianapolis. In January, five people, including a pregnant woman, were fatally shot in Indianapolis, also inside a home.

The latest slayings likely occurred between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Wednesday, Webb said.

He said Hancz-Barron was last seen driving a Ford F-150 that police believe had been stolen.

“If the public does come across this vehicle or this suspect please call 911. He's extremely dangerous," Webb said.