Afrikka Hardy, victim of alleged Indiana serial killer. (Facebook)
The ex-wife of alleged serial killer Darren Deon Vann, who was arrested late Monday in Indiana, said she “didn’t believe” charges leveled against the man to whom she was married for more than a decade, the Chicago Tribune reports.
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Vann, 43, was taken in to custody near his home in Gary, Ind., Friday after the body of Afrikka Hardy, 19, was discovered in a motel. He allegedly told investigators he met the victim through Backpage.com, a website. He was arrested and charged late Monday with murder and strangulation in Hardy’s death. Later, Vann reportedly led police to six other bodies in Gary, Ind.
Vann reportedly told investigators that his crime spree dates back two decades, officials said at a press conference Monday.
But a woman who was married to Vann from 1995 to 2010 does not believe a word of the reports, saying he was nonviolent and protective of his loved ones during their marriage, “Oh … I don’t believe it,” said the woman who did not want her name published. “I am half way in shock,” she said.
The Chicago Tribune reached the woman, who is older than Vann, by phone in Texas. She told the paper that he served in the Marines and is originally from Gary. He also worked security and maintenance jobs in Texas and Indiana.
The couple met through a friend and they were married in 1995 but have been estranged since 2005. She told the newspaper that he never mistreated her. Court records indicate that they were divorced in 2010.
“You know, he was always OK,” the woman said. “I don’t really know what else to say. He is nothing like that.”
But the woman’s son, who did not want to use his name, told the newspaper he was oftentimes suspicious of Vann, saying he sometimes “talked to himself and had other odd habits,” the Tribune writes.
Indeed, Vann may have led a secret life. He was arrested for a Dec. 15, 2007, attack on a “25-year-old Hispanic female,” whom he assaulted and “struck several times and attempted to strangle,” said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.
Vann was sentenced in September 2009 and was ordered to register as a sex offender after his release in 2013.
He last registered as a sex offender in Lake County, Indiana, in August 2013.
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Ex-Wife Surprised By Charges Against Alleged Ind. Serial Killer was originally published on newsone.com
