Remains found in Indiana identified; connected to body found in Hegewisch garage

Two weeks after police said an Indiana woman with ties to a Chicago mystery committed suicide, investigators revealed Thursday that the remains of a body found on the woman’s property belong to her mother.

Investigators said they aren’t certain when Nena Metoyer, 68, died. She had been missing since August, authorities say. Investigators have previously said that she died from a gunshot wound to the head.

“The investigation into the homicide is still underway, with additional laboratory testing to be completed,” according to a Fowler, Ind., police department press release.

Fowler police found Metoyer’s remains earlier this month at the home of her daughter, Teresa Jarding, in Fowler. That discovery came after Cook County authorities identified the remains of Milan Lekich — a man Jarding purportedly married in Las Vegas. The remains were found Oct. 5, outside Lekich’s garage in Hegewisch on Chicago’s Southeast side.

Authorities had wanted to question Jarding, 49, about Lekich’s disappearance. But when they finally made contact with her at her home Sept. 24, she was near death with a gun by her side, Fowler police say. Jarding was taken to an Indiana hospital, where she died the next day. On Oct. 15, authorities revealed that Jarding committed suicide — from “acute mixed-drug toxicity.”