Body found at Indiana home of dead wife of murdered Hegewisch man

More intrigue was added to a bizarre murder mystery Tuesday after authorities found human remains at the home of a dead Indiana woman who was central to the case.

Police in Fowler, Indiana, said they found the remains of a white woman on Saturday at the former residence of Teresa Jarding.

That revelation came after Cook County authorities on Tuesday identified the remains of Jarding’s former husband, Milan Lekich, which were found Oct. 5 in Lekich’s garage in Hegewisch on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

Milan Lekich

Police had wanted to question Jarding, 49, about Lekich’s disappearance. But when they finally made contact with Jarding at her home on Sept. 24, she was near death with a gun by her side, Fowler Police said last week. Jarding was taken to an Indiana hospital, where she died from a brain hemorrhage the next day.

Soon after she died, authorities learned that her mother – who was in town from Florida to take care of the ailing Jarding – had been missing since August.

Fowler police would not say if the remains found at Jarding’s house belonged to her 68-year-old mother, Nena Metoyer. But they did say that the woman died from a gunshot wound to the head and classified her death as a homicide. Further DNA testing is needed to determine her identity, Fowler police said in an emailed statement.

The dismembered body of Lekich, 51, was found wrapped in plastic and a blanket in a garage in the 13300 block of South Avenue M, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and Chicago Police.

An autopsy found Lekich died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head and his death has been ruled a homicide, according to a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office.

A woman who called police reported a strange smell coming from the garbage in the garage of the Hegewisch home, according to a police source.

The woman looked inside the garbage bag and found the man’s remains. Police issued a missing person report for Lekich that said he had last been seen in June 2013 and possibly could be in Florida or Indiana.

According to that report, Lekich’s last known residence was on the block where his remains were later found.

Part of the search for Lekich involved trying to talk to Jarding, his estranged wife, who had moved to Fowler, about 100 miles south of Chicago. Jarding and Lekich married in Las Vegas in March 2013, according to court records. Chicago Police said Tuesday morning no arrests had been made in connection with Lekich’s death.