Man, 50, charged with fatal stabbing of Indiana bartender

A 50-year-old Indiana man was charged Friday with robbing and fatally stabbing a woman who was found dead behind a bar in northwest Indiana.

Christopher M. Dillard, of Hobart, faces charges of murder and robbery in connection with the death of 24-year-old Nicole Gland of Portage, Indiana, according to Chesterton police.

About 2:50 a.m. Wednesday, Gland left the Upper Deck Lounge, 139 S. Calumet Road, where she had worked as a bartender the evening before, police said.

Her body was discovered about 9 a.m. inside a 2007 Ford Escape in an alley behind a row of businesses that includes the Upper Deck Lounge, police said. Her car keys, cell phone and purse were missing. An autopsy found Gland was stabbed multiple times and died of her injuries, according to the Porter County coroner’s office and police.

After reading about Gland’s death, a woman who knew Dillard told police Wednesday that Dillard worked at the Upper Deck Lounge as a doorman and bouncer and noted that a knife was missing from her butcher block, police said.

She also reminded investigators that she had filed a report days earlier saying Dillard had taken her truck without her permission, police said.

When police found Dillard — and the truck — later Wednesday, he told investigators he had been “partying rough” the two previous nights, according to documents filed in a Porter County court.

Dillard said he left the Upper Deck Lounge to go to another Chesterton bar, then picked up drugs from a supplier in Portage, Indiana, police said. At a certain point, he said his recollections about the night were “hazy” and was unable to answer further questions.

Dillard also told investigators he took the missing knife from the butcher block two months ago and was using it for protection before it fell out of the truck, although he was unsure when, police said.

According to court documents, Dillard also implicated himself in Gland’s death while talking to a friend while in police custody. That conversation was recorded, police said.