Prosecutors seek DNA from suspect in 7 Northwest Indiana deaths

CROWN POINT, Ind. — Prosecutors are seeking a DNA sample from the man who is charged in the strangulation deaths of two women in northwestern Indiana and is suspected of killing five more.

A Lake County court has scheduled a Dec. 5 hearing on the request for a DNA mouth swab from 43-year-old Darren Vann of Gary.

The Times of Munster reports that a second court-appointed attorney, Teresa Hollandsworth, has joined Matthew Fech on Vann’s defense team.

Vann faces murder charges in the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy and 35-year-old Anith Jones. Police say Hardy was killed at a Hammond motel and that Vann led investigators to the bodies of Jones and five other women inside abandoned houses in Gary.