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25 years later, man charged in Gary woman's stabbing death
More than 25 years after Tonya Renee Armstrong was found stabbed to death inside a Gary apartment building, prosecutors have charged a man with her murder.
GARY, Ind. - More than 25 years after Tonya Renee Armstrong was found stabbed to death inside a Gary apartment building, prosecutors have charged a man with her murder.
The backstory:
The Lake County Prosecutor’s Office announced that 65-year-old Edward Russell Jr. has been charged with murder in connection with Armstrong’s March 2001 killing.
According to prosecutors, Armstrong was killed inside an apartment building on East Fifth Avenue. Her family said she was found stabbed to death and that her body had been covered in bleach.
The case remained unsolved for more than two decades.
Armstrong’s family said they had nearly lost hope after years without significant progress from the Gary Police Department. They said the investigation took a turn when a detective with the Hobart Police Department began reviewing the case and connecting evidence.
Their breakthrough came after Russell was linked three months ago to four other Indiana homicides from 2002 that investigators believe are connected. Armstrong’s family said those investigations ultimately led detectives to connect Russell to their mother’s murder.
"I’m hurt. I’m sad. Thankful. I’m kind of mad," Armstrong’s daughter, Kimyetta Annan, said. "I hope he gets the chair. These murders… the moms and dads didn’t deserve this. My mom was a sweet person. She loved people."
What's next:
Russell is currently being held at the Lake County Jail. He is also serving a separate sentence at the Westville Correctional Facility.
FOX Chicago reached out to the Gary Police Department to ask whether investigators believe Russell could be connected to any other unsolved cases and whether the department wanted to comment on the investigation. The department had not responded as of this publication.
For Armstrong’s family, the arrest marks the beginning of a new chapter.
They said they never felt supported by the Gary Police Department during the investigation, but after waiting 25 years for answers, they finally have a sense of closure. The family is now planning a balloon release to honor Armstrong’s memory as they begin the healing process.
The Source: The information in this article was reported by FOX Chicago's Leslie Moreno.