Indiana man charged with murder after wife’s severed head found in cellar, police say

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. — An Indiana man is accused of killing his wife, whose severed head was found in the cellar of their home after he reported her missing, authorities allege.

Michael Dale Parks, 44, of Crawfordsville, is charged with murder in the death of Hope Parks. He is being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

WISH-TV in Indianapolis reported that Michael Parks went to the Crawfordsville Police Department on Aug. 20 to report his wife missing. He claimed he had last seen her two days prior, when she left with an unknown person after an argument.

While Michael Parks was at the station, a headless body was found by Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies on County Road 225 West, on the Sugar Creek Bridge, the news station reported. The bridge is just over 3 miles from the couple’s home.

According to court documents obtained by WISH-TV and The Associated Press, Michael Parks gave investigators permission to search the couple’s home “to help ascertain where Mrs. Parks might have gone, and with whom she may have left the residence.”

They found dried blood in the driveway, in the garage and on the rear deck, the AP reported. The bloodstains in the garage included a bloody shoe print, WISH-TV said.

Hope Parks’ head was found buried in the cellar of the home, according to the news station. An autopsy showed she had been shot in the back of the head.

Neighbors told WISH-TV they heard part of the alleged attack on Hope Parks.

“(My wife) had come outside on the porch and she heard somebody screaming, ‘Get off of me! Please let me go,” Seth Hubble told the station.

Hubble and other neighbors expressed disbelief over the killing.

“Two hundred yards from my house, this guy is chopping his wife up and putting her in the basement,” Hubble said. “It is scary, it really is.”

A neighbor across the street agreed.

“The gunshot, I didn’t hear,” the neighbor told the news station. “Then I’m thinking, ‘How could I not hear a gunshot like that?’”

Michael Parks pleaded not guilty to the murder charge Tuesday, according to court records. He is scheduled to return to court in October.

Cox Media Group