PORTER COUNTY, Ind. (April 6, 2014) — The coroner called to the scene where a body was found in a lake shared what he knew about the investigation.
On Sunday, Indiana State Police said a fisherman came upon a body floating in Lake Charles, a small body of water located near the Porter/Burns Harbor exit along I-94, an area just yards away from where Teleka Patrick’s car was found.
Although officials have yet to identify the body, the Porter County coroner said the body is that of a black woman who was wearing dark clothing. That description is similar to what Patrick was wearing the last time she was seen.
“We will be conducting tests on dental records and finger printing,” Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris said. “Until that’s done, we can’t make a positive identification. At this point in time, she had no identification on her. We’re going to do an autopsy later in the week, probably on Tuesday, to help with the identification of the individual.”
FOX 17 spoke with Patrick’s family on Sunday. They didn’t give any details but said they were in a time of “mourning,” and they thanked people for their prayers.
Lake Charles was first searched back in January. It was frozen at the time, and crews had to use sonar equipment to scan the area. Still, nothing was found.
Upon discovering the body Sunday, Harris said, officials searched the area surrounding the lake for clues but didn’t find anything significant.
Harris said there were no obvious signs of trauma found on the woman’s body. He also said it appears she was in the water for a significant amount of time due to the degree of decomposition. When asked if there were any other identifying marks on the body, Harris said, “We didn’t remove any of the clothing. We’re trying to keep all of the evidence together for the forensic autopsy, so we really didn’t try to look for any other type of identification on her.”
Harris said the preliminary autopsy results are expected to be in Tuesday afternoon.
