South Bend police talk about mom found dead in SUV with baby alive inside
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WISH) — South Bend police on Wednesday afternoon provided a few added details about a mother found dead with a baby alive in a sport utility vehicle on Tuesday night.
An Indiana Silver Alert had been issued Monday from Elkhart County for Alexis Morales, 27, and her 5-month-old boy, Messiah Morales. The baby was stable Wednesday afternoon at Memorial Hospital, but Chief Scott Ruszkowski of South Bend Police Department declined to provide more information about the baby in a news conference.
He said “somebody in the neighborhood” contacted police just after 6 p.m. Tuesday about a vehicle found in a driveway off an alley behind a vacant house in the 400 block of South Bendix Drive. That’s a few blocks west of North Olive Street and off State Road 2, also known as West Western Avenue.
Alexis’ body and the baby were found in the silver 2006 BMW X5 SUV mentioned in the Silver Alert.
The police chief declined to say how Alexis was killed, but he added that officers on scene knew immediately it was a homicide.
Ruszkowski said an autopsy set for Friday would help confirm how long the SUV had been in the driveway and how Alexis died.
He also said Alexis and Messiah’s family had come to the South Bend Police Department on Tuesday to discuss the case, but the police chief provided no additional details on that meeting.
Before Alexis’ body was found, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office was handling the Indiana Silver Alert case. All of the state’s Amber and Silver alerts are sent by Indiana State Poilce, which evaluates whether to send an alert and what type to send.
The Moraleses had not been seen since the evening of April 12, but the Silver Alert was not issued until nearly six days later. Many public comments on social media were critical of the time lag, Ruszkowski said, but he noted that only the Indiana State Police and the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office could address the lag.
The police chief said South Bend investigators were talking to an “extensive list” of people, but much remained unknown about the homicide. He added that he would bet his life that more than one person knows what happened to the Alexis.