Mom IDs missing son’s body after he’s found in vacant townhouse
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A mother’s desperate search to find her missing son ended in tragedy when police found his body Thursday on the east side of Indianapolis.
It happened just after 9 p.m. at a vacant townhouse near 42nd Street and Post Road.
The Marion County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 19-year-old Trevon Mann. The office has not released a cause and manner of death.
His mother reported him missing last Saturday when she couldn’t get a hold of him and no one had seen him.
Cathy Mann spent the past week searching for her son, making flyers and even planning for a day to pass them out. She said she got a phone call Thursday night saying police had found a body, so she rushed to the scene.
“Crime scene investigator came, she had took some photos of the body, and she asked me if my son had any distinctive tattoos, and I told her he had a tattoo on each hand, and she showed me the picture and I knew that was him,” she cried.
Police got a tip and went to the 4000 block of Stratford Court and found the 19-year-old with trauma to his body in an empty townhouse. Mann said she doesn’t know what happened to her son.
“It’s hard to say until we actually get the autopsy back,” she said. “I can’t say how my son died. The only thing I can say is that if someone did something to him he didn’t go down without a fight.”
Mann described her son as goofy, outgoing and caring. He was also taking on big responsibilities as a new father to a 2-month-old boy.
“I remember my son through my grandchild,” she said. “He’s a spitting image of his dad.”
Trevon Mann’s death marked the 10th homicide so far this year for the city of Indianapolis, according to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
“It has to stop. We as mothers, we’re tired of burying our children,” she said.
Mann vowed to get justice for her son no matter how long it takes.
“I won’t stop fighting until I find out who did this and why and make sure that you’re put in prison for the rest of your life,” she said.
Mann also had a message for the person responsible for her son’s death.
“Just turn yourself in, turn yourself in,” she said. “Think about what your mother would go through if it was you in that body bag and not my son.”
Police said they are investigating two deadly shootings that happened within a week less than a mile away from where Mann was found.
If you have any information that could help police, you’re asked to contact Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS or crimetips.org.
