Lawsuit targets man wanted for murder

ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) - A central Indiana woman whose ex-boyfriend allegedly killed her daughter in front of her is suing to seize his assets, even though he's a fugitive and police don't know if he's alive or dead.

Mark Dudley, the attorney for Terri Wiles, said Thursday that there's no point in her waiting to try to collect damages from 53-year-old Roy Parmley, who is charged with murdering Walls' 31-year-old daughter, Amanda Wiles, in a June 9 attack at Terri Wiles' home in Lapel.

"It's a step that has to be taken, and there's no sense in waiting. Nothing is going to get better by waiting, so why wait?" said Dudley. He said Parmley's personal assets include a house and some vehicles, and that his client might wait forever for compensation if Parmley isn't found.

In her lawsuit, Terri Wiles contends she broke up with Parmley a few days before the attack, and that he broke into her home while she and her daughter were out that day and attacked them when they returned, tying them up. Court documents allege that Parmley then told Wiles he was going to "take away something dear" from her before fatally shooting her daughter in the face with a shotgun, The Herald-Bulletin reported.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims that Wiles "suffered and will continue to suffer indefinitely into the future," as a direct impact of her daughter's murder.

Parmley threatened to kill himself before he left Wiles' home and then fled the scene on foot, police said. Madison County Sheriff Ron Richardson said Wednesday that detectives have been searching for Parmley or his body.

Because Parmley can't be served with the lawsuit in a traditional manner, Dudley filed a summons for service by publication, which John Shanks, president of the Madison County Bar Association, calls a "very uncommon yet effective" tactic.

Court rules state that such a summons must be printed three times. The notice ran first Wednesday in The Times-Post, a Pendleton weekly newspaper, and is scheduled to run again Aug. 8 and 15.