Docs: Tip from woman who was shot, set on fire helped police track down her murderer

UPDATE: In Feb. 2024, Dwayne Wright was convicted for the July 2021 murder of Laura Gentry after a three-day trial.

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — After more than a year of investigation, police have arrested a man believed to have killed a woman by shooting her and setting her on fire.

Court documents acquired by News 8 detail a horrific crime and a search for a man known only by a nickname provided by the victim before she died.

Dwayne Wright, 57, has been arrested for the 2021 murder of 44-year-old Laura Gentry on the near-west side of Indianapolis. He faces an additional charge for carrying a handgun as a felon.

Woman found shot multiple times with burns on at least half her body

A man called police on the evening of July 9, 2021, after finding a woman at his back door who was asking for help. An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer arrived at the residence in the 1100 block of North Medford Avenue and found Gentry, who appeared to have been shot several times and also had burns on at least half of her body.

She was able to identify herself to the officer, providing her name and birthdate.

The officer asked Gentry who had done this to her.

“OG Wayne,” she said, telling the officer that name multiple times.

A detective who arrived later searched an alley and was able to smell gasoline.

She was sent to the hospital but died ten days later on July 19.

A coroner ruled her cause of death as “complications of mixed modularity trauma; thermal burns and multiple gunshot wounds.” It was determined that she had burns on 64% of her body and was shot four times.

The search for ‘OG Wayne’

Every officer with IMPD was asked if they knew anything about an “OG Wayne.”

During the investigation, IMPD received information about three different men in the area who go by the name “OG Wayne.”

Two of them were ruled out as not having any connection to Gentry or the case.

According to court documents, Dwayne Wright first came up in conversation regarding the investigation in the days following Gentry’s death when an IMPD officer from the southwest district said he was aware of an “OG Wayne” from Haughville whose real name is Dwayne Wright.

Another officer said he had a source who had heard that “OG Wayne” went to Texas following the crime “because he had messed his life and that he was responsible for the girl that was burnt up over on Medford,” according to court documents.

Detectives then tried to connect Wright to possible family members in Texas and learned that Wright has family members in Houston.

IMPD detectives also used Facebook records to help tie Wright to Gentry.

A search warrant allowed investigators to find out who Gentry last spoke to on her phone.

Police found the man who last spoke to Gentry was also Facebook friends with a woman who had previously spoken to Wright while he was in jail.

One of her final messages sent on Facebook Messenger asked, ‘Who is this ol g wayne,” according to court documents.

‘Did you know the girl who was burned?’

An IMPD detective was on his way to work on Sept. 9, 2021, when another person got his attention while stopped at 16th and Meridian streets.

“Are you the police?” the man asked. “Did you know the girl who was burned?”

The man told police that OG Wayne was responsible and that his name was “Wayne” Wright.

Also in September 2021, DNA recovered from a bottle in the alley where Gentry was burned was found to match Dwayne Wright. The bottle also had gasoline on it.

DNA also matched another individual who was brought in for questioning. He said he knows “OG Wayne” and denied any involvement in Gentry’s death.

“He stated it was possible his DNA ended up on the fired cartridge casing because he had a bag of bullets that he had given out to some people in the neighborhood recently,” court documents state.

Wright arrested

Wright was arrested by IMPD on Aug. 23.

IMPD has not said where Wright was arrested but, as of this writing, he is listed as an inmate in the Marion County Jail.

Online jail records indicate he has a court appearance scheduled for the morning of Aug. 31.

News 8 has requested a copy of Wright’s mugshot.

A search of past court records linked Wright to more than a dozen criminal cases in the last 25+ years.

• June 1996 – charged with carrying a handgun without a license, found guilty in Marion County
• Sept. 2002 – charged with possession of cocaine, found guilty in Marion County
• Dec. 2002 – charged with theft, found guilty in Marion County
• April 2013 – charged with driving while suspended with a prior conviction, found guilty in Marion County
• June 2013 – charged with trespassing, found guilty in Marion County
• July 2013 – charged with trespassing, found guilty in Marion County
• April 2014 – charged with theft, took a plea deal in Marion County
• Dec. 2015 – charged with driving while suspended with a prior, took a plea deal in Greenwood City Court
• Oct. 2016 – charged with theft with a prior conviction, took a plea deal in Marion County
• Feb. 2017 – charged with driving while suspended with a prior conviction, took a plea deal in Marion County
• June 2018 – charged with operation while intoxicated endangering a person, took a plea deal in Marion County
• Oct. 2019 – charged with resisting law enforcement, took a plea deal in Marion County
• Feb. 2022 – charged with possession of cocaine, took a plea deal in Marion County

His most recent charge for possession of cocaine resulted in a probation sentence.