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Answers sought after 3 bodies found in woods off I-465 on south side

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A mother figure of one of the three people found dead Tuesday night in woods on the south side searched the area Wednesday to get her own answers.

Police have given little information and have not named a suspect as they investigate the homicides. Investigators on Tuesday night moved through the woods on all-terrain vehicles, and satellite photos of the area show a number of trails where ATVs could be used.

“We got the call at 5 o’clock this morning that he was gone,” said Ryan Gill, a mother figure of Michael “Mike” James. “We just want answers, you know. He was only 22 years old.”

“Mike, he was, he had a big heart. He was loving, he would do anything for anybody,” she said.

Gill said James left behind two kids, and she ‘s been trying to console her own daughters, who James was close to. “I told them as soon as as soon as I got the call this morning. I went and woke them up and I told them, and they’re, they’re inconsolable at this point.”

An off-duty cop with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department who was checking a property north of I-465 off South Meridian Street just before 8 p.m. Tuesday found people dead under “suspicious circumstances.”

The Marion County Coroner’s Office on Wednesday identified two of the bodies found: James, and Joseph Thomas, 18. Both died of gunshot wounds. The third victim was identified Friday: Abdulla Mubarak, 17. Mubarak also died of a gunshot wound.

One of Thomas’ teachers told News 8 he was a good kid, trying to get back into school and get his life on track.

Gill said, “They were good kids, you know, just trying to find their way in life.”

The lack of information caused Gill to search the crime scene herself. She said about James, “His leg was injured and and he had surgery that he was about to have to make his leg better and he had trouble getting around and so it just didn’t make any sense to us that he would be back in an area like that.”

This version of the story corrects the day of the week the bodies were found.

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