Suspect stabbed Warsaw man 63 times, court docs say
WARSAW, Ind. (WANE) — A murder charge was filed in the stabbing death of a man who was found on the side of a Warsaw roadway earlier this week, stabbed 63 times.
Around 7:45 p.m. Monday, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s deputies and medics were called to County Road 300 North near Tippe Downs Drive, where a man was found down in the road. He was taken to Kosciusko Community Hospital in critical condition and later died there.
An autopsy determined the victim, identified as 21-year-old David L. Strowder Jr., died from multiple stab wounds.
As police investigated Strowder’s death, they asked that anyone with information about the case call Kosciusko County Sheriff’s detectives or the county’s Crime Stoppers team.
Leads from the public led police to “subjects” in Elkhart, police said on Thursday. There, with help from Elkhart Police, officers arrested 23-year-old Derrick Wandrick of Harvey, Illinois, around 4 p.m. Wednesday.
On Friday, Kosciusko County officials announced that Wandrick had been charged with murder.
In a probable cause affidavit, police said at the crime scene, a technician noticed a shoe print near Strowder’s body. Police then went to speak with Strowder’s girlfriend, who said Strowder had been living with his sister and Wandrick. The woman said she found two of Wandrick’s shirts, covered in blood, the affidavit said.
The woman also handed over a pair of Nike shoes that matched the footprint police found at the scene, the affidavit said.
In an interview with police, Wandrick said he’d been in Strowder’s Jeep in Warsaw and that he drove the vehicle back to Warsaw. Police found Strowder’s cellphone in Wandrick’s possession, with blood on it.
Witnesses also told police that Wandrick was spotted with the Jeep with “blood throughout,” and that Wandrick tried to clean the vehicle with bleach water.
It remains unclear what led to the stabbing.
