A woman is chained to a cinder block and dumped in Bartley Lake In the summer of 2011, the life of 36-year-old Erin Ruth Justin, a Caucasian female from Albion, Indiana, was tragically cut short. The harrowing events began to unfold sometime between June 21 and July 20 of that year. A fisherman made a gruesome discovery in Bartley Lake near Albion, finding Justin's body, which had been chained to a cinder block and submerged in the water.
The cause of death was determined to be a homicide.
For years, the case remained cold, leaving a community searching for answers. A significant breakthrough finally came in March 2014, nearly three years after Justin's death. A tip from a Fort Wayne woman led investigators to her husband and his brother. The subsequent investigation revealed a brutal sequence of events that occurred in a garage.
Andres Gonzalez Jr., 35 years old at the time of his arrest, was charged with the murder of Erin Ruth Justin. According to court records, Gonzalez confessed to picking Justin up and giving her a ride on the evening of June 18, 2011. He then took her to his garage where he fatally attacked her. In a violent assault, Gonzalez struck her from behind, causing her to fall into a door. He proceeded to kick her, grab her by the throat, and slam her head into the concrete floor twice. His brother, Victor Gonzalez, who was 32 at the time, was charged with assisting a criminal and removal of a body from the scene for his role in helping dispose of Justin's body in the lake.
The legal process that followed brought a measure of closure to the case. Andres Gonzalez Jr. was ultimately sentenced to 16 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. His brother, Victor, faced charges for his complicity in the crime. The arrests and subsequent conviction were the culmination of a lengthy investigation that was given new life by a crucial piece of information, finally bringing a resolution to the search for justice for Erin Ruth Justin.
