On the night of June 18, 2022, authorities in Marshall County, Indiana, were called to a remote location along 20th Road, just west of State Road 331 near the crossing of the Tippecanoe River. It was there, shortly after 11 p.m., that deputies discovered the body of a deceased individual. The discovery marked the tragic conclusion to a search that had begun over a week earlier when the man was reported missing by his family on June 10.
Following an investigation by the Marshall County Coroner’s Office and local law enforcement, the victim was identified as Martez Danyell Roberts, a 38-year-old African American male who resided in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
An autopsy conducted shortly after the discovery confirmed that Roberts had been the victim of a violent crime. The medical examiner determined that he died from multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was officially ruled a homicide. Roberts had been born in Mississippi and was a father to nine children, working in the manufacturing sector in Benton Harbor before his untimely death. His disappearance and subsequent murder prompted a collaborative investigation between the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department in Indiana and the Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety in Michigan, as detectives sought to piece together his final movements between the two states.
Despite the confirmation of homicide and the involvement of multiple agencies, public records and reports from the time of the incident did not identify any specific suspects or announce any arrests in connection with the killing. Law enforcement officials urged anyone with information regarding the case to come forward, but as of the available reports, the circumstances leading to how Roberts ended up near the Tippecanoe River remained under active investigation without a named perpetrator in custody.
