In February of 2019, the city of Gary, Indiana, was shaken by a string of brutal homicides that left a family shattered and a community on edge. Among the victims was 48-year-old Tracy N. Valentine, a female resident of Hobart. Her life was cut short in a violent act that would soon be linked to a wider web of violence.
On the evening of February 20th, a landlord entered a residence in the 400 block of Johnson Street to carry out some work.
Inside, he made a grim discovery: the bodies of two people. One was identified as Tracy Valentine, and the other was 55-year-old Timothy Snow of Hammond. The Lake County Coroner's Office would later rule both of their deaths as homicides.
The tragedy for the Valentine family was far from over. Just five days later, on February 25th, Tracy's husband, 55-year-old Jimmy Valentine, was found deceased in a ditch in the 2500 block of Calhoun Street, approximately five miles from where his wife’s body had been discovered. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound, and his death was also ruled a homicide. The day before Jimmy Valentine's body was found, his own brother, 69-year-old Wayne Valentine, was discovered shot to death near a vehicle in the 2400 block of Jennings Street.
Investigators quickly began to suspect a connection between these four homicides. The Gary Police Department, in conjunction with the Lake County Metro Homicide Unit and federal authorities, launched an aggressive and thorough investigation into the series of killings. While the investigation was described as fluid with many moving parts, authorities did acknowledge their belief that the four deaths were related.
In the course of the broader investigation into a series of homicides that occurred in the area around the same time, a person of interest by the name of Drew Carter emerged. While Carter was convicted in connection with the death of another victim, Jessica Flores, whose remains were found in April 2019, he was not formally charged in the murders of Tracy and Jimmy Valentine, Wayne Valentine, or Timothy Snow. The investigation into the interconnected homicides remains a complex and challenging case for law enforcement, leaving a trail of unanswered questions and a family devastated by loss.
