On a quiet Wednesday morning in late April 2018, the small community of Lafontaine, Indiana, was shaken by the discovery of a young man deceased in his home on Clear Creek Drive. Officers from the Wabash County Sheriff's Department were dispatched to the residence after a 911 call was placed around 9:30 a.m. Upon entering the home, they found the body of 22-year-old Jordon Richards.
Richards, a male who had been paralyzed in a previous auto accident and required daily home health care, had been shot to death. An autopsy subsequently ruled his death a homicide, launching an investigation that would soon uncover a violent robbery plot targeting the vulnerable resident.
Investigators determined that the motive behind the killing was theft, as a large amount of cash and several firearms were missing from the property. As police worked to piece together the events leading up to the tragedy, leads pointed them toward two acquaintances of the victim from the nearby city of Marion. The inquiry quickly identified Kaleb Marin and Corey Kelch as primary suspects who had allegedly conspired to rob Richards. The search for the perpetrators intensified, but the case took a sudden and dramatic turn just days after the murder.
Before he could be apprehended, 21-year-old Kaleb Marin was killed in a head-on vehicle collision on State Road 15 in southern Wabash County. The crash, which occurred early on a Sunday morning, claimed the lives of Marin and two other occupants of the vehicle. During the investigation into the wreck, authorities recovered one of the handguns that had been stolen from Richards' home inside the car, providing a grim physical link between the fatal accident and the homicide investigation. This discovery effectively closed the case on Marin, but law enforcement continued their pursuit of the second suspect.
Police located and arrested the remaining suspect, Corey Kelch. While he was initially facing charges of murder and robbery, the legal proceedings concluded with a plea agreement nearly a year later. In February 2019, Kelch admitted to his role in the crime, pleading guilty to a charge of armed robbery. As part of the agreement, the murder charge against him was dismissed, with investigators acknowledging that Marin was the individual who had pulled the trigger. Kelch was subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison for his participation in the robbery that led to Richards' untimely death.
