On the evening of Friday, October 13, 2017, Chanda Lee Hatt, a 37-year-old female, was fatally shot in front of her family at her home in Evansville, Indiana. Hatt, her husband Daniel, and their two children, Zoey and Zane, were returning from a religious retreat in Tennessee. As Chanda was getting out of the family's van, a man who had been house-sitting for them, 51-year-old Richard Brian Worley, opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.
He had been lying in wait for the family's return, hiding behind a fence. Chanda Hatt was struck and killed by the gunfire in the presence of her husband and children.
Following the shooting, Daniel Hatt instructed his children to run to a neighbor's house for safety. Richard Brian Worley was arrested at the scene and taken into custody at the Vanderburgh County Jail without bond. He faced multiple charges, including murder, five counts of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, and criminal recklessness. The attempted murder charges stemmed from Worley firing at Chanda's husband, their two children, and two police officers who had responded to the scene. The Vanderburgh County Prosecutor's Office announced its intention to seek a sentence of life without parole for Worley.
The investigation revealed a troubled history between Worley and Chanda Hatt's family. Worley had previously been in a relationship with Chanda's mother, Debra Cook, whom he had stabbed in a past incident. For that crime, he was convicted of aggravated battery and had been released from prison in 2015. In January 2018, Richard Brian Worley pleaded guilty to the murder of Chanda Hatt and five counts of attempted murder. The plea agreement recommended a sentence of 85 years in prison. Chanda Hatt was a graduate of North High School and Ivy Tech, where she earned a degree as an Emergency Medical Technician. She had been an employee at St. Vincent Hospital for 20 years, most recently serving as a Team Lead Care Specialist.
