On a cold Friday evening in January 2016, the life of 49-year-old Christopher Carlson, a male resident of Indianapolis, came to a violent end. He was discovered in an alley on the city's north side, having been shot multiple times. When police arrived at the scene, they found Carlson unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead. In the immediate aftermath of the discovery, investigators began the painstaking work of piecing together the events that led to his death, though they had no immediate
suspects.
At a nearby home, police found two young children who were believed to be Carlson's. The children were unharmed and were placed under the care of the police department's Victim Assistance Unit. While the authorities worked to uncover a motive and identify who was responsible for the shooting, they appealed to the public for any information that might shed light on the case. In the initial stages of the investigation, no arrests were made, and no suspects were publicly identified.
Christopher Carlson was not unknown to law enforcement, having been convicted in a widely reported child abuse case in 2012. A federal judge had sentenced him to 27 months in prison for forcing his three grandsons, then ages 8, 9, and 12, on a strenuous 19-mile hike in the Grand Canyon in August 2011 with inadequate food and water. Prosecutors at the time detailed how the boys suffered from dehydration and exhaustion, with one of the boys secretly asking a fellow hiker to call for help. Despite his past, neighbors in his Indianapolis community remembered him as a helpful person. As of late 2025, there have been no publicly announced developments, arrests, or identification of suspects in the murder of Christopher Carlson.
