In the late hours of a Sunday night in Indianapolis, Indiana, a burst of violence shattered the quiet of an apartment building on Shoreland Court. Inside, on March 30, 2014, 53-year-old Martha Zuluaga, a Hispanic female, was found shot to death. She was not the only victim of the carnage that evening. Two men, James Czajkowski, 59, and Stephen Herold, 58, were also discovered with fatal gunshot wounds. Zuluaga and Herold were found inside the apartment, while Czajkowski was located just outside.
The investigation into the triple homicide quickly led detectives to suspect a connection to drug activity, a theory supported by evidence of narcotics found at the scene of the crime. Witnesses reported seeing two men fleeing the apartment and speeding away in a dark-colored SUV shortly after the sounds of gunfire erupted. These initial leads pointed investigators in the direction of two individuals who would eventually be considered the primary suspects in the brutal slayings.
By December of 2014, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department announced the arrests of Keith Clark, who was known by the street name 'Murder Man,' and Deandre Kendrick. Both men were subsequently charged with three counts of murder. The case against them appeared to be built on a foundation of phone records and witness statements that connected them to the victims on the day of the shootings. Kendrick was also linked to the crime through his vehicle, which matched the description of the SUV seen leaving the apartment complex.
Despite the initial charges and the evidence presented, the path to justice proved to be fraught with complications. In a surprising turn of events, a Marion County jury found Keith Clark not guilty of the murders in April of 2017. More than a year earlier, in July 2016, the charges against his co-defendant, Deandre Kendrick, had been dismissed by prosecutors due to evidentiary issues. This left the families of Martha Zuluaga, James Czajkowski, and Stephen Herold without the closure of a conviction. To this day, the violent end to three lives in an Indianapolis apartment remains, in the eyes of the law, an unsolved crime.
