In the spring of 2011, a Portage, Indiana, business became the scene of a brutal crime that ended the life of 50-year-old Cynthia Cashner. On an Easter Sunday in April, her estranged husband, Frederick Cashner Jr., entered her business, the Mystic Moon Herbal Shoppe, and shot her multiple times with a high-powered rifle.
The events of that evening unfolded with a chilling 911 call from the shop, where dispatchers heard only faint breathing.
A subsequent review of the call revealed a man's voice uttering the words, 'It's too late,' followed by the sound of several gunshots. When Portage police officers arrived at the scene, they discovered Cynthia Cashner deceased on an air mattress. It appeared she had been sitting cross-legged and using her laptop at the time of the attack. Evidence at the scene, including eight casings consistent with an AK-47 assault rifle, pointed to a violent struggle and a determined assailant. The door to her suite had been damaged, and its window broken with a blunt object.
The investigation quickly zeroed in on her estranged husband, then 54-year-old Fredrick Cashner Jr. of Jackson Township. About thirty minutes after the initial 911 call, Cynthia's adult son contacted the police with a horrifying revelation: his stepfather had called him and confessed to the murder. This prompted the Porter County SWAT team to surround Frederick Cashner's home.
Fredrick Cashner Jr. was subsequently charged with murder. In a development that brought a legal conclusion to the case, he later pleaded guilty. In January 2013, a Porter County judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison for the murder of his estranged wife. The plea agreement included a provision that barred him from appealing the sentence, providing a sense of finality for Cynthia Cashner's grieving family.
