In the early morning hours of May 6, 2020, in Seymour, Indiana, 28-year-old Ryan Joseph Ross was shot and killed inside an apartment at the Sycamore Springs complex. Ross, a resident of rural Seymour, had gone to the apartment, located at 2710 Bent Tree Lane, for a child exchange with his former girlfriend, Dakota Anderson.
Shortly after Anderson allowed him inside, Ross was shot multiple times.
The man responsible for the shooting was 30-year-old Tobias Au of Hope, who was in a relationship with Anderson at the time. Au had arrived at the residence just before Ross. It was Au himself who called the sheriff's department to report the shooting. When law enforcement arrived at approximately 5:37 a.m., they discovered Ross's body near the front door of the apartment. Two young children, one of whom was Ross's, were inside the apartment at the time of the incident.
Following the initial response, both Tobias Au and Dakota Anderson were transported to the sheriff's department for interviews. After gathering information from the interviews and processing the crime scene, investigators arrested Au on a preliminary charge of murder. While a motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, authorities did mention that a protective order had been put in place for Ross to stay away from Anderson, though it was unconfirmed if he had been officially served. Despite the order, Anderson had apparently allowed Ross to visit the residence for the purpose of exchanging their child.
