Minutes after Dyer police were called to a murder scene at 632 Hillside Drive on April 9, 2010, dozens of detectives with departments throughout Lake and Porter counties began receiving pages requesting their assistance.
The daughter of Dyer beautician Beverly Thompson had found her mother’s badly beaten body at the family’s residence and called 911. When Dyer Detective Commander Joseph Cinko arrived at the scene, he said the property was crowded with grieving family members, neighbors and friends.
“There were so many people on the scene,” Cinko remembered. “We needed statements from all of them and we didn’t have the number of bodies necessary to do that in a timely manner.”
So Cinko phoned the local law enforcement equivalent of the Justice League of America, the Northwest Indiana Major Crimes Task Force, a mutual assistance organization counting 25 police agencies in Lake and Porter counties as members, including 50 experienced detectives.
Within minutes detectives from police departments throughout the region appeared on the scene to lend a hand.
Between the officers of the Dyer Police Department and the task force, police were able to chase down leads, interview sources and find sufficient evidence to arrest a suspect within 48 hours of the murder. That suspect, Douglas Thompson, 63, of Dyer, was convicted Nov. 3 of killing Beverly Thompson, his wife of 41 years. He faces a December sentencing.
Cinko said the task force enabled his department to follow up on multiple leads at once. “It was a very hectic situation and the added number of detectives the task force provided worked out tremendously for us. They’re not just extra bodies, but elite, seasoned veteran detectives experienced in serious crimes like arson, rape and homicide,” he said. “They’re the best of the best.”
Cinko said he quickly shared news of Douglas Thompson’s conviction with the task force.
“This was not an individual win, but a group win,” he said. “We all felt like we had the information necessary to prosecute and we accomplished that as a team.”
Helps police move quickly
Police chiefs throughout Northwest Indiana are increasingly turning to the task force to provide added experience and expertise in investigating serious crimes. The task force has been called in 18 times to assist in investigations. Dyer Police Detective Sgt. Don Foley, who also serves as a leads manager with the task force and was the lead detective in the Thompson investigation, said time is crucial in a murder investigation.
“The more time you give suspects, the more time they have to form alibis and destroy evidence,” Foley explained. “The faster you’re able to build cases, the better chance there is to solve them. With the task force, you can cover a lot of different leads in a shorter period. The task force brings speedy recovery of information.”
He said Northwest Indiana police departments contributed 17 officers to the Thompson case over the course of the investigation. Two of them — Detectives Matt Eaton of the Lake County Sheriff’s Police and Jeff Balon from the Valparaiso Police Department, interviewed then-suspect Douglas Thompson. The other 15 checked on different leads, assisted in canvassing the neighborhood and drove to the Thompsons’ businesses in Lynwood and Lansing, Ill.
“We all worked in conjunction to divvy up all that needed to be done and a lot of information was gathered very quickly,” Foley recalled. “We set up a command center at the Dyer PD and all worked together in a very cohesive team. Whatever job needed to be done, was done.”
Robert Byrd, chief of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District Transit Police, said the premise of the major crimes task force is to provide a rapid fire start to investigations.
Byrd, who is the spokesman for the task force and its board treasurer, said the task force was formed by local police chiefs in 2006. Calumet College of St. Joseph’s Public Safety Institute assisted in creating the task force, which can tap from a pool of 50 detectives and has participated in a number of high profile crimes.
Byrd said the task force is not activated for easily solved crimes, but more complex cases.
“Our charter says we activate for serious crimes like serial rape, homicide, non parental child abductions and serial arsons,” said Byrd, who said each member police agency pays a one-time $500 membership fee to belong. It is a minimal budget because each police department, not the task force, pays for its own detectives when they work a task force case.
He said the task force has worked with state and federal agencies investigating crimes, including the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to assist in identifying guns; the FBI for federal crimes that cross state lines; the U.S. Secret Service for its cell phone tracking capabilities; Lake County Crime Lab; Indiana State Police for its labs and analysis and the Lake County and Porter County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area for its computer and technology expertise.
Not always a good outcome
Byrd said the task force has assisted in solving many crimes, but noted that not all cases are solved and not all have a good outcome.
“There was a man in Ogden Dunes who murdered wife. Using Secret Service cell phone tracking technology told us exactly where he was at. But when we found him at a highway rest park in Illinois, it was too late,” he said. “We found him dead in a car with his wife in the trunk. He had committed suicide.”
St. John Police Chief Fred Frego, the task force chairman, has been there since its inception. Frego said when the task force alarm is sounded and the officers show up, their focus is to “catch the bad guys. There is no ego here, no animosity or turf jealousy. They bounce ideas off each other and collectively bring hundreds of years of experience to the investigation. They all have certain strengths. It’s pretty neat to watch.”
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said his prosecuting attorneys meet with the task force members frequently and see the assistance they provide, from requesting and executing search warrants, to taking statements and interviewing suspects.
“They’re real professionals,” Carter said.
He said the task force provides local police departments “thousands of dollars in expertise” at no cost to their agencies.
“It was an excellent idea when it was launched and it’s still a terrific asset,” Carter said.
Lake County deputy prosecutor Aleksandra Dimitrijevic, who co-prosecuted the Thompson case with deputy prosecutor Sabrina Haney, echoed Carter’s comments. She said detectives came from departments throughout Northwest Indiana to solve this case.
“After the verdict, Beverly Thompson’s family was thanking us. But we told them it was the detectives who did the legwork and solved this case,” Dimitrijevic said. “They gave us a lot of great things to work with. The hard work of the Dyer police, Lake County police and the task force really benefited Mrs. Thompson’s case. Everything they did is why we got a guilty verdict. They went above and beyond.”
Dyer’s Foley said “unbelievable work was done by all. I was proud to be a part of it. Nobody stopped until the case was done. It’s bittersweet, though. Because, even though he was convicted, his wife, Beverly, is dead. We may be thankful that it’s all over and that justice was served,” he said. “But it’s not really a cause for celebration.”