WHEATFIELD, Ind. — A Jasper County couple is being held in jail on suspicion of murder after investigators descended upon a Wheatfield home earlier this week and dug up the property.
Sheriff Patrick Williamson confirmed to FOX59/CBS4 News that Steve Valle, 31, of Wheatfield and Samantha Sebella, 25, of DeMotte were booked into Jasper County Jail on Oct. 3 and are being held on suspicion of murder.
Valle and Sebella face charges of murder; neglect of a dependent causing death, a Level 1 felony; abuse of a corpse, a Level 6 felony; obstruction of justice, a Level 6 felony and failure to report a dead body, a Class A misdemeanor.
Previous stories detail how authorities descended upon a home in the 4200 block of Old Orchard Lane in Wheatfield on Monday after reports that a previous tenant at the property may have killed multiple children and disposed of their bodies in the backyard.
According to the tip the sheriff’s department received, the previous tenants of the home allegedly killed multiple undocumented children and burned the bodies in a backyard fire pit before burying the remains.
Undocumented children are often children birthed at home without medical or government records of their existence.
Sebella and Valle are allegedly the couple at the center of the allegations and lived at the Old Orchard Lane home until being ordered to vacate on July 1.
The current tenant, a disabled veteran, was blindsided by law enforcement showing up at his home on Monday.
The sheriff’s department previously said cadaver dogs were used to search the property and alerted to three separate locations. Partial bone fragments were found and taken to a specialist in Indianapolis to determine if they were infant or animal bones.
The findings have not yet been released.
According to the sheriff’s department, Sebella and Valle were taken into custody on Thursday after follow-up interviews with the suspects brought “new information to light.”
