OWEN COUNTY, Ind. — New court filings have revealed exactly how Indiana State Police tracked down and arrested an Owen County murder suspect in North Carolina.
According to court documents filed earlier this month, 24-year-old Kenron Laing has been accused of shooting and killing Gildardo Garcia Salina in 2022. Laing allegedly traveled from Fishers to Salina’s Cloverdale residence before the shooting.
Police believe Laing killed Salina because Salina took Laing’s bag from a motel in Fishers. Court records indicate Salina was part of a grounds crew that was doing work at the motel while Laing was staying there.
A member of the grounds crew found the bag abandoned in some bushes. The bag ultimately ended up in Salina’s possession.
Per an affidavit for probable cause, Salina told his family he had found drugs, a scale, smoking devices and an iPhone in the bag. Salina also let his family members know he had stomped out the drugs because they could hurt someone.
The bag made its way home with Salina, who told his family he intended to take the bag and the iPhone inside it back to the motel he had been working at. Salina, however, never got a chance to take the bag back to the motel.
During their investigation, police spoke to members of the motel’s staff. Those staff members told police Laing had told them he lost an iPhone on the property.
The staff gave Laing a key to get back into the room he had been staying in. He later asked employees about the company that does the motel’s landscaping. He then told the motel’s staff that his lost phone appeared to be pinging at a landscaping company’s office.
The motel’s management team provided police with security video that was captured the day of the shooting. The video showed a man who appeared to be Laing searching the area where a landscaping truck had previously been parked.
Police reported that the footage also showed Laing repeatedly looking down at his phone as if he was tracking something. After his search, Laing got in a black Mitsubishi Galant and exited the parking lot.
During an interview with police, one of Salina’s family members said she noticed a car that was running with its lights before the shooting. The family member told police she thought the car may have been “staking out the residence.” A passerby who claimed to have also seen the car near Salina’s Cloverdale residence told law enforcement the vehicle looked like a “boxier” version of a Toyota Camry.
Eventually, a man tried to enter Salina’s residence, and at that time, Salina grabbed a shotgun and held it horizontally across his chest to stop the man from coming inside.
Per court records, Salina ultimately moved the man outside, and a fight broke out between the two. At some point during the fight, gunshots rang out.
One of Salina’s family members tried to fire shots back at the shooter as he was fleeing the scene. After firing the shots, that same family member found Salina lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.
Police and medics subsequently arrived and tried to save Salina’s life. Their efforts, however, were unsuccessful, and Salina was pronounced dead on the scene.
According to court documents, police found two iPhones at the crime scene — one of which was the phone Salina had found inside the bag at the motel. The other iPhone was lying on the grass near the scene of the shooting.
After a records check, police determined both phones belonged to Laing, who is a Crown Point native. Investigators also reviewed the location information from the phone they found in the grass.
Information gathered from the phone revealed that the device had gone from the landscaping company to Salina’s residence in Cloverdale. The shooting happened around 8:25 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2022, and the phone was remotely wiped at 8:41 p.m.
Surveillance footage police reviewed at the motel indicated Laing had been in the car with someone before the shooting happened in Owen County. Police identified the individual as Laing’s sister, Kennisha.
Police later obtained location information on Kennisha’s phone and determined it had trekked from the shooting scene in Owen County to the Chicago area. More than a year after the shooting, Indiana State Police were notified that Kennisha had been booked in the Cook County Jail in Illinois for murder.
Per ISP, Kennisha shot and killed a 16-year-old girl and then barricaded herself in a hotel room. Kennisha later told police she used a revolver handgun that belonged to her brother, Kenron Laing, during the shooting.
The agency investigating the shooting Kennisha was implicated in gave ISP two spent bullets they recovered during their investigation. Those bullets were then compared to the ones pulled from Salina’s body in 2022.
Per court records, firearms analysts confirmed the bullets recovered from the Owen County and Chicago-area scenes were likely fired from the same gun.
After they received reports from the firearms analysts, police made plans to travel to Fort Liberty — a military installation in North Carolina where Laing had been working as an enlisted soldier. ISP then made contact with military leadership at Fort Liberty.
Special agents at the installation detained Laing as they waited for ISP detectives to arrive. When ISP attempted to speak with Laing, he requested an attorney.
Laing was transported from the Cumberland County Jail in North Carolina to the Owen County Jail on Wednesday. Laing’s case is now due to be tried before a jury on Aug. 11, 2025.
Laing currently faces one count of murder. The maximum penalty for murder in Indiana can range from capital punishment (death penalty) to life in prison without parole.
