INDIANAPOLIS – On Aug. 14, 2021, 22-year-old Kylie Williams was found dead in an alley.
Days before the discovery, a friend left her in an alley next to her car. Even though it was apparent Williams was dead, he didn’t report it, police say.
He now faces charges.
Stephen Robinson, 22, has been formally charged with failure to report human remains, a Class A misdemeanor. The charges stem from Williams’ death; investigators said Robinson never contacted authorities to report it.
Instead, he left her inside a hot car for two days before removing her body from the vehicle, according to court documents. A family member said the damage to her body was so significant, she’d had to have a closed-casket funeral.
The investigation started on Aug. 14, 2021, when officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were dispatched to an alley south of East 52nd Street around 7:15 a.m.
A passerby found a woman lying on the ground next to a blue Nissan Sentra and called 911. The woman was identified as 22-year-old Kylie Williams, who had been reported missing. Investigators said it was “immediately apparent” that Williams was dead.
Police spoke to the 911 caller, who said he saw someone’s legs sticking out from the side of a vehicle. He got out and found Williams lying on the ground. After the discovery, the caller approached someone who lived nearby to ask for the exact location of the alley so he could call police.
The second individual told investigators he had video of the alley and shared the footage.
Williams was identified through fingerprints. An autopsy found she died from an overdose, specifically fentanyl, cocaine and ethanol intoxication.
Police spoke to Williams’ family. Her stepfather said he’d spoken to her via FaceTime around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 11. Williams said she was meeting a friend that night and may also hang out with someone named “Blake Robinson.”
The last family member to see Williams alive was her sister, who met her for dinner around 7 p.m. at a restaurant on East 54th Street, also on Aug. 11.
Williams’ mother said she’d sent her daughter $30 via Cash App on Aug. 11 at 9:41 p.m. Her mother was also able to provide investigators with the phone number for Stephen Blake Robinson. Williams’ mother noted that the family was organizing a search for Kylie on the morning of Aug. 14 and Robinson didn’t show up.
Surveillance video provided key information in the case. Around 4:25 a.m., video from the alley showed the Nissan Sentra stopping and parking. A man got out, walked out of frame and then returned with another individual. They opened the passenger side door; the other man took a blanket and left, with the other individual eventually trailing behind him. Williams was later found next to the vehicle, police said.
Two days later, on Aug. 14, surveillance cameras captured what appeared to be the same two individuals around 5:10 a.m. The men walked to the passenger side door and then went through some nearby apartments. Williams’ body was discovered about two hours later.
Police believe Robinson was one of the men captured on camera. They also believe he removed her body from the vehicle in the second video.
Investigators spoke to Robinson on Aug. 17. He told police he didn’t see Williams on the day she disappeared. In Robinson’s account, he’d been hanging out with another woman that day, although police were unable to identify that individual.
Investigators also learned phone records put Robinson near the alley around 5 a.m. on Aug. 14. The timing and location matched that of the Aug. 14 surveillance video. Robinson is also known to frequent the area, police said.
Phone records also showed Robinson and Williams contacted each other multiple times in the days leading up to her death. There were 17 contacts between the two on Aug. 7, six contacts on Aug. 8, 13 contacts on Aug. 9 and zero on Aug. 10. The two contacted each other 19 times on Aug. 11, with the last one timestamped at 8:33 p.m., according to court documents.
On Aug. 12, with Williams missing—and police believing Robinson already knew she was dead—Robinson sent her a text at 7:50 a.m. saying he’d “already passed out” and that work had him “beat.” The message, of course, went unanswered. After that, Robinson didn’t reach out to Williams again. Her body was found two days later.
Police said it was apparent Robinson had been in the same location as Williams, according to court documents. His description matched one of the men seen on surveillance video in the area where her body was found. The men had taken her body out of the vehicle and placed her on the ground, police said.
“It was evident at that time that Kylie Williams was deceased and her death was not reported to the authorities,” according to court documents.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office formally filed charges against Robinson on June 24. He faces a pretrial conference on July 18.
