WHEATFIELD, Ind. (WLS) — The charges against two individuals accused of murder have been dropped after bone fragments were discovered in the backyard of their home in Northwest Indiana.
The video in the player above is from a previous report.
Investigators found the bones after searching a fire pit at the home in Wheatfield last year.
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Steven Valle and Samantha Jo Sebella entered not guilty pleas to the charges back in October. Along with murder, they had also faced charges of neglect of a dependent, abuse of a corpse, obstruction of justice, and failure to report a dead body, according to officials.
In court Wednesday, a judge approved a motion to dismiss charges due to lack of evidence. The state is permitted to refile charges at later date.
“The cases against Steven Valle and Samantha Sebella have been dismissed, with the State reserving the right to refile charges if new evidence emerges,” stated defense attorney Mark Van Der Molen. “After a thorough review of all evidence in collaboration with Sabella’s defense attorney Brooke Scheurich, we have found no indication of any criminal activity. This dismissal ideally brings closure to the matter,” he added.
New details were revealed in court in October on what led to the arrest of Sebella and Valle as documents outlined an alleged confession.
In a probable cause affidavit, investigators said Valle told someone he knew, “I killed two of my kids.” He allegedly told that acquaintance, who later went to police, that he smothered the couple’s first-born child and drowned their second before burning both their bodies in their home’s fire pit.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said the couple, who have a four-year-old son who was born at home and whose birth was never registered, initially told investigators they had no other children or ever experienced a miscarriage or still born birth. But on their phones, authorities said they found messages indicating Sebella could have been pregnant “on three separate occasions,” as well as several messages from her to Valle, calling him “Baby Killer.”
During a search of the home in October, two K-9 units alerted to the burn pit and to a pile of ashes near the garage. Investigators said they dug up bone fragments.
Two days later, Valle allegedly told investigators that twice in recent years Sebella gave birth alone at home, and that he found both babies dead shortly after they were born.
He told authorities he buried them in the backyard, only to dig them up years later to burn them in the fire pit.
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