Credit: Darke County Jail
Credit: Darke County Jail
The affidavit in the case has been sealed but the charges accuse Uchyn of killing Donnelly and Phipps “purposely and with prior calculation and design.”
Their bodies were discovered the morning of April 14 when Darke County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the house after two women came in to the sheriff’s office just before 5 a.m. to report the deaths.
Deputies responded to a 911 hang-up call just 10½ hours earlier at the same residence, where Uchyn met them in the driveway. Uchyn, who also lived at the house, told deputies he made the 911 call and filed a report alleging a theft and assault occurred but that the perpetrator had left.
“This report was a ruse he created to prevent the deputies from discovering the murder that had likely just occurred,” Sheriff Mark Whittaker said last week.
Investigators now believe Phipps made the 911 call, which ended abruptly with only the address provided by the caller. Dispatchers tried to call back but there was no answer.
Deputies who arrived at about 6:30 p.m. April 13 were told they were responding to a 911 hang-up call but they were not told of the caller’s gender before they encountered Uchyn, the sheriff said.
Uchyn, who fled in Phipps’ white 2022 Chevrolet Equinox, was arrested the night of April 14 in Chicago. He was booked Monday night into the Darke County Jail after he was extradited from Illinois.
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