Who is John Hallett? Indiana man arrested after confessing to killing, dismembering roommate over mail theft in 2017
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: John Hallett, 48, from Michigan City, Indiana, who uses a prosthetic leg and is an amputee, has confessed to killing and dismembering his roommate over mail theft in 2017.
He was arrested in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last week, according to reports.
How did the police arrest John Hallett?
Hallett and his roommate, Paul Gonzales, were both homeless when they moved into a house in Michigan City, Indiana, through a local non-profit program in 2015.
Hallett contacted Michigan City Police Detective Anna Painter and told the police that he suspected Gonzales of stealing his mail and trying to get him evicted from the house.
“John believed that Paul was stealing his mail and that Paul was trying to get him kicked out of the house,” Painter said in an affidavit, cited by Times Northwest Indiana.
When did John Hallett attack Paul Gonzales?
On November 25, 2017, Hallett attacked Gonzales from behind with his crutch and then strangled him to death.
He kept his body in a bedroom for a few days, then moved it to the basement where it stayed for 56 days.
He then used a hacksaw to cut up and gut the corpse, and later discarded the parts in trash bags around the city.
Police used cadaver sniffing dogs and lab tests to confirm that Gonzales’ body had been in the basement, according to an affidavit by Anna Painter.
She then obtained an arrest warrant for Hallett on August 8 and tracked him down to Cambridge where he was taken into custody on charges of murder and abuse of a corpse.
John Hallett's arrest shocked people
Neighbors in Cambridge were shocked by the arrest and the gruesome details of the crime.
“There was a commotion out front of the building that’s across the street and a man walking out in handcuffs which caught my eyes as unusual,” Lindsay Garito told Boston 25.
“He looked about as normal as they come, he was calm, he just walked out of his building in a large group,” she said.
“Just thinking of living that close to someone that’s taken another human’s life is definitely unsettling,” she added.
“I was walking to the gym and I saw probably like 20 men in bullet proof vests and I assumed they were shooting a movie or something because this stuff like doesn’t happen around here,” Alex Majetich another neighbour said.
