Who is Thessalonica Allen? Indiana mom, 34, chopped up husband's body and told kids to help her
LA PORTE, INDIANA: An Indiana woman allegedly butchered her husband to death as she chopped him off with an ax and later asked her kids to help get rid of the body, reports said. During 34-year-old Thessalonica Allen's initial hearing on Wednesday, August 4, the judge entered a not guilty plea on her behalf and appointed her a public defender.
Thessalonica was taken into custody for allegedly shooting her husband Randy Allen in the bedroom of their LaPorte apartment on July 27, 2021, according to the court documents. When their kids heard the shots and came into the bedroom, Thessalonica allegedly told them to ignore their stepdad's pleas to call 911 and go to their room. The children, described as teenagers but under 16 years old, were next woken up in the middle of the night to help their mother to drag the dead body into his car but the body was too heavy.
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The next day, when their mother came home with an ax and chopped off her husband's legs, the children helped her to load his remains into a tote, which police later found stuffed in a closet in the daughter’s bedroom. “The children stated that mom had plans to take the vehicle and body to South Bend and set it on fire,” police said. Thessalonica was arrested after her ex-boyfriend tipped off police to the killing. The ex, the father of one of Thessalonica's children, came to her house after she allegedly told him that her husband was beating their kid – but when he arrived he saw his dead body in a closet, police said. After he declined to help her get the body into a car, she dropped him home and allegedly tossed a gun out of the window and told him that she shot her husband because he was “beating up on her and the kids.”
When police arrested Allen, she allegedly told officers that her husband beat her and that she shot him after some kind of physical fight. The children supposedly told the authorities that their father had been helping them on a computer when he saw a website their mother had visited. The couple got into an argument in the bedroom before the kids heard a shot fired. According to the two papers found in the apartment under the daughter’s pillow appeared to be a to-do list, with items like “hit him with a hammer and stab him” and “roll up the body in sheets and plastic bags,” according to the charging documents.
The shocking crime shook the victim's family, relatives told station WSBT. “When I was told, I just started screaming,” Randy Allen’s aunt Patricia Blanton reportedly said. “I lost it. Can’t imagine what the kids are going through.” The victim’s sister Sharon Colmen said the family was devastated. “This was a senseless murder that didn’t have to happen,” Colmen said, according to WSBT. Thessalonica has multiple charges against her, including murder, abuse of a corpse and contributing to the crime of a minor, reports stated. She pleaded not guilty, WSBT reported on Wednesday, August 5.
Allen's eldest daughter, Jakelia Dooley-Jones organized a GoFundMe fundraiser and said, "Randy Allen who was brutally murder at the hands of someone he thought was his wife on July 26, 2021. My family just learned of his death on August 2, 2021 This is a horrible tragedy for our family. As many of you know things like this are tragic and very sudden. He left behind 5 children and 7 grandchildren. My dad was the sweetest person anyone could meet. He would walk in a dark room and make it shine bright with his BIG GRIN and his hilarious jokes. He did not deserve what happened to him at the very young age of 50. Please if you find it in your heart to help with laying him to rest I would be grateful. It is very much needed and appreciated." The page has raised $3,550 of the $5,000 goal.