The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page A20

INDY SUNDAY INDYSTAR SMETRO A20 SUNDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2013 He wasn't lying OFF THE BEAT when he said he'd be back man to leave. The 48-year-old said he was leaving when a bouncer pushed him and started the fight, according to an Indianapolis police report. Other employees say the man was uncooperative. He said someone cracked his iPhone 5. The man wanted police to file a report of the incident because he believed he was treated unfairly.

This despite having earlier been, say, relieved. When living rooms become driving hazards: On Monday afternoon, a 26-year-old motorist trying to evade police crashed into two Westside homes in the 400 block of South Harris Avenue. No one was in A look at unusual news reported last week from around the area. Slipping a stakeout: A man walked into a Swifty Gas Station in Franklin on Monday afternoon and told the clerk he would come back later to rob the place. The clerk called police.

Police staked out the gas station. Surprisingly, about three hours later, the man, described as having a long goatee, actually returned and held up the store. Even more surprising, he still got away. The officer on the stakeout "must have glanced away and didn't see it," Franklin police Lt. Kerry Atwood said.

The crime was "10 seconds." The robber fled on foot. Police checked the store's security video and identified the man and his black SUV. About two hours later, they found the SUV and the man with it. The 24-year-old was charged with armed robbery. Sink or urinal, what's it to you, bub? The patron at the Tilted Kilt bar said whether the bathroom fixture was a sink or a urinal was unclear to him.

But the Avon man peed in it just the same. Police officers who were later called to the Downtown establishment said who actually did what was unclear, but a fight erupted just the same. Bouncers said they asked the jured. Early Tuesday morning, a motorist crashed his truck into a Mooresville house in the 4300 block of East Allison Road. Authorities were unsure what caused the accident.

No one was injured. Businesses apparently are at risk, too. Earlier last month a motorist crashed into a Northwestside hair salon. Thankful for 911: A 31-year-old Southside man thought his girlfriend had had enough to drink for one Thanksgiving, so as she was taking a nap, he poured her gin down the drain. When she awoke, though, more than a squabble over dry Mother and daughter were beaten to death Sgt.

Troy Thomas of the 932nd Forward Surgical Team joined in a song at Saturday's ceremony, brent drinkutthe star 2 Army Reserve units will be shipping out stuffing erupted. She attacked him with a box cutter, according to an Indianapolis police report. And she beat him with a table leg. "I'm going to kill you, and I already have a place for your body," the 24-year-old told him, according to the report. He ran to a neighbor's house and called police.

Police found her too drunk to talk. She faces preliminary charges of battery, criminal confinement, criminal recklessness, domestic battery and intimidation. Star reporters Jill Disis and Bill McCleery contributed to Off The Beat. roles for battlefield soldiers, healing physical and mental wounds. The stress control team offers counseling to those in combat areas, while the surgical team focuses on rapid surgery and resuscitation to keep the injured alive long enough to be evacuated for additional care.

"Both missions are important to the well-being of soldiers," James said. Col. Lewis Somberg, the 801st Combat Support Hospital commander who oversees both units, said support also is needed for the families left behind during deployment. More than 100 family and friends attended Saturday's ceremony. "All we have to do is worry about the mission," Somberg told families during the ceremony.

"You have to worry about the bills, the mortgage, the transmission, the washing machine." He told soldiers, "Take care of each other. Take care of your families the best you can over there." Call Star reporter Eric Weddle at (317) 444-6222. Follow him on Twitter: ericweddle. ROUNDUP Police stopped a vehicle driven by Derrick Means, 30, around 9:25 p.m. at the intersection of Euclid and Madison avenues.

When the officer got out of his vehicle, Means sped off south on Madison Avenue, according to the police report. Means drove around a vehicle stopped at Madison Avenue and Main Street, went through the red light, then hit a vehicle heading east on Main, said Greenwood Assistant Police Chief Matthew Fillenwarth. Two adults and a child from Noblesville were in the second vehicle. Michael Brown, 35, was in critical condition and Vestina Grenzow, 35, was in serious condition at IU Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. The 6-year-old passenger was not injured.

Means also was taken to Methodist. Police said investigators think alcohol was a factor in the crash. Star reports Vicki McCarty and her mother, Mary, were found fatally beaten in their Eastside home. The two are shown at a family wedding a year before their deaths, photo courtesy of valerie kern This is an occasional series highlighting some of the area's unsolved crimes. Longtime Star reporter Diana Penner recounts details of the crime, the victim and where the case stands with hopes of generating new information.

The crime: On Friday, Sept. 25, 1987, after relatives had tried all day to reach them by telephone, a family member went to the home of Mary McCarty, 56, and her 21-year-old daughter, Vicki. Through a window of the single-story home in the 3200 block of Radford Drive, he saw legs sprawled on the floor. He called police. Mother and daughter had been brutally beaten to death with an object.

There was no sign anyone had broken into the home. Nothing, including their purses with money inside, was missing. They had not been sexually assaulted. The day before, an on-again, off-again boyfriend of Vicki's, who had done prison time for bank robbery and had no clear source of income, had come to the Central Hardware store on Shadeland Avenue where Vicki worked. Witnesses later told police he got down on one knee, gave her a flower and asked her to marry him.

She turned him down and might have appeared to scoff at the prospect. He was furious, stormed out and said something like, "You'll see me again soon," witnesses told police. He was named as a suspect not long after the slay-ings but was never charged, so The Indianapolis Star is not identifying him. A few years after the slay-ings, he was arrested for bank robberies in Western states and sentenced to prison, but has since been released. The victims: Mary McCarty and her husband divorced when their oldest daughter, Valerie, was 14.

Vicki was six years younger. The three lived in the house on Radford. A year before her mother and sister were killed, Valerie got married and moved across town. Mary and Vicki were in the process of moving to an apartment a smaller, more economical space and the house had been sold. Vicki McCarty and Deneen Hert met in kindergarten at Sunny Heights Elementary School and stayed best friends through graduation from Lawrence Central High School in 1984.

Vicki got good grades but also enjoyed hanging out and having fun, Hert recalled. After graduation, Vicki had a couple of jobs and was taking classes at Ivy Tech Community College or ITT Technical Institute, or both. That's also where she might have met the boyfriend. Hert said her friend was By Eric Weddle eric.weddleindystar.com Replenish the spirit and save life or limb that's the job of two Lawrence-based Army Reserve units set to deploy to the Middle East. Combat medic Sgt.

Troy Thomas said he is excited for his first combat mission. "I'm proud to serve, and proud of what my job is in the service," said Thomas, who is an eight-year reservist and Indianapolis ambulance medic. "It means wherever I go, no matter what the bigger political mission is, my immediate mission is taking care of people." Thomas was one of 20 soldiers in a ceremony Saturday at the Indiana War Memorial. His 14-member 932nd Forward Surgical Team soon will be leaving for a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. A six-member 55th Combat Stress Control Team will be heading to Kuwait.

Both units' lengths of deployment could change, depending on politics and on-the-ground fighting, Army officials said. Lt. Col. Anthony James, commander of the surgical team, said both units play vital METRO 4 teens shot outside Eastside party Four teens were injured Friday when gunfire erupted outside an Eastside party. Indianapolis police are investigating what prompted the shootings, which happened around 11:15 p.m.

in the 3400 block of East 34th Street. A woman told police she had thrown a party for her daughter, but ended it when it became too large to control. A group of males returned and fired gunshots on the street, injuring four people ages 16 to 18, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. 3 hurt in crash as driver flees Greenwood Police Greenwood police are investigating a Wednesday crash that left a Noblesville man in critical condition. cal instrument and inexplicably chose the mandolin, Valerie recalled.

She never got very good at it, but she enjoyed music, particularly Kenny Rogers. Mary also enjoyed painting and watching TV her favorite shows were "The Love Boat" and "Magnum, P.I." The detective: The homicides originally were investigated by the Marion County Sheriff's Department. After the department merged in January 2007 with the Indianapolis Police Department, the case moved to the new Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's Cold Case Unit. Detective Bill Rogers is reviewing the case, retesting evidence and tracking down old and new leads. Where does the case stand? Vicki's boyfriend remains the primary suspect, Rogers said.

He would like to hear from anyone who knew the man, who was 26 at the time of the slayings, and might have seen him with Vicki McCarty. The man might have been making regular trips to Indianapolis in connection with stolen cars and drugs, Rogers said. He always arrived in a new, and different, car in the mid-to-late 1980s. Associates and acquaintances of his in those days might still be in Indianapolis and able to recall key details, Rogers hopes. If you know something: CaU Rogers at (317) 327-8386.

Star researcher Cathy Knapp contributed to this story. You can reach Diana Penner at (317) 444-6249, by email at diana.pennerindystar.com com or on Twitter: dianapenner. Diana 53 Penner A f- 5 Indv unsolved COMING TUESDAY TO INDYSTAR.COM The LaSalle Street murders, 42 years later. lndyStar.com IndianaUnsolved: Watch the video that details the Mary and Vicki McCarty case. witty she'd inherited a sense of humor from her mother and loved animals, Corvettes and the Bee Gees.

The night before she was found bludgeoned to death, Vicki sat with her lifelong friend in Hert's car, listening to the Bee Gees' latest album on a cassette tape. Hert said she left at 8:30 p.m. or 8:45 p.m. That was the last time she saw her friend. Valerie Kern said her little sister likely responded to the generous attentions of the boyfriend, who was a few years older, good-looking and well-dressed, and always seemed to have the money to take her to nice restaurants.

But the relationship was not exclusive, and Vicki went out with other men when the boyfriend was at his official home in Florida. Mary McCarty, a longtime bookkeeper at a nursing home near Community East Hospital, tended to be a homebody, Valerie recalled. She was hardworking, was there for her daughters and did not socialize much. Some years before she died, Mary McCarty had decided to learn to play a musi.