Victim's roommate charged with mobile home murder

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) - The Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department preliminary charged a man with murder after he strangled his roommate inside of a mobile home Sunday afternoon.

Deputies responded to the Hide-Away-Hills Mobile Home Park off County Road 250 South around 12:47 p.m. to do a welfare check. When they arrived, they found a man dead inside the mobile home at lot #34.

According to investigators, the victim, Lionel Dale King, 51, was strangled by a cord and then dragged into a bedroom in the mobile home.

Police detained King’s roommate, Robert Edward Hurley, 54, without incident and transported him to the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department. 

Detectives said Hurley contacted family members about his involvement in the strangulation of his roommate Sunday. Police said Hurley’s family members immediately called the sheriff’s department, which led to the initial welfare check on King on Sunday afternoon.

The Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office placed a prosecutorial hold, with no bond, on Hurley for the preliminary charge of murder.

The Kosciusko County Coroner Michael Wilson said the actual cause of death has not formally been determined. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday morning.