CENTERVILLE, Ind. – The deaths of two sisters inside their family home just days apart has investigators working to determine whether they were linked.
Police officers found the body of 18-year-old Kelly Stanley on Friday morning after being called to the home of her parents, state police Sgt. Noel Houze Jr. said. Whether the death of Stanley, who had been healthy, involved foul play was not immediately determined and an autopsy was planned for Saturday, he said.
Her 19-year-old sister, Erin Stanley, died Sept. 1. The Wayne County coroner's office ruled that death a homicide on Friday. No other details were released. Erin Stanley was mother of a young girl.
"We don't know what this is going to turn out to be, but it is kind of strange circumstances that you have two deaths in the same home within just a few days of each other," Houze said.
Centerville, Wayne County and state police investigators spent much of Friday at the ranch-style home in the town of some 2,500 people about 60 miles east of Indianapolis. Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Shipman met with officers at the scene. But he declined to answer questions, saying he had not been given any reports by detectives.
Word of the deaths left residents uneasy, with neighbor Wendy Davis calling her husband home from work to be with her and her two children.
"We have no idea what happened," she said. "It's just frightening."
Ken Bailey, a longtime friend of the sisters' father, Dale, huddled with a group of neighbors.
"Both of his daughters were really nice girls," he said. "It's a real tragedy."
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