An Indiana man has received an 85-year prison sentence after being found guilty of fatally stabbing his grandmother and concealing her body beneath carpet and lattice in her backyard.
On Wednesday, Anthony Castleman, 37, received his sentence for the murder of 72-year-old Bernice Eubank. He received a 65-year prison sentence along with an additional 20 years for being a repeat offender.
A jury quickly reached a verdict, convicting him of murder on Oct. 31 after hearing evidence that he stabbed her 36 times, according to local CBS affiliate WANE.
Authorities discovered Eubank’s body outside her home in Markle on November 12, 2023, revealing the murder that had taken place, approximately 30 miles south of Fort Wayne. Concerned family members contacted deputies when they had not heard from her for several days. Authorities suspect that she had been deceased for some time prior to being found.
According to an arrest report, a local news outlet reported that Castleman was residing with his grandmother. Eubank’s daughter visited the house and discovered a rug with a section missing. The daughter contacted deputies, who discovered her mother’s body outside near a barn, concealed under a carpet and lattice.
The Huntington County Coroner has ruled the cause of death as multiple sharp force injuries, classifying it as a homicide. Investigators swiftly pinpointed Castleman as the individual in question.
Documents indicate that Castleman visited his cousin’s home the day prior to the discovery of the body, requesting bleach to clean up a mess and expressing that he was “going to prison for a long time.” According to police, he showed up at his cousin’s house in Eubank’s car and was on her cell phone.
In December, he was taken into custody in Georgia.
Eubank, as noted in her obituary, completed her education at Wabash High School in 1969 and dedicated more than 30 years of her career as a receptionist at the Caylor-Nickel Clinic, a medical facility located in Bluffton.