Police have detained an Uber driver in Indianapolis on suspicion of raping and then murdering a passenger.
Francisco Valadez, 29, was arrested by homicide police on Tuesday morning and has been temporarily charged with murder.
According to CBS4.com, Valadez confessed to police that he shot 30-year-old Chanti Dixon dead in a fit of rage after attempting to rape her in the back of his car while picking her up as an Uber driver.
He then acknowledged to disposing of her body in an alleyway in a wooded area near the victim’s home. Last week, police were summoned to Wagner Lane when a woman’s body was discovered in a nearby woodland.
Dixon’s family found her phone in the woods behind her house, where they discovered her dead and called the police. Dixon was shot in the left side of her skull and pronounced dead at the scene.
Dixon’s mother claimed that her daughter went missing last Sunday after finishing work around 3.30 a.m. and calling an Uber to drive her home.
Two mobile phones were discovered near Dixon’s body in the woods, pointing investigators to Valadez. The Uber app revealed that Dixon’s driver was driving a BMW with an Indiana license plate.
Detectives identified Valadez as her driver and went his home to question him. Initially, Valadez deceived the police by reporting that an armed Black man approached his car and attempted to rob Dixon.
However, under additional inquiry, he acknowledged to sexually abusing her in the rear of his car. He admitted to the investigators that she ridiculed his physique during the assault, causing him to become enraged.
This prompted him to shoot Dixon in the head. Following the shooting, he took Dixon from his car and dumped her lifeless corpse behind a concrete barrier at the dead end of Wagner Lane.
According to investigators, Valadez admitted to attempting to have sex with Dixon’s deceased body. The Uber driver was arrested at Marion County Jail on a felony murder allegation.
The police said that additional charges could be filed in this case.
“This is revolting, it’s unsettling,” said IMPD Chief Chris Bailey during the press conference. “No one deserves to be treated this way in our town, and I really apologize to her family that we are here today.
“This is a family that’s been torn apart. This woman has been taken from the world unnecessarily due to a wicked act, and I’m relieved that we were able to apprehend this individual as swiftly as we did to prevent him from inflicting further violence in our community.”