More than three decades ago, before Daniel Messel’s mugshot flashed across nightly newscasts, before his violent behavior landed him a prison sentence, the kids of the Pigeon Hill neighborhood he grew up in knew him as “Danny.”
Last week, 49-year-old Messel was charged in the killing of IU senior Hannah Wilson. The psychology student — her skull bashed in and defensive bruises on her body — was found in an abandoned Brown County lot. The evidence led investigators to arrest Messel within hours, his cellphone found at Wilson’s feet and claw marks on his arms. Blood splatter and a clump of hair were found inside the 2012 silver Kia Sportage he drove that night. Investigators have not yet confirmed who the blood or hair belong to.
But before he was the man accused of murdering an IU student, he was a boy with a hot temper and unpredictable mean streaks, a neighbor said.
As Tammara Bryant-Aishe learned of the news on television, it was the first she’d heard his name in years. She thought of Pigeon Hill, the neighborhood she and Messel grew up in ?together.
This was a place where everyone looked out for one another. It was one of those neighborhoods where everyone knew everyone. She said she first met Messel when he was 12 years old. By his late teens, there was a stark change in Messel’s behavior.
If Messel was at ease, Bryant-Aishe said she knew this was usually the calm before the storm.
“You could see it in him,” she said. “He was fidgety all the time.”
Whatever was bothering him would build and build, leading to the inevitable flare-up. It was his fidgeting, followed by a piercing stare, which usually gave him away.
If there was ever a girl he was seeing, Bryant-Aishe said, they weren’t referred to as girlfriends. “We called them victims.”
Kevin McGruder also lived in the same Pigeon Hill neighborhood as Bryant-Aishe and Messel. It’s Messel’s anger issues, McGruder said, that carried over into his adult life.
“He was kind of a bully,” he added. “He was always beating up on someone from the neighborhood.”
By 1986, Messel was dating Michelle Day. When he arrived at her apartment one April evening, according to court documents, Day’s mother asked him to leave. A young girl, Day’s 8-year-old sister, watched an infuriated Messel grab hold of Day’s arm — the fabric of her blouse tearing across her chest as he dragged her out of the apartment.
“Mom, help me!” Day cried according to court ?documents.
A shattered stereo and tossed furniture littered the inside of the apartment. Police found Day at Messel’s house, where he lived with his grandmother. Messel was arrested and later charged with battery and ?confinement.
A few years earlier, Bryant-Aishe was dating Tim Crouch, a cousin of Messel’s. After about two years of dating, Crouch returned home one night — his mouth and nose bleeding, his shirt torn. Before she could speak, a teary-eyed Crouch looked up at his girlfriend.
“Danny again,” she recalled him saying.
If Messel was going to continue to be a part of Crouch’s life, she couldn’t be a part of his. She had young children. That night, she and Crouch ended their ?relationship.
“I was afraid if it kept going, it might come into my house,” Bryant-Aishe said. “[Messel] got away with too much. He got too bold.”
But what do you do when you’re in fear of your life, she said. “You run, or you stand up and take it and pray you get through it.”
