Jason Hancock, 48, is charged with murder and abuse of a corpse.
The Brownsburg man wanted revenge on Michael Marks, 41, and court documents filed by the lead detective explain how the incident unfolded.
A witness, who is unnamed in the documents, told police Hancock suspected Marks was stealing from his Indianapolis warehouse while he was in jail.
Marks was an employee of Hancock’s and lived in the apartment above the warehouse.
The witness, Hancock and another person met Marks at a Family Dollar Store in Indianapolis. Hancock wanted Marks to hand over his BMW as restitution for the items Marks allegedly stole. Hancock persuaded Marks to go to the warehouse with him, and the two men disappeared inside, while the witness stayed in the car.
The witness heard a single gunshot before Hancock appeared and told him to come inside. In the warehouse, the witness saw Marks’ lifeless body on the ground.
“If anyone ever asks, tell them I did this,” Hancock told the witness.
The witness told police he was forced to help Hancock dispose of Marks’ body. They read something online that said lye might help dissolve the body.
The two men purchased a cleaner containing lye and a shovel from Home Depot. They returned to the warehouse and placed the body inside where they had dug a hole.
The witness told police Hancock knocked out Marks’ teeth and used a spoon to scoop out the pieces from Marks' mouth. Hancock then told the witness he wanted to make a necklace out of the teeth.
The cleaner containing lye did not work. The next day, the two men went to Ace Hardware and bought 4 pounds of pure lye. This, too, had no effect on the body.
Hancock also tried to burn the body, according to court documents, but this was unsuccessful.
The third day, the two men went to a Lowe’s Home Improvement store and purchased 30 bags of concrete. Using a pole, they poked holes in Marks’ body and buried him in concrete at the warehouse.
In total, they used 16 concrete bags to fill the hole. Later, the other 14 bags were returned for a refund.
A supervisor at the warehouse told police that he remembered an altercation between Marks and Hancock. He said he overheard someone say, “You set me up.”
The police obtained a warrant and searched Hancock’s Brownsburg home, where they found a note he had written his wife while in jail.
“You want to steal from my kids and my families shit?" he said in the note. "I will be out soon and I’m coming! I will be coming for restitution either money material or teeth you decide!”
Hancock contacted police and said he wanted to come in and tell his side of the story, according to court documents.
Hancock admitted to police in an interview that he got into a fight with Marks. He also admitted to purchasing the containers of lye. He told police, “You know someone else was with me when that was purchased, right?”
Hancock appeared in court for the first time Tuesday. A pretrial conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. May 16, and a jury trial is set for 9 a.m. May 21.
