Ind. woman sentenced for dismembering husband and making her kids help move the body
10/02/2023 12:46 pm PDT
LA PORTE, Ind. (TCD) -- A judge sentenced a 36-year-old woman to more than six decades in prison for fatally shooting her husband and dismembering his body while forcing her children to help dispose of the remains.
Court records show Thessalonica Allen received 57 years for murder, four years each for two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, one year for abuse of a corpse, five years for altering the scene of death, and one year each for two counts of neglect of a dependent. Some of the sentences will run concurrently, coming out to a total of 63 years behind bars.
A jury found Allen guilty Aug. 8.
According to the probable cause affidavit shared by WSBT-TV, on July 28, 2021, Allen’s ex, Rory Walker, the father of one of her children, went to her apartment because she claimed her husband, Randy Allen, was beating Walker’s child. When Walker arrived, Allen reportedly led him to a closet where she left Randy Allen’s body. Allen asked Walker to assist her in transporting the body to her car, but Walker refused.
Allen drove Walker back to his home in Michigan, and on the way there, she said she "had to shoot Randy because he was beating on her and her kids." The children also reportedly told Walker they heard a "loud bang" during Thessalonica and Randy Allen’s argument.
When they got to Walker’s home, Allen threw the gun toward him, then she left.
Walker called police July 29.
La Porte Police detectives located Allen in an Ace Hardware parking lot. She reportedly started crying and told the detectives, "You guys don’t understand. He beats me."
Detectives took her into custody and interviewed her once at the station. Allen admitted to shooting and killing Randy Allen during a physical fight because her children told her he beat them. He allegedly began choking her, and when he freed her, she grabbed her gun and shot him.
She then left his body in her daughter’s closet.
Investigators obtained a search warrant for her apartment and discovered Randy Allen’s dismembered body inside a tote. In a second interview, she said she "had to cut off Randy’s legs because she wasn’t able to fit them inside the tote."
The affidavit says Allen "panicked" and used an ax to dismember him.
Detectives also spoke with the children, who heard Thessalonica and Randy Allen’s fight. They reportedly said Randy "saw a website that their mom had visited" while he helped them out with their homework and got upset. Thessalonica and Randy argued in the bedroom, then the children heard a "bang." They ran inside and Randy was "on the ground asking for help and asking the kids to call 911."
Thessalonica, however, allegedly "told them not to call 911 and to go to their room."
Allen woke them up in the middle of the night to help her move Randy Allen’s body and put it in her car, but they couldn’t because he "was too heavy."
The next day, Allen obtained an ax and other cleaning supplies. She reportedly "asked them to help her drag the body back into the bedroom" and once again woke them up later to move his body. One of the children told detectives he "saw Randy’s legs were cut off at that point and saw his mother had put Randy’s legs in a plastic bag."
She asked her kids again to put the body in her car, but the children struggled again to pull the weight. Allen reportedly "had plans to take the vehicle and body to South Bend and set it on fire."
During the search, police reportedly found a checklist with items that included "get drugs from friend," "get Ziplock bags," and "put gun/drugs in car under seat while in car." She allegedly wanted to call someone to report he had the gun and illicit substances in the vehicle.
A second note reportedly said, "1. Spray s--t in face, hit him in right knee w/ hammer. 2. Hit w// hammer/stab him. 3. Roll body up in sheets & plastic bags," and other instructions.
According to the affidavit, one of his arms had been removed as well.
Randy Allen’s autopsy showed he sustained a gunshot wound to the right arm, which entered his chest and abdomen. It struck his spinal cord, which the medical examiner "concluded that it most likely prohibited the decedent from moving as he bled out."
WSBT reports one of Randy Allen’s relatives told Allen at her sentencing hearing, "You are strictly the devil."
She reportedly responded, "So was he."
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