Remains found April 9 in a wooded area in Gary have been identified as Jessica Flores, who went missing Feb. 24, 2019, after an alleged shooting that likely killed her.
Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said in an email Tuesday that her office’s forensic odontologist was able to identify the 36-year-old South Chicago Heights, Illinois, woman using dental records. Her exact cause of death, however, is pending, Frey said.
Lake County Sheriff’s Police responded to a call April 9 from a City of Gary employee who found a human skull. They followed up with search and rescue K-9s April 10 and found more of the remains, which completed the search, a spokesperson with the Sheriff’s Department said at the time.
Flores’s mother, Adela Perez, of Joliet, Illinois, said Monday evening that she and her family “are in mourning” and that she would talk about Flores at a later date.
Flores and a witness on Feb. 24, 2019, left South Chicago Heights to go to Paradise Lounge in Gary, it was previously reported. They then went to a house in Gary where Flores knew a person named “Tiny.”
Flores, the witness and Tiny – later identified as Drew Carter III — went to a liquor store and when they returned to the house, “Tiny instantly became enraged because he did not see the vehicle belonging to” another female at the residence, court records said. Flores and Tiny began arguing, according to court records.
Flores and Carter started arguing, and when Flores and the witness tried to leave, Carter “convinced Flores to allow him inside the vehicle,” and he “promised both women that he would get them some cocaine,” records said. The three drove to another residence where Tiny “was inside the residence for a long time,” and when he returned to the vehicle with the drugs, he had Flores get into the passenger seat so that he could drive,” records said.
Carter drove back to the residence where they were before, and he “became upset again” when the witness was still not back, according to the affidavit. When the three couldn’t get back inside the residence, Carter made Flores get in the back seat and the two began arguing again, records said.
After stopping several times to argue with Flores, Carter asked Flores if he could have sex with the witness. Flores said “No,” according to the affidavit, so Carter then “turned around (and) shot Flores one time using a revolver.” Flores “said nothing and immediately slumped to her right,” court records state.
When the witness tried to run away, Carter tackled her and checked her phone to see if she called police,” records said. The witness “was afraid for her life and she knew that she was not free to go,” according to the affidavit.
Tiny took the witness to a residence while “Flores’ body remained in the vehicle,” the affidavit states. The witness eventually escaped, court records state.
Police collected swabs from blood found on the back seat and on the floor of the car that was found, the affidavit states.
Carter, who was initially charged with one count of murder, one count of kidnapping and two counts of criminal confinement in the case, saw his charges dropped Sept. 18 because a week before his trial, Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Eric J. Randall moved to dismiss the case against him.
“The State is awaiting lab results that it believes will not be available in time for the Sept. 23, 2019, jury trial and also anticipates further investigation,” the motion said.
Carter’s attorneys quickly issued an objection to the motion, citing part of the state’s criminal code that would allow the prosecuting attorney to refile charges against Carter at a later date, which the state confirmed it would after getting the lab results.
On Sept. 12, new charges were filed against Carter for two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. A probable cause affidavit for those charges states two handguns, a Glock .40 caliber and a Smith & Wesson 9mm, as well as a magazine, were found in Carter’s car after his March arrest in connection with the disappearance of Flores.
In 2000, Carter was convicted of two counts of robbery and one count of carrying a firearm in relation to a violent crime in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.
Carter remains in custody at the Lake County Jail on the gun charges, Lake County Prosecutor spokesman Bradley Carter said, but it has yet to be determined what, if any, new charges will be filed now that Flores has been found.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
