Lake County

The cause of death was released Thursday night for Ariana Taylor, the Gary mother who was missing for more than a week and later found dead in a drainage ditch.

Human remains found in northwest Indiana on Wednesday morning were positively identified as those of a Gary mom who was reported missing over a week ago, police announced.

Gary police said late Sunday that a “body” that had been found not far from where police located the SUV of missing Gary mom Ariana Taylor was actually a “life-sized silicone/rubber type female doll.”

Gary police say they have conducted foot, helicopter, K9 and ATV searches to no avail. Six days later, there’s still no sign of 23-year-old Ariana Taylor.

One person was killed in a high-rise apartment building fire early Thursday in Hammond, Indiana.

Indiana State Police identified a now-deceased man on Tuesday as the suspect who raped and killed three women in Indiana and Kentucky in the late 1980s as they were working night shifts as motel clerks.

Gary police are searching for a woman whose SUV was found crashed and abandoned over the weekend in northwest Indiana.

The house was identified as the location where a fatal overdose victim purchased drugs. During the search, officers confiscated two handguns and suspected narcotics — including heroin, cocaine, oxycodone and marijuana.

The Mission One Foundation has donated about eight cars to veterans over the past four years. 

Two Illinois men have been charged with fleeing from police in Indiana in a vehicle that was stolen in Chicago last November. 

A judge is allowing a criminal case to move ahead against a northwest Indiana sheriff charged with reckless driving and resisting law enforcement.

A Gary man was charged in connection with a midday shooting Monday in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood.

Illinois State Police said that around 11:19 p.m., Eric R. Gehres, 34, of Hammond, veered off the roadway near Kedzie Avenue. His pickup truck hit a light pole and rolled over.

"They were caught in a world that they should never have been a part of," prosecutors said. "They were surrounded by firearms, drugs and dangerous people."