Published: June 14, 2006 08:07 am         

Father may face murder charge in death of son

TERRE HAUTE — Police say they tried to pull 4-year-old Collin Walker from the deadly grip of his father as Katron Walker lunged into a murky lake with his bleeding son, but they couldn’t free him.

Collin died Tuesday, not from drowning, but from a fatal stab wound to the heart, inflicted, police say, by his dad.

Officers did wrestle 2-year-old Monte Walker away from his father, they say. The child is recovering at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis from stab wounds to his chest and neck.

Walker allegedly abducted his sons that Tuesday morning at knifepoint from their grandfather’s home on Terre Haute’s eastside and ended up at the lake near Blackhawk in southeastern Vigo County.

Walker, who turns 33 Friday, was preliminarily charged Wednesday with murder and attempted murder.

He was treated at Union Hospital for a punctured lung, which may have been self-inflicted, said Bill Bergherm, assistant police chief of the Terre Haute Police Department. He remained at the hospital under guard last night.

Walker could be released into police custody sometime today, said Vigo County Prosecutor Bob Wright. The father can be detained until Monday, while prosecutors determine final charges.

During transport to the hospital Tuesday night, Walker repeatedly stated, “I killed my kids. God forgive me, I killed my kids,” according to Detective Jason Czupryn, who testified at a probable cause hearing Wednesday in Vigo County Superior Court Division 3.

Walker tested positive for methamphetamine and marijuana, Bergherm said.

Police had issued an Amber Alert on the Walker boys late Tuesday afternoon.

Anita Smothers, who lives near the lake, told police she had seen Walker and his sons earlier in the day fishing, eating hot dogs, even taking a nap, but did not realize the child abduction alert had been issued until she saw a report about it on her father’s TV in a nearby mobile home. The family then called police.

“All day I heard them say, ‘I love you, Dad,”’ Smothers told The Associated Press.

About 9 p.m., officers converged on the lake near Blackhawk and found a van that Walker allegedly had stolen. Police had the area surrounded by about 9:20 p.m., Bergherm said.

Four bloodhounds were brought in, and one dog led police near an abandoned trailer about a quarter-mile from where Smothers had seen the three. With police closing in, Walker fled the trailer holding one child in a headlock and dragging the second, Bergherm said. Both boys were naked.

The father then ran about 30 feet to the lake, Bergherm said, as officers pursued.

Police grabbed Monte and sprayed Mace at Walker in an attempt to free Collin, but the father jumped into the water with his 4-year-old, Bergherm said.

“Katron Walker would not cooperate with officers. He made his way to the middle of the lake and was very, very uncooperative,” Bergherm said. “He then made his way back to the edge of the lake where officers had to enter the lake and remove him.”

Smothers, who witnessed the rescue attempt, said she dove into the water to try to help the children and demanded to know where Walker had dropped Collin.

“He’s grinning and he goes, ‘He’s probably at the bottom of the lake by now,”’ she told an AP reporter.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts said an ambulance was called to the lake for Monte at 11:33 p.m. He was taken to Riley hospital, where a spokesman said Wednesday he is “recovering nicely and is spending time with his family.”

Bergherm said the children were injured before entering the water. “We have good reason to believe they were injured inside that trailer. The theory is, I think, he was trying to kill the children, be it in the water or from the wounds that they sustained,” he said.

Because of murky water and little light, police were not able to immediately locate Collin.

Indiana State Conservation divers searched less than an hour before finding the boy’s body, face down in 12 feet of water. “He had received an injury to his throat and a couple puncture wounds to his chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical personnel,” Bergherm said.

An autopsy determined the 4-year-old died of a heart laceration, according to coroner Dr. Roland Kohr, in a statement read at the probable-cause hearing.

Police found a steak knife believed to have been used in the assault in the abandoned trailer, Bergherm said. It had a 3- to 4-inch blade, he said.

“The children’s clothing was in the trailer and there was blood in the trailer,” the assistant police chief said.

The mother, Teresa C. Walker, told police she informed her husband Sunday that she planned to file for divorce and then took the children to a Council On Domestic Abuse shelter.

On Tuesday, she was granted a protective order against her spouse in Vigo County Superior Court Division 4. A hearing for a permanent order was scheduled for July 26.

That day, according to Bergherm, the mother took the boys to their grandfather’s house after a phone conversation in which Walker made “intimidating threats, including saying ‘I will be a star.’

“I have no idea if that meant he was going to kill his children or not,” Bergherm said.

Police say Michael Dwyer, the boys’ grandfather, called at 10:15 a.m. Tuesday to report that Walker had taken the children from the Dwyer home on Indiana 46.

Walker’s friend, Steve Conrad, had driven him to the home, police said, where Walker grabbed the boys from the back yard. They had been picking strawberries.

Police say Walker then waved a knife at Conrad, forcing him from the van.

Dwyer’s sister, Melanie Wright, tried to get the boys back.

“She had ahold of Collin’s leg,” said Julie Wright, Melanie Wright’s daughter. “She was trying to get them out of the van, when [Walker] pushed her down and kicked her twice in the chest. He was waving the knife, trying to slice her. She fought for the boys, and she got beat up pretty good.”

Court records show Walker has one previous arrest, a felony charge of possession of methamphetamine in 2002. Under a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to a class A misdemeanor possession charge and served five days in jail and 90 days of home detention. He was placed on probation for 355 days.

In September 2003, a petition to revoke his probation was filed after Walker tested positive for marijuana in a drug screening. A court hearing in January this year placed him back on probation.

Tribune-Star reporter Deb McKee contributed to this story.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com