I N D I A N A D A I LY S T U D E N T | F R I D AY, M AY 1 , 2 0 1 5 | I D S N E W S . C O M
Records, neighbors detail Messel’s past Court records reveal Messel counseled for alcohol abuse, anger problems in 1990s By Kathrine Schulze schulzek@indiana.edu | @kas_schulze
Daniel Messel, 49, who is charged in the murder of IU senior Hannah Wilson, has a criminal history spanning decades. Since the 1980s, Messel has been arrested on counts of battery, confinement, driving under the influence, battery with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct.
Messel was charged with several counts of battery, among other charges, in 1986 for hitting Michelle Day, his then 16-year-old girlfriend. In March 1992, Messel was sentenced to a year’s incarceration for battery. By then he already had a history of battery and like offenses, according to court documents. As part of his time in incarceration, Messel was able to seek treatment at
Daniel Messel
Former neighbors of accused killer say Messel was a ‘bully,’ hot-tempered By Michael Majchrowicz mmajchro@indiana.edu | @mjmajchrowicz
1994 Daniel Messel has had multiple arrests spanning decades.
2015
SEE RECORDS, PAGE 6
More than three decades ago, before Daniel Messel’s mugshot flashed across nightly newscasts, before his violent behavior landed him a prison sentence, the kids of the Pigeon Hill neighborhood he grew up in knew him as “Danny.” Last week, 49-year-old Messel was charged in the killing of IU senior Hannah Wilson. The psychology student
— her skull bashed in and defensive bruises on her body — was found in an abandoned Brown County lot. The evidence led investigators to arrest Messel within hours, his cellphone found at Wilson’s feet and claw marks on his arms. Blood splatter and a clump of hair were found inside the 2012 silver Kia Sportage he drove that night. Investigators have not yet confirmed who the blood or hair belong to. SEE MESSEL, PAGE 6
Victims in Nepal honored at vigil
IDS
By Cassie Heeke cnheeke@indiana.edu | @cnheeke
PHOTOS BY KATHRYN MOODY | IDS
Annette Kleinhenz is a part-time nurse at Columbus Regional Health in the psychiatric unit. She is taking classes at IUPUI to earn her master’s degree and become a licensed nurse practitioner.
To save others’ lives Annette watched her son deteriorate from schizophrenia. His death changed the course of her life forever. By Kathryn Moody kammoody@indiana.edu | @KatMMoody
How do you do what you do, Annette? People have asked her that before. She is over 50 and has 11 kids and five grandkids and is earning her master’s degree and teaches in the lay ministry and works part-time as a nurse and teaches nursing clinicals and, sometimes, a class for families dealing with mental illness, and she does it because she lost her son twice. How do you do what you do, instead of letting grief swallow your whole life? You stand up and realize that God is calling you to fix something. That’s how. Annette Kleinhenz lost her son, Caleb, four years ago. But he had already been fading. Schizophrenia had dropped in like settling dust some nine years before that, smothering his relationships, his emotions, his grasp on reality. It wasn’t supposed to happen to him, one of God’s golden sons. He played sports, studied hard and wrote with a wit that shocked his own mother. Schizophrenia doesn’t care about that. Annette sits at the head of the conference table, relaxed but authoritative, a practiced role, wielding a laptop with a PowerPoint called “Helping Children Through Loss.” In February 2011, her family lost
Photos of Caleb, from several years, are spread on the glass table in the front room.
a grandfather. One month later, Caleb killed himself. Pictures of Caleb appear on her screen. This clinical is specifically about mental illness, and his story is part of the lesson. But it doesn’t matter how much practice she gets telling that story or where she starts. The tears bubble out, throttling her voice. “He looks like Val Kilmer,” she says, joking. And then she adds, wistfully and quickly, straight to the laptop: “I just miss him so much.” Does she want to be here, doing this work? The question is irrelevant. The answer lights up her laptop screen.
People need people like her, desperately need people like her, so much that they are dying despite support systems and medicines and therapies. And so here she is, doing the work. Caleb’s death made a lot of things simple. * * * Annette hates paperwork. She would rather teach, work hands-on, than write prescriptions all day. But she is going to IUPurdue University Indianapolis to get her SEE ANNETTE, PAGE 4
The diamond-shaped holes in the square pieces of paper were too big for the small white candles. Once lit, their wax would drip through onto the hand of the holder. So 30 minutes before IU4Nepal, seven helpers sat folding the papers so they would fit more snugly around the wax while they waited for the Grand Hall in the Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center to fill. The vigil they were preparing wasn’t for an IU student, as with the few seen in the course of this school year. It was held instead in response to the death of thousands of people who were in Nepal on Saturday when a 7.8-magnitutde earthquake caused massive devastation in and around the country. Prior to the vigil at Showalter Fountain, a forum was held in the Grand Hall. Professor of Geological Sciences Michael Hamburger was the first to present. He led the audience through a PowerPoint with an abundance of technical information about the earthquake, along with some jolting statistics. As of Thursday, 5,200 dead. Hundreds missing. More than 11,000 injured and 450,000 displaced. More than 8 million affected. Seismograms were flashed onto the screen, along with geographical images of the tectonics at fault for the disaster. Every year, plates in India move two inches closer to Eurasia, forming the vast Himalayan Mountains, Hamburger said. Hamburger called it an “anticipated earthquake.” He said stress builds up between the two tectonic plates, and the more time between two earthquakes, the more likely it is for one to be of high intensity. “It’s part of the cycle of the locking of stress, and then the releasing of stress that has risen to the surface,” Hamburger said. Next, Santosh Adhikari, a Ph.D. economics student, discussed the economic effect. The already-high unemployment rate will rise, he said. Reconstruction costs are estimated at $5 billion. After hearing about scientific and economic consequences, the audience was given a personal account by Professor of English and Humanities Samrat Upadhyay about the shattering loss of culture suffered by Nepalis. “The monuments, my heart breaks every day to see the monuments,” he said. “People would go SEE NEPAL, PAGE 3
BASEBALL
IU prepares to take on Maryland
Choral ensemble to perform in spring concert at BCT Saturday
By Michael Hughes
By Lanie Maresh
michhugh@indiana.edu | @MichaelHughes94
emaresh@indiana.edu | @lanie_maresh
If the season ended today, IU wouldn’t qualify for the Big Ten Tournament. The Hoosiers currently sit in ninth place. Only the top eight qualify for the tournament in Minneapolis. IU has two weekends left to make up the difference. IU is a half-game behind Nebraska, the seventh-place team, so qualifying is still possible. This weekend IU, (23-19, 6-10) travels to Maryland (32-13, 11-4) to try and start to make up the gap between itself and the projected tournament field. “These next two Big Ten weekends
As the African American Choral Ensemble prepared during the week of their upcoming concert, ensemble members clapped while they swayed side-to-side, bobbed their heads and even spontaneously busted a dance move as they sang. Satsu Holmes, an alto in the ensemble, initially joined AACE last semester in order to earn dual credit for her music minor. Although she didn’t have any previous ensemble experience, she said she was glad she decided to join. “I didn’t sing in church or any kind of vocal ensemble experience whatsoever, and I was just completely welcomed into the fold,” Holmes said. “I made friends with the people in my section, and the choir is a family. It really is.” At 8 p.m. Saturday at the
SEE BASEBALL, PAGE 6 IU (23-19) at Maryland (32-13) 6:30 p.m., Friday, College Park, Md.
LUKE SCHRAM | IDS
Sophomore center fielder Craig Dedelow runs back to third base Wednesday at Bart Kaufman Field.
AFRICAN AMERICAN CHORAL ENSEMBLE Tickets $10 students, $20 adults 8 p.m. Saturday, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Holmes, alongside her fellow ensemble members, will perform in the final AACE concert of the school year. The AACE is a course and one of three performing ensembles in the African American Arts Institute. The ensemble’s traditional repertoire includes choral anthems, hymns, spirituals, inspirational, gospel and formally composed works for and by African-Americans, according to the concert’s program notes. Raymond Wise, director of the AACE and professor of practice in the Department of African AmerSEE ENSEMBLE, PAGE 6