Indiana Man Charged With Murder After Allegedly Killing Wife With Hammer and Burning Body
On October 3, an Indiana man called police to report his wife missing.
Daniel Keith Flaherty allegedly told police the next day that he had repeatedly assaulted his wife with a hammer in their living room, according to the probable cause affidavit and supporting exhibit obtained by PEOPLE. According to the complaint, he then informed authorities that he had placed her body in their Toyota Highlander, hiding it behind a barn, and waited for the couple’s two children to go to school.
According to the affidavit, Flaherty then drove to the Wabash River and set fire to the vehicle before rigging it to auto-drive into the water.
Flaherty, 42, was charged with murder in connection to his wife’s death. He was booked into Gibson County Jail at 10:15 p.m. on October 4 and detained without bond, according to his online inmate registry.
His 36-year-old wife, Kayla Flaherty, had filed for divorce from the father of her children, ages 10 and 13, according to her petition for dissolution of marriage obtained by PEOPLE, in which she stated that the couple’s marriage had “suffered an irretrievable breakdown and should be dissolved at this time due to irreconcilable differences.”
Sgt. Roger Ballard stated in the affidavit that Flaherty had not yet been served with the divorce papers.
According to the complaint, Flaherty informed police that the day before his arrest, Kayla left their home in Pakota, Indiana, at 1:30 a.m. Oct. 3 and drove 20 miles to her mother’s residence. He stated she did not text him when she arrived, as she always did.
According to the affidavit, law police and volunteers examined her regular path for “evidence of Kayla Flaherty’s disappearance, and nothing was found.”
Kayla had been set to work at the Good Samaritan Hospital on October 3. According to the affidavit, she never replied to her employer’s call to leave work.
According to the affidavit, Flaherty informed officers that his wife fled after they discussed their relationship.
According to a companion exhibit to the affidavit, he later allegedly informed police that during that final meeting, he “struck his wife in the head repeatedly with a hammer,” on October 3rd. According to the exhibit, he said that after discarding her body, he rode his bicycle home before stopping at Costco, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Meier for soda.
Flaherty eventually directed law officials to the location where he allegedly discarded her body, according to the affidavit. Sgt. Ballard later discovered a burned-out truck with “human remains” inside.
Flaherty appeared in court online and without a lawyer on Monday, October 7, according to a hearing item in his case summary.
Flaherty, who had requested a public lawyer, pleaded not guilty to the murder allegation after the judge found reasonable cause. After interviewing Flaherty, the court denied his request “at this time,” according to the record.
He is scheduled to return to Gibson County Superior Court for a status hearing on October 16 at 9:00 a.m.
