WESTFIELD, Ind. (Dec. 27, 2013)– The murders of a Westfield woman and her adult daughter December 20th were the result of a vendetta and opportunistic robbery by an ex-employee of the family’s business.
Mary-Lyn and Kelly Erb were found bludgeoned to death inside their Oak Park Court home by Todd Erb as he returned home from work.
According to a probable cause affidavit, investigators think the women were surprised and killed during the lunch hour.
Within days Westfield Police released photographs from surveillance videos shot at two eastside Indianapolis stores of a man attempting to use a stolen Erb credit card to receive cash.
On Christmas Eve morning a tipster called police to say that he overheard Jamiyl Gilbert claim that a friend, Christian Haley, “had murdered those people in Westfield.”
The tipster also identified Gilbert as the man in the surveillance video.
The tipster told police that Gilbert was aware that Haley formerly worked for Todd Erbs’ landscaping company, Sundown Gardens.
Later that day a search warrant determined that Haley’s cell phone was traced to the Erb neighborhood the day of the killings.
On December 26th Gilbert told police that Haley gave him the Erb credit cards and, “Haley stated he bashed their heads in with some cement or something.”
“Gilbert advised Haley told him several months back he was going to rob an ex-boss…because they fired (him).”
“Gilbert stated Haley is one of those guys who would go shoot the place up.”
Gilbert said he accompanied Haley to the neighborhood in July during a previous robbery attempt one month after Haley was fired from the landscaping company for poor attendance.
Search warrants served Thursday recovered some evidence linking Haley to the murders.
Detectives wrote that after he was taken into custody for questioning, Haley provided incomplete alibis and denied the cell phone evidence and text messages to Gilbert that linked him to the killings.
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