Overnight murder investigation surprises neighbors

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - As Lafayette police investigate the city’s second homicide of the year, neighbors of a murdered woman said they're in shock.

Police say they received a tip Thursday night of a possible murder at a Lafayette apartment complex, where they later found a 25-year-old woman dead in her apartment.

Investigators are not calling this a “random act” at this time. They said the suspect had a target.

We spoke with Lafayette resident Kim Judd-Creque, who lives in the Treece Long apartments off McCarty Lane in Lafayette.

"Late at night, I'm not used to having cops come to my door and shining lights," Judd-Creque said.

She described the area as typically quiet. But Thursday night, it was a different story.

"They told me they had a report of someone screaming and asked if they could come in and check the place out and asked me a few questions," she said.

Thursday night, police received a tip of a possible homicide at the Treece Long apartment complex on the 3700 block of McCarty Lane. After questioning neighbors and searching through several units, they located 25-year-old Marisol Arze-Lujan dead in her apartment.

"There was no one there in the residence with her and we knew she was staying there with her three kids and the father of those children," police said.

"Someone being murdered, that's pretty scary when it's right next door to you. And to think I didn't hear anything," Judd-Creque said.

Captain Kurt Wolf with the Lafayette Police Department (LPD) says they later received a tip that the father of Arze-Lujan's three children, 32-year-old Misael Sanchez, was responsible for the murder, and was trying to leave the Lafayette area.

"We did some entry into the national crime computer that we were looking for the three children and him and that's when they came across him in Arkansas," Wolf said.

Wolf said Sanchez had the three children with him when law enforcement located and arrested him on preliminary murder charges. He is currently being held at the Clark County Jail in Arkansas while his extradition back to Lafayette is pending.

"It's scary! Lafayette has always been a great place to live," Judd-Creque said.

Wolf said the three children, ages 1, 7 and 8 were turned over to the Clark County Department of Child Services (DCS) in Arkansas.

He said the Tippecanoe County DCS agency has been notified and is working to get the children back to Lafayette to be with family.

It's still unclear whether a weapon was used in the murder. An autopsy has been scheduled for Saturday.