BRAZIL, Ind. (AP) — The father of a teenage girl who was fatally shot in a 1988 double-homicide in Indiana says he decided to give his first interviews about the killing in the hopes the three-decade-old case will finally be solved.
The Tribune Star reports Norval Pickett believes Brazil police botched the double-murder investigation.
Sixteen-year-old Tonya Pickett was slain along with her stepfather, 32-year-old Ricky Mustard, in their Brazil home on Nov. 18, 1988.
John Lovett, who was Tonya Pickett’s boyfriend, was indicted by a grand jury and charged with the homicides in 2008. The charges were dismissed in 2012 after the state Court of Appeals ruled letters between Pickett and Lovett couldn’t be used as evidence.
Norval Pickett says he believes the appeals court should’ve allowed the letters, which he says show how his daughter feared Lovett.