Suspect says he was high on meth when he committed murders (Indiana)

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - The man charged with killing a woman and her two daughters said he was high on methamphetamine when he committed the murders and only remembered killing two of the victims.

Daniel Ray Wilkes, 37, of Vincennes told the Evansville Courier & Press for a Saturday story that he been awake for a week before killing 38-year-old Donna Claspell and 13-year-old Avery Pike.

Wilkes also is charged in the death of Sydne Claspell, 9, but said he had no memory of it.

“I didn't even know her youngest daughter was there, and still don't remember her being there,” he told the newspaper Friday during an interview in the Vanderburgh County Jail.

Police officers found the bodies of Claspell and the girls inside their locked home on Evansville's west side on Wednesday after Claspell's mother reported she had not seen them for days.

Donna Claspell and her 9-year-old daughter were found in a back room of the home, and Avery was tied to a bed naked, Police Chief Brad Hill said. Investigators had no evidence she was sexually assaulted but were examining the possibility, he said.

Wilkes told investigators he beat Donna Claspell to death and strangled Avery Pike with clothing early Monday, a court affidavit said.

Autopsies on Thursday determined that Donna Claspell died from multiple blows to the head and cuts to the neck; Avery was strangled, and Sydne died from blows to the head, the Vanderburgh County coroner's office said. The times of the deaths were not immediately determined.

Wilkes was an acquaintance of Claspell and spent time in an addiction recovery program she had attended. He said she allowed him to stay at her house after they left the program and he began using drugs again.

He said Claspell gave him some of the prescription drug Xanax to help him sleep on Sunday night and his memory was inconsistent after that. He said he recalled going into Claspell's bedroom and beating her to death with an object but did not recall what he used.

“I don't know why I did it,” he said.

Wilkes said he went to a liquor store and later returned and killed Avery. He said afterward he thought the murders might have been a dream.

“I pretty much knew in the back of my mind something bad” happened, he added.

“I don't know what to say to them,” Wilkes said of Claspell's family. “There isn't anything you can say to that.”
http://www.tristate-media.com/articles/2006/05/01/pdclarion/news/news2.txt