Police detail events leading up to finding body of Chase Aliano

Day two of witness testimonies in the case against the Bloomfield man accused of murdering a Bedford man continued Wednesday with more details about the investigation leading to the discovery of the victim’s body.

William Levi Abel, who was 24 at the time of his arrest last February, is accused of murdering 21-year-old Chase Aliano, who had been reported missing in Lawrence County on Feb. 3, 2017. According to Tuesday’s witness testimonies, Aliano had last been seen by friends and family on Jan. 31, 2017. He had plans to meet up with friends at the bar in Bedford later that night, but never showed.

Wednesday’s testimonies included detailed accounts from Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) Captain Andrew Phillips, Greene County Sheriff’s Department (GCSD) Deputy Anthony Pope and LCSD Det. Tyler Phillips. The day concluded with testimony from Abel’s adoptive parents, John and Kay Abel.

Audio and video evidence shown to the jury of police interviewing Abel ranged from the defendant stating Aliano had gone to Indianapolis to get “speed” the night of Tuesday, Jan. 31 after the two met to Abel later admitting to police there was an incident in which Aliano was ultimately killed on the Abel farm.

Abel had been visited by police in the very early morning hours of Saturday, Feb. 4, according to testimony from GCSD Deputy Bobby Pierce, relayed to the jury on Tuesday. Pierce stated he stopped at the Abel farm in eastern Greene County around 4:49 a.m.

LCSD Captain Andrew Phillips opened Wednesday’s testimony with discussion about his initial contact with Abel, who he asked to come in to the department in Bedford to give an official statement.

Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw showed the jury a body camera video recording on the interaction between Abel and Captain Andrew Phillips around 9 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4.

Upon arrival at the department, the video showed Abel admitting to the officer right away that he did lie to Aliano’s mother about his whereabouts. According to Abel’s initial recount of the incident, he told the captain that Aliano had come to his property to sell a gun. While he was there, the two “smoked a bowl” of “speed or whatever was in his (Aliano’s) bowl.” Abel said he worried the gun was “hot” -- or stolen -- so he chose not to purchase the gun, but instead offered to purchase the sights off his gun.

Abel said he gave Aliano a total of $350 -- $150 to put the sights on Abel’s gun, then he said the rest went toward Aliano going to Indianapolis to purchase drugs. Abel reported Aliano only stayed for a short time because he was in a hurry to get back to Bedford to meet some friends in a bar.

“He’s probably up at his dealer’s house geeked the [explitive] out. Hopefully. I’m probably going to smack him when I see him,” Abel told the officer. “He’s going to wish he called his parents now because he’s going to get pulled over with speed in his truck.”

After meeting with Abel, Captain Phillips said he checked the cell phone “pings” -- tower coordinates the cell phone bounced off of -- which showed Aliano to be in the area of the Abel farm on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Phillips said he then contacted GCSD to again visit William Abel at his residence.

GCSD Deputy Anthony Pope told the jury he arrived at 4:43 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4 at the Abel residence to fulfill a welfare check on Chase Aliano requested by Lawrence County. Upon arrival, Pope said he advised Abel he was looking for Aliano and his Chevrolet Tracker.

With Abel’s father, John Abel, nearby, Abel admitted to having the Tracker on his property. Holtsclaw played an audio recording of Pope’s exchange with Abel the early evening of Saturday, Feb. 4. The jury listened to the audio recording in which Abel said the Tracker was on the property and pointed toward the vehicle.

Abel said the two had broke the Tracker while driving around the property Tuesday night, so Aliano called a female to pick him up. He reported the female showed up shortly thereafter and the two loaded up all the belongings from Aliano’s vehicle into hers, at which point Aliano was supposedly headed to Indianapolis to purchase drugs and had planned to bring the part the next day to fix it.

Abel told the officer he hid the Tracker on the property because he thought Aliano would report it stolen.

Pope said once John Abel gave written consent to search the property he found the vehicle on the property in a sinkhole about 540 feet from the residence -- with a mattress, wooden pallet and debris propped against it -- he contacted GCSD Det. Sgt. James O’Malley.

“Based on my training, it was indicative of trying to hide the vehicle from plain view,” Pope said, adding he then secured the area.

LCSD Det. Tyler Phillips said he learned about the investigation around 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4 when his detectives apprised him about the missing person case, there was no activity on Aliano’s cell phone for several days and that Aliano’s vehicle had been located on the Abel farm. Det. Phillips and the detectives then drove to the Abel farm just before dark.

“At this point, we were still looking at a missing person case ... and I felt like he (Abel) could shed some light on where (Aliano) was at,” Phillips said.

Det. Phillips said he met with GCSD detectives and decided to bring Abel into the Greene County Jail for questioning.

Phillips and Det. Sgt. O’Malley interviewed Abel at the Jail. Holtsclaw showed a video of the interview to the jury, which took place around 11 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4.

In the beginning of the interview, Abel maintained the story that the two had “smoked a bowl” and driven around the property, resulting in breaking the Tracker. Once the vehicle broke down, he stated Aliano called a female to pick him up at the Abel farm. He said the two packed several boxes of items and guns into the female’s car and Aliano was supposed to be headed to Indianapolis.

Abel told the detectives he did receive a phone call from Aliano on Wednesday, Feb. 1 from a strange number he didn’t recognize, saying Aliano needed to “go MIA for a bit” and to keep the Tracker for him.

Abel said Aliano told him not to tell that the Tracker was at the residence or he would say Abel stole it. He recounted moving the vehicle on the property from the barn to the area out of sight on the farm.

O’Malley said he knew Abel’s father helped move the vehicle and added he thought there were “about five more things that don’t pan out.”

After an extensive interview, the video recording presented to the jury showed O’Malley offering Abel another chance to “tell the whole truth,” at which time Abel changed his story.

“I’m freaked out, guys,” Abel could be heard telling the officers. “For absolutely no reason at all, Chase pulled his gun on me and shot at me.”

Abel went on the tell the officers Aliano shot at him and missed, so Abel returned fire, ultimately shooting and killing Aliano.

Abel said he had no idea why Aliano would fire on him, as no words had been exchanged before the altercation.

“I don’t know why he made me do that,” Abel said.

At the conclusion of the video, and following a lunch break, Phillips stated the detectives went back to the Abel farm around 3 a.m. where, he told the jury, Abel showed them where the shooting had happened, showed where he had burned his own and Aliano’s clothes, then finally where Aliano was buried in a shallow creek bed.

Phillips described Abel’s demeanor as “relaxed, matter of fact, nonchalant and cooperative.”

The detective said there were a few pieces of the story he noted issue with, including the fact the cabin had no light source, nor was there a light source nearby.

Phillips then contacted Detective Jason Cobb with the Indiana State Police Crime Scene Investigation Unit.