IN - Cynthia Funches, 26, pregnant, beaten to death, Highland, 22 June 2011

Ray Jefferson, the owner of the home said he arrived around 4:00 pm to do some work on the building near 100th Pl and S. Normal when he noticed someone had broken into the boarded up garage.

"I saw lots of duct tape and some sweat pants in the bin," said Jefferson. "The entire head was duct taped. I couldn't see a face."

Click to expand...

A Highland woman found dead in plastic container in Chicago was pregnant, according to a local official.

Click to expand...

A man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend whose body was found in a storage bin in Chicago is trying to get bail set in the case during a week-long hearing.

Isiah L. Barker, 31, of Chicago, faces charges of murder and feticide in the 2011 homicide of Cynthia Funches, 26, of Highland.

He was charged Nov. 1, 2012, but he wasn't brought to Lake County until April following an arrest in Georgia. He has since remained without bail in the Lake County Jail.

Click to expand...

Cynthia Funches was 20 weeks pregnant with Isiah Barker's child when she was killed in June 2011, according to court records. Lisa Robbins, a DNA analyst at the Indiana State Police crime laboratory in Indianapolis, testified Tuesday that a paternity test on the fetus determined there was a 99.9643 percent chance Barker was the father...

According to the affidavit, Barker had accused Funches of sleeping with other men and wanted her to terminate her pregnancy.

Click to expand...

The representative went inside the apartment, felt something wasn’t right and called police. Officers noticed several cleaning supplies, blood spatter and missing carpet in the bedroom, Santino said. The mattress and box springs were missing from the bed frame, and a new set was in the living room...

Investigators traced the plastic storage container through its UPC to Wal-Mart. A cellphone “ping” led investigators to the Schererville Wal-Mart store, where investigators recovered surveillance footage and cash register printout of related defendant Octavius Barlow purchasing the item.

Barlow, 30, has been charged with assisting a criminal. He has pleaded not guilty.

Click to expand...

The boyfriend of a Highland woman found dead in Chicago was convicted in her murder Tuesday.

Jurors deliberated about four hours before returning convicting Isiah "Duck" Barker, 32, of Chicago of Cynthia Funches' murder and feticide of his unborn baby, according to evidence in the seven-day trial.

Click to expand...

Isiah Barker was sentenced Friday to 83 years in prison in the murder of his 26-year-old pregnant girlfriend...

Barlow remains charged with two counts of assisting a criminal in Funches' death. He is scheduled to go to trial on those charges July 10.

Click to expand...