Following the untimely death of 65-year-old Forest Hill Jr., who was discovered dead inside his downtown Indianapolis apartment, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) homicide investigators are aggressively looking for information. On Wednesday afternoon, police were sent to Barton Tower, situated at 500 block of Massachusetts Avenue, for a welfare check approximately at 2 p.m. Officers found Hill in the 14th-floor flat displaying obvious trauma-related injuries. At the spot he was declared dead.
Family members added more insight into the terrible scenario by detailing Hill’s death, discovered on his bed surrounded by money and blood. Declaring it a “mess” with “blood everywhere,” his sister Rece Hill expressed shock and resentment at the violent nature of his death. She stated Forest was trying to start over in his own house after being released from jail in July.
Hill’s family feels he would have been safer in prison, even with the building’s security systems including surveillance cameras and a committed staff. Though none of Hill’s actual nephews claim to have made the call, Hill also expressed uncertainty about who made the first welfare check request, claiming the caller identified himself as Hill’s nephew.
Running a senior creche clinic close to Barton Towers, local community activist Leslie Allen voiced concerns about resident safety, pointing out that over 30 deaths have occurred in the vicinity throughout her thirty years of employment. Hill’s case is still another tragedy that has left his family shattered and driven towards justice.
The Indianapolis Housing Agency (IHA) runs Barton Towers; it sent a statement expressing sympathy to the family. The IHA verified that a homicide has place, but they did not speak further since the inquiry is still under way. They reassured the public of their will to fully assist IMPD all through the inquiry.
IMPD advises everyone with knowledge to come forward as the quest of solutions keeps on.
