Portage police took Charles Trumble, 59, of the 5800 block of McCasland Court, into custody Sunday night shortly after he placed a 911 call to police stating that he had killed his mother, Dixie Trumble, 91, of the same address.
The Porter County coroner’s office has said police found Dixie Trumble “with obvious head trauma.” A Tuesday autopsy found she bled to death and suffered from blunt force trauma.
Charles Trumble, who remains in Porter County Jail, was formally charged Tuesday. He is scheduled for an initial hearing at 9 a.m. Friday before Porter Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clymer.
In a Facebook post, Mackenzie Trumble, Dixie Trumble’s great-granddaughter, said her family is strong and has “more love in us than I could ever wish upon a star for.”
Her family is devastated by Dixie Trumble’s death.
“A big piece of our lives is missing now and I’m not sure if anything can ever fill that void,” Mackenzie Trumble said in her post. “I am heartbroken beyond words but at this time we’d all just like time to process and be together as a family. My only goal is to protect and help my grandfather and grandmother through this devastating loss.”
Portage Police Chief Mike Candiano said his department has been in touch with other local jurisdictions and doesn’t know what Charles Trumble was referring to in his remarks to police.
“We weren’t investigating him for anything else and we haven’t uncovered any other local investigations to this point,” Candiano said. “We also didn’t have any history with him or at the residence. We’re continuing to look into it but as of now, we don’t know what he was referring to.”
No pending criminal cases were found for Charles Trumble in an online docket search. Porter County Prosecutor Gary Germann also said his office did not have any pending cases.
Charging documents describe a grisly scene when police arrived at the Trumble household shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday after Charles Trumble called them to say he had killed his mother by hitting her with a sledgehammer.
He told police he and his mother were in the living room. After police arrived, they observed through the glass front door in the living room a woman on her back and “a male subject lying next to the female subject on his back with a cellphone in his hand,” court documents show.
After police entered the house, they told Charles Trumble to roll over and place his hands behind his back and took him into custody, documents said.
A short-handled sledge hammer was found on the floor near her body, standing upright with the head on the floor and with a red substance on the carpet near it, documents said.
An officer performing CPR on Dixie Trumble, who officials said died at the scene, heard Charles Trumble say, “My mom was a distinguished woman. I am about to be in trouble for some really bad stuff and I killed her so she wouldn’t be exposed to it,” documents state.
Portage Fire Department medics arrived and continued to work on Dixie Trumble until they made contact with a physician, who advised them to stop further resuscitation efforts and they determined she was deceased. The coroner’s office was called at 9:27 p.m. Sunday.
Dixie Trumble was a longtime member of the board of the Friends of the Porter County Public Library System, serving as the board’s president in 2005, said Phyllis Nelson, the library system’s assistant director.
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