From CrimeBlog.US: The Murder of Heather Norris

***UPDATES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ENTRY ***

(This entry was first posted at CrimeBlog.US.)

First entry: "Summer Lovin' Gone Bad: The Crimes of Joshua Bean." Check out that post to find any links not published in this follow-up.

WISH TV in Indianapolis reported today that Joshua Bean, age 23, confessed to murdering his long-time girlfriend Heather Norris, age 20, on or about April 13, 2007. Bean, a software engineer and wannabe DJ, then dismembered Heather's remains and dumped her body in as many as 10 different dumpsters on the south side of Indianapolis.

WISH also reported on the couple's past domestic troubles:

In July of last year, Bean was charged with battery and domestic battery for hitting Norris. In September, a judge acquitted him and dropped the domestic battery charge. Then in November, Norris claimed he beat her again. Prosecutors filed more charges six days later. Bean was scheduled for trial on those charges next week...

Joshua Bean posted three photos in his MySpace that showed injuries to his person (1, 2, 3). The exif data, stored date/time/etc. information uploaded with each photo, showed that all three photos were made July 26, 2006. The same data indicated that all three photos were uploaded on November 9, 2006. Bean held onto photos of injuries sustained in July, and it appears he decided to try and use them somehow when Heather reported him again in November.

In the previous blog entry about Joshua and Heather I posted an update that detailed one possible explanation for these photographs of a cell phone (1, 2, 3) , also posted in Bean's online photo album. A friend of Bean's was said to have been at the home of a relative of Heather's on Valentine's Day, 2007. The friend picked up Heather's cell and called Joshua Bean. Bean didn't answer, so the call didn't show up in his online bill. Joshua Bean's solution to documenting what would then appear to be a phone call from Heather Norris on Valentine's Day was to photograph the caller ID display on his own phone (**PLEASE SEE NOTE AT BOTTOM OF ENTRY REGARDING THE PRECEDING STATEMENT. 5/31/07**). It may have been that he was already attempting to formulate some sort of defense against the abuse charges he was facing -- a way of saying, 'see, she can't be serious, she's calling me on Valentine's Day.'

It's more obvious than ever that the final April 17 entry in Heather's MySpace blog was indeed an effort by Joshua Bean to cover up the fact that he'd murdered Heather a few days before. The deceits he was likely attempting to stage with the photographs he saved on the Web were somewhat subtle, and seemed planned in advance. His posting that last blog entry to throw any investigators off the trail online would be consistent with his past behavior.

An acquaintance of the couple's sent me a message via MySpace. Asking that I not reveal his identity, he told the story of one person's inside look at this abusive relationship that reportedly lasted 3 years. He began by confirming my guess that this particular Friendster profile published under the name "Josh Bean" was not created by the man now jailed on a murder charge in Indianapolis. Ellipses in parentheses show where the following has been edited to remove details that might identify the person who messaged me:

[You] were right that he did not make that page. A few of my friends in the past made the page because they were mad at Josh Bean for his previous relationship[,] where he was an abuser. A good friend of mine (...) is the reason I know Josh Bean. She was his girlfriend (...) and she was abused physically by him (...) Her recounts of her abusive relationship are horrifying. She claims that [Joshua] used to pin her down to the floor and spit directly into her face like it was a game. He would hit and beat her if she did anything he didn't like or wanted. He is very controlling. [I have] hung out with Mr. Bean on multiple occasions and I knew from the get go that some day he would end up killing some girl. I just never imagined it would be during a time when I still knew the fellow. Plenty of friends talked to Heather in the past and tried to get her to leave the relationship, but she was determined that she was in love with him. When I hung out with him he talked as if he was trying to break up with her in the past, but she wouldn't let him. She wanted to quit school and move in with him instead of him breaking up with her...

The young man speaking through that quote felt the dismay voiced by myself and others about the seeming lack of investigation into Heather Norris's disappearance. He also seemed angry:

I'm telling you all of this because I believe this story needs to be heard around the world. And the more facts you get, the better the story will be at portraying how much of a horrific crime this really is. When I first got the news (...) on Sunday afternoon, I fell to the ground and my heart stopped for a moment. I knew he was going to kill someone. It's unreal that it actually happened though. This is the sort of thing that only happens to others (or so you think until it really does happen).[Another friend] went over to Josh's house 3 days after the "unoffical" date of the murder and saw first hand all the carpet being burned / replaced. Josh Bean had deep cuts and stitches all over his hands and fingers. His story was that he was mugged by a black fellow at the foot of his driveway...

My MySpace correspondent then went on to express the shock surely felt by anyone who has ever realized that they in hindsight were dealing at some point socially with a psychopath, a killer:

(...) This is what creeps me out the most about this whole situation. Josh Bean, after killing Heather and cutting her into pieces with a chainsaw, went on with his life like NOTHING happened. He was inviting [friends] to clubs where he DJed. [One person] sat with [Josh] at a bar (while he had the cuts all over his hands) and all Bean was talking about what how it sucked that Heather was taking him to court (... knowing that he had killed her days before). Bean went on with his normal life like nothing out of the ordinary at all (...)

The young man closed his message by speaking what surely must be an uncomfortable truth about the disappearance and death of Heather Norris. One that will have to be confronted by many people in her sphere and perhaps even in Indianapolis law enforcement:

Josh Bean is a habitual abuser... and worst of all EVERYONE (all his friends and foes) knew about it and he still had a chance to kill such a sweet young girl. (...) Josh Bean tried his [damnedest] to cover this crime up and skip out of the country. He had no hurt behind his eyes. After he killed her and nobody knew, nobody could see anything out of the ordinary. And even worse, you are 100% correct about the missing person order. None of my friends (except for maybe one that was EXTREMELY close to her) knew that she was missing back in April. This is a horrible tragedy, and I hope that [blogs] like yours can help others realize that abusive relationships will only turn out for the worst...

It seems appropriate at this point to quote another article posted on WISH TV's website. The piece details yet another explanation as to why Heather's disappearance was seemingly ignored by so many:

Norris last spoke to her mother March 20th. She sent her a text message April 8th. On April 24th Heather's mother filed a missing person report."At the time that the missing persons report was made, no, we did not think that she was in harms... They thought she might be with Joshua," said Lt. Teresa Deal, cousin.

Speaking on behalf of the family, Norris' cousin says they knew Heather's boyfriend Joshua Bean had abused her.

"We know that it was a tumultuous relationship and there is documented evidence of domestic abuse," said Det. Lesia Moore, homicide...

Everyone knew that Joshua Bean was an abuser -- that admission came to me via the message received through MySpace, and it is stated in the quote from Heather Norris's own cousin.

Yet Bean still managed to have more than a month to dispose of evidence, of Heather's remains, and go on with his life as if nothing had happened. As I noted in the first blog entry about this strange and tragic case, Bean even had a profile on Match.com (screen capture of that profile), and he'd been using it in the 5 days preceding May 28, 2007. He wasn't worried.

If it was known that Heather was in an abusive relationship, then why would anyone have thought it was okay that "she might be with Joshua"? It seems like Heather Norris, the "heathacat" who danced electric, simply fell through a hole in the perceptions of others. It is hard to make any sense out of that.

Any further updates will be made to this entry.

UPDATE 1, 8:30 a.m. EDT, 5/30/07

If the following is true, Joshua Bean was a truly cold-blooded individual.

A young woman wrote to me via MySpace (my page is here). Asking for anonymity, she told me the following:

I was friends with both Josh Bean and Heather Norris although closer to Josh than Heather. In numerous conversations he made it extremely clear how bitter and hateful he was that she was taking him to court. I never got her side of the story to their relationship because we never discussed things like that but it was obvious that there was more than meets the eye. But I never imagined how deep it went. I talked to Bean quite regularly and he was always inviting me over to his new house on the east side (before and after the fact). He had a huge "birthday bash" on or around April 27 which is obviously after this whole nightmare began...

So, Joshua Bean was having a big birthday blowout two weeks after he disposed of Heather Norris's remains in dumpsters all around the south side. The young woman who wrote the preceding message also stated:

It makes me physically sick to know that he went on about his life as if nothing happened. To think that his mind is capable of that makes me believe this was totally planned and thought out beforehand. I was never even aware that Heather was missing and had I known I definitely would have done something to help point the finger at Josh...

There is a lot about this story that could make someone physically sick. The murder, the 'birthday bash' -- the list could be pretty long. I thank the person who wrote me this morning and provided the statement used in this update.

I also thank News Talk 1430 (WXNT) radio personality Abdul-Hakim Shabazz for having me on his show earlier this morning to talk about this case.

UPDATE 2, 10:36 a.m. EDT

The young man who was mentioned first in this blog entry sent along a screen capture of Joshua Bean's Facebook page. On Facebook profiles users can have a "mini-feed" listed -- it denotes changes made recently to the user's details, the profile, its appearance, etc. On April 27, Joshua Bean's birthday, Bean changed his status to "single."

Also seen on Bean's Facebook -- his "business" website, www.no-man.org. The site was registered to Joshua Bean in November, 2003.

Bean's music MySpace URL was listed on his Facebook as well -- www.myspace.com/a1jobe. The person who sent me the Facebook screen cap told me in an earlier message that the preceding MySpace had been considerably changed in the last month or so, and that Bean had stripped a good deal of the imagery and information from the page. My correspondent (in the letter-writing sense of the word) also was able to back up the information related in update 1 to this blog entry. He wrote:

My friends and I all witnessed / heard Bean's hateful remarks towards Heather and their court date. [...One] of my good friends was talking to Heather during one of their breaks from their relationship and actually got verbally threatened by Bean to [cease] all communications with Heather or else... This is not the first time one of my friends [was] verbally threatened by Bean over a girl. Bean wanted to be in control of these girls' lives...

Also we were all invited to Josh's birthday bash. At the time, though, nobody knew anything about the Heather disappearance or even I would have went to the police and pointed the finger at Josh...

Everyone, it seems, knew that Joshua Bean had a monstrous side to his personality. But no one could have conceived of the idea that the monstrous side would involve murder, dismemberment with a chainsaw, and Bean celebrating his birthday with a big bash two weeks later. Most of us just don't realize that human beings are capable of such bone-chilling behavior. If we let ourselves think too much about that part of human nature, we can't sleep at night.

Now you know why I'm such an inveterate insomniac, myself.

UPDATE 3, 12:03 p.m. EDT

I received a helpful note clarifying the previous charges and court dates scheduled for Heather's allegations against Joshua Bean. The person who sent me this information was able to view the actual court documents:

First incident:
July 26, 2006 - Heather reported the first assault to police.
Aug. 2 - Battery, domestic battery charges offically made against Joshua Bean.
Dec. 18 - The Judge acquitted Bean of the battery charge, and prosecutors dismissed domestic battery charges due to "evidentiary problems."

Second incident:
Oct. 29, 2006 - Again, Heather Norris called police.
Dec. 11 - Again, charges were filed against Joshua Bean.
Dec. 18 - That's right -- the same day Bean received a bench trial on the charges from July, he was arraigned in the second case.
June 4, 2007 - Joshua Bean's second trial was supposed to begin this day. As the person who wrote me said, it seems "unlikely" that Josh will be in court that day for battery charges.

The Indianapolis Star has an article up today, authored by Jon Murray, about Bean's first hearing, which took place this morning. Well worth the read.

***IMPORTANT NOTE, 5/31/07***

In e-mails to me and in this comment, Evan Weber says he was NOT the person who made the phone calls recorded in Joshua Bean's Photobucket. Here is Evan's comment:

There was some comments in the crime blog about me (the cousins boyfriend) who supposedly made those calls on feb 14th… point blank it was not me, i never accepted any bribe or did anything for bean. it was pablo quintana, [her] next door neighbor, a drug addict who did it for [xanax]. i will testify in court over this to clear my name, and yes those are fake phone calls, she never made them. i miss you heather, even though we didn’t talk too much recently...

I doubt Evan would publicly state he'd testify under oath without meaning it, so I believe him. Additionally, the source of the original statement wrote to confirm Evan's account. Here is a portion of their message:

Sorry for the confusion, but I went back and read my logs again. I misunderstood Josh, and Evan Weber is right. It was another friend who made the calls.

The person who made the preceding statement had become confused because Evan was mentioned later in the same conversation.

From CrimeBlog.US -- Summer Lovin' Gone Bad: The Crimes of Joshua Bean

**UPDATES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ENTRY. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN.**

(This entry was first published at CrimeBlog.US.)

On April 17, 2007, the following was posted in 20-year-old Heather Norris's MySpace weblog:

no one believes me and no one understands me

you know who you are .........

i can't take this drama anymore

i need to get out of this state!!!!!

Heather vanished in April. Her disappearance didn't attract the usual attention given to an attractive young woman who might be in peril. There were apparently flyers up around Indianapolis, Indiana, where Heather lived, but I could find no mention of Heather's vanishing in any weblogs. And until May 27, 2007, there seemed to be no news coverage of Heather's disappearance, either.

The recent articles about the missing young woman were written following the arrest of a 23-year-old software engineer named Joshua Bean.

From TheIndyChannel.com:

Investigators said Joshua Bean, 23, told them he killed Heather Norris, 20, and disposed of her body.

Norris was reported missing in April. Bean had been awaiting trial on a domestic battery case in which Norris was the alleged victim.

Police questioned Bean Saturday after they received information that he was about to leave central Indiana...

The article went on to say that police had not yet found Heather's remains, and that Joshua Bean would likely be charged with murder.

Joshua Bean was on MySpace as well -- www.myspace.com/dj_jobe.

Comparing the most recent comments left on Joshua's and Heather's profiles was telling. A male friend of Heather's left this comment around noon on May 27th on Heather's "heathathacat" profile: "We will remember you always with love... see you on the other side."

A young woman with the screen name "Little Miss Rotten" left these words on Joshua Bean's MySpace page several hours later: "I'm so confused right now. I hope you get some help. I'll be praying."

Heather Norris's photobucket account, kept under the screen name dreamon2027, had 114 images, and at least two of those photos appeared to be of her with Bean.

The picture on the left was titled "summerlovin140."

Joshua Bean had his own photobucket account, screen name "a1jobe". Many of the photos Joshua posted were cryptic. Three were of a cellphone displaying a number from an unknown caller, the call made after 10 p.m. on February 14, 2007 -- Valentine's Day.

A pair of photographs appeared to be of injuries to Joshua Bean's body. This photo, for example, showed a scratch under Bean's right eye and another on the bridge of his nose, which may also have been swollen.

Photobucket.com allows data stored with a photo (if any is stored at all) to be displayed by clicking an "exif data" link below the image. The dating of the summerlovin' photo in Heather's album showed that it was taken on July 6, 2006. Joshua Bean's photos of his injuries were made July 26, 2006, and Bean apparently uploaded the pics on November 9.

The story suggested by the dates and the nature of the photos is that things were fine between Heather Norris and Joshua Bean until July 26. Was Bean's posting of his injury photos in November an attempt to tell his side of the story in the domestic battery case, or were they related at all?

More tracking of Bean's online footprints revealed a personality that seems sadly familiar to anyone who has studied other instances of domestic violence and homicide. So often from male abusers and killers there is that constant undertone of narcissism and self-absorption.

If Joshua Bean had not been arrested, I wonder if he might have gone on as if nothing happened. Using the "a1jobe" nickname, Bean posted a profile on the dating site, Match.com. A look at the profile indicated that as of May 28, 2007, Bean had signed in within the last 5 days. Clicking the thumbnail on the right will show you a full screen capture of Bean's profile, made because Match.com profiles are only fully visible to registered users.

Here is what Bean wrote about himself, and who he was looking for:

I think me and my perfect match would both like to dance and go out to parties in different states and locally. I would want her to encourage my aspirations to become a dj and an electronic musicican (sic). She would be someone who I could trust and rely on regardless of the situation. I would like her to be supportive is basically what i'm getting at. She would be someone who could appreciate and accept me. No one is perfect. Whoever she is i'm almost positive she isn't perfect and she'll know that i'm not either. It would be someone that was smart enough to realize that and still want to find an equilibrium to create a future. But to be honest, to find what i'm looking for i think is going to be a long process. So all in all, really i'm just looking to have a good time while i search the universe for her...

Every point Bean made seemed directed back towards him, such as, "I would want her to encourage my aspirations to become a dj and an electronic musician..."

It was all about him, basically.

If nothing else, Joshua Bean's being online looking into that profile alone was enough to suggest that he felt he had nothing to worry about, for a time. Had he not known Heather Norris's fate already, he would likely have been too concerned about the domestic violence charges to go looking for a new lady on Match.com.

The police in Indianapolis say Bean confessed. While Heather Norris's body is still missing, Joshua Bean will likely lead investigators to her remains. The case will then be closed quickly, if Heather is found, and Bean does not recant.

The first truly worried-sounding comment left on Heather Norris's profile was posted on May 26, when a friend with the screen name "Rachael" wrote, "um... why am i finding 'missing person' posters of you all around the southside that say you have been missing since march 20th??? i really hope you are ok. its pretty obvious something has happened to you and i am really scared..."

Two questions come to mind. The first is this: Why did it seem like so little attention was being paid to this young woman's disappearance in general? My second question: If Rachael's note to Heather was accurate at all, and Heather had been missing since March, then who was posting in Heather's blog on April 17?

The answer to the question about the dating of Heather's disappearance could be just a matter of confusion on the part of the person posting the comment. It could also be more complex, if the fact that Joshua Bean was a software engineer is taken into account. What if he was posing as Heather online, to give the illusion to others that she was okay, just "hiding out" for a while, spooked by Bean's looming domestic violence trial?

Heather Norris's MySpace profile and her Photobucket album both sketch a portrait of a latter-day peace, love & drugs kind of girl. It was likely a relaxed, open-minded, music-loving lifestyle that had her crossing paths with Joshua Bean when he DJ'd for parties and raves. After all, Heather had an animated image on her MySpace profile that read, "I 'heart' drum n' bass" -- drum n' bass being a subcategory of electronic dance music.

Bean, the self-involved predatory male, might have spotted a mark as much as he saw in Heather someone who, for whatever reason, attracted him. He may have seen her as that woman who would support him in his pursuits.

There are too many sad elements to a story like this. One of them is embodied in a quote on Heather's MySpace page: "I'm heather. Completely laid back. Love good friends. Love good people. Are there locks on all doors? If you're looking for an open book. Look no further. I am yours. Talk to me, I will talk back."

It should have been okay for Heather Norris to be that way -- an open book. Instead, her most appealing qualities might have been the very things that made her vulnerable to a man like Joshua Bean.

UPDATE 1, 5:18 p.m.

WTHR in Indianapolis has an article up that contains further details about the murder of Heather Norris. An even more monstrous portrait of Joshua Bean emerges:

Police say Bean told them he stabbed Norris on April 13th and then covered his crime "including burning and dismembering her and then taking different portions of evidence to different dumpster sites on the south side," said Det. Todd Lappin, Metro Homicide Division...

Indianapolis police need more information, as well. Check out the article to see what else they are seeking as they prepare their case against Bean.

A discussion at Websleuths.com was begun about this case this afternoon. A poster there was able to find yet another of Joshua Bean's online profiles, at Friendster.com. On display at the Friendster profile are more photos of Joshua, and his narcissism is most evident in the come-hither poses he strikes in some of those photos. He was a slimy creep of the worst order.

If you were talking to Joshua via Match.com and you've just discovered what he actually confessed to doing -- killing and dismembering a woman -- please contact me via this form. Confidentiality is assured.

UPDATE 2, 6:22 p.m. (EDT)

Thanks again to my fellow Websleuthers, I've realized that my guess was correct -- the April 17, 2007 blog post found here: blog.myspace.com/heathathacat -- was fake.

This article provided the proof. Quoting:

Police said Norris, the daughter of a civilian Indianapolis Metro police employee, and Bean had a three-year relationship marked by several domestic violence calls to police.

Norris was reported missing April 24, more than two weeks after police said they believe she was killed.

The added emphasis was mine. Police believe Heather Norris was murdered and dismembered by Joshua Bean around April 10th, according to the report above. Therefore, she wasn't the one who wrote that blog entry I quoted at the beginning of this post.

I suspected so, right away. I'd originally written, prior to publishing this entry, something like, 'On April 17, 2007, Heather Norris wrote in her MySpace...' then, as I was editing, I looked at the entry again and just felt it made no sense. There was something... wrong about that April 17th post. So I changed it to what you can read now.

I wonder how far Joshua Bean went with his efforts to make it look as if Heather were still alive. I also have wondered if photos like this on Bean's Photobucket account were an effort by him to document something other than fear from Heather Norris where he was concerned. Was that photo of a cell phone really documenting a call from Norris to Joshua Bean on Valentine's Day? Or had he hacked his own phone in a manner that made it seem as if she was still holding a torch, in an effort to undermine the domestic violence charges she'd leveled against him? There are online services that allow you to make it seem as if a phone call is coming from any phone number you choose. Bean, the software engineer, would surely have known this.

I believe that ultimately Bean's downfall was his intelligence. Smarts combined with ego and pure narcissism lead men like him to believe they can fool the police. What they don't realize is that even if they are smarter than the individual cop they encounter while being questioned, they will never outsmart a department as a whole.

Still, the Joshua Beans will always try. Investigators usually know this, and they depend upon it.

UPDATE 3, 10:42 p.m.

An anonymous tipster sent me a link to another Friendster profile under Joshua Bean's name, but I must say -- and I said this in response to the tip -- that I doubt that Joshua actually made the profile. It reads as if someone who really hated Joshua created it in an effort to get some truth out there about the guy. Joshua's own online presence seemed so carefully calculated otherwise that this profile doesn't make much sense, save as an effort to both parody the man and perhaps warn others as to what the deal was with him.

Link: possibly fake "Josh Bean" Friendster profile.

A quote from that page, now -- it should make it evident as to why I'm guessing that Bean didn't actually create this profile:

A little about my existence? I am a self-employed pharmaceutical distributour. I sell pot. It's really bad pot that I purchase for half the price that I sell it for, but people and society are stupid so they buy it. I am also [trying to] grow pot in my closet. My father is giving me advice on how to do this. Now to my theory on life, I live my life based on PLUR. Well actually, that is what I base my life on right now, at least that is what I tell people. I never let anyone see the real me and when they do, they run for their lives. Also, when I was at the age of 16, life was all about satanism. At the age of sixteen, people should based their life on worshipping the great devil. That is what I did and it seemed to work. Now, life is all about drugs. -- If you want to know more about Josh Bean, check out my website. www.joshuabean.com.

There are many different sections about my life. I have an "ego" section, which does not make a lot of sense because in reality, your reality, the entire web site is one giant "ego" section. You will see that this web site is in memorium of Pamela Humphrey and Mrs. Susan Stevens. I think it is quite humorous because everyone thinks that it is a good thing, when really this site is so negative and psychotic that it is something that people would not want in their honor. I mean seriously, my site is like a diary and a history of my life. I even donated an entire section to people that I have met along the way and have liked and hated. I took down part of the hate section because I did not want people to think I was not about PLUR. But really, all you have to do is talk to me or know me to realize that I am nothing about PLUR. It just makes me seem more intellectual...

"PLUR" means "peace, love, unity, and respect," and you can read more about it here.

Incidentally -- www.joshuabean.com no longer seems to be online. An Archive.org search for it yielded little, save proof that it did exist.

UPDATE 4, 11:42 p.m.

I first posted this in the thread at Websleuths.com.

I was sure there was something wrong with photos like this found posted on Joshua Bean's Photobucket account. The photographs are of a cell phone with an "unknown name" and a 317 number on it. The call appeared to come on February 14 this year, Valentine's Day.

An anonymous tipster told me the following about those cell phone photos -- words in brackets are where I've substituted a name or word to clarify the wording from the e-mail I received:

[Joshua Bean] tried to make it look like [Heather Norris] had called him on Valentine's Day. His friend was at Heather's cousin's (he dated [the] cousin) house that night and when she wasn't around he called Josh's phone. His friend then quickly deleted the number. Josh could not find the call on his online phone records, [because] he did not pick up. That is why he took a pic with his camera... (**PLEASE SEE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ENTRY REGARDING THIS STATEMENT. 5/31/07**)

The tipster who gave me this info seemed to have a good deal more about Joshua Bean, and I told them that the info should go to the police immediately.

Also -- Indy Undercover appears to have the answer to the questions about why Heather Norris's disappearance received so little attention. If the statement from that blog is true, it is appalling:

IMPD's miserable leadership is catching up with us. Investigators into the disappearance of Heather Norris were told not to worry about it because she just ran away and her mother was overbearing. Now a suspect has confessed to killing her...

Emphasis added by me. I smell a lawsuit coming from Heather Norris's mother, if the preceding is an accurate statement about the month and a half since Heather Norris vanished.

UPDATE 5, 2:00 a.m. EDT, 5/29/07

I missed this blog entry at Indy Undercover before. It purports to tell even more of the story behind the (lack of a) search for Heather Norris. An informant approached the detective working the case and it is alleged that the detective never followed up. Then:

This case, Indyu's told, was solved by a district officer after he was approached by the informant. The officer tried to pass the info along to the detective who still refused to believe the information. It was only after the detective realized they might face disciplinary action did they decide to get off their rear end.

And then it was real detectives from homicide who came in and solved the case...

The blog in question seems to be aimed at Indianapolis law enforcement officers, so there's no telling how solid any of this is. I'd imagine it is pretty secure information, though, based on other entries there about other law enforcement-related subjects. You can read the comments on the entry I linked to get an idea of how questionable the information might be.

This may not just be the story of a relationship that went very, very bad, but of a failure in the system that was supposed to protect Heather Norris, do right by her if she did disappear. I chose to write the original blog entry because I sensed there was more. It's funny to me that I spent most of a day telling myself I wouldn't. I can't say I'm glad I did, because it is disturbing, yet I think the entry needed to be written.

**NOTE FOR TRUE CRIME BLOG READERS ONLY**

If you are a "Digger" and want to Digg this story, go here.

***IMPORTANT NOTE, 5/31/07***

In e-mails to me and in this comment, Evan Weber says he was NOT the person who made the phone calls recorded in Joshua Bean's Photobucket. Here is Evan's comment:

There was some comments in the crime blog about me (the cousins boyfriend) who supposedly made those calls on feb 14th… point blank it was not me, i never accepted any bribe or did anything for bean. it was pablo quintana, [her] next door neighbor, a drug addict who did it for [xanax]. i will testify in court over this to clear my name, and yes those are fake phone calls, she never made them. i miss you heather, even though we didn’t talk too much recently...

I doubt Evan would publicly state he'd testify under oath without meaning it, so I believe him. Additionally, the source of the original statement wrote to confirm Evan's account. Here is a portion of their message:

Sorry for the confusion, but I went back and read my logs again. I misunderstood Josh, and Evan Weber is right. It was another friend who made the calls.

The person who made the preceding statement had become confused because Evan was mentioned later in the same conversation.