Curtis Thomas, 30, of Fort Wayne was found dead in a ditch along a rural Whitley County road on March 14, 2022. An autopsy determined he died from a single gunshot wound to the chest, and authorities treated the death as a homicide.

Investigators traced the case to three people from Fort Wayne. Court documents say Ashlynn B. McClain arranged to meet Thomas for intimate relations and drug use; Mia S. Griffin reportedly drove, with McClain in the front passenger seat and Robert Thomas Drake and Thomas in the rear. An argument allegedly broke out between Drake and Thomas, a gun was fired, and Thomas’s body was pushed out of the car onto the roadside. Drake was arrested and charged with murder; Griffin and McClain were charged with aiding in a murder.

Drake’s jury trial began December 13, 2022, and resulted in a murder conviction and a 65-year prison sentence, upheld on appeal on August 31, 2023. Anyone with information about the meeting that night or the people involved is asked to come forward.