On the morning of November 6, 2021, a family member entering the Mulberry Street home of 74-year-old John Stephen Hall and his wife Elizabeth Ann Hall in Mount Vernon, Indiana, found both elderly spouses dead. The Indiana State Police and Mount Vernon Police concluded the deaths were homicides; both John and Elizabeth suffered fatal gunshot wounds. John was found in an upstairs bedroom and Elizabeth in a downstairs bedroom. Investigators observed signs of forced entry, including a broken pane of glass on a back door, and reported several missing items from the home, among them the couple’s wallets and phones.

Police developed a suspect, 28-year-old Austin Kusturin of Mount Vernon. Investigators say Kusturin’s fingerprints were identified on John Hall’s phone, surveillance and witness statements placed him near the home on the night of the killings, and a gun belonging to John Hall was recovered from a storage unit linked to Kusturin and his mother. Kusturin denied involvement at first and claimed he had purchased phones from someone else. The community remains shaken by the violent loss of the Halls.

If anyone has information about the night of November 5–6, 2021, or about items taken from the Halls’ home, please come forward.