Police arrested Travis Wolfe, 45, after officers found Kimberly Stewart, 51, dead in the backyard of her South Lynhurst Drive home late Tuesday, and investigators said Friday that witness accounts, blood evidence and a rapid search led to a murder charge.
The case moved fast, but many of its central facts are still being sorted out. Stewart was found just before 11 p.m. March 10 at a home on the city’s southwest side near Rockville Road and Interstate 465. Less than three hours later, police tracked down Wolfe, who investigators said lived in a garage on the same property and already had an active warrant in a separate firearm case. By just before 1 a.m. Thursday, detectives said they had consulted with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and added a preliminary murder charge. Authorities have not publicly described a motive, and prosecutors still must decide what formal counts to file.
Investigators built the timeline from a friend’s visits, witness statements and what officers found at the house. According to court details described in local reports, a friend who had known Stewart for about 10 years texted her Tuesday afternoon because she planned to pick up a car title tied to a vehicle they had sold together. The friend went to the home around 4:30 p.m. but did not see Stewart, though that did not immediately set off alarm because Stewart worked overnight at a UPS distribution center and often slept during the day. When the friend returned shortly before 11 p.m., the scene looked wrong. Stewart’s dog was outside, the back door was not as expected, and Wolfe was gone from the garage area where police said he stayed. The friend called Stewart’s phone, followed the ringtone and found her body between a wooden fence and an outdoor spa in the backyard.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived after the call for an unresponsive woman and found Stewart with injuries that detectives said were consistent with trauma. Wayne Township medics pronounced her dead at the scene. An autopsy later found that she died from multiple blunt force injuries, and a forensic pathologist told investigators the wounds were consistent with a dull ax or the blunt side of an ax, according to local radio and television reports that cited the probable cause affidavit. Another witness gave detectives a sharper picture of the hours before officers arrived. That witness told police he was outside around 10:30 p.m. when he heard a woman yell and saw a man between the fence and the spa swinging what looked like a club or hammer toward the ground. The witness also reported hearing the man yell at a dog to “shut up.” Detectives later said that account matched the place where Stewart’s body was found.
Police said they located Wolfe near East 19th Street and North Drexel Avenue, about 12 miles from the house, less than three hours after Stewart’s body was discovered. Officers first arrested him on the outstanding warrant for unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon, and SWAT officers assisted in taking him into custody, according to WRTV. During questioning, investigators said, Wolfe told police that he and Stewart had argued Tuesday and that he left the residence in Stewart’s blue Dodge Nitro, then returned after noticing it was nearly out of gas and switched to a BMW. He denied striking Stewart with an ax. Detectives said they also found blood in the passenger seat and back seat of the BMW, along with blood on a concrete step and on a pair of bib overalls. Those details, along with witness statements and interview results, helped detectives move from the initial firearm arrest to a murder charge early Thursday.
The affidavit described a tense and unstable backdrop in the days before Stewart was killed. A friend told police that Stewart and Wolfe argued often, including a dispute the day before about a water pump Wolfe had installed in a BMW. The same friend said Wolfe had been “threatening to kill people” on Monday, often carried an ax and acted erratically in the yard. The friend described him to police as a “psychopath maniac,” a phrase detectives included in the court narrative as part of the witness account, not as an official diagnosis or legal finding. Investigators also said Wolfe believed people were “out to get him” and would yell at neighbors. None of that, by itself, settles what happened Tuesday night. But it gave detectives a context for why they focused on Wolfe quickly once Stewart’s body was found and witnesses began comparing what they saw with what they knew about the people living on the property.
Stewart’s death drew a strong public response because of both the violence of the scene and the speed of the arrest. Deputy Chief Kendale Adams said, “Thanks to the relentless work of our detectives and the courage of the community, a dangerous individual is in custody today.” Adams said investigators worked through the night and relied on residents who shared information quickly enough to help secure the murder allegation. That public statement matched what the case record suggests: the friend’s decision to return to the property, the witness who reported seeing a man striking toward the ground, and the officers who found Wolfe hours later all shaped the case in less than two days. Even with that quick action, important parts of the story remain unsettled, including the exact sequence of the argument, whether investigators recovered the weapon they believe was used, and whether additional forensic testing will add or alter details already in the affidavit.
The legal case now shifts from detectives to prosecutors and the court system. Police said Wolfe faces a preliminary murder charge in Stewart’s death, and he was also wanted on the separate firearm case when officers found him. Local reports said the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office will make the final charging decision, a routine but important step because police arrest affidavits lay out probable cause, not a final verdict. Prosecutors may file the same counts, reduce them, add counts tied to the evidence or revise the case as lab testing and interviews continue. As of Friday, authorities had not publicly outlined a motive, had not released a full narrative of Stewart’s final hours and had not publicly announced a trial schedule. What is clear is the narrow sequence police have described: Stewart was alive Tuesday, found dead late that night behind her home, and Wolfe was in custody before dawn as detectives assembled a homicide case.
The scene itself helps explain why neighbors noticed that something was wrong. The property on South Lynhurst Drive sits in a part of Indianapolis where homes, garages, side yards and busy arterial roads meet in tight blocks. According to the witness accounts, the backyard was small enough that a ringing phone could lead a friend to Stewart’s body and close enough to nearby homes that a neighbor could hear a scream, a barking dog and a man shouting. Those details turned a private yard into a public crime scene within minutes. They also gave the case its emotional weight. Stewart was not discovered by a patrol sweep or a distant tip. She was found by someone who had come by for a routine errand and instead walked into a death investigation. That fact, more than any police statement, explains why the case moved so urgently and why the early witness accounts became central to the arrest.
By Friday, Wolfe was in custody, Stewart’s death had been ruled a homicide, and the next major step was the Marion County Prosecutor’s formal filing decision and any first court appearance that follows. Police have identified a suspect, but the fuller account of what happened in the backyard on March 10 is still being built.
Author note: Last updated March 13, 2026.