HANCOCK COUNTY — Quick action by a Hancock County sheriff’s deputy likely saved the life of a woman who had been stabbed repeatedly in the parking lot of a convenience store.
Ronald Lee McClure, 49, 2000 block of South Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis, is facing multiple charges in the attack on the woman, described as an estranged girlfriend, at the Speedway store at 5972 W. U.S. 40. The attack occurred about 9:45 p.m. Saturday, May 8, outside the store, authorities said.
McClure was arrested the next day near the Subway sandwich shop in Cumberland.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Sgt. Nick Ernstes of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department pulled into the Speedway, at the corner of Mt. Comfort Road and U.S. 40, and noticed startled people at the pumps pointing to the north end of the building on its east side. Led by a witness, Ernstes soon found the victim lying on the ground on the north side of building, surrounded by a pool of blood with multiple, deep stab wounds to the upper chest and right arm, the affidavit said.
By then, the woman already had lost a large amount of blood. Sheriff’s officials said if it were not for the quick work of Ernstes, who used his first aid kit and applied pressure and bandages to her wounds, the woman more than likely would have died.
“I think it was truly an act of God that Nick Ernstes was in the right place at the right time,” said Capt. Robert Harris, public information officer for the sheriff’s department.
According to the affidavit, while Ernstes was working on the woman, she said, “I told you guys he was going to do this to me.” When asked who stabbed her, the woman identified McClure.
According to the affidavit, the victim is McClure’s estranged girlfriend. She told investigators she had a protective order against McClure in Marion County since late April.
The affidavit noted the victim was trying to break away from McClure when he sent her a text message Saturday night saying he was “no longer going to be nice.”
The woman, who was believed to have been living in Indianapolis, told family members she was going to a hotel in Greenfield to be safe, the affidavit said. She stopped at the convenience store to let her two dogs out and get gas in her car. That’s when McClure drove up in one of her other cars — which she had reported stolen May 2 — and rammed her parked car. The woman told officials she “panicked” and accidentally lowered the window instead of locking her door.
McClure then began swinging at the victim, forcing her into the passenger seat of her car, the affidavit said. McClure then began stabbing her. Soon, he was at the wheel and began to drive away as the victim struggled to get out, the affidavit said. The woman finally “got free” and jumped out of the moving vehicle while McClure fled.
According to the affidavit, investigators found a call to the Marion County 911 dispatch center from an associate of McClure’s, who told dispatchers in the call that McClure had told him he stabbed the victim.
“I stabbed (the victim). I think I killed her,” McClure told his associate, according to the man’s 911 call.
McClure faces a Level 1 felony count of attempted murder; a Level 2 felony count of attempted kidnapping; a Level 3 felony count of armed robbery; a Level 5 felony count of stalking; a Level 6 felony count of criminal recklessness; two Level 6 felony counts of auto theft; and two misdemeanors.
The case against McClure was officially opened Thursday, May 13. McClure is currently being held without bond in the county jail and is expected to make an appearance in Hancock County Superior Court 1 in front of Judge D.J. Davis today (Friday, May 14).
