Mary Elizabeth Helsley, 44, Greenfield
HANCOCK COUNTY — The last person linked to a drug operation throughout the area is now behind bars. A warrant for a woman’s arrest has been active since late April after law enforcement opened an investigation linking her to illegal drug activity.
Officials from the Greenfield Police Department and Hancock County Sheriff’s Department responded to four different drug overdoses in the county on March 1 and began work shortly after to find the source of the illegal drugs. Their work resulted in five people being charged with major felony drug crimes.
Mary Elizabeth Helsley, 44, Greenfield, the last of the five, was arrested and taken into custody Tuesday, July 26. She’s been charged with seven crimes including four different Level 2 felony counts of dealing methamphetamine and illegal drugs as well as manufacturing illegal drugs. She also faces two Level 5 counts of corrupt business influence and a Level 6 felony charge of a criminal gang activity.
Christopher Daniel Mize, 36, Indianapolis; Amanda Jane Zurwell, 46, Indianapolis; James Edward Shearer, 37, Greenfield; and Diana Marie Holbrook, 44, Greenfield, were all taken into custody and charged earlier this spring while Helsley remained at large. All were named as co-defendants in a lengthy probable cause affidavit filed in Hancock County Superior Court 1 in early May.
Mize, Zurwell, Holbrook and Helsley are all facing seven different crimes each, including four different Level 2 felony charges of manufacturing and dealing illegal drugs. Shearer is facing nine crimes in all, including six different Level 2 felony charges of manufacturing and dealing drugs. The most serious charges against the five — the Level — felony crimes, carry up to 30 years in prison.
Between text messages, phone calls, statements, cash app records, and GPS locations, officials believe all parties were involved with illegal drug activity involving methamphetamine and fentanyl in the county, officials said.
In the affidavit, Helsley was listed as one of the four people who overdosed on the night of March 1. Sheriff’s officials were called to County Road North 150W, where a female later identified as Helsley was on the floor unconscious, the affidavit said. Holbrook was also at the scene and had already administered Narcan, the report stated.
Officials interviewed Helsley on March 10 about her overdose and she told officials she and Holbrook had ingested illegal drugs and admitted to selling drugs to a man officials saved on March 1, the affidavit said. Information was also obtained on Mize and Zurwell who officials learned were “dealing” to multiple people in the county out of Marion County, the affidavit said.
Officials were able to find information on Helsley’s cell phone indicating illegal drug activity including her selling illegal drugs, the affidavit said.
Due to the connection discovered to Shearer, who was arrested in early March, officials started monitoring his phone calls from the county jail, the affidavit said. They noticed several inmates were contacting Holbrook, who officials said in the report supplied Shearer and Helsley with illegal drugs.
Helsley had her initial hearing in Superior Court 1 Wednesday, July 27 where Magistrate Cody Coombs gave her a $50,000 cash bond. She is set to be back in court again in mid-September for a pretrial conference.
