IndianaLocalNews

Recap of Tuesday afternoon’s developments in the Amber Alert tragedy

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards and Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill address reporters during a news conference that was broadcast live on 95.3 MNC on Sept. 27, regarding the latest developments in the investigation of Amber Pasztor and the deaths of her two children who were at the center of a statewide Amber Alert. (Saige Driver/WOWO News)

ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — The Latest on the deaths of two children whose bodies were found in a vehicle in northern Indiana (all times local):

5 p.m.

Prosecutors say a woman facing preliminary murder charges in the deaths of her two young children is cooperating with authorities and has provided helpful information in the investigation of a neighbor’s shooting death.

Police arrested 29-year-old Amber Pasztor of Fort Wayne after the bodies of 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor were found in a car with their mother in Elkhart. An autopsy has found the children died of asphyxiation.

Elkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hill says the deaths are “a senseless tragedy.”

Hill appeared at a news conference Tuesday afternoon with Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards in Fort Wayne. Richards says Amber Pasztor had been driving a car belonging to 65-year-old Frank Macomber. His body was found Tuesday morning in woods north of Fort Wayne.

No charges have been filed in Macomber’s death.

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4:10 p.m.

Elkhart police say autopsies on a young girl and boy found dead in the northern Indiana city have determined that they are the children of a woman facing preliminary murder charges in their deaths.

Elkhart police Sgt. Chris Snyder says the autopsies conducted Tuesday also determined that 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor died of asphyxiation and their deaths were homicides.

Police arrested 29-year-old Amber Pasztor of Fort Wayne on Monday on two preliminary murder counts after the children’s bodies were found in her car in Elkhart.

Prosecutors are expected to formally charge her in the case later this week.

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4:10 p.m.

A northern Indiana coroner has identified a body found in a wooded area as that of a man believed to have been in the company of a woman who faces preliminary murder charges in the deaths of her two children.

Senior investigator Rebecca Stuttle of the Allen County coroner’s office says the body is that of 65-year-old Frank Macomber and he died from a gunshot wound. His death has been ruled a homicide.

His body was found early Tuesday in a wooded area northwest of Fort Wayne near his home.

Authorities believe Macomber spent some time with 29-year-old Amber Pasztor. She was arrested on two preliminary murder counts after the bodies of her son and daughter were found Monday in her car in Elkhart.

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4:10 p.m.

Elkhart police say they are trying “to put the pieces together” in the investigation of an Amber Alert case that ended with the discovery of two children’s bodies in the northern Indiana city.

Sgt. Chris Snyder says officers are trying to determine what happened between the time 7-year-old Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor were abducted in Fort Wayne and when their bodies were found in Elkhart, about 70 miles to the northwest.

The children’s mother, 29-year-old Amber Pasztor, was arrested Monday on two preliminary murder counts after police found the bodies in a car she pulled up in outside Elkhart’s police department.

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2:10 p.m.

Northern Indiana prosecutors say they will file formal charges later this week against a woman arrested after two children believed to be her son and daughter were found dead in a car.

Elkhart County Prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Shelley Murphy says a magistrate will review probable cause information in the case Wednesday and formal charges will be filed later this week against 29-year-old Amber Pasztor.

Murphy says police “are still actively investigating the case” and prosecutors haven’t received their findings.

Pasztor was arrested on two preliminary murder counts Monday after Elkhart police found two children dead in a car. The bodies are believed to be those of Pasztor’s 7-year-old daughter Liliana Hernandez and 6-year-old son Rene Pasztor. Autopsies were to be conducted Tuesday.

The children had been the subject of an Amber Alert earlier Monday warning that their mother may have abducted them.

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