On January 25, 2005, 10-year-old Katlyn “Katie” Collman
On January 25, 2005, 10-year-old Katlyn “Katie” Collman left her home in Crothersville, Indiana, around 3 p.m. to walk about a block and a half to the Dollar General store to buy toilet paper with $1.10 from her mother, Angie Collman. Katie, born in 1994, was a fourth-grader at Crothersville Elementary School, described by family as cheerful and responsible. She never returned home. Angie and her husband, John Neace, searched for her and called police around 4 p.m., prompting an Amber Alert—the first in Indiana history.
A massive search ensued, involving 50 officers, volunteers, and K-9 units covering woods, fields, and streams, but no trace was found. On January 30, 2005, a passerby discovered Katie’s body in a creek off County Road 925 East in Brownstown, about 15 miles from home. The autopsy confirmed she had been raped and drowned, with death occurring shortly after her disappearance. Nearby, police found a cigarette butt with DNA matching semen on her body.
The DNA led to Anthony Ray Stockelman, 38, a convicted sex offender from Seymour, Indiana, with prior arrests for child molestation. Arrested on February 4, 2005, Stockelman confessed to luring Katie into his white 1980s Ford F-150 pickup, driving her to the creek, assaulting her, and drowning her when she fought back. He was charged with murder, rape, and child molestation.
Stockelman pleaded guilty in April 2005 to avoid the death penalty. On June 1, 2005, Jackson County Circuit Judge William Vance sentenced him to life without parole for murder, plus 60 years for rape and 30 years for child molestation, concurrent. He is serving his sentence at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
Katie’s cousin, Jared Harris, 21, then serving time for burglary at the same facility, learned of Stockelman’s conviction. On September 22, 2006, Harris waited in Stockelman’s open cell, locked the door behind him, and used a makeshift tattoo gun (a sharpened guitar string and motor) to etch “KATIE’S REVENGE” across Stockelman’s forehead. Guards intervened after hearing noise. Harris was charged with battery but received no additional time due to good behavior credit.
As of October 2025, Stockelman, 58, remains incarcerated, with the tattoo still visible. Harris, now 40, was released in 2010. The case, one of Indiana’s first using DNA to solve a child homicide, prompted enhanced Amber Alert protocols. No further legal actions are pending. A memorial scholarship honors Katie in Crothersville.
