RCSO, Press Release

On the date of March 11, Patrick Scott pleaded guilty to murdering Valerie Tindall in Rush Circuit Court as part of a plea agreement. Scott was sentenced to 57 years to be served in the Indiana Department of Correction.

On the date of June 7, 2023, Scott murdered 17-year-old Tindall in Arlington. Over the course of five months, an extensive investigation was conducted by investigators from the Rush County Sheriff's Office, Rushville Police Department, United States Marshal Services, and Federal Bureau of Investigations culminating in the arrest of Scott on November 28, 2023. 

The Rush County Sheriff's Office from day one took this investigation seriously, and immediately began executing warrants on social media platforms, phone providers, and bank accounts to begin the process of tracking Tindall. Tindall was initially reported as a runaway, because of the actions taken immediately in the investigation data was able to be obtained and then later became extremely crucial in solving this case. 

On June 7, 2023, Scott brought Tindall back to his residence located in Arlington. During this time, an encounter occurred in which resulted in Scott killing Tindall by strangling her with his belt. Scott stored Tindall's body in a small, secured office in the residence until the next day when he reportedly constructed a box where he placed her body. Scott then wheeled Tindall to another property owned by the Scott family where he proceeded to bury Tindall. 

The Rush County Sheriff's Office viewed Scott as a suspect in this investigation early on. What made matters complicated through the investigation is that through Scott's lawn mowing business he had great access to remote locations. 

The Rush County Sheriff's Office obtained and executed over 50 search warrants as part of this investigation. The Sheriff's Office received a massive amount of data from this that required weeks of work to analyze. During this time, we began to build this case, follow the evidence and facts. 

Over the next several months the Rush County Sheriff's Office was conducted countless follow-ups from tips and continued to stay on Scott's trail during this time. We searched hundreds of acres of properties with the use of cadaver and tracking dogs checking remote locations that Tindall's phone showed geolocations of her being present. 

We completed a cadaver dog search on a nearby property to Scott's that contained a pond. This was completed based on the location of the pond to Scott's residence. When this was done, multiple cadaver dogs indicated the presence of human decomposition in the pond. During this time, the pond was searched by divers, sonar scanned, and nothing was located. 

After a topography study was completed, it was suspected that the odor could be emitting from water run-off, and it appeared based on the topography that this could be coming from a property owned by Scott. From here, a flyover was completed on Scott's properties, noting numerous areas of land disturbance. 

This led to the planning and execution of the search warrants conducted on Nov. 28, 2023, by multiple agencies. During this time, we executed search warrants on two properties in Rush County and one property in Johnson County simultaneously. A cadaver dog was deployed on the properties; however, no indication was obtained from the cadaver dog. Excavation of the properties located in Rush County were completed on areas of obvious ground disturbance. Two boxes were located near each other. The box that was found to contain Tindall's remains was located at a great depth in the ground. 

Scott was under constant surveillance during the execution of these search warrants. He was taken into custody without incident, where he confessed to his crimes. 

Our agency is fully aware of the effects this tragedy has had on our community and wants the public to understand that we took this case seriously from the start, which led to this arrest and conviction. There are several narratives that have been inaccurately reported during this investigation. When you combine the inaccuracies in timeline of events, location of events, and details of events, they give the false perception of missed red flags, which is not accurate. The accurate timeline and true narrative provided the foundation which led to this case being solved, and ultimately, to a conviction. 

This investigation was conducted thoroughly, professionally, and efficiently utilizing every available resource and agency that we had available to us. This investigation was solved, and justice was brought against Scott because all the agencies came together, worked collectively, and did their job resulting in a successful prosecution. 

This is a tragic case for Tindall's family and our community; however over the course of this investigation we found so many citizens willing to assist in any way necessary in locating Tindall. When we needed to check properties or needed to park our equipment on properties our fellow citizens never hesitated to assist us; for that we are appreciative of their support and assistance. 

We were assisted by a large number of agencies; however, we would like to thank some individual agencies for going above and beyond to assist with this investigation. 

Detective Caitlin Herbert and Detective Jordan Hoering - Rushville Police Department 

USMS Tom Abreu - United States Marshal Services 

Federal Bureau of Investigations 

Captain Darren Chandler and Detective Joe Mohr - Shelby County Sheriff's Office 

Tony Weaver and Lillian Hardy - K9 Handlers 

Bruce Davis - Davis Towing and Recovery 

ISP Dive Team 

DNR Dive Team 

"A special thank you to Rush County Detective Randy Meek and Shawn Smallwood for their dedication and professionalism during this investigation." 

Sheriff Allan C. Rice.