13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Clerk found dead at Village Pantry store

Clerk found dead at Village Pantry store

Cat Andersen/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - Metro police are searching for suspects who robbed a village pantry Saturday morning and shot and killed the clerk.

It happened around 5 a.m. in the 1400 block of South Meridian Street.

It was still dark when a customer stepped inside the south side convenience store, and walked into a robbery in progress.

"A customer arrived just after 5 a.m. and noticed 2 individuals in the clerks area inside the village pantry gathering merchandise. Just digging through taking packs of cigarettes from the shelf," explained Sgt. Paul Thompson.

Police say the customer chased the robbers out of the store and down the street until he lost sight of them.

"When the customer returned he found the clerk down on the ground suffering from some type of trauma. It is a possible gunshot wound but until we get through the autopsy we won't know for sure," says Thompson.

The customer called 911. When emergency crews arrived just a few minutes later, the clerk 62- year-old Rebecca Hough was pronounced dead.

Thompson says, "She is a long time employee of this store, like 20 some odd years." 

And well known in the neighborhood.

By daylight her family and neighbors swarmed the crime scene in disbelief.

"She would do anything for everybody I don't know why they would come in here and kill her like that.  I'm shaking right now.  I don't know what's going on, " said a co-worker Donna Browning.

She says it could have been her. She often worked with Hough.

"Everybody could come to her. If they needed money she'd probably give it to them you know what I mean," says Browning.

Police say they found some of the stolen merchandise along Union Street just two blocks southeast of the crime scene.

Thompson said, "There were some cigarette packs found in the neighborhood where the k9 tracked."

Investigators believe the robbers live very close by.

"I suspect that the people in this neighborhood are going to know who these people are. I think it'll come to us word of mouth and with the relationship this neighborhood has had with this clerk, I think we'll receive that information," said Thompson.

Police say it's still unclear if the robbers, who are now facing murder, got away with anything more than a few packs of cigarettes.