ARLINGTON, Ind. — Court documents reveal that Patrick Scott, the neighbor and boss of missing teenager Valerie Tindall, reportedly admitted to officers that he killed the 17-year-old girl on June 7 — strangling her with a belt and then burying her in a homemade box in his backyard.
Patrick Scott, 59 of Arlington, was arrested on Tuesday evening after federal agents and local authorities descended upon his property in a concentrated search for the missing teenager who hadn’t been seen alive since June 7.
Previous reports detail how Scott was not only a trusted neighbor to Tindall and her family, but that the teenager worked for him as part of his landscaping company; mowing lawns in the summer.
On Wednesday, the Rush County Sheriff’s Department announced that Scott had been arrested on a preliminary charge of murder after human remains were found on his property. While family believes the remains to be Valerie Tindall, the sheriff said final identification must come from the coroner.
Newly released court documents reveal that officers uncovered two homemade boxes made of 2x4s and oriented strand boards during the search of Scott’s property on Tuesday. Originally a source told FOX59/CBS4 that the human remains were found in a barrel. Court documents detail that the remains were actually found in one of the buried homemade boxes.
According to the documents, an officer observed the human remains located within the box and described “instantly” spotting orange fingernails on the deceased body. Police said the fingernail color matched a photograph found on social media of Valerie Tindall posted on June 7.
Inside the second homemade box were VHS tapes and miscellaneous paperwork.
Scott was taken into custody after the discovery of the human remains and questioned by police. During this questioning, Scott reportedly admitted to killing Valerie. He said his wife and daughter “don’t know nothing” about the killing and told officers he strangled Valerie with a belt; a belt Scott said he continued to wear after.
“I put it around her neck and I held onto it until she quit,” Scott allegedly described to police.
Investigators found records of Scott purchasing the 2x4s and the oriented strand boards at the Home Depot in Greenfield the day after Valerie vanished on June 7. He later told police he did purchase the boards to make the box he put Valerie’s body in. He said prior to making the box, Valerie’s body was in his office.
After making the box, Scott told officers he wrapped her in plastic, put her in the box and screwed it shut, then wheeled it out of his office on a dolly. He then put the box in a hole and went to work with a shovel to cover it up. Scott told officers the second box had been in the hole since July and that he used it to “put s*** in.”
When police asked if Scott hated Valerie, he said no and told officers the two had done all sorts of things together outside of working; like shopping and going out to eat.
Scott claimed he hadn’t planned to kill Valerie and that it “just kind of happened.” Scott also made claims that he thought Valerie was going to seduce him or try and blackmail him into buying her a new car.
“I just knew she wasn’t going to blackmail me,” he allegedly told an officer.
When asked if it bothered him that he killed Valerie, Scott reportedly said, “Well, I wasn’t too crazy about it.”
Valerie’s last known location, according to cell phone records, wasn’t far from Scott’s home. Her last phone activity was shortly before 1 p.m. on June 7. Previous reports detail how Scott gave inconsistent stories about last seeing Valerie and ended up being charged with false informing in June.
Court documents reveal that police searched Scott’s property with cadaver dogs on Oct. 11, with the dogs giving a positive indication of the presence of human remains within a pond on Scott’s property. However, a search of the pond didn’t uncover any remains.
Officers later spoke to the dog handlers and learned that water is known to hold scent and that wind could have carried the scent toward the pond. Police noted in their report that on Oct. 11 the wind was coming from the direction of Scott’s property where the homemade box would eventually be found.
Police reportedly ordered a topography study to also search for possible water run-off that drained into Scott’s pond along with ordering a flyover of the property as investigators attempted to zero in on the possible reason the cadaver dogs indicated possible human remains on Oct. 11.
During a flyover conducted on Oct. 12, police noted “multiple areas of obvious ground disturbance.” Search warrants were requested on Nov. 27 leading to nearly 40 federal agents and local law enforcement officers descending upon his property on Nov. 28.
The two buried homemade boxes were found underneath a pile of miscellaneous debris, according to the court documents. Previously, witnesses reported seeing Scott tear down and burn his garage at 2 a.m. not long after Valerie vanished.
Police said that when the box was uncovered, officers immediately noted the smell of decomposition despite the box being wrapped in a tarp with duct tape used on the seams.
Scott was officially charged with murder on Thursday, two days after the human remains were found on his property.