BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In August, Daniel Messel was convicted in the killing of Indiana University student, Hannah Wilson, and was sentenced to 80 years. Wilson’s body was found in April 2015 in a vacant lot in Brown County. Messel is appealing that conviction.
Last Friday, Messel was charged with rape, criminal confinement, theft, criminal deviate conduct, battery and assault in another crime that was committed in September 2012. That victim told police she had been out drinking, became very intoxicated and passed out. She told police that when she woke up, she was in car with an unfamiliar man who was assaulting her. Despite the assault, she was able to fight the attacker off. Police tested DNA evidence under her finger nails and it produced a positive match with Messel.
Family members of victims in the Bloomington area believe Messel could be responsible for other similar crimes, possibly even the unsolved Lauren Spierer case.
Messel has criminal history dating back to the 1980s, including battery, battery with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief, confinement, driving while intoxicated, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct. During a one-year sentence for battery in 1992, he was treated at a psychiatric center in Madison for anger management issues.
