A 36-year-old woman from Kentucky stole a car and firearms before driving up to Indiana, police say, where she smoked methamphetamine with a Brown County man at his home and then killed the man who had been traveling with her.
Alicia Bustle was formally charged on Feb. 11 with murder in Brown Circuit Court.
On Feb. 8, the body of 38-year-old Patrick Harper of Kentucky was discovered in the Hicks Road home where Michael Hazelgrove, 54, lives.
A relative of Hazelgrove’s had requested a welfare check on him. Hazelgrove reportedly told the relative that a woman had shot a man there, according to a probable cause affidavit by Det. Brian Shrader with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department.
Hazelgrove was at the home when deputies arrived. He admitted that a shooting had happened. He pointed out a purse and bag that belonged to the shooter, whom police later identified as Bustle.
She was not at the home when police arrived; she was found later that day at a home on Lambert Hill Lane, just off Sweetwater Trail, where she was arrested.
Deputy William Pool found Harper’s body wrapped in plastic in a bedroom in Hazelgrove’s home, near the living room where Hazelgrove’s recliner was.
In an interview with police, Hazelgrove said he did not call 911 to report the shooting because he figured he was already in trouble, according to the affidavit.
He told police that Bustle had come up from Kentucky with Harper, whom he did not know. He had met Bustle before.
Hazelgrove confirmed that the shooting happened on Feb. 6.
Coroner Earl Piper confirmed that Harper died from a gunshot wound to the head. Piper said he was a shot a total of four times: three in the head and once in the back.
What happened?
When officers arrived at his home, Hazelgrove told them that he had collected the shell casings from the living room and put them in a bag. The casings were 9mm, Pool’s report said.
A white Ford Crown Victoria at the house had been reported stolen out of Kentucky, and during that theft, firearms were also stolen, the affidavit states.
Indiana State Police evidence technicians processed the crime scene at the home.
Hazelgrove and Bustle were taken to the Brown County Law Enforcement Center; ISP Trooper Chris Griggs interviewed Bustle and Shrader interviewed Hazelgrove.
Hazelgrove waived his rights to speak with Shrader. He said he met Bustle about two Thanksgivings ago when she had been kicked out of a house and was homeless, so he let her stay with him for a while. He also knew her because she had dated an acquaintance of his, the affidavit states.
When Bustle and Harper arrived at Hazelgrove’s home on Feb. 5, Hazelgrove said they all smoked meth together. He said Bustle and Harper began to argue and she threatened to hit him with a log chain, according to the affidavit.
The next day, Hazelgrove said he took some trash from inside the house outside to burn and heard several gunshots. When he went back inside, he found Harper dead on the floor and Bustle holding a rifle, which he described as a 9mm carbine rifle. Shrader noted that is somewhat of an uncommon gun, the affidavit states.
The description of the 9mm was similar to one of the guns that Bustle had been suspected of stealing out of Kentucky.
When Hazelgrove asked Bustle why she shot Harper, she told him he had threatened to do something to her children.
Hazelgrove said he was mad at Bustle for shooting Harper. When he told her he was not going to help her clean up, Bustle allegedly said he had to or she would kill him too, according to the affidavit.
Hazelgrove told police he helped wrap Harper’s body in plastic and drag it into another room from the front door area; then, he helped her clean up.
Several hours later, Bustle went outside and then disappeared from the property. Hazelgrove told police he sat in the house for two days with the body because he did not know what to do. He told two people about what had happened, the affidavit states; one of them was the person who called 911 for a welfare check.
The other person Hazelgrove told had been in the home the day of the shooting, but left before it happened. That man told police that Bustle had accused Harper of taking her belongings and that she was verbally abusive to Harper.
He told police he was “not a fan” of Bustle. He reported seeing Bustle have the 9mm rifle and a couple of pistols.
When the man returned to the home on Feb. 7, Hazelgrove told him that Bustle had “screwed him over” because she’d shot Harper and then left.
Police reported finding bloody evidence in a bathtub where Hazelgrove said the clean-up materials would be.
After their interviews with police, Bustle and Hazelgrove were booked into the Brown County jail on Feb. 8 on preliminary charges related to the homicide.
During an initial hearing on Feb. 10, Hazelgrove’s bond was adjusted to $100,000.
Bustle remains in jail on no bond.
Hazelgrove was formally charged on Feb. 11 with assisting a criminal, a Level 5 felony; and obstruction of justice, a Level 6 felony.
When asked during the initial hearing on Feb. 12 if he understood the “assisting a criminal” charge, Hazelgrove said he did not.
“My life was threatened, too,” he told Judge Mary Wertz.
Wertz explained that the charges were alleging that he had committed those acts, and Hazelgrove said he understood.
Public defender Courtney Allen was appointed to represent Hazelgrove. Public defender Jacob Moore will represent Bustle.
Through tears, when asked if she could afford an attorney on Feb. 10, Bustle told Wertz she was homeless and had not had a job for years, and was receiving assistance from family.
Confession
Bustle told police that she had driven up to Indiana late on Feb. 5/early Feb. 6. She initially said she had driven up with a friend, but could not remember his last name.
When asked who her friend was, Bustle used the word “was.” Shrader noted that using past tense to refer to Harper indicated that she knew he was dead.
Bustle was inconsistent in her interview with police and changed her story as facts were presented to her. She first told police she did not shoot Harper and that she thought he had gone missing.
She said that when she got back from looking for Harper, Hazelgrove was cleaning the house with bleach and the carpet in the back hallway had been pulled up.
She also admitted to taking and driving the stolen car and taking the firearms. She said her DNA would be on the plastic covering the body because she had used it earlier to cover the car due to a busted window.
She told police she did hit Harper with a log chain on Feb. 5 because she felt he was being disrespectful to Hazelgrove.
Bustle requested a second interview with police because she said she was high during the first one. During that interview, she said that Harper had raped her, but the location of the alleged rape changed four times. She also admitted to having consensual sex with Harper in the car at Hazelgrove’s home.
During the second interview, Bustle admitted to shooting Harper. She said she was in the living room when the rifle in her hands went off as Harper began to get up from a chair quickly. Harper began to yell and reach for a black powder gun behind a chair, so Bustle said she shot him two more times.
Bustle said she did not know where Hazelgrove was at this time, but he was not in the room.
When police told Hazelgrove that Bustle had admitted to the shooting, he seemed relieved and started to cry, but understood he was still in trouble, the affidavit states.
Police obtained a warrant to search the Ford Crown Victoria and found the rifle in the trunk wrapped in a blanket. The victim of the vehicle theft had described the same blanket to police.
In the trunk, police also found a small pair of pants with blood on them and 9mm ammunition. Shrader reported that while he was at the scene, he had noticed blood splatter on the ceiling above the front door and blood drops that had been partially wiped away near the door.
In her interviews with police, Bustle also mentioned that she had shot someone else in Crab Orchard, Kentucky, but they survived.
Shrader spoke to a sergeant with the Kentucky State Police about a case in which two men had been shot in the face about a year and a half ago. One man was killed and another was injured. The Kentucky State Police were unsure if charges had been filed in that case, according to the affidavit.
Wertz entered a preliminary plea of not guilty for Hazelgrove and for Bustle at their initial hearing Feb. 12. Hazelgrove’s jury trial is scheduled for May 19 and Bustle’s for May 12.
A murder charge carries a sentence of 45 to 65 years and a fine up to $10,000.
Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to contact the prosecutor’s office at 812-988-5470.
