Owen County murder suspect arrested at Fort Liberty

A two-year investigation recently culminated in the arrest of 24-year-old Kenron Laing of Crown Point, Indiana. Laing was arrested on a warrant in connection with the 2022 murder of Gildardo Garcia Salinas, 39, in northern Owen County.

Detectives from the Indiana State Police (ISP) Bloomington Post traveled to Fort Liberty, northwest of Fayetteville, North Carolina on Nov. 14 where they were joined by Army Criminal Investigation Division agents in arresting Laing, who authorities say was taken into custody without incident.

Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, is one of the largest military installations in the world by population, with over 52,000 military personnel.

According to an article published in the Nov. 20, 2024 edition of Stars and Stripes, a daily newspaper reporting on matters concerning members of the United States Armed Forces, Laing enlisted in the Army in August 2023, about 10 months after Salinas was killed.

Private First Class Laing was identified by Stars and Stripes as a petroleum supply specialist assigned to the 82nd Airborne’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team.

After waiving extradition, Laing was transported from the Cumberland County Jail where he had been awaiting extradition to Owen County to stand trial.

An initial hearing was held on Nov. 21, where Owen County Prosecutor Benjamin Kim said Laing was advised of the charges against him and his constitutional rights as an accused facing criminal charges.

A public defender was appointed by the court to represent Laing, who remains in custody without bond at the Owen County Security Center pending a trial by jury, which is slated to begin on Aug. 11, 2025.

Fatal shooting

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case by ISP Detective Ian Matthews, authorities from the state police were contacted on Nov. 2, 2022 to initiate an investigation following the shooting death of Salinas. The shooting happened at Salinas’ residence in the area of North Cataract Road and U.S. 231.

Authorities with the Owen County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) were first on the scene, having been notified via a 911 phone call received at approximately 8:25 p.m., the probable cause affidavit indicates. The caller reported gunshots had been fired and a male had been shot. Police arrived shortly thereafter to find Salinas deceased outside of his home from apparent gunshot wounds.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Salinas, his wife Brandy Pocasangre, and her 14-year-old daughter were inside the home when they heard noise coming from the kitchen door on the home’s east side.

“She stated that after hearing the noise they realized that a black male was attempting to push his way into the door, prompting (Salinas) to grab his shotgun that was nearby in the kitchen, holding it horizontally across his chest to block the male from coming inside,” the probable cause affidavit notes.

Salinas was reportedly able to “nudge” the intruder outside the door, with the door closing behind them. Once outside, the probable cause affidavit details how Salinas engaged in what his wife later advised sounded like a “struggle or fight
on or near the outside porch.”

Fearful, Pocasangre told authorities how she waited for a short time before she “yelled from inside the home and walked toward the east side door as she heard numerous gunshots,” the probable cause affidavit explains. Now armed with a handgun that had been retrieved from inside the home by her daughter, Pocasangre reportedly opened the door and saw the same black male that her husband had confronted at the door fleeing on foot from the south side steps of the porch to an awaiting vehicle parked to the north of the home.

The victim’s wife later described the shooter to authorities as a “black male wearing black/dark clothing with a hoodie, balaclava-style mask covering his chin area, skinny, dark complexion, wide nose, black hair in front with fuzzy braids or Afro, possible whiskers, ‘peach fuzz’ on face.” He appeared to be in his early to mid-20s, she told police, and stood approximately six feet tall.

Although the suspect had been wearing what appeared to be a balaclava-style mask when he initially confronted her husband at the door, Pocasangre described to authorities how it was “pulled down below his chin, allowing her to see his full face.”

She also recounted to authorities how she attended to her injured husband after the vehicle fled, noticing he had a “gunshot wound to the upper forehead and additional gunshot wounds around his chest and abdomen,” according to the probable cause affidavit.

Pocasangre attempted to administer CPR and lifesaving measures until
authorities arrived, the probable cause affidavit reveals, while also checking on the welfare of her daughter and instructing her to call 911 for help.

When deputies arrived on the scene, they encountered Salinas laying in the grass near the east side door of the home. The injured man was still moving, the probable cause affidavit details, which prompted authorities to call for emergency medical technicians (EMT), who upon arrival also attempted lifesaving measures before Salinas succumbed to his injuries. He was later pronounced deceased at the scene.

Phones recovered at scene

During the investigation that followed, detectives learned from Pocasangre how Salinas had discovered an abandoned black bag in the courtyard of an Indianapolis-area motel. Salinas was employed by a landscaping company, authorities would discover, and had been on the hotel grounds that day with a landscaping crew.

Contained inside the bag were drugs and drug paraphernalia, according to the statement given to authorities by Pocasangre, along with an iPhone. She told authorities how her husband had sent her a picture of the motel courtyard and showed her a video of him “stomping out the drugs,” stating to her that the drugs could hurt someone, “especially a child.”

Salinas brought the bag and iPhone home with him after leaving work later that day, according to the probable cause affidavit, showing his wife the iPhone and its case before reportedly telling her he planned to return the phone to his workplace the next day.

Further details provided by Pocasangre would lead authorities to believe the suspect, later identified as Kenron Laing, had attempted to enter the home after tracking the phone to the couple’s northern Owen County residence.

In total, two discarded iPhones would be discovered at the scene. The first was located in a gravel area, the probable cause affidavit indicates, approximately 15 to 20 feet east of the victim’s body. Identified as a black iPhone housed in a clear case, the phone appeared to authorities to have been “wiped” or factory reset. Although the screen read “The iPhone has been locked,” an associated Gmail account would reportedly help police determine the phone belonged to Laing.

According to the probable cause affidavit, authorities with the ISP Cyber Crimes Unit were able to uncover identifying information from the phone which was used to gather subscriber information and records from both Apple and AT&T. The subscriber of the phone and associated service, authorities would discover, was listed as “Mr. Kenron Laing.”

The second phone, described as a dark-colored iPhone housed in an orange, clear case was recovered by authorities after it was spotted by Pocasangre after she had moved Salinas’ truck from where it had been parked in the couple’s driveway. This was the same phone, Pocasangre advised authorities, that Salinas brought home with him that day, along with the bag in which it had been found. Salinas had shown her the phone and its case, the probable cause affidavit recounts, while the two of them had been standing in the driveway.

Following the discovery, the victim’s wife reportedly advised police how she felt the phone had possibly “been tracked” by the individual who ultimately killed her husband.

The culminating investigation led authorities to conclude both phones belonged to Laing, the probable cause affidavit details, with police making the connection through verified phone numbers and email addresses.

Murder weapon

Through a series of interviews and surveillance video, authorities were also able to determine that Laing had been staying at the Indianapolis-area motel with his sister, identified in the probable cause affidavit as Kennisha Laing, then age 20. Police later applied for and were granted a search warrant for the AT&T cell phone records associated with Kennisha’s phone, discovering that it too had traveled a similar path as Kenron Laing’s cell phone from the motel to the area of the crime scene on the date and time of the murder.

The investigation would ultimately take an even deadlier turn when on July 28, 2023, authorities learned Kennisha Laing had been booked into jail in Cook County, Illinois on charges of first-degree murder.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case against her brother, Kenron, Kennisha Laing reportedly shot and killed a 16-year-old juvenile female at a hotel in South Holland, Illinois, before barricading herself in the room and eventually being arrested.

Once in police custody, authorities say she described the revolver handgun she used in the crime, identified as a Taurus model 856 “38 Special +P,” as belonging to her brother, Kenron Laing.

Two fired bullets collected from the many fired by the Illinois State Police Laboratory during their investigation of the firearm were later requested and obtained by local authorities. Those bullets, the probable cause affidavit advises, were tested by the Indiana State Police Evansville Laboratory for comparison against a bullet retrieved from the spine of Salinas during an autopsy conducted on Nov. 4, 2022 at Terre Haute Regional Hospital.

The test, authorities say, identified the two items as having been “fired in the same firearm.”

The case remains under investigation, and Owen County Prosecutor Benjamin Kim has issued a reminder that all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.