INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (April 20, 2014) — A pair of funerals, in stark contrast, will be held this week for a married Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department couple that died in a murder-suicide.
Investigators say Sgt. Ryan Anders killed his patrolwoman ex-wife Kim Carmack last Thursday night before turning the gun on himself.
Carmack will be buried this week in the Crown Hill Heroes of Public Safety section where other officers slain in the line of duty have been laid to rest.
Anders will be interred at Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens after what will be essentially a private funeral with no official IMPD participation.
Chaplain Philip Bacon told FOX59 News that IMPD’s top command staff evaluated the options available for services and department involvement and determined that Anders would not be recognized or memorialized by IMPD.
Visitation for Carmack will take place Tuesday from 2-8 p.m. at Crown Hill Funeral Home.
Funeral services, including IMPD Honor Guard presence, will be held at Saints Peter & Paul Cathedral. There will be a funeral procession.
Carmack will be honored as an officer who died while actively assigned to the department. Anders, by contrast, will not be officially recognized during his funeral service.
His visitation will be held at Shirley Brother Funeral Home at 9606 E. Washington St. Wednesday from 4-8 p.m. with funeral services to follow Thursday at the same location at 11 a.m.
While there will be no IMPD official participation in Anders’ services, off-duty IMPD and Marion County sheriff’s deputies are expected to attend.
Anders began his career with MCSD, where his father and uncle served, before transferring to IMPD.
Chaplain Bacon sent a system-wide email to IMPD officers Saturday saying, “We will put the pieces of a shattered IMPD family back together. Although the IMPD badge has been sullied, it need not happen again.”
The chaplain urged officers to avail themselves of many employee assistance programs provided by the department.
Bacon told FOX59 News that IMPD has never dealt with the murder of an officer by a fellow officer or police spouse who then took his own life and as a result.
“We are in uncharted territory here,” he wrote.
