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Naria Jenna Whitaker

Age : 31

Gender : Female

Race : Unknown

Date : 08/25/2021

Location : Unknown

City : Marion

County : Grant

State : Indiana

Agency : Marion Police Department; Mercer County Sheriff’s Office

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Suicide

Event : Suicide under police duress

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/25/2021, police went to the Marion, Indiana, residence of 33-year-old Naria Jenna Whitaker after investigators in Mercer County, Ohio, identified her as a second person allegedly involved in the 2015 killing and dismemberment of 21-year-old Ryan R. Zimmerman. Whitaker was the wife of 30-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Buzzard, who had been arrested earlier that day in Marion in connection with Zimmerman's death.
Zimmerman's partial skeletal remains had been discovered in January 2016 near the mouth of Coldwater Creek at Grand Lake St. Marys State Park in Mercer County, Ohio. Investigators eventually identified the remains through DNA evidence and developed information connecting Zimmerman to Buzzard and Whitaker.
On 08/25/2021, investigators executed an arrest warrant for Buzzard at her Marion residence. Mercer County Sheriff Jeff Grey subsequently said Buzzard confessed to strangling Zimmerman and dismembering his body. During her interview, investigators obtained information alleging that Whitaker had also participated in the crime, prompting police to seek her arrest.
Police then confronted Whitaker in Marion. According to Sheriff Grey, Whitaker was not yet formally in police custody, which meant officers had not searched or secured her personal belongings. During the encounter, Whitaker pulled a handgun from her bag and shot herself. Officers did not fire their weapons. Whitaker died from the self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Grey specifically addressed the circumstances of Whitaker's death, explaining that officers had gone there intending to arrest her and that her death was not the intended outcome of the operation. Her access to the handgun became possible because police had not yet taken her into custody or secured the contents of her bag.
Investigators alleged that Whitaker had participated with Buzzard in dismembering Zimmerman's body, cleaning the scene and disposing of his remains. Authorities believed Buzzard and Whitaker transported portions of Zimmerman's remains from Columbus toward Marion and discarded them at multiple locations. Whitaker died before she could be arrested or prosecuted, and the allegations against her were therefore never adjudicated in court.
Buzzard was subsequently prosecuted for Zimmerman's killing. The case against her continued after Whitaker's death, providing additional confirmation that the 08/25/2021 police encounter in Marion was part of the Mercer County homicide investigation rather than a Marion Police Department shooting investigation.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.wcjc.com/2021/08/26/two-marion-women-are-suspected-to-be-involved-in-a-2015-homicide/
https://www.dailystandard.com/archive/2021-08-27/stories/43630/1-arrested-in-2016-homicide
https://www.dailystandard.com/archive/2021-08-27/stories/43631/sheriff-victims-bones-brought-here
https://www.whio.com/news/local/substantial-update-surrounding-2016-homicide-case-expected-today/UFC6XHIJSJBPHAXUSLNA63IY5U/
https://www.dailystandard.com/archive/2021-08-28/stories/43637/suspect-charged-with-murder