Edward Russell Jr. was charged in July in connection to a series of homicides that occurred in February 2002, officials said.
The charges were recently unsealed in the cold case.
The murder charges are connected to the Feb. 9, 2002 murder of Mary Ann Wrencher in the 800-block of Kentucky Street and the murders of Lenard Johnson, Barbara Hall and Curtis Hall between Feb. 8 and 12, 2002 in the 800-block of Virginia Street, police said.
The crime scenes were about half a mile apart.
Recently unsealed court documents are shedding some light on the many hours of witness interviews and investigation that prosecutors say implicate Russell as the suspect, after the Lake County Prosecutor's Homicide Task Force reopened the case.
A probable cause affidavit filed in July of 2025 details the relationship between Russell and the victims.
In 2001, police were called to Wrencher's home, where officers say she described Russell as her live-in boyfriend, and that Russell had beaten her.
Less than a year later, she was found dead with stab wounds.
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A few days later, the bodies of Johnson, his girlfriend, Barbara Hall, and her son, Curtis Hall, were found, also with stab wounds.
Russell was interviewed by investigators last year at the Westville Correctional Facility in Indiana, where he is serving a 22-year sentence for a 2016 armed robbery with bodily injury.
As he did when he was interviewed in 2002, Russell denied any involvement in the murders of any of the four victims.
Russell did admit to working on cars with Johnson in the garage behind the home on Virginia Street.
That home has since been reduced to rubble, with few small signs of the auto work that was once done there.
A few blocks away, it's a similar story on Kentucky Street, where the one-time home of Wrencher is no longer there.
Russell is being held at the Lake County Jail in northwest Indiana.
"We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Prosecutor Benard Carter for his invaluable partnership and leadership in these efforts and the investigators of the Homicide Task Force. Our agency remains deeply committed to public safety and ensuring that offenders are held accountable. While we aggressively fight current crime to protect our community today, we are equally dedicated to reviewing and actively investigating all unsolved crimes from the past. Time does not diminish our pursuit of justice for victims and their families" Police Chief Derrick Cannon said in a statement.
Family of Johnson and the Halls said they want to share in this step toward justice privately as a family, and that they'll celebrate if and when Russell is eventually convicted.
The Lake County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment on the details of the murder charges against Russell, only saying they believe there could be more victims.
They urge anyone with information to contact the Lake County Prosecutor's Homicide Task Force.