Daniel Messel: Hannah Wilson Murder, Sentence, and Prior Crimes

Daniel Messel is an Indiana man serving an 80-year prison sentence for the April 2015 murder of Hannah Wilson, a 22-year-old Indiana University senior he abducted from Bloomington and bludgeoned to death in rural Brown County. He was 49 at the time of the killing, was convicted by a jury in August 2016, and later pleaded guilty to a separate 2012 sexual assault of another IU student. His criminal record of violence against women stretches back to 1989.

The Killing of Hannah Wilson

Wilson, a psychology major and Gamma Phi Beta member, spent the night of April 23, 2015, at a Little 500 weekend party in Bloomington and then at Kilroy’s Sports Bar. Friends put her in a taxi around 1:00 a.m. Her roommates later found her purse and cellphone on her bed and the front door ajar, indicating she had made it home before she was taken.

At 8:34 a.m. the same morning, a passing driver spotted Wilson’s body about 10 feet off Plum Creek Road near State Road 45 in Brown County, roughly 25 miles from Bloomington. She was lying face down with a cloth covering her head. An autopsy confirmed she died from blunt force trauma to the head.¹

Next to the body was a black cellphone in a red case. It belonged to Messel, and investigators had a suspect within hours.² That morning Messel skipped work, emptied his bank account, and filled his car with gas. When Indiana State Police arrived at his home, they watched him carry a plastic garbage bag to his car and arrested him. Inside the bag was clothing stained with Wilson’s blood. Her blood, hair, and DNA were found inside and outside his 2012 Kia Sportage. Surveillance video showed a vehicle matching his following Wilson’s taxi and later near the crime scene, and cell tower data placed him in both locations.¹ He was charged with murder on April 27, 2015.

Trial and 80-Year Sentence

Messel’s trial began August 2, 2016, in Brown County Circuit Court before Judge Judith Stewart. Prosecutors relied on the DNA evidence, the phone at the scene, the surveillance footage, and cell location data. They also introduced testimony that Messel had previously owned a Maglite flashlight that could have been the murder weapon, though the weapon itself was never recovered.¹

The jury found Messel guilty of murder on August 10, 2016, and then found he qualified as a habitual offender based on his prior felonies. On September 22, 2016, Judge Stewart imposed 60 years for the murder plus a 20-year habitual offender enhancement, for a total of 80 years. The judge said Messel had “showed a pattern of criminal conduct and violence.”³

Messel appealed, arguing the flashlight testimony was too speculative and the sentence too harsh. On June 29, 2017, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed both the conviction and the sentence, citing the “overwhelming independent evidence” of guilt and the “appalling nature of this offense.”¹

The 2012 Sexual Assault Conviction

Messel’s murder conviction brought a second case forward. On September 1, 2012, a 22-year-old IU law student identified in court records as K.P. was attacked in a gravel parking lot off Headley Road near Griffy Lake. According to testimony, Messel pulled her from his car by her hair, threw her onto the gravel, forced her to perform oral sex, and punched her in the face hard enough to leave a black eye and dislodge a contact lens. She fought back, scratching and kicking him, and walked to a nearby house after he drove off.⁴

A rape examination recovered skin cells from beneath her fingernails, and DNA testing later matched Messel at a frequency of once in 1.7 million people.⁵ The case went unsolved for years. K.P. came forward to identify Messel only after seeing news coverage of the murder trial.⁶

Prosecutors originally charged Messel with attempted rape, criminal deviate conduct, criminal confinement, battery, and theft.⁵ Under a plea agreement, the attempted rape and other charges were dropped. On April 24, 2018, Messel pleaded guilty to battery resulting in serious injury, a Class C felony. He received eight years for the battery plus a seven-year habitual offender enhancement, for 15 years total, to run concurrently with his 80-year murder sentence.⁶ At sentencing, K.P. told the court: “I knew this was not just a one time thing for my attacker. This is something he had done before and would do again.”⁷

Earlier Criminal History

Messel’s record of violence goes back more than two decades before Wilson’s death.

In 1989, he was arrested after allegedly beating his grandmother and breaking bones in her face; no charges were filed. That same year, he was convicted of forgery.⁸⁹
In 1990, he was convicted of felony battery.¹⁰
In 1996, he was convicted of battery with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in serious injury and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released in 1999 to six years of probation.¹⁰¹¹
Police records also show later arrests for felony domestic battery and for confining a girlfriend in an apartment.¹¹

Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams stated during the Wilson investigation that he had identified evidence Messel “potentially terrorized” five young women during 2012 alone. Adams tried to introduce testimony from some of them at the murder trial, but the judge ruled the accounts inadmissible because Messel had never been charged in those specific incidents.¹²

Suspected Link to Lauren Spierer

Messel has been publicly suspected in the disappearance of Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old IU student who vanished from downtown Bloomington on June 3, 2011, but nothing has been proven. After his arrest, the Bloomington Police Department opened an investigation into a possible connection, with Captain Joe Qualters saying the arrest “provided BPD detectives with an avenue of investigation into Lauren Spierer’s disappearance that will be diligently pursued.”¹³

Prosecutor Ted Adams said he believed Messel was connected to the Spierer case because she disappeared from the same area where Messel later harassed and attacked women, but Adams acknowledged the belief was “just that: an opinion based simply upon a pattern of conduct” with no real evidence behind it.¹⁴ Spierer has never been found, no charges have been filed in her case, and no public findings tie Messel to her disappearance.

1
FindLaw. Daniel E. Messel v. State of Indiana
2
Reporter-Times. Hope Takes Root in Field Where Hannah Wilson’s Body Was Found
3
WRTV. Daniel Messel Sentenced to 80 Years in Prison for Murder of IU Student Hannah Wilson
4
The Herald-Times. Messel Sentenced in 2012 Sexual Assault Case
5
Times-Mail News. Daniel Messel Charged in 2012 Sexual Assault
6
The Indiana Lawyer. IU Student’s Killer Pleads Guilty to Prior Rape of Law Student
7
WFYI. Messel Plea Deal: 15 Years for Battery, Attempted Rape Charges Dropped
8
Reporter-Times. A Year After Hannah Wilson Slaying, Can Violence Be Predicted
9
The Herald-Times. Judge Reviewing Request to Hear Daniel Messel’s Criminal History
10
Morning Call. Man Convicted in Indiana University Student’s Slaying
11
ABC7 New York. Man Charged in Indiana Student’s Murder
12
The Herald-Times. Brown County Prosecutor Suspects Messel Linked to Spierer, Other Cases
13
ABC 7 Chicago. Police Investigating IU Murder Suspect in Disappearance of Lauren Spierer
14
WRTV. Report: Brown County Prosecutor Believes Daniel Messel Connected to Lauren Spierer Case