House Cleaner Fatally Shot After Mistakenly Arriving at Wrong Indiana Home

A 32-year-old woman was fatally shot in Whitestown, Indiana, after she and her husband, both members of a cleaning crew, mistakenly arrived at the wrong residence on Wednesday morning. The Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting a possible home invasion shortly before 7 a.m. Upon arrival, officers found the woman deceased on the front porch with a gunshot wound.

The Boone County Coroner's Office identified the victim as Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez of Indianapolis. She died from a gunshot wound to the head. Her husband, Mauricio Velasquez, who was present during the incident, reported that the shot was fired through the home's door. He stated, "I never thought it was a shot, but I realized when my wife took two steps back, she looked like she'd been hit in the head."

The couple had been cleaning homes for seven months and have four children, the youngest being 11 months old. Velasquez expressed his desire for justice, saying, "What I need now is for there to be justice, because he took her life, in that sense."

The Whitestown police are conducting an ongoing investigation and have not immediately identified those involved. Captain John Jurkash of the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department stated, "We are just trying to unravel what exactly happened and, if applicable, what charges there would be."

This incident is part of a troubling trend where individuals arriving at incorrect addresses have been met with gunfire. In April 2023, a teenager in Kansas City, Missouri, was shot and wounded after ringing the wrong doorbell, and a 20-year-old woman in upstate New York was killed when the car she was in turned down the wrong driveway.