Indiana Man Leaves Corpse In Bathtub For Six Days Before Calling 911 In Tears

An Indianapolis man shot and killed another man and left him in his bathtub for six days before tearfully confessing the crime to cops, police said.

Dwight Shotts, 44, was arrested and charged Monday for the murder of Anthony Cline, 35 according to court records cited by The Indianapolis Star.

Cline's family reported him missing  April 24. He was last seen at a Lowe's. On April 25, police found his car in the parking lot of a church near Shotts' house. But any connection between the men wasn't clear until Shotts called 911 crying.

Shotts told the operator: "Well, this is a rough one. I don’t know how I’m gonna explain it. There’s a guy dead in my house," according to a 911 transcript cited by FOX59 in Indianapolis.

"Ok, what happened?" the dispatcher said. "Did you guys get in an altercation? Or what happened, did you find him like that?"

"No, it was an altercation," Shotts said. "It’s been a while back and I didn’t know what to do. I panicked, put him in the tub, and now he’s been in the tub, and now he stinks. I don’t know what to do."

Shotts told the dispatcher he planned to kill himself next.

When officers arrived at Shotts' house around 3 p.m., they found Cline's body in the bathtub, with a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Shotts was in the home's detached garage with a loaded revolver, according to RTV-6 in Indianapolis. Despite being armed and suicidal, he surrendered peacefully and was taken into custody.

Then he changed his story. He told police he didn't kill Cline, but he knew who did.

"Shotts claimed the shooter had killed (Cline) and gave him the gun on his way out the door," Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Detective Daniel Kepler wrote in a preliminary probable cause affidavit.

Shotts told police he didn't call right away because he was scared of the shooter, RTV-6 reported.

He stuck to the story even after police reminded him he'd already confessed to the crime twice - first in the 911 call and then in front of a witness at the scene.

Shotts also told police that he'd arranged a drug deal with Cline. He claimed he was going to buy 100 Oxycontin pills from Cline, but that the deal was in fact a setup for the mystery person who supposedly murdered him.

"Shotts had no answer as to why he was suicidal about what someone else did," a detective wrote in the affidavit.

Police interviewed Shotts for about 45 minutes but had to stop when Shotts said he was having a stroke. When medics arrived, they found nothing wrong with him.

Shotts is being held at the Marion County Jail. There is no indication anyone else was involved in the crime. 

[Photo: Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department]