Patrick Doyle
As opening arguments began in the trial of a local man accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend, the first thing jurors heard was the recorded voice of the defendant.
“On any other day, if I hadn’t been drinking, I wouldn’t have killed her,” the voice of Patrick Doyle said in an excerpt from an earlier interrogation that was played for jurors Tuesday in Bartholomew Circuit Court.
A jury of Shelby County residents – nine men and three women – were selected Monday for the trial of Doyle, 40, who is charged with the August 2021 murder of 37-year-old Heather Ann Steuver. Last July, Judge Kelly Benjamin called for out-of-county jurors to be brought in from Shelby County due to pre-trial publicity.
In her opening statement Tuesday, Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden-Kay told jurors they will hear evidence that Doyle murdered Steuver upstairs in their bedroom while Steuver’s father and the homeowner, Jerry Lowe, was sleeping downstairs. The house is located on County Road 800N, west of St. Louis Crossing.
Once he was certain that Jerry Lowe had left his house, Doyle wrapped the victim’s body in a sheet and dragged her to the back seat of her car. In order to hide the victim from view, Doyle covered her up with trash, Holden-Kay said.
After picking up some of Heather’s personal belongings including lip balm and cigarettes, Doyle drive the victim’s body to Nugent Sand and Gravel Co., located off Old Indianapolis Road. Holden-Kay pointed out that’s the same business where Jerry Lowe got a job for Doyle, Holden-Kay said.
It was 18 days after her death that Steuver’s remains were found after Doyle told investigators where her body was buried, court documents state. During most of that time, “the defendant continued to live with Heather’s father and act as if nothing had happened,” the prosecutor said.
He also used a number of tactics, such as sending out fake text messages, to make it appear the victim was still alive.
Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting ruled the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, and determined the manner of death as homicide.
Most of what Holden-Kay told the jury was admitted by Doyle during a videotape interrogation conducted by Bartholomew County Sheriff’s detective Kevin Abner and played for the jury.
During the interview, Doyle said his original plan was to weigh Heather’s body and drop it in the deepest part of a lake on the Nugent property. But when he discovered he didn’t have the strength nor means to accomplish that, Doyle said he decided to bury her in a shallow grave. Over the next few days, Doyle had to return to the site twice to ensure her remains were not visible, the defendant said.
The first state witness called to the stand was the victim’s mother, Teresa Lowe. Although she had separated from her husband, Jerry Lowe called his estranged wife to ask her to go to his house to see if their daughter was there.
Unable to find Heather, the mother did find her daughter’s cellphone on her bed. After searching the three-acre property for two hours, Teresa Lowe said she called the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department. When Deputy Colten Fowler arrived, the officers could not enter the house without a warrant because she didn’t live there.
But while the deputy was there, Doyle pulled up in his girlfriend’s silver gray Honda, Teresa Lowe said. When Doyle was asked where Heather was, he suggested she might be visiting a neighbor who lived down the road. That prompted Fowler to take Doyle with him to the neighbor’s home, where they confirmed the victim wasn’t there, Lowe said.
After the victim’s father arrived, Heather’s wallet was discovered in the front passenger seat of her car, the mother testified.
That prompted Jerry Lowe to order Doyle to immediately pack up his belongings and leave the property, Teresa Lowe said. The defendant complied, she added.
After Fowler left, the victim’s mother and father continued their search of the property that included a closer examination of their daughter’s bedroom. That’s where they found a bleach bottle, chair and flooring that all appeared to have blood on them.
When the parents called the sheriff’s department to tell them what they had discovered, several deputies – including Abner- returned to the home with a warrant to search the premises.
Abner was not only able to confirm what the parents had reported on the witness stand, but the detective also testified he found blood on a bed sheet, a comforter and a mattress.
When the trial was originally scheduled to begin last summer, Doyle’s public defender, Don Edwards, said he only intended to call one witness. While it’s not know if that is still Edwards’ intention, he declined to deliver an opening statement nor did he cross-examine Teresa Lowe. However, Edwards told the judge he may want to question the mother later in the trial.
In the videotaped interrogation, Doyle was initially reluctant to talk with Abner. When he asked the detective what would happen if he requested a lawyer, Abner told him such a request would probably end the questioning.
But instead of asking for legal representation, Doyle broke his silence by proclaiming that “I don’t want to go to prison for the rest of my life because of this (expletive).”
A few minutes later, he told Abner he had consumed three shots of a strong alcoholic beverage, followed by an entire bottle of tequila during the last night of Heather’s life.
After passing out, Doyle said he woke up at about midnight to find his girlfriend was angry and yelling at him. He told Abner he responded by calling her obscene names before falling back asleep.
The defendant then said that when he work up again at 4:30 a.m., he saw his girlfriend’s body lying lifeless on the floor with black eyes and blue lips.
As he broke out in tears during the videotaped questioning, Doyle told Abner the two did not have a physical fight. But for the rest of the interrogation, Doyle kept repeating that he did not know what he did to cause Heather’s death.
“And I don’t want to know,” Doyle told the detective.
He would later tell Abner that the only conclusion that comes to his mind is that he killed the victim, according to the video.
The last part of the videotaped interrogation showed Doyle alone in the interrogation room. His arms were folded on the desk as he buried his face in them.
In the video, Doyle continued to sob as he kept repeating: “I’m sorry – I’m sorry.”
