INDIANAPOLIS — A mother is asking for help finding her adult daughter's killer.
Virginia Summers found her missing daughter's remains in a plastic storage tote in the woods on the near southeast side of Indianapolis Sunday morning.
Surrounded by other daughters, Summers held a framed photo of her daughter, Tara Capps, when she was just a girl. Summers reported the 36-year-old Capps missing on June 30 after hearing a rumor about something happening to her. Her family spent a week searching the area.
"We just searched and searched and searched and...” Summers said, pausing with emotion, “came upon her."
Summers discovered Capps' remains in a plastic storage tote in the woods near South Keystone Avenue and East Pleasant Run Parkway North Drive around 10 a.m. July 7.
The Marion County Coroner's Office ruled Capps' death a homicide due to a gunshot wound.
"Tara was beautiful, beautiful inside and out,” Summers said. “She didn't deserve to be like that. Not only her, nobody does. But Tara, she would have helped anybody — anybody."
Summers said her daughter sometimes lived on the streets. Where Capps’ remains were found, there are several homeless camps back in the woods along Pleasant Run Parkway North Drive.
13News went to the scene and found several needles on the ground, giving the appearance people have been living there in recent weeks.
IMPD is not saying much about the investigation, but Capps' death is ruled a homicide.
"I just know whoever did this, you can only hide for so long,” Summers said. “Everything comes out of the dark at one time."
Capps was a mother herself, with five children.
Anyone with information about what happened to Capps is urged to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.