INDIANAPOLIS — Naya Ruffin was sleeping on the couch in her apartment the night she was killed on the northeast side of Indianapolis.
Her boyfriend would later tell police the couple had been fighting, and that he was sleeping in the bed while she stayed out on the couch.
Early in the morning of April 29, 2022, two people broke into the apartment in the 5700 block of San Paulo Circle, near 56th Street and Emerson Avenue. Ruffin's boyfriend said he woke to the sound of the glass backdoor shattering and Ruffin screaming.
He told police he opened the bedroom door to find a man with a rifle standing in the doorway of his daughter's bedroom. The boyfriend said he grabbed the man but was overpowered. The man put a gun in his face and asked, "where is it?"
The boyfriend said the man saw a safe in the bedroom and told the boyfriend to open it. Instead, the boyfriend pointed to the key. The man opened the safe and took a gun from inside.
Later, the boyfriend would tell police he heard a gunshot and saw someone run out the front of the apartment. The other person, near where Ruffin had been, told his partner, "we got to go."
After they left, the boyfriend said he looked for Ruffin but couldn't find her. He then ran to the front door of the apartment. He found Ruffin down the hall, as a neighbor tried to treat the gunshot wound to her chest. The neighbor said he had called 911.
Ruffin was taken to Methodist Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Processing the scene
Police arrived at the scene around 1:07 a.m. on April 29.
According to court documents, officers made note of several things when she entered:
- the broken sliding glass door
- a spent shell casing
- blood on the floor
After they interviewed him, police swabbed the boyfriend for DNA.
They then received an email from the boyfriend's father, who said he believed the break-in had been organized by someone who had shot the boyfriend the year before. He provided police with three people he thought were involved.
Police also collected blood at the scene of the crime. Not all of it was Ruffin's blood.
A blood sample recovered from the floor of the hallway was from someone they identified as "Unknown Male A." They found more blood, from the same person, on the safe.
When police tested the blood against one of the suspect's the boyfriend's father named, it didn't match.
But on Dec. 7, 2023, the Combined DNA Index System gave them a lead.
Octavionn Long
The man who would eventually be charged with Ruffin's murder, was already in prison.
On March 15, 2024, an IMPD detective went to Branchville Correctional Facility, two-and-a-half hours south of Indianapolis, near the Kentucky border.
According to police, the detective read Octavionn Long, of Indianapolis, his rights and then took DNA swabs. Long agreed to make a statement.
He told police he had never been to the apartments where Ruffin was killed. Long told police he didn't know Ruffin, the boyfriend, or the first suspect the boyfriend's father had named. Long said he hadn't seen the third suspect in four years, but said he had gone to Florida with the second suspect.
On April 25, 2024, the DNA results said that Long matched the blood left at the crime scene.
On Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, the Marion County prosecutor filed murder, burglary and robbery charges against Long. A judge has ordered he be brought to Indianapolis from Branchville to face the charges.
Long's initial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.
