Douglas Walker

dwalker@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE — A Muncie man faces a murder charge in the early Thursday shooting death of his mother.

Richard Milton Franks, 42, was booked into the Delaware County jail at 5:42 p.m., about 12 hours after he was taken into custody in a traffic stop in northwest Muncie.

Authorities said Richard Franks provided investigators with a confession.

Franks was one of two “people of interest” questioned after the body of his 73-year-old mother, Bonnie Lou Franks, was found in her home, in the 3600 block of West Fleetwood Drive.

Delaware County Sheriff Ray Dudley said the victim died of a single gunshot wound in the head.

In an affidavit requesting a search warrant, Kurt Walthour, a Delaware County sheriff’s investigator, reported emergency dispatchers received a call at 4:28 a.m. from a man – later identified as Richard Franks – reporting “his girlfriend had shot his mom... in the back of the head.”

The caller said his mother was dead, and that the girlfriend had left the scene.

Deputies arrived at the home at 4:36 a.m. and found the victim’s body, on her living room floor. A shotgun was nearby.

There was no one else in the house when authorities reached the scene.

Shortly after 5 a.m., a Chesterfield police officer took into custody a 47-year-old Muncie woman who was walking in the 2900 block of South Hoyt Avenue. She has not been charged or arrested.

An acquaintance told authorities Richard Franks came to his residence, in a Harrison Township mobile home park, about 5:20 a.m., “crying and looking for a place to stay.”

About 5:30 a.m., Richard Franks was apprehended in a traffic stop on Chadam Lane near Bethel Avenue.

He allegedly told an officer, “Some hooker just shot my mom.”

A resident who lives near Bonnie Franks’ home told sheriff’s investigators he heard a man yelling, a vehicle door shut and a car drive away about 4:30 a.m.

The warrant, reviewed by Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig, gave sheriff’s investigators authority to search the Fleetwood Drive house and Richard Franks’ car, and to test the hands of Franks and the woman for gunshot residue.

Court records reflect two misdemeanor convictions for Richard Franks, the most recent for public intoxication in 2002. He was being held without bond Thursday night in the Delaware County jail.

Crime scene tape on Thursday morning marked off the yard outside the one-story house, in a quiet neighborhood just south of Hoyt Avenue’s intersection with Old Ind. 67.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.

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