Massachusetts State Police, local police, arrest man wanted for murdering, dismembering roommate

A joint fugitive investigation led to the arrest today of a Massachusetts man wanted for murdering and dismembering his roommate in Indiana in 2017.

According to Dave Procopio of Massachusetts State Police, 54-year-old John Hallett was apprehended at his apartment on Chester Street this morning by Cambridge Police, Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section Troopers, and United States Marshals Fugitive Task Force Officers.

In August 2022, the Michigan City, Indiana, Police Department developed information suggesting that Hallett had murdered his roommate in 2017 by striking him with a blunt object and then chocking him. Hallett allegedly then disemboweled his roommate’s body and disposed of remains in various public trash cans.

Procopio stated that over the course of a homicide investigation by Michigan City Police, a cadaver dog was deployed inside the former residence of Hallett and his roommate and alerted to the scent of human remains in the basement. Evidence collected by police and sent to the Forensic and Investigative Sciences Program at Purdue University confirmed the presence of decomposing matter in the basement. Police then obtained an arrest warrant charging Hallett with murder.

Michigan City Police and US Marshals in Indiana subsequently developed information that Hallett was residing in Cambridge.

Today a Cambridge Police Detective developed information that Hallett was living on Chester Street in that city. Cambridge Police Detectives, MSP VFAS Troopers, and US Marshals Service Deputies and Task Force Officers went to the apartment building, located Hallett, and took him into custody. He was transported to the Cambridge Police Station where he was booked as a fugitive from justice. Prosecutors will arrange for his rendition to Indiana to answer to the murder charge.