In the summer of 1995, a season marked by a brutal heatwave, a different kind of cold terror was gripping the city of Gary, Indiana. A predator moved through the city’s neighborhoods, preying on vulnerable women and girls, leaving a trail of devastation and fear. Among his victims was Nakita Moore, a 14-year-old girl whose life was stolen before she had the chance to truly live it. Her death was one of a series of slayings that would later be attributed to a man known as "The Gary Strangler."
Nakita was the youngest sibling in her family, a girl on the cusp of her high school years. Her family looked forward to celebrating the milestones that lay before her, simple teenage joys that are often taken for granted. On June 24, 1995, that future was erased. Nakita’s body was discovered in a weedy area near an abandoned house in Gary. At the time, her body was partially decomposed, and an immediate cause of death could not be determined.
Her clothes were later found on the roof of an adjacent empty building. The discovery plunged her family into a nightmare, their grief compounded by the mystery and brutality of her death.
For months, the fear in Gary intensified as more women and girls disappeared or were found dead in desolate lots and abandoned buildings. The victims were of different ages and backgrounds, but the violence that connected them was terrifyingly similar. The breakthrough in the string of murders came not from Gary, but from the nearby city of Portage, after the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Sarah Lynn Paulsen in August 1995. The investigation into Sarah's death led police to a 38-year-old homeless man named Eugene Victor Britt.
Britt, who worked at a local Hardee's restaurant, was linked to the Paulsen crime scene by blue polyester fibers matching his work uniform. He was arrested on November 3, 1995. During interrogation, the full scope of his horrific actions came to light. Britt confessed not only to killing Sarah Paulsen but also to a series of other murders, including that of Nakita Moore. He told police that he attacked his victims in secluded areas, often strangling them. He claimed that voices in his head ordered him to commit the murders.
Eugene Victor Britt had a history of violence. He had been paroled in 1993 after serving half of a 30-year sentence for a 1978 rape and robbery. Now, he was revealed to be a serial killer responsible for terrorizing the region. He eventually pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the murders of Nakita Moore, Tonya Dunlap, and Maxine Walker, as well as the rape of a 13-year-old girl. Charges in three other deaths were dropped as part of the plea agreement. A judge had previously ruled that Britt was mentally disabled, making him ineligible for the death penalty.
At his sentencing, Britt, sitting in a wheelchair due to a failed suicide attempt where he threw himself in front of a train, expressed remorse. "I'm just sorry. I'm truly sorry for my sins and I take full responsibility for my actions," he said. For the families of his victims, his words offered little solace. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole, plus an additional 345 years, ensuring he would die in prison.
The legal resolution brought a measure of justice, but it could never fill the void left by the lives Britt had destroyed. Nakita's sister, Veda Robinson, spoke of the family's profound and lasting loss. She said Britt had robbed them of seeing the youngest sibling enter her freshman year of high school and go to her prom. It was a poignant reminder of the simple, precious moments that were stolen along with Nakita's life, a future of promise extinguished in a weedy lot on a summer day.
