Individual Details

Traffic continued to buzz in and out of a busy interchange a day after two Jasper County women were murdered while working at the Family Express convenience store just two miles west of the White/Jasper county line. Kendora Furr, 38, Remington, and Lisa Kendall, 29, Rensselaer, were fatally shot Monday morning while working at the Family Express gas station at the 201 exit of Interstate 65 on U.S. 24. A manhunt is underway for identified suspect Melvin M. Keeling, 43, who police consider armed and dangerous. The Family Express was still closed and cordoned off Tuesday with barricades and police tape, but across the highway, things were running as normal as possible for other businesses located along the busy corridor just outside Remington. At Petro Shopping Center, a gas station and convenience store across from Family Express, business was “pretty much back to normal,” said store manager Darlene Sellers. “We’re all pretty shaken up because most of us here knew the girls. It’s hit us pretty hard,” Sellers, an eight-year employee of the store, said. She also noted that despite the heavy traffic flow her and other nearby stores handle, she doesn’t typically feel unsafe in her work environment. “I’ve worked just off the interstate off and on all my life. And I feel pretty safe. As hard as it is, we’re just getting back to normal.”

Michelle Burch, who was working at Petro yesterday while the shooting occurred, said there was definitely a lingering aura of anxiety Tuesday. “It’s just nervousness,” she said of the mood, “because it could be any one of us.” Burch said she didn’t realize what had happened at Family Express immediately Monday because she was busy attending to customers, but noted that a truck driver fueling up outside had called in saying something had happened. “I saw officers running up,” said Burch. “I just don’t understand, especially if he had so many (criminal) counts, why was he out?” Keeling, according to police reports, is also wanted for two counts of rape and 24 counts of gross sexual imposition. A clerk at the Pilot Travel Center, also in the same plaza as Remington’s Petro and Family Express, identified only as Laurie due to Pilot corporate policy, said Tuesday her store was reeling from the news of Kendall and Furr’s deaths. “Everybody is still in shock,” she said. “You know it can happen to you; in this kind of business you just have to be aware, alert of what’s going on and of who’s in the store. Pay attention, but that’s all you can do.” In this case, she said, the pair of Family Express employees were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. “They were really nice people, always happy and smiling even when they were having a bad day. I can’t understand it. Right now, it’s just unbelievable that someone out there could do that. What goes through their head?” Kendall and Furr were both mothers who leave behind children with Furr leaving daughters Denea, 17, Selena, 16, and Rheanna 11, and Kendall leaving two sons Connor, 7, and Jordan 10. Family Express Corporation has established a fund at Centier Bank for the two families. Contributions to this fund should be made to “Family Express Benefit Fund,” 1951 Morthland Drive, Valparaiso, IN 46385 or Centier Bank, 150 Lincolnway, Valparaiso, IN 46383. Family Express is also offering a $10,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the arrest of suspects involved in this investigation.

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Birth	May 10, 1967	Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, IN
Marriage	September 12, 1987	Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, IN - Living
Death	September 19, 2005	Remington, Jasper County, IN
Divorce		Living
Soc Sec No		306-88-9494
Burial		Chalmers Cemetery, Chalmers, White County, IN

Spouse	Living
Child	Living
Child	Living
Child	Living
Child	Lucas Edward FURR (1999 - 2003)

Father	Royce Marvine LUCAS (1935 - 1998)
Mother	Rosalie Ann "Roise" JORDAN (1939 - 2020)

Notes