Greenwood man sentenced to 66 years for 2017 cold case murder

INDIANAPOLIS — A man was sentenced to a 66-year prison term on Friday, as he was found guilty of murder and pled by agreement to being a habitual offender.

This stems from the 2017 murder of 30-year-old Jenny Boltinghouse , who died after suffering three gunshot wounds to the head and one to the right arm. Per previous reports, her body was found floating in the White River back in February of that year, near the 2900 block of S. Harding Street.

The suspect, Riki Eaton of Greenwood, initially denied having any involvement in the killing. That, however, turned out to not be the case.

In July of 2019, a witness told officers from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department that Eaton told her several different times he had shot and killed Boltinghouse.

In May 2021, IMPD investigators received another report from a relative of Boltinghouse, saying that Eaton had killed Boltinghouse and put her body in the White River.

Following that, multiple witnesses told police that Eaton did in fact kill Boltinghouse, allegedly out of fear that she was going to inform police of his involvement in other crimes. Boltinghouse had also reportedly stolen some of Eaton’s tools out of his garage. These witnesses said that Eaton had threatened to kill several people with any knowledge of the crime, if they ever came forward.

“Today’s announcement was made possible by the diligent work of our prosecutors and law enforcement, who spent years seeking justice for Jenny,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears stated in a press release. “We are grateful to have secured such a significant sentence in the wake of an incredibly senseless crime.”

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