Docs: Jasper County man smothered and drowned children before burning their bodies

JASPER COUNTY, Ind. — Court records have shed new light on a death investigation police have been conducting in Jasper County since September.

According to an affidavit for probable cause filed Friday, police first began looking into the activity of 31-year-old Steve Valle and 25-year-old Samantha Sebella on Sept. 20. On that date, they received a report that indicated Valle had told an acquaintance he killed two of his kids and burned them in a fire pit.

The report also insinuated that Valle had smothered his first-born child and drowned his second-born.

After they received the report, police went to a residence in the 4200 block of Old Orchard Lane in Wheatfield — the property where Valle allegedly burned his children.

Law enforcement disclosed that Valle no longer lived at the residence. The current owner of the property, however, allowed police to search the grounds on Sept. 27.

K9s that specialize in the detection of human remains were called to the scene. Court records indicate the dogs flagged a fire pit and a pile of ashes near a garage.

Investigators excavated parts of the property with shovels. They found what appeared to be bone fragments during the excavation.

The recovered materials were sent to Indianapolis for review. Court documents report that an anthropologist confirmed the materials were, indeed, bone fragments on Oct. 1. The anthropologist could not, however, determine the origin of the fragments.

As of the documents’ filing, additional testing was needed to confirm whether or not the fragments were human or animal.

Before they searched the property on Orchard Lane, police tracked Valle and Sebella to the Kentland Motel in Kentland, Indiana. Police believe Sebella is the mother of the children Valle allegedly killed.

Officers spoke with Sebella and Valle on Sept. 20. At the time, they both denied ever having more than one child. They also claimed they never went through a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Police reported that, during the interview, Sebella and Valle admitted they had one child. They said they did not have a birth certificate for the child because the birth happened at their home and was not documented.

Law enforcement conducted a records check with the Jasper County Health Department and determined there wasn’t any documentation that indicated Sebella had ever given birth.

As their investigation continued, police seized Sebella’s phone. They were ultimately granted a search warrant to review the phone’s contents.

Per court records, police’s analysis of the phone revealed numerous messages that indicated Valle killed and burned multiple children.

“You killed my kids cause you are a fa****, you never loved me,” one message read.

“YOU KILLED OUR BABIES, I HAVE THERE DNA IN MY BODY FOREVER,” another message between Sebella and Valle read.

Police conducted a second interview with Valle on Oct. 3. During that conversation, Valle admitted that Sebella gave birth to a male child in 2018.

He told police Sebella gave birth to the child while he wasn’t at home. Valle claimed that, when he got home, Sebella was passed out and the child was lying between her legs.

Because the child was not awake or breathing, Valle said he cleaned the baby up, placed him in a blanket and put him in a box. According to court documents, Valle said he buried the child in his back yard after three days passed because he “knew the child wouldn’t be coming back to life.”

Valle then proceeded to tell police that Sebella got pregnant a second time. He said she prematurely gave birth to a child in a bathtub while he was at work.

Court records indicate Valle said the child was dead and wrapped in a blanket when he got home. Valle claimed he buried the second child in his back yard near the first child.

Police revealed that Valle told them the children were buried for 3-5 years before he dug them up and burned them in the fire pit. Valle added that he saved some of the ashes to make a necklace as a momento.

Valle also reportedly told police he sifted through the ashes and found some small bone fragments. He claimed he scooped up the fragments and placed them in an ash pile on the west side of the garage.

As their investigation continued, police learned that Valle and Sebella had been known to batter each other. They also determined Sebella did not take any actions to protect her two deceased children, her living child or herself from she and Valle’s violence.

Police believe Sebella made no effort to notify authorities of the kids’ deaths, burials or burnings.

Previous reporting indicates Valle and Sebella were arrested on Oct. 3. They both face the same charges — murder, neglect of a dependent causing death, abuse of a corpse, obstruction of justice and failure to report a dead body.

FOX59 and CBS4’s sister station, WGN, had previously reported the children that were allegedly killed may have been undocumented. The court documents FOX59 and CBS4 obtained Saturday appear to confirm that report because police indicated they had not been able to find any medical or government records confirming the existence of the deceased children.

As of this article’s publication, no additional information on the Valle and Sebella’s cases had been made available.

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