16-07-2025
She was missing, found, bipolar, schizophrenic, and ended up stabbed and shot in Indianapolis
Editor's note: This article contains descriptions of mental health episodes related to Bipolar Disorder. If you are struggling or know someone who is, call 211 to be connected with a trained crisis specialist with Mental Health America of Indiana, who provides free, confidential assistance 24/7 through its Be Well Crisis Helpline.
In a cramped Evansville home, Shawnnetta Small's early years unfolded in a room alongside her siblings, locked away from most of the world.
Shawnnetta Small always had to stay in one room with her brother and sister, and was afraid of ever coming out, lest she be beaten brutally by their father, according to her family. In 1986, when Small was 5, her aunt visited and witnessed the situation her sister and the children were enduring.
"Even when he went to work, those kids never wanted to come out of the room," Judy Perkins told IndyStar.
Perkins helped her sister escape the abuse, and the family moved to a new home. But the effects of the abuse were already taking hold of her young niece.
Small was diagnosed in her 20s with bipolar disorder and schizotypal personality disorder. Childhood trauma, abuse, and neglect are significant risk factors for developing a personality disorder, while being bipolar isn't a direct effect of child abuse, but can influence the disorder's severity over time, experts say.
Small's life has been chronicled through public missing persons reports, arrests, and psychiatric hospital visits all over the country. It would end with her being stabbed and shot inside an Indianapolis house on July 12, 2025. Her family believes Small was likely unmedicated and had an episode before being killed.
She was 44.
Eventually, Perkins would move to Ohio, leaving her sister and her kids in Indiana, but a few years after that, in the early 90s, she learned the kids were placed in foster care. Their mother was accused of being neglectful, and the family became strained in communication.
Perkins hasn't seen her sister in over 30 years, which would become a trend for the family. Small would often go missing with strangers trying to get her help and bring her to some kind of home.
Four years ago, Small reached out to Perkins asking if she could live with her in Ohio. The next few months would be a roller coaster with Perkins noticing Small "acted real weird." She would "talk in riddles."
She didn't clean up after herself and often slept in a bed with trash and food.
"She'd just throw a coat over it and go to sleep," Perkins said.
Knowing she needed help, Perkins took her to see a doctor who gave her an official diagnosis. But Small would skip taking medications.
Small would often leave Perkins' home for weeks on end. One day, she left, and Perkins didn't think anything of it until she got a strange package in the mail, prompting her to put out a missing persons report.
It was Small's ID, her social security card, and other personal items.
"After I put out the report, this woman called me from Orlando, Florida, saying Shawnnetta was mentally challenged," Perkins said. "The lady was feeding her and begging her to come stay with her, but Shawnnetta said no."
In 2018, Perkins said a search and rescue team spotted Small in Missouri, where she had been sleeping in a restroom. Concerned calls to local police came in about her walking along the highway. Missouri State Highway Patrol and others offered her food, water, money and rides that she declined. She was eventually taken to a St. Louis hospital before being discharged.
"She called me speaking in riddles again, so I knew she wasn't on medication," Perkins said.
Eventually, Small got a bus ticket to Cleveland and stayed with Perkins, but would leave again after a few months.
Small was banking on coming into money from a lawsuit she'd filed in 2022 while in Missouri that tapped 28 defendants, including Megabus, Walmart, and T-Mobile Metro PCS, Perkins said.
"She told me she was moving to Indianapolis, and that was the last I saw her," Perkins said.
But that lawsuit was the ramblings of someone struggling with borderline schizophrenia, and a judge dismissed the case.
At 8:04 p.m., on July 11, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police were called about a disturbance with a weapon between roommates at a home in the 1500 block of North Downey Avenue on the city's east side. The caller was Small and said her roommate had assaulted her and was possibly armed. She told police he and his girlfriend were "talking sh*t" about paying rent. She lived in a bedroom house with multiple rooms rented out.
Officers began searching the house room by room. They went to a downstairs basement room, forced open a door, and found Small with at least one stab wound. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Items collected nearby were a spent shell casing, pepper spray and a box cutter. She had trauma to her neck and a gunshot wound to the chest.
One neighbor told police the roommate knocked on her door and told them that Small smeared feces and spit on him. According to court documents, he explained that Small was defecating in a bathroom with the door open. He asked her to close the door, and tried to close the door for her when Small smeared feces on him and called him derogatory names, court records state.
Later, the neighbor, Small, and the roommate were upstairs when he asked Small if they were good.
"No, we ain't good. Do you want to fight?" Small told him, according to the neighbor.
That's when Small threatened the man with a gun, according to court documents.
The roommate was later arrested on preliminary charges of murder. IndyStar is not naming the roommate because formal charges are pending.
Perkins said the local sheriff's office informed her about Small's killing. That's when Perkins learned she was listed as a next of kin, although she hadn't seen Small in years.
"They were asking me all types of questions that I could not answer," Perkins said. "She had her mental issues, but she did not deserve this."
