Indiana Woman Charged In Triple Slaying Now In Will County Custody

WILL COUNTY — A 30-year-old woman charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her children's father and his parents at a Crete Township home is now in custody at the Will County Jail, after first being held in a Lake County, Indiana jail.

UPDATE: Triple Murder Defendant Shot Her Kids' Father During Massage, Considered Killing Her Own Parents: Prosecutor

Jenna Strouble is charged with nine counts of first-degree murder in the March 23 shooting deaths of her on-and-off romantic partner Jake Lambert, his mother Stacy Forde, 54, and her husband Patrick Forde, 55, police said.

Strouble was taken into custody Tuesday in St. John, Indiana—where police say she fled after the murders—and was held in a Lake County jail.

Strouble waived extradition to Illinois during a court hearing in Indiana on Thursday afternoon. An inmate search says she was booked into the Will County jail at 10 a.m. Friday. Her pre-trial detention hearing is set for March 30, at 9 a.m. in room 4o5.

Police have not yet shared a motive for the slayings but said early on that the incident was targeted and domestic in nature. Strouble and Lambert shared two children, a 3-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

At 2 a.m. Monday, sheriff's police were called for a welfare check at the home in the 3400 block of Norway Trail in Crete Township, police said. Deputies at the scene found the bodies of three adults: two men and one woman, now identified as Lambert, Stacy Forde and Patrick Forde.

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Lambert was found dead in a car in the driveway, and his parents were found dead inside the home on the first floor, near the front door, the sheriff's office said. Strouble and Lambert's children were not present at the home at the time of the shootings, though the sheriff's office would not comment further on their location.

An arrest warrant was issued on Tuesday for Strouble, who was found in St. John, Indiana, and taken into custody.

During an interview with detectives, Strouble made incriminating statements, the Will County Sheriff's Office said. Though a cause of death has not been disclosed by the Will County Coroner's Office, the sheriff's office said investigators recovered a gun and were able to determine it matched the one used in the homicides.

The Will County Sheriff's Office had responded to the address in January 2025 for a domestic battery and mental health crisis intervention, according to Public Information Officer Elizabeth Matthews.

Strouble was involuntarily committed for mental health treatment during that incident, Matthews said.