David Fouts was found dead in a ditch three days after he went missing
Credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
NEED TO KNOW
- Fifty-year-old David Fouts was found dead in April 2020
- Police determined that David died after eating poisonous mushrooms
- His wife, Katrina Fouts, and her friend, Terry Hopkins, were later arrested in connection with the murder
On April 24, 2020, 50-year-old David Fouts was found dead in a ditch in Hamilton County, Ind.
Police began investigating the death, observing duct tape residue on his wrists and ankles, per court documents. However, they couldn’t find other signs of foul play and struggled to determine his cause of death.
Five months after finding the body, police arrested David’s wife, Katrina Fouts, and longtime family friend Terry Hopkins in connection with the murder. Prior to the arrest, police suspected Katrina because of her suspicious internet searches and seemingly unfounded accusations against her husband, but they didn’t have any proof she was involved with his murder.
Authorities finally caught a break when the autopsy determined David’s likely cause of death was poisonous mushrooms found in his stomach. Mycologist Dr. Mary Aime identified the plant as lyophyllum connatum, which produce deadly toxins. The complicated case, and shocking revelation, was covered in the July 24 episode of Dateline.
Hopkins died ahead of his trial in February 2022 but confessed to the crime, per a 2024 episode of Snapped. Meanwhile, Katrina stood trial in 2022 and was found not guilty of murder but was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and failure to report human remains, according to court docs. She was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
Here’s everything to know about where Katrina Fouts is now.
Who is Katrina Fouts?
Credit: Linkedin
David and Katrina dated for three years before getting married in 2019, per court documents. It marked both David and Katrina’s second marriage.
He was a senior consultant and technology architect for Salesforce, the Indianapolis Star reported. His stepdaughter Carrie Lee Gentry told the Star that David was an avid cyclist who loved his four greyhounds and two children and seemed to be in good, normal spirits before his death.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Gentry recalled to the outlet.
Katrina maintained a close relationship with longtime family friend Hopkins, who was a retired police officer and took care of her father, Glen Gentry. Katrina called Hopkins a “good friend” and “second father” to her, per court docs.
However, Katrina noted that Hopkins and David “absolutely did not get along [and] did not like each other.”
What happened to David Fouts?
On April 24, 2020, a dog walker found David’s body in a ditch alongside Overdorf Road in Hamilton County, Ind.
Upon arrival, detectives noticed that David had cuts near his neck and residue of duct tape around his ankles and wrists, according to court docs.
An autopsy was conducted, which confirmed suspicions that David’s body had been moved after he died but didn’t show any clear cause of death.
“It’s a real head-scratcher,” Coroner John Chaflin told the Star in April.
Detectives spoke to Katrina the following day, and she claimed that she last saw David on April 21. Katrina further alleged that David had been having an affair and that they were living separately at the time. A few months prior to his death, Katrina also accused David of domestic battery and invasion of privacy.
“He was arrested for that. David said it didn’t happen. That he had never touched her,” Detective Greg Lockhart said on Snapped.
An autopsy was subsequently conducted and found that David’s stomach contents included mushrooms, which Dr. Aime identified as lyophyllum connatum — mushrooms that are “known to produce toxins such as muscarine.”
After David’s urine, liver, and kidney tested negative for the toxin, forensic pathologist Dr. David Sozio testified that he could not “rule out between poisoning and asphyxia” but ultimately determined David’s cause of death was “[h]omicide by unspecified means.”
What did Katrina and Hopkins do?
Credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
After conducting the autopsy, detectives obtained a search warrant for David and Katrina’s home, as well as her cell phone and other pieces of technology.
They discovered several pieces of incriminating evidence — including zip ties, cleaning gloves, a revolver and internet searches for things like “crimes of passion Indiana” and “what it takes to get an arrest warrant for murder in Indiana.”
In addition to the suspicious circumstantial evidence, police also found a screenshot of mushrooms.
“In her pictures we found a screenshot of the death cap mushroom,” Lockhart said on Snapped. “Deadly ones, like the death cap, you eat it and you are dead … we strongly believe that these mushrooms played a huge part in likely killing David.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors connected Hopkins to the murder with DNA evidence. They still struggled, though, to prove the mushrooms killed David because the toxins had already metabolized by the time of the autopsy.
“Even if you’re dead, it will metabolize out of your body,” Lockhart said. “So, there will be no signs of this poison, this toxin, in your body within I think 72 hours … and David had been dead for a few days.”
Where is Katrina Fouts now?
Credit: Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office
On Sept. 17, 2020, both Katrina and Hopkins were arrested and charged in connection with the murder.
Katrina was charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, false informing and failure to report a corpse, while Hopkins was also charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder and failure to report a corpse.
Hopkins, whose health was declining, confessed that they both killed David. He died in February 2022, around two months before he was scheduled to go to trial, per the Richmond Palladium-Item.
“Katrina walked in and said to the effect of, ‘Honey did you eat those mushrooms that I made for you?’ ” Lockhart said of Hopkins’ confession. “And David said, ‘Yes.’ Said he didn’t feel good. Was having trouble with breathing. At that point, Terry walked in and there was an altercation. Terry said he put his arm around David’s neck and kind of squeezed him. And David stopped moving.”
Katrina went to trial in February 2022 and was found not guilty of murder by a jury in March. Although she wasn’t convicted of killing her husband, she was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and failure to report human remains.
In April 2022, Katrina was sentenced to 34 years in prison. She is serving her sentence at the Indiana Women’s Prison in Indianapolis, Ind., per inmate records. Katrina has an expected release date of 2046.
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