An in-home care provider was arrested in Starke County this weekend for allegedly manufacturing methamphetamine on her client’s property. Jannine Clemons of Knox told police that she had found a strange container of drain cleaner in her laundry room on Aug. 17, and when she looked inside it, she found several strange items including battery pieces and medication wrapping.
Clemons says she then hid the container in her garden and purchased a motion camera, which she placed on a table aiming towards the back door in an effort to see who may have left the items – and she could not believe what she discovered.
Clemons told police that the camera captured her father’s in-home care provider, Sandra K. Neighbors, at multiple times throughout the night walking around with two bottles in her hand, one of which was an older green pop bottle with white residue inside it. When Clemons investigated the area Neighbors had been walking toward, she found two kitty litter containers beneath her horse trough. She says she then immediately called police.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department searched the litter boxes and discovered that one of the boxes contained a number of precursors to manufacturing methamphetamine, and the other contained a methamphetamine production lab. The area was secured and the Indiana State Police Methamphetamine Lab Cleanup team was called while police searched Neighbors’ other belongings with the homeowner’s permission. Police found Energizer lithium batteries within her personal desk drawer, along with two containers of salt, zip-lock plastic baggies and rubber gloves.
Neighbors appeared at the residence early the next morning, and police soon arrived at the residence and confronted her. After first denying any involvement with the lab, Neighbors allegedly admitted to manufacturing methamphetamine only once. She was detained and placed in wrist restraints while police searched a black bag on the table that she said belonged to her. Inside they located a roll of electrical tape, three batteries, one propane torch, five Oxycodone pills, and a receipt from Walmart for the purchase of multiple precursors.
Neighbors gave police permission to search her vehicle, where they found a glass pipe located in a camouflage bag along with a green Worthington propane tank, a roll of electrical tape, plyers, multiple baggies, a digital scale, and a propane torch. Police also found an empty one-gallon plastic bottle, a Walgreen’s instant cold pack, and 20 Pseudophedrine in packages.
Neighbors was arrested and now faces preliminary charges of Manufacturing Methamphetamine, Possession of Precursors, Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Possession of Paraphernalia.
