Patrick Scott and Valerie Tindall (Rush County Sheriff’s Office); Investigators searching for the Valerie’s body (WXIN screenshot)

A 59-year-old man in Indiana will likely spend the remainder of his days behind bars for killing a 17-year-old neighbor and burying her body inside a makeshift coffin in his yard, only a few hundred feet from her own home. Rush County Circuit Court Judge David E. Northam on Monday ordered Patrick Scott to serve a sentence of 57 years in a state correctional facility for the slaying of Valerie Tindall.

Tindall had been missing for about six months when authorities on Nov. 28, 2023, discovered the teen’s body while executing a series of search warrants on Scott’s property located in the 2300 block of N Oak Street, which is about 33 miles east of Indianapolis.

Scott told police he used his belt to strangle Valerie Tindall inside his home on June 7 — a belt he continued to wear afterward — claiming she was trying to blackmail him, then buried her in a “box” he constructed the following day.

Scott, who was the teen’s employer as well as her neighbor, was arrested and initially charged with one count each of murder, obstruction of justice, providing false information that substantially hinders the law enforcement process. In January, he reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to the murder charge in exchange for having the remaining charges dismissed.

In addition to the 57-year sentence, Scott was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to Tindall’s family. He was credited with 139 days of time already served.

As previously reported by Law&Crime, authorities summarized Tindall’s murder as follows:

Patrick Scott admitted to using his belt and placing it around Valerie Tindall’s neck until she was deceased. Patrick Scott then moved Tindall’s body into the office where he stored her for the night. The next day Scott constructed a box and placed Tindall’s body into the box after wrapping it in plastic and taping it. The box was placed in a hole at Scott’s other property and then covered.

Tindall was reported missing by her family on June 8, 2023.

Authorities say after the girl’s body was discovered, Scott confessed to killing Tindall during a Mirandized interview, claiming she “got carried away” by trying to “blackmail him into buying her a car.”