An Indiana woman who was once the nation's youngest person on death row but whose sentence was eventually commuted to a prison term was found dead in Indianapolis on Tuesday.Indianapolis police said 45-year-old Paula Cooper was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound outside a residence on the city's northwest side. Cooper had been released from prison about two years ago, after the Indiana Supreme Court set aside her death sentence and gave her a 60-year prison term.Cooper was 16 when she was sentenced to death in 1986 after confessing to her role in the murder of a 78-year-old Gary Bible studies teacher the year before. Cooper admitted stabbing 78-year-old Ruth Pelke 33 times with a 12-inch butcher knife in a robbery that netted four youths $10 and an old car. Cooper was 15 at the time the crime was committed.Her death sentence enraged human rights activists in the U.S. and Europe and drew a plea for clemency from Pope John Paul II. In 1988, a priest delivered a petition to Indianapolis with more than 2 million signatures protesting Cooper's sentence.Pelke's grandson, Bill Pelke, who organized opposition to the death penalty after his grandmother's killing, said he was devastated to learn of Cooper's death. He said he worked to help Cooper after realizing that's what his grandmother would have wanted."My grandmother would have been appalled she was on death row and that there was so much hate and anger and desire for her to die. I was convinced my grandmother would have had love and compassion for Paula and her family," he said in a telephone interview from Anchorage, Alaska, where he runs Journey of Hope ... From Violence to Healing, which supports alternatives to the death penalty.Pelke said he visited with Cooper while she was in prison and had last spoke to her last August. He was expecting to hear from Cooper next month, when she was scheduled to be released from parole. He said she had expressed an interest in speaking for his organization."I have no idea what was going on in her life. I thought she was doing well from everything I had heard," he said. "I had hoped she would travel with us. She had always told me she wanted to help young people to avoid the pitfalls that she had fallen into. She said she knew she had done something terrible to society and she wanted to give back."Two years after Cooper was sentenced to death, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated case that those under 16 at the time of an offense couldn't receive the death penalty. The court said such sentences were cruel and unusual punishment and thus unconstitutional.Indiana lawmakers later passed a law raising the minimum age limit for execution from 10 years to 16, and in 1988, the state's high court set aside Cooper's death sentence and ordered her to serve 60 years in prison.Cooper's sentence was reduced due to her behavior in prison, where she earned a bachelor's degree. She was released from prison on June 17, 2013, after spending 28 years behind bars. ||||| Paula Cooper, then 15, and three other teen-age girls from Gary, Ind., were arrested May 16, 1985, in the death of Ruth Pelke. (Photo: The Indianapolis Star and News) 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS — A woman who at age 16 was the youngest death row inmate in Indiana was found dead, apparently by her own hand, two years after was released from prison. 
 
 Paula Cooper had pleaded guilty to murder in 1986 but a successful appeal led to her June 2013 release after 27 years in prison. 
 
 Cooper, 45, died just after 7:15 a.m. ET Tuesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Her death is still under investigation, and the Marion County coroner's office conducted an autopsy Wednesday. 
 
 "It's an unusual ending to a tragic case," said Indianapolis lawyer Jack Crawford, who was the Lake County prosecutor when Cooper was charged. "I've been involved in a lot of cases in my life, and nothing compared to this case." 
 
 Cooper became infamous in 1985 when at 15 she was charged with murder in the stabbing of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke during a robbery. Law enforcement identified Cooper as the ringleader in the slaying. 
 
 She and three friends went to Pelke's Gary home armed with a 12-inch butcher knife. 
 
 An investigation showed Pelke allowed the teens into her home after they said they were interested in Bible study lessons. But the scene turned grisly when they knocked Pelke to the ground and Cooper climbed on top of her. 
 
 “While in prison, my sister grew from a teenager into a strong woman, and she was trying to build a future outside of those prison walls she had come to call home.” Rhonda Labroi, Gary, Ind. 
 
 "Paula Cooper got on top of her and kept saying to her, and this is her own admission, 'Where's the money, b---h?' " Crawford told The Indianapolis Star during a 2013 interview. Cooper began slicing Pelke with the butcher knife. 
 
 The woman's last words were the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 Other teens involved were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on robbery or murder charges: 25, 35 and 60 years. But when Cooper was sentenced, the judge invoked capital punishment. 
 
 The decision led to an immediate shift in public outrage. Cooper was among only a handful of women in Indiana to receive the death penalty, and she was the youngest in the state's history. At the time of her sentencing, she was also the youngest death row inmate in the United States. 
 
 The 30th anniversary of the murder was two weeks ago. Cooper's sister, Rhonda Labroi of Gary, Ind., issued a statement saying the family is devastated. 
 
 "She was so sorry for the crime that she committed, and she worked hard to change her life. While in prison, my sister grew from a teenager into a strong woman, and she was trying to build a future outside of those prison walls she had come to call home for more than 25 years," Labroi said. 
 
 "We love and miss Paula, and ask that you please keep her, our family, and Ruth Pelke's family in your prayers, and please grant us privacy as we grieve." 
 
 (Photo: The Indianapolis Star and News) 
 
 Bill Pelke, a grandson of the slain Bible teacher, said he forgave Cooper, who said she had been abused as a child, and visited her in prison 14 times. They exchanged e-mails almost weekly the last two years of her incarceration. 
 
 In one of their last messages, Cooper told Pelke that her time in prison was about up and she was scared. She had spent most of her life incarcerated. She had never written a check or paid a bill. 
 
 She had so much she didn't know how to do, she told him. 
 
 He offered to help. But the two talked only once after she was released. 
 
 Pelke said he was devastated to hear of Cooper's death. 
 
 "We had wanted to do things together around restorative justice and the death penalty," he said. She wanted to be an example for other young people who have been abused. 
 
 "She wanted to tell them, 'Look, this is how I responded to the hate and anger, and look at all the trouble I got into,' " he said. "She wanted to give them alternatives so they didn't end up like her." 
 
 Cooper's pursuit of an appeal made her world renowned. According to the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana Supreme Court received 2 million signatures in support of her appeal. Pope John Paul II sent an emissary to Crawford's office and wrote an appeal to then-Gov. Robert Orr. The United Nations received a million signatures in support of overturning Cooper's death penalty. 
 
 Two years after Cooper's sentencing, the U.S. Supreme Court, which was already considering the issue of imposing death sentences on teens, ruled it was unconstitutional to execute anyone younger than 16 at the time the person committed a crime. Indiana lawmakers later raised the minimum age from 10 to 16 in 1989 and to 18 in 2002. 
 
 "A lot of things have changed," Crawford said. "It was a truly unique case." 
 
 “We had wanted to do things together around restorative justice and the death penalty. She wanted to tell them, 'Look, this is how I responded to the hate and anger, and look at all the trouble I got into.” Bill Pelke, grandson of Ruth Pelke 
 
 The Indiana Supreme Court commuted Cooper's death sentence and sent her to prison for 60 years. She served 27 years of that sentence until her 2013 release. 
 
 Kevin Relphorde, who served as Cooper's public defender during her trial, said he was stunned. He hadn't spoken to Cooper in years and had lost track of her. 
 
 "Paula was a good person," he said. "She was very misunderstood. She went through a lot at the hands of her father, with physical abuse, and I think that led to the situation with Mrs. Pelke." 
 
 Her time in prison began with troubles. In 1995, she was sentenced to three years of solitary confinement for assaulting a prison guard. 
 
 "I was very bitter and angry, so I was in a lot of trouble. I hated it. But I learned to adapt eventually," she said in a 2004 interview. 
 
 Cooper soon began pursuing educational opportunities, first earning her General Educational Development degree, then a vocational degree, and in 2001 a bachelor's degree. 
 
 "She couldn't deal with the outside world," said Warren W. Lewis, a retired dean and professor at Martin University who taught Cooper at the Indiana Women's Prison. 
 
 "I knew her well, and I loved her," Lewis said Tuesday. "She was practically a child, and she shouldn't have been treated like an adult." 
 
 “Paula was a good person. She was very misunderstood. She went through a lot at the hands of her father, with physical abuse, and I think that led to the situation with Mrs. (Ruth) Pelke.” Kevin Relphorde, public defender 
 
 Lewis said he taught Cooper and other female inmates a college-level Introduction to Philosophy class. He has not had any contact with her for several years. 
 
 "My goal was to work up to a level of trust to ask, 'Why are you in this prison?' " he said. 
 
 When he reached that point with Cooper, Lewis said, the young prisoner told him no one had ever asked her that question. 
 
 "I really don't know why I did that" was the best she could offer in regard to her role in the killing. 
 
 Like a lot of prisoners, Cooper had difficulty connecting the cause and effect of crime, Lewis said. 
 
 Since her release, how she was spending her time was unclear. 
 
 "What happened to her once she got out?" Lewis asked. 
 
 CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Paula Cooper is being released from prison after spending nearly three decades on death row for killing an elderly Bible study teacher. VPC 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Hxt1Wk ||||| A woman who was once the youngest Indiana Death Row inmate was found dead Tuesday morning in Indianapolis, police said 
 
 Paula Cooper (Photo: Star file photo) 
 
 The campaign to save the life of Paula Cooper, who at 16 became the youngest Death Row inmate in Indiana, attracted international attention after she pleaded guilty to murder in 1986. 
 
 Her successful appeal eventually led to her June 2013 release after serving 27 years in prison. 
 
 But on Tuesday, Cooper's story came to a somber end in Indianapolis. Police say she was found dead, apparently by her own hand. 
 
 Cooper, 45, died just after 7:15 a.m. from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in the 9500 block of Angola Court, according to Indianapolis Metropolitan Police. Marion County coroner's office on Wednesday ruled her death a suicide. 
 
 A police report said the responding officer "located the victim lying next to a tree on the west lawn area of the ITT parking lot." A Bryco .380-caliber handgun was in the victim's lap and a black Toyota Corolla registered to Cooper was parked nearby. 
 
 "It's an unusual ending to a tragic case," said Indianapolis attorney Jack Crawford, who was the Lake County prosecutor when Cooper was charged. "I've been involved in a lot of cases in my life, and nothing compared to this case." 
 
 Cooper became infamous in 1985 when at 15 she was charged with murder in the stabbing of 78-year-old Ruth Pelke during a robbery. Law enforcement identified Cooper as the ringleader in the slaying. She and three friends went to Pelke's Gary home armed with a 12-inch butcher knife. 
 
 An investigation showed Pelke allowed the teens into her home after they said they were interested in Bible study lessons. But the scene turned grisly when they knocked Pelke to the ground and Cooper climbed on top of her. 
 
 "Paula Cooper got on top of her and kept saying to her, and this is her own admission, 'Where's the money, bitch?'" Crawford told The Indianapolis Star during a 2013 interview. He said Cooper began slicing Pelke with the butcher knife. The woman's last words were the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 The other teens involved were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on robbery or murder charges: 25, 35 and 60 years. But when Cooper was sentenced, the judge invoked capital punishment. 
 
 The decision led to an immediate shift in public outrage. Cooper was among only a handful of women in Indiana to receive the death penalty, and she was the youngest in the state's history. At the time of her sentencing, she was also the youngest Death Row inmate in the United States. 
 
 The 30th anniversary of the murder was just two weeks ago. 
 
 Bill Pelke, a grandson of the slain Bible teacher, told The Star on Tuesday that he forgave Cooper, who said she had been abused as a child. He said he visited her in prison 14 times. They exchanged emails almost weekly the last two years of her incarceration. 
 
 In one of their last messages, Cooper told Pelke her time in prison was about up and she was scared. She had spent most of her life incarcerated. She had never written a check or paid a bill. 
 
 There was so much, Pelke said, that she didn't know how to do. 
 
 He offered to help. But the two talked only once after she was released. 
 
 Pelke said he was devastated to hear of Cooper's death. 
 
 "We had wanted to do things together around restorative justice and the death penalty," he said. She wanted to be an example for other young people who have been abused. 
 
 "She wanted to tell them, 'Look, this is how I responded to the hate and anger, and look at all the trouble I got into,'" he said. "She wanted to give them alternatives so they didn't end up like her." 
 
 Cooper's pursuit of an appeal made her world renowned. According to the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana Supreme Court received 2 million signatures in support of her appeal. Pope John Paul II sent an emissary to Crawford's office and wrote an appeal to then-Gov. Robert Orr. The United Nations received a million signatures in support of overturning Cooper's death penalty. 
 
 Two years after Cooper's sentencing, the U.S. Supreme Court, which was already considering the issue of imposing death sentences on teens, ruled it was unconstitutional to execute anyone who was younger than 16 at the time the person committed a crime. Indiana lawmakers later raised the minimum age from 10 to 16 in 1989 and again to 18 in 2002. 
 
 "A lot of things have changed," Crawford said. "It was a truly unique case." 
 
 The Indiana Supreme Court commuted Cooper's death sentence and sent her to prison for 60 years. She served 27 years of that sentence until her 2013 release. 
 
 Kevin Relphorde, who served as Cooper's public defender, said Tuesday he was stunned by the news. He said he hadn't spoken to Cooper in years and had lost track of her. 
 
 "Paula was a good person," he said. "She was very misunderstood. She went through a lot at the hands of her father, with physical abuse, and I think that led to the situation with Mrs. Pelke." 
 
 Her time at the Rockville Correctional Facility began with troubles. In 1995, she was sentenced to three years of solitary confinement for assaulting a prison guard. 
 
 "I was very bitter and angry, so I was in a lot of trouble. I hated it. But I learned to adapt eventually," she said in a 2004 interview with The Star. 
 
 Cooper soon began pursuing educational opportunities, first earning her GED, then a vocational degree, and in 2001 a bachelor's degree. Beginning in 2011, she worked as a tutor. 
 
 "She couldn't deal with the outside world," speculated Warren W. Lewis, a retired dean and professor at Martin University who taught Cooper at the Indiana Women's Prison. 
 
 "I knew her well, and I loved her," Lewis said Tuesday. "She was practically a child, and she shouldn't have been treated like an adult." 
 
 Lewis said he taught Cooper and other female inmates a college-level Introduction to Philosophy class. He had not had any contact with her for several years. 
 
 "My goal," he said, "was to work up to a level of trust to ask, 'Why are you in this prison?'" 
 
 When he reached that point with Cooper, Lewis said, the young prisoner told him no one had ever asked her that question. 
 
 "I really don't know why I did that" was the best she could offer in regard to her role in the killing. 
 
 Like a lot of prisoners, Cooper had difficulty connecting the cause and effect of crime -– "there's a disconnect," Lewis said. 
 
 Lewis said he took her death as a personal failure. 
 
 "My question," he said, "is what happened to her once she got out?" 
 
 It's unclear how Cooper was spending her time since she was released. Rhonda Labroi, her sister, declined to comment about Cooper's death Tuesday. 
 
 "It's just amazing that after all those years of incarceration that she would be released and then something like this would happen," said Relphorde, who added that Cooper was remorseful about the killing. "She was willing to pay her debt to society." 
 
 Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1HwmAmr
– Paula Cooper, once the youngest death-row inmate in the US, has been found dead of a suicide two years after she was released after 27 years in prison. Police say Cooper, 45, was found dead near an ITT Technical Institute parking lot in Indianapolis on Tuesday. She suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head; a handgun was found in her lap. "It's an unusual ending to a tragic case," a lawyer tells the Indianapolis Star. "I've been involved in a lot of cases in my life, and nothing compared to this case." Armed with a 12-inch butcher knife, 15-year-old Cooper led three friends into the home of Ruth Pelke, 78, in 1985 after feigning an interest in Bible lessons. They knocked Pelke to the ground and Cooper climbed on top of her, demanding money, before stabbing her 33 times. The youths made off with just $10 and an old car, the AP reports. Sentenced to death, Cooper drew the support of millions, including Pope John Paul II, before the Indiana Supreme Court commuted her sentence. The state then raised the minimum age for a death sentence from 10 to 16, and later to 18. "She was so sorry for the crime that she committed, and she worked hard to change her life," Cooper's sister says, per the Indianapolis Star. "While in prison, my sister grew from a teenager into a strong woman, and she was trying to build a future outside of those prison walls she had come to call home." A grandson of Pelke, who visited and emailed Cooper while she was in prison, says she hoped to dedicate her life to restorative justice and helping other abuse victims "so they didn't end up like her." He last spoke to her in August. "I thought she was doing well," he says. "I have no idea what was going on in her life."