CLARK COUNTY, Ind. — It is back to step one in the case of accused murderer and cannibal, Joseph Oberhansley.
After the jury selection failed in Hamilton County Wednesday, attorneys are now looking for jurors outside of the Louisville and Indianapolis areas.
Oberhansley is accused of murdering Tammy Jo Blanton in 2014 and eating parts of her body.
"Unfortunately, it's going to be further away, a little further north in Indiana," Clark County prosecutor, Jeremy Mull said. "It would need to be a county that would have facilities large enough to accommodate a large jury pool."
Mull and Oberhansley's attorney, Bart Betteau, said there was an extensive amount of publicity on the case after the mistrial. A testimony about Oberhansley's criminal past and prior drug use resulted in the first delay after a mistrial was declared in August.
They need 16 jurors. About 75 people were in the jury pool in Hamilton County. The attorneys said all of them except about eighteen, had knowledge about the case.
"Joseph Oberhansley has been anxious to get this case to trial," Betteau said. "Most of the delay has been attributed to us; this is a complicated case and it took us a long time to get it prepared."
The new trial could start in early 2020, but things could move a bit faster.
"I think if we can get the facilities lined up we could be back at this in a few weeks," Mull said.
Once a jury is selected, the process will stay the same. The jurors will be sequestered and bused over to Clark County for trial.
Attorneys are expecting to have a pretrial conference in coming weeks to address possible dates and locations for jury selection.