ELKHART -- Two people arrested Tuesday night for methamphetamine possession and manufacturing kept their recipe for meth in an unusual spot -- in the Bible.
Elkhart police officers serving a search warrant at the apartment at 130 N. Second St. found the Bible, with a recipe for meth written on the last page of Revelation, on the bottom half of the page.
"They have the whole thing written here for all the ingredients for meth," said Lt. Ed Windbigler, public information officer with the Elkhart Police Department.
Charles H. Boswell Jr., 42, was arrested on preliminary charges of delivery, possession and manufacturing methamphetamine. Kimberly S. Bundara, 46, was arrested on preliminary charges of possession and manufacturing methamphetamine.
Elkhart police's street crime unit and Indiana State Excise Police were following up on a tip of a possible meth lab in the building that they received from the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office.
After finding an active meth lab in the apartment, police evacuated the building's remaining 18 residents and placed them in a hotel for the night.
Residents were allowed to return to their homes Wednesday morning, after officers from the Elkhart County Health Department deemed the rest of the building safe, other than two apartments -- the apartment with the active meth lab and another that contained meth precursors, Lt. Windbigler said.
"If this building had forced heat where all the heating ducts were connected, the whole building would be contaminated," he said. "These apartments were individually heated."
This isn't the first time the building has had meth trouble. On Oct. 16, a meth lab exploded in a different apartment there, sending two people to a Fort Wayne burn unit.
Kevin Weiczorek, who has lived in the building for six years, missed part of his work day Wednesday, and missed two days of work when the explosion happened in October.
"My boss at work is telling me I better get out of here," he said. "It ain't right."
The building's landlord had just finished spending $15,000 to renovate that apartment from the October explosion, and started renting it out two weeks ago, Lt. Windbigler said.
The responsibility of cleaning up homes used as meth labs falls on the shoulders of the owner. John Hulewicz, environmental health supervisor with the Elkhart County Health Department, said meth lab cleanup must be completed by a certified contractor. Generally, soft, absorbent types of materials including carpeting, drapery and foam under carpeting have to be removed. Sometimes, certain wood or drywall will have absorbed meth byproducts and will have to be removed, too.
"Sometimes cleaning will do the job," he said. "In most cases, it will require a more exacting or taxing method, which will include tearing out walls, floors or ceilings because they just can't be adequately cleaned."
Once a lab has been investigated by police, health department officials will "post" the home, affixing a note saying it is uninhabitable. They then notify the homeowner that the home must be cleaned.
"However, some of these homes don't warrant cleanup because these cleanup costs are significant," Hulewicz said. "We have homeowners who don't choose to clean up their properties and let them fall into disrepair. Then it becomes someone else's problem down the road."
Owners who choose not to clean up homes with meth lab remnants can end up in court or lose the home, he said.
"We will do everything in our power to try to work with them within the context of the law, but then we can't put them above the law," he said.