Two men have been arrested on charges that they killed a clerk at a northwestern Indiana convenience store during a robbery.

Porter County police say 42-year-old Barbara Heckman of Portage was fatally hit with a blunt object about 11:30 p.m. Friday while working at Luke's One Stop on U.S. 6 in a rural area a few miles north of Valparaiso.

Sheriff's Lt. Chris Eckert says officers responding to an alarm at the store found Heckman dead in a back room. Officers later found a suspect vehicle in the area that led to the arrests within hours.

Those arrested on preliminary charges of murder and robbery were 18-year-old Bruce Guess and 19-year-old Steven Jordan, both of rural Porter County. They were being held in the Porter County Jail.