Hidden behind working-class homes on the eastside of Indianapolis, Porter Park isn’t visible from the city streets that surround it. If you’re driving on English Avenue by the Greater Shepherd Baptist Church, you might catch a glimpse of the park behind the church’s parking lot. Otherwise, you could pass it everyday and never know it exists. Maybe the city prefers it that way, because the park looks more like a municipal afterthought than a destination for fun and excitement. Surrounded by a crooked chain link fence, the park boasts some swings, a basketball court, a jungle gym and a large open field. The only way to access Porter Park is via the aforementioned church parking lot or the nearly hidden alleyways that split off of Hamilton Avenue or St. Paul Street. Undoubtedly, it is a source of amusement for the neighborhood children, but it lacks a parking area, and there is little chance any area family loads up the minivan and heads out for an afternoon of laughter and thrills at Porter Park.
But Porter Park is where 11-year-old Margaret “Peggy Sue” Altes found herself on the afternoon of Monday, November 12, 1984. It was Veterans Day and a school holiday. Peggy Sue had left her home at 442 St. Peter Street around 1:00 p.m. to meet a friend at a neighboring residence where the friend’s grandmother resided, while Peggy Sue’s mother and sister attended a church revival. However, when no one answered the door at the residence, Peggy Sue did what a lot of kids did in those days, she went to the local playground to pass the time and connect with neighborhood friends. Around 2:30 that afternoon, Peggy Sue was seen playing in the park with a couple of neighborhood boys. Peggy Sue was a fifth-grader at School 48. She was five foot tall with blondish brown hair. She wore a white furry jacket, burgundy corduroys and blue tennis shoes. A witness saw her playing on the swings. By all accounts she was taking full advantage of time away from teachers and parents to have a carefree day of play and fun.
However, there were others in this neighborhood who were also taking the day off. Not because they were honoring those who had nobly served their country, but because for these men of low character most days were an exercise in scoring dope and getting high, or swigging whisky and getting wasted on a weekday afternoon. And if that is all they did and they confined their activities to the dark places, the seedy bars and grubby apartments that concealed their shabby and disordered lives, then maybe their weakness of character could be forgiven. But men like these are not content to stay in the shadows. They are jackals hunting the weakest prey, stalking innocent lives for their own vile and twisted pleasure.
One of these jackals was creeping through the streets surrounding Porter Park in a black Chevy Camaro. A witness described seeing Peggy Sue enter the passenger side of the vehicle. The witness, a delivery driver whose schedule routinely brought him to the area, said Peggy Sue was forced to get into the car. He told authorities, “she didn’t want to get in, he grabbed her by the sleeve.” The witness described the black Camaro as having gray stripes that ran the length of the car along the door handles. The car had rust over the rear wheel well, a blue interior, and a piece missing from a wing on the back of the car. The witness described the driver of the Camaro as having a mustache and black curly hair that puffed out in the back.
The parents of Peggy Sue Altes did not realize their daughter was missing until 7:00 p.m. when they received a phone call from the family of the friend she was supposed to have met that afternoon. Peggy Sue’s family immediately began searching the area and reported Peggy Sue missing to police around 11:15 that night. In the days that followed, the search continued with family, friends and church members joining in to search neighborhood streets and abandoned buildings. A flier bearing Peggy Sue’s name, age and description was distributed to neighborhood businesses imploring anyone who had seen her to contact “missing persons.” However, family members charged that the police response was nearly non-existent with Peggy’s brother James telling the Indianapolis Star, “they haven’t done all they could do.” IPD detectives didn’t exactly dispute James’ claim, responding that they had entered Peggy Sue’s name and description into a state and a national database, which apparently constituted the extent of investigative effort for locating missing eleven-year-olds at the time.
Peggy Sue’s nude body was discovered by hunters in a Hancock County field around 10:00 a.m. the following Saturday, November 17, 1984. Although reports initially claimed she had been shot, it was later confirmed that she had been stabbed in the neck. Her body was located about 100 yards off Jacobi Road just north of County Road 300S in Hancock County. A group of hunters had parked their truck just off the road and we’re following a path on foot back to a wooded area. About a hundred yards in they discovered the body of Peggy Sue lying face up along the path. The four men quickly returned to their truck and drove to a nearby house where the owner immediately contacted Hancock County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Bradbury who was a resident of the area.
Hancock County investigators were on the scene by 11:00 a.m. There they discovered that the path leading back to the scene was deeply rutted with tire tracks. In some places, the ruts were more than 12 inches deep, indicating a vehicle may have become stuck in the mud at some point. Investigators made plaster casts of the tire tracks. They also photographed the scene extensively and recovered several items, including a thin gold bracelet. Present at the scene were Hancock County Prosecutor Larry Gossett and Deputy Coroner Fred Counter. Sheriff Detective Technician Bill Applegate and Captain Malcolm Grass supervised the evidence gathering. Around 3:00 that afternoon, Counter and Applegate assisted as Peggy Sue’s body was carefully sealed in sterile wrappings and transported to Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis for autopsy. Investigators concluded that Peggy Sue had been murdered at the scene because her hand was found to be clutching grass and weeds, and initially they thought her death had been quite recent. While awaiting autopsy results, Hancock County Sheriff Nick Gulling told reporters, “Until we get those results, we’re operating under the assumption that we had Saturday, and that is that she died sometime Friday night or Saturday morning.”
That she may have been killed the morning of her body’s discovery seems like a pretty startling assertion. Based on their assessment of the crime scene and the condition of the body, homicide investigators, a crime scene tech and the county coroner were of the opinion that she likely died within the previous 24 hours, maybe even a mere few hours prior to discovery. That would mean that she had to have been held somewhere in the intervening days since her abduction Monday afternoon.
The autopsy report would tell a different story, although it would fail to nail down conclusively when Peggy Sue Altes was slain. Forensic pathologist Dr. John Pless would conclude that she died of knife wounds to the left side of her neck that severed a jugular vein and carotid artery. No other wounds were indicated other than some superficial cuts. There was evidence of rape which included the presence of semen in her vagina and a tear caused by penetration. The time of death was estimated to be at least 48 hours prior to the discovery of her body.
Perhaps investigators could be forgiven for being a few days off on the time of death. After all, it was November, so cold temperatures probably made it difficult to determine with any degree of certainty. But, in retrospect, crime scene investigators’ failure to distinguish a stab wound from a gunshot wound may have revealed a lack of experience, if not a lack of competence, and that misstep may have proven to be a rather ominous sign of investigative failures to come. Because this is a case where poor decisions on the part of investigators and prosecutors sent an innocent man to jail and allowed guilty men to walk free, all while two grieving parents eventually went to their graves having never seen justice for their slain daughter.
Sources:
The Indianapolis Star
The Indianapolis News
The Daily Reporter (Greenfield, Indiana)
Watkins v. Miller, Southern District of Indiana (2000)
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