True Crime – If there is something

Cass County teen rescued in Missouri less than six hours after reported missing

On the evening of June 16, 2024, an Indiana father contacted the Logansport Police Department to report his 14-year-old daughter missing after seeing her enter an unknown black SUV. Police later determined the vehicle to be a black Dodge Durango with unknown registration.

Investigators with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office were able to ping the girl’s cellphone and identified the suspect vehicle with Texas registration travelling westbound on U.S. 36 near Hannibal, Missouri.

Shortly before 2 a.m. on June 17, Cass County authorities contacted the Missouri State Highway Patrol with information on the missing teen.

Then an officer with the Shelbina Police Department notified state troopers when he spotted the black Dodge Durango with Texas plates passing slowly through Shelbina.

Meanwhile, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office traced the suspect vehicle as it traveled along Highway 36 through Clarence, Missouri around 2:11 a.m.

About six minutes later, state troopers spotted the SUV near the intersection of Highway 36 and Kellogg Avenue east of Macon. A traffic stop was initiated and troopers observed a girl in the backseat of the vehicle. The girl identified herself as the missing teen and was immediately removed from the vehicle.

The five suspects in the vehicle were all arrested and charged with second-degree kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child. The suspects were Marlon Aguilar, 44, from Honduras, Arturo Eustaquio, 41, from Mexico, Noe Guzman Hernandez, 24, from Mexico, Daniel Ruiz Lopez, 19, from Honduras, and Carlos Funez, 56, from Honduras.

According to court documents, the men were trafficking the young girl to California to a man she met on the internet.

Thanks to the urgent action of authorities in Indiana and Missouri, the young girl was rescued unharmed less than six hours after her father reported her missing.

Sources:

Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Indiana

ABC 17, Columbia, Missouri

Fox 59, Indianapolis, Indiana

13 KRCG, Columbia-Jefferson City, Missouri

Swift action by police led to rescue of missing Wells County girl

On Saturday, December 30, 2023, a mother contacted the Wells County Sheriff’s Department to report her 11-year-old daughter missing. Police responded and searched the area near her home in Zanesville, Indiana. Police were able to locate the daughter’s cell phone in an area away from her house where the daughter was not allowed to go. The mother told police she had recently discovered inappropriate messages on the daughter’s phone from two individuals, one of whom she knew was an adult male, but she didn’t know the man’s name because he used multiple social media accounts under different names.

Police filed the girl as a missing person and issued a statewide Silver Alert for the 11-year-old. Additionally, multiple police agencies were contacted to aid in the search. After interviewing witnesses, police learned a white van with out-of-state license plates had been spotted in the trailer park around the time the child went missing. Witnesses said they saw two men in the van and also saw the men walking a dog in the location where the girl’s phone was found.

From the girl’s cellphone, police discovered a phone number that had called the girl’s phone 28 times in the hour before she went missing. Police learned this phone number belonged to Zackary Delozier of Edgemont, South Dakota. Officers from the Indiana State Police then began to track Delozier’s phone.

Authorities knew the suspects were travelling in a white Dodge Caravan with South Dakota plates. Utilizing Flock security cameras, police identified the white van travelling across northern Indiana in the direction of Chicago. At 12:11 a.m. on December 31, Delozier’s van was spotted in Wisconsin and his cellphone was tracked across the state.

Indiana State Police notified the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office that a vehicle involved in an Indiana Silver Alert for the abduction of an 11-year-old female was parked at the Kwik Trip in Barneveld, Wisconsin. While sheriff’s deputies were enroute they learned the vehicle was on the move and travelling south on USH 151 in Dodgeville. Dodgeville Police were dispatched and initiated a traffic stop along USH 151, shutting down the southbound lanes for approximately 20 minutes.

Inside the van, police discovered the missing girl along with Delozier, 27, Sara Gaudino, 23, and Isaiah Schryvers, 24, all of Rapid City, South Dakota. The 11-year-old told police she did not know the suspects, and could not remember how she came to be in the vehicle with them. Officers also discovered a firearm in the vehicle.

Police called the girl’s mother and asked if she knew the suspects. She said she did not, but believed one or more of them had been messaging her daughter. She also said she believed the suspects had taken her daughter against her will. The three suspects were taken into custody and charged with kidnapping of a minor, a Level 5 felony.

While it is not known what the suspects intended to do with the victim, the sexually explicit nature of Delozier’s messages to the minor indicate a very bad outcome was narrowly avoided. Because of the urgent action and close coordination of multiple law enforcement agencies, the search and rescue of the missing 11-year-old girl took less than seven hours from the time the initial report was called in.

Sources:

WPTA 21 Alive News Fort Wayne

WANE 15 Fort Wayne

WFFT Fox 55 Fort Wayne

WMTV 15 News Madison

Iowa County Sheriff’s Office

New information in Hailey Buzbee murder investigation

Investigators for the FBI and the Hocking County Sheriff spent Monday searching a rental property on Walnut Dowler Road in Hocking County, Ohio. Forensic evidence was recovered leading investigators to believe a crime was committed there.

According to Hocking County Sheriff Lanny North, “They found some forensic evidence which they feel might be linked to a crime scene, to a death. Until it is examined by the lab, they can’t be exactly sure what it is.”

Columbus Police believe the murder of Hailey Buzbee occurred at the rental property in Hocking County.

On Sunday, Tyler Thomas led FBI and local investigators to a location where Hailey Buzbee’s remains were discovered. The body of Hailey Buzbee was buried near a trailhead in Wayne National Forest in Perry County, Ohio.

After an autopsy by the Licking County Coroner’s Office, a report was sent to the Perry County Coroner. Perry County officials have not said when the report will be released.

The Hocking County Sheriff’s timeline shows Hailey Buzbee was reported missing on January 6 and Tyler Thomas was identified as a suspect in her disappearance. On January 16, Buzbee was tracked to Columbus. Columbus Police questioned Thomas who admitted he picked her up in Fishers, Indiana, but dropped her off in western Ohio. Police determined he lied about dropping Buzbee off. On January 20, Thomas was tracked to a rental in Hocking County. The Hocking County Sheriff and the FBI searched the Hocking County rental. On Sunday, Thomas led investigators to Buzbee’s remains. On Monday, the Hocking County rental was searched again and more evidence was discovered.

Authorities say Tyler Thomas and Haley Buzbee stayed at his Victorian Village home on Hunter Avenue in Columbus before later spending time at the short term rental in Logan, Ohio.

While aspects of the timeline are becoming clearer, specific dates and locations are still very much a mystery. It appears investigators zeroed in on Tyler Thomas almost immediately. According to Fox 59, during the Sunday press conference, Chief Ed Gebhart said Fishers Police encountered Thomas within days of Hailey Buzbee being missing. Investigators have stated that they believe Buzbee died within days after her disappearance. When was this initial encounter with Thomas in relation to him taking Buzbee from the Hunter Avenue location to Logan, Ohio?

Another big question looms over this tragedy. Regardless of whether the 39-year-old Tyler Thomas dropped Hailey Buzbee off in western Ohio, why isn’t an older man transporting a missing minor across state lines grounds for an extended round of questioning in the Columbus Police Department interrogation room? In nearly all these cases where a minor goes missing in the company of someone they met online, the missing minor is considered to be in danger. Why was it weeks before that became the case here?

Hopefully we’ll get those answers soon.

Sources:

Columbus Dispatch

WRTV Indianapolis

ABC 6 Columbus

10WBNS Columbus

Fox 59 Indianapolis

Body of missing Indiana teen found in Ohio

The Indianapolis Star is reporting the body of missing Indiana teenager, Hailey Buzbee, has been located in Perry County, Ohio. The 17-year-old Fishers, Indiana resident and Hamilton Southeastern High School student was last seen by her parents on January 5.

Tyler Thomas, a 39-year-old Columbus, Ohio, person of interest in her death, is being held in the Franklin County, Ohio, jail on charges of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. Reports say Thomas was released into the custody of the FBI on February 1 and led authorities to Buzbee’s body.

Investigators believe Thomas met Buzbee through an online gaming platform. After luring Buzbee from her home, he drove her to his residence in Columbus and also held her at a rental in Hocking County. A search of Thomas’s phone revealed several sexually explicit videos and photographs of Buzbee.

Hailey Buzbee’s father posted a statement to Facebook. “Hailey was a smart, beautiful, kind, and caring young lady with a bright future. She had a deep love for her family and holds a very special place in so many hearts.

Our family is devastated. We want the community and others to know that we are so thankful for the support we received. It’s been tremendous and gave us the hope and strength we needed during our darkest hours.

Please continue to keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we move forward and thank you for all the love you have shown our precious Hailey.”

While Tyler Thomas has yet to be charged with murder, it is clear from the contents of his phone and his knowledge of the location of Buzbee’s body that he knows a great deal about what happened to her. More information will emerge and it would come as little surprise if he is eventually charged with her murder.

According to an article in The Columbus Dispatch, Thomas’s lawyer, Sam Shamansky, said his client “maintains he didn’t kill Buzbee,” and Shamansky “thinks a charge of abuse of a corpse may be more appropriate.”

“We don’t want anybody conflating our cooperation with any admission of guilt relating to her cause of death,” Shamansky said.

If any of that is true, Tyler Thomas has a hell of a lot of explaining to do. It is already known that he lied to detectives when confronted with information that his vehicle was identified in the area of Buzbee’s home. He told detectives that he dropped off Buzbee along the side of the road in western Ohio.

Whether or not Buzbee left her home voluntarily to meet Thomas, how is it not a crime when a 39-year-old man, unknown to the family and without the family’s consent, transports a minor across state lines?

Per USA Today, “Officials spoke with Thomas within a few days of Buzbee’s disappearance.”

Reports have also stated that authorities believe Buzbee died within days after her disappearance.

At the present, we have a very incomplete picture of the events surrounding this terrible crime, let alone the timeline on which they occurred. Obviously, citizens have rights that should not be infringed upon, and there are other investigative issues of which the public is not yet aware, but it is hard to wrap one’s head around the fact that a 39-year-old man admitted early on that he transported a missing teen from Indiana to Ohio and dropped her off alongside the road. Is that not enough to warrant an arrest?

I hope we end up getting the complete picture here. Because parents deserve to know what they’re up against. And everyone from lawmakers to law enforcement to gaming and social media platforms need to learn to do a better job protecting our kids from online predators.

Broadway Butterfly Beatrice Fay Perkins

In the early morning hours of Monday, March 9, 1925, Mrs. Beatrice Fay Perkins returned to her Manhattan apartment at 168 W. 58th St., in the company of her escort, Milton Abbott, a cotton broker and family friend. The two had been to Reuben’s, 622 Madison Ave., where late night revellers often concluded the night’s gayety with coffee and cold beef sandwiches. There Mrs. Perkins became ill and asked Abbott to escort her home. The pair arrived at the apartment around 3 a.m.

A short time later, a group of masked bandits, using a crowbar and other tools, “chopped and hacked their way into the luxurious studio apartment.” Taking the pair by surprise, the gang of thugs first bound and gagged Mr. Abbott before setting upon Mrs. Perkins. As Mrs. Perkins screamed, one of the robbers punched her in the mouth and grabbed her by the throat. Another bandit grabbed her arm and twisted it as he tore a diamond bracelet and a diamond-studded watch from her wrist. He grabbed one of her rings and tore the flesh as he ripped it from her finger. Then her necklace was taken, and when one of her rings proved too stubborn to remove by conventional means, one of the bandits nearly bit her finger off trying to remove the ring with his teeth. Not satisfied with the jewels they’d ripped from her body, they cursed and punched Mrs. Perkins as they demanded more loot.

“Where’s the rest of your jewelry, quick, or we’ll kill you,” one of the bandits threatened.

“For God’s sake, don’t do any more,” Mrs. Perkins moaned. “It’s on the dressing table. There, in that casket.”

As she lay in a broken heap on the floor, one of the men gave her a final kick while another grabbed the jewels from the dressing table. Before they fled, the trio of bandits brutally beat Mrs. Perkins unconscious and choked her with a pillow to prevent her from crying out while they fled the scene. Then, without so much as disturbing a hair on Mr. Abbott’s head, they warned him not to move for ten minutes after they left, or they would kill him.

Once the attackers had left the apartment, it only took Abbott a few moments to slip his bonds. Once free, Abbott showed little compassion and rendered little aid as he merely clipped Mrs. Perkins’ wrist restraints with a pair of scissors. Then Abbott did a very curious thing. As Mrs. Perkins lay semi-conscious on the floor, bleeding from the severe beating she had just endured, Abbott did not call for an ambulance. He did not run to the neighbors for help. Nor did he call the police or summon a doctor. No, Milton Abbott, cotton broker, neglected to undertake any action the emergency situation required and, instead, ran straight to the office of Arnold Rothstein.

Estranged from her husband, Benjamin F. Perkins, wealthy proprietor of the Colannade Club, Beatrice Fay Perkins was described as a beautiful young woman and a frequenter of popular cabarets. “Young, slim and beautiful, clothed in the finest Parisian creations,” Perkins earned the nickname ‘The Sleeping Beauty,’ because she wore her jewelry in bed during a hospital stay only a few weeks earlier.

Badly beaten and abandoned by her companion, Mrs. Perkins left “a trail of blood behind her on the carpet” when she “dragged herself to the telephone” and called for help. Meanwhile, Abbott ran the few blocks to the office of Arnold Rothstein, 45-47 W. 57th Street where he was unable to locate Rothstein at that late hour. The following day, Mrs. Perkins told detectives, “Arnold Rothstein was the man who insured my jewels for me. That’s why we wanted to see if he could think of any way to trace them.”

Three o’clock in the morning seems like a rather strange hour to be contacting your insurance man about stolen jewelry. But Arnold Rothstein wasn’t just an insurance broker. He was a leading figure in the Manhattan criminal underworld with interests in gambling, bootlegging, narcotics and stolen jewelry. And Beatrice Fay Perkins wasn’t the first Broadway Butterfly to be severely beaten and robbed in her home. At least two women had already lost their lives to a gang of “Butterfly Guerillas.” However, this robbery, more than any of the others, appears to indicate that these attacks weren’t just random, unconnected events by unrelated gangs of thugs. But rather, one individual may have been the leading figure behind all of these brutal crimes.

Sources:

Brooklyn Daily Times

Brooklyn Eagle

Brooklyn Citizen

Shadow of the Bridge cuts through the true crime clutter

As a true crime consumer, it is easy sometimes to get so wrapped up in an ongoing case that you can lose your way in a maze of possible suspects or avenues of investigation that often lead nowhere. Then, of course, there are the crackpot conspiracy theories that, if indulged, can draw your ass into a wilderness of mirrors from which you may never find your way back to the known facts and circumstances of the case. The longer the case goes on and the more information accumulates, it can be difficult to separate relevant facts from useless distractions, until your mind becomes like the house of a hoarder, hanging onto every little scrap in case you need it at some point.

One great thing about Aine Cain and Kevin Greenlee’s new book, Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of the American Heartland, is the way it removes the accumulated clutter of eight years, takes you back to a time before the nightmare started and tells the story based only on what is true, verifiable and relevant.

The authors do an exceptional job opening the book in the Delphi that existed before it became the focus of so much media and public attention. They offer a description of the Monon High Bridge and its place in the community before it became part of a crime scene and a symbol of terror and dread. Cain and Greenlee then turn their focus to Abigail, Liberty and their families, skillfully and respectfully portraying their lives as they existed before tragedy struck. It is a credit to the authors that the reader experiences a sense of what these families and communities lost when these two young girls were taken from them. As you’re drawn into the lives of Abigail and Liberty, it is impossible not to feel heartbroken for them, knowing the horror that awaits these two innocent children of Delphi.

All this is to say, for anyone who has followed this case closely, it is extremely useful, instructive and a little therapeutic to permit the authors to clean the slate or remove whatever true crime or conspiracy corkboard you may have mounted in your brain and let them lay out the relevant testimony and facts. Their presentation is clear, methodical and precise, focused squarely on people and events surrounding the crime, investigation and trial.

Everyone who cares about this case should read this book. Then if you’re inclined to return to your internet beefs, creator rivalries, left-field theories and true crime cat fights, you’re free to do so, and the rest of us will know that’s all you ever really cared about.

Dean Jobb continues to promote a false true crime narrative

In a recent interview with the Crime Writers of Canada podcast, Dean Jobb, author of A Gentleman and a Thief, doubles down on his contention that jazz-age jewel thief, Arthur Barry, crashed a Long Island cocktail party in 1924, befriended the Prince of Wales, and whisked his new royal pal off on a secret tour of Broadway speakeasies.

The claim strains credulity, but Jobb provides the following defense:

“I lead off with him (Arthur Barry) meeting the Prince of Wales, the future Edward the VIII, who was visiting Long Island in the twenties. Barry crashes a party, because there were a whole bunch of Long Island parties for the prince and his entourage, and ends up meeting the prince, takes him on a clandestine tour of the bright lights of Broadway and the speakeasies.

“I mean, a writer has to go, really? Did this really happen? Well, start digging into reporters. I find memoirs or memories of reporters who covered the story, who vouch for it, who did their homework. The coverage makes it clear that the prince disappeared right at the time Barry says he was doing this. So, it’s a matter of digging as deeply as you need to in the record to verify for your own peace of mind. But you owe it to the reader, and if you’re not sure, you tell the reader that.”

As I’ve shown in previous blog posts, all the contemporary newspaper accounts of the party Jobb describes have the Prince of Wales dancing at the Cosden estate until dawn and returning to the Burden estate that morning. None mention Wales slipping away from the party to experience the nightlife of Broadway.

Rather than belabor that point here, I’ll address the following contention: “The coverage makes it clear that the prince disappeared right at the time Barry says he was doing this.” The “coverage” Jobb refers to involves an episode that occurred the night following the Cosden party. The “small but jolly” Cosden gathering described in Jobb’s book began late in the evening of Wednesday, September 3, 1924 and continued through the early morning hours of Thursday, September 4. The period of time when Wales went missing began in the afternoon or early evening of Thursday, September 4 and continued until the next morning, Friday, September 5.

Here is the passage Jobb quotes from to show “that the prince disappeared right at the time Barry says he was doing this.” The article was penned Thursday night, September 4, one night later than the night of the Cosden party, and appeared in the following morning’s Buffalo Courier.

“The whereabouts of the Prince of Wales were shrouded in mystery tonight. At midnight he had not returned to the Burden estate where he is stopping.

“He had dinner at the home of J.S. Cosden…It was reported that he left the Cosden home shortly after dinner, but since that time he has been playing a game of hide and seek with those who sought to check his movements.

“Some believe he went for a boat ride up Long Island Sound, others say he attended an all-night dance party at some nearby home, but others believe he went in disguise to one of the white light jazz palaces on Broadway.”

Not only does this passage describe a different night from that of the late-night Cosden party, it describes a completely different set of events. Wales had dinner at the Cosden home and he left, possibly by boat, and either went to a party or to check out the white light jazz palaces of Broadway. He’s not fleeing a late night party, he’s leaving after having dinner. How does Jobb not recognize that these are not only separate dates but separate events as well?

While the order of events may seem a little confusing to someone unfamiliar with the Prince’s 1924 visit, it isn’t to someone who has casually researched the topic, and it shouldn’t be confusing to someone who has researched and written a work of nonfiction where an alleged encounter between Arthur Barry and the Prince of Wales plays a central role.

The prince’s movements over the 24 hours in question go something like this: Wales attends a late night party at the Cosden estate and dances until dawn. He then returns to the Burden estate and sleeps until around noon. Then he goes to the polo fields for the afternoon. Sometime in the late afternoon, he returns to the Cosden estate where he either plays golf or takes a stroll around the Cosden’s nine hole golf course. Then he eats dinner, hops in a motorboat, and disappears off into the Long Island Sound. From there his whereabouts are unknown for the next 12-24 hours.

These events are widely covered by the newspapers of the day. Here’s a question the New York Daily News posed regarding the prince’s missing hours:

“What the folk down Long Island way wanted to know was where the prince passed the time from 2 p.m. Thursday until his reappearance yesterday.”

Does that sound like Wales stole away from a late night party with a stranger he just met, or does it make more sense that he went missing the following afternoon? How does Jobb miss that unless he’s intentionally taken the route of ignoring the truth and printing the legend?

The Hendricks County Grave Robberies Part 4

As the winter of 1987 rolled in, the reports of opened graves and disturbed cemetery plots in central Indiana ceased. It makes sense that snow and frozen earth would put the brakes on grave robbing activities. Finding it difficult to operate in the winter months, the fair-weather-satanists probably took their activities indoors as outdoor conditions became inhospitable.

With 15 graves robbed in Hendricks County and no suspects in sight, at least one expert voiced the opinion that the focus on satanists was misguided. Julia M. Corbett, Religious Studies professor at Ball State University, told the Indianapolis Star that the profile of a grave robber did not match that of a typical satanist.

According to Corbett these crimes were committed by “real ‘sickies’ out there who do things like animal sacrifice and grave robbing and things like that and say they’re doing it in the name of satanism.

“My impression of it… is that we have a collection of several incidents that may be tied together of people simply doing very bizarre things that are being labeled satanism. It’s very probably not associated with the Church of Satan.

“Legitimate satanists don’t break laws as long as they consider it’s for the public good. I’m quite sure the grave robbing wouldn’t be in the public interest. ‘Devil-worshipper’ is kind of a convenient catchbasket when something negative like this happens,” Corbett said.

Police did manage to apprehend at least one individual who was not acting in the public interest. A Hendricks County teen-ager was arrested for robbing the grave of a woman buried in 1865. Although the theft occurred three years earlier, the youth had only recently confessed his misdeeds to the police. When questioned by investigators, the youth admitted that he had removed the earth from the grave. Once the casket was exposed, he smashed the glass in the lid and searched inside for jewelry or other valuable items. Finding nothing of value, the youth removed some teeth from the skull and took them. The young man was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief and theft.

As the calendar turned to 1988, stories about the Hendricks County grave robberies investigation began to fizzle in the local press, even as the news of satanic activity exploded in the national media. However, Lt. Michael J. Nelson did not give up the investigation, despite being told by Sheriff Roy Waddell to drop inquiries into alleged satanic activity in the county. Additionally, when national media outlets like the Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, and the New York Times came calling, Lt. Nelson gave interviews without getting permission from Waddell.

Sheriff Waddell was not pleased to see the local issue sensationalized in the national media. “In the 30 years I’ve been here, I’ve had no experience with satanic cults, before or since this. We try to investigate all avenues and that’s one avenue that could be considered, but nothing panned out. That’s not to say we don’t have any individuals who may, to whatever degree, be involved. I have no idea. But the bottom line is there’s no substance to think we have a satanic cult problem,” Waddell told the Indianapolis Star.

By February of 1988, Lt. Nelson found himself transferred from detective work to patrol duty, and in May he resigned from the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Department. “In a nutshell, without getting in a battle with him, I believe there is satanic activity and he believes there isn’t … .He just doesn’t feel it’s a legitimate investigation and there’s no basis for any satanic cult operating in the county,” Nelson said.

However, just a few months after Nelson’s resignation, three Hendricks County teen-agers were charged and found guilty of cruelty to an animal after they each confessed in juvenile court to participating in a ritual in which they cut out the heart of a live stray cat. The incident occured the previous October, around the time the grave robberies were discovered, and took place under the Avon Road bridge in Plainfield.

According to her testimony to the Hendricks County Circuit Court, the 16-year-old leader of the ritual sacrifice asserted that only animals are to be killed, not humans. ”In satanism, we believe that the human is the ultimate being – we don’t believe in violence or suicide. Murder of a human is wrong. But every religion has its own thing, and the cat (sacrifice) is ours.”

Apparently, they should have audited professor Corbett’s class before embarking on their satanic practices.

Another youth who admitted to stabbing the animal and cutting out its heart told the judge he became involved in satanism because he “just needed something to believe in. I can’t believe in anything anymore. I’ve had a rough life, your honor.”

While none of these incidents revealed a vast satanic underground in operation, they undoubtedly provided fuel for the paranoia that would grip Hendricks County and the entire state, making Indiana, in some respects, ground zero for the so-called satanic panic.

Sources:

The Indianapolis Star

The Indianapolis News

The Hendricks County Grave Robberies Part 3

While no vandals or cult members were apprehended by law enforcement on Halloween night, Hendricks County officials did receive a report of cult activity at a cemetery in Avon. Some adults allegedly witnessed a group of teens in black robes “holding sticks and dragging what appeared to be a body,” the Star reported.

Hendricks County Sheriff’s Lt. Stephen Golden offered his thoughts on the alleged cult activity.

“We are sure devil worship exists, but we don’t know if it is really going on (in the county) or if it’s teens playing a game or people out to steal things to sell. If it’s teens, a lot could have to do with movies they’re watching like Prince of Darkness or Nightmare on Elm Street. If it is teens, it’s a very small select group of teen–agers that are not representative of teens here in Hendricks County.”

Although investigators believed more than one cult was operating in the area, they could not determine whether the groups were involved in devil worship. Additionally, Golden clarified that in most instances the devil worship activity was not illegal.

“When they trespass on people’s property, dig up graves and when they kill or maim animals, then it becomes our business. That’s why we want to find out what’s going on and get to the bottom of it.”

Investigators reported discovering a ritual site in a densely wooded area near I-74 and State Road 267 north of Brownsburg. A tree spray-painted with a “666” and the word “Satan” marked the site. Attached to the tree were a pair of ropes with an ax handle hanging from one of the ropes. Also present at the site were two small platforms and a candle in a jar.

At the previously mentioned bonfire site northeast of Pittsboro, where an 8-inch bone was found, investigators also discovered candle wax drippings on a table. Tests performed on the bone showed it to be that of a large dog.

Then in the early morning hours of November 4, 1987, the night manager of a Brownsburg restaurant was driving home from work along a dark stretch of road outside Pittsboro. Near the intersection of County Roads 750 North and 475 East, the man suddenly came upon a vehicle parked in the middle of the road. Unable to stop, he was forced to drive off the road to avoid hitting the vehicle. Angered at the driver in the stopped vehicle, the night manager grabbed an ax handle he kept in his car for protection. (Apparently, ax handles were widely available and in heavy rotation back in 1987.) As the night manager exited his vehicle, a man wearing a black leather jacket, a black hood and a black glove with spikes or claws appeared out of the darkness. Additionally, two other men wearing ski masks emerged from another vehicle. The night manager was pushed to the ground, kicked and struck by the group, and slashed across the face and abdomen by the man with the claw glove. The men fled when the night manager lost consciousness.

The night manager was not badly injured and the assailants were never identified. Robbery was ruled out as a motive in the attack because the restaurant’s deposit the manager carried with him was not taken.

As highly bizarre as the attack appeared, it was not an isolated incident. Due to the popularity of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, assaults committed by individuals with clawed or studded gloves were not altogether uncommon back in 1987. But with fears already running high over reports of satanism and satanic crimes in the press, the attack only caused the paranoia to grow.

Sources:

The Indianapolis Star

The Indianapolis News

The Hendricks County Grave Robberies Part 2

As Halloween 1987 approached, reports of grave robberies in Hendricks County continued to pour in. On October 27, the remains of four people were discovered missing at the Weaver-Dillon Cemetery, bringing the total number of grave robberies to ten. A resident who lives nearby discovered the open graves while walking in the wooded area northeast of Pittsboro, Indiana. Lt. Stephen G. Golden expressed doubts about a Halloween prank, as the work involved in opening the graves required a great deal of digging and the location was very secluded.

The largest hole was marked by a headstone inscribed with the names Joeann F. Dillon, Judith M. Dillon, James W. Dillon, Abia Dillon and Flemingo Dillon whose deaths occurred between 1852 and 1919. Golden commented that the freshness of the dirt indicated the hole had been dug sometime within the previous two months. Another hole lay at the base of a headstone with the inscription “Emma V., wife of S. A. Surber.” Nearby another large hole with no headstone marking the grave had been dug and filled back in.

With no apparent motive and little to go on other than the profile of an extremely fit and prolific hole digger, the theory that the crimes were motivated by satan worship moved to the forefront. An 8-inch-long bone resembling a femur discovered at the most recent site, bolstered the satanic angle.

“What’s significant is that it was found near a bonfire site. In rituals, they usually have a bonfire near the cemetery,” Lt. Golden told reporters.

For Sheriff’s Lt. Michael J Nelson, who had been working on the grave robberies since they first began appearing, the satanic cult angle had always been at the top of his list. Investigators believed that almost anything found in the hundred-year-old graves would be of value to a group of satan worshippers. Items discovered in these ancient graves would bond members to the group, investigators thought.

Needless to say, residents of this part of Hendricks County were becoming very nervous indeed. Grave robberies and allegations of devil worship would send a chill down anybody’s spine in 1987. But Lt. Golden assured the public it was too soon to start worrying.

“Sure, it’s unusual, but people shouldn’t be scared. Hopefully, we’ll find out who’s doing it and they’ll be arrested,” Golden said.

However, the grave robberies continued. On Halloween 1987, an Indianapolis Star headline announced “5 more graves disturbed in Hendricks County.” According to the article, attempts had been made to steal the remains of five more people, but it could not be determined whether the thieves were successful in their endeavor.

Meanwhile, additional reports of graveyard malfeasance flooded into the Hendricks County Sheriff’s office. In Avon, a woman reported that a private cemetery on her property had been targeted. A four foot deep hole had been dug at the site of one grave, but no remains removed. Two other cemeteries in the Pittsboro area showed attempts to open graves that were abandoned after two feet of digging. In one instance, it appeared the robbery had been attempted several months earlier, as the hole showed signs it had been dug earlier in the spring.

“What is getting strange now is, for some reason, they’re digging part of the way into these graves and then quitting,” Lt. Golden told reporters.

Could there have been a copycat on the loose who didn’t have the stomach to finish the job, or could the older abandoned attempts show a grave robber who was just getting started but lacked the confidence to see the gruesome task through?

Whatever the case, Lt. Golden called up a number of local reservists to patrol the area on Halloween night in hopes of catching a grave digging ghoul in the act. After all, what twisted creature of the night or sick satanic cult could resist communing with the dead on Halloween night?

At the time and given the circumstances, Golden’s plan was necessary and had to be undertaken. But imagine being a local citizen called up to stake out a remote, ancient cemetery on Halloween night. In retrospect, it sounds like a movie premise with loads of comedic potential, something like Abbott and Costello Meet the Body Snatcher.

At any rate, with the level of weirdness in Hendricks County cranked up to 11, it seemed impossible that events could get any weirder, but as Hunter S. Thompson used to say, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Sources:

The Indianapolis Star

The Indianapolis News