Going West: True Crime - Burger Chef Murders // 461

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

In November of 1978, four young employees of the Speedway, Indiana Burger Chef restaurant mysteriously vanished at the end of their shift. When police investigated the scene that night, it was clear something had happened to them. But the case wasn't taken seriously until almost two days later, when all their bodies were found - proving they had died by homicide. This is the story of Jayne Friedt, Ruth Ellen Shelton, Mark Flemmonds, and Daniel Davis. Also known as the Burger Chef Murders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going west. Hello everybody. Hope you're doing well today. This case was recommended by Colleen, Charlie, Peter, Mara and Gail. So thank you all for sending this in. It's one of those ones where, you know, we've known about it for a while, but we've never officially dove into it until recently, but it still needs so much attention, really as much attention as possible because the details are maddening and their families are still trying to push this case after all this time. So listen up and share, share, share, please. Yeah, this is such a spooky mystery, such a crazy case. I'm so excited to see what you guys have to say about this one. So without further ado, this is episode

461 of Going West, so let's get into it. You Tomorrow marked 45 years since four employees went to work at a Speedway restaurant and were never seen alive again. It's a homicide investigation that continues to this day. Sometime after 10 p.m. on November 17, 1978, the Speedway Burger Chef was found empty. No cash was found in the register. There was no sign of 20-year-old Jane Freit, 17-year-old Ruth Shelton, and Mark Flemons, or 16-year-old Daniel Davis.

Two days later, their bodies were found face down in a wooded area in Johnson County. Speedway police, state police, and the FBI talked to witnesses and searched for clues. 40 years later, police released an image of a knife they say was used to kill one of the victims, hoping it will spark new leads. So that's not a knife that somebody carried in there.

That's a knife that is, that is carried, or most likely carried in a sheath. During the first hours of that Friday night, police thought maybe employees Jane Fright, Daniel Davis, Mark Flemmons, and Ruth Ann Shelton cleaned out the cash register and took off, a theory that was horribly discredited when their bodies were found

in a Johnson County field two days later. It's easy to keep a 40-year-old secret if no one talks about it. We don't have all the answers. And there's someone out there that does. Speedway, Indiana is a suburb in West Indianapolis famous for hosting the Indy 500, formerly known as the Indianapolis 500 mile race, hence the name Speedway. Yeah, I don't think anybody calls it the Indianapolis 500 mile race, but it's pretty much just been the Indy 500 for a long time now.

Well, I actually didn't know until we researched this that the 500 stood for lapping 500 miles, which is wild. So this town is home to the notorious annual automobile race, where nowadays Brandon Brandon Bellish race cars zip around the 2.5 mile track at an average of 170 miles per hour. But before it became the hot rod hub it's known as today in the early 1900s, city planners and speedway dreamed of the Midwestern flatland becoming a horseless city. Automotive, engineering, and electric companies were flocking to the area, which drew people to the western Indianapolis town to secure good jobs.

At the turn of the century, more people were uprooting from rural American life for the promises of up-and-coming cities, and Speedway provided just that with a bustling main street, a commercial district, and coming cities. And Speedway provided just that with a bustling main street, a commercial district and industrial facilities. The first half of the 1900s in Speedway proved to be expanding. And between the 1950s and 70s, the population of Speedway practically tripled in size.

But something I noticed is actually after the story took place that we're gonna talk about today, the population actually began to dwindle. Yeah, well, it's kind of crazy because this town is, it's not very big, and you know, there's not a lot of people living in Speedway. Yeah, I mean, it went from like 5,000 people to 15,000, which is, you know, moderately significant.

A sizable difference. Yeah, so at this time, single-family limestone buildings were constructed, and with the influx of families in the area, additional schools were built to keep up. Speedway in the 1970s, when today's story occurred, was a place for American families to thrive amongst the Indy 500 tourists. And like most American towns in the 1970s, several fast food joints were speckled around Speedway like White Castle, KFC, and Burger Chef.

Burger Chef began as a single fast food restaurant founded back in the 50s, but by the 1970s, Burger Chef became a staple Midwestern chain with more than 600 locations, and it was the top rival for McDonald's at the time. The Burger Chef logo was a red, simple font accompanied by a mascot of a man in a fluffy chef's hat and eyeglasses. The menu was simple with classical American bites like burgers, fries, shakes, and apple turnovers,

with the star of the menu being the Big Chef Burger, which was a cheesy, beefy triple decker delight. It kind of seems like a burger chef ad that we're doing right now. Like we're just relaying it all out for you guys. The history is kind of interesting, especially because, as I'm gonna get into it in a second,

it's not around anymore, but we're just trying to paint the scene of how big this franchise was, or this chain was rather, at that time. It was a massive chain. Yeah, and back when a complete fast food dinner meal cost 49 cents, Burger Chef was a popular spot, and TV ads were driving up sales. In 1977, the mega blockbuster film Star Wars

was all the rage, and Burger Chef offered a free Star Wars poster with the purchase of a large soft drink. Affordable and delicious, Burger Chef was a go-to spot for all ages to enjoy a hot comfort meal. They thrived for decades before officially being bought out by Hardee's in the late 1980ss and the last doors closed in 1996. But back in Burger Chef's heyday during the 1970s, the registers and fryers were operated primarily by teens who worked the entry

level positions for some after-school cash. In mid-November of 1978, it was the weekend before Thanksgiving and Speedway locals were still days away from turkey and gravy preparations. Like many Friday nights, residents crowded the red booths of Burger Chef at 5725 Crawfordsville Road in Speedway, Indiana. Right on the highway that is Crawfordsville Road for a late-night bite. Four young and hard-working individuals were on shift that evening, including 16-year-old Danny Davis, 16-year-old Mark Flemons, 17-year-old Ruth Ellen Shelton, and 20-year-old assistant manager Jane Freit.

Jane Carol Freit was born on May 2nd, 1958 in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is an hour west of Indianapolis, to parents Carolyn and George, and she grew up alongside siblings Joanne, James, Joseph, and David. Now, Jane grew to be a goofy yet responsible young woman who kept herself pretty busy with extracurricular activities. In high school, she was a part of the pep squad, drama club, and was even on the yearbook committee.

But while in high school, she added to her packed schedule when she started up a job at Burger Chef. Jane's strong work ethic earned her a lot of recognition, and after three years with the company, Jane was promoted to the assistant manager role, which again is a position that she held when she was murdered. Proud and ecstatic, the now 20-year-old Jane trained employees, handled inventory orders, and was quickly making her way to a potential manager role. One of the many employees under her was 17-year-old Ruth Ellen.

Ruth Ellen Shelton was born on December 19th, 1960, meaning she was just one month away from her 18th birthday when she was killed. She was raised by parents John and Rachel, alongside her sister Teresa and brother Gordon. She was a crafty and intellectual student at Northwest High School in Indianapolis who had recently started working at Burger Chef after leaving her job at a local Dunkin' Donuts. She stayed occupied with schoolwork and was part of a local youth ministry, so by November of 1978, Ruth Ellen had a lot on her plate and decided to quit her job at Burger Chef to lighten the load. When Ruth Ellen turned in her resignation, the senior manager asked if she could stick

out the next few weeks during the holiday rush, and she agreed to do so. Also on shift the night of November 17th were two 16-year-old boys named Mark and Danny. Mark Flemmons was born on December 31st, 1961 to parents Robert and Blondell in Indiana, and he grew up with siblings Deborah, Renee, Blondell, India, Robert Jr., and Kevin. Mark was a sweet and friendly teenager who was one of Burger Chef's short order cooks. Once Mark proved that he was maintaining good grades at local Speedway High School, his father Robert Sr. allowed him to get a part-time job working at the local burger chef, which was walking distance from the family home. And Mark actually wasn't

scheduled to work on the night of November 17th, but a co-worker named Ginger had asked him to cover her shift, and he happily did so. His co-worker of the same age and the fourth and final victim of today's story, Daniel Davis, who went by Danny, was born on September 6, 1962 in Indiana to parents Roy and Christine. At the time of the murders, he was a junior at Decatur Central High School in Indianapolis who was on the honor roll and enjoyed photography, and even so much so that he had his own dark room. But he did eventually hope to join the US Air Force just like his older brother after

graduation. Then he would pursue a career in photography. But until both of those goals could happen, Daniel was working hard at Burger Chef several days a week and had only just joined the Closing Shift crew. The four young employees on shift that night would soon make national headlines in a mystery that would span several decades. November 17th, 1978 was a chilly Friday night

in Speedway, Indiana. And after a busy evening of flipping and selling burgers in their orange and brown striped uniforms, the staff was preparing for closing. By 11 p.m., the doors were locked, and the four employees were performing their routine end-of-night duties. 20-year-old assistant manager Jane removed the cash from the register before placing the money in the safe box located in the manager's office, as she did upon all her closing shifts,

while the rest of the staff cleaned up, so everything was business as usual. It was just after midnight on November 18th, so about an hour after, Burger Chef locked its doors, when a 17-year-old employee named Brian Kring, who was off that night, was driving by the restaurant and decided to stop in to visit his co-worker buddies. The parking lot was empty, the neon sign was dimmed, but the interior lights were still on.

So Brian figured that his friends were still cleaning up and hadn't clocked out for the night. You know, he's a teenager. These are his teenage friends. Like I did the same thing when I worked at a bakery when I was a teenager. And if I was driving by at night and I saw my friends in there, I would have stopped as well. He's just trying to hang out, see what they're doing, spend the rest of their shift together, and then go home. Especially when you live in a small town as well, there's probably not a ton to do as a teenager

that late at night, so stop and buy the burger chef to see your friends, easy, simple. Yeah, seems like a good way to spend your night. So Brian made his way to the back door of the restaurant where he was planning to knock and be led in and hang out and watch them close up. But to his surprise, the door was slightly open. He called out to his coworkers,

but was met with no answer, which was odd, and honestly, a little bit eerie. Now at first he didn't want to go in because the scene felt very strange, but as Brian walked through the bizarrely quiet kitchen and into the dining area, he noticed the cash register drawers were littered on the ground and empty.

Knowing that the cash was always transferred to the manager's office at the end of the night, he entered the small back room to find it had been pillaged. Burger Chef was in disarray and the staff was nowhere to be found, so 17 year old Brian knew something just wasn't right. When he noticed Ruth Ellen's jacket on the ground, Brian rushed to the restaurant phone and called 911. The police would arrive to the scene and prove to completely botch the investigation as we'll get into, adding to the mystery of what happened on this catastrophic night.

So when the officials did arrive, they noticed that the safe in the manager's office was open, and beside it were two empty money bags, and inside the safe was nothing but rolls of coins which totaled over $100. Despite the apparent robbery, it didn't appear that a forced break-in had occurred, originally making them think that one of the employees had just kind of like run off with the missing cash. Although upon discovering that 20-year-old Jane and 17-year-old Ruth Ellen's jackets and handbags were still in the restaurant, an employee derived theft to take you know $581, which is the equivalent to over $2,800 now from the day's earning just really didn't seem

likely here. Brian told police that when he initially arrived the back door was unlocked which was never the case unless an employee was taking out the trash. It wasn't uncommon in the area at the time for a backdoor robbery to occur but to have four people missing in addition to a robbery was just like beyond comprehension. So at the Speedway, police were totally scratching their heads here, and confusion really set in when they learned that Jane's White Chevrolet Vega was missing from the Burger Chef parking lot.

Police made calls to the parents to notify them that their kids seemingly vanished from the restaurant, and the families were sick with worry, knowing that none of their children would have ever been part of a theft ploy. They just knew that something had gone very wrong in there. Authorities still didn't know what to make of the situation, but an aerial search began and the FBI became involved quickly. While the Indiana State Police were searching for the victims, hours into the search in the early morning hours, they found Jane's missing white Chevrolet Vega near the Speedway Police headquarters, parked about a mile

away just down the street and around the corner from Burger Chef. None of the missing teenagers were in the car and the keys were gone, but the passenger door was unlocked. So police dusted the keys were gone, but the passenger door was unlocked. So police dusted the car for fingerprints, but they were unsuccessful in finding any leads this way. Thinking back to the scene and the location of Jane's car, police theorized that one of the employees was in the process of taking out the trash, hence the unlocked back door, when an unknown assailant or assailants entered

Burger Chef, took the cash, and kidnapped the four employees. They thought that maybe the perpetrator had their own vehicle but also instructed Jane to drive in her car, possibly with the other victims, before her car was abandoned at the location that it was found. But what happened to the four victims after that was a total mystery. And I gotta say, this was a crazy time for the news because the day after these murders occurred, I mean really pretty much by the time everybody woke up that day, was the day of the Jonestown massacre, which I think a lot of us know about. You know, this one over 900 people were killed

in a mass suicide in that people's temple cult. Obviously, locals were more focused on the burger chef murders here, but like what a time. Yeah, and as we're going to get into there were a lot more things going on in this very small town, which is so weird. I mean, just crazy things were happening in Speedway at the time. And when we remember how small the town was around 13,000way at the time.

So while the town of Speedway was on high alert, the police actually weren't considering the case to be one that was very serious, at least not yet. So before they had come up with this theory that Heath just mentioned, police allowed for the restaurant to be cleaned up and reopened the following morning. That is insane to me. Yeah, remember when I said botched? This is how botched. Because they also failed to take any photographs of the scene.

So no evidence was taken, nor could later be taken. And the exact way the scene was found by Brian could not be looked back on. And actually, the Speedway police have since said that they are very aware of how much they botched this case, and it is a major regret of theirs to this day. Especially because of what findings followed the strange scene and Jane's abandoned vehicle. On Sunday, November 19, 1978, only two days after the Burger Chef employees vanished, or actually not even two full days yet.

Two residents were trekking the backwoods near their Johnson County property, which is the county neighboring Marion County, where Speedway is, and in a forest-like area, they stumbled upon a scene that stopped them in their tracks. About 20 miles away away or around 32 kilometers from the burger chef where the four missing youths worked, the deceased bodies of Jane, Ruth Ellen, Mark and Danny were discovered and the state of their bodies was brutal.

17 year old Ruth Ellen and 16 year old Danny were lying next to each other and had been shot execution style multiple times. 20-year-old Jane, who was laying near them, had been stabbed twice, and the blade of a 4.5-inch knife was still in her chest. The knife's handle was gone, which made investigators believe that the handle had broken off during her killing. As for 16-year-old Mark, his body was found 50 to 75 yards away from where the other three laid. And it's assumed because of this that Mark did try to flee, but then ran into a tree head-on before being beaten in the face with a chain or something that was

like similar to a chain. Sadly, it is believed that Mark died from choking on his own blood. And by the way, it was clear police that all four victims were killed and died at the scene of their discovery. So none of them were killed somewhere else and then transported there. They were all murdered right there in that wooded area. With these horrific discoveries, police believe that in a burglary gone wrong situation, sometime after 11pm on November 17th, the employees were snatched from Burger Chef, ushered to

this wooded area, and then killed. The Burger Chef crew were still wearing their brown and orange striped uniforms and no sexual assaults had been committed. Now, due to the fact that there were four victims, police were certain, of course, as we can all imagine, that the horrific killings were not a solo act. You know, there had to be multiple people to successfully incapacitate four spry young people. multiple people to successfully incapacitate four spry young people. Police expressed hopes that the assailant or assailants would maybe admit to a friend or a family member about the slangs, you know, that maybe the person would come forward to clear their conscience. This was, of course, kind of a far reach and only helped add to the community's fear

that multiple vicious people were living amongst them, capable of carrying a horrific secret. So So, Burger Chef Corp was desperate to solve the case and help provide justice for the families. I mean, they even set up a reward fund of $25,000 and the chance that the case would be solved. And, of course, several tips flooded phone lines, but unfortunately, nothing was sticking. Burger Chef Corp. also set up memorial funds for the four families to help with funeral costs.

And in addition to the $25,000 reward from Burger Chef, another local fast food chain called Steak and Shake, which is still around and many of you guys probably know about that one, added another $1,000 to the reward fund there was clearly a big push in the community to solve this case and Corporations along with independent locals showed their support in any way that they could now interestingly a few months before the burger chef murders in July of 1978 a different restaurant killing shook up America.

In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which is an 11-hour drive from Speedway, a steakhouse and buffet chain called Sirloin Stockade was also home to a tragedy, when six employees were shot to death. In this case, sadly, the majority of the victims were teens, making the two stories pretty similar. But in the Sirloin Stockade killings, all victims were killed inside the restaurant, so the kidnapping from Burger Chef murders was pretty much a different approach. Police arrived to the scene at the steakhouse approximately six hours after the killingsings where they found all six employees shot in the meat freezer Sheesh, I know it's it's really really sad. It's grim very grim

Well one of the six victims was clinging to life actually but sadly later died in the hospital The perpetrators turned out to be a man named Roger Dale Stafford along with his wife and her brother and while they weren't in prison yet by the time the Burger Chef murders occurred, it wasn't believed that there was any connection, though at first, it was believed to be, you know, maybe a possibility here. Now, as mentioned earlier, the police handled the Burger Chef incident with many faults, possibly not realizing the magnitude of the situation. Even when police knew the four employees were missing, they simply notified Burger Chef

management that a robbery had ensued. All evidence and clues were completely destroyed, and hours after realizing they made a grave mistake, police actually restaged the scene to the best of their memories. And the photos from the restaging are regarded as the official crime scene photos. I mean, I guess this is all they could do after that major oversight. And I guess it's better than not having any photos

to look back on years later at all, you know what I mean? But like surely it wasn't anywhere near exact, probably somewhat similar at best. Yeah, and this is the really really shitty thing about this this case It's the fact that they just didn't think about these things They didn't think hey Maybe we should take photos of the scene just to make sure that we can have you know our T's crossed and our eyes dotted well

I want to say that oh, they're a small town and they probably never saw anything of this magnitude. But as we're talking about, well, I guess obviously the Oklahoma thing didn't happen in town, but there were other things that I'm about to get into that were happening around this time in the area. So I don't know, maybe hindsight's 20-20, but damn. I think we can just chalk it up to kind of shoddy police work here. A big mistake. I mean, hey, they even admitted it, so... At least they admit it, you know? At least they're like,

yeah, we fucked up. So upon the discovery of the four bodies, police needed to investigate who could have done this, obviously. And another recent killing in Speedway came to their minds. Now, the summer before the Burger Chef incident, actually right around the same time of the Sirloin stockade killings that Heath just went into, an unsolved murder troubled locals and officials alike. In late July of 1978, a 65-year-old woman named Julia Ciphers was mysteriously shot and killed in her middle-class home.

According to her husband, on July 29,, an unfamiliar man with long dark hair parked his white two-door vehicle in front of their house and approached the front door. The man knocked and inquired about some fancy houseware items that Julia had recently been trying to sell, and Julia actually was expecting the man. So she welcomed him into her garage to browse the collection of goods. Her husband stayed in the home during this time and shortly after Julia and the man had gone into the garage, her husband was startled by a loud noise. While he headed to see what the commotion was all about, he noticed the strange man

bolting to his car before driving away. And when Julia's husband rushed to the garage to see what had happened, he was met with his wife's bloody, motionless body lying on the ground. Julia was rushed to the hospital, but unfortunately she was declared dead shortly after arriving. Despite the physical description of the unknown man, of course by her husband, the killer was yet to be caught. And despite the puzzling murder of an innocent housewife, another mysterious string of events happened in Speedway in the months leading up to the Burger Chef killings as well. Now between September 1st and September 6th of 1978, eight bombings occurred in this small town.

That is insane. Eight bombings? Yeah, and of course they're all connected. But still, somebody was trying to bomb Speedway eight different times. So these seemingly random string of attacks began on September 1st, where three improvised explosive devices were planted in trash bins before exploding. The house-made explosives were made out of soda cans and equipped with timing devices, and throughout that week, more small explosions erupted in Speedway.

Luckily, nobody was injured in this slew of bombings. Well, until the last day on September 6th, when the final homemade bomb detonated inside a gym bag in the parking lot of Speedway High School. And remember, actually, Speedway High School is where Mark Flemons attended school. So a Vietnam War veteran named Carl DeLong allegedly kicked the gym bag in the parking lot, which set off the bomb. So of course, Carl was injured during this detonation and ultimately the damage from the explosion resulted in Carl having his right leg amputated. So this was a physically and emotionally scarring experience for Carl.

I just think this is so crazy the fact that There were so many bombings and like significant also I wonder what this veteran was doing in the parking lot of the high school whose gym bag did it belong to? you know all these different questions run through your mind and The fact that this this man had his leg amputated because of this bomb, like what is going on in Speedway? Yeah, I also read that the movie theater, the Speedway Cinema, and the nearby A.J. Thatcher Golf Course received bomb threats. So, I mean, again, I hate to keep harping on how small this town is, and I'm sure to some people it's not that small, but 13,000 people is not a ton of people and that's not a big town.

So for eight bombings and more threats to happen at this time, and then two months later for four teens, or I want to say teenagers, but of course we know Jane was 20, for young people to be murdered when they were kidnapped from their job. Like this is a lot of stuff to happen in this town. And then on top of that, Julia is also murdered. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of things are going on here. Yeah. So of course, there was a big investigation into the bombings and actually within a couple weeks, police had a good lead.

A local print shop worker notified police that a man named Brett Kimberlin was trying to reproduce military driver's licenses with his own photo ID. So the print shop worker found this very suspicious and police apprehended 27-year-old Brett Kimberlin on September 20, 1978. Once they obtained a search warrant of his home, officials found similar wiring and materials that were consistent with those of the homemade explosives blowing up around Speedway during the first week of September. And part of the materials found in his home were detonation timers that were thought to

be used for the bombing. So yeah, this guy did it. Well along with the bombing materials, they found more than 1000 pounds of marijuana in his home. That's a lot of weed. So Kimberlin was a bomb maker and a drug dealer, but was he a murderer? Well oddly it turned out that Brett had a connection to Julia, the 65 year old woman that was shot dead in her home.

While Brett did not match the description of the man who stopped in her home, according to her husband, Brett Kimberlin apparently had a relationship with Julia's daughter, so that's pretty interesting. I'd say so. And it was believed that he planned the bombing spree as an attempt to distract police from their investigation of Julia's murder, which still remains unsolved to this day.

I don't know, I think that's kind of weird. Like, let me commit eight more crimes so that they start investigating these and find me guilty of these and not murder what? Yeah, like at some point this snowball has to end. Well, uh, Brett Kimberlin ended up going to prison for 15 years on the bombing charges. He wasn't locked up yet by the time the Burger Chef killings occurred. So basically what happened is he was apprehended by the police, but it wasn't for the bombing charges. It was for something else. A couple weeks later, they let him go.

So he was, in fact, a free man when the Burger Chef murders occurred. Yeah, it was hard because it's kind of like a complicated situation. So they did when they apprehended him on September 20th, it was for like all these different things like he he illegally used the seal of the president of the United States. He impersonated a federal officer, all these weird things kind of relating to that. There was two other charges. And then when they receive the tip from the print shop owner they questioned him but they didn't have

enough to arrest him yet until after they searched his home etc. So so basically they released him and then arrested him in February of the following year so three months after the burger chef murders occurred which means yeah he was a free man when that happened. So, naturally, due to the high rise of crimes in this, you know, otherwise peaceful town, there was speculation that the shooting of Julia Seifers, the Speedway bombings, and the murders of the Burger Chef employees were connected, but officials were unable to implicate Brett Kimberlin in the Burger Chef incident.

It's interesting though, because they're such different crimes from the next. Like it's, and it's so odd again, that this town of around 13,000 people experienced all of this in the same year, or actually they all happened in the second half of the year. So it makes sense why you would wonder if they were connected despite them being so different. We have like one murderer of a 65 year old woman, eight bombings, and then four kidnappings and murders of teenagers. Like it's very strange. Yeah, it's definitely strange.

And you know, just thinking about the fact that this town probably maybe didn't have anything going on like this for ten years and maybe nothing like that happened ten years after all these incidents it's weird how close in time everything is I know you just said that but uh I just I feel like it's very strange it is it's a it's a lot of crime well with Brett Kimberlin somewhat off the table some eyewitness statements from around Burger Chef on the night of November 17, 1978 helped narrow down who may have been responsible for these horrific and senseless killings.

Now to recap, we know that Burger Chef was locked up by 11pm that night, and Brian Kring, the off-duty 17-year-old employee, discovered the empty restaurant and called the police at around midnight. Well, Brian wasn't the only person to come forward regarding the night of November 17th at Burger Chef. Before Brian had even arrived, a local teen and his girlfriend drove through the Burger Chef parking lot between 11.15pm and 11.30pm. Remember, Burger Chef was locked up by 11pm, but the teens found a quiet spot to park near the restaurant

and were just hanging out in the car to spend some private time together before heading home. While once parked there, they both noticed two Caucasian men in their 30s. One of the men had a beard, and the other man was clean shaven. The men headed towards their parked car, and the bearded man spoke briefly with the teen driver. Now, according to the unnamed teen witness, the bearded man told him and his girlfriend to leave and go home. Confused and probably a little bit freaked out, the teens quickly drove away and left the area. When they later found out what had happened at Burger Chef that night, they contacted police to report what they witnessed, wondering if the men were the ones responsible for

these killings. Which would make a lot of sense if these two guys wanted to make sure there was no one around to see what they were about to do. Why else would two men at that same time be requesting two random teenagers leave the area? That's what I was going to say. Like, why is it any of your business what these two teens are doing in the parking lot unless you're trying to cover something up?

Yeah, and the fact that this happened at the same time that the crime was believed to have occurred like it totally has to be connected. And because this seemed like such a valuable account, the young couple was actually hypnotized confirming that Jane's white Chevrolet Vega was still in the parking lot during the time that they were there. And remember, it was gone about 30 minutes later when Brian showed up, so this clicks with the timeline as well. And this timeline would mean that whatever happened to the employees most likely took place between 1130 p.m. and 12 o'clock a.m. So let's talk through the main

suspects in the Burger Chef murders and fully grasp what exactly was happening in Speedway, Indiana in 1978. The publicly unnamed teens who were in the Burger Chef parking lot that night and encountered the two men provided physical descriptions to a sketch artist and two clay bus were also created which we will post on our social so you guys can see. And luckily they did do this shortly after the news on the murders became public, so it was still very early on and early enough to remember what they had seen. Once the composite sketches and the clay bus were made public, almost 600 tips were called

into the Speedway police within a week of the murders. One of the calls came from an employee of Greenwood gas station, which was close to Speedway, and the employee told police that early on Saturday, November 18th, so hours after the burger chef kidnappings, two men matching the composite drawings stopped by the gas station. According to the employee, the men entered the station in a black Chevrolet and bought $12 of gas, and the bearded man handed the employee a $5 bill and two singles, so $7. The gas station attendant told the bearded man that he was $5 short before the bearded man went back to his car to

get the remaining five bucks. Apparently the bearded man who was accompanied then by a clean shaven man began cursing at the employee before they drove off unidentified. Obviously this could be any other clean shaven and bearded man. Like this is not a specific description, but it but... No, it's not a great tip, but at this point, you know, while police did have an overwhelming amount of tips, several potential leads were investigated, and it just led them nowhere. There was even some suspicion that Jane, the 20-year-old burger chef assistant manager,

had some drug ties that may have triggered the robbery, because her brother James had been arrested on cocaine charges so some kind of wondered if you know the robbery at Burger Chef was in retaliation against James but there was no proof of this still though keep it in mind because we're gonna talk about it again well in, in November of 1984, six years after the Burger Chef murders, the leads were proving to dry up until a man named Donald Forrester called up Captain Mel Willesey, who was a detective at Marion County Sheriff's Office in Indianapolis. Donald Forrester made the call from the Indiana State Prison while he was serving 95 years for a kidnapping and rape

that he committed in Indianapolis in April of 1979, so only five months after the burger chef murders. So basically, at 3.15 a.m. on April 1st, 1979, Donald, who was a Caucasian, mustached, and lightly bearded man, followed a woman who was leaving a restaurant alone in her car, and when she eventually came to a stop, he got out of his car, which was a Chevrolet Camaro, and threatened her with a gun before raping her twice. Remember, the man from the gas station said the bearded and clean shaven men were driving a Chevrolet.

Now to Detective Wilsey's shock, Donald Forrester wanted to confess to the Burger Chef murders. At this time, 34-year-old Donald, who would have been 28 when the Burger Chef murders occurred, was set to be transferred to a different prison and seemingly wanted to avoid the transfer. Now skeptical but hopeful, Detective Willsey and his colleague brought Donald to the location of the killings in Johnson County and had him point out where the bodies were, and miraculously, he was able to account for each body's placement, which was information unknown to the public. Allegedly, Donald's now ex-wife admitted that she and her husband went to the site of the

killings afterward, where Donald paddled in the creek to remove shell casings. His ex-wife said that the shell casings were flushed down the toilet, and an excavation team actually found shell casings in the septic tank at the Forester's home. So yeah, to recap and add, Donald seemed to match the description of one of the men seen both in the parking lot of Burger Chef, as well as the Greenwood gas station. He was known to be violent.

Actually, by the way, a few years before the rape of the woman in 1979, he had raped a family member and spent five years in the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana for this. And after his release in October of 1978, so the month before the Burger Chef murders, he moved to Speedway into a house

just up the road from Burger Chef on West 17th Street. And I think that information combined with what Heath just told us about the shell casings, it's all very interesting. So after calling into police, Donald Forrester went on to take two polygraph tests, both of which he failed. With a shoddy confession and minimal physical evidence, they did acknowledge that Donald was living in Speedway at the time of the murders and

had actually grown up in Johnson County, which remembers where the bodies were found, tying him to both locations. But what motive would this seemingly random, albeit violent man, have in killing innocent young fast food employees? Well, Donald said that Jane's brother James, who Heath mentioned a minute ago, had some drug debts. Donald claimed that he and three others went to Burger Chef to persuade Jane to get her brother to pay up. According to Donald Forrester,

Mark, one of the 16-year-old employees, heroically ran to Jane's defense and was hurt in the process. Donald claimed that the group of intruders got kind of spooked by this, employees, heroically ran to Jane's defense and was hurt in the process. Donald claimed that the group of intruders got kind of spooked by this, thinking that Mark was dead or dying, and decided to take all four of the employees from the scene to avoid any witness speaking out about the Mark incident. Donald also claimed that he shot two of the victims, and we know Ruth Ellen and Danny were the only two shot, and claimed that his accompl two of the victims, and we know Ruth Ellen and Danny were the only two shot,

and claimed that his accomplices killed the two others. That would be Jane, who was stabbed twice, and Mark, who was beaten. And I think that Mark getting injured inside Burger Chef would also match up with this, knowing that he was beaten and died that way or well he died from choking on his own blood but this would match up with him potentially being injured in the same type of fashion inside Burger Chef which people didn't know. Yeah I mean this makes a lot of sense as well as if they're already there might as well take the money that's in the manager's office as well it's a robbery they

originally went there to get the debt, so maybe they were getting the debt one way or another. They were gonna take the money from Burger Chef, or they were gonna find James and get the money from James. Yeah, and this was like their way of retaliating and then not getting caught due to there being other witnesses.

So while Donald was only opening up about his confession to two detectives on the case, apparently when word got out in the department about his potential involvement, he decided to take everything that he said about his involvement back. He stopped talking and aside from the shell casings in his septic tank, which by the way were actually 22 caliber whereas 38 caliber were used in the shootings. Detectives had essentially no physical proof that he was involved in the murders because they really had no evidence to point to anybody.

Thus, Donald Forrester was never charged with the burger chef slangs and ended up dying in prison in 2006 from cancer where he had remained from the unrelated 1979 rape sentence. I don't know, Heath. I just think that everything that he confessed to feels spot on, and believable, even though the shell casings did not match. I mean, still. And most detectives on the case still believe that he's responsible. That's kind of the general consensus here. Well, it's kind of unfortunate that he was kind of getting something out of this confession like he didn't want to transfer so he thought in his mind by Saying this that maybe they would keep him where he was at

But he was never gonna get out of prison anyway, so I don't know I don't know if there's a ton of motive there for him to You know confess to this if he truly didn't do it. I mean, that is a good point. If he was going to be in prison, I mean, he was sentenced to 95 years when he was in his thirties. So I don't know why he would, I don't know. I don't know why he would take it back unless he got nervous that the other people involved were then going to be investigated and he would you know be snitching on on other criminals like I

don't know. It's very possible. But I do think that this angle is also interesting because of the connection with Jane and her brother and because also it said that Jane in particular received threatening and harassing phone calls in the weeks and days before the murders happened, so maybe she was the one that was targeted because of her brother. Well, although there were several potential leads over the years, the Burger Chef murders remains unsolved. To this day, tips still come in to Indiana State Police whenever the Burger Chef case

happens to pop into the news. However, a lack of solid leads at this point proves that we may never know who kidnapped and killed four innocent young Burger Chef employees on that cold Indiana night. Though we hope that that, of course, is not the case forever. While the jolly burger selling days of Burger Chef are far in the past, the building that housed the Burger Chef restaurant remained vacant for several decades. Although it was mostly empty after Burger Chef closed, the building later became a home to a pawn shop, which closed in 2016.

And it actually wasn't until this past March of 2024 that the building at 5725 Crawfordsville Road was finally demolished. Family and friends of the victims have publicly expressed their gratitude in the building coming down as it has served as a permanent reminder of their grief. In 2018, so 40 years after the Burger Chef murders haunted the town of Speedway, a local man from the area named Alex Weismiller decided to set up a permanent memorial for the innocent young victims. Along with the victims' families, Alex raised money to plant four red oak trees at a local park accompanied by a plaque to honor each of them, which is really special.

He actually wasn't even alive when it happened, but just knew the impact that it had on the town and the community. So really beautiful thing that he did. And while tragically the case remains unsolved, the lives of Jane Freit, Ruth Ellen Shelton, Mark Flemons, and Daniel Davis are memorialized forever. and Daniel Davis are memorialized forever. Since the donation amount of $1,000 for the trees was surpassed, Alex wanted to plant a fifth tree to honor the families and friends of the victims who have suffered for decades without answers. In November of 2018, on the 40 year anniversary

of the tragedy, families and supporters gathered at Leonard Park in Speedway, Indiana to plant the trees and pay their respects, which people still do to this day. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What a crazy story. Like, it just doesn't even feel real. Like you can imagine that one employee going missing from a fast food restaurant late at

night might be a possibility, but four young people going missing all at the same time found murdered in a wooded area, it is just beyond comprehension. Yeah, I don't know. I really think that it was Donald Forrester and a crew of other guys who were just trying to get drug debts paid to them. I think so too.

And they made a horrific decision to take innocent lives who had nothing to do with that debt. I don't know, I feel like that's what had to have happened, but would love to know what all you guys think. Check out our social posts on this. You can see the photos associated with this case. There's not a ton of photos released because like we're gonna, they actually more recent,

in more recent years came out with a picture of the knife as well as a pit, or well, actually it's not a picture of the knife. as well as a pit, or well, actually, it's not a picture of the knife, it's a picture of what they believe the knife looks like, as well as, you know, those clay busts and the composite sketches, but crime scene-wise and area-wise,

there's not a ton of photos, but go check it out. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Thank you to everybody who requested this case. And yeah, we'll see you guys on Tuesday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp

I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp

I'm just a little bit of a wimp I'm just a little bit of a wimp you