Morbid - Listener Tales 108: 90's Tales!

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

Weirdos! We NEEDED a nostalgic moment, and decided to share it with you! This month, DebDeb has cultivated a batch of 90's tales that are  brought to you By you FOR  you and ALL ABOUT YOU!  Check out YouTube to see what happened mid episode that made us all lose our damn minds! If you’ve got a listener tale please send it to Deb by emailing us at  [e-mail] with “Listener Tales” somewhere in the subject line, and if you share pictures, please let us know if we can share them with fellow weirdos! :)  Mentions in this episode: Come to see MORBID Live at Radio City Music Hall on June 27th!Tickets are available for purchase by visiting this site! PRE-ORDER GIFT! When you pre-order THE BUTCHER LEGACY, you can enter to win a spooky blood-drip bookmark to perfectly match the most chilling cover yet in this series🩸Submit your pre-order receipt at the link in bio to receive an exclusive bookmark. Any US retailer, any format. While supplies last.   Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. It's me. It's Elena. What's going on? How's your day? I hope it's awesome. That's all I wanted to say. No, I'm just kidding. This is a message. Because I think a couple of episodes ago, we talked about how we are going back to the OG way of doing things. We're doing two episodes a week to big old honkin, delicious, juicy episodes with one listener tale a month, just as a little cherry, little glitter on top of a crazy month. And we're going to keep doing that. But I think we were also debating what days would be best for this new two episode a week cadence because we figured, you know, from Wednesday to Monday is a long wait for us and for you too much. We'd all be sad. We don't want that. So we finally came up with a good cadence. We're going to drop episodes on

Monday and Thursday from here on out. So Mondays, Thursdays. That's when they'll come out on Wondry Plus. Then a week later, you will get them Monday and Thursday for everybody else. So that's what we're going to do. You deserve consistency. We want to give it to you. I know we didn't do that in the first like three years. We were like willy-nilly whenever you get episodes. Here it is. But you know, we're in that consistency train and we want to stay on that. And yeah, I think this is going to work for everybody. It just feels better. We don't want that big chunk of time between episodes. You don't either. So yeah, that's what we're going to do. Mondays, Thursdays, new episodes. We're excited about it. It lets us really put more time and effort into these. episodes, which is what they deserve and what you deserve. And we fucking love you. And I can't wait to see you every Monday and Thursday. I know I won't see you. I realize that I won't even hear you. But it feels like I will and you will hear me. So we're all in this together. We're best friends. Thanks, guys. Mondays, Thursdays. Whoop. Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is...

It's no more bad. I thought we were doing a thing there. I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay. I feel... I'm so sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry, friend. I'm sorry, mate. I hope you're happy. I've called mom.

I hope you're happy, Rachel. I'm telling you, if you haven't seen that video, just type in like, Rachel stole my iPad. She loves it a lot. I do. It's old. I've loved it for a long time. My friend, Marissa, just like randomly was like,

watch this video. I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy. So I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy. because of made you an episode. I have made you an episode.

You know what? I feel like it's been feeling good lately. I feel like, well, everything. I feel like we've just entered into, we've come out of that. We were in like kind of a little like, ooh. Yeah, it's like we came out. It's like we came out like on top of it. We came out on top.

Like we, you know, like winners. It's like that song where it's like, come in here. You know the TikTok sound. I don't actually. I don't think I've ever gone. Come on. I'm not doing a good job, I guess. I don't think I've gotten that one. That's shocking. It's always funny when I see like, I think my TikTok is like the only TikTok. So when things trickle in from other people is that I'm like, I don't know what that is. I'm like, what? There's a whole world of TikTok I don't know about. Oh, absolutely. There's there's galaxies of TikTok that you know about. Galaxies. Galaxies. Oh, and I have another TikTok recommendation because, uh, girl, girl, you're just like blowing up. Ticktokers left right center.

I hope that becomes my legacy. I hope that is what you can... I think it already is. I hope it is because it's really fun. And these people deserve it. And they're wonderful creators. Remember my name. Hold on. I'm going to bring this up because...

You're going to see me hanging in the Hall of Fame. Thanks for rocking me into that one. All right. So this one that I want you to follow, guys, is called Spooky New England. Oh, that's fun. So go find it. She is awesome. Her name's Amanda.

And she is, like, really into the Lizzie Borden case. She's definitely a Lizzie is innocent, and she will make you believe it, to be honest. The more and more that I look into that case and the older I get. Makes you question. I don't stand firmly on one side or the other, but I do think I might be teetering. She gives you a lot to think about, and she also does a ton of paranormal investigations at all these cool, really spooky places. Love that. She's really, like, she's just cool.

Like when you watch her, you're just like, I want to hang out with you. You're just cool. In fact, I think I've written on some of her things like, can we just like hang out and do spooky things together? And she said yes. And I said, yes. And then I didn't make it happen, but I want to make it happen. You do know how I feel about you making friends. So don't do that.

All right, I'll stop. I don't like it when my friends make friends with other people that aren't me. It's a very healthy trait. It's healthy and it's normal and it's not. thing that you should. Well, you need to come too. We'll all be together. Spooky New England. And that's her like at Spooky New England. I feel like an afterthought. She's a really good follow. She's a good follow because I think you guys, I just saw that my girl horror chronicles. She got, like she heard her shout out and was really excited. It made me feel happy. I love that. And I think

she got some follows from it. So it made me like feel like, hell yeah. You get like the creepy side of TikTok. I get like tarot card readers. I love that. whimsical bitches. I love that. And just pure debauchery. Debochery? Debochery. Just pure debauchery over here.

Oh, I really did think it was debauchery. I saw a comment the other day by accident, but it made me laugh. It was a mean comment, but it made me laugh. It was like, why can't Ash pronounce anything right? And you know what? I don't know. I wish I could tell you, friend. You know what?

I don't know. That's the best response to that ever. I don't know what, my guy? I don't fucking know. I'm like, can you pronounce everything? I don't fucking know. But you know what? I hope you're happy.

I hope you happy. I hope you're happy because I've told mum. I've told mum. Anyways. All right. So let's get into this debauchery. Let's get into this debauchery over here. So we're going to be talking about a case today that is going to be split into two parts

because it is a pretty big case. A lot happening, a lot of moving parts. You guys will most likely know, or at least have heard of this case. It is the Burger Chef murders in Indiana. Oh, yep, I have heard of that. It is really sad. Really sad. And still unsolved, right?

Oh. Yeah. See, I know like the basics of this case, but I actually don't think I've ever like watched a show or a documentary or listened to a podcast that explored the whole thing in depth. And to like see some of the updates or anything like that. Yeah, no. So I'm excited. Well, excited is not the right word.

But you're excited to hear more about it. Yes. I feel you. Yeah, this is a really sad one. It's a really senseless one. And it's still, I think the thing that bothers everyone the most is like, no one can understand why. Like, of course, as we'll see, there's like robbery involved and all that.

But why did it end the way it ended? Because it's like, there's robbery. But then there's like, there's robbery. left behind, right? Well, it's, it's, that's not even the issue. It's more just four people lost their lives here. And it's like, why? Like, why?

Usually when you got, like, when, you know, a store gets stood up or something like that, they take the money and run. Yeah. They run in with a ski mask over their face and they just demand the money and then they're out of there. Yeah. It's pretty rare that like, these people are taken out of the store too and then taken somewhere else for something to happen.

And it's just a very rare and really, like, tragic and gruesome case. Yeah. So buckle up. I'm buckled. All right. So this is going back to November 18th, 1978. Oh, I didn't realize that this was in the 70s. Yeah, I know.

It feels closer, weirdly? It does. I think I thought it was, like, the 80s. Yeah. See, I even, when I first went into this, I thought it was the 90s. Wow. Yeah. Look at us just being wrong.

I know. And actually, just to give you, like, a quick little, like, make you feel old moment if you're like an older millennial especially a geriatric see i can't even talk anymore that's how old i am but a senile the i guess american girl is doing like a historical collection um of 90s dolls historical collection of 90s dolls historical collection of 90s dolls and did you see the twins no oh you didn't even see the best part no there's twins that are very clearly supposed to be like Mary Kate and Ashley. And I think they're named like Nikki and something else.

Wow. And they're dressed like how Mary Kate and Ashley did. Yeah. A lot of them are dressed like the clueless style kind of thing. That's not vintage yet. Oh no, not vintage. Historical. Yeah.

Like I just like Mikey's face just said it all. He just looked over and was like, mm. He was like, no. Historical. So I just like, hey, we're all old together. I hope you're happy. I hope you happy. Because you made me cry.

All right. So back to the story. November 18th, 1978, which again, wild. Brian Cring stopped by the burger chef in Speedway, Indiana. He was an employee there. And he was stopping by after closing time to visit his coworkers. Because, of course, this is after closing time. You're doing those, like, you know, when the store is locked.

Oh, yeah. And you get to turn on music or something and do your close-down routine. You're dancing around with the broom. You know, anyone who's worked retail or anything like that knows this, like, it's a great time. Because that's usually when your friends can stop by and just watch you clean. Mm-hmm. Now, he was surprised, though, when he went around back and he found the back door unlocked. And then he went further in, and he found the restaurant was empty.

Again, all lights around. His co-workers' purses, their coats were there. It was like they had left in a hurry. And he found the coats in person, like the back door. back room, but no people in sight. So he looks further and he sees that the cash register had been emptied of that day's earnings. Yikes. Now at first, local police didn't take this situation seriously at all. Oh, good. They just assumed it was petty theft. Why do we give shit? Like, but why, though? Yeah, like why? And at first, they actually thought that this was just the kids had stolen the cash and

ran out of there. And then they just left their purse. And then they just left over it. And that's the other thing. It's like, so you didn't look at those purses and think maybe we should look a little further into this. Right. And also, if you looked at all into who these kids were, you would know that is not, that's just not a notion you should have had. Oh, the 70s. Yeah. But that notion would change shortly thereafter when the crime turned from disappearance and theft to kidnapping and multiple homicide. Now, unfortunately, by the time they actually got to this conclusion, which anybody else probably would have come to pretty quickly considering all the things that were left at the motherfucker scene,

the entire scene had been cleaned by Burger Chef employees the next morning. No. And when I tell you what, like, how detrimental this was, it's going to grind your gears. I'm already grinding. Yeah, my gears are round to dust. So the failure of the authorities to take this disappearance, the disappearance of the Burger Chef employees series,

from the very beginning, from the outset, it was only the first of many mistakes they are going to take in this case, and it ended up being Indiana's most high-profile unsolved crime. Wow. Now, while investigators are now pretty certain, fairly certain that they know who is responsible for this, for the four murders, the evidence they need to actually prove that now,

it was wiped clean. Oh. Now, I am never one, and I think it's Sarah Turney always says this. Like, there's always hope. Like, never say that something is hopeless because we've seen time and time again that it is not hopeless. There's always a way. And you know who says that also? Heidi.

You know our girl Heidi Jones? Heidi Jones. And we listen to Heidi Jones. Mm-hmm. I love Heidi. I love her so much. You just made me think of her. And I was like, oh, Heidi. Is she just like the nicest person on the planet?

She truly is. I just love her. I hope she's very happy every day. I think she is. I think she is too, legitimately. Die mad, Tom. But die mad, Tom. So, unfortunately, the loss of this evidence and the fact that they, that although I believe that it can be conclusively linked to these people, it's going to, it made it a lot harder.

Yeah. It's a lot harder now to link these two things because of investigatory negligence, to be quite honest. And that's the thing that sucks. It's like, you just, like, you can't, you can't blame anyone else. That's a thing. It's like, The investigators. This was your job.

Right. You're supposed to secure the crime scene. And you're supposed to walk into a crime scene. We've said this before and let it speak to you. You don't go in there and speak for that crime scene. Unbiased, my bro. That's not how it works. You don't go in there and go, well, I think it's this way.

So I'm just going to investigate it like that. It's like, no, no, no. You go in there wiped clean and you go in there and say, talk to me. I was just watching. Oh, my God. So good. Have you watched the Playboy murders yet? No, I haven't.

But I keep seeing Holly Post. about it and I really want to watch it. I watched the entire series. I'm going to sit down and watch it. So good. But one of the cases that they covered, the Jasmine Fior case, they had their suspect and they were like, yeah, this is definitely the guy. But then another suspect pops up. And as I was watching it, I was like, okay, I'm impressed because they actually went down that avenue too instead of just like blindly chasing one suspect. And that's good police work. Yes. That's good investigatory work because it's like you have to let it take you where it wants to go. Right. This, not so much. But let's go back to that night. Let's go to the night.

in question. November 18th, 1978. That's when 17-year-old Brian Cring was on his way home a little after midnight. He passed by the Burger Chef restaurant on Crawford'sville Road. He worked part-time there because again he's 17. The restaurant closed at 11 p.m.

This is a little after midnight, but the lights were still on, so he was like, oh, they're still closing down. I'm just going to drop in and say hi. Yeah. Like cute, small town shit. That's adorable. The workers that were there were the 20-year-old assistant manager, Jane Freit, 16-year-old Mark Flemens, 16-year-old Daniel Davis, and 17-year-old Ruth Shelton.

Now, Cring, Brian Cring, went around the back because he figured the front was going to be locked. Yeah. They had obviously locked up. He was confused, though, because when he went back there, he saw that the door was not only unlocked, but slightly open. Huh. And he was like, why would they do that? So he just goes in. And again, he's closed before.

He knows this is not like, why would you leave the back door? Yeah, he knows protocol. Yeah. And when he went in, he called out to them, just like, who's here? Silence. Oh. And that must have been the heaviest silence because you're like, what the fuck is going on? That would be so terrifying.

Because it's like they're not just leaving the lights on and the doors unlocked and piecing out for the night. Like you know something's wrong here if they're not bustling around cleaning. So he goes in there. He's not seeing anyone, not hearing anything. And then he sees that the cash register's drawers had been pulled out and thrown on the floor and they are all empty. Oh, no.

Obviously, a robbery seemed likely. So he ran into the manager's office hoping to find all of them in there because he figured, you know, if this was a robbery, maybe they huddled everybody into the back room, maybe locked the door. Yeah, like maybe they're tied up somewhere.

Got out. They left them in there. Just thinking somebody won't find them until morning. Right. And he's like, okay, I'm going to go back there. They're all going to. be okay. We're going to figure this out. So he goes in there, empty. But it had been ransacked. He must have been so scared. Because then in my mind, I'd be like, is this person gone who did this? That's the thing. Like, he was probably like, holy hell right now. Is there someone watching the store

right now? Like, terrifying. And then he notices in the manager's office a jacket that was Ruth Shelton's on the floor. This is the middle of November. She was not leaving without that jacket willingly. And then like to find that and still know that the cops were like, no, they just ran away. Without her jacket, she ran away. And it's like you really couldn't entertain any other possibility. It had to be what you were thinking. Finding this the way they did. It doesn't make any sense.

Well, Brian called 911 and told them what he discovered. When the police arrived at the burger chef, Brian told them the story. And he told the same story he had told the 911 dispatcher. And the officers just kind of did like just a quick little search of the, a restaurant. In the manager's office, they found two empty money bags that had been emptied out and an empty roll of adhesive tape beside the safe. Okay. But otherwise, there was really no clues to be found. Now, you would look at the empty roll of adhesive tape and go, okay, where are they bound with that? Yeah. And was this left behind? But they did nothing about it. They

didn't collect it. They didn't photograph it. Just left it there. Did nothing to it. Good. Yeah. Now, the store manager Robert Gilliott, he arrived shortly after the police had come, and he reviewed the register tape from the night's sales. And he said by his estimation, there was about $600 missing. Okay. To the officers on the scene, they were like, you know what, this is robbery. You know what? Probably an inside job. Probably these kids or someone else. And it was assumed that they just kind of went on their closing shift, stole the money, and all four of them, just. divvied it up to each other and walked out into the night without their purse, without their jackets, leaving the whole place on the line. That's a lot to just take from looking around for a minute. But Robert, you know, he, the store manager, he was like, um, no, I know my employees. Yeah, I've worked with them. And he was like, I know these four. And there's, you know, that we trust them to close the store down. Like, we wouldn't put them on this if we didn't.

And he said, nope, they are very responsible, very trustworthy kids. It's the assistant manager. They would not rob us. They wouldn't even leave without turning off a light. Like I'm shocked. I would be shocked if they left without turning all the lights off. Right. Like it doesn't make any sense.

This doesn't add up at all. And unfortunately, this didn't get a lot of priority from the investigators, but it also didn't get priority in the media at the time. Because a little over two months earlier, Speedway, which was a very small community, was terrorized by bombings around town. Oh, man. And police thought that these bombings were actually intended to distract from the investigation of a local woman's murder.

And there does end up being a connection later to that. Whoa. But the bombings were really eating up all the attention. And it was really eating up all the resources that this tiny little town's police force had. Uh-oh. Because they were not ready for any of that. And this is why all police forces need to be ready for anything. Because how many times have we heard?

They weren't ready for that. just wasn't ready for this. You've got to be ready for anything. Now, interestingly, on September 6th of that year, so the month earlier, or two months earlier, excuse me, Ruth Shelton, one of the victims, had actually called police to report a car speeding through the Burger Chef parking lot after one of the bombings. Oh. No one interviewed her about it. What the fuck? They just took the call. They said they didn't think it was pertinent. And then it ended up being pertinent, but they never interviewed her. Maybe they should stop making hasty judgments. Yeah, it looks like that seems to be a running theme. Now, meanwhile, on November 18th, the day that the Burger Chef employees disappeared, reports

began coming in from a place called Guyana. This was the day where Congressman Leo Ryan was shot by members of the People's Temple at Jonestown. Holy shit, there's a lot going on during this time. So by the end of the day, the news media was fully dominated by that, which I guess we can understand, but like there are four missing kids. Can we also think about this? Like, they're four local missing kids. Yeah, like, do we have the capacity to like maybe compartmentalize here? That's the thing. And it's like, but it was, you know, obviously that was a huge story. It's like, but guys, like, oh, so there was just very little room for four local teenagers disappearing into thin air. That's so fucked up. Now, the next morning, the four burger chef employees still had not

returned. And Speedway Police Lieutenant William Crafton was beginning to think that the store manager Robert Gilliott was possibly right. Yeah. That this wasn't a teenage prank. It wasn't this thing where they decided to just rob the store one night randomly and just walk off into the night. After like months or years of working there. Yeah. And they had talked to the kids' parents. They all said they hadn't seen or heard from their children since the night before. And so Crafton issued a statewide alert and reserve and put reserve an active police from Speedway into start a search. Okay.

So they were actually assisted by the Indiana state police and the local office of the FBI as well. So now, too late, we are taking this series. Now in the beginning, it looked as they were going to be searching for missing people. That's what they were going with. because, again, there is no evidence of a homicide at this point. Right. It's not a recovery mission. This is supposed to be a, you know, a search and rescue.

Yeah. But things started to look a little different and a little more dire because soon officers found Jane Freitz, 1974, Chevrolet Vega, a few blocks away from the police station, and it was abandoned. And it's like, how many of you guys drove past that on your way to work? Exactly. Like dudes. Yeah.

And it was only, and it was partially locked, which is interesting because according to Jane's mother, she said Jane kept the driver's side door locked at all times, even when she was driving, which investigators took to mean that she was behind the wheel when it was abandoned. But for some reason, she had been forced to exit out of the passenger's side. Okay. Not great. So law enforcement were combing the town. They're searching everywhere. employees at the burger chef are now arriving for their morning shift. And remember, they have not done anything to cordon off the scene.

It is a restaurant to be opened and to serve people now. Well, they started their process of opening the restaurant, which included cleaning it from top to bottom. Also, I want to remind you and also inform you that no crime scene technicians were ever brought to that restaurant. They were never called to that scene. No crime scene technicians. That means it was never photographed. It was never dusted for prints. It was never combed for any little thing.

Nothing. Holy. Nothing was done. They didn't even take a fucking picture. They didn't even take a photo of it. Oh, my God. There's no photo of that night. Oh, my God.

And no fingerprint dusting? Nothing? Wow. They can't even tell if someone was hurt. there because they didn't do any kind of testing for it, like nothing. Nothing at all. Didn't even, the fact that they didn't take pictures to reference later is mind-boggling. Was there, did they face like any kind of trouble from this at all at any point?

Well, we'll definitely get to that in part two. Okay. But it's, yeah, it's just really wild. Now, later, when they realized what they had done, the investigators returned to the scene, but there was nothing to collect. No. Nothing. Now, and now it was the lunch rush when they got there.

So it was just a bustling restaurant. And at that point, it's like, totally compromised. Why are you even here at this point? Now, by the morning of the 19th, which was the next morning, the local press had begun reporting on what Speedway police were calling a, quote, serious abduction. Uh-huh. But nothing made sense. Like, why would they come in to rob the place and take four teens with them?

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. And Jane's mother, Carolyn, said to reporters, quote, it just doesn't make any sense. They got their money and they made their escape. Now, why the devil don't they give us back our children? Yeah. Which is like heartbreaking. Seriously. Like, give me back my child.

Like, you can keep whatever you want to keep. Just give me her back. Yeah. But by this point, the police had really given the families very little information because they didn't really have any information. And they actually told the families not to share photographs of their children with the press, which was strange. That's really weird. So now they're dedicating resources to finding these four victims,

and other officers are being sent to Canvas for anyone who might have seen anything in or around the Burger Chef restaurant that night. So now they're talking to people finally. Okay. Now a couple who had been sitting behind the Burger Chef at around 11.15 p.m. when they came forward and said at around 11.15 p.m., they were sitting back there. Who knows what they were known? But they were approached.

They were parked. They were neckin. They were approached by, quote, two shabbily attired white men in their 30s. Oh. We love that. We love to hear that. We love to hear that. And they came up and they asked the couple for identification and then told them they should leave the area.

And they were like, what? And they told them that, quote, a lot of vandalism has been going, had been going around this area. Okay. And in their description of them, these men, they said that one had a full beard and a mustache, and the other, the one who really did most of the talking, he was kind of covering his face with a handkerchief. I bet he was. And they said, as if to wipe his nose. So it's like he was holding it up like he was wiping his nose, but it was likely to cover his face. He said there were, he had some kind of like distinguishing mark or something.

Or he was just doing it because he was the one without a beard. So he figured he needed a little extra covering. Right. But as they, as the couple left the parking lot, they said they did see Jane's white Chevy Vega was still parked in the lot. So at 1115, it was still in that lot. Okay. Now, this is great, but like, there's still very little evidence here. And the police were really not able to come up with a lead at this point. Like, what are they going to do here? I'm like, can we call in some big guns? And well, not only can they not come up with a lead, they're having trouble even theorizing what could be happening here because they got nothing yeah it's just now all we know is two guys in their 30s said there's a lot of vandalism back here you should leave and that's it and that's it

and that her then that jane's car was abandoned on the side of the road near the police station but it was still there at 1115 like like what do you go from there that's the thing it's not like they can sit there and go okay well this this piece tells me this it's like right All you had was robbery. I mean, you've got to add a lot more pieces into this. Maybe if you had dusted for some goddamn prints or took a fucking picture or something. That's what I'm saying. Now, Brian, the friend who had come in that night, he told them that he found trash barrels next to the back door.

Like, whole propping the door open. And so the investigators thought someone had it unlocked the back door to take the trash out a little after 11 p.m., which makes sense. And as whoever did said this, one or more people caught them by surprise, forced them back into the restaurant. Once they'd taken the money from the safe, they then forced all four into Jane's car with probably one of the robbers, while one or more accomplices just followed behind in a separate vehicle, because you're not going to stuff everybody in one car. Right. They said they probably drove for three blocks before they were forced out of the car. They abandoned the car where it was found near the police station, and then whatever happened to,

after that, no idea. Okay. So it does make sense. Like that theory, it's not like a huge theory, but it's just like here's what I think happened. It does make sense that somebody was probably taking out the trash and they opened that back door because that back door would have been locked. Yeah. If you're closing up, everywhere I've ever worked, while you're closing up, the doors are locked.

Oh, 100%. Yeah. So somebody can't come in and rob you. That's the whole point. So it's like that was definitely a locked door. I'm sure one of them opened the door to take the trash out back and was surprised by these people. They forced them inside. It does make sense. That makes sense for sure. But what we're not getting is like, who the fuck are these people and what the fuck did they want besides money? And then what happened to them once they were dropped off past that point? Exactly. Now, interestingly, June 16th, 1978, there was a similarly tragic case to this at another fast food restaurant. It was called the surloin stockade and it was in Oklahoma City. And I didn't know about this.

I'm going to look further into this. Maybe I'll have it for part two, but I happened to come across it when I was rereading. And I was like, ooh, I mentioned that. Six people were killed in a robbery there. Holy shit. And later, we will see that one of the suspects in that case could be placed in Speedway, Indiana at the time of the Burger Chef murders. So it is an interesting little connection.

So Sunday, November 19th, like I said, day after the disappearances, the search came to a reaching halt. And not because they gave up, but because the bodies of Ruth Shelton, Daniel Davis, Mark Flemonds, and Jane Freight were all found in a remote area of Johnson County. A man named Fred Hager had found them while walking his property with his wife. So they were all on his property. Jesus Christ. And this is just really sad because they're so young. They are. And this is so fucking senseless. And they were just like out there like after school job. That's the thing. And when you find out there was a couple of like incidences where like one of them wasn't supposed to be working that night. Yeah, I remember hearing that.

Now, Ruth and Daniel were found lying face down in the dirt. All of them were still dressed in their Burger Chef uniforms, which somehow makes it even more chilling. It does. Jane and Mark were found a few yards away. They all four were taken for autopsies at Johnson County Memorial Hospital. Now, unfortunately, exactly like the scene at the Burger Chef, the scene at the Hager's property really didn't give a lot of evidence to with. Technicians were called to this.

Well, that's good. Because there is an actual multiple homicide here. Technicians did make a cast of a tire track that was found like in the gravel driveway leading away from the property. But otherwise, there was really nothing about the scene that they were like, oh, this is going to be very useful to us. Now, because the victims had been transported across county lines, the case was also taken over by Indiana State Police.

Which that's good, I feel. It's good. But this is also very much to the chagrin of the Speedway Police and Johnson County Sheriff's Department. And we all know, ego is always coming to play here. And the Speedway Police and the Johnson County Sheriff's Department were actually kept away from the scene while it was secured by state troopers. And Sheriff Thomas Pritchard told reporters, quote, I'm very, very upset about this. I don't know why the state police can't cooperate. Which it's true.

Everyone should be cooperating in situations like this. The more the fucking merrier. Everybody get on the same page. Make sure you're sharing information and make sure everybody is being a good little boy and a good little girl and everyone talk to each other and work together. Yeah. I don't understand why it's like, this is ours now. It's like, no, no, no.

Like you can all help each other. Because everybody wants to be the star of the show. And you're all going to get the same thing at the end. The satisfaction of solving a motherfucking case. Like you're not going to get a trophy at the show. It's more than that, though. I feel like they do think they get a trophy sometimes. And it's like you don't.

None of you are getting a trophy. So, like, why don't you all just work together? If anything, you're just getting, you're all working together to get a family answers. That's the thing. Like, that should, that's your trophy. Right. And you can all share it if you all work together.

But the interdepartmental bitterness did nothing but further hamper this investigation, which was already so bad from the beginning. I was going to say this, uh, investigation. That's like, when I said from the, the outset flaw, flaw, flaw, flaw, flaw, flaw, flaw, negligent, negligent. Yeah. That is all this is.

This is like if a flaw had flaws. Truly. And to think that like they started off so badly and they started off so negligent with like investigating this at all. And then it went further to have the state police, which I understand they were probably looking over and being like, well, you guys did not do a good job at this. But on the same token, it's like, guys, this is already fucked up. Like just work together

Just work together Sit down in a room And figure out what your different tasks are And work together But it's like we can't even do that as adults It's so wild to me It's so simple a concept That it's almost too simple

Yeah because we've all seen it in our own lives On like very smaller scales Is like getting a bunch of people To work together is a very difficult task And it's like I don't know why we are all so fucking That's why there's always worse of it It's so weird But either way

the sheriff, Sheriff Pritchard, had requested, had done what I'm basically saying. He's saying, let's combine forces, let's do this together. They rejected it. Of course they did. They were like, because they wanted the, they wanted to be like, we did it. And this, yeah. And then they didn't even do it. That's the thing.

And immediately, this makes more bitterness just seep in. Yep. And Sheriff Pritchard was quoted as saying, quote, other than lab equipment, I felt our department is just as capable. If they're going to treat us this way, we're not going to bend over backwards to help them. Which, guys, you are just compounding and compounding and compounding issues here. Oh, we're not going to, it's like, okay, let's work together. No, I don't want to work with you. Okay, then we're not going to share information.

Okay, then we're not going to tell. And it's like, these four kids that were murdered are over there being like, hello. Excuse me. Hi, can you maybe get justice? For us, that would be sick if you guys would go ahead and just get some fucking justice for us instead of like swinging your dicks around at each other. Honestly. It's so frustrating to see this shit. I hate when this enters a case.

No, I do too. Where it's like, because we've seen certain ones where like departments work together and it goes well. And it always turns out right. It's when sometimes they work together and they don't work together well and it goes wrong. Yep. But like, you got to try. You got to try. Because it's not about you.

Yeah, it's not. So the turf wars and the ego stuff became a problem for years to come in this case, and it caused major breakdowns in communication on any number of occasions for this. And at this point, motive was still very cloudy as well, because the missing $600 from the restaurant safe made them think robbery was probably part of the motive, at least.

But investigators also found cash in Jane, free's front pocket. Right. And one of the others was wearing an expensive watch. Yeah. And why abandoned Jane's car a few blocks later? I guess the car I can understand because that's so easily traceable, but why abandon it where you rob them? But the money in her front pocket, just leaving that there robbery was the motive and then the expensive watch, it's like that doesn't check. No, in the car, Why would you not drive that far away? You drove it right where they could find them? Like, that doesn't make any sense.

And then how did they get to the wooded area where the bodies were found? They must have another car, right? It's so, I have no idea. So Dr. Harley Palmer was the one who did the autopsies a few days after they were found. And the results didn't really clear a whole lot more up. It really just gave us more questions and also just made it even sadder what was happening. So both Ruth Shelton and Daniel Davis had been shot in the head, neck, and shoulders multiple times. Wow.

Yeah. Which Palmer, Dr. Palmer, thought, occurred while they were lying on the ground next to each other. So it was like execution style. Jesus, but like so overkill. Well, and this is the theory. So because that was happening and they believe there was probably at least two killers, each one is doing that. And the theory is that once that began, Jane and Mark ran.

They were probably all four lying on the ground and they were just going to do it in a row. Yeah. But Jane and Mark jumped up and tried to escape and were caught and killed. Jane Freit had been stabbed at least twice in the chest with a five-inch hunting knife. Holy shit. And it was so violent that the blade broke off and was still stuck in her chest when she was discovered. Oh, my God. The handle was taken with the killers.

Oh my God. So I don't even know if the killer One knew that it broke off But two, you can't get that out of there No. Once it's broken off So they just ran off with the handle But left the blade

Wow. And that's violent. That's brutal. Mark Fleming's death Was even more confusing Because his cause of death Was blunt force trauma to the head But Dr. Palmer

Couldn't be certain What was used to inflict the blow Or how it happened. The autopsy showed that Mark had actually sustained an internal injury before he died, and that he had actually choked on his blood prior to his death. That was actually, it was blood-forced trauma, but, like, I think the choking on the blood,

asphyxiation was technically the other cause of death. Now, several weeks later, based on this autopsy report, investigators floated a theory that Mark Fleming's had panicked, run away like Jane, and that it was dark in the woods. So he ran head on into a tree. Oh. And then they think, and I looked at this website uncovered, who goes into like the backstories of these people, it's like a really good website to look at.

They think that he was likely knocked out or incapacitated by this and could have been beaten to death in the head or face with a chain-like object afterwards. Oh, my God. Yeah. Much more brutal than I knew it was. Now, Dr. Palmer confirmed that none of the bodies showed any signs of having been bound or restrained.

And he placed the time of death somewhere between two and three in the morning on the 18th, or technically the 19th. The area in which the bodies were discovered was a 40-minute drive from the burger chef at Speedway. So Palmer's estimated time of death suggests that all four were killed not long after arriving on that property. So it wasn't like they held them there for a while. but also there was at least two, possibly three weapons used in these killings. That's what I was just like kind of confused about even. Which makes it very clear that there's more than one killer. Do you think there's more than two?

I think there could, there at least has to be two. Yeah. I would say at least two, to subdue four people and to be able to chase them each down in the woods. There had to have been at least two. But I think there maybe could have been more. Yeah. And again, the motive, still elusive at this point. Because what the hell, that's brutal.

Yeah. And for $600? Like, what? So now that we've gone over this whole crime, let's talk about these four victims. Yeah. So 20-year-old Jane Freight was born May 5th, 1958. She began working at the Burger Chef Company three years before her death. She was still a student at Avon High School, and she quickly established herself as a very

reliable, very responsible, good and well-liked employee. Aw. She had transferred to the Crawfordsville Road location in the spring of 1978. So she had just transferred that year and was promoted to assistant manager only three months in. Oh, and she was probably so, like, proud and excited about that. Oh, yeah. And you want to know what her nickname was by her, like, fellow co-workers? Sweet Jane.

Sweet Jane. That's what they call. They're sweet Jane. Oh. And while she was in school, Jane was involved in tons of clubs and activities, yearbook, you know, concert band, choir. She eventually became a teacher's aide. I think she was like a library assistant at one point.

And a friend from high school told reporters, quote, she had a zany smile that always reminded me of Lily Tomlin, because when she smiled, her eyes would crinkle up into crescent moon shapes. And when you look at her, it's true. And Jane was actually, this destroys me. Jane was actually in line for a promotion that was going to be happening at the beginning of the new year. everyone was confident she was going to be running the store. Wow.

Like in no time. Like full-blown manager. And what's worse, she had no idea that this promotion was coming her way at the time of her murderer. So there was this big exciting secret that she never knew. But she was in line to like really take it to the next level. That's so messed up. Now, 17-year-old Ruth Ellen Shelton was born December 19th, 1960. Like Jane, she was super popular at work and at school.

She had begun working at the Berger Chef on Crawfidsville Road a few months before the murders and was described by her manager, Robert Gilliott, as one of the, quote, model employees. She was an honor student. At the time of her death, she was in her junior year at Northwest High School. She really pushed herself academically, and she was very interested in math and science, which at the time, it was kind of discouraged for young women to be into that. And she had, her parents and family said she was brilliant and incredibly inspirational. Like her drive was like nothing you've ever seen.

They were like, we were constantly in awe of her. Hell yeah. And she had dreams of becoming a computer scientist. Holy shit. And her parents encouraged her and everything. Her mom actually later joked, quote, I told her she couldn't be the best at everything, but she was the kind of person who would always try. And she was taking classes at the time of her death at University of Indianapolis for early credits.

Good for her. Like, insane. Like, that's so cool. Right. Just like two, like, really determined women. Yeah, like really cool women that were, like, doing the damn thing. And she had recently joined the school choir, and her classmates said that she was, quote, shy, but very nice and a very good worker. Now, outside of school, she also loved art.

She was very active in activities outside of school. Like, she was in the youth fellowship group at Westside Church of the Nazarene. So they were both doing. a shit ton with their lives and would continue to given the opportunity. Now, Daniel Davis was born on September 6th. He was only 16 years old. I know. He had also recently begun working at the burger chef as a cook a few months earlier and had not even had his first paycheck yet. Wow. Yeah. Wow. He was very well liked, but he was quiet and shy. And if you look at him, he's just like the most adorable thing. My God, I know his cheeks. Just these cheeks that you just

want to squeeze. And he was in his junior year at Decaturred Central High School, I hope I'm saying that right, and had been planning to actually enter the Air Force when he graduated. Wow. He had a very big interest in aviation, so he just wanted to pursue that. So like the most determined kids ever. Yeah, they all had dreams. Yeah, like actual dreams. That they were really going after too, not even just like talking about. He also loved photography and he had made his own DIY dark room in his house at home. How cool is that? And he would develop his photo. photographs there. Damn. His best friend Bruce described him as, quote, a happy guy laughing and telling jokes most of the time. Oh, that like hurts my heart. Now 16-year-old Mark Sylvester Flemens was born on December 31st, 1961, and he was also one of the newer employees at the burger chef. He actually wasn't even supposed to be working that night, but had agreed to switch with another employee a few days earlier. knew there was one of them that had switched.

Yeah. Now, even crazier, the person he switched with was a girl who was also an employee that Brian Cring was taking out on a date left that night. Oh, my God. So he had switched, they had switched shifts so that Mark would work while this girl went on the date with Brian. So Brian must have, like, dropped that girl off and then was on his way home from that. That's exactly what happened. In fact, the two of them drove by, and since they both worked there, they noticed the lights on and she was like I gotta get back for curfew so he just drove her home and then on his way back

he was like oh I'm gonna stop in there oh my god yeah now yeah it drives me crazy so and I might have said Mark I meant Brian I don't know if Brian is who I'm talking about with the date but Mark was Mark was a sophomore at Speedway high school he really loved

being in the school band and was really good at it he was one of seven children Wow. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and he was known to be very friendly and cheerful. Like, you were in a bad mood. Mark was the one that was going to make you laugh and make you feel better. And in the 1978 Speedway High School Yearbook, classmates remembered, quote, his smiling face and laughing eyes. And they said that they always remember the jokes that he told because he would cheer everyone up. This is so sad. Yeah. It breaks my heart.

Now, with no record of the initial crime scene ever being photographed or anything. That is going to blow my mind for years to come. I never knew that. All the evidence washed away. Investigators hoped that the Hager's property was going to be the one that gave them something. Please. Something. But unfortunately, nothing.

And the autopsies only gave them more questions. Like I said, it's like you're not getting a ton out of this. You're just like, what the fuck? Now, the investigation was also hitting walls because of the lack of information that was being communicated to both the media, the public, and within law enforcement agencies. Right. Like, this miscommunication was everywhere. And they were holding all this shit way too close. Like, sometimes it makes sense. Yeah, of course. But they weren't giving anything. Well, even just like, I thought it was so weird that they told the family not to share pictures of their kids. And they didn't share a lot of information.

with the families. That's not cool. Yeah. In the days after the bodies were discovered, investigators literally gave the victim's families as little information as they could. And according to Ruth Shelton's mother, Rachel, once detectives got information they wanted from the family,

she said, quote, they'd no longer called or bothered to update us on the investigation. How fucked up is that? Like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah, like, who are these officers? Like, how do you put your head on the pillow at night not telling a family what is going? going on in the investigation of their kids' murder.

Exactly. But it was also happening within the departments, too. Officers were complaining about Lieutenant Crafton's silence saying it was going to make them impossible to investigate this case. We're not getting any information. We're not getting any infer. We're not getting any infer over here. So this lack of information became a serious point of contention with the press almost immediately. Of course. They're like, please tell us what's happening. The Hoosier State Press Association. H-S-PA. They were arguing that investigators

were asking help from the public, but then were unwilling to share any information. And they were like, this is a very unfair situation. It's very one-sided. And it's really limiting cooperation here. You're not going to get a lot from people if you're not willing to give. Because they're not going to trust you.

No. And Johnson County District Attorney D. Charles Gantz agreed with that sentiment. And he told law enforcement that they had to be more forthcoming. But nope, they were not going to. This is a wild case. Yeah.

Some of the information about the autopsies were made public, but the only thing that the investigators really gave the public was that they had developed, quote, incomplete composite drawings of the two men in the parking lot that had come up to the couple. Girl, bye. But, yeah. But then even that, though, they said the investigators said that they were, quote, not certain the men were involved in the abduction, but they may have some information about the robbery. What are you certain about? It's like what? That's not helpful. It might be easier if you tell us what you are certain about.

Now, one thing they shared was that on the day of the disappearances, officer had discovered a 38 caliber pistol, quote, along the route believed driven by the intruders. The gun showed real, it really didn't have like rust on it or age, and it had been exposed to the elements at this point. So they were like, okay, well, it obviously wasn't out there for too long. So that could be the gun that was used in the killings because it could have been only out here for a couple of days.

Right. But then they retrieved the slugs used in the murders of Ruth Shelton and Daniel Davis and it was no match for this pistol. That's what I was going to ask you if there was like anything off behind like bullet casings or stuff like that. Yeah, like they were able to get the slugs but without anything to compare it to? You're fucked. Yeah. Now even though the police were pretty unwilling to share even the slightest bit of information,

the press in public did what they could to help the investigation. On November 20th, the Burger Chef Corporation announced a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killers. Wow. And another local restaurant, steak and shake, which I like steak and shake. I've had that. Oh, you have? In Florida. Yeah.

Oh, shit. They have it, I think it must be like in the south. I thought you were just saying, like, I like that name. Yeah, I like that. No, I actually have had steak and shake. It's good. Oh. They added another $1,000 to that sum, which is really cool of them to do.

like another restaurant. Stand together. Stand together. More than apparently the police department's going. Literally. And Burger Chef also set up memorial funds for the victim's families. Sounds like a great company. I was like, wow, Burger Chef.

And then a bunch of other local organizations stepped up. The Indiana Restaurant Association actually established a reward fund, quote, to be used in violent crimes committed at any member's restaurant. Wow. So they were like banding together and forming a little like, you know, collective of people. Good for them.

And they were also urging their own members to donate to the Victim's Memorial Fund that the Burger Chef Corporation had set up. Nice. So like,

come together right now. Yeah. You know? Beatles. But of course, news of a reward is, it's great, but it can have

its drawbacks because immediately you're going to get people calling in trying to get that reward with no fucking information. Yeah, like the, or like just fake information.

Exactly. So, of course, a flood of phone calls, a bunch of tips came in from the public. There were more than 100 calls were received on the first day. Of course. None produced a credible lead. Thanks, guys. Most were clearly false.

Thanks for calling assholes. Now, the papers were really feeling the full force of law enforcement, like, I'm going to tell you this, but I'm not going to tell you this. You're not going to hear about this, but I want you to tell me this kind of thing. On the Tuesday after the murders, the Indianapolis News had a headline that said, quote, four held 24 hours before slings. So they're saying that the four people were held 24 hours before they were killed. Which is not the truth.

On the same day, the Indianapolis Star reported, police suspect the four young persons were slain shortly after they were abducted. Yikes. Not great. So two different newspapers on the same day are saying, held 24 hours, police think they were killed right away. Yikes. Yeah, not great. Meanwhile, general counsel for the HSP,

Richard Cardwell, said in an interview with the Indianapolis Star, when investigators do not cooperate with the news media, there is a suspicion that they are trying to cover up their own incompetence. The silence also really made the public apprehensive about trusting the investigation and law enforcement. Right. Because remember, that series of bombings had just ended as well. So they're, and at this point, they are unsolved as well. So they're like, yeah, we don't know what you guys are doing, but it's not solving cases, that's for sure.

We don't want to live here. Yeah. So actually, a neighbor of the Hager's, which is where the bodies were found, they said we're very scared. To come all the way from Speedway to hear, they would have had to known something about the area. Yeah? Which is not wrong. And one burger chef regular actually said to reporters, I was shocked. It was like a personal loss, like part of my.

had been taken away. Oh. Which you were like, oh, my God. Yeah. Now, by the end of the week, investigators had seemingly exhausted what very, I can't even say few leads, what no leads they had. Anything they tried to chase down was just nothing. And state police said publicly, quote, in this case, we've got to hope that the killer

or killers may have told someone who has a conscience who will come forward. They're like, yeah, we're throwing in the towel, basically. And that is not what you want to hear. You don't want to hear them go at this point. We just hope they're stupid enough to tell someone, and that person has a fucking conscience and wants to tell on them. Like, hopefully they told someone. That's what you want me to pin my hope on? Hopefully they told someone, because we sure don't know.

It's like, no, my hope was pinned on the fact that we have an entire department of people that are supposed to be investigating this. We have multiple departments. How are you sitting here as the sole entity that's supposed to be fixing this? I don't know. I don't know. I hope some people are stupid and that they just come forward. and just spill the beans. Clearly they didn't.

Yeah, we all hope that every fucking criminal will come forward and be like, well, shit, I grew a conscience. Here's what it did. But nine times out of ten, that doesn't happen, my friend. Yeah, like nine and a half. And at this point, everyone's terrified. All over Speedway, parents were, like, waiting at their kids' jobs and picking them up and, like, walking them out, walking them in.

They were terrified. I don't blame them. And also, at the burger chef on Crawfidsville Road, the lights of the restaurant, there's this like happy face in the lights they actually turned it off as like a morning the loss kind of thing and I think that's real I'm like burger chef doing it for real like burger chef is doing the most here and I appreciate it and at this point the investigation is at a complete standstill we heard that they have partial composite images that they haven't even released yet like a whole bunch of bullshit truly at this point

the public and the media are about to give up hope that they are going to be able to get any answers here. And then. And then we go to part two. What? God damn you. I thought you were going to say, and then this happened. But we'll explore that in part two. We're going to end in part two.

Oh, my God. This case is infuriating. And it's so tragic. I mean, these kids were babies. And they were just at their part-time job. Literally. Just like. They went to school and then they went to their job.

Every whatever shift they had and not once, I'm sure, did they ever in a billion years think that would be their last shift? That's awful. And it's like they're all in their uniforms. It just kills me. I'm like, who are these fucking monsters that did this? The fact that they just didn't check the restaurant at all for anything. Didn't do anything. Didn't take pictures, nothing.

Like, what did you think was going to happen here? You really thought you were going to solve this? And it's like, we say it all the time. Just overdo it, man. Yeah, you'd rather overdue than underdo. Do too much. No one's going to fault you for doing too much. Cool.

You spent an entire, you know, all your resources of your fucking photographer that night. Whatever. Where else was your photographer? Whatever. Where else was your crime scene technicians? Like, get them out of bed, get them in here, make them snap some photos. If you never use them again, you never use them again. But at least you got them.

Dust a little bit of fingerprints. on some things. That's the thing. Had they dust it? I guarantee you this case would be solved right now. Yeah. Because in photographs, like you can see the minutia. You can see little inconsistencies. You can start to piece things together. I've been hearing the word minutia a lot lately and I don't know what it means. I mean like the little things. Like the details. The minute. The minutia. I like it. Thank you. Like when somebody's getting too far into like the detail, like don't get into the minutia. That just. I like it. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. You're welcome. Yeah, that's just, and the other thing, too, is like I was just saying I feel like if they had dusted and gotten a fingerprint, this would be solved. Because I feel like this doesn't feel like a first time crime. No, it doesn't. Like at all. This feels very like, especially the fact that you know they made them all lie face down in a row and they were just going to execute them. You've done that before. That's what I would think. But then again, on the same token, two of them, we think, ran away.

Right. That's pretty unheard of. But to think you're going to corral for humans with no mishaps is like, that's pretty bold. So that to me says confidence and it says I've done this before. That's how I feel. But I guess we'll explore more in part two. We sure will, dude. But in the meantime, we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you're when an investigator when you're investigating a crime scene, you don't even take pictures of anything. Yeah, don't do that. Bye.