The Burger Chef Murders, Part 1 | Morbid | Forensic Files

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you get your podcasts hey weirdos I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is before bed [Music]
[Music] thank you [Music] uh I thought we were I thought we were doing a thing there I'm sorry it's okay
it's okay I'm so I'm so friend I'm sorry mate I hope you're happy because I told mum 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 Ash loves it a lot I do okay it's old I've loved it for a long time uh 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 I've made you an episode I have made you in it and you know what I feel like it's it's been
feeling good lately I feel like I just said 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 yeah it's like just a murky Merck a little bit it's like we came out like on
top of it we came out on top like we you know like like winners it's like that song where it's like coming in
you know that's exactly like that I don't actually I don't think I've ever gone I'm not doing a good I don't think I've
gotten that one that's shocking it's always funny when I see like like I think my Tick Tock is like the only Tick
Tock so when I when things trickle in from other people's that I'm like I don't know what that is I'm like what
there's a whole world of tick tock I don't know about oh absolutely there's there's there's galaxies of tick tock
that yeah galaxy galaxies oh and I have another Tick Tock recommendation because uh girl
girl you're just like blowing up tick-tockers left right center I hope that becomes my legacy I hope that is
what you can I think it already is I I hope it is because it's really fun and these people deserve it and they're
wonderful creators hold on I'm gonna bring this up because you're gonna see me hanging in the Hall
of Fame thanks for walking me into that one all right so this one that I want you to follow guys is called spooky New
England oh that's so go find it she is awesome her name's Amanda and she is like really into the Lizzie Borden case
um she's definitely a Lizzy is innocent and she will make you believe it look into that case and the older I get
makes you question I I don't stand firmly on one side or the other but I do think I might be teetering it she gives
you a lot to think about and she also does a ton of paranormal investigations and 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 uh 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 so don't do that all right I'll stop I
don't like it I don't like it when my friends make friends with other people that aren't me it's a very healthy treat
healthy and it's normal and it's not anything 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 thinking afterthought she's a really good Fallout she's a good
follower 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 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 tick tock I yeah like tarot card readers and
Whimsical [ __ ] I love that and just pure debauchery just pure debauchery over here is oh I
really did think it was debauchery a comment the other day by accident but it made me laugh it was a mean comment but
it made me laugh I don't know I 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 what I don't know that's the best response to that ever I just I don't
know what my guy I don't [ __ ] know I'm like can you pronounce everything I don't [ __ ] know I don't know no but
you know what I hope you're happy I hope you're happy I hope you're happy because
I've I've told Mom I've told mum anyways all right so let's get into this debauchery let's get into this debacery
over here so we're gonna 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 her it is really sad really sad I mean it's still unsolved
right yeah oh yeah see I know like the the basics of this case but I actually don't think I've ever
um 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 or anything like that yeah yeah so I'm excited well excited it's not the right word but
you're excited to hear more about it yeah I feel you yeah this is 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 they're of course they're 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 money 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 go 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 it's just a very rare and really like tragic and gruesome case yeah so buckle up unbuckled 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
yeah it does I 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 um 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 senile the I guess American girl is doing like a historical collection um 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 vintage but oh no not vintage his historical yeah like I just like Mikey's face just said
it all he just looked over and was like he was like historical so I just like here
I hope you're happy I hope you're 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 co-workers because of course this is after closing time you're
doing those like you know when the store is locked oh and you get to turn on music or something do your clothes 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
no 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 are on his co-workers purses their coats were there it was like they
had left in a hurry and they finally found the coats in person like the 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 a [ __ ] 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 person and then they just left of 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 an ocean you should have had oh 70s but that notion shortly thereafter
crime turned from disappearance and theft to kidnapping in 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 [ __ ] 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 oof it's gonna it's gonna 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 seriously 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 foreign [Music] a few days before Christmas Janelle Matthews disappeared from her home
there were no signs of a struggle no eyewitnesses no DNA recovered but what if the answer had always been
there what if a true crime fanatic had been talking about the case was more than
just an obsessive fan the groundbreaking True Crime podcast suspect is back with a new story that
attempts to separate fact from fiction and one man's True Crime Obsession from a motive for murder he says don't work
with me officer Edgerton I've buried more people than you'll know he's providing information that hadn't even
been released to the news yet he's just a good liar that he can convince the juror that he wasn't involved follow
suspect wherever you get your podcasts hey Prime members you can binge the entire series ad free on Amazon music
download the Amazon music app today 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 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 I love Heidi I love her so much you just made me think
of her and I was like oh she's 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 gonna 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 it's an investigators this was your job right you used 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 bias 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 you don't you go in there wiped clean
and you go in there and say talk to me I was just watching um oh my God so good have you watched um the Playboy murders
yet no I haven't but I keep seeing Holly post about it and I really want to watch
I watched the entire series I'm gonna sit down and watch it so good but one of the cases that they covered the Jasmine
Fior case oh yes they had their suspect and they were like yeah this is definitely play the guy but then another
suspect pops up and I 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 yeah that's good investigatory work because like you have to let it take you where
it wants to go right this not so much oh yeah 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 Kring was on his way home a little after midnight he passed by the
Burger Chef Restaurant on Crawfordsville Road he worked part-time there because again he's 17. yeah 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 gonna drop in and say hi yeah like cute small town [ __ ] that's
adorable uh these the workers that were there were the 20 year old assistant manager Jane freit 16 year old Mark
flemons 16 year old Daniel Davis and 17 year old Ruth Shelton now Kring Brian Kring when I went around the back
because he figured the front was going to be locked yeah they had obviously locked up
um 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 open yeah he knows protocol yeah and when he went in he called out to them just said
like who's here silence and that must have been the heaviest silence because you're like what the
[ __ ] 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 registers 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 robin robbery maybe they cuddled everybody into the back room maybe lock the door yeah like maybe
there's a place somewhere got out they left him in there just thinking somebody won't find them till morning right and
he's like okay I'm gonna go back there they're all gonna be okay we're gonna figure this out so he goes in there
empty oh my God but it had been ransacked he must have been so scared because then in my mind I'd be like is
this person gone yeah you did this that's the thing like he was probably like holy hell right there's someone
watching the store right now like 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 he 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 happened to be what you
were thinking finding this the way they did like it doesn't make any sense well Brian called 9-1-1 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 restaurant in the
manager's office they found two empty money bags that had been emptied out and an empty roll of adhesive tape behind
the beside the safe okay but otherwise there was really no clues to be found right 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 left it there did nothing to it yeah
now the store manager Robert Gilead 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 uh 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 that's a lot to to just take from looking around
for a minute yeah but Robert you know he the store manager he was like um no I know my employees yeah he was
like I know these four and there's you know they 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 that like I'm shocked that 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 for the
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 were in this police force just
wasn't ready for this you got to be ready for anything now interestingly on September 6 of that year so the month
earlier um or two months early 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 [ __ ] 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 uh 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 [ __ ] there's a
lot yeah 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 these they're four local
missing kids yeah like so 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 so there was just very little room for for
local teenagers disappearing Into Thin Air that's so [ __ ] 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 Gilead 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 the kids parents they all said they hadn't seen or heard from their
children since the night before and so craftin issued a Statewide alert and Reserve input reserve and active police
from Speedway in to 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 seriously now in the beginning it looked as if they were
going to be searching for missing people that's what they were going with because
again there is no evidence of a of 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 Fritz 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 and it was 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 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 yeah 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 Prince it was never
combed for any little thing nothing holy nothing was done they didn't even take a
[ __ ] 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 this 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 hard for 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 subduction
uh-huh but nothing made sense like why would they come in to rob the place and take four teens with them yeah so
everybody's like what the hell 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 our back our children yeah which 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 that much 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 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 PM they were sitting back there who knows what they were doing but they were poached they
were parked they were necking they were approached by quote two shabbily attired
white men in their 30s oh and then we love that and we love to be a tired white man in his 30s yeah 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 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 huh so it's like he was holding it up like he was wiping his nose but it was likely to cover his
face he had some kind of like distinguishing Mark or something exactly 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 11 15 it was still in that lot okay now this is great but like there's still very little
evidence here and they're re the police were really not able to come up with a lead at this point really like what are
they gonna 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 11 15. like like where 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 gotta add a
lot more pieces into this maybe if you dusted for some goddamn prints or took a [ __ ] picture or something that's what
I'm saying foreign [Music] the friend who had come in that night he told them that he found trash barrels
next to the back door like hole propping the door open and so the investigator thought someone had unlocked the back
door to take the trash out a little after 11 pm 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 into 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 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 happen 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 and 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 and was surprised by these people they forced
them inside it does make sense that makes sense but what we're not getting is like who the [ __ ] are these people
and what the [ __ ] did they want besides money and then what happened to them once they were dropped off past that
point exactly now interestingly June 16 1978 there was a similarly tragic case to this at another fast food restaurant
it was called the Sirloin Stockade and it was in Oklahoma City and I didn't know about this I hadn't heard of this
I'm gonna look further into this maybe I'll have it for part two but I happen to come across it when I was rereading
and I was like mention that six people were killed in a robbery there holy [ __ ]
um 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 so it is an interesting little connection
so Sunday November 19th like I said day after the the disappearances the search came to a screeching halt and not
because they gave up but because the bodies of Ruth Shelton Daniel Davis Mark flemons and Jane freit 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 on his property Jesus Christ now and this is just really sad because they're so young they are like
and this is so [ __ ] senseless and they were just like out there like after school jobs 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 work 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 India in a state police which that's good I feel it's good but this is also very much to
the Chagrin of the speedway police in Johnson County Sheriff's Department who and we all know ego egos always come
into 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 heard told reporters quote I'm very very
upset about this I don't know why this the state police can't cooperate which it's true everyone should be cooperating
in situations like this the more the [ __ ] merrier everybody get on the same page right 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 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 [ __ ] case like you're not gonna get a trophy well it's more than that
though I feel like they do think they get a trophy 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 gonna say this uh investigation that's like
when I said from the outset flaw flaw flaw flaw flaw flaw flaw negligent negligent negligent yeah I that is all
this is this is like if a flaw had flaws it truly and to think that like they started off so badly and they started
off so negligent with investing 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 but they're
not killing them but on the same token it's like guys this is already [ __ ] 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 for me it's it's so simple a concept that it's almost too
simple yeah because you 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 [ __ ] that's why there's
always it's so weird but either way um 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 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 gonna it's like okay let's work together no I don't want to work with you okay then we're not gonna share
information okay then we're not gonna tell and it's like um these four kids that were murdered
are over there being like hello excuse me hi can you um maybe get Justice for us that would
that would be sick if you guys would go ahead and just get some [ __ ] Justice For Us instead of like swinging your
dicks around at each other honestly it's so frustrating to see this [ __ ] 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 and sometimes they work together and they don't work
together well and it goes wrong yup but like you gotta try you gotta 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 six hundred dollars from this restaurant
safe made them think robbery was probably part of the motive at least but investigators also found cash in Jane
freit'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 like I abandon it where
you right where you left them but the money in her front pocket just leaving that there if robbery was the motive and
then the expensive watch it's like that doesn't check no in the car you should 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 had 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
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 believed 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 gonna do it in a row yeah but Jane and Mark jumped up
and tried to escape and were caught and killed Jane freed had been stabbed at least twice in the chest with a
five-inch hunting knife holy [ __ ] 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
violence 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 blunt force 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 flemons 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 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 six
hundred dollars 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 free 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 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 you want
to know what her nickname was by her like fellow co-workers Sweet Jane sweet change that's what they call their 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 she eventually became a teacher's aide I think she was like a library assistant at one point I am and
a friend from high school told reporters quote she had a any smile that always reminded me of Lily Tomlin because when
she smiled her eyes would crinkle up into Crescent Moon shapes oh and when you look at her it's true and Jane was
actually this 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 I'm in no time like
they were like and what's worse she had no idea that this promotion was coming her way at the time of her murder so
there was this big exciting secret that she never knew that 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 19 1960.
like Jane she was super popular at work and at school she had begun working at the Burger Chef on Crawfordsville Road a
few months before the murders and was described by her manager Robert Gilead 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 [ __ ] 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 to like really determined women
yeah like really cool women that were like doing the dancing and she had recently joined the school choir in 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 um in the youth Fellowship group at Westside Church of
the Nazarene so she they were both doing a [ __ ] ton yeah with their lives and would continue to give him the
opportunity now Daniel Davis was born on September 6th he was only 16 years old I know um
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 oh my God I know his cheeks just these cheeks that you just want to squeeze and he was in his junior
year at a Deca towards Central High School I hope I'm saying that right and had been planning to actually enter the
Air Force when he graduated he had a very big interest in aviation so he just wanted to pursue that so like the most
determined kids yeah they all had dreams yeah like actual dreams that they were really going after yeah they were not
even just like talking about he also loved photography and he had made his own DIY dark room in this in his house
at home how cool is that he would develop his photographs there damn his best friend Bruce described him as quote
a happy guy AI laughing and telling jokes most of the time oh that like hurts my heart now sixteen-year-old Mark
Sylvester flemons 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 now even crazier the person
he switched with was a girl who was also an employee that Brian Kring was taking
out on a date lap that night oh my God so he had swish they had switched shifts so that Mark 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 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
um 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 um he was raised and um as a Jehovah's Witness and
he was known to be very friendly and cheerful if 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 year book classmates remembered quote his
smiling face and laughing eyes oh and they said that he 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 gonna 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 [ __ ] foreign [Music]
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 [ __ ] way too close like sometimes it makes sense yeah 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 victims 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've no longer called or bothered to update us on the investigation how [ __ ] up is that like
what the [ __ ] 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 on in the investigation of their kids exactly but
it was also also happening within the Departments too officers were complaining about Lieutenant craft in
silence saying it was going to make them impossible to investigate this case we're not getting any infer 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 HSPA 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 yeah 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 in 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 and also Wild games yes some of the information about the auto autopsies were made public but the 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 though 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 certainly yeah now one thing they shared was that on the
day of the disappearances officers 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 any anything left behind like bullet casings or something yeah like they were able to
get the Slugs but without anything to compare it to you're [ __ ] 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 yeah from Florida yeah oh [ __ ] they have 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 had Steak and Shake it's good oh um they added another thousand dollars
to that sum which is really cool of them to do like yeah another restaurant Stand
Together Stand Together be more than apparently the police department literally and Burger Chef also set up
Memorial funds for the victims families that sounds like a great company I was like Wow Burger Chef
um 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 members 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 victims memorial fund that the Burger Chef Corporation had set up nice so like like
come together right now yeah yeah you know beetles news of a reward is great but it can have its drawbacks because
immediately you're going to get people calling in trying to get that reward with no [ __ ] 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 that more than 100 calls were received on the first day of course none produced a credible lead thanks guys
were clearly false thanks for calling us now the papers were really feeling the full force of law enforcement
enforcements like I'm gonna 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 um
Indianapolis news had a headline that said quote four held 24 hours before slangs
so they're saying that they 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 totally held 24 hours police think they were killed right away yikes yeah not great
meanwhile general counsel for the HSPA Richard Cardwell said in an interview with the um 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 there and it's 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 hagars which is where the bodies were found she they said were very scared to come all the way from
Speedway to here they would have had to known something about the area yeah which is not not around wrong and one
Burger Chef regular actually said to reporters I was shocked it was like a personal loss like part of myself had
been taken away oh but she was like oh my God yeah now by the end of the week investigators had seemingly exhausted
what very I I can't even say few leads what no leads they had yeah 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 thrown 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 [ __ ] 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 times how are you sitting here as is the soul 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 [ __ ] criminal will come forward and be like well [ __ ] 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 crawfords
Crawfordsville Road the lights of the restaurant um there's this like happy face in the
whites they actually turned it off as like a morning the last thing and I think that's real I'm like Burger Chef
doing it for real like the most here and I appreciate it and at this point the investigation is a 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 [ __ ] 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 what God damn
part two 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
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
[ __ ] Monsters the fact that theaters didn't check the restaurant at all didn't do anything didn't take pictures
none like what did you think was gonna happen here you really thought you were gonna solve this and it's like this we
say it all the time just overdo it man yeah do too much No One's Gonna fault you for
doing too much cool you spent an entire you know all your resources of your [ __ ] photographer that night whatever
where else was your photographer whatever where else was your crime scene technicians like get them on a 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 how they dust it I guarantee you this case would
be solved right 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 little details the minute the minutia I like it thank you like when somebody
like when somebody's getting too far into like the detail like don't get into the minutia that just I like it yeah
thanks you're welcome um yeah that's just and the other thing too is like I was just saying I feel
like they would have 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 gonna execute them that's
you've done that before that's what I would think but but then again on the same token two of them we think ran away
right that's pretty unheard of but to to think you're gonna 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 what that's how I feel but 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 the little when you're investigating a crime
scene you don't even take pictures of anything yeah don't do that yay bye foreign
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The Burger Chef murders case out of Indiana is one of the most notorious cases in true crime history. Jayne Fried, Ruth Shelton, Daniel Davis and Mark Flemmonds were all on shift the night of November 17th, 1978 when something terrible happened. To this day no one exactly knows what happened that night. Was it a robbery gone wrong?

Research Assistance by Dave White.

References:

Bird, Paul, and Skip Hess. 1979. ""Police under gag order in Burger Chef slayings."" Indianapolis News , March 7: 1.

Corbin, Bryan. 2003. ""Victim's parents say they can forgive."" Daily Journal, June 28: 1.

Ellis, Mike. 1978. ""Shootings frighten rural residents."" Indianapolis News, November 20: 12.

Frederick, Diane. 1978. ""Lights to 'happy face' turned off."" Indiana News, November 21: 20.

Hess, Skip, and Rich Schneider. 1978. ""4 shootings shock Speedway residents."" Indianapolis News, November 20: 1, 12.

Indianapolis Star. 1978. ""Press Group Assails Police Silence."" Indianapolis Star, November 21: 6A.—. 1978.

""Stymied police probing murders of 4 at Burger Chef ask 'why?'."" Indianapolis Star, December 10: 14.—. 1978.

""'They could have been anyone's children'."" Indianapolis Star, November 21: 8.

Journal and Courier. 1978. ""Police without leads in restaurant killings."" Journal and Courier, November 26: B-2.

Judkins, Jane. 1978. ""Young Speedway Murder Victims."" Indianapolis News, November 20.

Luzadder, Dan. 1986. ""Police have confession in Burger Chef murders."" Indianapolis Star, November 14: 1.

Morrison, Patrick. 1978. ""$10,000 reward offered in westside abduction of 4."" Indianapolis Star, November 20: 1.

Morrison, Patrick, and James G. Newland. 1978. ""Kidnap victims believed slain by more than one."" Indianapolis Star, November 21: 1.

Morrison, Patrick, and James Newland. 1978. ""4 Speedway kidnap victims found dead in wooded area."" Indianapolis Star, November 20: 1.

Murphy, Shelly. 1979. ""2 held in Milwaukee slayings."" Boston Globe, April 27: 26.

Trusnik, Mac, and John Flora. 1978. ""$25,000 reward offered in four kidnap-slayings."" Indianapolis News, November 20: 3.

Trusnik, Mac, and Paul Bird. 1978. ""4 held 24 hours before slayings."" Indianapolis News, November 21: 1.

Walton, Richard. 1979. ""Burger Chef murder suspects held."" Indianapolis Star, April 28: 1.—. 1978.

""Police baffled by kidnapping."" Indianapolis Star, November 19: 1.

Young, Julie. 2021. The Burger Chef Murders in Indiana. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the Burger Chef murders, focusing on the victims and law enforcement's failures in the investigation.

Key points

The Burger Chef Murders. A chilling case of four missing employees from a fast-food restaurant in Indiana.
Investigative Negligence. Authorities failed to secure the crime scene, leading to lost evidence.
A Community in Crisis. The small town was distracted by bombings, impacting the investigation's priority.
The Disappearance of Four Teens. On November 18th, four Burger Chef employees went missing, sparking a frantic search.
The Discovery of the Bodies. The bodies of the four missing teens were found in a remote area, leading to heartbreak.
Investigation Negligence. The investigation faced severe setbacks due to interdepartmental conflicts and negligence.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Why did it end the way it ended?

Reflecting on the tragic outcome of the case.

6:26WatchMar 14, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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