Did They Ever Find the Speedway Burger Chef Murderers?

Publish date: 2024-05-11

Four Burger Chef Employees Were Kidnapped and Murdered in 1978 — Were the Killers Ever Found?

The tragic tale of the Burger Chef murders still haunts the city of Speedway, Ind., to these days.

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Jun. 10 2024, Published 3:fifty eight p.m. ET

Source: YouTube/Fox 59 News (video still); John Margolies via Wikimedia Commons

Believe it or now not, there have been as soon as nearly as many Burger Chef locations as McDonald's locations. Although Burger Chef used to be based a complete 17 years after McDonald's, it briefly become a popular fast-food chain that started in Indiana and stretched out to small towns across the U.S. There was even a short lived duration when other folks most well-liked Burger Chef over McDonald's, according to WFMK. In reality, many believe the Big Shef and Super Chef at Burger Chef was the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder.

Unfortunately, one Burger Chef location would eventually be identified for one thing more than its $0.15 burgers and scrumptious shakes. In November 1978, 4 employees were abducted from a spot in Speedway, Ind., reported ABC News. Their our bodies were discovered two days later. Did the police ever find the Speedway Burger Chef murderers? Here's what we all know.

Source: YouTube/Vertical

Did police ever find the Speedway Burger Chef murderers? They could be close.

As of the time of this writing, police have yet to find the Speedway Burger Chef murderers despite the fact that a documentary about the crimes may have some answers. The Speedway Murders will hit some theaters and shall be available to buy at house on June 21, 2024. According to IndieWire, the documentary focuses on 4 theories and features a "second-hand confession from the close friend of a now-deceased lead suspect."

In November 2018, precisely Forty years after the killings, a circle of relatives member of one in all the victims spoke with ABC News about the have an effect on of dropping any person in this sort of horrific means. Theresa Jefferies's sister Ruth Shelton was best 18 years old when she was once abducted after which murdered at the side of Jayne Friedt, 20, Mark Flemmonds, 16, and Daniel Davis, 16. Their our bodies have been found 48 hours later in a box in Johnson County.

Jefferies sought after other people to take into account that these youngsters weren't just sufferers. There had been other people in the world who cherished them and they sought after to understand what happened. "I hope that before my time on Earth is gone that I have those answers," she informed the outlet. They were still investigating the case in 2018 and after the documentary filmmakers instructed government what they knew, they have been looking into it. Those answers may just very well be coming quickly.

What took place to the children who have been killed at the Speedway Burger Chef?

Around 11:00 p.m. on Nov. 18, 1978, police believe two robbers snuck in thru the back door of the Speedway Burger Chef, reported the Indy Star. Not only did they take $581 from the cash check in, however they forced the 4 staff nonetheless running to head with them. Shelton and Davis had been each shot in the back of the head. They have been additionally next to one another in the box.

Friedt was the assistant supervisor and as far as regulation enforcement can tell, she may have attempted to run but used to be stabbed in the chest. The knife's blade used to be still lodged firmly in her torso when her frame was discovered, however the deal with was once by no means positioned. Flemmonds died after choking on his own blood, perhaps after knocking himself subconscious after running right into a tree. All 4 victims had been nonetheless wearing their Burger Chef uniforms, which police nonetheless have in their possession.

In 2017, Indiana State Trooper William Stoney Vann was once the only active-duty police officer still investigating this case. The State Police building has two 3-D busts made in response to police sketches of the suspects, as well as "victims' hair samples, blood samples, and fingerprints, bullets recovered from Davis and Shelton's heads, the knife blade from Friedt's chest, cigarette butts from Friedt's 1974 Chevrolet Vega, and all the other information related to the case."

There are also 24 three-ring binders filled with notes from more than a few detectives and numerous cassettes filled with police interviews. It's about as thorough as any investigation may get. Sadly, none of this has been very helpful for Vann who believes he is aware of who did it. He has excited by a gaggle of 5 males who were answerable for a string of robberies all through that point. Three of them have since died. "The problem is we don't have enough physical evidence," he said. Perhaps any such males is known as in the documentary.

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