Ch 39:Linda Sue Ferry:1977, Another Jeffrey Hand Victim?

 

   Linda Sue Ferry and her husband Billy had three children; Shawn, Shonda and Sharon. Billy worked at a dental lab in Lafayette. Linda was a devoted Mom. 

   It was Friday and Linda Sue Ferry and her family were going to go canoeing on Saturday. School was starting again soon and this weekend was a last little summer weekend break. They needed some picnic supplies and snacks for the trip so on Friday August 19, 1977, Linda headed to the grocery store. 

   Indiana has so many creeks and rivers and canoeing and tubing is a wonderful way to spend a summer day cooling off. Sand bars in a creek can be like mini Daytona Beaches in Indiana in August. 

  The Ferry family lived in Mulberry, Indiana. It’s a small town between Frankfort and Lafayette. It’s northwest of Indianapolis.  Mulberry is a small town now and would have been small then too. 

  Linda headed  to the all night grocery store in Lafayette around 9:30 that night. When you’re a stay at home Mom, going to the grocery store by yourself is a great break.  She’s probably trying to think of all the things they will need for their canoeing and picnic tomorrow.  It was a  warm summer night.  She might have the radio up and the windows down. It should be the start of a great weekend. But it’s actually the start of a nightmare.  The Ferry family will never be the same. 

   Linda doesn’t make it home on time. Hours tick by. Night turns to morning.  Understandably, her husband and family are beside themselves.  This is not normal. Something bad has happened.  Linda would call.  She would find a phone and call if she could. Her family calls the police. Saturday and Sunday pass without word from Linda. 

  Family and friends searched but had no luck locating Linda or her car. 

   Employees at a business (it is referred to as a firm…it’s not named but I wonder if it is a law office building) in Lafayette had noticed the smell of decay coming from a strange car in their parking lot. The car had been there for a few days. They called the police. Linda was found strangled and locked in the trunk of her car on Wednesday August 24th, 1977. She was partially clothed and face down. The medical examiner stated that she could have been strangled because her hyoid bone was broken and because of the condition of a stocking that was found in the trunk with her. Her death certificate lists “undetermined” as the cause of death.  She was markedly decomposed due to the heat and humidity of the Indiana Summer. 

  No groceries were found in the car so police doubt that she even made it to the store that Friday night. There would be no paper trail with a grocery store in those days unless she paid by check.  Most people paid in cash then.  If you were local and well known your grocery store might take a check from you then. Linda was carrying $120 dollars in cash, according to her husband. 

   Linda could have been a victim of Jeffrey Hand.  He had murdered Pamela Milam in 1972 in a very similar way.  Pamela was also strangled and placed in the trunk of her own car. Her murder was not solved until 2019. Jeffery Hand was freed from a mental institution in mid October of 1976. He had been confined to the State Hospital in 1973 after abducting a couple and murdering the husband. (See Chapter 37) Hand would be killed by police while attempting to abduct a woman from a Kokomo shopping mall in 1978. Pamela Milam was killed in a college town. Lafayette, or rather West Lafayette is home to Purdue University. But, Jeffrey Hand was still alive and free in the summer of 1977.  

   Steven Timothy Judy could also be a suspect. He might have been free at this time. He wouldn’t be caught for the murder of Terry Chasteen and her children until 1979. 

   But, sadly, there were quite a few suspects that could be involved. 

   Linda and her husband had been married and divorced and recently remarried.  He was home with their children when she went to the store. He reported her missing and Linda did not have a life insurance policy. Her friends put together a fundraiser for burial expenses. Her husband Billy could be a suspect but it seems unlikely given what we know. 

   Another suspect is Robert L.  Avery.  He would be convicted of raping and strangling to death 18 year old Mandy Lewellen in 1978 while he was free awaiting sentencing after another rape. We will cover those incidents  in another post. He was from Kokomo, a town only 44 minutes from Mulberry, IN.  That is an hour from Lafayette.  It was a Friday night. He could have gone to Lafayette easily. 

   Hand, Judy, Avery, are only a few.  There were others. 

   Linda was 30 when she was murdered. She didn’t get to see her kids grow up.  They lived their lives without her.  I cannot imagine how they picked up and carried on after this. Going back to school must have been awful.  But the human spirit is resilient.  People often find strength in living on for the person they lost. 

   Linda never got to meet her grandchildren.  She never got the satisfaction of finding her own career after raising children. Linda should be here still. 

   If you have information about the murder of Linda Sue Ferry please call the Lafayette Police Department at

(765) 807-1200.