Terry Lee Chasteen:1979, Indianapolis

   Terry Lee Chasteen worked as a checker at a west side Indianapolis supermarket.  She was divorced and had three little children; a 5 year old girl Misty Ann, and two younger boys, Steven Michael 4, and 3 year old Mark Louis. She was on her way to drop them off at the babysitter so she could head to work. It was a typical day for this busy young mother.  She was driving on I- 465, the interstate loop that encircles Indianapolis, on Friday, April 27th,1979. Suddenly a young blonde construction worker in a utility truck signaled for her to pull over. Fearing something was wrong with her car; she pulled over. 

   Steven Timothy Judy approached her car and told her that one of her wheels was wobbling and seemed as if it was about to fall off.  He feigned trying to work on her car and for some strange reason he popped the hood and disconnected a wire so that the car wouldn’t start. 

    He convinced her that he would give her and the children a ride to a phone and to get a part for the car. He also may have forced her into going with him in the truck. 

    Once in his truck; she seems to have tried to signal for help. One driver in another car said she waved at him and that the wave seemed to make Steven Judy agitated. The witness thought that they were a couple and that he shouldn’t get involved. 

    I imagine that she realized just how vulnerable she was with her kids in this truck. She desperately wanted to protect her kids. She desperately wanted to protect herself too. She had to figure out how to deal with this increasingly dangerous situation. 

   Humans have four responses to extreme danger. Fight, flight, freeze or fawn.  We used to only hear about the first two. You either fight or you run. But all four might be ways to save yourself depending on the situation. 

    Fight is self explanatory. You fight back and defend yourself. If Terry Lee had fought back or launched an offensive first in the truck; her children might have been hurt. Most mothers would rather die than see their children hurt. 

   Flight was also not an option.  She was a devoted mother and would never leave her children. She also couldn’t jump out of a truck speeding on 465 holding onto all three children. 

   Freezing was a safe option.  It would maybe keep the kids calm and quiet and also keep Steven Judy calm and quiet.  So she likely stayed still and silent. 

   Fawning might also have been an option.  Being kind and sympathetic to a violent perpetrator can work.  With her children present; Terry Lee Chasteen likely tried to be as accommodating as possible. 

   I’m sure that when she realized they were not going to a phone or a gas station but instead heading south and out of town her fear was extremely elevated. 

   Near Mooresville, Steven Timothy Judy had them all get out of the truck and walk down a path toward a creek.  The children ran along first down the path unaware that they were all in danger.  Steven Judy then violently raped Terry Lee Chasteen.  He strangled her. Her children came back down the path and began screaming and crying when they saw what had happened to their mother.  Steven Timothy Judy then threw each child into the creek where it appeared to be around 7 feet deep.  The water was very cold. The high temperature that day was only 49 and the low was 39. The water would have been just above freezing. None of the children could swim. All three were drowning as Steven Timothy Judy threw their deceased mother in as well and then left. He attempted to erase his foot prints in the soil with a branch. 

   In a later interview Steven would say that he enjoyed the criminal acts that he committed.  He said that doing these things would bring him out of his bouts of depression. 

   April is mushroom hunting season in Indiana. The next day was a Saturday and mushroom hunters were venturing out to creeks and wooded places searching for morels. A group searching for mushrooms found Terry Lee and her children instead and contacted police. 

   Investigators initially looked at Terry Lee’s boyfriend and her ex-husband.  Both had alibi’s.  Her ex husband was actually thousands of miles away in the Navy. Abduction by a stranger was not at the top of their list.  Most murder victims are killed by someone they know.  Most murdered women are killed by their romantic partner. In her lifetime; a woman is statistically most likely to be murdered by a partner when she is pregnant or attempting to leave a relationship. Abduction and murder by a stranger has a much lower probability. But that probability is not zero. 

   As the story came out in the news; people call in with tips.  They had noticed Terry Lee Chasteen and Steven Judy on the side of the road. They described his truck with its utility tool boxes on the sides of the bed. It was distinctive.  It was used and a little beat up and it had no company logos. It stood out. At least one motorist saw the group on the side of the road in Mooresville walking back toward the creek. 

   Police were talking to Steven Timothy Judy the very next day.  He had been out on bail only one week for an armed robbery charge in Indiana.  He was also an Illinois state parolee at the time. He had grown up in an extremely violent household and was an aggressive child. At age ten he used to push high school girls down and try to molest them. He had been in and out of trouble with the law since he was 12. What was his crime at 12 years old? 

   In 1968 Steven Judy pretended to be a Boy Scout and conned his way into a woman’s home. He was found guilty of beating and raping her, then bludgeoning her with a hatchet causing skull fractures. As he was swinging the ax she was trying to protect her head. This resulted in Steven Judy cutting off her finger.  The attack was labeled “aggravated battery” by prosecutors. They didn’t consider this anything more than aggravated battery. Remember, rape was not considered a violent crime by the all male lawmakers then.  

   Steven Judy was sentenced to six months in a juvenile detention center and then transferred to a mental hospital. He was diagnosed as a sexual psychopath. In 1972, he was released to a foster family. The state told his foster family nothing about his violent background. 

   When he was arrested for the Chasteen murders; investigators saw the similarities to Ann Harmeier’s 1977 case.  The two crimes were so similar. Both were taken from the side of the road. Both were raped and strangled. The killer simply discarded them and did not take the time or effort to hide or bury the bodies. Both were left in Morgan County. (I believe that Ann Harmeier might have been murdered by the same man, John T. Gibson Jr, who murdered Tara Meredith in 1979.)

   Upon checking, Steven Judy was supposedly incarcerated on the day of Ann Harmeier’s abduction. 

    At his trial for the four Chasteen murders; Steven Judy pled guilty and threatened the jury. He said that he wanted the death penalty.  He got what he wanted. 

   On March 9th, 1981; Steven Judy died in the electric chair at Michigan City, Indiana. He was 24 years old. 

    But, are their other victims?  Does someone commit a violent rape and attempted murder in 1968 and another in 1979 but nothing in between. He was free from 1972 to 1979.  

     Steven Timothy Judy met with his foster family in the last days of his life. He confessed to many armed robberies, rapes and  murders to his foster mother just before his execution date.  He had lived in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1973 and claimed to have killed two women there but did not name them. He confessed to the kidnapping and rape of another Louisiana woman and claimed to have thrown her in a swamp.  He did not know if she survived. He confessed to kidnapping and raping several Indianapolis women, including Linda Unverzagt in 1978. He also said he kidnapped and raped another woman and left her tied to a tree in the woods. He never knew whether she lived or died. He said he left a string of victims behind him. 

    Investigators might have followed up in these leads but no other crimes are officially connected to Steven Timothy Judy.  But, there are so many unsolved murders and DNA technology has advanced greatly.  One wonders if any law enforcement agency has a sample of Steven Judy’s DNA.  Evidence from crimes decades ago may not still exist.  But it is interesting to ponder. 

   Crimes that were considered unsolvable just a few years ago are being solved everyday now. 

   Terry Lee Chasteen and her three little children deserved to live their lives in peace.  What would their futures have held if those futures had not been stolen from them? 

   Rest In Peace Terry, Misty Ann, Steven Michael and Mark Louis Chasteen.  You deserved long and happy lives. 

Watch and share this case on YouTube. Steven Judy had more victims out there. Modern cold case investigators need to know about him to possibly solve those cases. 

https://youtu.be/-SU3GKjitxM?si=q0rZVIIxBy2E5fxd