47:Lela, Nellie, Kathryn, Jason, Stephanie: The Winamac Murders
Lela Hildebrandt Lela Hildebrandt, 26, drove her Volkswagen Beetle down a dark road on October 7, 1975. She was heading South on Highway 17 from the town of Culver. She had been to a belly dancing class that evening.
She was a Culver Academy graduate. Her father had been a math instructor there. She knew these roads. Indiana is mostly flat in the North. Roads are usually pretty straight as well. That was the case with Lela’s route that night.
After college at University of Virginia and The University of Mary Washington she finished her undergraduate work at Indiana University in 1972. She had worked for a time in Indianapolis but had returned to rural Fulton County recently. She now lived closer to her parents and childhood friends. She was bright, blonde and pretty. She enjoyed working at the local Winamac library. She was friendly and kind and enjoyed her community.
She was also a newlywed. Lela Donnelly had married Greg A. Hildebrandt in May of 1975. They lived in the rural area of Winamac, Indiana. Life was just beginning.
This area is best known for Culver Academy. Culver Academy was founded at the end of the 19th century on the shore of Lake Maxinkuckee. Culver was founded as a military academy but allowed women to study there along with the boys. In 1971, they founded a separate girls academy. It also offers summer camps and summer classes.
Lake Maxinkuckee provided the community with recreation and visitors. In the surrounding area there are farms and other smaller communities. In the 1960’s and 1970’s it was a quiet area with low crime. This was the place that Lela knew as home.
That night in October of 1975, as she made her way home from her evening dance class, Lela’s car would inexplicably crash into a tree. Lela appeared to be killed from head trauma when her VW Bug was totaled.
But the wreck was suspicious. The road was straight. Her car was in 4th gear and she was going about 65. There was no reason for her to veer off toward the tree. People thought maybe she swerved to try to avoid an animal. There was no sign that she had applied the brakes.
Initially her death was reported as an accident. Her head trauma was thought to be the result of the car crash. Luckily, someone, maybe a medical examiner, took a closer look. Lela had actually been shot. Someone had fired a shotgun at the left side of her head from fairly close range. Maybe a car passing by in the opposite direction or simply waiting in ambush by the side of the road. After the shot to the head her car veered toward the trees.
Her husband was an early suspect but was cleared as he had an alibi. He had been returning home that night from work with a group of coworkers. He was nowhere near the murder site.
Lela had no enemies. Police and her friends and family were stumped. Could it be an accidental shooting? Not at that close range. The road is straight and flat. Anyone aiming at a deer would have heard the VW coming along. Even a deer would have heard it coming. No, the shooter would have definitely been able to see what he was shooting at.
A reward was offered for information. A thorough investigation was done. Lela was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Culver.
The press, public and police were all wondering if this random shooting death had anything to do with another mysterious shooting death just about a year earlier.
In September of 1974, Nellie May Mikesell, 72, was a retired teacher. She had been born Nellie May Shively December 16th, 1901. She had grown up and lived all her life not far from where she lived now on a rural farm near Culver and Winamac. She had been a widow for a few years since losing her husband, Clurel, in 1969. But she persevered. She kept going. She was strong like so many other women who lived life in rural Indiana. She had children and grandchildren, some near and some far across the country.
She was sitting inside the house in her rocking chair on September 9th, 1974. Her chair was next to the window. As she sat peacefully in her own home, someone crept up close to the house. They aimed through the window at Nellie’s head. They pulled the trigger. The shooter then broke into the house. But he didn’t take anything from the house. Police theorized that he just wanted to see what the .22 caliber bullet had done. The shooter left.
A delivery person came upon the scene later and called the police. Shockingly, Nellie still had a pulse. She was taken to the hospital in South Bend. She tragically passed away the next day. She was laid to rest in the Masonic Cemetery where Lela Hildebrandt would also be buried just about a year later. The women were killed only 4 miles apart and now buried just yards away. The cases were connected in newspaper articles but police at the time did not consider them linked.
Despite the offers of rewards and the efforts of police investigators, both of these women’s cases would go cold. Police had no evidence and no eye witnesses. No useful tips had come in. A break in the case would not come until 2006. Sadly the break would also come after other murders.
But the police in this seemingly idyllic corner of Indiana were busier than ever. On May 31st 1974, the body of George Murphy, Jr., 33, was found nearly where Lela Hildebrandt’s wreck would take place. He had been hit on the head and then run over by a vehicle. Another man, Charles Hill, 21, was found in the woods in late 1974 only 4 miles from the site of Lela’s murder. All four of these murders happened within a 4 mile radius.
In the tiny town of Knox, Indiana, in July of 1974 a woman and her young son were kidnapped and murdered with robbery as a motive. Three people would be convicted of that crime.
Take a wider look at Indiana at large and you can see violent crime increased exponentially in the 1970’s. Some blamed it on people moving to the country from Chicago or Indianapolis. But most of the killers would be home grown.
Take Danny Rouse, for instance. He grew up in Indiana. He had a brother in the tiny town of Monterey, Indiana. That’s less than a mile from the site of Lela Hildebrandt’s murder. Danny lived there in 1974 and 1975. We know that for sure. He wasn’t mentioned in any of the articles about any of the 1974/1975 murders near Monterey. We don’t know if police secretly suspected him. We don’t know why he left Indiana. But we do know he left at some point after Lela Hildebrandt’s murder and went all the way to Wichita, Kansas.
October 28th, 1979, Danny Rouse was spending the evening with a date at her home in Wichita. Friends had introduced them. He was working at Cessna as a drill press operator. His date, Kathryn Crowley, blonde with a pretty smile was 26. She had a five year old son, Jason, who was sleeping in the next room. Danny and Kathryn were watching movies at her house and drinking a few beers.
I imagine she couldn’t get a sitter but still wanted to spend some time with this new guy. There were probably scary movies on t.v. since Halloween was only three days away. Danny started making passes at her, pressuring her for sex. She wasn’t ready for this new relationship to go there yet. She tried to lighten the mood and offer him another beer instead. She still liked this guy and wanted this to be more than a fling. As she walked into the kitchen to retrieve the beer he followed her. He hit her over the head and began stabbing her repeatedly in the chest and abdomen. She fell to the floor and played dead. She nearly was. She was hoping he would just leave now so she could call for help. Instead, Danny took the knife into Jason’s room.
Jason was sleeping peacefully when Danny slashed his throat. He bled to death in just a few minutes.
Kathryn struggled to a neighbor’s porch and managed to get their attention before collapsing. When police and emergency services arrived; Jason was already deceased. Kathryn, however,was still alive and was taken to the hospital. She survived and was able to tell police who had attacked her and murdered Jason.
Danny Rouse had boarded an eastbound Trailways bus only hours after the attack. Police officers caught up with him in Missouri. I imagine he was headed back to Indiana.
Danny Rouse was charged, tried and eventually sentenced to life in prison. But he didn’t serve life in prison. He appealed but his appeals were denied. He was paroled after serving 26 years. Little Jason’s Dad wrote letters to the parole board and made every effort to prevent this parole. But, the parole board saw that Danny Rouse had worked while in prison, kept out of trouble for 26 years and had family who would take him in back in Monterey, Indiana. So he was freed.
The parole board did not know about Danny’s previous crimes in the 70’s in Indiana. No one but Danny knew about those.
In March 2006, Danny Rouse was picked up outside the prison by his brother. They drove back to Indiana. Danny got a job at the Indian Head restaurant in Winamac. Lela Hildebrandt used to work at the library in tiny Winamac. But that was over a quarter of a century ago. Now Danny Rouse was not 20 anymore. He was in his 50’s. He looked like Santa Claus or Wilford Brimley. He looked old and gray and harmless.
16 year old Stephanie Wagner got a job at the Indian Head Restaurant. She was smart, blonde and pretty. She thought the old dishwasher looked harmless too. On Halloween night, 2006, Stephanie was driving home from work around 10:30 pm. She spotted Danny Rouse on the side of the road with car trouble. She stopped to help. He strangled and stabbed her. He later told police that “something came over” him.
Stephanie’s Mom called the police when Stephanie did not return home. Police questioned everyone she worked with but especially focused on Rouse as he was known to them as a paroled murderer. He confessed and told them where to find her body.
Now, Danny Rouse would be convicted of murder once more. He would never be free again. But this time the death penalty was also on the table. Indiana is a capital punishment state. If Danny wanted to live; he would need a bargaining chip he could use in a plea deal.
He and his lawyers approached the prosecutor with an offer. Rouse had a couple of old murders in Indiana. They were cold cases and he could give details that only the killer would know. He could prove that he murdered these victims. This would close those cases and the families of those victims would have a small measure of closure. In exchange Rouse would be spared the death penalty and receive a life sentence instead.
And so, Rouse finally confessed to shooting Nellie May Mikesell in September of 1974. He also confessed to shooting Lela Hildebrandt in October of 1975. We don’t have the motive from him. We don’t know why he killed those two women. I’m sure he provided police with enough details to prove his guilt. Prosecutors would not have struck the plea deal without definitive proof. I hope so for Stephanie Wagner’s sake.
I really doubt that there is a single reason why. He had a hatred of women. He may have had impulse control issues. He may have had the type of head trauma that has been found in a large percentage of violent serial killers. He may have suffered abuse as a child. He may have had high lead levels in his blood that some scientists have linked to the rise in violent crime in the 1970’s and 1980’s. We don’t know.
We don’t know if there are other assaults or other murders. What about the two men in 1975 who were also murdered in that tiny four mile radius that Mrs. Mikesell and Mrs. Hildebrandt were murdered in? Did he kill them as well? It would be statistically pretty wild if someone else did. What was he up to from October 1975 in Indiana to October 1979 in Wichita, Kansas? What about his earlier teenage years? What was he like growing up?
My guess is that these known crimes are not his only crimes.
Nellie May Mikesell had been a teacher. She had raised a family. She had contributed greatly to her community. She was trying to enjoy her retirement years despite being widowed. She was active in local clubs. She was a vital and giving person, loved by her community.
Lela Hildebrandt had studied and earned a degree. She had worked in the city but had married and settled down back home as a librarian. She also had fun in life. She took a dance class for fun. She had her whole life ahead of her.
Kathryn Crowley was just trying to meet new people and have a social life. She offered hospitality to a date. That’s kindness. She was a kind and generous person. She miraculously survived her attack but the trauma of losing her son must have been beyond devastating. Her young life was forever altered. She persevered, however. She kept going. I hope she managed to find some peace.
Jason Learst was only five. He didn’t get to enjoy school, making friends, and learning. He didn’t get to grow up. His future was stolen from all of us.
Stephanie Wagner was only 16. She was kind and helpful. Already she was trying to make the world a better place. She was bright and ambitious and she would have gone far.
My brain always wants to try to find the lesson in these stories. When I first became interested in true crime; my biggest takeaways were the do’s and dont’s. I was young then and I was trying not to be a victim. None of these victims did anything wrong. They were just living their lives. And I think they were right to go about their lives in the way they did. The only person who did anything wrong was Danny Rouse.
I think the lesson is to live your life. Live your life kindly and generously. Keep putting good out into the world. Be wary. Be cautious. Trust your gut. But still live your life. Go places. Do things. Don’t hide away. Keep going.
When I travel somewhere new or see a beautiful sunset I often think about family members of mine who have passed on. I take them with me to these places. I hope they get to see it too.
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