51:Brenda Ginter:1975, North Judson, Indiana

    

  Brenda Lou Ginter was born on October 20th, 1952. She grew up in Lake Station, Indiana. It’s a town very close to Gary, Indiana. It appears almost like a neighborhood of Gary, Indiana on the map. Brenda’s parents were Joseph Ginter and Esther (Scalf) Ginter. She had three brothers and a sister.  Joanana Ida Ginter was born in 1931.  Joseph Junior was born in 1935. The two other brothers and Brenda came along later. I am not sure but I think Brenda and Dennis were twins. They were in the same class in high school. I found an Edison High School 1969 yearbook and they are together in the Junior Class. Brenda and Dennis would have graduated from high school in 1970.

   Brenda was pretty with dark brown hair. Her middle and high school pictures from Lake Station show a smiling and vibrant young girl with the many changing hairstyles of the time. 

   In 1973 Brenda had a son, Stephen. One newspaper article said that she was separated or divorced from the little boy’s father. I didn’t find a record of a marriage. There’s nothing wrong with being a single mother.  But in the 1970’s she may have told neighbors that she had been married before, simply to avoid their harsh judgement. According to a newspaper article her neighbors in North Judson told the police that she had been married and was divorced and using her maiden name. The fact that they would mention that at all makes me think she was probably right to tell them she was divorced. She may indeed have been married but I was unable to find a record of it. I was looking for the name of the boy’s father wondering if he could be a suspect.  Did he live nearby? I was unable to find out anything about him. 

   Brenda moved to North Judson, Indiana in 1973. Her older sister, Joanana Ida Ginter Havrilesko lived nearby in Winamac, Indiana. Brenda and Ida’s mother, Esther, lived nearby as well. Brenda’s parents had divorced and her brothers had stayed with their Dad in Gary, Indiana.  Brenda had taken on a factory job at Arrowhead Engineering. I imagine her Mother and sister helped with childcare for little Stephen. 

   On Friday June 6th, 1975, Brenda Ginter’s toddler, Stephen, was crying.  He was not just crying but wailing so loudly that neighbors were extremely concerned. Neighbors called the police thinking that the child had been injured. 

   When police arrived and entered the apartment at 205 W. Sycamore they found 22 year old Brenda Ginter on the floor.  She had been assaulted, stabbed and strangled using an electrical cord. A broken vase lay near her on the floor. 

   Nothing of value was taken from the apartment, according to news articles, although the apartment was described as ransacked. 

   Her two year old son was distraught, crying and terrified but physically unharmed. 

   Two people would be arrested, charged but ultimately there would be absolutely no evidence linking them to the crime.  Andrew Gibson, 43 and his wife Mary Latimer Gibson 34 worked with Brenda at the Arrowhead Engineering factory. Neighbors had reported seeing them at the apartment. Andrew and Mary said that they had come over and found Brenda deceased and fled in a panic. Neighbors saw them leaving and this raised their suspicions. 

   North Judson police focused immediately on the couple and it seems that they did not consider any other suspects. The police investigators of the tiny town felt that the crime scene seemed staged. An article titled “Murder Motive Missing” mentions that the police chief thought the house was ransacked and the body was stripped “to make it look like she had been attacked”. Police Chief Joseph Kedelis said in the article that he doubted that tests would show that she had been sexually molested. It sounds like he had made up his mind already. 

  I’m not sure how much experience the police chief of tiny North Judson would have had with staged and real crime scenes. I find it hard to believe he would have had extensive knowledge and experience with staged crime scenes.  Anything is possible though. 

   Mr. and Mrs. Gibson were released from custody in November 1975 only after police had exhausted all possible avenues of gathering and testing evidence. Not a single trace of the couple was found inside the apartment. The couple passed polygraph examinations as well. 

   Why did they go to her apartment in the first place?  Since they worked with her, maybe they went to check on her because she had not come to work? Maybe they had a ride sharing arrangement and had come to pick her up for work?  Their reason for stopping by was not discussed in any of the articles. A timeline of events was not clear. 

  What I want to know is where did serial killer Danny Rouse work in 1975? I really wonder if he worked at Arrowhead Engineering too. He did not live very far away. It’s maybe a 25 minute drive. I have been looking everywhere I can possibly think of to find his work history. I find it too coincidental that Brenda is murdered only 25 minutes away from Rouse’s 1974 and 1975 victims. 

   Rouse’s last victim, Stephanie Wagner, in 2006 was a coworker who he strangled and stabbed after being paroled from prison after serving only 26 years of a life sentence for the murder of 5 year old Jason Learst and the attempted murder of Jason’s mother, Kathryn Crowley in 1979 in Wichita, Kansas. He attacked Kathryn and Jason with a knife in their home. 

   His 1974 and 1975 victims, Nellie Mikesell and Lela Hildebrandt, both of Winamac, Indiana, were shot at close range.  He seemed to enjoy seeing the damage he was inflicting up close.  

   (There’s also another unsolved shooting eerily similar to Lela Hildebrandt’s of a motorist, William H. Nagel, near Wolcott, Indiana in March of 1977. Nagel was shot late at night with a shotgun at close range through the driver’s side window while driving. Wolcott is only a 51 minute drive from Winamac. It could be a copycat killing but it could be the very same perpetrator who was bored one night and went for a drive.)

   The 1975 murder of Barbara Sue Menzie in LaPorte is so similar to Brenda Ginter’s murder that you could swap their names in the newspaper articles. Both had young children at home. Both were assaulted and murdered in very similar ways. I wonder if Barbara’s husband worked at Arrowhead Engineering. I wonder if Danny Rouse worked there or if he knew the Menzie’s family in some other way. 

   The various police offices in these small towns did not think any of these crimes were linked at the time. But time, search engines and data sometimes show us patterns. 

   Danny Rouse lived in tiny Monterey, Indiana.  That’s only a 25 minute drive away from North Judson. 

   Danny Rouse is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Stephanie Wagner.  He avoided the death penalty by confessing to and providing details about the 1974 and 1975 murders of Nellie Mikesells and Lela Hildebrandt. 

   Did police save any evidence in Brenda’s murder case?  Did they save the electrical cord? DNA from her killer could be found on it and possibly on other items. Let’s hope they preserved evidence. 

   Brenda Ginter’s case seems potentially solvable. 

   I keep thinking of Stephen. He was not yet two years old when his mother was murdered. I hope that he has lived a happy life despite the tragic loss of his Mother.  

   Brenda was only 22. There was so much ahead. It was June in Indiana. That’s a wonderful time of year. She should have been playing and enjoying the Summer together with her son. 

Brenda should have been here to see her son grow up. She would have been 71 as I write this in 2024. Perhaps she would have been a grandmother at this point. She should be here. 

   My heart goes out to the Ginter family. Rest in Peace, Brenda. 

If you have information about the murder of Brenda Ginter please call the North Judson Police Department at (574) 772-5914.