Julie Ann Seyfried:Unsolved in Greenwood, Indiana

 

   Julie Ann Seyfried had been going through some difficult teenage years. She was 17 and had recently quit school but she was thinking of going back. 

  She was working here and there as a babysitter. 

  When she went missing on September 7th, 1977 her parents thought perhaps she had run away.  She had taken off a few times in the past. Sometimes for a few days and sometimes for a couple of weeks.  She had gotten as far as Maine once.  What was she running away from?

   Julie Ann Seyfried was born August 26th, 1960. She was part of a big family. Julie had three older brothers. She also had a younger sister. Her parents were Edward and Margie Seyfried. They lived in Indianapolis just South of the 465 loop and just East of Madison. 

   On September 7th, 1977, Julie returned home from a babysitting job.  Her father asked her to mail a letter and so Julie set off on a short walk down to the nearest big blue USPS mailbox. Logically that mailbox probably would have been located closer to Madison as it is a busier street. 

   Julie never returned home. I can’t find a record of anyone seeing her being taken or of her being spotted getting into a vehicle. 

   Since her parents initially thought she had run away there was no urgency about the search for Julie. There was no Amber Alert system then. Sometimes police would not even let you file a missing persons report for 24 or 48 hours. There was no one on the lookout for her. 

   As the weeks passed her parents did grow concerned and did report her missing, however.  She had never been gone this long. She had not taken anything with her. 

   September and then October passed by.  It was cold out now.  Julie hadn’t taken any warm clothes with her.  Where could she be?

   In November Joe Vendenburg began harvesting his corn outside Greenwood, Indiana south of a place called Red’s Corner. As he drove his combine following the rows he saw ahead of him what looked like a skull.  He stopped the combine and ran to call the police. 

   This body was almost skeletonized and scattered by animals in a 100 foot radius. It was eventually determined to be 17 year old Julie Ann Seyfried. One of her heels still had some flesh on it. A footprint from her baby book would be used to compare to that partial heel. She had been shot in the head with a .22 caliber weapon. Her hands were tied behind her back. Her clothes were piled nearby under a tree. 

   Who could have done this? The list of serial killers on the loose in central Indiana at the time is kind of staggering.

   It could be Jeffrey Lynn Hand who was freed from a mental institution on a technicality in 1976 after abducting a couple and murdering the husband. DNA would prove his guilt decades later in the murder of Pamela Milam. 

  It could be Steven Timothy Judy who first attempted to rape and murder a woman at 12 years of age and would eventually be convicted of the murders of Terry Lee Chasteen and her children.  He would confess to having killed many others.

  Robert L. Avery was still a free man at this time.  In 1978 he would be convicted of rape but free on bond awaiting sentencing when he would abduct, rape and murder Mandy Lewellen of Kokomo. His mother would attempt to hire a hitman to eliminate witnesses. But, he was free when Julie Ann Seyfried went missing. 

  Donald Forrester is potentially available for this murder. He was in and out of prison in the 1970’s. In 1979 he would finally be convicted and sentenced to life for the brutal rape and attempted murder of a young woman. He would confess and recant multiple times to the Burger Chef murders. He lived across the street from the Burger Chef in Speedway at the time. He had robbed several fast food locations including other Burger Chef restaurants. 

  It is not Charles Lamb.  He was already serving a life sentence for abducting, raping and murdering one woman and the attempted murder of another. He was suspected of several others. 

   David J. Roberts was also in jail at this time for the 1974 abduction and rape of Paula Utterback and the murder of her infant son. He had been convicted of rape in 1966 but did not serve a long sentence as rape was not considered a violent and serious crime at the time. 

   Could it have been someone close to her?  What prompted her to run away several times in the past? Was something wrong at home? We don’t have any details about her home life. 

   Julie Ann Seyfried was buried and mourned deeply by her family. The hunt for her killer would take some wild twists and turns in the years to come. 

   In 1987, Carolyn Sue Shreve would be accused and tried for the murder of Julie Ann Seyfried.  Despite having no physical evidence against Shreve; the case went to trial. Prosecutors brought forth several witnesses who claimed they heard Shreve make a confession. (All these witnesses had involvement in other cases and it seems like they were offered a deal in order to testify.) One witness claimed that Shreve had told her she killed Seyfried because Seyfried had kicked her in the stomach and caused her baby to be born with birth defects and die.  The biggest problem with that testimony is that Seyfried went missing two weeks before Shreve gave birth to her baby. Prosecutors were essentially saying that Shreve, almost 9 months pregnant, killed Seyfried because she somehow knew in advance that her baby would die of multiple birth defects and blamed Seyfried for those defects. Ludicrous. Shreve would eventually be found not guilty. 

   No one has been convicted yet for Julie Ann Seyfried’s death. 

   Let’s go back to the evidence. Seyfried’s body was found nude with her hands tied behind her back. She was shot in the head with a .22 caliber weapon. She was in a cornfield. Her clothes had been dumped near the edge of the field where police theorized a car had been parked due to crushed corn stalks in the area. 

  Julie Ann Seyfried was not the only body found in a cornfield in a similar state that Fall. On October 18th, Ann Harmeier’s body was found by another farmer bringing in his corn as well.  Her hands had been tied with her own shoelace.  She had been strangled with the other shoelace. Ann went missing just days after Julie Ann Seyfried. Their bodies were found in fairly close proximity. (A 35 minute drive apart.)  

   Terri Jo Ann Darlington was murdered in September of 1975. She was taken from Mooresville, Indiana.  That is minutes away from where Julie Ann Seyfried was last seen. Her body was found by a farmer harvesting corn near the old Indianapolis airport. Her remains were skeletal and scattered by animals.  Her jacket had one sleeve tied in a knot.  Had it been used to tie her hands or to strangle her?

  Monika Maria Mason was also found in a field in July of 1977. She was found near Zionsville, on Indianapolis’ northwest side. She had been raped and strangled. 

  

  Jeffrey Lynn Hand tied his victim’s hands. So did Steven Timothy Judy. 

   Steven Timothy Judy would eventually be taken off the streets in 1979 for the Chasteen family murders that happened in Mooresville. At his trial he asked for the death penalty.  He threatened the lives of the jurors and their families. He got what he wanted. 

   Jeffrey Lynn Hand would be shot to death attempting to abduct a woman from a shopping center. He attempted this in broad daylight in Kokomo in January of 1978. After the woman escaped and a police chase ensued; Hand would shoot at police. Police returned fire and Hand was killed. The brazen act of abducting a woman in front of witnesses in daylight makes me think he was escalating and spiraling out. If his crimes were escalating in 1977; could he be responsible for some of these victims?

   I wonder if any connection can be made by examining the knots that were tied?  I wonder what evidence has been preserved? 

   Julie Ann Seyfried had just turned 17 a few weeks before her murder.  She had been going through some tough teenage years but had recently talked about returning to school. She deserved a long life to work on what was bothering her and to figure things out. 

   Rest in Peace Julie Ann Seyfried.