Betty Fair Burns:The Pet Cemetery Murder

    


   He said she went with him willingly. He said they met at the grocery store and then went to her apartment in Indianapolis and then for a drive and a walk through a pet cemetery at 13000 East 21st Street near  Greenfield, Indiana an hour away. Does that sound like a normal first date to you? 

   Betty “Betsy” Fair Burns was 33 and lived in Indianapolis at 9828 East 21st Street in an apartment. She was a U.C. Berkeley graduate. She grew up in the little town of Scotia, California. It’s in picturesque rural Northern California near the cool and foggy coast. In 1974 she was recently divorced and worked as a clerk for Allstate Insurance Company. Her parents lived in Oregon. 

   Bobbie Lewis Barnett already had a criminal record in 1974. He lived at 9811 East 24th Street. He worked for Indiana Bell and drove one of their trucks. That’s how he was tracked down. Witnesses reported an Indiana Bell Telephone Company truck driving around the Pet Cemetery in Greenfield and that struck people as odd and even amusing. Dead cats and dogs don’t usually have phones. 

   Saturday May 18th 1974 Bobbie Lewis Barnett aka Bobby Louis Barnett said that he met Betsy at the Marsh grocery store at Post Road and 21st. He said the two left the grocery store together and Betsy went with him in his truck leaving her car at the store. He said they went to her place and she left her purse there. Then they went for a drive about 40 minutes east of Indianapolis near the little town of Greenfield. They went for a walk in the pet cemetery. They argued because she made advances toward him that were unwanted. He said her sexual advances angered him. He stabbed her in the lower back 14 times. There were bruises on her face and hands according to the death certificate. She was found face down

   I think what happened is she went to the store to get something really quick on a Saturday. She left her purse at home and just took a little cash. Sometimes it’s a pain to take your whole bag. I think Bobbie Lewis Barnett followed her out to her car and abducted her at knifepoint. He drove her straight out of town on 21st Street and looked for an isolated spot to rape her. He found the pet cemetery.  She fought him. He beat and stabbed her and pushed her face down in a mud puddle to suffocate/drown her.

   I don’t think there’s any way she went willingly with him. 


           Bobbie Lewis Barnett aka Bobby Louis Barnett 


   All we have is his side of the story. He confessed to police after Betsy’s body was found by a group of girl scouts on Saturday. Witnesses reported seeing the Indiana Bell Telephone Truck there earlier in the day after they heard about the body. 

  He was convicted in November of 1974 and sentenced to 15 to 25 years for murder in the second degree of Betty F. Burns. Originally he was charged with First Degree Murder (premeditated) but pled down to Second Degree. Why was he not charged with kidnapping as well?  I suppose because the police believed his story that she went with him willingly. 

   

   

   Bobbie Lewis Barnett served around 15 years of his sentence it appears. In 1990 he was free and met a woman named Sylvia and the two began living together. 

  In 1991 when he was 49 years old he got angry with her and slit her throat in front of her friends and family.   Silvia came very close to dying but thankfully she lived. 

  Barnett was charged with attempted murder.  He was convicted. Hopefully he is still in prison. 

   They built a fire station in front of the old Pet Cemetery. The grass and landscaping are neat. It isn’t an overgrown and isolated spot anymore. Somehow that makes me happy. I think Betsy would be pleased by that too. 


   Betty Fair Burns was only 33. She was just figuring life out. She was working and living in her own apartment. It was 1974. She was living that “Mary Tyler Moore show” dream. She was probably thinking about the future and feeling optimistic. It was May in Indianapolis. That’s a beautiful time of year with the race coming up. She deserved so much better. 

  Betsy was buried next to her Grandfather in Gilroy, California. Her parents joined her there many decades later. 

  Rest in Peace Betsy. 

  


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