Steven Timothy Judy : Serial Killer: Homegrown in Indiana

   

  Steven Timothy Judy grew up in an extremely violent household and was an aggressive child. His parents were alcoholics who fought constantly. At ten years old, he would 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 only 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. Steven Timothy Judy would later claim that the hospital granted the patients there day passes. In 1972, he was released to a foster family, Robert and Mary Carr. The state told his foster family nothing about his violent background. 

   He got along well with his foster family. He attended high school until he was expelled for cutting a young woman’s halter top off.  That would bring criminal charges today but in the 70’s it was just considered bad behavior. 

   He worked construction jobs then and drove a utility style truck with tool boxes along both sides of the bed. 

   In April of 1979 he abducted Terry Lee Chasteen and her three children. He saw her driving on 465 in Indianapolis and motioned for her to pull over. She did. He forced her and her children to get into his truck.  He drove to Mooresville and raped and strangled Terry Lee and drowned her 3 young children. 

   When he was arrested for the Chasteen murders; investigators saw the similarities to Ann Harmeier’s September 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.

   Upon checking, Steven Judy was supposed to be 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.  

     He 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, Mary Carr, 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 Timothy 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. 

   I think that his chosen victims were mothers and motherly types. I base this theory on the fact that his first major crime was the rape and hatchet attack on a mother, Mrs. Emig. His last crime was also an attack on a mother; the murder of Terry Lee Chasteen and her three children. 

   In the days before his execution he spoke with reporters about his sexual attraction to his own mother.  

   There are several unsolved rapes and murders of women that Judy was potentially available for.  He was in and out of jail quite a lot.  But, he’s free for the murders of Patricia A. Anderson, Zetta Mae Warner and Patty Ann Bundren.  All three are older women and there is compelling evidence to believe he did all three. 

   Steven Timothy Judy had biological siblings.  I really think some investigators should be working on a DNA profile of him to compare to these cold cases in and around Indianapolis.