Mary Ellen Doll: July 1974, Westville, Indiana

 

  Mary Ellen Doll was born on the 19th of May in 1948 to Kenneth and Irene Doll. She grew up in Wanatah, Indiana. (Wanatah is southwest of LaPorte, Indiana.) She had three sisters and two brothers. She graduated from South Central High School and went on to graduate from Ball State University. She became a teacher.

  She lived on Route 1 Wanatah Indiana in 1974. She had been a 26 year old Home Economics teacher at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Valparaiso. She had resigned after the 1971-1972 school year in order to take a teaching post for a while in Frankfort, Germany.  It was an opportunity that she could not pass up. What an exciting time in Europe that must have been for her. Then she returned back to Indiana to her parent’s home. She had gone back to Ball State to work on a Master’s degree but was home for the Summer.

  On Monday, July 22nd 1974 she had driven to Michigan from Wanatah to visit family and had some car trouble while coming back through La Porte.  She called her father around 9 p.m. from an all night laundromat at First and J Streets to let him know that the car had overheated and wouldn’t start but that two men (some newspaper articles say it was only one man)  would be giving her a ride to Union Mills, the small town closest to their home. When she did not arrive her father called the police. 

   Mary Ellen’s almost nude body was found in a wheat field the next day Southwest of La Porte near Westville.  She had been beaten, raped and shot once in the head with a .410 shotgun. Her missing clothes were not found with her body.

  Witnesses at the laundromat remembered seeing her use the phone and described the man she was with. A description and sketch were circulated. 

   James Edward Pointon, 27, was arrested at the County Home on Indiana Highway 2 for her murder on July 26th, 1974. Three eyewitnesses identified him as the man seen with Mary Ellen Doll at the laundromat pay phone. Upon questioning he led police to the wooded area inside La Porte city limits where he had dumped Mary Ellen’s clothes.  He also directed them to the spot at Lilly Lake where he had tossed his shotgun in. They recovered the gun. Another piece of evidence was a ruby from her ring that was found between the seats of his car. A $200,000 dollar bond was set guaranteeing that he would not go free before his trial. 

  That was the problem.  He had gone free before after a violent rape. James Edward Pointon had a history of violence and had spent some time at the Norman Beatty Memorial Hospital in Westville for a time after he had committed another rape.  He was judged a sexual psychopath.  Why was he released to kill again?  Because rape was not considered a violent crime in 1974.  It was no big deal to the men who made the laws.  After his time in the hospital’s psych ward; he was released. He got a job as a cook and handyman at the County Home where he was a resident/employee and free to come and go. He had only been there less than two weeks when he murdered Mary Ellen Doll.

   (In October of 1974 his older brother, Joseph Pointon, would rape and murder Darlene Lausman. I will be writing about her case next. What was their homelife like as kids?  How do two brothers grow up to be vicious rapists and murderers?)  

   On October 14th 1976 he was convicted by a jury in LaPorte Superior Court No.2 of murder in the first degree, felony murder, and rape.  He was sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the murder counts and an additional 21 years for the rape conviction.  He went through the normal appeals process over the years. According to the Indiana Incarcerated Database he is now deceased.  He was released in 1995 when he was only 48 and died a free man in Bunker Hill near Miami and Peru Indiana. He did not even serve 20 years.  What did he do with all that new free time at only 48 years of age? Why does a life sentence not mean anything?  The victim does not get to come back to life after 20 years.  

   I will be looking into any unsolved crimes in the Bunker Hill/Peru area after his release on July 23rd 1995. 

   Mary Ellen Doll was a hardworking scholar with a bright future ahead of her.  She was a credit to her family and her community.  She deserved a long life filled with memories and experiences. She would have undoubtedly contributed so much good to her community and to the State of Indiana. But all that was taken from her and from us. She and her parents share a headstone in their final resting place. 

Rest in Peace Mary Ellen Doll.