Patricia A. Anderson : 1973 Indianapolis
Patricia A. Anderson lived on the eastside of Indianapolis. She had an 18 year old daughter named Cynthia. Patricia worked as a loan adjuster for The Morris Plan in Indianapolis.
Saturday evening, July 28th, 1973 Patricia was home alone in her apartment at 7233 Twin Oaks Drive. Cynthia was out that night on a date.
A man and his wife happened to be taking a walk on that warm evening when they saw smoke coming from an apartment. The man ran toward the fire and as he approached the door a young man ran out past him.
Patricia had been raped, murdered and set on fire. The young man said “Don’t bother her. She’s already dead!” He had shoulder length hair and appeared to be in his 20’s. He was estimated to be about 5’ 5”.
Patricia was found with her nightgown pushed up around her neck. Was it just pushed up or was it used as a ligature? The news articles do not say. She had been viciously stabbed multiple times and set on fire. She had been stabbed in the face, neck and rib cage.
Her daughter,Cynthia, returned home from her date while police and fire officials were still on the scene. What a terrible and devastating loss.
Is Patricia’s murder related to the murder of Jean Crouch? Those two violent crimes happened so close together. It’s possible. But that teenage perpertrator, Anthony Wayne Hall, 17, was raping young women in his own neighborhood. That was his hunting ground. He might have gone elsewhere but I doubt it. Jean was murdered August 2nd 1973 and Hall had raped another lady earlier on July 20th, just down the street, at his own home. Both of those victims were marched at gunpoint to the second location. He didn’t enter the home of either of those victims. So, I doubt that Hall is responsible for this crime.
Steven Timothy Judy is potentially available and matches the eyewitness description of the young man who fled the scene. Judy spent some time in Louisiana in 1973 but could be back in Indy then.
He also had a history of entering victims’ homes. He conned his way into a home when he was 12 and raped and nearly killed a housewife with a hatchet.
His last murder would also be a mother. I have a theory about Judy and mother types. In 1979 he killed Terry Lee Chasteen and her three young children in Mooresville. His first victim was a mother, his last victim was also. He confessed to his foster Mom that he killed Linda Unverzagt in 1979. She was also a mother. He talked quite a bit about his chaotic childhood and his sexual attraction to his own mother.
Steven Timothy Judy would ask for the death penalty at his sentencing and he received it in 1981. He had refused all efforts to appeal.
Can we place Judy in that neighborhood? Possibly. He worked as a delivery van driver for Beacon Vans and also worked construction jobs. That side of the city was busy with construction and growth in 1973.
One thing seems to stand out. This murder and the murder of Zetta Mae Warner are very close in time and on the map. If Judy was working a construction site in that area for a few months, or making regular deliveries in that area then he, or the same suspect, could be considered for both.
One thing Steven Timothy Judy told his foster Mom before his execution was that there were many more murder victims that he was responsible for. I really hope someone will work on a DNA profile of Judy. He had biological siblings so creating a profile is possible.
Bobbie Lewis Barnett is available as a suspect for this assault and murder. He killed Betty Fair Burns on May 18,1974. He abducted her from a grocery store and assaulted and murdered her at a pet cemetery east of Indianapolis. He would serve about a decade and a half for Betty’s murder. He would attempt the murder of another woman and is currently incarcerated as of 2024. He doesn’t fit the description of the man seen fleeing the scene though. Barnett is an African American man and had an Afro and was overweight when he was arrested.
(Jeffrey Lynn Hand is not available for this one. He was in custody for the murder of Jeffrey Wayne Thomas and the abduction of Mrs. Carol Thomas just about a month before in southwest Indiana. He would be sentenced to a mental hospital but released on a technicality in August of 1976. He was killed in a shootout with police in January of 1978 while attempting to abduct a woman in Kokomo.)
If evidence is still saved in this case I hope they will consider looking at Steven Timothy Judy. Development of a DNA profile for him could close many cold cases.
Patricia Anderson and her daughter Cynthia deserve justice.
Rest in peace Patricia Anderson.
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