Donna Marie Lanier: 1984: North Liberty, Indiana

   Donna Marie Husband was born on March 11th, 1956 in South Bend, Indiana. She was the daughter of Eloise and Joseph Husband. She grew up in South Bend and married a man named Lanier. (I was unable to find his full name.)

   She was 28 in 1984.  Her life had been a difficult one. Her mother had been killed in the years before.  The man suspected of that crime was later murdered as well. Donna and her children lost everything but their lives in a fire in 1979. Still, she kept going. 

   Donna had four children. Three were still living at home in 1984. It is not easy to make a living as a single mother.  If your kids get sick you have to be home with them. They never get sick all at the same time. Children have school breaks and snow days but most jobs do not. It’s impossible to find a workplace that will be flexible like that. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. If you have ever been poor then you know. 

  Minimum wage in Indiana then was $3.35 an hour. When I was a teenager I made 3.15 an hour at a theme park.  I got promoted and made 3.25.  If I worked 60 hours a week I could get a 2 week check that was over $200 after taxes. I didn’t have children then.  Imagine missing the daily lives of your kids; working 60 hours a week; just to make enough for shelter and food. Donna was doing the very best she could to get by. 

  28 year old Donna Lanier was last seen at the corner of Broadway and Michigan Streets in South Bend in the early morning hours of May 20th 1984.  

  Roughly twelve hours later that same day, May 20th 1984, she was found 1 ½ miles west of North Liberty Indiana in Potato Creek by two fishermen.  She had been strangled and beaten. Her body was nude and her hands were tied behind her back with nylon hosiery. Investigators theorized that she had been raped and murdered elsewhere and then taken to this area and thrown off the bridge and into the shallow water. 

  (Some of the newspaper articles report that she was found East of North Liberty in Potato Creek State Park. Her death certificate says 1 ½ miles west of North Liberty in Potato Creek under a bridge off Indiana 4.)

  It is a wooded area. There isn’t a lot of room to pull over.  The killer had to be fast and hope someone didn’t come along.  Another car passing by would have gotten very close.  The road is straight, though, and he would have been able to see oncoming traffic from a ways off.

  The corner of Broadway and Michigan Streets in South Bend is like just about any street corner in any town.  A few of the buildings are boarded up now. It isn’t a place that semi-trucks would necessarily drive.  The perpetrator was most likely driving a regular car or truck. He would have looked nice enough, safe enough for Donna to go with him. Who was he?

   Were there other attacks on similar women in the area? 

   Was evidence saved in her case?  Can it be examined for DNA evidence? 

   Indiana currently has a huge backlog of modern cases in which rape kits are still not processed. I believe they are second in the nation for unprocessed rape kits in 2024. They still aren’t taking rape seriously and treating it like a violent crime. 

  We need to look at every rape and murder very seriously. We can’t let victim blaming or societal racism prevent us from investigating each murder thoroughly. We can potentially prevent more murders if we do. Gary Ridgeway had been interviewed by police as a suspect but was cleared. He went on to commit many more murders before he was ultimately caught. 

   Who can we rule out in Donna Lanier’s case? 

  John T. Gibson Jr. is already in jail for the 1979 rape and strangling of Tara Meredith. He will later be released after serving his sentence. He is free today.

  Steven Timothy Judy is already dead via the electric chair for the rape and murder of Terry Lee Chasteen and the murders of her three children.

 Jeffrey Lynn Hand is already dead after a shootout with police while attempting to abduct a Kokomo woman. 

  David J Roberts was in jail in 1984 for the abduction and rape of Paula Utterback and the murder of her infant son. He would escape in October of 1986 and be on the run until 1988. He was the first person captured because of the television show “America’s Most Wanted” hosted by John Walsh. 

   It’s not Robert L. Avery Sr.  He’s still in jail for the 1978 murder of Mandy Lewellen. (The State will release him early in 1998. He will almost immediately begin committing crimes again.  He attempted to abduct a woman at a cemetery but bystanders would follow his car and save the woman.  He will be returned to jail.)

   We know about many perpetrators that it can’t be.  Who was it then? Someone picked up Donna Marie Lanier from South Bend, raped and murdered her and dumped her body off a highway bridge into Potato Creek. 

   One possible suspect could be Billy Ray Ashley.  He confessed in 2006 to the 1982 stabbing death of Cindy Wood of Michigan City. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison in 2006 for a 2002 Attempted Murder. I don’t know where he lived in 1984 but he was in Michigan City in February of 1982. He was never officially charged in Cindy Wood’s murder. 

   Donna and her children deserve Justice. Donna should have been able to raise her children and enjoy a long life. She should still be here. 

http://www.michianacrimestoppers.com/sitemenu.aspx?ID=203&

Tips can be submitted to Michiana Crimestoppers

You can also call the North Liberty, In Police at 574-656-4411