Elizabeth Collison and Burndette Baker: Washington, Indiana

   Washington, Indiana

  In 1971 Burndette Baker, 50, worked at the Gas Company as a Secretary. On April 14th Burndette was bludgeoned and strangled with a piece of wire in her garage. There was evidence of a struggle. Her empty purse was found in the driveway.  

   Her husband Roy Baker woke up from a nap and realized his wife wasn’t home yet. He went out to the garage and found her body.  He called the police and reported the murder to the police. He was later convicted of the murder. 

   If you were going to kill your spouse in a small town; wouldn’t you come up with a better plan to get away with it? 

   The murder looked like a robbery. But it also appears to be the work of a cold blooded killer. Mrs. Baker was hit on the head with a blunt object and had multiple lacerations to her skull. Wire was twisted around her neck in order to strangle her, maybe to silence her. 

   It could definitely be the husband. Maybe there was an ongoing domestic violence situation. I doubt it though.  When Mr. Baker died in 2000. They were buried together. They have a sweet little side by side headstone like most married couples. I feel like if family believed he did it…they would have made other arrangements. 

   What if the killer was someone else? What if we know now that a killer lived  nearby?

   Mrs. Baker worked at the gas company.  Was there someone in town having trouble paying their gas bill?  Maybe they were aggravated at Mrs. Baker in particular.  Back then it wasn’t unusual for people to pay their bills in person in a small town.

  

   

  On August 1st 1972, Elizabeth Collison, 45, went to a dinner meeting in Washington. The meeting was with a client for her bank according to her family. Who was she meeting?

  Was there someone in town who targeted her because she was connected to the bank? Was there someone having financial difficulties in town? 

  Elizabeth’s car was later found parked at the bank.   

  Who would kidnap a 45 year old lady in a small town like Washington, Indiana? Why would someone target her exactly? Who would want to hurt her? 

   Elizabeth Collison has never been found. 

  Washington, Indiana was home to a serial killer in the early 1970’s.  Nobody knew it yet, though. In September of 1972 that killer would travel to Terre Haute and abduct and murder Pamela Milam.  His DNA would not identify him as the murderer until 2019. 

  In the summer of 1973 that same killer would abduct a married couple: Jeffrey Wayne and Carol Thomas. They were traveling from Chicago to Evansville and the killer picked them up south of Terre Haute. The couple was hitchhiking as many people did in those days. The killer tied up Carol and traveled a few miles away with Mr. Thomas where he then viciously murdered Mr. Thomas by shooting him, stabbing him and slashing his throat. Carol would escape and manage to alert the police.  The killer, Jeffrey Lynn Hand, was captured when he returned to the farm for Carol. He had two cars, two guns and a knife there. In the past months he had been fired from two Evansville jobs. He was fired from Whirlpool and from Koch and Sons. Someone I contacted who worked with him at Koch said he had a reputation as someone to avoid. 

  He could not hold down a job. How did he have two cars? What else was he up to? Why had he driven all the way up toward Terre Haute? 

   Hand was tried but not convicted of first degree murder.  His sanity was questioned.  He had outbursts in the courtroom. He threatened journalists. Psychiatrists’ testified that he was not mentally well. He was sentenced for life to a psychiatric facility.  

  Unfortunately, he stayed there only 3 years.  He was released because of a technicality in 1976.  Many unsolved murders happened in 1976 and 1977 in Indiana. Some of them might be the work of Jeffrey Lynn Hand. I personally suspect him of the murders of Linda Sue Ferry, and Kristine Kozik. I think he also is responsible for the earlier murders of Vickie Lynn Harrell and Ann Cline. 

  In January of 1978, Hand would attempt to abduct a woman from a Kokomo shopping center. The victim would, thankfully, escape. Hand would die in a shootout with the police. 

  He would fade from the news until 2019 when Parabon Nanolabs would develop a DNA profile using DNA graciously donated by his sons. This would be compared to the killer of Pamela Milam and found to be a match.

  Were Pamela Milam and Jeffrey Wayne Thomas his only murder victims?  I find it incredibly difficult to believe that they were.  

  Hand abducted Pamela Milam and drove her car around for a while in Terre Haute.  Terre Haute is a busy college town.  This is a killer who is relaxed and confident that he’s going to get away with this, in my opinion. He raped her and tied her up and placed her in the trunk of her car. He put an excessive amount of tape around her head and mouth. And then he parked the car and left.  We can assume he then walked to his own car and went home.  That level of ease in his actions makes me think he had done this before.  And where would a killer start killing? I think he would begin with people nearby.  He might start with people in his own community that aggravated him. 

   

   Just a theory…but I would look for Elizabeth Collison in places that Jeffrey Lynn Hand frequented.  Did he hunt or spend time in the woods anywhere?  Did his home or a home/building he had access to have a basement or cellar?  In 1973 he was living on an old farm as the caretaker. Did he do farm work in 1971-1972? There are a lot of places to conceal a victim on a farm. Mrs. Collison disappeared in August. He could have been comfortably outdoors for the entire time.  He would not have needed a building for shelter from the weather.  August 1st 1972 had a last quarter moon.  It would not have been terribly bright out so he wouldn’t have needed concealment in that way. 

   He had a wife and young child at the time so if he took Mrs. Collison,  he probably took her to a remote area and not to his home. Because he had a family; he was expected to come back home.  He probably didn’t take a victim terribly far away.

   Where would teenagers go in Washington back then? 

   In the known murders and the murders he is suspected of; he did not go to great lengths to conceal the victims.  He wanted them to be found. I have a sinking feeling that Mrs. Collison might never be found. He might have left her in the woods or on a sandbar in the White River and animals or water have scattered her remains. But, there is always hope that a hunter or a hiker might find something. 

   I wonder if they kept evidence in either case.  I wonder if they fingerprinted Mrs. Collision’s car.  I wonder if anything still exists that could connect him through DNA to Mrs. Baker’s murder.  Did they clip and save fingernails?  If there was a struggle; Mrs. Baker may have scratched him. 

   

   Rest in peace Burndette Baker and Elizabeth Collison.