Michael Dean Riley:1976, Carmel, Indiana

   

   Michael D. Riley grew up in Indianapolis and was a 1971 graduate of North Central High School-Home of the Panthers. 

  North Central is a large high school on the Northside of Indianapolis. It’s in the area of the Nora neighborhood. In his sophomore year he was on the Cross Country team. 

   Michael D. Riley went on to study at Ball State.  He was a Junior in the summer of 1976 and lived year round in Muncie, Indiana. His mother, Mary E. Scott and her husband Forrest Scott had moved from Indianapolis to Cape Coral, Florida now that Michael was an adult and off on his own. 

  Michael was bored on the holiday weekend and went back to Indy to party with his old friends. Who wouldn’t?  It was summer.  It was July 4th weekend. It was a time for barbecues, fireworks and pool parties. 

  This holiday weekend was not just any holiday weekend but this was THE 1976, July 4th weekend.  Every person in every town in the U.S. was celebrating the 200th birthday of the United States. The Bicentennial fever had been building in the year before. Merchandise was in the stores. One of the most popular furniture styles was Early American. Red, White and Blue clothes were everywhere. Spirit of ‘76 things were everywhere. I knew several kids with 1776 themed lunch boxes at school. Old Navy did not invent July 4th merchandising. 

  Michael Riley’s car had broken down in Muncie. He decided to hitchhike to Indianapolis to party with his friends. Hitchhiking was very common then despite the risks. 

  I remember going to the July 4th Bicentennial celebration in Otwell, Indiana for the rides, games, barbecue chicken dinner and fireworks.  Someone was giving out slices of cake from a massive U.S. Flag sheet cake. I probably asked for a piece with a star but I can’t remember. I was just a kid. The feeling in the air was that everyone needed to make this Independence Day weekend celebration a big one. There was a lot of hype. 

   Michael D. Riley definitely made it to that party with his old friends that weekend. No doubt there was plenty of alcohol there. I wonder if it was a big party. I wonder how many people were there. Who were these party goers?

   Ten days later, on July 14th, 1976 someone walking in a wooded area near Carmel saw something unusual.  It looked like a body wrapped in plastic and tied with an electrical cord. They took a closer look. The smell was unmistakable. This was a body.

  Today the area around Spring Mill Road and 116th Street in Carmel, Indiana looks nothing like it did in the Summer of 1976.  Today it is all shops, medical offices, restaurants and apartments.  The intersection is no longer a four way stop but is a roundabout now. 

   In 1976 it was rural, overgrown and wooded. It’s not far from Highway 31 which is also known as Meridian Street in Indianapolis. 

  The Summer heat and Indiana humidity had contributed to decomposition that was advanced. The victim had reddish hair and a moustache. He was 6 feet tall and 198 lbs. The body was naked. It was a man in his late teens or early twenties. No clothing or identification was found nearby. 

   An autopsy later found that the deceased man had ingested a lethal amount of Doriden. Alcohol was also found in his system. He had a large bump on his head. The medical examiner said the head injury was not serious enough to have killed him. It would have just stunned him, the M.E. said. 

   Doriden was a medication marketed to help people sleep. It was often given in low doses to elderly people to help them sleep. It produced a sort of hypnotic effect. No doubt it was abused by some for that reason. A lethal dose was anything above 3 grams. Did Michael bring those pills with him or were they obtained at the party? Who did they belong to? 

   Fingerprints and dental records had to be used to identify the body. None of his friends from the party came forward at this point in the investigation. The young man was found to be Michael D. Riley. 

   No one had reported him missing. 

   Investigators began tracking down his last days and who he had interacted with. They interviewed people who knew him in Muncie and his old friends in Indianapolis. They found out about the party. 

  Was Michael forced or coerced or tricked into taking the drugs? It was estimated to be 5-13 pills. Did he know what he was taking? Did anyone else at the party take any Doriden? 

  

   Accidental Overdose? Okay, Why not call an ambulance then? Why did these friends wrap his naked body in plastic and tie it up and dump it in the woods?  Was he naked so that his clothes would not be described and recognized? 

  I imagine that they did not want to get in trouble for drinking and having a party. Perhaps there were other drugs at the party. They were probably also college students and they did not want to sully their reputations with an arrest. The party was perhaps at the home of parents and they did not want to get in that kind of trouble either. 

   So, the decision these “friends” made was to strip Michael down. (Unless he was already naked.) They then wrapped his body in some sort of plastic sheeting. (Construction material or a plastic bed sheet?) Then they tied his plastic wrapped body with an electrical cord. They would have had to carry the body out to a car or a truck. Then they transported the body to the dump site in the woods. It seems like at least two strong people would be needed to move Michael Riley’s body. 

   They were very serious about not wanting this body connected to themselves and their home. 

   What did they do with his clothes, shoes and wallet? Burn them maybe?  These friends certainly did not seem to want to be connected with the death of Michael. 

   At the grand jury inquest; 17 party people testified that Michael had taken the drugs maybe as a joke. What? Some said he took it on purpose but might have accidentally taken too much. Some said maybe it was in his drink and he didn’t know. Some said he might have been tricked into taking it. Some said he might have been dared to take it. The testimony amounted to rumors and speculation. The house had been cleaned. Things were disposed of. Glasses and dishes had been washed multiple times since then. The jury members had no way to get to the truth of what actually happened to Michael. 

   The grand jury eventually found that no one was liable for the death of Michael D. Riley.  No one was at fault.  There was no foul play. At least there was no proof of foul play. This was found to be an accidental overdose. 

   Okay.  Were any charges filed against any of these fine young citizens for failing to report a death? Abuse of a corpse? Illegally dumping a body?

   No.  All these nice young people were allowed to go about their business. No harm, no foul.  Nothing to see here. 

   I don’t know the ethnicity and socioeconomic status of these young people but I think we can hazard a guess that they were white and middle class. 

   Who were these “friends” and what are they doing today? 

   Michael Riley is buried in the West Lebanon Cemetery In Lebanon, Indiana.

   Rest in peace Michael Dean Riley.