Denise Diane Pflum:1986, Connersville

    Denise Diane Pflum was born January 14th of 1968, in Connersville, Indiana. She grew up there in the small town and attended the local schools. It was a nice quiet small town existence. 

   

   March 28th,1986 was Good Friday. Easter was coming up. It was also Spring Break. High School senior Denise Diane Pflum had recently broken up with her boyfriend. But, she was feeling upbeat and optimistic about the future. She was headed to Miami University in Ohio that Fall. That’s an exciting time in a young person’s life. There’s so much to look forward to. 

   Denise was the oldest child in her family. Oldest daughters are usually very responsible and that was true for Denise as well. 

   Denise had been to a big bonfire party in a field the night before with other classmates and friends. It was a huge party with several hundred teens said to be in attendance. She realized in the morning that she had left her purse there in the field where the party had been. She would need to go looking for it. She tried to get some friends to go with her to help look for it. No one was available to go along and so she went alone that afternoon. She left the house around 12:30 p.m. 

   Someone later reported seeing her at a clothing store that afternoon around 2 p.m.  She must have stopped off there before heading out to search the field. She had on a red Motley Crue T-shirt, striped jeans, her silver class ring with a red stone and a gold ring with a red stone. 

   Despite being a very responsible young woman; Denise did not come home that day.  Her family began calling her friends. They began searching for her. I’m sure at first they just thought she was with a friend and lost track of time. It was a nice day at the tail end of Spring Break. 

  Her car was found by a local farmer just about three miles from the party field. It was locked. There was no sign of a struggle near the car there in the Glenwood area west of Connersville. 

   Police and others in the community floated the idea that she might have run away. But, they also mounted a very intense search by air and on foot of the surrounding fields and woods. Her family began hoping that she HAD run away as time went on.

   Shawn McClung had been her boyfriend. He was four years older than Denise. The two had broken up shortly before her disappearance. He told police that he thought that she was alive. He moved to Arizona shortly after being questioned and released. That may not mean anything. Maybe he already had plans to move. Maybe being looked at as a suspect was too difficult to bear. Small towns can be hard places to live when rumors start flying. 

   Easter came and went. Weeks went by. Her 1986 class graduated without her. Her friends went off to college. They went on with their lives. They got married and had children. It’s only right to move on. We simply have to keep going. 

    Shawn McClung married Kristie Rundell in 1990 in Whitehall in Owen County Indiana. Whitehall is a very rural area east of Bloomington. What was their marriage like? 

    Denise Pflum’s family eventually had her declared dead, it seems. She has a tribute page on Find a Grave. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been. Her date of death is listed as March 28th 1986. So many people have left tributes and memorials there. She had a lot of friends. Her memory is treasured by many. Denise Pflum’s body has never been found. 

    In 2016, Shawn McClung returned to Fayette County, Indiana. He found himself in jail for an alleged financial crime. He was questioned about Denise. No charges were brought against him but supposedly he confessed to killing her. He did not say where her remains could be found.  In conversations with his lawyer he denied killing Denise. He was terminally ill at the time and passed away in 2020. 

   He certainly seems to be the most likely suspect. A woman’s life is in the most danger when she is either pregnant or when she is leaving a relationship. We may never know if Shawn McClung killed Denise. Perhaps one day her remains will be found. Perhaps new evidence will come to light. 

  

    If you read this blog regularly you may be wondering why Connersville sounds familiar. Five years earlier, in 1981, another young woman was murdered. Darlene Russell was 21 when her throat was cut and she was dumped on the side of Fayette County Line road northwest of Connersville. 

   Investigators thought someone had attempted to sexually assault her. Some of her clothes had been hanging off a barbed wire fence. Those clothes caught the eye of a passerby who stopped and took a closer look. That’s how her body was discovered. 

   Darlene had been out with friends that night. They had been having a few drinks together. She had announced plans to go see relatives in Kentucky just before her murder. She told her Mom that she was getting a ride and would call her later from her relatives home. 

   I wonder if Denise knew Darlene Russell or had heard about her murder back in 1981. I imagine that she had to have heard about the murder. Connersville is a small town. 

   What I really wonder is if a 17 year old Shawn McClung knew Darlene Russell in 1981.  Did he have a car? Was he the person who offered to drive her to her family in Kentucky? Was he the person who attempted to rape her and cut her throat when she fought back? It’s hard to imagine a 17 year old boy offering to drive a young woman all the way to Kentucky.  It’s not hard to imagine a 17 year old boy in rural Indiana carrying a knife, though. It’s hard to imagine a 21 year old woman who would have been comfortable letting a younger 17 year old drive her that far.  A 17 year old is not a terribly experienced driver. Anything is possible though. 

   If I were looking for the remains of Denise Pflum I might look along the road where Darlene was found. Not everyone who kills will kill again. An impulsive person who makes bad decisions might have a pattern of making terrible impulsive decisions, though. And, it is still a very isolated rural road. It’s not too awfully far from where Denise’s car was found. If Shawn McClung had anything to do with the death of Darlene Russell then he would know that area and possibly feel comfortable going there to dispose of a body. This time, he would not let the body be so easily discovered. 

   If any evidence in Darlene Russell’s case is still available for DNA testing; it would be interesting to test it. Could Shawn McClung be involved in this case as well?

   Spring is mushroom hunting season in rural Indiana. Fall is deer season. Perhaps one day someone will happen upon the remains of Denise Pflum. 

   Sometimes people with information come forward. Sometimes people want to right a wrong. Maybe some kind soul will come forward some day.

   If you have information about the disappearance of Denise Diane Pflum please call the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department at (765) 825-0535.