Jennifer Constable:1975, Indianapolis
On Tuesday July 8th, 1975 19 year old Rick Kennedy set out to go fishing at Geist Reservoir. As he approached the water of his favorite fishing spot he saw something unexpected. He wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Something was floating in the shallows and it looked like a body.
Two days later the woman whose body was found floating there in the shallow waters of Geist Reservoir was identified by her husband. Karla Benge was initially thought to have drowned accidentally on July 8th, 1975.
Her husband raised many concerns. What was she doing there? She had not had any plans to go there. She wouldn’t just take off and go swimming. She had work and all sorts of other things going on.
Karla’s cause of death was drowning but she also had abrasions and contusions to her skin and specifically her right temporalis muscle. (That is the muscle on the side of the face and jaw.) She was brutally attacked and her head was held under the water by an unknown assailant.
Geist Reservoir is northeast of Indianapolis and is a beautiful body of water for recreation. Many lovely homes and parks surround the water. There were fewer homes and restaurants there in 1975 but it was still a lovely spot to go on a hot summer day. How did Karla end up there? Who did this to her?
On July 25th 1975, Jennifer Constable was murdered by strangulation. Jennifer was found murdered in her home. Her co-workers from Crossroads Rehabilitation went to her house to check on her after she failed to show up to work. Jennifer was found in her bathtub.
A suspect was captured fairly quickly, but initially, not for these murders. Richard Alan Martin was taken into custody for burglary. He was caught almost literally in the act of burglarizing homes in Brown County. He also faced charges for a home invasion and rape of a 19 year old woman from Trafalgar in Johnson County. His address was Rural Route 3, Fairland, Indiana at the time of his arrest.
Richard A. Martin stood out for the Karla Benge murder because he worked with her at Community Hospital. He confessed to Jennifer Constable’s murder while being questioned about the murder of Karla Benge. Martin’s wife worked with Jennifer Constable.
Richard A. Martin lived out the rest of his life in prison. He died in 1999 at the Wabash Correctional Facilty near Sullivan Indiana. He was cremated and buried in Phoenix, Arizona in a military cemetery because of his service in Vietnam.
Karla Benge was born on April 23rd 1953. After her murder her family had her cremated. She is not on Find-A-Grave yet. I wasn’t able to find a photograph of her online or in news archives. Her maiden name was Smith and there are numerous Karla Smiths.
Jennifer Constable was born on January 22, 1953. She was a Broad Ripple High School Graduate. She is buried at Washington Park North Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Jennifer and Karla deserve to still be here. At least their killer was caught before he raped and killed even more women. Rest in Peace Karla and Jennifer.
Did Richard Alan Martin kill any other woman before he was caught for these two 1975 murders? It would be interesting to track his whereabouts before 1975. When did he begin this crime spree? When was he in Vietnam? What else did he do?
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