Windy Gallagher:1987, Griffith, Indiana

  

   Windy Gallagher was born on December 7th 1970 to April and Patrick Gallagher. She had a sister named Christine. 

  Windy grew up in Griffith, Indiana. That’s in the northwest corner of Indiana, south of Gary. Her parents had separated by 1987. Her father, Patrick, lived at 1709 W. Ridge Road.  Windy and her Mom and sister lived at 800 North Elmer Street Apartment 87. 

  Sixteen year old Windy Gallagher was a member of the Warriorettes PomPom squad at Calumet Township High School. She was described as an above average student and an intellectual who “would’ve made it big in life”. She had a normal day at school on October 13th and went home as usual. 

  On Monday, October 13th, 1987 Christine came home sometime around 7. She baked a frozen pizza and then sat down to eat. She later went to Windy’s room to see if Windy wanted any pizza. When Christine opened the bedroom door, she found a horrific scene. 

   Windy had been bound and gagged. She had been raped. Someone had slashed her abdomen, and her throat had also been cut. Lacerations of the liver and the resulting massive blood loss caused her death. Who could have done this? 

   Witnesses in Griffith came forward with information about a suspicious man they had seen. A sketch was created and circulated. 

   That Fall and Winter, police in Griffith did their best to track down her killer. They had no idea that he was moving around practically all over the country. 

    

    A break in the case would come in 1988.  A police officer, Paul Douglas Hulsey, Jr. in Beaumont, Texas was looking into the case of a stolen car. The officer went to the motel room of the man who had been driving the stolen car. Michael Lee Lockhart had been stealing license plates and changing them frequently on the red Corvette but Officer Hulsey had traced the VIN number most likely. 

   When other Beaumont police officers also went to the motel room, looking for their fellow police officer; they found Officer Hulsey, there in the motel room, murdered. He had been shot and killed. 

   Police in Texas then put out an all points bulletin for the stolen car and its driver. They were able to track him down and arrest him. The driver of the stolen car was Michael Lee Lockhart. He was originally from Toledo, Ohio and was born in 1960. 

 

   He had served time in Wyoming State Penitentiary on a conviction for armed robbery but was released on December 10th, 1986. He returned to Toledo where he was arrested for passing bad checks on December 16th, 1986. In March of 1987 he was again arrested in Toledo for car theft. In August of 1987 a police officer’s house was burglarized in Elyria, Ohio. (East of Toledo and near Cleveland.) A gun stolen there was later used to kill the police officer in that Texas motel. 

   Michael Lee Lockhart’s crime spree was just beginning. In September of 1987 he moved to Chicago. On October 12th he assaulted and robbed a woman in Chicago. He stole her handbag. The following day he knocked on Windy Gallagher’s door and asked to use the phone. More than likely he saw her returning home from school and stalked her. Lockhart's friends described him as charismatic and a smooth talker. 

   He left fingerprints at the scene of Windy’s murder. He also stole her handbag. 

   Weeks later the lady in Skokie, Illinois, near Chicago who had been robbed would have her bag returned to her by Chicago police after it was found. Inside was a smaller purse owned by Windy Gallagher. (Why police did not notice that is a mystery.) 

   In November Michael Lee Lockhart went back to Toledo. He kidnapped his ex-wife and tortured and raped her over a period of two days. He did not kill her, inexplicably. He was arrested and charged but not held in jail. Two days after making bail he fled to Florida in a stolen red Corvette. 

   He stayed in Florida, but moved around often, committing a series of robberies. He robbed a Jacksonville Payless Shoe store on January 12th, 1988. 

   

   On January 20th, he brutally murdered 14 year old Jennifer Lynn Colhouer in Land o’ Lakes, Florida. This rape and murder was very similar to Windy Gallagher’s.  Jennifer’s throat and abdomen were similarly slashed. 

   Sadly, Jennifer’s 8 year old brother was the one who found her shortly after the murder. He had been playing outside in the neighborhood and went inside the house to retrieve something. 

   Michael Lee Lockhart was also suspected of at least two armed robberies in Louisiana and on then on March 22nd, 1988, he murdered the police officer in Beaumont, Texas. 

   He was tried and convicted of murder in Texas, Indiana and Florida. All three states sentenced Lockhart to death. On December 9th, 1997, he received the death penalty in Texas. 

   Windy Gallagher, Jennifer Colhouer and Officer Paul Douglas Hulsey, Jr. all had so much ahead of them. They had bright futures. They had families and friends who miss them dearly. They deserve to be here. 

   Rest in Peace Windy, Jennifer and Paul.