Restaurant Night-Shift Crew Vanished After Closing — 2 Days Later, Their Bodies Were Found in the Woods By Christina Coulter

The entire closing crew of a Burger Chef in suburban Indianapolis vanished one November night in 1978 — and two days later, their bodies were found in the woods.

Police later identified the victims as assistant manager Jayne Friedt, 20, and employees Ruth Ellen Shelton, 17, Daniel “Danny” Davis, 16, and Mark Flemmons, 16. The four disappeared from the restaurant — located in Speedway, Ind. — on Nov. 17, 1978, and were found in a wooded area in nearby Johnson County on Nov. 19, per Indianapolis Monthly and A&E.

A teenage coworker stopped by after midnight to help close the restaurant and found the back door partially open and the safe and cash drawers exposed, according to Indianapolis Monthly. Friedt’s car — a Chevy Vega — was later discovered in a nearby park, the outlet reported.

Investigators found the bodies nearby — Davis and Shelton had been shot, Friedt had been stabbed with a hunting knife whose blade broke off in her chest, and Flemmons died from asphyxiation after suffering blunt-force injuries, per A&E, citing Julie Young’s book The Burger Chef Murders in Indiana.

About $581 was taken from the restaurant, but purses and roughly $100 in coins were left behind, complicating a potential straightforward robbery motive, per A&E.

Early investigative mistakes likely compromised the case: Officers allowed the restaurant to be cleaned the next morning before forensic work was complete, and multiple agencies drove vehicles through the clearing where the bodies were found, according to A&E. Former Speedway Police Chief Buddy Ellwanger later acknowledged that authorities “screwed it up from the beginning,” per the outlet.

Over time, detectives have focused on a robbery crew linked to a string of fast-food holdups that summer. One working theory has been that one of the victims recognized someone, leading to the killings, per the Indianapolis Star and ABC News.

In 1986, an Indiana inmate named Donald Forrester confessed and led detectives to a septic tank, where they recovered .38-caliber shell casings that investigators believed were connected to the shootings, per Indianapolis Monthly.

But Forrester later recanted, and failed polygraph tests — and no charges were filed. Detectives who worked the case have differed publicly on how much weight to give his statements, the outlet reported.

Physical evidence has been re-examined multiple times. A palm print lifted from Friedt’s car in 1978 was later run through databases once palm-print records were established, but the person flagged in that review was ultimately ruled out, per the Indianapolis Star. The case later passed to Indiana State Police Det. Nicholas Alspach, whose grandfather helped process the original scene, according to the outlet.

On the 40th anniversary of the murders in 2018, investigators released a photograph of the four-and-a-half-inch knife blade recovered from Friedt’s chest, and said evidence was being submitted for updated forensic testing.

“Jayne, Mark, Daniel and Ruth are real people, with real families, with real friends that deserve justice. I hope that before my time on Earth is gone that I have those answers,” said Theresa Jefferies, Shelton’s sister, at an Indiana State Police news conference at the time.

“It’s time to unload that secret,” said Sgt. Bill Dalton of the Indiana State Police at the same event, per ABC News.

The case remains unsolved.