Burger Chef murders

Did You Know?

• On September 5, 2022, Investigation Discovery aired the documentary 'Murders at the Burger Joint' about the unsolved case.
• In October 2023, the documentary film 'The Speedway Murders' premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival, and Vertical released it to theaters on June 21, 2024.

Suspected robbery and homicides

Between 11:00 pm and midnight on November 17, 1978, four employees of the Burger Chef at 5725 Crawfordsville Road disappeared: assistant manager Jayne Friedt, 20; Daniel Davis, 16; Mark Flemmonds, 16; and Ruth Ellen Shelton, 17. A fellow employee arriving at midnight found the restaurant empty, the safe open, and the back door ajar. Police discovered two empty currency bags and an empty roll of adhesive tape near the safe. Because management reported a loss of only about 581 dollars and no clear signs of struggle, authorities initially treated it as petty theft, assuming the youths had taken the cash to go partying.

More than 100 dollars in coins remained in the registers, and the women's purses and jackets were left behind. The scene was cleaned by employees early Saturday morning. Speedway police officer Buddy Ellwanger later admitted, 'we screwed it up from the beginning,' noting that the restaurant was cleaned and reopened without photographs being taken, eliminating potential evidence. When the four did not return the next morning and Friedt's Chevrolet Vega was found partially locked in town, concerns grew.

It became evident they had been abducted while closing, possibly as they removed trash bags out the back door. On Sunday afternoon, hikers found the bodies over 20 miles away in a wooded area of Johnson County. Davis and Shelton had been shot numerous times with a .38 caliber firearm. Friedt had been stabbed twice in the chest; the knife handle had broken off and was missing, though the blade was later recovered during autopsy.

Flemmonds had been bludgeoned, possibly with a chain, and died from choking on his own blood. All four were still wearing their Burger Chef uniforms. Money and watches were found on the victims, suggesting robbery might not have been the sole motive.

Initial investigations

Later that year, a man drinking at a Greenwood bar claimed he was part of the murders. Police brought him in for questioning, but he passed a lie detector test denying any role, and they couldn't charge him for anything else. He gave them names of people he said were in a gang that robbed fast-food places. Following up in Franklin, officers saw someone who looked like a sketch of a bearded suspect.

When called in for a lineup, the man shaved off the beard he'd worn for five years the night before. A neighbor of his, never seen by the original witness but named by the Greenwood man, was later sent to prison for armed robbery. Another person the Greenwood man named, who matched the description of a blond suspect, also ended up in prison for other fast-food robberies. But without anyone confessing—even though police offered deals to those not directly involved in the killings—and without solid physical proof linking them to the murders, no arrests were made.

At the time, people wondered if the murders were tied to other shocking local crimes, like Julia Scyphers's killing and the Speedway bombings, whose perpetrator was still free. Those cases later turned out to be unrelated.

Later investigations

Investigators chased leads across Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Dallas, but never found the gun, knife handle, or chain used in the killings, nor any solid new leads. No one ever confessed to police, though the son of one suspect—a bearded man—said his father admitted involvement before dying. Original investigator Ken York thought it was suspicious that the Greenwood suspect (who died by apparent suicide) and the bearded suspect (heart attack) both died soon after an armed robber named by the Greenwood suspect was released.

In 1984, Detective Mel Willsey got a call from Donald Forrester, an inmate at Pendleton Correctional Facility. Forrester said he was involved and wanted to confess to avoid being sent to a violent state prison. Willsey got a court order to bring him to Marion County, where Forrester admitted to shooting Davis and Shelton. He then took police to the woods and correctly described where the bodies were found and how they were positioned, plus the broken knife handle—details that weren't public knowledge.

Forrester explained that Friedt's brother James owed money from a drug deal, so he and three others went to the restaurant to threaten her. When Flemmonds stepped in, a fight started, and Flemmonds fell and hit his head on a car bumper. Thinking he was dead or dying, Forrester and the others decided to kidnap and kill all the employees to get rid of witnesses. Forrester said he shot Davis and Shelton, and named three men he claimed killed Flemmonds and Friedt.

He led police to a river where he said he tossed the gun, but a search turned up nothing. Willsey spoke to Forrester's ex-wife, who said Forrester had driven her to a wooded area soon after the murders, picked up shell casings, and flushed them down the toilet.

Memorials

During the summer of 2018, the Speedway community and family and friends of the victims raised money to plant four red oak trees in honor of the victims, each with a plaque bearing a short biography. The original monetary goal was surpassed within 24 hours, and with extra funds a marble bench was installed and dedicated to family and friends. On November 10, 2018, a small dedication ceremony was held at the memorial site at Leonard Park in Speedway. By January 2024, the former restaurant, last occupied by a CashLand pawn shop, was set to be demolished; demolition took place the following March.