Crime

Men are the fulcrum. The epic takeaway—my thesis statement, if you will—is to use better judgment in choosing men.

What turned a simple robbery into a triple homicide remains an open question. If Raymond Adams indeed killed all three victims, why would the small-potatoes con man engage in such senseless savagery?

Co-author Bettie Cadou was a longtime reporter for The Indianapolis News and taught journalism at Butler University and IUPUI. After her death in 2002, she was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Brian D. Smith is a former IM senior editor.

Something just wasn’t right, and Connie Ballard knew it. Three weeks earlier, one of her best patrons, a kind, elderly man named Milt Lindgren, had come into her automotive-repair shop to tell her that he was planning a roadtrip, and that he wanted the oil changed in his van before he left. But he never returned to have the work done.

Deborah Provisor doesn’t fit the stereotype of a child molester.

“Tony slipped on the ice, taking Hall with him. If one of the two hadn’t fallen, Hall would have been killed right there.”

Editor’s Note: The following originally appeared in the October 2005 “Small Towns” issue and is included among IM’s Best-Ever Crime Stories.

Editor’s Note, Feb. 21, 2013:

Lauren Spierer’s parents, Robert and Charlene, recently spoke with People magazine to reveal the stark, harsh reality of living without their daughter. What seems like minutiae to some, small things, will bring back the pain of losing their daughter—so much so that, according to People, Spierer’s boxes from her time at college remain unpacked. Today, January 17, 2013, is significant for them: It marks the day on which Spierer either hopefully celebrates her 22nd birthday—somewhere, somehow—or would have celebrated the occasion.

Sadly, there has been little in the way of breaking news to report about Lauren Spierer since June, when IM last looked into the disappearance of the Indiana University student—namely information on her whereabouts, what happened to her, or publicized leads in the police investigation. 

Where is the missing IU student?

“I told my daughter, Angie, ‘I wish everybody would stop talking about the officer, because we don’t know whose lungs these are,” says Cathy Lewis.

Danny Tunks was a blue-collar guy from Indiana, accused of killing a reputed mobster and facing a heap of evidence and life in prison. He was in serious, serious trouble. Then …

David Scott spent 23 years in prison, wrongly convicted of murder. But after two years on the outside, he wonders if he’ll every truly be free.