1990s – Indiana Infamy

Just the Facts: Hilma Marie Witte

*_{Hilma Marie Witte, post-conviction for the murder of Elaine.}*

Name: Hilma Marie Witte

Aliases: Hilma Marie Crist, Marie Witte

Born: April 20, 1948 – Pittsburgh

Claim to Infamy: Not only did Hilma Marie coerce her two impressionable teenage sons to murder for her, but the victims were their close family members. Then, as if that weren’t macabre enough, she convinced the boys- as well as her own mother – and a young associate to assist in the grisly disposal of the second victim’s body.

The horror began in Beverly Shores on September 1, 1981. Hilma wanted to be a widow who would inherit her husband’s estate rather than a working single mother, and she got her wish. At her behest, elder son Eric shot his abusive father, Paul, as he slept.

After what everyone – including police – believed to have been an unfortunate firearm accident, Paul’s stepmother Elaine generously welcomed the remaining family members into her nearby Trail Creek home. Unfortunately for Elaine, Hilma Marie wasn’t content for long and soon set her sights on the elderly woman’s life savings. When Eric refused to kill for her again, Hilma convinced her younger son, Butch, to do the dirty work. 16-year-old Butch killed his grandmother with a crossbow in January of 1984. Hilma decided it would be unwise to attempt to persuade police that the family had suffered a second deadly accident and that they should dismember the body instead. Using various instruments – including a hammer, chisel, deep fat fryer, saw, and microwave – the family then dismembered Elaine and disposed of her body in various ghastly ways.

Current Status: Both Eric and Butch pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and were released early in 1996 due to good behavior. Butch has since passed away, but Eric has expressed great remorse for his crimes.

Hilma’s mother, Margaret “Marcie” O’Donnell was sentenced to 6 years. She, too, died after serving time for her crimes.

Hilma Marie Witte was convicted of two counts of murder, conspiracy to murder, and attempt to murder. She is currently serving time in the Indiana Women’s Prison. According to the Department of Correction, her earliest possible release date is April 2027.

This Day in Infamy: The Death of A Serial Killer

March 6, 1994 – Convicted killer and Indiana native Larry William Eyler (41) died of complications related to AIDS in the infirmary of the Pontiac Correctional Center (IL). Two days after his death, Eyler’s defense attorney released a posthumous statement in which Eyler confessed to the murders of at least 21 young men. In the confession, he also alleged Robert David Little (52) of Terre Haute had been his accomplice in some of the killings, and was the sole person responsible for the death of Daniel Bridges. Little, an Indiana State University professor with whom Eyler had lived for seven years, was brought up on charges in connection with one of the murders but later acquitted. He then returned to teaching.

This Day In Infamy: A Mother Wrongly Convicted of Murder

*_{Kristine Bunch, photographed during her incarceration}*

March 4, 1996 – A Decatur County jury deliberated only three hours before sentencing 22-year-old Kristine “Kristi” Bunch to 60 years in prison for the death of her son Anthony.

Although Prosecutor William O. Smith had not presented evidence of a motive during the trial, Indiana Fire Marshals Bryan Frank and James Skaggs asserted they’d found evidence “the fire was deliberately set, that accelerants had been used to cause the fire, that there were ‘pour patterns’ in the burned-out home where accelerants had been poured, and that the fire had started in two separate locations, one of which was the bedroom in which Anthony was sleeping.”

A report by William Kinard, a forensic chemist with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, had further substantiated those findings.

Ten years later, Bunch filed a petition challenging her conviction. It was then revealed that Kinard had initially disagreed with Skaggs and Frank’s conclusion of arson. However, key portions of the ATF chemist’s report were later deleted or altered in order to coincide with the opinions of the fire marshals.

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed Bunch’s conviction on March 21, 2012, and all charges were dropped later that year.

By then, she had already lost seventeen years of her life behind bars.

Kristine, who was pregnant at the time of her arrest, is a free woman today and has reconnected with the son she gave birth to in prison.

After Nearly 40 Years, a Larry Eyler Victim Has Finally Been Identified

In 1982, 19-year-old William Joseph “Billy” Lewis attended a funeral in Texas then left to return to his home in Peru, Indiana, hitchhiking his way across the US.

He was never seen alive again.

In the many years to come, both of his parents would die without ever knowing what had happened to their son. But thanks to advances in forensic science and a determined Jasper County coroner, Billy Lewis has finally come home.

In October 1983, a fox hunter stumbled upon human remains in a rural Jasper County field. Despite collecting clothing and other evidence from the scene, including a distinctive Zippo lighter engraved with the name “Arlene,” police were unable to match the John Doe with any missing person report. No one stepped forward to claim the body. Eventually, Officer Paul Ricker, who was the first officer on the scene when the unidentified remains were discovered, and other first responders crowdfunded a gravestone for “John Doe” at the Sayler Makeever Cemetery.

The first break in the case came in 1994 when, two days after murderer Larry Eyler died in prison, his attorney Kathleen Zellner announced that he had confessed to killing more than 20 men in the late 70’s and early 80’s, including “Jasper County John Doe.” According to the serial killer, he’d picked up the victim on November 20, 1982, as the young man was hitchhiking alone on US 41 near Vincennes. After he got the man selected at random into his vehicle, Eyler gave him beer and Placidyl, a powerful sedative, and then began driving north. Once they reached Jasper County,the hitchhiker was reportedly “semiconscious” and unable to defend himself. Eyler stabbed the victim to death before burying him in a shallow grave.

Despite Eyler’s confession, he claimed not to know the name of the victim referred to as “Jasper County John Doe.” Although DNA was first used in a criminal case in 1986, it still was not widely in use at the time and, without any other leads, the case went cold.

It would remain that way until this past January, when Jasper County Coroner Andrew Boersma hired a geneological forensics company, Redgrave Research Forensic Services, to help identify the Eyler victim. Researchers were able to link DNA taken from “John Doe” to Lewis’s extended family through a geneology website, and it eventually led them to his siblings. Almost 40 years after his death, Billy Lewis reclaimed his identity.

Now that he has finally been found, Billy’s surviving family members plan on giving him a funeral then reinterring him next to his father.

Updated Sketch of I-70 Killer Released

Authorities have released an updated sketch of the I-70 Killer, age-progressed to show the perpetrator as he might appear today, nearly thirty years after his crimes. The elusive spree killer preyed primarily on store clerks working alone in shops off the I-70 corridor during the spring of 1992. Beginning with the murder of Robin Fuldauer, a 26-year-old Payless ShoeSource manager in Indianapolis, he is confirmed to have killed six people in three states, but police believe he also may be connected to other crimes.

Based on eyewitness descriptions taken at the time of the murders, he is described as a thin, white male with sandy blond or reddish hair which could have since turned gray. He possibly had ties to Indiana or a job that required him to travel along Interstate 70 in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Additionally, he might have had ties to Texas. If still alive, he’d be somewhere in his fifties to early seventies.

Anyone with information on these crimes is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS.