Chilly case solved 53 years after Indiana mother discovered murdered, her 3-year-old left unhurt on facet of highway

A suspect has been recognized in an Indiana homicide that occurred greater than half a century in the past, officers mentioned. 

Phyllis Bailer, 26, was touring from Indianapolis to Bluffton, Indiana on the night of Friday, July 7, 1972, the Indiana State Police mentioned in a information launch. Bailer had her three-year-old daughter within the automobile. They have been going to go to Bailer’s dad and mom, police mentioned, however the pair by no means arrived in Bluffton, and Bailer’s household known as police to report her lacking. 

The subsequent morning, Bailer’s automobile was present in Grant County, Indiana, deserted with the hood up on the freeway, based on police. About an hour later, a girl driving in close by Allen County discovered Bailer and her daughter in a ditch on the facet of one other highway. Bailer was lifeless and her daughter was unhurt, police mentioned. 

An post-mortem decided that Bailer had been fatally shot and sexually assaulted. The Allen County Police and Indiana State Police investigated the case. 

DNA testing was not obtainable in 1972, and didn’t grow to be extra widespread for legislation enforcement to make use of till the early Nineteen Nineties, the Indiana State Police famous. After the homicide, a partial DNA profile was developed from Bailer’s clothes. The state police didn’t specify when the DNA profile was created.

That DNA profile was used to get rid of the principle suspect within the case. As DNA testing continued to enhance, the Indiana State Police’s Chilly Case Workforce continued to work on the case, authorities mentioned, and in 2024 they developed a “much stronger DNA profile,” once more from Bailer’s clothes. 

That DNA profile was taken to Identifiers Worldwide, a forensic family tree firm in California. The mixed assets of the corporate and the chilly case workforce have been in a position to establish a suspect within the case in early 2025. 

The suspect was recognized as Fred Allen Lienemann, who would have been 25 on the time of Bailer’s killing. He was a match for the DNA discovered on Bailer’s garments, the Indiana State Police mentioned. The 2 had no identified connections. Lienemann had an extended legal historical past, together with a cost of first-degree homicide in Might 1985, police mentioned. 

Investigators found that Lienemann had been murdered in Detroit in 1985. If he had been alive right this moment, he would have been charged with Bailer’s homicide, the Indiana State Police mentioned, and the case would have been prosecuted by the Allen County Prosecutor’s Workplace. 

“Phyllis Bailer never made it to Bluffton to visit her family,” Indiana State Police public data officer Sergeant Wes Rowlander mentioned on social media. “After years of questions, this family finally has answers about what happened to her.”