Speaker 1: Lakeville in Indiana is the kind of time you might
Speaker 1: pass through without even realizing it. It has a population
Speaker 1: of less than one thousand people, and it's surrounded in
Speaker 1: sprawling farmland and flat open fields. It was founded in
Speaker 1: the mid eighteen hundreds and has always been a working
Speaker 1: class community defined by tradition, close knit values, and a
Speaker 1: strong undercurrent of faith. Just outside the town limits, on
Speaker 1: a two lane stretch of Osborne Road sits the Olive
Speaker 1: Branch Church of the United Brethren in Christ. It's a
Speaker 1: modest and unassuming building with a simple white steeple. It's
Speaker 1: one of those churches that looks more like a family
Speaker 1: home than a place of worship. The congregation here is small,
Speaker 1: just a handful of families from around the country who
Speaker 1: gather each Sunday for prayers, hymns, and fellowship inside the
Speaker 1: pew's creek with age. The carpets are faded and the
Speaker 1: walls are lined with framed scripture and children's drawings. It
Speaker 1: isn't a grand church, but for those who attended, it
Speaker 1: was sacred and it was familiar. One morning in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, the congregation gathered like they did every Sunday.
Speaker 1: They parked their cars in the gravel lot, filtered into
Speaker 1: the church and settled into their seats. But it's the
Speaker 1: minutes ticked by. Something felt off. The service was supposed
Speaker 1: to begin at nine a m. There was no sign
Speaker 1: of the pastor. Robert Pelly had found his calling at
Speaker 1: the Olive Branch Church of the United Brethren in Christ.
Speaker 1: He was the preacher, and from any in the small
Speaker 1: rural congregation, he wasn't just their spiritual guide. Robert was
Speaker 1: more than that. He was their friend, their confidante, and
Speaker 1: their neighbor. Robert was a father, a husband, and a
Speaker 1: man who believed in faith, forgiveness, and the occasional well
Speaker 1: timed prank. He had a unique way of delivering his sermons.
Speaker 1: One Sunday morning, he strole into church wearing his normal clothing.
Speaker 1: He slouched into the front pew and casually flipped open
Speaker 1: a newspaper. His wife, Dawn, crossed the sanctuary, gave his
Speaker 1: shoulder a gentle tap, and said it's time to start
Speaker 1: the service. Laughter rippled through the peuce. It was Robert's
Speaker 1: light hearted way of reminding the congregation, come ready, come prepared,
Speaker 1: come with purpose. Because to Robert, faith wasn't just to
Speaker 1: be practiced on Sundays. It was something you lived every day.
Speaker 1: Robert was said to be a man of quiet discipline,
Speaker 1: somebody who was interested in judo and boxing. He was
Speaker 1: even taking courses at two church colleges. He was energetic,
Speaker 1: driven and passionate. But above all else, Robert Pelley was
Speaker 1: a father. He and his wife Down had been married
Speaker 1: for five years. Both had suffered losses before they found
Speaker 1: each other. Robert had lost his first wife and don
Speaker 1: had lost her husband. Together they brought their families into
Speaker 1: one roof. Robert had two children, seventeen year old Jeff
Speaker 1: and fourteen year old Jackie. Dawn brought three daughters from
Speaker 1: her first marriage, ten year old Jessica, eight year old Janelle,
Speaker 1: and six year old Juline. They had once lived in Florida,
Speaker 1: and that's where Robert and Dawn met, but they had
Speaker 1: created sunshine and palm trees for the Indiana cornfields and
Speaker 1: church life. They lived in the modest home next door
Speaker 1: to the small church. The blend Of family lived a
Speaker 1: simple life with purpose and routine, and Saturday, the twenty
Speaker 1: ninth of April nineteen eighty nine started out like any
Speaker 1: other day. Jeff Pelly was getting ready for one of
Speaker 1: the biggest nights of his life, the Laville High School Prom.
Speaker 1: Jeff had been looking forward to it for months. His
Speaker 1: white tuxedo was pressed and the plans were set. He
Speaker 1: was going to pick up his day at Darla Emmons,
Speaker 1: and then they were going to meet friends for dinner
Speaker 1: in South Bend. Then it was the prom, and afterwards
Speaker 1: they were going to drive to Great America, a theme
Speaker 1: park just outside of Chicago. For a seventeen year old,
Speaker 1: it was the dream plan, freedom, friends, and the first
Speaker 1: haste of independence, and Jeff, who sometimes came across as withdrawn,
Speaker 1: was genuinely excited. His sister, Jackie wasn't home that weekend.
Speaker 1: She was away. We had a church camp posted by
Speaker 1: Huntington College. Jessica was staying with relatives visiting from Kentucky.
Speaker 1: That left just four people in the home, Robert, Dawn, Janelle,
Speaker 1: and little Jolne. That house must have felt unusually quiet
Speaker 1: first Saturday night, but nobody expected that by Sunday it
Speaker 1: would be silent. Sunday morning at the Olive Branch of
Speaker 1: the United Brethren began like any other. The congregation trickled
Speaker 1: in through the white double doors, grating each other with
Speaker 1: warm smiles and familiar nods. Usually by this time Pastor
Speaker 1: Robert Pelley would have been there slaves rolled up, arranging
Speaker 1: hymn books and checking the sound system. That was just
Speaker 1: who Robert was. He was reliable, dedicated, and present. But
Speaker 1: on this morning he wasn't. At first, nobody panicked, maybe
Speaker 1: Robert with staging one of his practical object lessons again,
Speaker 1: maybe something about being spiritually laid or caught up unprepared
Speaker 1: for the second Coming. It wouldn't have been the first
Speaker 1: time he made a point through surprise. But as nine
Speaker 1: a m. Became nine fifteen and then nine thirty, the
Speaker 1: mood in the sanctuary began to shift. The usual laughter
Speaker 1: and chatter gave way to confusion and concern. Don wasn't
Speaker 1: there either, nor were the girls. Still. The congregation pressed forward.
Speaker 1: They sang hymns, read scripture. A member of the church
Speaker 1: stepped into lead what they could of the service, but
Speaker 1: something unspoken was growing heavy in the room. Dan Richard,
Speaker 1: a longtime member of the church, would later say, we
Speaker 1: knew something wasn't quite right. Church trustee David Hathaway volunteered
Speaker 1: to go next door just to check on the Pelly family.
Speaker 1: It wasn't far the parsonage. The family's home sat just
Speaker 1: beside the church, nestled behind a row of hedges. David
Speaker 1: walked up the short front path and knocked. There was
Speaker 1: no answer. He knocked again, louder this time, but there
Speaker 1: was nothing. The curtains were drawn tight, something that was
Speaker 1: unusual for a Sunday morning. Robert usually had the front
Speaker 1: windows open, letting in the spring sunlight. David tried peering
Speaker 1: through the glass, but the interior was dark as when
Speaker 1: a quiet sense of dread settled in his gut. He
Speaker 1: walked back to the church and contacted Lydia May easter Day,
Speaker 1: an elderly woman who kept a sparecat of the parsonage.
Speaker 1: Moments later, with the key in hand, David returned and
Speaker 1: slid it into the lock. He turned the handle and
Speaker 1: craaked the door open. Robert, he called out softly, just
Speaker 1: in case the family had simply overslept. There was no answer.
Speaker 1: He stepped inside. Immediately he saw blood. There was a
Speaker 1: thick pull of it stretching down the narrow hallway towards
Speaker 1: the master bedroom, and there in the middle of it
Speaker 1: all lay Robert Pelly. His chest was obliterated by a
Speaker 1: shotgun blast. His face had been blown open by a
Speaker 1: second David, who was a World War Two veteran, would
Speaker 1: later say that what he saw in that hallway was
Speaker 1: worse than anything he had ever experienced in combat, but
Speaker 1: he didn't stop. There were children in that house. He
Speaker 1: followed the trail of blood into the kitchen, where he
Speaker 1: noticed a flight of stairs leading down to the basement.
Speaker 1: This was the family's recreation room, where the girls play
Speaker 1: and where Dawn kept their toys. There was another splash
Speaker 1: of red on the wall. David descended carefully, and then
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the stairs he saw them. Don
Speaker 1: Pelly lay on the floor, lifeless, her arms wrapped protectively
Speaker 1: around six year old Jolene. Joline, who was crouched slightly
Speaker 1: behind her mother, had clearly tried to hide her small
Speaker 1: hands lifted in a futile attempt to shield herself. Portions
Speaker 1: of her fingers were missing. It had been blasted away
Speaker 1: by the force of the shotgun. Nearby was eight year
Speaker 1: old Janelle. She was slumped on the carpet beside them,
Speaker 1: curled inward, and shot at close range. All three were gone.
Speaker 1: They had huddled together in their final moments. Forensics would
Speaker 1: later describe that Robert was killed first with one blast
Speaker 1: to the chest and another to the face. Don must
Speaker 1: have heard it, grabbed her daughters and ran, but the
Speaker 1: killer followed. A shot was fired from the top of
Speaker 1: the basement stairs, aiming down into the room as the
Speaker 1: family fled, Then more shots, one after the other, first
Speaker 1: on then Janelle, then Juline. None of them stood a chance.
Speaker 1: The news of the murders spread throughout Lakefield like wildfire.
Speaker 1: By Sunday afternoon, fear had gripped the small farming town
Speaker 1: like a vice. Four members of a beloved family had
Speaker 1: been gunned down in their own home, and the killer
Speaker 1: was still out there somewhere. Dan Richard, a member of
Speaker 1: the church, said the whole county shook. People don't know
Speaker 1: whether to stay at home alone or in groups like
Speaker 1: There wasn't the kind of place where things like this happened.
Speaker 1: It was the kind of place where people left their
Speaker 1: keys in their car, where neighbors brought over extra tomatrows
Speaker 1: from the garden, where families prayed together, and doors were
Speaker 1: left unlocked at night. But all of that changed on
Speaker 1: April thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine. Inside the house next to
Speaker 1: the church. The unthinkable had happened, and for a brief moment,
Speaker 1: there was something that almost resembled relief. Three of the children, Jeff, Jackie,
Speaker 1: and Jessica had survived, by pure luck. None of them
Speaker 1: have been home that night. Jackie had been at church camp,
Speaker 1: Jessco was staying with relatives, and Jeff had been oursway
Speaker 1: celebrating his prom weekend at Great America Amusement Park. But
Speaker 1: that relief was quickly swallowed by the cruel reality they'd
Speaker 1: be returning to no parents, no younger sisters. Detectives not
Speaker 1: had the awful task of tracking the surviving children down
Speaker 1: and telling them what had happened. The day after the
Speaker 1: murder's reporters gathered outside the modest brick parsonage. Telephoto lenses
Speaker 1: peeked over, police tap note books in hand. They waited
Speaker 1: for any glimpse, any detail. Then they saw Jeff. He'd
Speaker 1: been allowed to briefly enter the home to retrieve some
Speaker 1: of his belongings. He declined to speak to the press. Instead,
Speaker 1: he crossed the lawn and embraced grieving members of his
Speaker 1: father's congregation. People who had sung beside him, prayed beside him,
Speaker 1: now they stood there, stunned and heartbroken, just steps away
Speaker 1: from where the crime had unfolded. Sergeant Charles Ferrell addressed
Speaker 1: the reporters and said the family doesn't want anybody to
Speaker 1: talk with them. Among the mourners was Richard Thorpe, the
Speaker 1: former pastor of the church. He stated, you have a
Speaker 1: bond here that a lot of times you don't find
Speaker 1: in a bigger church, and that bond, that sense of trust,
Speaker 1: was now cracked open. People changed their habits overnight. Brian Callaghan,
Speaker 1: a local father, summed up the mood and said, my
Speaker 1: wife and I make sure the doors are locked now,
Speaker 1: and a shock settled in to fear. The investigation began.
Speaker 1: Detectives from Saint Joseph County canvassed the home, documenting the scene.
Speaker 1: There were no signs of forced entry, no shattered glass,
Speaker 1: no kicked in door, no valuables missing. This wasn't a robbery,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a murdered suicide. It appeared to be personal.
Speaker 1: The killer had used a shotgun, most likely a twelve
Speaker 1: or sixteen gage, but the question as to why lingered.
Speaker 1: Detectives began interviewing friends, neighbors, church members, anybody who had
Speaker 1: known the Pelly family. They learned that Robert had kept
Speaker 1: a shotgun at home, but it was now missing. Whether
Speaker 1: it had been the murder weapon or taken afterwards, they
Speaker 1: weren't entirely sure. Search efforts intensified. Horses and search dogs
Speaker 1: were deployed across the fields and woods that boarded the property.
Speaker 1: A dive team was sent to a nearby pond north
Speaker 1: of the home. It was deep, almost fifty feet and murky,
Speaker 1: a nightmare for the detectives. Sergeant Ferrell explained, it's going
Speaker 1: to be a difficult task because not only is the
Speaker 1: pond inaccessible, it's also fifty feet deep. Despite the effort,
Speaker 1: no weapon was found. Meanwhile, autopsies confirmed what detectives already suspected.
Speaker 1: All four victims had died from close range shotgun wounds
Speaker 1: to the head. The pathologists couldn't arrow down a time
Speaker 1: frame other than that they had died sometime between ten
Speaker 1: a m. On Saturday and ten a m. On Sunday.
Speaker 1: On May the fourth, the community gathered one final time
Speaker 1: to honor Robert, Don, Janelle, and Jolene was standing room
Speaker 1: only inside Olive Branch Church. Bishop Ray Miller stood at
Speaker 1: the pulpit and addressed the grief stricken crowd. We're not
Speaker 1: here to discuss the events of their deaths, nor are
Speaker 1: we here to give reports or interviews. What we're here
Speaker 1: for is what the family would have wanted. We're here
Speaker 1: to worship God. He spoke of Robert's tireless efforts to
Speaker 1: grow the congregation and of the quiet love that filled
Speaker 1: the Pelly home. As the service drew to a close,
Speaker 1: the congregation stood and sang Amazing Grace, which was Dawn's
Speaker 1: favorite hymn. Then one by one, the coffins were carried
Speaker 1: to South Lawn Cemetery. The bishop's final words lingered in
Speaker 1: the air. We commit their bodies to the grave and
Speaker 1: their spirits to God who gave them. A photographer from
Speaker 1: the South Bend Tribune captured a striking image Jeff Pelly
Speaker 1: had bowed, being embraced by his teenage friends as tears
Speaker 1: streamed down his cheeks. Grief had come to Lakeville, and
Speaker 1: it had settled in for the the long haul. In
Speaker 1: the days that followed, the surviving children went their separate ways.
Speaker 1: Jackie went to Cape Quarrel to live with church friends.
Speaker 1: Jessica was taken in by her maternal grandfather, in eating rapids,
Speaker 1: and Jeff moved in with friends from South Bend. He
Speaker 1: picked up a job at a local garage, trying to
Speaker 1: rebuild some version of a normal life, and still the
Speaker 1: town waited. Each Sunday, the congregation of Olive Branch gathered
Speaker 1: in that same sanctuary, the one where Robert had once
Speaker 1: delivered sermons with energy and heart. Now his absence filled
Speaker 1: every pew. Reverend Richard Wagan addressed the flock one Sunday
Speaker 1: morning and said, the one thing that weighs heavy on
Speaker 1: my heart is we don't know who did this. We
Speaker 1: don't know why they did this. But one of the
Speaker 1: most important things that Jesus taught was don't hate. Pray
Speaker 1: that we might love and care for whoever that person is.
Speaker 1: And that prayer would soon be tested in the most
Speaker 1: painful way a man, because behind the scenes, detectives were
Speaker 1: narrowing their focus and they were beginning to suspect that
Speaker 1: the person responsible wasn't some stranger from the woods. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a drifter or a madman, or a robber gone wrong.
Speaker 1: It was somebody much closer, someone the Pellies had loved.
Speaker 1: And it would take thirteen years for that suspicion to
Speaker 1: turn into an arrest. As the crime scene was being progressed,
Speaker 1: detectives began to take note of certain unsettling details. The
Speaker 1: curtains were all drawn, the doors were locked, nothing had
Speaker 1: been stolen, and there was no sign of a forced entry.
Speaker 1: Detective Mark Senter, one of the first on the scene leaders,
Speaker 1: said it didn't look like a burglary. It didn't look
Speaker 1: like a home invasion. As a detective, I saw the
Speaker 1: worst of the worst that morning, but we had a
Speaker 1: job to do, so immediately started talking about suspects. One
Speaker 1: cloth stood out. The shotgun that was usually stored in
Speaker 1: Robert Pelly's gun rack was gone. Then there was blood
Speaker 1: in the bathroom, suggesting the killer cleaned themselves before leaving
Speaker 1: this scene. Detectives also said that Robert's body was found
Speaker 1: facing away from the hallway, near the bedroom door. It
Speaker 1: looked like the killer had come out of that room.
Speaker 1: That's when a name floated to the surface, a name
Speaker 1: that was already familiar to Detective Centur Jeff Pelly. By
Speaker 1: all accounts, Jeff was smart, exceptionally smart. He'd graduated early
Speaker 1: and was known for his skill with computers, but lately
Speaker 1: he had been heading down the wrong path. Just weeks
Speaker 1: before the murders, he'd been caught stealing CDs in money
Speaker 1: from a neighbor's home. Detectives had spoken with Robert about it,
Speaker 1: and he had been furious. As a punishment, Robert had
Speaker 1: grounded his son and placed strict limitations on his prom weekend.
Speaker 1: Jeff could go to the prom itself, but he wasn't
Speaker 1: allowed to attend the dinner with friends, he wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to drive himself, and he definitely wasn't allowed to head
Speaker 1: to the after party at Great America Detective Center recalled.
Speaker 1: He could not go to the prom without his dad
Speaker 1: taking him. He couldn't go to the dinner before the prom,
Speaker 1: he couldn't go to the after prom. But somehow Jeff
Speaker 1: did go to all of it, and the timing of
Speaker 1: the murders and the prom stuck detectives as more than
Speaker 1: just a coincidence. The night of the prom, Jeff's friends
Speaker 1: were surprised when he suddenly said he'd be joining them.
Speaker 1: After all, they all knew he was grinded. His dad
Speaker 1: had made that crystal clear. But Jeff showed up, albeit late,
Speaker 1: to the pre prompt dinner at the East Bank emporium.
Speaker 1: He seemed calm, normal, even called his day a Darla
Speaker 1: a round five twenty pm to let her know that
Speaker 1: he was running late. That timing was important. I just
Speaker 1: believe that Jeff had killed his family sometime that afternoon,
Speaker 1: cleaned himself up, and then picked up Darla like nothing
Speaker 1: had happened. When police interviewed his friends in Darla, nobody
Speaker 1: mentioned anything odd in his behavior that night. There were
Speaker 1: no signs of agitation, no panic, no blood. But one
Speaker 1: friend did recall something strange. While at Great America, Jeff
Speaker 1: had said, seemingly out of nowhere, that he had a
Speaker 1: bad feeling that something terrible might have happened back home,
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Speaker 1: Just to visit tovik dot app slash morbidology Just relationship
Speaker 1: with his father been easy. It was strained sometimes explosive.
Speaker 1: Some friends said that Jeff hated his father. Others said
Speaker 1: he was deeply jealous of his stepmother and stepsisters, Dawn
Speaker 1: and the girls, they said got all the attention. Jeff
Speaker 1: felt like an outsider in his own home. He was
Speaker 1: still grieving the loss of his mother, Joy, who had
Speaker 1: died of cancer just a year before Robert remarried. One friend,
Speaker 1: Mark Berger, said Jeff missed his mum. She was his
Speaker 1: best friend. Even Robert had confided in friends about the tension.
Speaker 1: He once told someone that he was half scared of
Speaker 1: what Jeff might do if he wasn't allowed to go
Speaker 1: to the prom. Dnteu had expressed fear, telling a friend
Speaker 1: she was really afraid of her step son. And then
Speaker 1: there was the funeral. Carol Jensen, a close family friend,
Speaker 1: remembered seeing Jeff sitting among the mourners. She said, there
Speaker 1: was Jeff sitting there with his big blue eyes, just glaring,
Speaker 1: pierced eyes. I thought it had to be shocked. The
Speaker 1: rest of the family was so torn up, and he
Speaker 1: just sat there staring. I'll never forget those eyes. After
Speaker 1: returning from Great America, Jeff was brought in for questioning.
Speaker 2: I guess what we want to talk to you about
Speaker 2: is when was the last time.
Speaker 3: You were home?
Speaker 2: At about.
Speaker 3: Quarter till five Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening?
Speaker 2: Of everybody who's still home when you left? Right? Was
Speaker 2: everybody there?
Speaker 3: Dad and Don and Janelle and Jolane were there, Jessica
Speaker 3: was at a friend's house, and Jackie was in Huntington.
Speaker 2: When you were a great American that detective or police
Speaker 2: officer at their head, you and the room and towards
Speaker 2: your parents had been murdered. What was your reaction to that?
Speaker 3: I was shocked, started crying. I mean, it's it's stunned me.
Speaker 3: I didn't know how it could happen. I don't know
Speaker 3: why it would happen.
Speaker 2: Was there anybody in that family you really didn't get
Speaker 2: along with? How about your stepmother?
Speaker 3: We didn't get along real well. I mean we talked
Speaker 3: high by type thing, but we never really talk to
Speaker 3: each other or anything. I mean I didn't I didn't
Speaker 3: hate her anything, but we just we we tolerated each other.
Speaker 2: And how about your stepsisters?
Speaker 3: Which ones? Uh, all three of 'em? What about 'em?
Speaker 2: Did you get along with them?
Speaker 3: Oh? I get along with the girl's grade. I just
Speaker 3: loved the girls, You and.
Speaker 2: Your dad getting any arguments? Uh? Saturday?
Speaker 3: No, we had a real good day Saturday. We got
Speaker 3: along real well.
Speaker 2: What do you mean you?
Speaker 3: You and your dad had a real good day Saturday.
Speaker 3: We didn't argue at all. It w he was really
Speaker 3: he He said that I'd been doing a pretty good
Speaker 3: job of shaping up and everything.
Speaker 1: Detective John Budrick asked him point blank.
Speaker 2: So you who killed your mother or father or your father?
Speaker 3: And no, I really don't. I don't know who would
Speaker 3: want to.
Speaker 1: Then came the harder question, did you have anything to.
Speaker 2: Do with it?
Speaker 3: No? I didn't. Me and my father didn't get alot.
Speaker 3: Sometimes sometimes I'd be really upset with him, but we
Speaker 3: always worked things out.
Speaker 1: But detectives weren't convinced. They called Jeff and a lie
Speaker 1: about a gas station he said he visited, he'd actually
Speaker 1: gone to a different one. When pressed, Jeff grew anxious,
Speaker 1: He fidgeted, and then out of nowhere, he asked, if
Speaker 1: I went to jail, would I get the electric chair.
Speaker 1: It was a chilling question, but chilling wasn't enough. Detectives
Speaker 1: needed hard evidence. They had blood, but not Jeff's. They
Speaker 1: had a timeline, but no weapon. They sent everything to
Speaker 1: the FBI, but when the results came back, nothing could
Speaker 1: tie Jeff to the murders. He remained a free man,
Speaker 1: but he was never free of suspicion. Over the next decade,
Speaker 1: detectives tried everything. They ran a Crime of the Week segments,
Speaker 1: They canvassed the public for tips. They begged for somebody
Speaker 1: to come forward. In nineteen ninety two, the Pelly family
Speaker 1: placed a reward notice in the South Bend Tribune. It read,
Speaker 1: if you have no information, please pray for the family
Speaker 1: members remaining. We still hurt. The case had gone cold,
Speaker 1: but detectives hadn't given up because steep down they still
Speaker 1: believed they knew who pulled that trigger. By nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: five years after the brutal murders of the Pelly family,
Speaker 1: Jeff was living a completely different life. He had moved
Speaker 1: to Coral Gables in Florida. He was married to a
Speaker 1: woman named Kimberly Ann singularly, and though he'd bully attended
Speaker 1: Manchester College, he had dropped out whatever future he had
Speaker 1: once imagined, and Indiana was gone. But trouble, it seemed,
Speaker 1: had followed Jeff south. In February of that year, he
Speaker 1: was arrested not for murder, but for wire fraud. Detectives
Speaker 1: had learned that he had tried to gain early access
Speaker 1: to a trust fund that was set up in his
Speaker 1: name by his father and stepmother. It was a trust
Speaker 1: worth nearly forty eight thousand dollars. It was meant to
Speaker 1: help with his education in basic welfare. He could receive
Speaker 1: half of it at twenty three or earlier if he
Speaker 1: graduated from college. The rest would be released when he
Speaker 1: turned twenty six. But in July of ninety ninety one,
Speaker 1: Jeff had tried to cheat the system. He called his
Speaker 1: step grandfather, Edward Hayes, the trustee of the fund, and
Speaker 1: told him he had undergone surgery from malignant melanoma. Jeff
Speaker 1: sent over medical documents, hospital bills, and canceled checks. It
Speaker 1: was almost thirty thousand dollars worth of paperwork, but it
Speaker 1: was all fake. To sell the lie. Jeff had even
Speaker 1: set up a phony fum line, pretending that it was
Speaker 1: the hospital, But when Edward tried to verify the story
Speaker 1: by calling the hospital directly, he learned the entire thing
Speaker 1: had been fabricated. Jeff was arrested in charge with two
Speaker 1: counts of wire fraud. When asked about it later, Edward
Speaker 1: Hayes admitted, Jeff hadn't given me any trouble, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't surprised this happened. In fact, I would have been
Speaker 1: surprised if he hadn't tried it. Jeff was released on
Speaker 1: a fifty thousand dollars bond, but the arrest had opened
Speaker 1: a door, and detectives seized the opportunity. For the first time,
Speaker 1: detectives publicly named Jeff Pelly as the prime suspect in
Speaker 1: the murder of his family. Prosecutor Michael Barne stated, we
Speaker 1: need more evidence to have a reasonable probability of conviction
Speaker 1: before we can seek charges. He flew to Florida to
Speaker 1: question Jeff in person, but Jeff refused to speak. And
Speaker 1: yet he wasn't the only one under scrutiny. Back in Indiana,
Speaker 1: suspicion still simmered. Herbert Christie, a trusty at the family's church,
Speaker 1: said bluntly, I still think he did it the way
Speaker 1: everything happened. If he didn't do it, he had somebody
Speaker 1: set it up. But life for Jeff just continued. He
Speaker 1: served six months under house arrest for the fraud. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, he and Kimberly divorced. They remarried two
Speaker 1: years later, had a son, and eventually settled in Torpen
Speaker 1: Springs and Florida. Jeff started a computer consulting business from
Speaker 1: his home. It was a success. He became a respected
Speaker 1: international IT tea consultant, and from the outside he was
Speaker 1: living a picture perfect life. But back in South Bend,
Speaker 1: detectives hadn't moved on, and in April of two thousand,
Speaker 1: the quadruple homicide case was officially reopened by prosecutor Chris Toth.
Speaker 1: Two years later, they made their move. On the tenth
Speaker 1: of August two thousand and two, Jeff Pelly was arrested
Speaker 1: at Lax Airport in Los Angeles. He was returning from
Speaker 1: a work trip to Australia. The arrest wasn't a result
Speaker 1: of new evidence. There were no surprise confessions, no new
Speaker 1: forensic breakthroughs. Prosecutors simply believed they finally had enough. Jeff's
Speaker 1: family was notified immediately. His grandmother, Mary Armstrong, accused detectives
Speaker 1: of having tunnel vision. His defense attorney, Alan Baum, was furious.
Speaker 1: He stated, we have quite a lot to say about
Speaker 1: what we believe is a very egregious violation of due
Speaker 1: process and jewe trial by them waiting thirteen years to
Speaker 1: charge him based on no new evidence whatsoever. Jeff was
Speaker 1: extradited back to Indiana. He was booked into Saint Joseph
Speaker 1: County Jail and formally charged with four counts of murder.
Speaker 1: His attorney insisted that Jeff was innocent. He described him
Speaker 1: as a bright, successful man living a stable and happy life.
Speaker 1: He even argued that the arrest was politically motivated, a
Speaker 1: calculated move to boost prosecutor's toth reelection campaign. The defense
Speaker 1: even petitioned the court to assign a special prosecutor, but
Speaker 1: Judge Roland Chambly denied the request. Then something unexpected happened.
Speaker 1: A shotgun had been found discovered near Crumston Highway, a
Speaker 1: wooded area roughly ten miles from the Pelly home. The
Speaker 1: single shot weapon was found hidden inside a hollow of
Speaker 1: a tree. Years earlier, back in nineteen eighty nine, Jeff
Speaker 1: had reportedly told people at a party that he owned
Speaker 1: a shotgun and that he had hidden it in a tree.
Speaker 1: Detectives were intrigued. Prosecutors requested more time to test the weapon.
Speaker 1: Jeff's attorney brushed off the discovery, stating, we have no
Speaker 1: reason to believe it's in any way connected to the case.
Speaker 1: The trial date was postponed again and again. In the end,
Speaker 1: no evidence connected Jeff or the family did the faun shotgun? Then,
Speaker 1: on the twenty ninth of May two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: Jeff was released from jalong bond. The delay had triggered
Speaker 1: Indiana criminal rule for a provision that allows defendants to
Speaker 1: be fraid if they are not brought to trial within
Speaker 1: six months. Jeff had waited thirteen years for an arrest.
Speaker 1: Now the justice system would wait even longer for a verdict.
Speaker 1: But soon a jury would be asked to answer the
Speaker 1: question that had haunted South Bend since prom Night nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine. Did Jeff Pelly murder his family and cover
Speaker 1: it up with a rented tuxedo and a high schooled
Speaker 1: dance or had police built a case on nothing but suspicion, timing,
Speaker 1: and the tragedy of a broken home. It had taken
Speaker 1: seventeen years to bring Jeff Pelly to trial. By the
Speaker 1: time jury selection wrapped on the eleventh of July two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, public opinion was sharply divided. Some believed
Speaker 1: that it was justice long overdue. Others saw it as
Speaker 1: a desperate, politically motivated attempt to close a cold case
Speaker 1: without real evidence. Twelve jurors were chosen, seven men and
Speaker 1: five women. Their task would be to decide whether Jeff
Speaker 1: Pelly was a grieving son or a cold blooded killer
Speaker 1: who went to prom with blood on his hands. In
Speaker 1: his opening statement, prosecutor Frank Shaeffer laid out the case.
Speaker 1: He said there was a narrow twenty minute window in
Speaker 1: which Jeff carried out the murders and off time. He
Speaker 1: argued for Jeff to shoot four members of his family
Speaker 1: with shotgun, shower, wash his clothing, and leave the house
Speaker 1: to pick up his prom death. According to Schaeffer, the
Speaker 1: timeline looked like this. At four forty pm, a friend
Speaker 1: named Matt Miller stopped by the Pelly house. Everyone was
Speaker 1: still alive. By five twenty pm, Jeff had arrived at
Speaker 1: his it's home. At five thirty pm, Robert and Don
Speaker 1: Pelly were expected at a friend's house, but they never showed.
Speaker 1: At five point forty five pm, Crystal Easter Day, Rutherford
Speaker 1: went to check on them. The house was locked, the
Speaker 1: curtains drawn, the prosecution's case hinged on that narrow time frame,
Speaker 1: but the defense had their own theory, one that painted
Speaker 1: the entire investigation as flawed from the very start. Defense
Speaker 1: attorney Alan Baum told the court the police had tunnel
Speaker 1: vision from day one. The Pelly home, he said, had
Speaker 1: never been dusted for fingerprints. That wasn't speculation that came
Speaker 1: from the testimony of Sergeant John Pavlovic. Under questioning, he
Speaker 1: admitted that they had skipped finger printing because the crime
Speaker 1: scene was too bloody, because they already believed that Jeff
Speaker 1: was the killer. The defense attorney asked him directly, so,
Speaker 1: on April thirty, nineteen eighty nine, one day after the murders,
Speaker 1: you'd already made up your mind that Jeff Pelly did it.
Speaker 1: The sergeant didn't deny it. He said there had been
Speaker 1: no sign of forced entry. The only person on accounted
Speaker 1: for was Jeff, But when asked whether then investigated any
Speaker 1: other possible suspects, the sergeant replied, simply, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Other lapses then came to light. Officer Jerry Retowski testified
Speaker 1: that after Jeff's car was impointed at the theme park,
Speaker 1: it was never actually tested for sockgun residue. It was
Speaker 1: never swabbed for blood. Then came the crime scene photographs.
Speaker 1: On the first day of testimony, jurors were shown the
Speaker 1: gruesome images taken inside the Pelly home. Geoff broke down,
Speaker 1: letting out a Lloyd's sob in court, His attorney Leader
Speaker 1: said that it was the first time Jeff had ever
Speaker 1: seen the pictures. The prosecution argued that Jeff had motive.
Speaker 1: Witnesses were called to describe the tension in the Pelly household,
Speaker 1: especially in the days before Prom. Christina Holderman, a family friend,
Speaker 1: told the jury about an argument she had witnessed on
Speaker 1: Prom day. Jeoff had been washing his car. His father, Robert,
Speaker 1: asked him why since he wasn't allowed to drive it.
Speaker 1: Robert had reportedly told several people that Jeff was grounded.
Speaker 1: He had planned to drive him to and from Prom,
Speaker 1: and post Prom activities were off limits. The theory was
Speaker 1: that Jeff had killed his family to reclaim control of
Speaker 1: that night and his future. Jeff's former girlfriend testified next.
Speaker 1: Darley described him as acting normal on Prom night, but
Speaker 1: she remembered one thing that evening. Jeff said he had
Speaker 1: a bad feeling. Ars Leater police arrived to deliver the
Speaker 1: devastating news his family were dead. According to Darla, Jeff
Speaker 1: seemed genuinely heartbroken, he was shocked, he wasn't himself. Two
Speaker 1: of Jeff's friends also took to the witness stand. Both
Speaker 1: of them said that after the murders, Jeff told them
Speaker 1: he hadn't been involved. To one of them, Christina, he said,
Speaker 1: if I knew who it was, I'd killed them myself.
Speaker 1: But the timeline was still murky. Pathologist doctor Rick Hoover
Speaker 1: told the jury that he couldn't pinpoint when exactly the
Speaker 1: Pellies were killed. His best estimate was sometime between ten
Speaker 1: a m. On Saturday and ten am on Sunday, a
Speaker 1: twenty four hour window that did nothing to bolster the
Speaker 1: prosecution's tight timeline. One of the final witnesses that week
Speaker 1: was Jeff's stepsister, Jessica. She told the jury that she
Speaker 1: had seen her father's shotgun in the house that Friday.
Speaker 1: By Sunday, when the bodies were discovered, it was gone.
Speaker 1: But the defense maintained there was no direct evidence linking
Speaker 1: Jeff to the murders. There were no fingerprints, no eye witnesses,
Speaker 1: no blood, no murder weapon, just an arrow window in
Speaker 1: a motive of that, depending on who you asked, was
Speaker 1: either ridiculous or chillingly plausible. The jury heard about various
Speaker 1: pieces of evidence that had been recovered from the Pelly home,
Speaker 1: but as each item was presented in court, it became
Speaker 1: increasingly clear that nothing directly tied Jeff to the murders.
Speaker 1: A bloody shirt had been discovered roughly two miles from
Speaker 1: the crime scene, raising initial suspicion, but the blood couldn't
Speaker 1: be linked to Jeff or any of the victims. Investigators
Speaker 1: had also found clothing in the family's washing machine, a shirt,
Speaker 1: a pair of blue jeans, and socks, which prosecutors claimed
Speaker 1: Jeff had been wearing during the murders, but when these
Speaker 1: items were tested, not a single trace of blood or
Speaker 1: DNA evidence was discovered. Forensic teams went even further, testing
Speaker 1: three washcloths, a sharp curtain, an additional clothing, pants, and
Speaker 1: a shirt taking from Jeff's car. Still there was nothing,
Speaker 1: no blood, nothing to definitively connect him to the viole
Speaker 1: islands that unfolded inside the house. A crime scene technician
Speaker 1: eventually testified that it would have been almost impossible for
Speaker 1: somebody to walk away from such a brutal scene without
Speaker 1: being contaminated by blood or brain matter. The absence of
Speaker 1: any such evidence became a cornerstone in the defense's case.
Speaker 1: They began to float a different possibility, entirely that someone
Speaker 1: other than Jeff had committed the murders. They revealed a
Speaker 1: curious lead. A million dollars had allegedly gone missing from
Speaker 1: a bank where Robert Pelley had worked before relocating his
Speaker 1: family from Florida to Indiana about a year after the murders.
Speaker 1: Jeff's stepsister, Jackie told detectives that Robert had once been
Speaker 1: summoned to the bank in the middle of the night
Speaker 1: to look into the disappearance of those funds. It was
Speaker 1: an ominous detail, one that hinted at the possibility of
Speaker 1: enemies outside of the family unit. Adding to the intrigue
Speaker 1: was a siding reported by a neighbor on the day
Speaker 1: of the murders. Some but he had seen a white
Speaker 1: limousine with Florida license plates parked in the area near
Speaker 1: Osborne Road. It struck almost suspicious, though the car was
Speaker 1: never traced and its relevance to the case was never confirmed.
Speaker 1: Even the origin of the suspected murder weapon was called
Speaker 1: into question. While Jeff's stepsister Jessica had testified she saw
Speaker 1: their father's shotgun in the house the day before the murders,
Speaker 1: Jackie contradicted that she recalled that a couple of months earlier,
Speaker 1: Robert had gathered up all of the family's firearms to
Speaker 1: give away to an unidentified man. Jeff too, said he
Speaker 1: hadn't seen the shotgun for about three weeks before the murders.
Speaker 1: Jessica also challenged the narrative that prom Night had been
Speaker 1: a source of intense conflict between Jeff and his father.
Speaker 1: According to her, Jeff hadn't been barred from going. Rather,
Speaker 1: they had reached a compromise. He could attend, but his
Speaker 1: punishment being grounded, would be extended. With these conflicting accounts
Speaker 1: and weak forensic ties, the defense maintained that the case
Speaker 1: against Jeff was built entirely on assumption and circumstantial timing.
Speaker 1: After six days of testimony, the trial drew to a close.
Speaker 1: During closing arguments, prosecutor Frank Schaeffer's eared in on what
Speaker 1: he claimed was a twenty minute window, the only time
Speaker 1: Jeff could have committed the murders. According to the prosecution,
Speaker 1: Jeff used those twenty minutes to confront and kill his father, stepmother,
Speaker 1: and two young stepsisters, Gather up the shotgun and any
Speaker 1: spent shells, show off the evidence, throw his bloodied clothing
Speaker 1: into the washing machine, and walk out the door wearing
Speaker 1: his white tuxedo to attend prom like nothing had happened.
Speaker 1: They argued that Jeff's reference to the electric chair during
Speaker 1: an early police interview was as good as a confession,
Speaker 1: but despite Schaeffer's confidence, the case had glaring weaknesses. There
Speaker 1: was no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no bloody clothing, no
Speaker 1: eye witnesses, just a theory and a very shoddy timeline.
Speaker 1: Defense attorney Alan Baum took to the courtroom one final
Speaker 1: time and passionately declared, He's not just not guilty, he's innocent,
Speaker 1: and I know you know that. He suggested that there
Speaker 1: had been not one shooder, but two. The presence of
Speaker 1: shotgun wadding at the scene, he argued, supported the idea
Speaker 1: of two different weapons, evidence of two killers working together.
Speaker 1: He stated, and I'm not just saying that to cover
Speaker 1: for Jeff Pelly. That's what the physical evidence and logic dictates.
Speaker 1: The jury was sent out to deliberate, and the urs
Speaker 1: ticked by twenty five of them in total before they
Speaker 1: returned with their decision. The courtroom, filled with tension, slowly
Speaker 1: filled back up. The verdict was announced guilty on all
Speaker 1: four counts of murder. Outside the courthouse, a visibly shaken
Speaker 1: Bomb addressed reporters and said, two weeks ago, I was
Speaker 1: asked why I didn't ask for a change of venue
Speaker 1: in this case, and I said it was because I
Speaker 1: believe the people of Saint Joseph County would be fair
Speaker 1: and judge the case on the facts. Now I'm sad
Speaker 1: that I said that this is not fair, this is absurd,
Speaker 1: there's no evidence. I'm speechless. The guilty verdict send shockwaves
Speaker 1: through the courtroom, and perhaps nobody was more stunned than
Speaker 1: Jeff's sister, Jackie. From the very beginning, she had stood
Speaker 1: firmly by her brother. She was convinced of his innocence.
Speaker 1: In the weeks that followed, Jackie launched a website Justicefjeff
Speaker 1: dot org, where she began publishing documents, personal insights, and
Speaker 1: overlooked details from the case. She claimed that much of
Speaker 1: the evidence never made it into the courtroom, and she
Speaker 1: believed that what had been left out told a different
Speaker 1: story than the one the jury heard. Jackie wasn't alone
Speaker 1: in her mission. She was joined by former detective Philip Hawley,
Speaker 1: who brought his own startling revelation to the table. Another
Speaker 1: man had reportedly confessed to the murders and provided details
Speaker 1: about the crime scene that had never been made public.
Speaker 1: This man was never publicly identified. According to Jackie, there
Speaker 1: had been several other viable suspects, including former business associates
Speaker 1: of their father, Robert. She claimed her dad had received
Speaker 1: a death threat in the weeks leaning up to the murders,
Speaker 1: and tied the threat to the alleged theft of one
Speaker 1: million dollars from the Florida bank where he once worked.
Speaker 1: That money, she said, was tied to the laundering of
Speaker 1: foreign drug money. One of the most striking pieces of
Speaker 1: counter evidence concerned Robert's stomach contents. During the trial, prosecutors
Speaker 1: had maintained the family had been killed in the late afternoon,
Speaker 1: but Holly challenged that based on autopsy findings, Robert had
Speaker 1: popcorn in his stomach, his typical nighttime snack, usually eaten
Speaker 1: around it at thirty p m. If that timing was accurate,
Speaker 1: it would contradict the pro eusecution's timeline that Jeff had
Speaker 1: killed his family before prom Jackie also noted something else.
Speaker 1: The key to the family's home hung in the church
Speaker 1: next door. It was a detail that was well known
Speaker 1: to many people in the community. On the eighteenth of October,
Speaker 1: Jeff returned to court for sentencing. He was given the
Speaker 1: opportunity to speak, and he addressed the court with quiet emotion.
Speaker 1: He said, my deepest regret in life is that I
Speaker 1: was not home that afternoon, because maybe I could have
Speaker 1: done something. I love my family dearly. I've spent my
Speaker 1: life trying to pattern myself after my father. Members of
Speaker 1: the family also spoke on his behalf, including John Down's
Speaker 1: brother in law. He pleaded with the judge for mercy, saying,
Speaker 1: because of what Dawn and Bob believed, we do ask
Speaker 1: for grace and mercy for Jeff. Jackie and Jeff's wife, Kim,
Speaker 1: reiterated their belief in his innocence. Jackie turned to her
Speaker 1: brother and said, when I look at you, Jeff, I
Speaker 1: don't see what they say. When I look at you,
Speaker 1: I see a fall guy, escapegoat a political war and
Speaker 1: praying for you. I love you and I'm proud to
Speaker 1: be your sister. The judge was unmoved. Jeff Pelly was
Speaker 1: then sentenced to one hundred and sixty years in prison,
Speaker 1: forty years for each life taken. The following month, Jeff's
Speaker 1: defense filed request for a new trial, arguing that new
Speaker 1: evidence had surfaced but cast out on his conviction. One woman,
Speaker 1: Penny Hoeflinger, had reportedly overheard a group of teenagers talking
Speaker 1: about plans to kill a pastor just two weeks before
Speaker 1: the murders. Penny had told detectives about the conversation during
Speaker 1: the initial investigation and had been interviewed three times. The judge, however,
Speaker 1: declined to grant a new trial. Then, in April of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, a surprising ruling came down. The
Speaker 1: state appeals court determined that Jeff's conviction must be overturned,
Speaker 1: not based on evidence, but on a technicality. He had
Speaker 1: been denied his right to a speedy trial. Under Indiana law,
Speaker 1: strict time lines had to be followed unless the defense
Speaker 1: or court congestion caused delays. In Jeff's case, the court
Speaker 1: found that delays weren't justified. The state quickly responded by
Speaker 1: asking the Indiana Supreme Court to reinstate the conviction, and
Speaker 1: the court did exactly just that. Still, the fight continued.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty one, Jeff's defense team was granted a
Speaker 1: hearing in his post conviction relief case. He was represented
Speaker 1: by Francis Wilson of the Indiana University Wrongful Conviction Clinic,
Speaker 1: and they argued that Jeff had been the victim of
Speaker 1: prosecutorial misconduct. They brought forward new testimony from a woman
Speaker 1: named Tony Beeeler, who said Robert Pelley had told her
Speaker 1: he feared for his life over the missing one million
Speaker 1: dollars at the bank. He believed that the mob was
Speaker 1: after him. Another witness, Kathy Hawley, who had once worked
Speaker 1: with Robert, added to the chilling pot portrait. She recalled
Speaker 1: the conversation in the mid nineteen eighties where Robert admitted
Speaker 1: he had hidden computer discs from the bank and feared
Speaker 1: the consequences for his job and for his family. A
Speaker 1: Florida detective also added weight to the theory, pointing out
Speaker 1: that a business associate of Cathy's husband had been found murdered,
Speaker 1: shot in the head, and buried in cement less than
Speaker 1: a year before the Pelly murders. Despite all of this,
Speaker 1: the judge ultimately ruled against a new trial. To this day,
Speaker 1: the case remains a lightning rod for debate. For some,
Speaker 1: Jeff Pelly is a cold blooded killer who executed his
Speaker 1: family in a fit of rage before heading off to
Speaker 1: prom For others, he's an innocent man who was convicted
Speaker 1: on flimsy, circumstantial evidence, rail roaded by a justice system
Speaker 1: that needed somebody to blame. Theories still swirl. Was this
Speaker 1: a family annihilation or was it acaculated hit tied to
Speaker 1: Robert's shadowy path. Did Jeff kill his family or was
Speaker 1: he just the easiest target. We may never truly know.
Speaker 1: What remains is the enduring pain of a family lost,
Speaker 1: a man imprisoned, and a truth that, whatever it may be,
Speaker 1: continues to elude.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: That is it for this episode of Morbidology is always.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
Speaker 1: say a massive thank you to my new supporter up
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Speaker 1: take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.