The whole thing is peculiar, but what i find especially strange is that each of the victims were murdered in a different fashion, almost like the victims were used as experimental guinea pigs to see which is the best way to kill somebody.
Rehearsal?
speculation, imo.
Next In Line: The Burger Chef Murders – Indianapolis Monthly
"There also didn’t seem to be a clear reason why someone would want to murder one or all of these young people. Indeed, the fact that the kidnappers had murdered them in three different ways seemed to suggest they hadn’t planned on murdering anyone in the first place. The kidnappers had shot Davis and Shelton multiple times in the head, neck and shoulders, and stabbed Friedt twice in the heart with a hunting knife whose handle had broken off and was now missing.
What happened to Flemmonds was a little harder to figure out. “There were contusions on his face, but that’s not what killed him,” Young says. “He died of asphyxiation; he choked on his own blood.” One theory was that Flemmonds had escaped from the kidnappers and accidentally knocked himself out by running into a tree. Another was that the kidnappers had beat him and he fell down in the woods from his injuries and died. “But bottom line is, if he would’ve fallen any other way, it’s possible they would’ve had a living witness,” she says.
Investigators wondered if the kidnappers had only meant to rob the store and had taken the employees hostage when one recognized them. Because Flemmonds was covering another employee’s shift that night, investigators speculated the kidnappers hadn’t planned on him being there, and he was the one who recognized them. This could explain why the kidnappers singled him out to beat him, if that’s what happened. Flemmonds was also the only black employee working that night (the three others were white), but the police didn’t investigate this as a racially motivated crime."