IN IN - Richard Sweeney 8, Jeffrey Burkett 15, & Donald Abell 19, Henryville, 1977

New Posts

I'm still here too.

I'm surprised this thread hasn't gotten more postings. In my opinion, it's much more intriguing than any other cases I've read here.

It is still an open case with the Indiana State Police but they need new information to follow up on.

As far as a serial killer, there were many of them in the US during the 70's. I believe it's been cleared up that the boys were not sexually assaulted. Maybe Mahoneys07 knows more about this.
 
It would be nice to see some activity on this case after all this time.
 
I know its been awhile since anyone has posted, but I just came across this site. I too have been fascinated/curious of these string of murders. I was around 10 years old at the time and had relatives that lived in Henryville that I spent alot of time with. This link is to a site I posted questions on several years ago.http://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/108932-unsolved-child-murders-clark-couny-70s.html
During the time of the murders I had a relative that lived on Snow road in Henryville, I believe its called Lindenmayer Road now. Everybody told us kids to stay away from the neighbors house on the corner of Dieterlen and Lindenmayer(snow) road. If I remember right a doctor lived there and had twin boys. At the time for whatever reason someone at that home was suspected by my relatives, my memory may not be right but I think shortly after the murders the family moved north to Chicago ( I think, could be wrong). If you look on google earth at that corner you will see the house, and the next house on the right is where my relatives lived. Has anyone else heard anything like this? It also makes me wonder if there was any dna evidence that could be used today to link someone to these crimes? I would love to investigate these crimes further because time is not waiting, the more time passes the killer or killers are slipping farther away into history.
 
I am not getting a clear picture of why the reluctance of families or law enforcement to pursue this case. I would have to believe that they have pretty solid evidence of the perp and that they are waiting for the final piece to fall into place.



zodiacsday said:
I know its been awhile since anyone has posted, but I just came across this site. I too have been fascinated/curious of these string of murders. I was around 10 years old at the time and had relatives that lived in Henryville that I spent alot of time with. This link is to a site I posted questions on several years ago.http://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/108932-unsolved-child-murders-clark-couny-70s.html
During the time of the murders I had a relative that lived on Snow road in Henryville, I believe its called Lindenmayer Road now. Everybody told us kids to stay away from the neighbors house on the corner of Dieterlen and Lindenmayer(snow) road. If I remember right a doctor lived there and had twin boys. At the time for whatever reason someone at that home was suspected by my relatives, my memory may not be right but I think shortly after the murders the family moved north to Chicago ( I think, could be wrong). If you look on google earth at that corner you will see the house, and the next house on the right is where my relatives lived. Has anyone else heard anything like this? It also makes me wonder if there was any dna evidence that could be used today to link someone to these crimes? I would love to investigate these crimes further because time is not waiting, the more time passes the killer or killers are slipping farther away into history.
Click to expand...
 
believe09 said:
I am not getting a clear picture of why the reluctance of families or law enforcement to pursue this case. I would have to believe that they have pretty solid evidence of the perp and that they are waiting for the final piece to fall into place.
Click to expand...

From what I've read, these cases are from the 1970s - perhaps LE has waited too long already?
 
I am riveted by this case. According to the link above, there were human remains found in Clark State Forest which I am assuming is not too far from the murder sights. There was another killing of a young man in 85 and a man posted that he felt his brother was actually murdered instead of dying from alcohol related injuries.

This town is hiding something, it's like "The Town that Dreaded Sundown" and yet it seems there was not a lot of outrage about these cases-the state police did nothing, neither did the FBI

It seems like the killer knew these boys and it also seems that behind closed doors and drawn shades a whole lotta people knew who the killer was as well
What is the nearest big city to this town? This case needs to be featured on the evening news broadcast.

Also, this is small town-there are most likely plenty of people who reside there still who know the real truth and the killer or killers is most likely still living.

There are so many unanswered questions-what happened to the doctor and his twins boys? Why do people not mention their mother? Why were people told to stay away from their house?

Why did so many people leave this town after the murders-were they forced to leave? Also, in the say, 5 years before this case or even during, were there other disappearances within, say 50 mile radious?
 
zodiacsday said:
I know its been awhile since anyone has posted, but I just came across this site. I too have been fascinated/curious of these string of murders. I was around 10 years old at the time and had relatives that lived in Henryville that I spent alot of time with. This link is to a site I posted questions on several years ago.http://www.city-data.com/forum/indiana/108932-unsolved-child-murders-clark-couny-70s.html
During the time of the murders I had a relative that lived on Snow road in Henryville, I believe its called Lindenmayer Road now. Everybody told us kids to stay away from the neighbors house on the corner of Dieterlen and Lindenmayer(snow) road. If I remember right a doctor lived there and had twin boys. At the time for whatever reason someone at that home was suspected by my relatives, my memory may not be right but I think shortly after the murders the family moved north to Chicago ( I think, could be wrong). If you look on google earth at that corner you will see the house, and the next house on the right is where my relatives lived. Has anyone else heard anything like this? It also makes me wonder if there was any dna evidence that could be used today to link someone to these crimes? I would love to investigate these crimes further because time is not waiting, the more time passes the killer or killers are slipping farther away into history.
Click to expand...

Would the Dr have been Dr Green or Dr Carr?
 
Also when we began to dig into 2 brother is when everything was wiped from the evening news forum where this started... I belive they could be the culprits in having everything removed, They are very prominent in that town.
The Burketts it was just so hard for the mom to relive it and her kids didnt want her talking to anyone cause they fear thier lives...the sweeney case i think i had a peg on a suspect but he is in florida dying of cancer..and on the abell case i cannot find the mother i know the father has passed away in texas so that one has been a hard one to even begin,
I did a map a long time ago and all 3 of these occured in a 1 mile radius in a 4 year time frame.
 
I don’t remember the Doctors name. I was 10 years old in1974.

I have lost contact with my relatives that lived next door to the house in

Henryville. One could possible find a old Henryville city directory at the

Library and find out who lived at that house in 74. I just don’t remember.

But I do remember the house, I described it in one of my post and its

location, its still there.

I hate to add another what if to these mysteries and I haven’t dug into

Enough to find out if these people are related and if so how, but in

1991 a Charles Sweeney murdered Danny Guthrie and buried him within a

half mile of where Richard Sweeney was found in 74. Are these incidents

related? I haven’t researched anything as of yet, as far as ages and

relationships, it may be nothing.

I’m happy to see that I’m not the only still curious after all these years.
 
zodiacsday said:
I don’t remember the Doctors name. I was 10 years old in1974.

I have lost contact with my relatives that lived next door to the house in

Henryville. One could possible find a old Henryville city directory at the

Library and find out who lived at that house in 74. I just don’t remember.

But I do remember the house, I described it in one of my post and its

location, its still there.

I hate to add another what if to these mysteries and I haven’t dug into

Enough to find out if these people are related and if so how, but in

1991 a Charles Sweeney murdered Danny Guthrie and buried him within a

half mile of where Richard Sweeney was found in 74. Are these incidents

related? I haven’t researched anything as of yet, as far as ages and

relationships, it may be nothing.

I’m happy to see that I’m not the only still curious after all these years.
Click to expand...

I grew up in this town and had several teachers that were teaching during the time this all happened. My parents live on Snow road. (It's not Lindemeyer Rd, I'm not sure why google maps is saying that.) I went to school with Danny Guthrie's daughters and his wife is actually an English teacher there, though she's been remarried twice since Danny's death. I've heard many rumors about the 70's and Guthrie deaths. I'll go into detail once I get home from work.
 
Well after thinking about it, since my parents still live in this town, i'm not sure I should be on here name dropping, but I can speak to some of the locations, prominent last names, etc....If there's an interest.

When my parents moved to Henryville, it was 1983. People in the town had told my dad to "keep an eye on your kids" because of the killings and the culprit never being caught. I remember asking my dad when I was older if he'd heard anything else, and one day he handed me that day's newspaper. I think it was the Giveaway, a local paper that came out on Wednesday's, but it could've been the Evening News or the Courier Journal. Anyhow, it talked about the murders and how one of the families had to move because they couldn't handle having to drive by the cemetary where their son was buried on their way home anymore. I can't remember which family was being interviewed, but I know it said they had moved to New Albany because the pain was just too much. I wanna say it was the Burketts, but I just can't remember. I remember the Ann's Pool Hall and bait shop as well. It was a rundown older building where local kids would hang out. I played pool there a few times. She was quite old when I went there and has since passed away. She seemed nice. The building has been torn down and is now a hair salon in front and a shop for a local constuction company in the back. I believe the white building across the street is a Mason Lodge. It's still there, but I never really knew much about it.

If there's anymore interest I will continue. A friend of mine that worked for a sheriff's deputy's side business told me a very strange tale about the Guthrie killing. It took me a while to get it out of him. I'll check back tomorrow and see if anyone feels this is worth hearing.
 
There were two doctors in the area, although I'm not sure if they were both working in that area at the same time. Doctor Carr was my great grandmother's doctor, never heard any weird stories about him. Doc Green was the one that always had rumors swirling about him. I believe he lived in a house on a hill off of Hwy 160East with a lake next to it.

My government/Econ and Spanish teacher Mrs Cissell once told me she was the last person to see one of the boys from '77 right before he left school the day he went missing. Henryville used to be an open campus where the students could leave for lunch and I think they were even allowed to smoke in a certain area. Of course that all changed after the murders and Henryville has been a closed campus since.

This story sounds like something right out of a book or straight from the Cold case files from TV. It's hard to believe this sleepy town with 1 blinking four way stop can hold this kind of story. The creepiness of the Clark State Forest and the rumors of devil worship being right there probably adds to it.

I can add just a few more weird stories about this town. There is the Pigeon Roost state memorial which was the site of a massacre by Indians. One of the women who got away ran with her baby squeezing it so tight that by the time she got to the old Fort, the baby was dead. The old fort is now the site of a lumber and building supply store. It was Guthrie's building supply, but now is Tallent lumber. There was a graveyard on that site as well that was destroyed. There is a house next to the lumber company with old gravestones laying flat mostly sunken into the ground. It's very noticeable because as they built their fence, they just sectioned a corner off and and ran the fence around the gravestones. I was told by my history teacher Mr. Dietrich that the current location of the gravestones is not where they originally were.
There is also a strange place down Hwy 160west right outside of town that was called the Witches steps. There is a little pulloff on the right side of the road headed out of town. If you park there and walk back East for a ways, and look into the hillside of the ditch, you will see what's left of some old rotten wooden steps. You can climb up what's left of them, (at least I did about 7 years ago) and get up to a flat area. There are the remnants of a house. All that can really be seen is a collapsed brick chimney laying on its side. There's no driveway, and no other identifying way to get to this place. The rumor is that it was where an old witch lived outside of town. Just a weird place to add to the uniqueness of this town.
 
Thanks for the info, believe me there are many people interested in the facts of these cases. On another web site an alleged family member says everyone needs to quit talking about these horrible crimes but I disagree. Talk like this is whats needed to bring up forgotten memories or jog peoples memories of the truth. There is a killer or killers that stole the lives of innocent children, be it 10 years or a 100 years the truth needs to be told. I don't understand why so called family members want to let it go, if it was one of my children I would not rest until I found out the truth. Your info leads me to believe there maybe something with the Gunthrie incident, can you elaborate or is it just a coincident with the names and locations?
 
zodiacsday said:
Thanks for the info, believe me there are many people interested in the facts of these cases. On another web site an alleged family member says everyone needs to quit talking about these horrible crimes but I disagree. Talk like this is whats needed to bring up forgotten memories or jog peoples memories of the truth. There is a killer or killers that stole the lives of innocent children, be it 10 years or a 100 years the truth needs to be told. I don't understand why so called family members want to let it go, if it was one of my children I would not rest until I found out the truth. Your info leads me to believe there maybe something with the Gunthrie incident, can you elaborate or is it just a coincident with the names and locations?
Click to expand...

I would only feel comfortable PMing that information to you and I do not have that ability on my account yet. I do not believe it is related to what happened in the 70's however.
 
Never been to this area myself and am not connected to any of the families, but I am intrigued nonetheless. It makes a person wonder not IF, but WHAT is being covered up here. Obviously SOMEONE knows something, if not more than one or two people. I can understand that it would be hard for family of one of the victims to remain in the area, but for everyone to be so tight lipped about the whole thing is just strange. Don't the people there realize that once whoever is responsible for the crimes is brought to justice then everyone who is still there can rest safe knowing that the murderer is no longer capable of hurting anyone anymore?
 
Stewie said:
I would only feel comfortable PMing that information to you and I do not have that ability on my account yet. I do not believe it is related to what happened in the 70's however.
Click to expand...


Stewie, you can click on the hyperlink in my siggy and send me the info to PM if you would like. I have been posting on City Data on this case as well.

What is up with the name Stagel that keeps coming up over there? Anyone know??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 134 more.
Total: 4,361 (members: 135, guests: 4,226)

Online statistics

Members online
135
Guests online
4,226
Total visitors
4,361
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
592,499
Messages
17,969,944
Members
228,788
Latest member
Soccergirl500
Back
Top