Case solved 53 years after mom traveling with daughter found murdered

Meet the DNA "detective" who helped lick a decades-old acold lawsuit

Meet the DNA "detective" who helped lick a decades-old acold case 04:53

A fishy has been identified successful an Indiana execution that occurred much than fractional a period ago, officials said. 

Phyllis Bailer, 26, was traveling from Indianapolis to Bluffton, Indiana connected the evening of Friday, July 7, 1972, the Indiana State Police said successful a quality release. Bailer had her three-year-old girl successful the car. They were going to sojourn Bailer's parents, constabulary said, but the brace ne'er arrived successful Bluffton, and Bailer's household called constabulary to study her missing. 

The adjacent morning, Bailer's car was recovered successful Grant County, Indiana, abandoned with the hood up connected the highway, according to police. About an hr later, a pistillate driving successful adjacent Allen County recovered Bailer and her girl successful a ditch connected the broadside of different road. Bailer was dormant and her girl was unharmed, constabulary said. 

An autopsy determined that Bailer had been fatally changeable and sexually assaulted. The Allen County Police and Indiana State Police investigated the case. 

Phyllis Bailer. Indiana State Police

DNA investigating was not disposable successful 1972, and did not go much communal for instrumentality enforcement to usage until the aboriginal 1990s, the Indiana State Police noted. After the murder, a partial DNA illustration was developed from Bailer's clothing. The authorities constabulary did not specify erstwhile the DNA illustration was created.

That DNA illustration was utilized to destruct the main fishy successful the case. As DNA investigating continued to improve, the Indiana State Police's Cold Case Team continued to enactment connected the case, authorities said, and successful 2024 they developed a "much stronger DNA profile," again from Bailer's clothing. 

That DNA illustration was taken to Identifiers International, a forensic genealogy institution successful California. The combined resources of the institution and the acold lawsuit squad were capable to place a fishy successful the lawsuit successful aboriginal 2025. 

The fishy was identified arsenic Fred Allen Lienemann, who would person been 25 astatine the clip of Bailer's killing. He was a lucifer for the DNA recovered connected Bailer's clothes, the Indiana State Police said. The 2 had nary known connections. Lienemann had a agelong transgression history, including a complaint of first-degree execution successful May 1985, constabulary said. 

Investigators discovered that Lienemann had been murdered successful Detroit successful 1985. If helium had been live today, helium would person been charged with Bailer's murder, the Indiana State Police said, and the lawsuit would person been prosecuted by the Allen County Prosecutor's Office. 

"Phyllis Bailer ne'er made it to Bluffton to sojourn her family," Indiana State Police nationalist accusation serviceman Sergeant Wes Rowlander said connected societal media. "After years of questions, this household yet has answers astir what happened to her."

In:
• Cold Case
• Indiana