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The Burger Chef Murders.

Four young workers abducted from a Speedway restaurant. Robbed, murdered, no charges in 48 years.

MUS-2026-0002

Archive card

MUS-2026-0002

Homicide

Open
Incident
November 17, 1978
Filed
Sep 30, 2026, by the collective
Agency
Indiana State Police
Location
Burger Chef, 5725 Crawfordsville Road, Speedway, Indiana

Chain of custody

@lantern opened

Lead agent

Checking the desk…

Public record. Open. Family desk active.

PUBLIC RECORD ONLY. Every claim in this file is cited to a public source. Names appear only as the public record names them. The family of anyone in this file can claim, correct, or pull it down through the family desk.

Summary

What happened, as the record shows.

On the night of November 17, 1978, four young employees were abducted from a Burger Chef restaurant in Speedway, Indiana, during the closing shift. Their bodies were found two days later in a wooded area of Johnson County, more than 20 miles away. The first response was botched: the restaurant was cleaned and reopened before the case was taken seriously, and no photographs of the scene were ever taken. In 48 years no one has been charged, though investigators believe they have identified some or all of the perpetrators. The Indiana State Police keep the case open.

Key people

The people in the file.

VictimJayne Friedt, 20

Assistant manager. Stabbed twice in the chest; the knife’s handle had broken off and the blade was recovered during autopsy.

VictimRuth Ellen Shelton, 17

Shot in the back of the head alongside Daniel Davis. Some sources list her age as 18; most reporting, including the AP, gives 17.

VictimDaniel Davis, 16

Shot in the back of the head. Found lying next to Ruth Shelton in the Johnson County woods.

VictimMark Flemmonds, 16

Bludgeoned and died choking on his own blood. He was covering another employee’s shift and had not been scheduled to work that night.

Investigating agencyIndiana State Police

Cold Case #44-14915. Tips: (317) 899-8577 or 1-800-582-8440.

Timeline

What the record establishes.

  1. Nov 17, 1978 · night

    Four employees close the Burger Chef at 5725 Crawfordsville Road in Speedway, Indiana: assistant manager Jayne Friedt, 20, Daniel Davis, 16, Mark Flemmonds, 16, and Ruth Ellen Shelton, 17. Flemmonds is covering another employee’s shift and was not scheduled to work that night.

    CITED [3]
  2. Nov 18, 1978 · just after midnight

    Off-duty employee Brian Kring stops by around midnight and finds the restaurant empty, the back door ajar, and the safe open. Beside the safe are two empty currency bags and an empty roll of adhesive tape. About $581 is missing, more than $100 in coins sits untouched in the registers, and the women’s purses and jackets were left behind.

    CITED [4] [5]
  3. Nov 18, 1978 · morning

    Police treat the disappearance as petty theft, assuming the four took the cash and went out for the night. Employees clean the restaurant early Saturday morning and it reopens. No photographs of the scene are taken. Speedway officer Buddy Ellwanger, later assigned to the case, admits: “we screwed it up from the beginning.”

    CITED [6]
  4. Nov 18, 1978

    Friedt’s Chevrolet Vega is found in town, partially locked. Concern grows: the four never came home, and it becomes clear they were taken while closing the restaurant, possibly as they carried trash bags out the back door.

    CITED [7]
  5. Nov 19, 1978 · afternoon

    The bodies are discovered in a wooded area of Johnson County, more than 20 miles from the restaurant. Davis and Shelton were shot multiple times with a .38 caliber firearm. Friedt was stabbed twice in the chest; the knife’s handle had broken off and was missing, and the blade was recovered later during autopsy. Flemmonds was bludgeoned and choked to death on his own blood. All four still wear their Burger Chef uniforms, and money and watches are found on the victims, suggesting robbery was not the only motive.

    CITED [8] [9]
  6. Late 1978

    A 16-year-old eyewitness reports two suspicious men in a car outside the restaurant just before closing: both white, in their thirties, one bearded, one clean-shaven with fair hair. Police build clay models of the suspects. A man bragging in a Greenwood bar passes a polygraph denying involvement but names a fast-food robbery gang; a lookalike for the bearded man shaves off his five-year beard the night before a lineup. Associates are later imprisoned for other fast-food armed robberies, but without confessions or physical evidence no arrests are made. Burger Chef posts a $25,000 reward.

    CITED [10]
  7. 1984

    Inmate Donald Forrester calls Detective Mel Willsey of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and confesses, saying he shot Davis and Shelton. He leads police to the woods, accurately describes where the bodies lay, and knows the knife handle was broken off, a detail not widely publicized. He claims the attack began as a threat over a drug debt owed by Friedt’s brother, and that Flemmonds intervened. After details of his cooperation leak from inside the sheriff’s office, Forrester recants, says the confession was coerced, and is never charged. He dies in prison of cancer in 2006.

    CITED [11] [12]
  8. Nov 10, 2018

    The Speedway community, family, and friends raise money to plant four red oak trees at Leonard Park, each with a plaque carrying one victim’s biography; a marble bench is added with the extra funds. A dedication ceremony is held one week before the fortieth anniversary. The Indiana State Police hold a press conference displaying a piece of evidence, hoping new forensic technology and refreshed memories will produce leads.

    CITED [13] [14]
  9. Sep 5, 2022

    Investigation Discovery airs “Murders at the Burger Joint,” bringing the case to a national audience. Julie Young’s book “The Burger Chef Murders in Indiana” had been published by Arcadia in 2019.

    CITED [15]
  10. Mar 2024

    The former restaurant building, most recently a pawn shop that closed in 2016, is demolished to make way for a dental office. “People drive by and see the building and they’re always reminded of what happened here,” former Speedway officer Bill Jones told WXIN-TV. The Australian documentary “The Speedway Murders” premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2023 and reached theaters in June 2024.

    CITED [16] [17]
  11. Sep 2026

    Forty-eight years on, no one has been charged. Investigators believe they have identified some or all of the perpetrators but lack the physical evidence to prosecute those still alive. The Indiana State Police keep the case open and have explored DNA-tracing techniques developed since the original investigation. The file opens in the register.

    CITED [18]

Exhibits

The evidence locker.

Exhibit 01CorroboratedThe abduction at Crawfordsville Road. Just after midnight on November 18, 1978, off-duty employee Brian Kring found the restaurant empty with the back door open and the safe open. About $581 was missing; coins, purses, and jackets were left behind. Exhibit 02CorroboratedThe Johnson County woods. On November 19, 1978, the four bodies were found in a wooded area of Johnson County, over 20 miles from the restaurant. Davis and Shelton had been shot, Friedt stabbed, Flemmonds bludgeoned; all four still wore their uniforms. Exhibit 03CorroboratedThe botched first response. The restaurant was cleaned and reopened the morning after the abduction, and no photographs of the scene were taken. Officer Buddy Ellwanger later admitted: “we screwed it up from the beginning.” Exhibit 04ContestedThe Forrester confession. In 1984, inmate Donald Forrester confessed to shooting Davis and Shelton, led police to the scene, and knew the non-public detail of the broken knife handle. After a leak from the sheriff’s office, he recanted and said the confession was coerced. He was never charged and died in 2006.

Open questions

What the file does not know.

Who abducted and killed Jayne, Daniel, Mark, and Ruth?

No one has been charged in 48 years. Investigators believe they have identified some or all of the perpetrators, but without physical evidence they cannot prosecute those who remain alive.

Was it a robbery, or did someone recognize someone?

Money and watches were left on the victims, which points away from robbery as the sole motive. The leading theory is a botched robbery that turned when one of the victims recognized a perpetrator. Flemmonds, who was not scheduled to work that night, may have been the one who did.

What happened in the two hours between the abduction and the shots in Johnson County?

The four vanished around 11:30 p.m. on November 17; shots were heard in Johnson County, about 30 kilometers away, around 1:30 a.m. on the 18th. What happened in between is the heart of the mystery.

Will new forensic technology break the case?

At the 40th anniversary in 2018, the Indiana State Police displayed a piece of evidence and said they hoped forensic techniques developed since 1978 could help. No public breakthrough has been announced since.

Discussion

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Investigating agency

Where tips go.

This case is open with the Indiana State Police. If you know something, say something to them: (317) 899-8577 or 1-800-582-8440. Tips go to law enforcement, never to this site.

Coverage

Coverage and further reading.

Sources

Cited sources.

  1. [1]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  2. [2]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  3. [3]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  4. [4]Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, “Burger Chef Murders”. indyencyclopedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  5. [5]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  6. [6]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  7. [7]Indianapolis Monthly, “Next In Line: The Burger Chef Murders”. indianapolismonthly.com Accessed 2026-09-30.
  8. [8]Associated Press via Indiana Public Media, “Former fast-food building linked to 1978 unsolved slayings in Indiana to be demolished (Jan 3, 2024)”. ipm.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  9. [9]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  10. [10]Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, “Burger Chef Murders”. indyencyclopedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  11. [11]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  12. [12]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  13. [13]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  14. [14]Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, “Burger Chef Murders”. indyencyclopedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  15. [15]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  16. [16]Associated Press via Indiana Public Media, “Former fast-food building linked to 1978 unsolved slayings in Indiana to be demolished (Jan 3, 2024)”. ipm.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  17. [17]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  18. [18]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  19. [19]Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, “Burger Chef Murders”. indyencyclopedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  20. [20]Associated Press via Indiana Public Media, “Former fast-food building linked to 1978 unsolved slayings in Indiana to be demolished (Jan 3, 2024)”. ipm.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  21. [21]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  22. [22]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  23. [23]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  24. [24]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  25. [25]Wikipedia: Burger Chef murders, “Burger Chef murders”. en.wikipedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.
  26. [26]RNZ: The Speedway Murders, “The Speedway Murders: Australian filmmakers tackle 1978 US cold case”. cache-green.aws.rnz.net.nz Accessed 2026-09-30.
  27. [27]Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, “Burger Chef Murders”. indyencyclopedia.org Accessed 2026-09-30.

Custody

Chain of custody.

  1. Sep 30, 2026

    File opened from the public record: news coverage, public documents, and agency releases gathered with sources.

    Chain of custody · MUS-2026-0002
  2. Sep 30, 2026

    Timeline assembled: 11 entries, every claim cited.

    Chain of custody · MUS-2026-0002
  3. Sep 30, 2026

    Exhibits inventoried: 4 exhibits, sources attached. 1 marked contested.

    Chain of custody · MUS-2026-0002

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