After more than 50 years, the tragic murder of a young mother in Indiana has finally been solved – but the killer won’t ever see the inside of a prison cell after he was beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Phyllis Bailer, who was 26 at the time of her death, was killed and assaulted while driving with her three-year-old daughter to her parent’s house on July 7, 1972.
Police never solved the mystery surrounding her death, but thanks to advanced forensic genealogy, the cold case has finally closed.
Sergeant Wes Rowlader with the Indiana State Police announced on Wednesday that last year, the department started working with Identifinders International, a forensic genealogy company in California.
They developed a ‘much stronger DNA profile from Phyllis Bailer’s clothing’ with technology that wasn’t available in 1972.
Using forensic genealogy, authorities tracked the DNA on Bailer’s clothes to a man named Fred Allen Lienemann, who was 25 years old at the time of the young mom’s death.
An investigation revealed that Lienemann was born in Anderson, Indiana, which is right outside of Indianapolis, where Bailer was living at the time of her death.
Although there were no obvious links to Bailer directly, police found that Lienemann had a significant criminal history.
Phyllis Bailer, 26, was killed and assaulted on July 7, 1972. Her murder went unsolved until this year, when forensic genealogy finally determined a match for the DNA found on her clothes
The Allen County Police Department (pictured) and the Indiana State Police Cold Case Team finally solved Bailer’s murder by identifying the DNA on her clothes
Police then discovered that he was murdered in Detroit in 1985.
‘If Fred Lienemann were alive today, the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office would have charged him with the murder of Phyllis Bailer.’
Lienemann was murdered by two men when he was 37 years old over a property dispute, according to archival clippings of The Detroit News.
Two men, Clifford John Copley, 21, and Kevin Reece, 27, were accused of beating Lienemann with a baseball bat, throwing him in a dumpster, and lighting it on fire.
A passerby heard Lienemann screaming in the dumpster, but when police arrived to rescue him, the fire had already broken out, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
A medical examiner said that Lienemann died from ‘multiple blunt force injuries.’ He had two broken arms and was found with silver paint on his face.
Newspaper archives also revealed that Lienemann was arrested in Florida when he was 26 for car theft.
Police believe that Lienemann killed and sexually assaulted Bailer while she was traveling from her home in Indianapolis to her mother’s house in Bluffton.
She was traveling with her three-year-old daughter and was last seen leaving their house around 8:00 pm.
Archival newspaper clippings revealed that Lienemann was violently beaten to death and burned in a dumpster in 1985
They never arrived in Bluffton, prompting Bailer’s family to report her missing. The next morning, her car was found on an interstate about an hour and a half away from Indianapolis.
An hour later, a woman driving found Bailer dead on the side of the road in a ditch. Her daughter was with her unharmed.
An autopsy confirmed that Bailer was sexually assaulted and determined her cause of death was a gunshot wound.
The police identified a suspect, but years later, a partial DNA profile ruled them out, forcing authorities to start from scratch.
A break in the case finally came decades later when the Indiana State Police Cold Case Team and the Allen County Police Department began working with Identifinders International.
Police believe that Linemann killed Bailer due to his DNA on her clothes and his criminal background. Since he was killed in 1985, no arrests can be made in the young mom’s tragic death
Colleen Fitzpatrick, the founder of Identifinders said they were ‘proud to have supported the Indiana State Police with bringing long overdue answers to Phyllis and her family.
‘This case is an example of still another homicide that would never have been solved without Forensic Genetic Genealogy.’
Indiana State Police added that the case demonstrated the department’s commitment to victims and their families.
‘Not only does this work convict criminals, but it also answers questions that grieving families have had for decades regarding the deaths of their loved ones,’ Sergeant Rowlader added.