DNA helps Indiana State Police solve Indy mom's 1972 murder
On July 7, 1972, Phyllis Bailer and her 3-year-old daughter were driving from their home in Indianapolis to Bailer's mother's home in Bluffton. They never arrived, and family filed a missing persons report.
The next morning, Bailer's car was found abandoned on I-69 in Grant County. A short time later, Bailer and her little girl were found in a ditch on the side of the road in Allen County.
Bailer had been sexually assaulted and shot to death. Her child was alive and physically unharmed.
Police were unable to find the killer. Even though DNA evidence was recovered from the scene, testing wasn't available in 1972. A partial profile developed years after her murder eliminated the main suspect, and the case went cold.
But in 2024, the Indiana State Police Laboratory was able to develop a strong DNA profile from Bailer's clothing. The ISP Cold Case Team and Allen County Police Department worked with Identifiers International, a California-based forensic company, to identify close familial relatives of the killer based on that DNA.
That led them to Fred Allen Lienemann of Grosse Pointe, Mich. He was 25 at the time of Bailer's death. Lienemann had no connection to Bailer but had a "significant criminal history" and was born near Anderson, Indiana.
Lienneman was killed in Detroit in 1985. If he were alive today, the Allen County Prosecutor's Office would have charged him with Bailer's murder, officials said.
Cold case: Search for a slasher in Indiana
"This case is an example of still another homicide that would never have been solved without forensic genetic genealogy," said Identifiers International founder Colleen Fitzpatrick.
Genetic genealogy has been used to solve high-profile cases like that of California's Golden State Killer. In 2018, police used the technique to identify the man who had killed 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley in 1988.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: DNA helps Indiana State Police solve Indianapolis mom's 1972 murder
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