Ten-year-old Linda Lynn Weldy stepped off her school bus on a rural La Porte driveway about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, February 24, 1987. The bus driver last saw her walk toward the family mailbox; when she did not arrive home that evening her absence was reported to the LaPorte County Police Department after 11 p.m. A large search produced no sign of her for three weeks.

On March 17, 1987 a farmer clearing a ditch near an abandoned railroad right-of-way in Kingsbury, about nine miles from Linda’s home, found her body. She was wearing the same clothes as the day she vanished. An autopsy determined she had been beaten and strangled; blades of grass clenched in her hands indicated she fought her attacker. Condition of the remains made it difficult to determine whether sexual assault had occurred.

Investigators initially questioned people close to Linda, including her mother’s live-in boyfriend Robert Egolf and his brother; both denied involvement. Larry DeWayne Hall, a convicted kidnapper and suspected serial killer known to have been in the area, has also been suggested as a possible link, but no definitive connection has been established. The case remains unsolved.

If anyone knew Linda, saw her the afternoon of February 24, 1987, or has information about movements near the Kingsbury railroad right-of-way that spring, please come forward.