Woman experiencing car trouble later found murdered On a September morning in 1977, twenty-year-old Ann Harmeier, a Caucasian female, was driving back to Indiana University's Bloomington campus from her home in Cambridge City. A dedicated student and an active participant in the university's drama program, she never made it to her 10:30 a.m. class. When she failed to make her nightly phone call to her mother, concern began to grow.
Her rust-colored Plymouth LeMans was later discovered abandoned on the side of State Road 37 near Martinsville, its battery dead and the emergency flashers having run their course. The car was locked, and inside were her books and laundry, but Ann and her purse were gone. An examination of the vehicle later revealed a malfunctioning thermostat.
For five weeks, extensive searches were conducted, and a missing persons campaign garnered national attention, but there was no sign of the young woman. Then, on October 18, 1977, a farmer harvesting his corn in a field roughly four miles from where her car was found made a grim discovery. Ann's body was located about two hundred yards off a county road, hidden among the tall corn stalks. An investigation determined that she had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a garrote fashioned from her own shoelace, which had been tightened with a hairbrush. Her hands had been tied behind her back with the other shoelace.
The investigation into Ann Harmeier's murder has remained open for decades, with Indiana State Police continuing to pursue any new leads. Over the years, several individuals were considered persons of interest. One was Steven Judy, a serial killer who was executed in 1981 for the 1979 murders of a woman and her three young children. Judy had a history of abducting women with car trouble and had used a similar method of strangulation in his known crimes. Despite confessing to other murders, he denied any involvement in Ann's death, and official records indicated he was incarcerated at the time of her disappearance.
Another potential suspect was Jeffrey Hand, who was killed by police in 1980 while attempting to abduct another woman. In 2019, DNA evidence posthumously linked Hand to the 1972 murder of another Indiana college student. However, it remains unclear if any DNA evidence from Ann's case exists that could be used for a comparison. To this day, no arrests have been made, and the murder of Ann Harmeier remains an unsolved case, a lingering source of pain for her friends and family who continue to hope for justice.
