In the autumn of 1983, the quiet of rural Newton County, Indiana, was shattered by a grim discovery. On October 18, mushroom foragers stumbled upon the remains of a young white male, later identified as 19-year-old John Ingram Brandenburg Jr. He was one of four victims found at an abandoned farm in Lake Village, all victims of the notorious serial killer Larry Eyler. For decades, Brandenburg's identity remained a mystery, his remains cataloged as 'Brad Doe'.
It wasn't until April 2021 that a breakthrough was made.
The relentless work of the Newton County Coroner's Office, in collaboration with the DNA Doe Project, finally gave a name to the long-unidentified victim. Through the use of genetic genealogy, investigators were able to connect the remains to John Ingram Brandenburg Jr. of Chicago, a young man who had vanished in 1983. This identification brought long-awaited, albeit painful, answers to his family, who knew him as 'Johnny'.
The man responsible for Brandenburg's death, Larry Eyler, was known as the 'Highway Killer' for his pattern of targeting and murdering teenage boys and young men between 1982 and 1984. Eyler was eventually apprehended and convicted for the 1984 murder of 16-year-old Daniel Bridges. While on death row, and shortly before his death from AIDS-related complications in 1994, Eyler confessed to nearly 20 other murders, including that of John Brandenburg Jr. In his posthumously released confession, Eyler detailed the murder, stating he had drugged Brandenburg before killing him. Following his identification, John Brandenburg Jr.'s remains were returned to his family and he was laid to rest in Rest Haven Cemetery in Corbin, Kentucky.
