Suspect identified in 1972 cold case death of woman found in ditch near her daughter
04/21/2025 2:57 pm PDT
ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (TCN) -- A 53-year-old cold case has come to a close after investigators recently identified a suspect in the death of a 26-year-old woman whose body was found in a ditch near her young daughter.
According to a news release from Indiana State Police, on July 7, 1972, Phyllis Bailer was traveling from Indianapolis to Bluffton, Indiana, with her 3-year-old daughter to visit her parents. Bailer and her daughter never made it to her parents' home, prompting her family to call police and report Bailer missing.
The following morning, the borrowed car Bailer was driving was reportedly found abandoned with the hood up in Grant County. Around an hour later, a passerby discovered Bailer deceased and her daughter unharmed in a ditch in Allen County.
An autopsy later revealed Bailer had been sexually assaulted and died of a gunshot wound.
DNA testing wasn't available at the time, and the case went cold. Years after Bailer's death, investigators created a partial DNA profile from her clothing and ruled out the main suspect in the case.
According to state police, in 2024, authorities developed a "stronger" DNA profile from Bailer's clothing. As a result, on April 16, state police announced that they identified Fred Lienemann of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, as the primary suspect. He was 25 years old when Bailer died. He reportedly had no known connections to Bailer, but officials said he had a "significant criminal history." If he were alive, state police said the Allen County Prosecutor's Office would have charged him with murder.
Lienemann was killed in Detroit in 1985. According to a 1985 article from The Detroit News posted by state police, Lienemann was beaten with a baseball bat and placed in a dumpster that had been set on fire while he was still alive. His arms were reportedly broken, and his face had been sprayed with silver paint. Per the article, two suspects, Clifford Copley and Kevin Reece, allegedly got into an argument with Lienemann over some property before beating him with the bat in Copley's basement apartment.
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