238 - The Vanishing of Lola Katherine Fry - Trace Evidence

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This episode is dedicated to the memoryof Paul Lagercio. God Speed, my
Friend. Twenty eight year old LolaCatherine Frye was in the midst of a
massive change in her life. Shequit her job, packed up her belongings,

(00:22):
and moved out of Indianapolis, headingto live with her sister in Fort
Wayne. She wanted to go backto school, put her life together,
and begin fulfilling her dream of findinglove and building her own family. One
weekend in November of nineteen ninety three, she made the drive back to Indianapolis
to grab the last of her possessionshanging around her old stomping grounds. She

(00:46):
visited family and ran into a fewfriends. She decided to attend a party
at a local apartment rented by herthen hairdresser. It was supposed to be
a fun night, a sort oflast hurrah, but it quickly too and
tragic, as no one ever heardfrom Kathy again after that night. The
Indiana State Police kicked off their investigationand soon learned that something about the party

(01:11):
that night simply didn't make sense.Over the years, they began to unravel
the lies and deception, getting downto the dark and disturbing core However,
more than thirty years later, noone has ever been charged with a crime,
and neither Kathy nor her car haveever been found. This is Trace

(01:32):
Evidence Episode two thirty eight, TheVanishing of Lola Catherine Fry. Welcome to
Trace Evidence. I'm your host StephenPacheco. In today's episode, we will
examine the mysterious nineteen ninety three disappearanceof twenty eight year old Lola Catherine Fry

(01:57):
from Indianapolis. In Before jumping intothe case, just a quick reminder that
I will once again be representing TraceEvidence on podcast row at Crime Con this
year. Crime Con takes place inNashville, Tennessee, on the weekend of
May thirty first through June second.As always, I'm excited to meet and
chat with all of you there.So if you're planning to attend and you

(02:20):
haven't yet purchased your pass, usepromo code trace to save ten percent.
That's crimecon dot Com promo code trace. I'm really looking forward to seeing you
there. Kathy Frye planned to spenda few days visiting her family and hanging
out with friends before finalizing her moveto Fort Wayne. She never returned,

(02:42):
and more than thirty years later,her family continues to see answers and hope
to find her and bring her home. This is episode two thirty eight,
The Vanishing of Lola Catherine Fry.Lola Catherine Coleman was born on Saturday February

(03:06):
twentieth, nineteen sixty five to parentsVernon and Delphia Dale Coleman. Lola was
the Coleman's fifth child and fifth daughter, and would grow up with four older
sisters, with a younger brother comingsome years later to round out the family.
For the most part, she'd bereferred to by her middle name,
with friends and family calling her Kathyor Cat throughout the majority of her life.

(03:30):
In her childhood, Kathy was veryquiet, with her sisters later describing
her as shy and even timid.At the same time, she loved goofing
and clowning around with her sisters.Oftentimes she'd get into their mother's closet and
throw on odd combinations of clothing,walking around the house like a fashion show

(03:50):
runway, showing off different silly looks. According to Darlene, one of her
sisters, Kathy was a girly girlwho, like her sister's, love dolls
and dressing up. She would oftenplay house with her siblings, and their
only clashes would arise when it cameto the question of which one of them
would get to play their mother.Kathy grew up in the city of Greenwood,

(04:13):
located in Johnson County and along thesouthern rim of Indianapolis. She spent
a great deal of time with hersisters, Kim, Laverne, Darlene,
and Carol. In nineteen seventy,when Kathy was five years old, her
parents welcomed their last child, ason named Christopher Daniel. According to the
family, Kathy doated on her littlebrother from a young age and would later

(04:36):
play a major role in helping toraise him. Kathy and her siblings would
attend elementary school and middle school inCenter Grove. She would then go on
to attend Lawrence North High School,where she would meet and fall in love
with a young man named Martin Frye. Following the completion of her sophomore year,

(04:56):
Kathy dropped out and later that yearthe two would marry, moving to
Texas. Kathy was happy with thearrangement, having always wanted to start a
family of her own. However,the nomadic nature of being married to a
man in the service didn't necessarily lineup with Kathy's plans to build a family
and settle down. Just a fewyears into the marriage, it became clear

(05:17):
that things weren't going to work out, and the two officially divorced. Following
the dissolution of the marriage, Kathyreturned to Indiana and moved in with her
parents. While the marriage hadn't workedout, she maintained her ex husband's name
and never changed it back from thatday forward, being known legally as Lola

(05:38):
Catherine Fry. In a sudden andshocking moment, the family's life was transformed
when Kathy's mother suffered a massive strokethat ultimately rendered her paralyzed on the left
side of her body. Kathy,along with her sister Laverne, took it
upon themselves to step in and assistwith all of the responsibilities that Dale was

(05:59):
no longer capable of keeping up with. As a result, Kathy became extremely
close with her younger brother, withthe family later noting that she was more
like a mother to him than asister. She always looked out for him
and made sure he was doing well, and whether she was working or busy
otherwise, she always made time forfamily. She frequently dropped in to help

(06:20):
out and would check in on everyone, and if she couldn't make it there
in person, she'd call. Accordingto the family, Kathy would call multiple
times a day, and it wasjust the norm to hear her voice on
their parents' answering machine. Her motherwould later explain to The Daily Journal,
saying, quote, Danny was twelve, Kathy jumped in and took care of

(06:44):
Danny. Kathy put her whole lifeon hold, plus took care of me.
I don't see her going one daywithout calling me or Danny. I
know if she was able, shewould call us. End quote. By
the early nineties, Kathy was inher mid twenties, and while she still
dreamed of marrying and having a family, her previous experience left her somewhat gun

(07:08):
shy. Uncertain of what to do, Kathy ended up talking to her older
sister, Laverne, who at thetime was making good money working as an
exotic dancer. Kathy had always beenattractive, but at this time in her
life, a lot of people referredto her as a beauty queen, frequently
making references to her striking similarity toHollywood starlet Morgan Fairchild. At first,

(07:31):
It was a difficult decision for Kathy, who'd always been quiet, shy,
and reserved. However, by thispoint in her life, she had come
out of her shell and was muchmore lively, open, and socially involved.
Her sister Darlene would later say onthe Unfound podcast that Kathy had really
come into herself, and the quietchild she was had given way to a

(07:55):
vibrant and confident woman. During thistime, she grew close to her nieces
and nephews, who she treated asif they were her own kids. She
frequently picked the kids up and tookthem out on adventures, whether it was
playing mini golf, going to themovies, or just exploring the park.
They loved their time with her,and she cherished every moment she had with

(08:16):
them. In a way, itwas bittersweet. She had such strong motherly
instincts and wanted so badly to haveher own children, but she'd never get
that chance. Working at different clubsand bars, Kathy would end up employed
at PT's Show Club, located atseventy nine sixteen Pendleton Pike in Indianapolis.

(08:37):
Pets describes itself as Indianapolis's number onerated strip club and at the time was
owned by Bradley dean Hurst, whoowned multiple clubs in the area, including
Brad's Gold Club and Brad's Brass Flamingo. According to Darlene, she was really
surprised to see Kathy take to thestage, and later, when she asked
her little sister how she'd found thecourage to do Itthy had Riley admitted that

(09:01):
she'd needed quite a few drinks beforeshe dared to climb on that stage for
the first time. As time wenton, Kathy became more comfortable, but
the lifestyle of an exotic dancer wasn'texactly conducive to taking proper care of herself.
Having been single for a while,Kathy ended up befriending one of the
locals at Pet's, John Reiker,was fifteen years older than Kathy, and

(09:24):
while he at first appeared to bea kind and caring man, their relationship
would quickly transform into a nightmare.According to Darlene, she believed that Riker
planned to dominate Kathy and try tokeep her under his thumb. This was
never going to work. Kathy wasn'tthe type to just submit to anyone's rule,
and this led to multiple screaming argumentsEventually things turned physical, with Riker

(09:50):
being violent towards the twenty eight yearold. Reportedly, he would show up
at her job and threaten an assaulther. Darlene stated on Unfound that there
was one incident where Riker tried todrag Kathy out of the club but was
stopped by the bouncers. They thenlocked her in the office because they thought
Riker was going to get a gunfrom his car to kill her. Reportedly,

(10:13):
Riker was also friends with Brad Hurst, Kathy's boss, making it easy
for him to gain access. Allegedly, Riker was aware that Hurst was planning
to manipulate Kathy into making a verysignificant change. Standing five feet three inches
tall and weighing approximately one hundred andtwenty pounds, Kathy had always maintained a

(10:35):
rather petite frame. However, giventhe industry into which she'd gone to work,
there was a lot of pressure forher and her coworkers to acquire certain
enhancements. In the early nineties,breast implants weren't exactly a new thing,
but the science was far from settled. Silicone implants were the preferred choice at

(10:56):
the time, with the Dow CorningCompany being on the forefront of developing the
technology. Whether or not Kathy trulywanted breast implants is a question for which
we have no answer, but it'sbeen reported through multiple sources that her employers
certainly pushed her and her coworkers towardshaving surgery, promising it would dramatically increase

(11:16):
their income and self esteem. Unfortunately, Kathy would end up suffering painful side
effects due to what has been describedas a botched job, and she wasn't
alone. Several other dancers also hadnegative side effects from their breast implants,
becoming misshapen and causing chronic pain.In July of ninety two, Kathy and

(11:39):
two of her fellow dancers, ReneeRoland and Sandra Bowman, filed a lawsuit
alleging fraud and negligence. The suittargeted club owner Bradley Hurst and plastic surgeon
doctor Charles E. Hughes. TheIID. The suit alleged that Hurst had
harassed and coerced the women into gettingimplants, and that both he and doctor

(12:00):
Hughes had failed to properly warn thewomen about possible side effects. In addition
to Hurst and Hughes, the suitalso named two companies as defendants. The
McGann Medical Corporation, a California basedcompany that manufactured the implants, as well
as the Dow Corning Corporation, whichproduced the silicone. The women suffered from

(12:22):
hardening of their breasts and painful buildupof scar tissue. Bowmen ultimately had the
implants removed, but Kathy and Rolandcouldn't afford to have surgery. At the
time, lawyers Vernon Petrie and RichardMalade were trying to get the court to
approve of a class action lawsuit arguingthat between one hundred and two hundred dancers

(12:43):
had been pressured into getting the implantsbetween Hurst's first two clubs in the previous
three years. The lawyers also statedthat the women were coerced into signing contracts
about the implants, which essentially madethem indentured servants. Hurst would pay for
the implants, but with them camea cost. The contract specified that the

(13:03):
dancers would not be allowed to workat any other clubs for two years.
The contract specified that they could notwork at clubs in Marion County, where
Indianapolis is, or seven other surroundingcounties. If a dancer quit or went
elsewhere, they would then be requiredto pay back the cost of the implants.

(13:24):
If you've ever watched The Sopranos,it sure sounds a hell of a
lot like how Silvio ran his club. And it's usually not a good thing
if your business is compared to thatof a fictitious mobster. But I digress.
The lawsuit went on to allege thatthe implants were dangerous and defective,
with a propensity to leak, break, and fall apart. The lawsuit further

(13:46):
alleged that neither the women nor thephysicians performing the procedures were adequately warned about
the medical risks. In an extremelydisturbing claim, the lawsuit also stated that
Hirst employed someone at his clubs toperform procedure they referred to as popping the
scar tissue. This man would squeezeand manipulate the women's breasts in order to

(14:07):
break up lumps which had appeared inthe implants. Medically, this is a
procedure known as enclosed capsulotomy and shouldonly be performed by a medical professional,
which this employee certainly was not.This ultimately was split into three separate lawsuits,
one against Hurst, one against Hughes, and one against Dow Corning.

(14:31):
Kathy gave depositions for the suits againstHurst and Dow Corning, but she wouldn't
make it to her final deposition,scheduled to take place on Monday, November
fifteenth, nineteen ninety three. Instead, she would mysteriously disappear sometime between Saturday
the thirteenth and Sunday the fourteenth.To this day, no one has ever

(14:52):
said with any solid certainty when exactlyKathy was last seen alive. According to
the family, Kathy suffered from chronicpain as the breast implants affected her skin,
pulling it tightly and making even basicmovements difficult to deal with. It
was her sister Darlene's belief that thepain and trauma of the situation led to

(15:15):
Kathy experimenting with drugs as she soughtout a method by which to self medicate
her pain away. She felt trappedand she wanted to get out. She'd
grown tired of the lifestyle, sleepingall day and being up late into the
night. She was tired of theclients, her boss, and feeling trapped
inside of a world she no longerwished to be a part of. She

(15:35):
made the first big step towards herfreedom in the summer of nineteen ninety three,
when she finally split from her abusiveboyfriend, John Reiker. She also
decided to get out of Indianapolis,making arrangements in September of ninety three to
move in with her sister Laverne inFort Wayne, approximately one hundred and thirty
miles northeast of the city. Kathywas ready to put dancing in her past

(16:00):
and informed her so that she quit. She wanted to go back to school,
get a normal job, meet anice guy, and settle down.
She was in the middle of makingher dreams a reality when she vanished.
Kathy's move from the Lawrence area toFort Wayne was a drop by drop process,
with her slowly moving her possessions fromher apartment to LaVerne's place. She'd

(16:22):
pack her car, a red andblack nineteen ninety Mitsubishi Eclipse with the personalized
license plate Lola, with as muchas she could and drive it out to
Fort Wayne. On Friday, Novembertwelfth, Kathy told her sister that she
was going back to the Indianapolis areato visit family and to retrieve the last
of her stuff. Just two weeksprior, their parents had moved into a

(16:45):
new place in Fortville, located twentyfive miles northeast of Indianapolis, and Kathy
wanted to check things out. Accordingto Vernon and Dale, they had hoped
that Kathy might consider moving in withthem. According to Laverne, he was
in good experience when she left,and she had taken him with her enough
clothes to last four or five days. She planned to return to Fort Wayne

(17:07):
after the weekend. As far asanyone is aware, everything went fine that
Friday, and Kathy was in touchwith her parents during this time. The
following day, Saturday, November thirteenth, Kathy called Laverne that afternoon from an
Indianapolis tanning salon. The two chattedfor a short period of time, and
Kathy explained that she planned to makethe drive back that night or maybe the

(17:32):
next morning, Sunday, the fourteenth. Laverne later stated that she advised Kathy
to make the drive in the morningrather than making such a distance at night
by herself. Kathy agreed, andthe two said goodbye. This would be
the last time anyone in the familywould ever speak to Kathy. Sunday,

(17:52):
the fourteenth was the first day anyonerealized something might be wrong. Kathy who
was in the habit of calling herparents three times a day, didn't bring
their house even once. Back inFort Wayne, Laverne was awaiting her sister's
arrival, but as the day grewlater and later, she became worried,
wondering why Cathy hadn't shown up orat least called to explain why she was

(18:15):
late. The family all coordinated intheir efforts to try and locate Kathy,
thinking that perhaps she had car trouble, had gotten sick, or worse yet,
perhaps had been in an accident.Calls to local hospitals failed to turn
up any sightings of the missing twentyeight year old or her vehicle. Kathy's
family next began making calls to friends, former coworkers, and anyone they could

(18:37):
think of who might have seen Kathy, but again were unable to turn over
anyone who had seen her after thethirteenth. Finally, on Thursday, November
eighteenth, four days after Kathy wasexpected to return to Fort Wayne, Laverne
picked up the phone and contacted theFort Wayne Police Department to report her sister
missing. The missing person's case wouldultimately be taken over by the Indiana State

(19:03):
Police, given that the investigation wouldinvolve Fort Wayne, Greenwood, Lawrence,
and Indianapolis as a whole, whilenot conducting a full investigation themselves. The
Fort Wayne Police Department did put outa bee on the lookout notice regarding Kathy
and her vehicle, and they dispatchedseveral units to look around for the missing
woman, but no trace of herwas found. Without any real solid evidence

(19:29):
about what might have happened, thestate police noted that there were no signs
of foul play and at least initially, it was just a missing person's case.
Kathy's former employment as an exotic dancerwould become a point of contention,
where investigators considered it possible she couldhave been victimized by a former client or
someone who had developed an obsession.The family, however, felt that the

(19:52):
police weren't taking the case seriously andwere rather dismissive of their concerns, primarily
because of the types of jobs Kathyhad worked for the family. They quickly
became aware that investigators didn't seem toconsider Kathy a top priority and carried an
air almost as though it was herown fault for being involved with that side

(20:14):
of society. Investigators began interviewing friendsand family. In an attempt to gather
additional information, they entered Kathy's detailsand description into National crime computers. They
put out a nationwide BOLO for hervehicle, listing its description, license plate,
and additional information that they hoped mightlead to a sighting. The car.

(20:36):
Was one of the sticking points forinvestigators, who noted that in the
vast majority of missing persons cases,the vehicles recovered without issue. Given the
legal issues pending and the fact thatKathy had missed her scheduled deposition from Monday
the fifteenth, detectives went and interviewedboth Bradhurst and doctor Charles Hughes, neither

(20:56):
of whom reported possessing any knowledge ofKathy's whereabouts. Following the disappearance, Hughes
would countersue Kathy, who could notdefend herself. Ultimately, the lawsuit would
be dropped when the two other plaintiffsagreed to settle. Reportedly, Bowman and
Roland took very low settlements because theyfeared that if they continued on, they

(21:18):
too might disappear. Police would laternote that they did not consider Hurst or
Hughes to be suspects in the case, and they did not continue to pursue
either individual as being connected to thedisappearance. The next person they turned to
was Kathy's former boyfriend, John Riker, who reportedly had plans to get together

(21:38):
with the missing woman this Saturday shewas last seen. During initial interviews,
Riker confirmed that he had in factspent the night with Kathy. According to
him, he was going to pickher up and together they'd attend a party
in North Indianapolis. Now, forreasons passing understanding, Riker states that Kathy

(21:59):
drove to the site of a formerChee Cheese restaurant then located at eight sixty
seven US Highway thirty one North andparked her car there, planning to leave
it there while they attended the party. Curiously, Riker, at the time
lived at fort sixty one Creekview Court, less than three miles west of the
restaurant. Why exactly Kathy didn't leaveher car at his house since he was

(22:23):
driving her to the party has neverbeen explained by anyone. After picking up
Kathy, presumably from the restaurant parkinglot, the two proceeded north to forty
four to thirty Brookline Court, thelocation of the Williamsburg North apartments. The
apartment was then owned by Joe Schaefer, who knew Kathy by way of the

(22:45):
fact that he was both her andher mother's hairdresser. Also present was his
boyfriend Steve Chafey, his brother TimShaffer with his boyfriend Samuel, and their
other brother, Jeff Schaeffer. Accordingto Riker, the group hung out together,
had some drinks, did some drugs, and then went out to hit

(23:07):
the local clubs for dancing in funRiker then claimed that after leaving the party
sometime between three and five am,he and Kathy went back to the restaurant
parking lot, where she got inher car and followed him the three miles
to his Greenwood home. Reiker toldpolice that Kathy went to sleep on his
couch and he went to bed.He was allegedly awakened by a phone call

(23:30):
at approximately six am from one ofhis employees. Riker showered and left the
house at seven thirty am to lethis employee into a local business to which
he had the keys. Returning aroundan hour later at eight thirty, Reiker
stated that both Kathy and her carwere gone, and he assumed that she

(23:51):
had begun the drive back to FortWayne. Investigators at the time weren't sure
what to make of the account,as on the one hand, and they
had no information to contradict it,but on the other it didn't really make
sense to them. As a result, police would make requests to search both
Riker's home and his business, aswell as asking him to come in for
a polygraph examination. Neither of thesearches yielded any evidence or information that would

(24:18):
have tied Riiker to the disappearance.The lie detector test took place on Monday,
November twenty ninth, and was reportedlyinconclusive. However, during her interview
on Unfound, Kathy's sister Darlene statedthat Riiker had failed the test on the
twenty ninth, as well as twoadditional tests conducted later. She alleged that

(24:40):
the two questions Riiker continued to failon whar did you do something to Lola
Catherine Frye and did you kill LolaCatherine fry In order to follow up on
Riker's claims about the party, policetracked down and interviewed each of the other
men reported to have been present.They told a story consistent with Vikers,

(25:00):
saying that they had partied at theapartment, went clubbing, and then went
back to the apartment before heading homeseparately. Police began to wonder if something
untoured might have occurred at the party, but none of the attendees had any
additional information to provide from there.If Riker's story was true, they were
left wondering if something might have happenedto Kathy along the one hundred and forty

(25:22):
miles between his Greenwood home and LaVerne'splace in Fort Wayne. However, they
had no real area to search orspecific details to run down. From this
point forward, the case starts togrow cold as investigators find themselves with little
to work with. Turning to themedia, they report on Kathy's disappearance and
provide photos of her as well asher car, at which time they requested

(25:47):
assistance from the public. The family, for their part, launched their own
searches, produced flyers, and didthe best they could to paper the area
with information about their missing sibling anddaughter. Curiously, Darlene noted neither she
nor the family wherever contacted by JohnRiker or anyone else who offered to help
search or provide support or information.According to her, the one time Riker

(26:12):
did speak to the family. Hetold them the same story about Kathy being
gone when he woke up on themorning of the fourteenth, and none of
them believed it either. Sergeant RonBruce of the State Police was the first
investigator put in charge of Kathy's case, and less than a month after she
was reported missing in December of nineteenninety three, he explained to the Daily

(26:33):
Journal, quote, this was avery very close family and for her to
miss it was very unusual. Wedon't have any reason to suspect foul play,
except that she called her family almostdaily and hasn't done so for three
weeks now end quote. Bruce wenton to state that investigators had received a

(26:55):
ton of calls since the story wasput into the papers, many of which
were people who let ed to haveseen Kathy's vehicle in the days and hours
following her disappearance. While there wereno solid signs of foul play over the
course of the next few months,there were several details that caught the attention
of detectives. First, and foremost, no one in the family ever heard

(27:18):
from Kathy again after Saturday, Novemberthirteenth. The twenty eight year old,
who was extremely close with her familythen went on to miss both Thanksgiving and
Christmas, major holidays for the TitanGroup. In addition, police noted that
fifteen hundred dollars left behind in Kathy'sbank account was untouched, her license plate

(27:40):
expired and was not renewed, andno payments were made on her car.
Following the thirteenth, a few monthsafter her disappearance, Kathy's driver's license was
suspended when she failed to pay offa ticket she had received the weekend before
she disappeared. Sergeant Bruce stated thatit was very out of character and extremely
odd, saying, quote, it'slike she vanished. We haven't ever found

(28:06):
her or her car. It's justa mystery end quote. The lack of
solid evidence did little to dissuade thefamily, who firmly believed that Kathy had
been the victim of foul play.In an attempt to do more, Laverne
quit her job and devoted all ofher free time to working on the case,
which was haunting the family. Carol, another of Kathy's sisters, was

(28:30):
disturbed by powerful recurring nightmares. Darleneand Laverne worked the case from their own
ends, trying to bring more awarenessand to get police to dig deeper.
The more time passed, the lessthey felt investigators actually cared about Kathy's disappearance.
For Kathy's parents, it was extremelydifficult. Vernon was crushed by his

(28:51):
daughter's absence and started getting money togetherfor the hiring of private investigators. He
was of the belief that if thecase was going to be so, they
would need help outside of the statepolice, who he didn't think were doing
much. Despite the urgency of thefamily and their continued drive to keep the
case alive, it continued to growcold. Nineteen ninety three came to an

(29:15):
end without answers. The year ofnineteen ninety four came and went with little
developments, and the passage of oneyear since Kathy had been seen with no
changes in the case. In thesummer of nineteen ninety five, a year
and a half after the disappearance,the family expressed their frustration to the media,
with Dale exclaiming quote, I justdon't understand why something hasn't showed.

(29:38):
They can't find any sign of Kathy. They can't find the car, they
can't find anything. I don't understandhow they can find all these other women
and not find Kathy. End quote. Dale explained how painful the whole situation
was made worse by the fact thatevery time an unknown woman's body was found

(30:00):
in the state, she and herfamily would be contacted to make a potential
identification. It never turned out tobe Kathy, but they had to go
through that nightmarish possibility each and everytime. Asked where the case stood.
Nearly two years later, Sergeant RonBruce explained that they hadn't made a great

(30:21):
deal of progress. He said thathe had heard from the family multiple times
a week and that he encouraged acontact, but he had nothing new to
offer them. According to Bruce,they were always checking to see if Kathy
or her car turned up anywhere,but they never did. That led to
the belief that if fu play wereinvolved, she and the car were probably

(30:42):
in the same place. He theorizedit was possible that they could have been
dumped into one of the various stonequarries in the area, noting that some
were sixty to seventy feet deep.Bruce, a former diver for the state
police, explained that it was extremelydiff difficult to search such areas as you
couldn't see beyond a foot or soin the water. He explained, quote,

(31:06):
you can't see a car on thebottom from the air. It's kind
of at a standstill. There's nonew leads, no new information to pursue.
There is no evidence of foul play. The family, I guess,
has just got to hold out hope. End quote. Unfortunately, the case
would continue cooling, and by Octoberof ninety five, Bruce was mostly resigned

(31:30):
to the fact that unless new evidenceor information surfaced, they were unlikely to
find any answers. He would explainto the Daily Journal saying, quote,
the information we have she had lefther former boyfriend's house en route to her
sister's house in Fort Wayne. Wedon't have any evidence to indicate that this
was foul play. Basically, whatwe've got is a missing person. We've

(31:55):
pursued this mainly because Lola is soclose to her family. She called her,
her mother or some other family memberevery day. It was quite a
break in pattern when she didn't call. We're still working on it and following
the leads, but to be honest, it's almost down to nothing. End
quote. Following this interview and thebuzz it stirred up, the state police

(32:16):
received several calls from witnesses who claimedto have seen Kathy's car with its distinctive
Lola license plate following her disappearance.Some callers claimed to have seen the car
on Interstate sixty nine in the areaof Castleton, approximately four miles northeast from
the Williamsburg North apartments where the partyhad been held. Another caller claimed to

(32:39):
have seen the car parked at anursing home downtown, and while all police
followed up on these tips, theycould not track down the vehicle. Sadly,
this is how the case would remainfor years until one call in nineteen
ninety nine seemed to change everything.Checking in on the case. After and
not having heard from investigators for awhile, Laverne contacted the state police,

(33:02):
at which time she was informed thatno investigator was then assigned to the case.
Blown away in heartbroken over this,the family expressed their anger and frustration
to investigators as well as in localpapers. They began hosting fundraisers and events
so that they could offer a reward, pay private investigators, produce more flyers,

(33:23):
and purchase ad space. Kathy's father, Vernon, expressed his lack of
confidence in the investigators, telling theIndianapolis Star quote, we have to believe
she may still be alive. Ihave to have hope the State police.
They've been looking since nineteen ninety three. I really don't think the state police

(33:44):
is very good end quote. FollowingLaVerne's call, Indiana State Police First Sergeant
Stony Van volunteered to take over thecase, saying that he remembered investigators discussing
it years earlier when it was stillactive. According to the family, sergeant
Van moved extremely quickly when he tookover, and in a matter of just

(34:07):
weeks, he'd learned vastly more informationthan had previously been acquired. Laverne would
later state, quote, once westarted asking questions, pushing, something happened
and I don't know how, butall of a sudden, Detective Van knew
a lot in a short time endquote. While they were happy to see
advancements in the case, the familycouldn't help but feel that if perhaps the

(34:30):
original investigators had taken the case seriously, they might not have had to wait
six years to learn what had likelyhappened to Kathy. Sergeant Van eventually reached
out to the family and called theminto his office, where he wanted to
share what he had learned when hefirst took over the case. Van had
to essentially redo all of the initialinvestigation, and unsurprisingly, he quickly found

(34:54):
that all of the available information pointedtowards Kathy's disappearance being connected to that party
she attended. Hoping that the passageof seven years might have changed things,
or at least altered perspectives, SergeantVan began the process of tracking down and
reinterviewing everyone who had attended the partyat the Williamsburg North apartments. Somewhat to

(35:17):
his surprise, two of the menpresent dramatically changed their stories from what they
had told original investigators back in ninetythree. The new details delivered by these
men completely changed detectives' views of thecase. According to the witnesses, arriving
at the apartment for the party thatnight, they drank alcohol, smoked marijuana,

(35:40):
and even indulged in prescription pills.In her interview with Unfound, Darlene
stated that she had been told thatone of the attendees, Jeff Schaeffer,
had arrived at the party with whatwas described as a mountain of cocaine.
According to the interviews, the wholegroup went out to a bar right around
the corner from the apartment complex andwere having a good time when things took

(36:05):
a bad turn. An argument brokeout between Kathy and John Riker, leading
to him slapping her across the face. At this point, Joe Shaefer,
his boyfriend Steve tim Shaefer, andhis boyfriend Sam decided to leave the bar
and head down to a popular gayclub in the seven hundred block of Massachusetts
Avenue, approximately eight miles from theapartment. This left Kathy in the company

(36:30):
of only John Riker and Jeff Shaeffer. The four men returned from Massachusetts Avenue
back to Joe Shaeffer's apartment in theearly morning hours, and from this point
forward, their stories all have slightdifferences. Some of the men told Sergeant
Van that Kathy appeared to have sufferedfrom some kind of a medical emergency at

(36:52):
the apartment and then fell unconscious,at which time she was carried out and
placed inside of John Riker's car.Riker denies this to this day. Two
of the men present would go onto tell Sergeant Van that Kathy had passed
out in the bathroom, likely froma drug overdose. One man claimed Kathy

(37:13):
had entered the bathroom and then they'dheard the sound of her falling to the
floor, while another man stated thathe saw Kathy lying in the shower,
where John Riiker was spraying her withwater and trying to wake her up.
Without waking, she was wrapped ina blanket with only her hair and toes
sticking out from either end. Shewas then carried into the living room,

(37:34):
where the group of men present madean agreement to never discuss what happened that
night. At that point, allegedly, John Riker and Jeff Schaeffer carried Kathy
to Riker's car and drove away.Shaeffer returned to the apartment approximately two hours
later without Riker or Kathy. Accordingto some of the men present, it

(37:57):
seemed apparent that Kathy had likely overdosed. Whether or not this was accidental or
if there was foul play involved,was unknown. However, they also confirmed
that none of them had checked fora pulse or ensured Kathy was alive before
she was taken out of the apartment. Where she was taken, and what
happened to her after that could onlybe known by John Reiker, Jeff Schaeffer,

(38:21):
or both. Confronted with this information, Riker stuck to his original story,
saying that Kathy was alive and awakewhen they left the party, that
he took her home, and thather and her car disappeared while he was
on a work call the next morning. The entire scenario was suspect. While
it was known that Kathy had indulgedin drug use and that the people she

(38:43):
was partying with that night weren't exactlyon the straight and narrow path. Investigator
Van couldn't help but wonder if,indeed this was an accidental overdose, why
would they not have taken her toa hospital. They could have easily dumped
her at emergency room and then leftwithout providing any information about themselves or being
connected. They could have taken heranywhere and called nine to one one to

(39:05):
get her assistance, and left herthere. Given that none of this happened,
Kathy's family is of the belief thatshe was dead when they took her
out of the apartment, wrapped inthat blanket. Investigators, while unable to
say so with any certainty, tendto agree, though without additional evidence and
information, they will not comment ontheir running theory of what happened that night.

(39:28):
Faced with this new information, itessentially confirmed what the family had thought
for years, that Kathy never disappearedand was dead sometime between the late night
hours of the thirteenth and the earlymorning hours of the fourteenth. They never
believed Riker's story, and they thoughtit was much more likely that she either
died accidentally or was perhaps purposefully madeto ingest an overdose. Laverne would later

(39:52):
note that regardless of the how andthe why, they wanted to bring her
home and give her a proper burial, saying, quote, Kathy's dead and
I want to know where her body'sat. I want her to know.
We never gave up looking for herend quote. On the morning of September
twenty fifth, two thousand, SergeantVan obtained a search warrant for John Riker's

(40:15):
Greenwood home, the place where Kathywas allegedly last seen alive. The affidavit
for the warrant specified that after attendinga party with Riker on the thirteenth,
Kathy had either fallen unconscious or died. Searches were conducted in Marion County,
where the apartment was at which theparty had been held, and also where

(40:36):
Riker's business was located, as wellas Johnson County, where Riker lived,
and Bartholomew County, where Jeff Schaefferthen lived in a home located in the
town of Hope, a part ofhaw Creek Township. Evidence acquired by Sergeant
Van suggested that John Riker was thelast person to see Kathy, and that

(40:57):
corroborating witnesses placed Jeff Shape as theman who had helped carry her body to
the car, who then left withRiiker. Van later stated that several articles
had been gathered at the locations whenthey had done these searches, and that
they had been sent out to thelab to determine whether or not they had
blood on them, if indeed thatwas ever determined, the state police have

(41:19):
never said. In addition to thesearches of the homes and businesses, police
also searched several bodies of water.They utilized cadaver dogs in the homes as
well as the bodies of water andin at least one field, but they
never managed to find anything. SergeantVan would later note that without a body,
it would be difficult for them tomove forward while the investigation remained open,

(41:43):
they needed more to be able tofile any kind of charges in hopes
of obtaining information, Several people wereapparently called to testify before a grand jury.
One of these people, according toDarlene, was Tim Shaeffer. She
stated on unfre found that Tim Shaeffer, allegedly, while traveling to the grand

(42:04):
jury with his father, told himthat he was afraid he would be going
away for a long time. Reportedly, following the grand jury, no indictments
were handed out because none of thepeople who testified could confirm that Kathy was
dead when she had been removed fromthe apartment. The whole situation was bizarre,
as Sergeant Van pointed out, werethis the case of an accidental overdose,

(42:29):
there would likely be no crime toprosecute and no charges to file.
They might have been able to chargesome or all of the men with improper
disposal of a body or even theftof a vehicle, but the statute of
limitations has since passed on both ofthese crimes, and still no one has
been willing to come forward with information. Sergeant Van went on to note that

(42:51):
unless Kathy's body is recovered and thereare obvious signs of homicide, there is
no likelihood that anyone would face anycharges. This only makes things worse for
the family who feel at this pointin time that the information they need to
bring Kathy home is being withheld fromthem, only to torture them and make

(43:12):
it that much more painful. Darlenewould later tell the Daily Journal quote picture
if it was your sister or brotheror daughter, could you leave them lying
out there? Even though they're dead. You still need to find them.
You want to rescue them, tohave a proper burial to say goodbye.
End quote. Darlene and the familycontinued to push for more investigating, additional

(43:37):
searches, anything they could to keepthe case alive. In two thousand and
two, Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newmanmet with investigators to discuss the case.
In a letter written to Darlene,Newman explained why charges would not be filed.
He wrote, in part, quote, I agree with their assessment that

(44:00):
regrettably, all leads available at presenthave been pursued, and we are no
closer to finding Lola or having acase against the person who either killed her
and or disposed of her body andvehicle. This pains all of us who
pride ourselves on leaving no stone unturned, but none of us can even imagine
the pain you must feel of losscompounded by uncertainty. I wish there were

(44:24):
more I could say, but allwere in agreement. Though we will always
be prepared to go after new informationend quote. A little over a year
later, on Friday, June sixth, two thousand and three, Lake County
Sheriff's Captain Hank Waronka, who serveddual duty as the operator of Aquatics Recovery

(44:45):
and Rescue, brought his divers outto a property in the four thousand block
of Wicker Road, located in PerryTownship. Wicker Road is southwest from downtown
Indianapolis, and there are multiple lakesin the area. Darlene later told reporters
that she had been directed towards thesite by a member of law enforcement who

(45:06):
didn't want to get directly involved withthe case. She explained, quote,
we were told to go there anddive by a state police officer who didn't
want to get involved. It wasHank who found the witness who saw someone
digging in the field early in themorning. End quote. The divers searched
in Marion County the location of PerryTownship free of charge for Darlene. While

(45:30):
they didn't find anything of interest,beneath the water. The tip about someone
digging in the area would not beignored. Four months later, in October
of two thousand and three, theIndiana State Police returned and conducted a series
of interviews with neighbors in the areaof Wicker Road. Though police would not
specify for whom they were searching,they did tell the media they were potentially

(45:53):
looking for more than one body.During the search, they used bulldozers,
a back hoe, and cadaver dogs. They also used ground penetrating radar lent
to them from the Indiana Geological Survey. No warrant was necessary for the search,
as the property had since changed handsand the new owner told investigators they

(46:14):
could search whatever they needed to.Sergeant Steve Stilettovitch of the State Police told
reporters they had been drawn to thearea by tips and that their search was
targeting the location of people reported missingin the previous five years. Shannon Rayan
Turner had gone missing from Indianapolis onThursday, December fourth, nineteen ninety seven,

(46:38):
just over four years after Kathy Turnerhad been engaged in a relationship with
David Mays, a known enforcer andmember of the Outlaws. Biker gang.
In two thousand and two, Mayswas charged with Turner's murder, despite the
fact that investigators to this day havenever recovered her body. However, many

(46:59):
believe their could potentially be a linkbetween Turner's disappearance and Kathy's since both women
had been employed as exotic dancers inthe Indianapolis area. The search conducted on
Friday, October seventeenth did not resultin the discovery of any remains, but
it did kick off a strange event. Larry Lee Ballard, who once lived

(47:22):
in the four thousand block of WickerRoad, was serving a ten year sentence
for conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamineto the Outlaws. He was at the
time serving his sentence at a Manchester, Kentucky prison camp. Reportedly, the
prison camp was very lax, andmost inmates described it as more than of

(47:44):
a summer camp than a prison.This fact made what happened all the more
curious. Just two days after searchingbegan, Ballard escaped from the prison camp
and went on the run. OnFriday, October thirty first, Ballard was
arrested outside of Martinville at a friend'shome in rural Morgan County. Kathy's family,

(48:05):
along with Shannons, wondered what couldhave made a guy like Ballard,
who was arguably serving easy time,want to risk being given more time and
a likely transfer to a more securecorrectional institution by escaping. It seemed highly
likely that he was under the beliefinvestigators might find something on his former property

(48:25):
that could let him a long,long sentence. When police had initially gone
to the area to interview neighbors,they had contacted the prison camp and requested
that Ballard be placed in solitary confinementso he wouldn't learn of their plans.
However, once he was let out, he seemed to have discovered the truth

(48:45):
pretty quickly and decided to hit theroad. Unfortunately, nothing major was discovered
in connection with Ballard's escape, recapture, or the excavation in dives conducted in
the area. This, of course, results in a lot of pain and
frustration for Kathy's family, who hadgotten to their wits end with the state

(49:05):
police, who they believed simply weren'tdoing enough. Sergeant Van noted that part
of the reason he had directed asearch in the area was because he'd received
a tip that Kathy might have hadsome connection to the outlaws, though what
that connection was has never been establishedpublicly. In November of two thousand and
three, which marked ten years sinceKathy had last been seen, the family

(49:28):
made it very clear they were beyondfrustrated with the work, or lack thereof,
of the state Police. Sergeant Van, asked about their frustration, replied,
quote, at times they have feltI was a great detective, and
other times they have raked me overthe coals and have caused me to justify
my work to the State Police superintendent, prosecutor the whole nine yards end quote.

(49:53):
Strangely, in the same interview,Van says, quote, we are
accused of one way communication. Theysay we don't get to see what he's
got, and they never will.We don't do that. I will go
where the investigation points, where theinvestigation leads me. I will follow any
lead until it can't be followed anymore. End quote. Seemingly, he argues

(50:19):
that he's willing to do whatever ittakes to solve the case, but then
he qualifies it curiously, saying thatwhile he'll follow any lead until it can't
be followed anymore, he won't justfollow any lead, saying of the family.
Quote, I'm not going to runaround blind and let them lead me
by the nose and be their privateinvestigator. End quote. Kathy's family began

(50:42):
urging the State Police to turn thecase over to another agency, perhaps one
with more success and skill investigating coldcases, but the State Police were not
interested in doing that. It seemsan odd choice to cling tightly to the
case, especially when the guy whowas the lead investigator for the longest time,
Sergeant Van, appears to have somekind of a personal conflict with the

(51:05):
family after all those years of failedattempts. Darlene replied to Van's statements,
saying no one in the family wastrying to lead them around, and they
certainly hadn't demanded their files. Sheexplained, quote, where is the advocate
from the police to our family?We are not asking for investigators notes.

(51:25):
We just want to know what's beendone. End quote. In May of
two thousand and four, the JohnsonCounty Dive Team, made up of eight
Johnson County Sheriff's deputies, were askedby the family to conduct an underwater search
at the Eagle Trace Retention Pond justoff Olive Branch Road, which is located

(51:45):
as the crow flies, two milessouth of the former home of John Reiker.
The pond was noted as being approximatelytwelve feet deep and with almost zero
visibility. Divers managed to recover anineteen ninety Chevy pickup truck from the bottom.
It had been reported missing in nineteenninety six, so they were fairly

(52:06):
certain it had no connection to Kathy. They also found and pulled up a
three hundred gallon oil tank, butupon further examination, there were no remains
inside. Unfortunately, it was anotherdead end, but the family were grateful
for the Johnson County divers assistance.One of the last major searches for Kathy

(52:29):
took place in two thousand and five, twelve years after her disappearance and nearly
twenty years ago today. Two ofthe men who had been president at the
party when Kathy was last seen hadpassed away over the ensuing years. Brothers
Joe and Jeff Schaeffer were gone,with Jeff passing in October of two thousand
and five at the age of fortysix. For many years, Jeff had

(52:52):
lived on a property off East CountryRoad in close proximity to Schaeffer Lake,
which was owned by a consortium ofhis relatives. Darlene learned that police had
previously been in the area searching forKathy, and so she decided to take
a look for herself. Upon visiting, a neighbor informed her that Jeff had

(53:14):
died and that while police had beenin the area years earlier, they hadn't
searched the home and they had misseda few of the nearby ponds. Approaching
the home, Darlene met the newowners, who were Mennonites. After explaining
the circumstances, they invited Darlene intothe home and told her they would be
more than happy to allow her tosearch the house in whatever surrounding land they

(53:37):
had access to. As it turnedout, when the home was purchased,
much of the surrounding property was keptby the Shaeffer estate regardless. The owner
showed Darlene something he had always foundodd. Jeff Schaeffer had dug through the
floor of the kitchen and constructed hisown cellar. As soon as she saw
it, Darlene said, on unfound, she assumed that her sister's body had

(54:00):
been kept in that place until itwas later dumped or buried elsewhere. Ground
penetrating radar was brought to the housealong with a cadaver dog. The radar
struck a point in the yard wherean anomaly was spotted, while the dog
indicated that something might be beneath aconcrete pad supporting a back porch. Not

(54:21):
wanting to impose on the family,Darlene made the choice to have them dig
where the radar had gone off,and at the end of the day it
turned out to be nothing. Tothis day, Darlene said she regrets not
also ripping up the back porch anddigging beneath it. However, in the
years since the home has come undernew ownership, and when Darlene inquired about
digging, the owner made it clearthat he wasn't about to have his back

(54:45):
porch torn apart. In twenty thirteen, Kathy's case was added to a set
of Indiana Cold Case playing cards tobe distributed into the prison system in hopes
of getting new tips or leads forthe family. However, they believe the
answers are most likely to be foundat the bottom of a lake on private
property, that being Schaefer Lake.Reportedly, since the lake is owned by

(55:09):
multiple people, they all must agreeto allow investigators to conduct a search and
that has never happened. Whether ornot Schaeffer Lake holds the answers or if
it would just be another fruitless,heartbreaking search, remains unknown. When last
scene, Lola Katherine Coleman Fry wasdescribed as being a white female with brown

(55:35):
hair and green eyes, standing fivefeet five inches tall and weighing approximately one
hundred and twenty pounds. Though hername is Lola, she typically went by
Kathy, Katherine or Cat. Kathyhas a scar on her right knee,
a small scar on her forehead,and breast implants. She also went missing
with her car, a red andblack nineteen ninety Mitsubi she eclipsed bearing the

(56:00):
personalized license plate Lola. Kathy waslast known to be president at a party
at the Williamsburg North Apartments forty fourthirty Brookline Court in northeast Indianapolis on the
evening of Saturday, November thirteenth,nineteen ninety three. Also president at the
party were her ex boyfriend John Reiker, Tim Schaeffer, Steve Chafee, Joe

(56:24):
Shaeffer, now deceased, and JeffSchaeffer, also deceased. Kathy was twenty
eight years old at the time ofher disappearance. And if alive today,
would now be fifty nine years old. To date, none of the living
attendees of the party have come forwardto offer up new information that might help

(56:45):
the family to finally locate the remainsof their beloved daughter. Aunt and sister.
Kathy's disappearance had devastating effects on herfamily. While some sisters put their
lives on hold to try and searchfor her, other siblings struggled to confront
the harsh reality, suffering from panicand endless nightmares. Cathy's father, Vernon,

(57:07):
desperate to find answers, was takenadvantage of by so called psychics and
sensitives who claim to possess answers,only to give vague details that grow more
complex with each new check. Intwo thousand, seven, years after the
disappearance, Vernon and Dale divorced,the loss of their daughter becoming an unstoppable

(57:30):
pain they could no longer tolerate.Dale would ultimately move to Mississippi, where
she remarried and was granted a secondshot at a happy life, but nothing
could ever fill the void left byCathy. Both Vernon and Dale prayed to
bring their daughter home to find thetruth before their days on this planet came

(57:51):
to an end tragically. Both havesince passed without ever seeing a conclusion.
This November will mark thirty one yearsyears since Kathy Fry mysteriously vanished after heading
out to a party in northeast Indianapolis. Despite countless searches, thousands upon thousands
of flyers, coverage in newspapers andon television podcasts, and even unsolved mysteries,

(58:15):
not a single trace of the twentyeight year old has ever been found.
Her family continues to hope that somedaythey will be granted the ability to
bring her home so she might receivea proper burial. They now carry the
burden that laid heavily upon their parents'shoulders, as they know that without them,

(58:35):
Kathy's story will just fade from memory. Asked about the case all these
years later, Darlene replied, quote, when someone dies, you grieve it
and mourn it and live with thehole in your heart. But with this
there is no closure. You don'tgo on because if you go on,
nobody cares. So if we forget, then she is forgot. The vanishing

(59:10):
of Lola Catherine Fry is an extremelyfrustrating case, and that it seems like
we kind of know what happened.It seems apparent to almost anyone who's ever
looked into this case that something happenedat that party that Saturday night in November
and ninety three. However, outsideof the people who were present that night,
no one can say anything with anycertainty. Over the years, a

(59:32):
handful of different possibilities had been raised. She was killed at the party,
or overdosed and was disposed of,or maybe it had something to do with
the lawsuits she had going, ormaybe it was connected to a biker gang
in the area known for violent reprisalsand drug running. The one theory that
we can almost certainly dismiss out ofhands the one presented by John Reiker that

(59:54):
he came home in the morning andnoticed Kathy and her car were gone,
and he simply assume she'd driven backto Fort Wayne. That's the one theory
for which there's the least amount ofevidence, Being that there are a few
different theories, arguably with branching narrativesthat might intersect. I figured on tackling
those on the outskirts and then workingmy way in from what is possible to

(01:00:17):
what's most likely. The first placeto begin I think is with the alleged
connection between Kathy and the Outlaws bikergang. When Shannon Turner went missing in
December of nineteen ninety seven, investigatorshad pretty good reasons to assume her disappearance
might be connected to the gang.Turner was in a relationship with David Mays,

(01:00:38):
a dangerous member of the gang whowas known as an enforcer. Just
prior to Thanksgiving they got engaged.However, they missed an early December appointment
to apply for their marriage license,and reportedly it was because Turner didn't want
to be in the relationship at allanymore. The last time anyone in Turner's

(01:00:59):
family hurt from her was on Decemberfirst. She never came home for Christmas
as she always did, and she'snever been seen again. The last time
she was seen, she was leavingher job at Babes Showgirls west on Lafayette
Road. At the time, hercar was being worked on, so David
Mays was picking her up from work. She never made it home on the

(01:01:22):
fourth and has never been heard fromagain. Investigators ultimately charged May's with Turner's
murder five years after she vanished intwo thousand and two. He'd go on
to be acquitted of all charges,with the prosecution believing that their inability to
recover her body had led to thatacquittal. I can totally understand why someone

(01:01:44):
would believe that Mays was involved inTurner's disappearance and likely murder. He's a
violent criminal with a long rap sheet. They were in a relationship and apparently
on extremely opposite ends, with himwanting to get married and her wanting to
break up. There's enough there tomake a connection, and with May's being
one of the last people to seeTurner alive, it doesn't take a seasoned

(01:02:07):
investigator to follow the thread here.However, they've never found any solid physical
evidence. They did major searches alongWicker Road, but found no trace of
Turner or Kathy, and I thinkKathy is somewhat of a mystery here.
At no point have I seen muchof anything to link Kathy to David Mays,

(01:02:28):
Larry Ballard, or anyone associated withthe Outlaws. It appears the only
real similarities here are the fact thatboth Turner and Kathy worked as exotic dancers.
I suppose it's also worth noting thatKathy never worked at the club where
Turner was employed, and the majorityof Kathy's time was spent in South and
East Indianapolis, while Turner's club wasNorthwest. Sure they could have interacted or

(01:02:53):
had mutual connections, but no one'sever established any link. It doesn't sound
like any of their friends have hadany reason to associate them together, and
purely the one thing they really havein common is that they were exotic dancers
who disappeared in Indianapolis, where thestate police apparently don't care much about cases
like that. Moving our attention awayfrom the outlaws. The next theory that

(01:03:19):
many have linked Kathy to is thather disappearance was directly related to her lawsuits
against Dow Corning, brad Hurst,and doctor Charles Hughes. Now, I
think I should note several people whohave been alleged to have had negative connections
to Kathy have died, and doctorHughes is the most recent, passing away
following a battle with Parkinson's in Novemberof twenty twenty three, thirty years and

(01:03:44):
four days after Kathy was last seen. Eerie coincidences aside, The theory kind
of goes like this. Supposedly,Bradhurst would coerce his employees into getting breast
implants for which he would pay solong as they signed up to be his
exclusive dancers for two years. Hughes, a plastic surgeon, would then be

(01:04:05):
involved in the surgeries. When thingswent sideways, Kathy was among three women
who filed lawsuits. Those suits targetedHurst, Hughes, and the Dow Corning
Corporation. Now here's where it getsa little tricky. Kathy had already given
her deposition in regard to Hurst andDow Corning. She was scheduled to give

(01:04:26):
her deposition against Hughes on Monday thefifteenth, but as we all know,
she never made it to court.Now, in her interview, I'm unfound,
Darlene hinted that maybe Kathy had tobe gotten rid of because Hughes might
have been involved in an insurance scamin which he would bill insurance companies for
procedures previously paid for or never evenconducted, and the patients would get a

(01:04:48):
cut by going along with it.Seemingly, it would be argued that Hughes
wanted Kathy eliminated, so no onewould ever pick up on this. But
the problem is, even with Kathyon this information still made it out.
Now it's worth noting that there don'tappear to have ever been any charges or
legal issues for Hughes stemming from this. It seems likely that if he were

(01:05:12):
pulling off some major scam, rakingin cash and getting involved in potential homicides,
someone from law enforcement would have putit together. At the same time,
there were allegedly some issues regarding lawenforcement crossing lines when it came to
exotic dancers in Indianapolis. Indiana haswhat are known as State Excise Police,

(01:05:33):
who are essentially an arm of theIndiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission. While legit
law enforcement, they focused mostly onareas related to the sale and consumption of
alcohol and tobacco. Allegedly, throughoutthe early nineteen nineties, it was a
known secret that some of these officerswere engaging in sexual activity at the strip

(01:05:57):
clubs, including one supposedly owned byHurst, and that this was going on
even when Kathy worked there. Nowno major information has seemingly ever been released
here, but the speculation has beenthat perhaps some of these officers were willing
to look the other way on lawviolations in exchange for sexual favors from the

(01:06:18):
dancers, who arguably weren't volunteering forthe job. Whether or not this is
true, I can't confirm, thoughI will say it certainly doesn't look good.
How could Kathy's family believe she'd geta full and thorough investigation if members
of law enforcement were on the takefrom her boss, one of the men

(01:06:39):
alleged to have had good reason towant to see her disappear without additional follow
up. It's hard to know forcertain, but there's clearly some kind of
treasure trove of corruption and twisted moralsto be found were one to dig down
deep enough into this, I don'thave a hard time imagining that Doctor Hughes.
Probably he wasn't all that devastated whenCathy failed to show up to give

(01:07:01):
her deposition, and apparently he wasn'tbothered when she completely disappeared. At the
same time, no one can confirmwhether or not Hughes would have viewed this
as something massive enough to commit murderover. Remember, there were two other
dancers also involved in these lawsuits,so eliminating Kathy wouldn't necessarily have put an
end to any of the inquiries.At the same time, Darlene did state

(01:07:26):
that one of the lawyers working forKathy told her and her family directly that
he completely believed Hughes and Hurst wereinvolved in Kathy's disappearance. Whether or not
he possessed evidence or if this waspurely instinct or suspicion, has never been
clarified. Regardless, things get alittle strange here. It suggested that if

(01:07:49):
Kathy died at the party on Saturdaythe thirteenth, then it might actually have
been a homicide carried out at thebehest of Hurst and Hughes. That,
at least to me at this point, feels like a bit of a stretch.
You've got this twenty eight year oldwho's five'ot five one hundred and
twenty pounds. You want her eliminated, and your best plan is to invite

(01:08:12):
her to a party where there aregoing to be additional witnesses, and then
you'll encourage her to do drugs untilshe overdoses, or maybe you spike the
drugs or force her to ingest them. Sure, that's possible, but there's
a part of me that thinks itwould have been a lot easier to do
almost anything else. It stated multipletimes that John Riker was a regular at

(01:08:34):
Hearst's clubs and that's how he andKathy became linked. It said that he
was friends with Hurst and Hughes andlikely had knowledge of the breast implant scam.
So some have theorized that Riker wasasked to eliminate the problem for them,
and since he and Kathy had brokenup, he wanted some revenge for

(01:08:55):
himself too. The problem I havewith this is simple. Kathy gets into
riker car and he drives her tothe apartment complex for the party. Well,
you've already got her in the carand she's already agreed to go to
the party with you. I don'tknow why if we were planning to kill
her, you'd actually take her there. Wouldn't it be easier to just drive

(01:09:15):
her out into the middle of nowhereand commit the crime, or once she
agrees with your plans, to makearrangements to drive her into an ambush.
It seems like a lot of stepsand dancing around, when if they had
all conspired to kill her, therewere much easier ways to accomplish this.
Whether or not Hughes or Hurst wereinvolved, we may never know. Despite

(01:09:39):
the claims, the allegations and allthe rest, there's never been any solid
evidence to link either of them tothe crime where they involved in unsavory practices.
Did they prey on those that theycould take advantage of and then lock
them into barbaric contracts? This seemsto be the case, but as far
as I can tell from my ownwork, I couldn't find a link but

(01:10:00):
between Hurst or Hughes to any violentcrimes or situations even remotely bordering on homicide.
Scumbags are gonna scumbag, but thatdoesn't necessarily make the murderers. They
may have benefited financially and legally fromKathy's disappearance, but the truth of it
is, I can't place either ofthem at the apartment party, and every
witness, every piece of evidence,every solid theory points to that apartment party.

(01:10:27):
So let's dig into that party andthe attendees and see what, if
any connections can be made. Accordingto the story told by John Reiker to
police, Kathy parked her red andblack Mitsubishi Eclipse in the parking lot of
a then chee cheese restaurant located ateight sixty seven US Highway thirty one North,
approximately three miles from his home atfour sixty one Creek View Court in

(01:10:48):
Greenwood. He then picked Kathy upand the two made the trip north to
the Williamsburg North apartments forty four tothirty Brookline Court. At the time,
the apartment was rented by Joe Shaefer, who was both Kathy and her mother's
hairdresser. During my research, Ikept hitting dead ends with Joe, and

(01:11:09):
it might be because according to birthand death records, his name is actually
Dennis, but he went by hismiddle name. In November of nineteen ninety
three, Joe was thirty two yearsold, a former navyman. His obituary
notes that he died in May ofnineteen ninety nine at the age of thirty
eight. He was also joined atthe apartment that night by his then boyfriend,

(01:11:30):
Stephen Chafey, who also worked asa hairdresser. Then there was Joe's
brother, Tim, who was joinedat the party by his then boyfriend,
a man named Samuel. Then therewas the third brother, Jeff Shaefer,
who was thirty four years old inninety three and has also since passed away.
Beyond these men, there was JohnReiker, forty two years old at

(01:11:51):
the time. He was fifteen yearsolder than Kathy and also her former boyfriend,
who many alleged was both controlling andviolently abusive, so you might see
how Kathy might have felt comfortable attendingthis party. Her hairdressers there along with
his two brothers, there's two boyfriendsand John Riker. According to what's initially

(01:12:14):
reported, the group partied heavily.There was alcohol, prescription pills, marijuana,
and reportedly Jeff brings a mountain ofcocaine. The original story says they
all hung out, partied, wentto a few clubs, then returned to
the apartment, at which time Johnand Kathy leave together. Reiker tells authorities
that he drives Kathy to her car, she follows him back to his house

(01:12:36):
and they spend the night. Hethen claims that early Sunday morning, around
six am, he gets a callfrom one of his employees and has to
leave. He comes back to thehouse at eight thirty and Kathy and her
car are both gone. This isthe story he sticks to for years,
and because none of the men atthe party are willing to contradict him,

(01:12:58):
the police can't directly he's lying,even though his story sounds like bullshit.
However, things change in late ninetynine and early two thousand, when Sergeant
Van takes over the case. Injust a few months, he manages to
gather more evidence and information than hadbeen obtained in the previous seven years,
seemingly supporting the family's belief that theoriginal investigators didn't care about this case,

(01:13:21):
or at least didn't try very hard. Regardless, two of the men present
at the party changed their stories bythe process of elimination. We know it
can't be Joe because he dies inmid ninety nine. We know it can't
be Riker or Jeff because they neverchange their stories. That leaves Tim,
Steve and Sam. And there's abig part of me that doubts Tim would

(01:13:44):
flip on his brothers. So it'sprobably the two boyfriends who speak up years
later when they're no longer connected tothese men. According to Van, he's
told that the group all went outto a local bar. They saw a
fight between Kathy and Riker and heslapped her in the face. Not wanting
to deal with the drama, TimSteve, Joe, and Sam hop in
a cab and travel a few milesaway to a popular gay club on Massachusetts

(01:14:08):
Avenue. This leaves Kathy in thecompany of John Riker, who apparently just
slapped her and then there's Jeff Schaefferas well. What exactly happens between these
three over the course of the nextfew hours has never been revealed. When
again we pick up the story,the group of men have returned from the
club and arrive back at Joe's apartment, they state one of two different versions

(01:14:30):
of the story. Either Kathy entersthe bathroom and falls unconscious, or when
they come in, Kathy's already layingunconscious in the shower and Riker's trying to
wake her. Either way, it'spretty clear Kathy's incapacitated. Whether this is
from an overdose, accidental or forced, or for some other reason, we're
not sure now. At this time, Kathy's wrapped in a blanket and carried

(01:14:54):
out into the living room. Thenall of the people present get together and
agree that they're never going to talkabout what happened here tonight. At this
time, allegedly, Jeff and Johncarry Kathy out to the car and load
her into it. They then bothget in and drive away. Supposedly around
two hours later, Jeff returns byhimself, and Kathy's never seen again.

(01:15:16):
Whether or not there was any conversationor discussion about what had happened has never
been stated. All of this apparentlyhappens around five am, and with the
two hour window, it was seeminglystretch to some time between seven and seven
thirty, fitting in nicely with whenRiiker claims to have left his house that
morning. Riker's home in Greenwood istwenty six miles southwest from the apartment complex,

(01:15:42):
and according to Google Maps, wouldtake around thirty five minutes to drive.
Jeff Schaeffer's home was then in thetown of Hope and was just over
fifty three miles from the complex,taking an apparent fifty eight minutes to drive.
Putting all of the relative data infor someone to leave the complex to
the restaurant, grab Kathy's car,go to Riker's house, then go to

(01:16:02):
Shaeffer's house, and back to thecomplex, it would take over two and
a half hours, assuming they weremoving quick. However, if you cut
out the stop at the restaurant andthe stop at Riker's house, you have
a total round trip of two hoursand three minutes from the apartment complex to
Shaffer's home and Hope back to theapartment complex. This makes it entirely possible

(01:16:27):
that the two men could have drivenstraight to Shaeffer's home in close proximity to
Shaeffer Lake. Now, I've alwaysbeen under the impression that the reason Jeff
went along was because Riker couldn't disposeof the body and get Kathy's car by
himself. So maybe Jeff drives thecar or Riker does, and they head
straight down to his house and hope. Well, if that's the case,

(01:16:50):
then there's plenty of time to disposeof the body and make it back to
the apartment. I also think it'sworth noting that while it said Jeff returned
around two hours later, that wordaround is probably doing some heavy lifting.
We've got to keep in mind theseaccounts are being given by people who just
spent the previous few hours partying andgetting high as hell, so their perception

(01:17:13):
of time might not be super accurate. At the same time, a lot
of different things could have been done. They could have driven almost anywhere inside
thirty to forty miles from the apartmentcomplex and dumped or buried or submerged Kathy
in her car. Generally speaking,when someone disappears and their vehicle's also gone,
you're often looking at cases where peoplehave gone into the water. Whether

(01:17:35):
accidentally or as the result of foulplay. It seems most likely in this
case, since Kathy's car has neverbeen found, that she and the vehicle
are probably together. This leads many, including Kathy's family, to believe it's
very likely that she could have beendumped into Shaeffer Lake, which covers more

(01:17:56):
than one hundred acres. Unfortunately,to due to the private ownership arrangement of
the area, no searches have beenconducted because all of the owners must agree.
Of course, all these years later, you can't help but wonder if
new owners might have a different viewthan these folks had back in two thousands.
For the most part, almost everyonewho has analyzed this case believes there

(01:18:18):
are at least two people who knowexactly what happened to Kathy, Jeff Schaeffer
and John Reiker. Schaeffer's gone,he can't answer any more questions. Riiker,
though, is in his seventies andtoday is living down in Florida.
Despite the changing of stories and thecontradictory information given to investigators, Riker has

(01:18:40):
never changed his story and continues tomaintain that he brought Kathy home to his
house and that she left the nextmorning of her own volition, a story
that pretty much no one believes.But there's a little bit more. Allegedly,
one of the men at the partythat night told investigators that Joe Shaeffer,

(01:19:00):
the man who owned the apartment,was really struggling with what had happened.
He knew Kathy, and he knewher mother, and he wasn't sure
he could continue on without speaking up. Allegedly, in response to this,
John Riker showed up at his joband the two were involved in a verbal
altercation, during which time it wasmade exceedingly clear to Joe what would happen

(01:19:21):
if he decided to talk. It'sworth noting that neither Joe nor Jeff seemingly
had anything to say about Kathy evenwhen they were on their deathbeds. For
me, at least in my ownopinion, it's not really a question of
what happened per se. Even thefamily have come to accept that Kathy didn't

(01:19:43):
make it out of that apartment alive. The real question here is how exactly
did things go. Did Kathy partyingperhaps a little too much, accidentally overdose
and then everyone at the party freakedout and decided to get rid of the
body. Was she maybe coerced orfor into ingesting more drugs and alcohol than
she wanted, and thereby was murderedthrough a method of purposeful overdose. Then

(01:20:08):
again, you have to ask yourself, how do we know she overdosed at
all? If Riker did strike herthat night and the history of abuse was
legit, then how do we knowhe didn't take it too far and ended
up killing her. There are manymethods he could have employed that wouldn't have
left recognizable marks on the body,at least not as obvious as gunshots or
stab wounds. People saw her ina blanket, They didn't check her pulse,

(01:20:32):
they didn't try to revive her.That to me speaks volumes about the
fact that there could not have beenany doubt at the time that Cathy was
dead. So why don't you bringher to an emergency room and leave her
there? Why don't you throw herout on a street corner and call nine
to one one, or leave herin a field somewhere to be found.

(01:20:53):
Hell, why not bring her backto her own car, throw her inside,
pour some drugs in there, andmake it look like she odeed.
If this were a group of teenagersor younger folks, I could buy that
they were afraid and just wanted toget rid of her, but that's not
the case. They're all using drugs, they're all partying. This isn't their
first rodeo. To me, theonly reason you go to such lengths to

(01:21:16):
hide the body, to eliminate thecar, to threaten and persuade others to
keep their mouths shut is because thiswas no accident. Kathy was murdered and
they knew if she was found theycould swing for it. That's the only
way any of this makes any senseto me. And even then you have
to wonder, all these years later, half the people present are dead.

(01:21:39):
Now what stops someone from coming forward. Police have made it clear there are
unlikely to be any charges. Thefamily would love to see justice done,
but they'd also accept the opportunity togrieve and seek some form of closure by
bringing Kathy home and laying her torest. All it would take is one

(01:22:00):
call, one anonymous text or email, and you could help raise a veil
that has haunted a family for morethan thirty years. Her parents lost their
lives without ever knowing the truth,and her sisters continued to grow older,
struggling to accept the likelihood that theytoo may never know for sure, but

(01:22:20):
they refuse to give up. Surely, someone out there knows where Kathy is,
whether you wear at the party thatnight or you've heard the story over
the years. People like this don'ttend to keep their mouths shut. Surely
someone possesses the truth, and oneday, come hell or high water,
it's gonna come out, whether it'sa massive search conducted by the state police

(01:22:45):
or a couple of guys diving intothe lake to check for Kathy in her
car. You can't hold the tideback forever. But if you know something,
if you've lost someone in your life, if you have felt grief and
pain at someone else's ease absence,then you need to seek out the courage
it takes to tell someone the truthabout Kathy. All of that pain,

(01:23:08):
that grief, the nightmares, thetrauma, the horror is all on those
who could alleviate this family's pain andchoose not to. Because unless someone comes
forward or new information is found,the vanishing of Lola Catherine Fry will remain
open, unsolved, and very cold. If you're looking for more information about

(01:23:41):
the vanishing of Lola Catherine Fry,there are many forums and news websites discussing
her case. For this episode,the two most prominent news sources were The
Daily Journal and the Indianapolis Star.I would also highly recommend checking out Darlene's
interview on the Unfound Potcast, andI'll provide a link to that episode in

(01:24:01):
the show notes. If you haveany information about the vanishing of Lola Catherine
Fry, please contact the Indiana StatePolice at three one seven eight nine to
nine eight five zero eight. Youcan also contact Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana

(01:24:24):
at three one seven two six'two tips. That's three one seven two
six two eight four seven seven.What do you believe happened? Tweet me
at Tracevpod, email me at traceEvidencepod at gmail dot com, or comment
in the Facebook group. Just aquick reminder, if you're planning to attend

(01:24:47):
crime Con this year in Nashville fromMay thirty first through June second, use
promo code trace at crimecon dot comto save ten percent on your pass.
That's promo code trace at Crimecon dotcom. Now I'd like to take a
moment to thank our amazing Patreon producers, without whom Trace Evidence would not be

(01:25:10):
possible. A massive thank you toAndrew Guarino and m Bertram, Camellia Tyler,
Christine Greco, Danny Renee, DeniseDingsdale, Desiree Laro, Donna Buttram,
Deanni Dyson, Jennifer Winkler, JustinSnyder, Carol Morland, k Y

(01:25:39):
Lars Jensen, Fangel, Leslie b, Lisa Hobson, Madison La Julier,
Melissa Brakhuisen, Nick Mohar, Shehers, Roberta Jansen, Ruth Stacy Finnegan,
Stephanie Joyner, Tom Radford, andwend Oregon. I want to thank you

(01:26:00):
all so much for your support.It means the world to me, and
you are truly the lifeblood of thispodcast. If you're interested in supporting the
show and listening to your episode's adfree, please visit Patreon dot com,
slash trace Evidence, or click thesupport option on the official website at trace

(01:26:20):
Dashevidence dot com. This concludes ourlook into the vanishing of Lola Catherine Fry,
a case that I believe is extremelysolvable and I hope we'll see some
updates on sooner than later. Beforeleaving you today, I just wanted to
apologize for my absence these past fewweeks. To make a long story short,

(01:26:43):
my computer died. HP won't honorthe warranty, so I ordered a
new computer. It arrived broken,and then I had to order another one
and send the broken one back.Basically, I've spent the past three weeks
either waiting for computers to arrive orarguing with companies about them. Thankfully,
things seem to be back on tracknow, so I truly appreciate your kindness

(01:27:06):
and patience, and I hope you'lljoin me next week for another unsolved case
on the next episode of Trace Evidence.

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238 - The Vanishing of Lola Katherine Fry

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}238 - The Vanishing of Lola Katherine Fry