April 29, 2025 • 10 mins
In September 1985, two Muncie teenagers, Ethan Dixon and Kimberly Dowell, were shot and killed in their car at Westside Park. The victims, students at Muncie Northside High School, had no known connections to crime, making the case notorious. They were discovered by an officer clearing the park after closing time. The car was still running, with one window down and the other shattered by a gunshot, raising questions about the motive behind the killings.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All too often they are cold cases, and this one
is no different.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The story is true. That's true. No, it sounds made up.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Gerry and Shannon present True crime.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Mounsey, Indiana is the locale of our true crime Tuesday Tail.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This was a story that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Began on September twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five. We're talking
about sixteen year old Ethan Dixon and fifteen year old
Kimberly Dow. Ethan is on the debate team. He's president
of the junior class at North Side High School. Tons
of friends. Kimberly jv cheerleader. She had just been elected
(00:45):
to the Court of the Homecoming Queen the week before.
These two were found shot and killed in the hatchback
in west Side Park on September twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five.
Happened to be a police officer that found them.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, just before midnight, this officer from Munsey, Indiana and
his canine were walking in west Side Park right along
White River Boulevard, not far from Tillotson. You know that
is Tillotson and White River. Although parks closed at eleven
o'clock at night, a few cars were still in the park.
That wasn't that unusual. He wasn't there to bust people necessarily.
(01:23):
He gets back to his car with the dog, ready
to leave the park, and he realizes that there are
some fresh tire tracks leading to a parked car, and
he thought, well, you shouldn't be there now. I mean,
it'd be one thing if you were staying and going
to leave, but you shouldn't show up now. So his
headlights sweep the car, and the people in the car
didn't react to that.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So he gets out and he walks up to the car.
Its engine was still idling, and you could see a
portable stereo visible in the back. Now, kids, back in
the nineteen hundreds, cars didn't come with great stereos.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
They just didn't.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The sound quality sucked, so sometimes you'd take your boom
box and eighties it was a popular item to have
a big old stereo and you'd put it in the
backseat to your car so you'd have a better sound system.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
That is what they saw in the back of the car.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
They also saw that the officer also saw two fully
clothed people.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
A young man and a young woman.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
They were in the front seats and it was Kimberly
and Ethan that had both been shot.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
In the temple.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
He was shot in the torso, oh, I'm sorry she
had been shot in the temple. Now, the window glass
on the passenger side of the car was shattered, so
whoever who fired those shots in was on Kimberly's side.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So you can imagine a small town month not tiny,
but a small town like Munsey, Indiana. The deaths of
two teenagers like this, very popular kids, was shattering to
this community and they all wanted to see this thing solved.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Now, in this day and age, you'd have what cell
phone records, text messages, emails, all of the things that
make solving crimes doable. In nineteen eighty five, none of
that existed, and so on its face there seemed to
be no rhyme or reason, like you said, just good
kids at the time. Paul Cox, he's now seventy one.
(03:19):
He was captain in charge of officer training. Why was
he there and why was he given the case? What
that baloney title? Well, the reason he had that bolooney
title is he was demoted when he chose the wrong
mayoral candidate in the previous election. So he was sent
to Siberia of the police agency, which happened to be
(03:40):
in charge of officer training, but he was also very
well seasoned, so he was put in charge of this investigation.
He was pulled from his usual duties and put in charge.
He took the case file home. Paul did covered his
family room floor with his contents.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Interesting that he.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Focused on Kimberly Dowell's stepfather as a potential suspect in
this case. Mom claims that the stepfather was home the
whole time. It didn't actually leave the house until they
had received word that Kimberly was missing or was gone,
and that they were trying to find him. Sorry that
they were trying to find her, and that's why the
(04:21):
stepdad left the house.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Not short on tips, he says, no crime has received
the tips that this double murder did ten or fifteen
in an hour.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
They were getting didn't peter out for some time.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Unfortunately, the tips never resulted in a solid suspect or
an arrest.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
There was one of the guys that decided Robert Weller,
one of the investigators. He played on a hunch on
what would be the tenth anniversary of the murders, so
September twenty eighth, nineteen ninety five. He thought that there
would be a chance that whoever did this was going
to mark the anniversary of the murders by revisiting that park,
(04:59):
So they staked out park all night and came up
completely empty. Now again, all those tips that came in
ten to fifteen a day that they were dealing with,
and not one of them leads to a hard suspect,
but they did have along with the stepfather, they did
have some suspects. In the middle of True Crime Tuesday,
(05:20):
were talking about the West Side Park murders out of Munsey, Indiana.
This would have been nineteen eighty five. Sixteen year old
Ethan Dixon fifteen year old Kimberly Dowell sitting in a
cart Volkswagen Rabbit looks like listening to music late at night,
probably making out that's what they do. But for some
(05:40):
unknown reason, Kimberly was shot in the head, Ethan shot
in the chest. They never came up with a murder weapon,
although there was a holster they found in the car,
but they said it probably wasn't connected to the murders.
And despite the fact that there were a lot of
tips that came in, they never really were able to
(06:03):
solve this crime. And like I mentioned that, one of
the officers that was investigating thought originally that the stepfather,
that Kimberly's stepfather, might have been a good suspect early on,
but it turns out that that was not the case.
(06:25):
Stepfather had a pretty strong alibi, even though the only
person who could verify that was his wife, don Vogel,
saying was his name. They never were able to pin
it on him, or anybody else for that matter. So
a couple of the people that were involved in all
of this, I'm trying to find where the list of
(06:47):
suspects went. I wanted to point out that again, even
though this was an absolutely tragic story in that these
two young these two teenagers, died. Kimberly Diedl's father, not
the stepfather, but her father, said that one of the
greatest things that came out of it was that the
(07:09):
city itself, this town of Munsey, Indiana, came together.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Some of the suspects and scenarios are as follows. As
we mentioned, there were numerous tips and leads. There was
the Monte Carlo driver, the popular car back then, a
Chevrolet Monte Carlo seen in the park that night. Police
focused on finding that vehicle as well as a second car,
(07:34):
released a composite sketch of the car's driver based on
descriptions from witnesses. The driver of the Monte Carlo became
a part of lore surrounding the case, but police ultimately
said that they don't think the man nor the vehicle
had anything to do with the slayings.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
There.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
The other one was the cross town rival. They talked
about rumors or they'd heard rumors that sixteen year old
Ethan had gotten in our human maybe an actual fight
with a teenager from the south side of Muncie. I mean,
that's pretty specific, but at the time, the idea that
he felt threatened after this thing lent some special importance
(08:14):
to the presence of a knife that was found in
his car. But people were police sorry, were never able
to actually confirm that a fight had taken place.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
The stepfather's name Kate cap Resurfacing. He was one of
the first focuses of the police, but never charged, and
he said that the rumors, by the way, in late
nineties he did an interview, said they ruined his life.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You can imagine.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Then there was the drifter, one of the more chilling
scenarios that the two young people were targets of a
random killer who was just passing through. Police looked at
a similar incident in Kansas five years earlier, but said
they didn't believe the cases were connected.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And then finally, one of Ethan's friends said that he
and Ethan loved Dungeons and Dragons and used to play
Dungeons and Dragons on a regular basis. The last of
the potential suspects in this case was quote the Dungeon Master. Now,
because Ethan and his buddies played Dungeons and Dragons, there
(09:13):
was some talk, and again this is rumor mill talk,
but there was some talk that the fantasy that is
Dungeons and Dragons was somehow acted out and gone horribly wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I think that that was kind of one of the
things that was speculated upon in the late eighties with
a lot of different crimes of like, is it a
dark thing that the Satanism?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, because all these kids were into it, but it
was kind.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Of secretive and probably Ozzy Osbourne and ac DC.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
One of the more poignant quotes I read in this
article was from one of the friends of Ethan. Ethan
was the kid who was shot and killed, the debate
team member, the class president. Tom was one of Ethan's
closest friends. They hung out every day, they played D
and D to together. They were both on the debate team.
(10:02):
And Tom says that about Ethan he was really smart,
very charismatic, loyal to his friends, a lot of fun.
He was class president, and he said it was such
a dramatic event with dramatic ramifications that happened to a
bunch of teenagers, where the smallest thing is dramatic.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
They didn't sleep well at night.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Nobody did for the rest of high school the next
two years. Not until Tom left for college did he
feel safe at night. But I thought that that was
so so true. A bunch of teenagers were the smallest
thing is dramatic, so true, right, and then this is
the biggest thing that could possibly happen to them, And
(10:44):
how much that how much weight that would come with
it would come with weight for no matter where you
are in life.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, but again, still no solution to that murder of
Ethan and Kimberly from back in nineteen eighty five,
All too often they are cold cases, and this one
is no different.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
The story is true. That's true. No, it sounds made up.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Gerry and Shannon present True crime.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Mounsey, Indiana is the locale of our true crime Tuesday Tail.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
This was a story that.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Began on September twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five. We're talking
about sixteen year old Ethan Dixon and fifteen year old
Kimberly Dow. Ethan is on the debate team. He's president
of the junior class at North Side High School. Tons
of friends. Kimberly jv cheerleader. She had just been elected
(00:45):
to the Court of the Homecoming Queen the week before.
These two were found shot and killed in the hatchback
in west Side Park on September twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five.
Happened to be a police officer that found them.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, just before midnight, this officer from Munsey, Indiana and
his canine were walking in west Side Park right along
White River Boulevard, not far from Tillotson. You know that
is Tillotson and White River. Although parks closed at eleven
o'clock at night, a few cars were still in the park.
That wasn't that unusual. He wasn't there to bust people necessarily.
(01:23):
He gets back to his car with the dog, ready
to leave the park, and he realizes that there are
some fresh tire tracks leading to a parked car, and
he thought, well, you shouldn't be there now. I mean,
it'd be one thing if you were staying and going
to leave, but you shouldn't show up now. So his
headlights sweep the car, and the people in the car
didn't react to that.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So he gets out and he walks up to the car.
Its engine was still idling, and you could see a
portable stereo visible in the back. Now, kids, back in
the nineteen hundreds, cars didn't come with great stereos.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
They just didn't.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The sound quality sucked, so sometimes you'd take your boom
box and eighties it was a popular item to have
a big old stereo and you'd put it in the
backseat to your car so you'd have a better sound system.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
That is what they saw in the back of the car.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
They also saw that the officer also saw two fully
clothed people.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
A young man and a young woman.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
They were in the front seats and it was Kimberly
and Ethan that had both been shot.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
In the temple.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
He was shot in the torso, oh, I'm sorry she
had been shot in the temple. Now, the window glass
on the passenger side of the car was shattered, so
whoever who fired those shots in was on Kimberly's side.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
So you can imagine a small town month not tiny,
but a small town like Munsey, Indiana. The deaths of
two teenagers like this, very popular kids, was shattering to
this community and they all wanted to see this thing solved.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Now, in this day and age, you'd have what cell
phone records, text messages, emails, all of the things that
make solving crimes doable. In nineteen eighty five, none of
that existed, and so on its face there seemed to
be no rhyme or reason, like you said, just good
kids at the time. Paul Cox, he's now seventy one.
(03:19):
He was captain in charge of officer training. Why was
he there and why was he given the case? What
that baloney title? Well, the reason he had that bolooney
title is he was demoted when he chose the wrong
mayoral candidate in the previous election. So he was sent
to Siberia of the police agency, which happened to be
(03:40):
in charge of officer training, but he was also very
well seasoned, so he was put in charge of this investigation.
He was pulled from his usual duties and put in charge.
He took the case file home. Paul did covered his
family room floor with his contents.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Interesting that he.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Focused on Kimberly Dowell's stepfather as a potential suspect in
this case. Mom claims that the stepfather was home the
whole time. It didn't actually leave the house until they
had received word that Kimberly was missing or was gone,
and that they were trying to find him. Sorry that
they were trying to find her, and that's why the
(04:21):
stepdad left the house.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Not short on tips, he says, no crime has received
the tips that this double murder did ten or fifteen
in an hour.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
They were getting didn't peter out for some time.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Unfortunately, the tips never resulted in a solid suspect or
an arrest.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
There was one of the guys that decided Robert Weller,
one of the investigators. He played on a hunch on
what would be the tenth anniversary of the murders, so
September twenty eighth, nineteen ninety five. He thought that there
would be a chance that whoever did this was going
to mark the anniversary of the murders by revisiting that park,
(04:59):
So they staked out park all night and came up
completely empty. Now again, all those tips that came in
ten to fifteen a day that they were dealing with,
and not one of them leads to a hard suspect,
but they did have along with the stepfather, they did
have some suspects. In the middle of True Crime Tuesday,
(05:20):
were talking about the West Side Park murders out of Munsey, Indiana.
This would have been nineteen eighty five. Sixteen year old
Ethan Dixon fifteen year old Kimberly Dowell sitting in a
cart Volkswagen Rabbit looks like listening to music late at night,
probably making out that's what they do. But for some
(05:40):
unknown reason, Kimberly was shot in the head, Ethan shot
in the chest. They never came up with a murder weapon,
although there was a holster they found in the car,
but they said it probably wasn't connected to the murders.
And despite the fact that there were a lot of
tips that came in, they never really were able to
(06:03):
solve this crime. And like I mentioned that, one of
the officers that was investigating thought originally that the stepfather,
that Kimberly's stepfather, might have been a good suspect early on,
but it turns out that that was not the case.
(06:25):
Stepfather had a pretty strong alibi, even though the only
person who could verify that was his wife, don Vogel,
saying was his name. They never were able to pin
it on him, or anybody else for that matter. So
a couple of the people that were involved in all
of this, I'm trying to find where the list of
(06:47):
suspects went. I wanted to point out that again, even
though this was an absolutely tragic story in that these
two young these two teenagers, died. Kimberly Diedl's father, not
the stepfather, but her father, said that one of the
greatest things that came out of it was that the
(07:09):
city itself, this town of Munsey, Indiana, came together.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Some of the suspects and scenarios are as follows. As
we mentioned, there were numerous tips and leads. There was
the Monte Carlo driver, the popular car back then, a
Chevrolet Monte Carlo seen in the park that night. Police
focused on finding that vehicle as well as a second car,
(07:34):
released a composite sketch of the car's driver based on
descriptions from witnesses. The driver of the Monte Carlo became
a part of lore surrounding the case, but police ultimately
said that they don't think the man nor the vehicle
had anything to do with the slayings.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
There.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
The other one was the cross town rival. They talked
about rumors or they'd heard rumors that sixteen year old
Ethan had gotten in our human maybe an actual fight
with a teenager from the south side of Muncie. I mean,
that's pretty specific, but at the time, the idea that
he felt threatened after this thing lent some special importance
(08:14):
to the presence of a knife that was found in
his car. But people were police sorry, were never able
to actually confirm that a fight had taken place.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
The stepfather's name Kate cap Resurfacing. He was one of
the first focuses of the police, but never charged, and
he said that the rumors, by the way, in late
nineties he did an interview, said they ruined his life.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
You can imagine.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Then there was the drifter, one of the more chilling
scenarios that the two young people were targets of a
random killer who was just passing through. Police looked at
a similar incident in Kansas five years earlier, but said
they didn't believe the cases were connected.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
And then finally, one of Ethan's friends said that he
and Ethan loved Dungeons and Dragons and used to play
Dungeons and Dragons on a regular basis. The last of
the potential suspects in this case was quote the Dungeon Master. Now,
because Ethan and his buddies played Dungeons and Dragons, there
(09:13):
was some talk, and again this is rumor mill talk,
but there was some talk that the fantasy that is
Dungeons and Dragons was somehow acted out and gone horribly wrong.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I think that that was kind of one of the
things that was speculated upon in the late eighties with
a lot of different crimes of like, is it a
dark thing that the Satanism?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, because all these kids were into it, but it
was kind.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Of secretive and probably Ozzy Osbourne and ac DC.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
One of the more poignant quotes I read in this
article was from one of the friends of Ethan. Ethan
was the kid who was shot and killed, the debate
team member, the class president. Tom was one of Ethan's
closest friends. They hung out every day, they played D
and D to together. They were both on the debate team.
(10:02):
And Tom says that about Ethan he was really smart,
very charismatic, loyal to his friends, a lot of fun.
He was class president, and he said it was such
a dramatic event with dramatic ramifications that happened to a
bunch of teenagers, where the smallest thing is dramatic.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
They didn't sleep well at night.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Nobody did for the rest of high school the next
two years. Not until Tom left for college did he
feel safe at night. But I thought that that was
so so true. A bunch of teenagers were the smallest
thing is dramatic, so true, right, and then this is
the biggest thing that could possibly happen to them, And
(10:44):
how much that how much weight that would come with
it would come with weight for no matter where you
are in life.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, but again, still no solution to that murder of
Ethan and Kimberly from back in nineteen eighty five,
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