323: The Pelley Family

On a quiet Sunday morning in 1989, members of a small church in Lakeville, Indiana, gathered for their service. They sat chatting amongst themselves in the pews waiting for the pastor. He was always there on time. Early, in fact. But the minutes ticked past and he failed to show...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Lakeville in Indiana is the kind of time you might
pass through without even realizing it. It has a population
of less than one thousand people, and it's surrounded in
sprawling farmland and flat open fields. It was founded in
the mid eighteen hundreds and has always been a working
class community defined by tradition, close knit values, and a
strong undercurrent of faith. Just outside the town limits, on

(01:06):
a two lane stretch of Osborne Road sits the Olive
Branch Church of the United Brethren in Christ. It's a
modest and unassuming building with a simple white steeple. It's
one of those churches that looks more like a family
home than a place of worship. The congregation here is small,
just a handful of families from around the country who
gather each Sunday for prayers, hymns, and fellowship inside the

(01:29):
pew's creek with age. The carpets are faded and the
walls are lined with framed scripture and children's drawings. It
isn't a grand church, but for those who attended, it
was sacred and it was familiar. One morning in nineteen
eighty nine, the congregation gathered like they did every Sunday.
They parked their cars in the gravel lot, filtered into
the church and settled into their seats. But it's the

(01:53):
minutes ticked by. Something felt off. The service was supposed
to begin at nine a m. There was no sign
of the pastor. Robert Pelly had found his calling at

(02:18):
the Olive Branch Church of the United Brethren in Christ.
He was the preacher, and from any in the small
rural congregation, he wasn't just their spiritual guide. Robert was
more than that. He was their friend, their confidante, and
their neighbor. Robert was a father, a husband, and a
man who believed in faith, forgiveness, and the occasional well
timed prank. He had a unique way of delivering his sermons.

(02:42):
One Sunday morning, he strole into church wearing his normal clothing.
He slouched into the front pew and casually flipped open
a newspaper. His wife, Dawn, crossed the sanctuary, gave his
shoulder a gentle tap, and said it's time to start
the service. Laughter rippled through the peuce. It was Robert's
light hearted way of reminding the congregation, come ready, come prepared,

(03:05):
come with purpose. Because to Robert, faith wasn't just to
be practiced on Sundays. It was something you lived every day.
Robert was said to be a man of quiet discipline,
somebody who was interested in judo and boxing. He was
even taking courses at two church colleges. He was energetic,
driven and passionate. But above all else, Robert Pelley was

(03:27):
a father. He and his wife Down had been married
for five years. Both had suffered losses before they found
each other. Robert had lost his first wife and don
had lost her husband. Together they brought their families into
one roof. Robert had two children, seventeen year old Jeff
and fourteen year old Jackie. Dawn brought three daughters from

(03:49):
her first marriage, ten year old Jessica, eight year old Janelle,
and six year old Juline. They had once lived in Florida,
and that's where Robert and Dawn met, but they had
created sunshine and palm trees for the Indiana cornfields and
church life. They lived in the modest home next door
to the small church. The blend Of family lived a

(04:10):
simple life with purpose and routine, and Saturday, the twenty
ninth of April nineteen eighty nine started out like any
other day. Jeff Pelly was getting ready for one of
the biggest nights of his life, the Laville High School Prom.
Jeff had been looking forward to it for months. His
white tuxedo was pressed and the plans were set. He

(04:31):
was going to pick up his day at Darla Emmons,
and then they were going to meet friends for dinner
in South Bend. Then it was the prom, and afterwards
they were going to drive to Great America, a theme
park just outside of Chicago. For a seventeen year old,
it was the dream plan, freedom, friends, and the first
haste of independence, and Jeff, who sometimes came across as withdrawn,

(04:54):
was genuinely excited. His sister, Jackie wasn't home that weekend.
She was away. We had a church camp posted by
Huntington College. Jessica was staying with relatives visiting from Kentucky.
That left just four people in the home, Robert, Dawn, Janelle,
and little Jolne. That house must have felt unusually quiet

(05:15):
first Saturday night, but nobody expected that by Sunday it
would be silent. Sunday morning at the Olive Branch of
the United Brethren began like any other. The congregation trickled
in through the white double doors, grating each other with

(05:37):
warm smiles and familiar nods. Usually by this time Pastor
Robert Pelley would have been there slaves rolled up, arranging
hymn books and checking the sound system. That was just
who Robert was. He was reliable, dedicated, and present. But
on this morning he wasn't. At first, nobody panicked, maybe

(05:59):
Robert with staging one of his practical object lessons again,
maybe something about being spiritually laid or caught up unprepared
for the second Coming. It wouldn't have been the first
time he made a point through surprise. But as nine
a m. Became nine fifteen and then nine thirty, the
mood in the sanctuary began to shift. The usual laughter

(06:20):
and chatter gave way to confusion and concern. Don wasn't
there either, nor were the girls. Still. The congregation pressed forward.
They sang hymns, read scripture. A member of the church
stepped into lead what they could of the service, but
something unspoken was growing heavy in the room. Dan Richard,

(06:41):
a longtime member of the church, would later say, we
knew something wasn't quite right. Church trustee David Hathaway volunteered
to go next door just to check on the Pelly family.
It wasn't far the parsonage. The family's home sat just
beside the church, nestled behind a row of hedges. David
walked up the short front path and knocked. There was

(07:03):
no answer. He knocked again, louder this time, but there
was nothing. The curtains were drawn tight, something that was
unusual for a Sunday morning. Robert usually had the front
windows open, letting in the spring sunlight. David tried peering
through the glass, but the interior was dark as when
a quiet sense of dread settled in his gut. He

(07:27):
walked back to the church and contacted Lydia May easter Day,
an elderly woman who kept a sparecat of the parsonage.
Moments later, with the key in hand, David returned and
slid it into the lock. He turned the handle and
craaked the door open. Robert, he called out softly, just
in case the family had simply overslept. There was no answer.

(07:50):
He stepped inside. Immediately he saw blood. There was a
thick pull of it stretching down the narrow hallway towards
the master bedroom, and there in the middle of it
all lay Robert Pelly. His chest was obliterated by a
shotgun blast. His face had been blown open by a
second David, who was a World War Two veteran, would

(08:11):
later say that what he saw in that hallway was
worse than anything he had ever experienced in combat, but
he didn't stop. There were children in that house. He
followed the trail of blood into the kitchen, where he
noticed a flight of stairs leading down to the basement.
This was the family's recreation room, where the girls play

(08:32):
and where Dawn kept their toys. There was another splash
of red on the wall. David descended carefully, and then
at the bottom of the stairs he saw them. Don
Pelly lay on the floor, lifeless, her arms wrapped protectively
around six year old Jolene. Joline, who was crouched slightly

(08:53):
behind her mother, had clearly tried to hide her small
hands lifted in a futile attempt to shield herself. Portions
of her fingers were missing. It had been blasted away
by the force of the shotgun. Nearby was eight year
old Janelle. She was slumped on the carpet beside them,
curled inward, and shot at close range. All three were gone.

(09:16):
They had huddled together in their final moments. Forensics would
later describe that Robert was killed first with one blast
to the chest and another to the face. Don must
have heard it, grabbed her daughters and ran, but the
killer followed. A shot was fired from the top of
the basement stairs, aiming down into the room as the
family fled, Then more shots, one after the other, first

(09:39):
on then Janelle, then Juline. None of them stood a chance.
The news of the murders spread throughout Lakefield like wildfire.
By Sunday afternoon, fear had gripped the small farming town

(10:01):
like a vice. Four members of a beloved family had
been gunned down in their own home, and the killer
was still out there somewhere. Dan Richard, a member of
the church, said the whole county shook. People don't know
whether to stay at home alone or in groups like
There wasn't the kind of place where things like this happened.
It was the kind of place where people left their

(10:23):
keys in their car, where neighbors brought over extra tomatrows
from the garden, where families prayed together, and doors were
left unlocked at night. But all of that changed on
April thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine. Inside the house next to
the church. The unthinkable had happened, and for a brief moment,
there was something that almost resembled relief. Three of the children, Jeff, Jackie,

(10:46):
and Jessica had survived, by pure luck. None of them
have been home that night. Jackie had been at church camp,
Jessco was staying with relatives, and Jeff had been oursway
celebrating his prom weekend at Great America Amusement Park. But
that relief was quickly swallowed by the cruel reality they'd
be returning to no parents, no younger sisters. Detectives not

(11:11):
had the awful task of tracking the surviving children down
and telling them what had happened. The day after the
murder's reporters gathered outside the modest brick parsonage. Telephoto lenses
peeked over, police tap note books in hand. They waited
for any glimpse, any detail. Then they saw Jeff. He'd
been allowed to briefly enter the home to retrieve some

(11:32):
of his belongings. He declined to speak to the press. Instead,
he crossed the lawn and embraced grieving members of his
father's congregation. People who had sung beside him, prayed beside him,
now they stood there, stunned and heartbroken, just steps away
from where the crime had unfolded. Sergeant Charles Ferrell addressed

(11:53):
the reporters and said the family doesn't want anybody to
talk with them. Among the mourners was Richard Thorpe, the
former pastor of the church. He stated, you have a
bond here that a lot of times you don't find
in a bigger church, and that bond, that sense of trust,
was now cracked open. People changed their habits overnight. Brian Callaghan,

(12:16):
a local father, summed up the mood and said, my
wife and I make sure the doors are locked now,
and a shock settled in to fear. The investigation began.
Detectives from Saint Joseph County canvassed the home, documenting the scene.
There were no signs of forced entry, no shattered glass,
no kicked in door, no valuables missing. This wasn't a robbery,

(12:38):
and it wasn't a murdered suicide. It appeared to be personal.
The killer had used a shotgun, most likely a twelve
or sixteen gage, but the question as to why lingered.
Detectives began interviewing friends, neighbors, church members, anybody who had
known the Pelly family. They learned that Robert had kept
a shotgun at home, but it was now missing. Whether

(13:01):
it had been the murder weapon or taken afterwards, they
weren't entirely sure. Search efforts intensified. Horses and search dogs
were deployed across the fields and woods that boarded the property.
A dive team was sent to a nearby pond north
of the home. It was deep, almost fifty feet and murky,
a nightmare for the detectives. Sergeant Ferrell explained, it's going

(13:25):
to be a difficult task because not only is the
pond inaccessible, it's also fifty feet deep. Despite the effort,
no weapon was found. Meanwhile, autopsies confirmed what detectives already suspected.
All four victims had died from close range shotgun wounds
to the head. The pathologists couldn't arrow down a time
frame other than that they had died sometime between ten

(13:49):
a m. On Saturday and ten a m. On Sunday.
On May the fourth, the community gathered one final time
to honor Robert, Don, Janelle, and Jolene was standing room
only inside Olive Branch Church. Bishop Ray Miller stood at
the pulpit and addressed the grief stricken crowd. We're not
here to discuss the events of their deaths, nor are

(14:11):
we here to give reports or interviews. What we're here
for is what the family would have wanted. We're here
to worship God. He spoke of Robert's tireless efforts to
grow the congregation and of the quiet love that filled
the Pelly home. As the service drew to a close,
the congregation stood and sang Amazing Grace, which was Dawn's

(14:31):
favorite hymn. Then one by one, the coffins were carried
to South Lawn Cemetery. The bishop's final words lingered in
the air. We commit their bodies to the grave and
their spirits to God who gave them. A photographer from
the South Bend Tribune captured a striking image Jeff Pelly
had bowed, being embraced by his teenage friends as tears

(14:54):
streamed down his cheeks. Grief had come to Lakeville, and
it had settled in for the the long haul. In
the days that followed, the surviving children went their separate ways.
Jackie went to Cape Quarrel to live with church friends.
Jessica was taken in by her maternal grandfather, in eating rapids,
and Jeff moved in with friends from South Bend. He

(15:17):
picked up a job at a local garage, trying to
rebuild some version of a normal life, and still the
town waited. Each Sunday, the congregation of Olive Branch gathered
in that same sanctuary, the one where Robert had once
delivered sermons with energy and heart. Now his absence filled
every pew. Reverend Richard Wagan addressed the flock one Sunday

(15:40):
morning and said, the one thing that weighs heavy on
my heart is we don't know who did this. We
don't know why they did this. But one of the
most important things that Jesus taught was don't hate. Pray
that we might love and care for whoever that person is.
And that prayer would soon be tested in the most
painful way a man, because behind the scenes, detectives were

(16:03):
narrowing their focus and they were beginning to suspect that
the person responsible wasn't some stranger from the woods. It
wasn't a drifter or a madman, or a robber gone wrong.
It was somebody much closer, someone the Pellies had loved.
And it would take thirteen years for that suspicion to

(16:23):
turn into an arrest. As the crime scene was being progressed,
detectives began to take note of certain unsettling details. The
curtains were all drawn, the doors were locked, nothing had
been stolen, and there was no sign of a forced entry.

(16:47):
Detective Mark Senter, one of the first on the scene leaders,
said it didn't look like a burglary. It didn't look
like a home invasion. As a detective, I saw the
worst of the worst that morning, but we had a
job to do, so immediately started talking about suspects. One
cloth stood out. The shotgun that was usually stored in

(17:07):
Robert Pelly's gun rack was gone. Then there was blood
in the bathroom, suggesting the killer cleaned themselves before leaving
this scene. Detectives also said that Robert's body was found
facing away from the hallway, near the bedroom door. It
looked like the killer had come out of that room.
That's when a name floated to the surface, a name

(17:29):
that was already familiar to Detective Centur Jeff Pelly. By
all accounts, Jeff was smart, exceptionally smart. He'd graduated early
and was known for his skill with computers, but lately
he had been heading down the wrong path. Just weeks
before the murders, he'd been caught stealing CDs in money

(17:50):
from a neighbor's home. Detectives had spoken with Robert about it,
and he had been furious. As a punishment, Robert had
grounded his son and placed strict limitations on his prom weekend.
Jeff could go to the prom itself, but he wasn't
allowed to attend the dinner with friends, he wasn't allowed
to drive himself, and he definitely wasn't allowed to head

(18:11):
to the after party at Great America Detective Center recalled.
He could not go to the prom without his dad
taking him. He couldn't go to the dinner before the prom,
he couldn't go to the after prom. But somehow Jeff
did go to all of it, and the timing of
the murders and the prom stuck detectives as more than

(18:31):
just a coincidence. The night of the prom, Jeff's friends
were surprised when he suddenly said he'd be joining them.
After all, they all knew he was grinded. His dad
had made that crystal clear. But Jeff showed up, albeit late,
to the pre prompt dinner at the East Bank emporium.
He seemed calm, normal, even called his day a Darla

(18:53):
a round five twenty pm to let her know that
he was running late. That timing was important. I just
believe that Jeff had killed his family sometime that afternoon,
cleaned himself up, and then picked up Darla like nothing
had happened. When police interviewed his friends in Darla, nobody
mentioned anything odd in his behavior that night. There were

(19:14):
no signs of agitation, no panic, no blood. But one
friend did recall something strange. While at Great America, Jeff
had said, seemingly out of nowhere, that he had a
bad feeling that something terrible might have happened back home,
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Just to visit tovik dot app slash morbidology Just relationship
with his father been easy. It was strained sometimes explosive.
Some friends said that Jeff hated his father. Others said

(21:08):
he was deeply jealous of his stepmother and stepsisters, Dawn
and the girls, they said got all the attention. Jeff
felt like an outsider in his own home. He was
still grieving the loss of his mother, Joy, who had
died of cancer just a year before Robert remarried. One friend,
Mark Berger, said Jeff missed his mum. She was his

(21:29):
best friend. Even Robert had confided in friends about the tension.
He once told someone that he was half scared of
what Jeff might do if he wasn't allowed to go
to the prom. Dnteu had expressed fear, telling a friend
she was really afraid of her step son. And then
there was the funeral. Carol Jensen, a close family friend,

(21:51):
remembered seeing Jeff sitting among the mourners. She said, there
was Jeff sitting there with his big blue eyes, just glaring,
pierced eyes. I thought it had to be shocked. The
rest of the family was so torn up, and he
just sat there staring. I'll never forget those eyes. After
returning from Great America, Jeff was brought in for questioning.

Speaker 2 (22:14):
I guess what we want to talk to you about
is when was the last time.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
You were home?

Speaker 2 (22:22):
At about.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Quarter till five Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening?

Speaker 2 (22:32):
Of everybody who's still home when you left? Right? Was
everybody there?

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Dad and Don and Janelle and Jolane were there, Jessica
was at a friend's house, and Jackie was in Huntington.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
When you were a great American that detective or police
officer at their head, you and the room and towards
your parents had been murdered. What was your reaction to that?

Speaker 3 (22:54):
I was shocked, started crying. I mean, it's it's stunned me.
I didn't know how it could happen. I don't know
why it would happen.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Was there anybody in that family you really didn't get
along with? How about your stepmother?

Speaker 3 (23:13):
We didn't get along real well. I mean we talked
high by type thing, but we never really talk to
each other or anything. I mean I didn't I didn't
hate her anything, but we just we we tolerated each other.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
And how about your stepsisters?

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Which ones? Uh, all three of 'em? What about 'em?

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Did you get along with them?

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Oh? I get along with the girl's grade. I just
loved the girls, You and.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Your dad getting any arguments? Uh? Saturday?

Speaker 3 (23:44):
No, we had a real good day Saturday. We got
along real well.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
What do you mean you?

Speaker 3 (23:48):
You and your dad had a real good day Saturday.
We didn't argue at all. It w he was really
he He said that I'd been doing a pretty good
job of shaping up and everything.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
Detective John Budrick asked him point blank.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
So you who killed your mother or father or your father?

Speaker 3 (24:08):
And no, I really don't. I don't know who would
want to.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Then came the harder question, did you have anything to.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
Do with it?

Speaker 3 (24:17):
No? I didn't. Me and my father didn't get alot.
Sometimes sometimes I'd be really upset with him, but we
always worked things out.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
But detectives weren't convinced. They called Jeff and a lie
about a gas station he said he visited, he'd actually
gone to a different one. When pressed, Jeff grew anxious,
He fidgeted, and then out of nowhere, he asked, if
I went to jail, would I get the electric chair.
It was a chilling question, but chilling wasn't enough. Detectives

(24:50):
needed hard evidence. They had blood, but not Jeff's. They
had a timeline, but no weapon. They sent everything to
the FBI, but when the results came back, nothing could
tie Jeff to the murders. He remained a free man,
but he was never free of suspicion. Over the next decade,
detectives tried everything. They ran a Crime of the Week segments,

(25:14):
They canvassed the public for tips. They begged for somebody
to come forward. In nineteen ninety two, the Pelly family
placed a reward notice in the South Bend Tribune. It read,
if you have no information, please pray for the family
members remaining. We still hurt. The case had gone cold,
but detectives hadn't given up because steep down they still

(25:35):
believed they knew who pulled that trigger. By nineteen ninety four,
five years after the brutal murders of the Pelly family,
Jeff was living a completely different life. He had moved
to Coral Gables in Florida. He was married to a

(25:56):
woman named Kimberly Ann singularly, and though he'd bully attended
Manchester College, he had dropped out whatever future he had
once imagined, and Indiana was gone. But trouble, it seemed,
had followed Jeff south. In February of that year, he
was arrested not for murder, but for wire fraud. Detectives

(26:16):
had learned that he had tried to gain early access
to a trust fund that was set up in his
name by his father and stepmother. It was a trust
worth nearly forty eight thousand dollars. It was meant to
help with his education in basic welfare. He could receive
half of it at twenty three or earlier if he
graduated from college. The rest would be released when he

(26:37):
turned twenty six. But in July of ninety ninety one,
Jeff had tried to cheat the system. He called his
step grandfather, Edward Hayes, the trustee of the fund, and
told him he had undergone surgery from malignant melanoma. Jeff
sent over medical documents, hospital bills, and canceled checks. It
was almost thirty thousand dollars worth of paperwork, but it

(27:00):
was all fake. To sell the lie. Jeff had even
set up a phony fum line, pretending that it was
the hospital, But when Edward tried to verify the story
by calling the hospital directly, he learned the entire thing
had been fabricated. Jeff was arrested in charge with two
counts of wire fraud. When asked about it later, Edward
Hayes admitted, Jeff hadn't given me any trouble, but I

(27:23):
wasn't surprised this happened. In fact, I would have been
surprised if he hadn't tried it. Jeff was released on
a fifty thousand dollars bond, but the arrest had opened
a door, and detectives seized the opportunity. For the first time,
detectives publicly named Jeff Pelly as the prime suspect in
the murder of his family. Prosecutor Michael Barne stated, we

(27:46):
need more evidence to have a reasonable probability of conviction
before we can seek charges. He flew to Florida to
question Jeff in person, but Jeff refused to speak. And
yet he wasn't the only one under scrutiny. Back in Indiana,
suspicion still simmered. Herbert Christie, a trusty at the family's church,
said bluntly, I still think he did it the way

(28:10):
everything happened. If he didn't do it, he had somebody
set it up. But life for Jeff just continued. He
served six months under house arrest for the fraud. In
nineteen ninety seven, he and Kimberly divorced. They remarried two
years later, had a son, and eventually settled in Torpen

(28:30):
Springs and Florida. Jeff started a computer consulting business from
his home. It was a success. He became a respected
international IT tea consultant, and from the outside he was
living a picture perfect life. But back in South Bend,
detectives hadn't moved on, and in April of two thousand,

(28:51):
the quadruple homicide case was officially reopened by prosecutor Chris Toth.
Two years later, they made their move. On the tenth
of August two thousand and two, Jeff Pelly was arrested
at Lax Airport in Los Angeles. He was returning from
a work trip to Australia. The arrest wasn't a result

(29:11):
of new evidence. There were no surprise confessions, no new
forensic breakthroughs. Prosecutors simply believed they finally had enough. Jeff's
family was notified immediately. His grandmother, Mary Armstrong, accused detectives
of having tunnel vision. His defense attorney, Alan Baum, was furious.

(29:32):
He stated, we have quite a lot to say about
what we believe is a very egregious violation of due
process and jewe trial by them waiting thirteen years to
charge him based on no new evidence whatsoever. Jeff was
extradited back to Indiana. He was booked into Saint Joseph
County Jail and formally charged with four counts of murder.

(29:53):
His attorney insisted that Jeff was innocent. He described him
as a bright, successful man living a stable and happy life.
He even argued that the arrest was politically motivated, a
calculated move to boost prosecutor's toth reelection campaign. The defense
even petitioned the court to assign a special prosecutor, but
Judge Roland Chambly denied the request. Then something unexpected happened.

(30:19):
A shotgun had been found discovered near Crumston Highway, a
wooded area roughly ten miles from the Pelly home. The
single shot weapon was found hidden inside a hollow of
a tree. Years earlier, back in nineteen eighty nine, Jeff
had reportedly told people at a party that he owned
a shotgun and that he had hidden it in a tree.
Detectives were intrigued. Prosecutors requested more time to test the weapon.

(30:44):
Jeff's attorney brushed off the discovery, stating, we have no
reason to believe it's in any way connected to the case.
The trial date was postponed again and again. In the end,
no evidence connected Jeff or the family did the faun shotgun? Then,
on the twenty ninth of May two thousand and three,
Jeff was released from jalong bond. The delay had triggered

(31:07):
Indiana criminal rule for a provision that allows defendants to
be fraid if they are not brought to trial within
six months. Jeff had waited thirteen years for an arrest.
Now the justice system would wait even longer for a verdict.
But soon a jury would be asked to answer the
question that had haunted South Bend since prom Night nineteen
eighty nine. Did Jeff Pelly murder his family and cover

(31:31):
it up with a rented tuxedo and a high schooled
dance or had police built a case on nothing but suspicion, timing,
and the tragedy of a broken home. It had taken

(31:55):
seventeen years to bring Jeff Pelly to trial. By the
time jury selection wrapped on the eleventh of July two
thousand and six, public opinion was sharply divided. Some believed
that it was justice long overdue. Others saw it as
a desperate, politically motivated attempt to close a cold case
without real evidence. Twelve jurors were chosen, seven men and

(32:17):
five women. Their task would be to decide whether Jeff
Pelly was a grieving son or a cold blooded killer
who went to prom with blood on his hands. In
his opening statement, prosecutor Frank Shaeffer laid out the case.
He said there was a narrow twenty minute window in
which Jeff carried out the murders and off time. He

(32:37):
argued for Jeff to shoot four members of his family
with shotgun, shower, wash his clothing, and leave the house
to pick up his prom death. According to Schaeffer, the
timeline looked like this. At four forty pm, a friend
named Matt Miller stopped by the Pelly house. Everyone was
still alive. By five twenty pm, Jeff had arrived at

(32:59):
his it's home. At five thirty pm, Robert and Don
Pelly were expected at a friend's house, but they never showed.
At five point forty five pm, Crystal Easter Day, Rutherford
went to check on them. The house was locked, the
curtains drawn, the prosecution's case hinged on that narrow time frame,
but the defense had their own theory, one that painted

(33:22):
the entire investigation as flawed from the very start. Defense
attorney Alan Baum told the court the police had tunnel
vision from day one. The Pelly home, he said, had
never been dusted for fingerprints. That wasn't speculation that came
from the testimony of Sergeant John Pavlovic. Under questioning, he

(33:44):
admitted that they had skipped finger printing because the crime
scene was too bloody, because they already believed that Jeff
was the killer. The defense attorney asked him directly, so,
on April thirty, nineteen eighty nine, one day after the murders,
you'd already made up your mind that Jeff Pelly did it.
The sergeant didn't deny it. He said there had been

(34:06):
no sign of forced entry. The only person on accounted
for was Jeff, But when asked whether then investigated any
other possible suspects, the sergeant replied, simply, I don't know.
Other lapses then came to light. Officer Jerry Retowski testified
that after Jeff's car was impointed at the theme park,

(34:28):
it was never actually tested for sockgun residue. It was
never swabbed for blood. Then came the crime scene photographs.
On the first day of testimony, jurors were shown the
gruesome images taken inside the Pelly home. Geoff broke down,
letting out a Lloyd's sob in court, His attorney Leader
said that it was the first time Jeff had ever

(34:49):
seen the pictures. The prosecution argued that Jeff had motive.
Witnesses were called to describe the tension in the Pelly household,
especially in the days before Prom. Christina Holderman, a family friend,
told the jury about an argument she had witnessed on
Prom day. Jeoff had been washing his car. His father, Robert,

(35:10):
asked him why since he wasn't allowed to drive it.
Robert had reportedly told several people that Jeff was grounded.
He had planned to drive him to and from Prom,
and post Prom activities were off limits. The theory was
that Jeff had killed his family to reclaim control of
that night and his future. Jeff's former girlfriend testified next.

(35:33):
Darley described him as acting normal on Prom night, but
she remembered one thing that evening. Jeff said he had
a bad feeling. Ars Leater police arrived to deliver the
devastating news his family were dead. According to Darla, Jeff
seemed genuinely heartbroken, he was shocked, he wasn't himself. Two

(35:54):
of Jeff's friends also took to the witness stand. Both
of them said that after the murders, Jeff told them
he hadn't been involved. To one of them, Christina, he said,
if I knew who it was, I'd killed them myself.
But the timeline was still murky. Pathologist doctor Rick Hoover
told the jury that he couldn't pinpoint when exactly the

(36:14):
Pellies were killed. His best estimate was sometime between ten
a m. On Saturday and ten am on Sunday, a
twenty four hour window that did nothing to bolster the
prosecution's tight timeline. One of the final witnesses that week
was Jeff's stepsister, Jessica. She told the jury that she
had seen her father's shotgun in the house that Friday.

(36:36):
By Sunday, when the bodies were discovered, it was gone.
But the defense maintained there was no direct evidence linking
Jeff to the murders. There were no fingerprints, no eye witnesses,
no blood, no murder weapon, just an arrow window in
a motive of that, depending on who you asked, was
either ridiculous or chillingly plausible. The jury heard about various

(37:08):
pieces of evidence that had been recovered from the Pelly home,
but as each item was presented in court, it became
increasingly clear that nothing directly tied Jeff to the murders.
A bloody shirt had been discovered roughly two miles from
the crime scene, raising initial suspicion, but the blood couldn't
be linked to Jeff or any of the victims. Investigators

(37:30):
had also found clothing in the family's washing machine, a shirt,
a pair of blue jeans, and socks, which prosecutors claimed
Jeff had been wearing during the murders, but when these
items were tested, not a single trace of blood or
DNA evidence was discovered. Forensic teams went even further, testing
three washcloths, a sharp curtain, an additional clothing, pants, and

(37:52):
a shirt taking from Jeff's car. Still there was nothing,
no blood, nothing to definitively connect him to the viole
islands that unfolded inside the house. A crime scene technician
eventually testified that it would have been almost impossible for
somebody to walk away from such a brutal scene without
being contaminated by blood or brain matter. The absence of

(38:14):
any such evidence became a cornerstone in the defense's case.
They began to float a different possibility, entirely that someone
other than Jeff had committed the murders. They revealed a
curious lead. A million dollars had allegedly gone missing from
a bank where Robert Pelley had worked before relocating his
family from Florida to Indiana about a year after the murders.

(38:38):
Jeff's stepsister, Jackie told detectives that Robert had once been
summoned to the bank in the middle of the night
to look into the disappearance of those funds. It was
an ominous detail, one that hinted at the possibility of
enemies outside of the family unit. Adding to the intrigue
was a siding reported by a neighbor on the day

(38:59):
of the murders. Some but he had seen a white
limousine with Florida license plates parked in the area near
Osborne Road. It struck almost suspicious, though the car was
never traced and its relevance to the case was never confirmed.
Even the origin of the suspected murder weapon was called
into question. While Jeff's stepsister Jessica had testified she saw

(39:20):
their father's shotgun in the house the day before the murders,
Jackie contradicted that she recalled that a couple of months earlier,
Robert had gathered up all of the family's firearms to
give away to an unidentified man. Jeff too, said he
hadn't seen the shotgun for about three weeks before the murders.
Jessica also challenged the narrative that prom Night had been

(39:41):
a source of intense conflict between Jeff and his father.
According to her, Jeff hadn't been barred from going. Rather,
they had reached a compromise. He could attend, but his
punishment being grounded, would be extended. With these conflicting accounts
and weak forensic ties, the defense maintained that the case
against Jeff was built entirely on assumption and circumstantial timing.

(40:06):
After six days of testimony, the trial drew to a close.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Frank Schaeffer's eared in on what
he claimed was a twenty minute window, the only time
Jeff could have committed the murders. According to the prosecution,
Jeff used those twenty minutes to confront and kill his father, stepmother,
and two young stepsisters, Gather up the shotgun and any

(40:27):
spent shells, show off the evidence, throw his bloodied clothing
into the washing machine, and walk out the door wearing
his white tuxedo to attend prom like nothing had happened.
They argued that Jeff's reference to the electric chair during
an early police interview was as good as a confession,
but despite Schaeffer's confidence, the case had glaring weaknesses. There

(40:50):
was no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no bloody clothing, no
eye witnesses, just a theory and a very shoddy timeline.
Defense attorney Alan Baum took to the courtroom one final
time and passionately declared, He's not just not guilty, he's innocent,
and I know you know that. He suggested that there

(41:11):
had been not one shooder, but two. The presence of
shotgun wadding at the scene, he argued, supported the idea
of two different weapons, evidence of two killers working together.
He stated, and I'm not just saying that to cover
for Jeff Pelly. That's what the physical evidence and logic dictates.

(41:32):
The jury was sent out to deliberate, and the urs
ticked by twenty five of them in total before they
returned with their decision. The courtroom, filled with tension, slowly
filled back up. The verdict was announced guilty on all
four counts of murder. Outside the courthouse, a visibly shaken

(41:53):
Bomb addressed reporters and said, two weeks ago, I was
asked why I didn't ask for a change of venue
in this case, and I said it was because I
believe the people of Saint Joseph County would be fair
and judge the case on the facts. Now I'm sad
that I said that this is not fair, this is absurd,
there's no evidence. I'm speechless. The guilty verdict send shockwaves

(42:19):
through the courtroom, and perhaps nobody was more stunned than
Jeff's sister, Jackie. From the very beginning, she had stood
firmly by her brother. She was convinced of his innocence.
In the weeks that followed, Jackie launched a website Justicefjeff
dot org, where she began publishing documents, personal insights, and

(42:39):
overlooked details from the case. She claimed that much of
the evidence never made it into the courtroom, and she
believed that what had been left out told a different
story than the one the jury heard. Jackie wasn't alone
in her mission. She was joined by former detective Philip Hawley,
who brought his own startling revelation to the table. Another

(43:01):
man had reportedly confessed to the murders and provided details
about the crime scene that had never been made public.
This man was never publicly identified. According to Jackie, there
had been several other viable suspects, including former business associates
of their father, Robert. She claimed her dad had received

(43:21):
a death threat in the weeks leaning up to the murders,
and tied the threat to the alleged theft of one
million dollars from the Florida bank where he once worked.
That money, she said, was tied to the laundering of
foreign drug money. One of the most striking pieces of
counter evidence concerned Robert's stomach contents. During the trial, prosecutors

(43:42):
had maintained the family had been killed in the late afternoon,
but Holly challenged that based on autopsy findings, Robert had
popcorn in his stomach, his typical nighttime snack, usually eaten
around it at thirty p m. If that timing was accurate,
it would contradict the pro eusecution's timeline that Jeff had
killed his family before prom Jackie also noted something else.

(44:07):
The key to the family's home hung in the church
next door. It was a detail that was well known
to many people in the community. On the eighteenth of October,
Jeff returned to court for sentencing. He was given the
opportunity to speak, and he addressed the court with quiet emotion.
He said, my deepest regret in life is that I

(44:27):
was not home that afternoon, because maybe I could have
done something. I love my family dearly. I've spent my
life trying to pattern myself after my father. Members of
the family also spoke on his behalf, including John Down's
brother in law. He pleaded with the judge for mercy, saying,
because of what Dawn and Bob believed, we do ask

(44:50):
for grace and mercy for Jeff. Jackie and Jeff's wife, Kim,
reiterated their belief in his innocence. Jackie turned to her
brother and said, when I look at you, Jeff, I
don't see what they say. When I look at you,
I see a fall guy, escapegoat a political war and
praying for you. I love you and I'm proud to
be your sister. The judge was unmoved. Jeff Pelly was

(45:14):
then sentenced to one hundred and sixty years in prison,
forty years for each life taken. The following month, Jeff's
defense filed request for a new trial, arguing that new
evidence had surfaced but cast out on his conviction. One woman,
Penny Hoeflinger, had reportedly overheard a group of teenagers talking
about plans to kill a pastor just two weeks before

(45:37):
the murders. Penny had told detectives about the conversation during
the initial investigation and had been interviewed three times. The judge, however,
declined to grant a new trial. Then, in April of
two thousand and eight, a surprising ruling came down. The
state appeals court determined that Jeff's conviction must be overturned,

(45:58):
not based on evidence, but on a technicality. He had
been denied his right to a speedy trial. Under Indiana law,
strict time lines had to be followed unless the defense
or court congestion caused delays. In Jeff's case, the court
found that delays weren't justified. The state quickly responded by
asking the Indiana Supreme Court to reinstate the conviction, and

(46:20):
the court did exactly just that. Still, the fight continued.
In twenty twenty one, Jeff's defense team was granted a
hearing in his post conviction relief case. He was represented
by Francis Wilson of the Indiana University Wrongful Conviction Clinic,
and they argued that Jeff had been the victim of
prosecutorial misconduct. They brought forward new testimony from a woman

(46:45):
named Tony Beeeler, who said Robert Pelley had told her
he feared for his life over the missing one million
dollars at the bank. He believed that the mob was
after him. Another witness, Kathy Hawley, who had once worked
with Robert, added to the chilling pot portrait. She recalled
the conversation in the mid nineteen eighties where Robert admitted
he had hidden computer discs from the bank and feared

(47:07):
the consequences for his job and for his family. A
Florida detective also added weight to the theory, pointing out
that a business associate of Cathy's husband had been found murdered,
shot in the head, and buried in cement less than
a year before the Pelly murders. Despite all of this,
the judge ultimately ruled against a new trial. To this day,

(47:30):
the case remains a lightning rod for debate. For some,
Jeff Pelly is a cold blooded killer who executed his
family in a fit of rage before heading off to
prom For others, he's an innocent man who was convicted
on flimsy, circumstantial evidence, rail roaded by a justice system
that needed somebody to blame. Theories still swirl. Was this

(47:54):
a family annihilation or was it acaculated hit tied to
Robert's shadowy path. Did Jeff kill his family or was
he just the easiest target. We may never truly know.
What remains is the enduring pain of a family lost,
a man imprisoned, and a truth that, whatever it may be,

(48:16):
continues to elude.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
Well.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
That is it for this episode of Morbidology is always.
Thank you so much for listening, and I'd like to
say a massive thank you to my new supporter up
on Patreon, Sharon. The link to Patreon is in the
show notes and you can join for as little as
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and the episodes there are presented in a documentary style,

(49:05):
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at morbidology dot com for more information about this episode
and to read some true Grime articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.