Lengthy article..
After 69 years, Indiana cold case has new life
This sewing machine belt was found wrapped around Ginn's
PORTLAND, Ind. (WTHR) — There is new light in a dark mystery that has haunted the Jay County city of Portland for as long as people can remember.
Sixty-nine years ago this month, school teacher Garnet Ginn was found dead in a garage she rented just half a block from the police station.
The garage where Ginn's body was found.
After all these years, detectives have a new lead they believe puts them closer to finding a killer.
“It’s our biggest cold case and there’s still a lot of interest,” said Police Chief Nathan Springer.
He and investigator Todd Wickey are putting new heat on the oldest and coldest cases. They took us along on their first trip into the 69-year-old crime scene.
“The car was right over there,” Wickey said as he pointed to a pile of debris.
The 1949 Pontiac belonged to Garnet Ginn. In 1950, she was found dead hanging from a sewing machine belt tied to a door handle.
“There it is," he said as he focused his camera on a broken wall support that appeared in a death scene photograph. He believes it may have snapped in a life and death struggle.
Up above he pointed to old wooden planks, resting on the ceiling joists. They fit a description in a new tip recently given to police.
The detective points to the area where he believes someone hid before they murdered Ginn.
“He would have been up there waiting and as soon as the car stopped, boom!” That was how Wickey described a death that would make headlines, stymie police and stir up controversy for decades.
To this day, “I can understand why people might be scared, concerned,” said Chief Springer.
Chief Springer grew up hearing the stories of Ginn, a home economics teacher, at Portland High School, single and dead at the age of 33."
"According to newspaper reports scoured by Kennedy and others, Ginn was a successful, well-liked teacher, excited about living on her own and proud of her nearly new car.
She was last seen alive leaving at a sorority meeting at the local country club. Ginn’s friends told reporters she had $40 (a lot of money in 1950) and offered to buy everyone soft drinks when she left the meeting."
“She was ambushed and she was strangled and killed, and the suicide was staged by the killer,” said Wickey.
Local and state police launched a belated death investigation. By then, gawkers had trampled though what was to become a crime scene."