IN IN - Richard Sweeney 8, Jeffrey Burkett 15, & Donald Abell 19, Henryville, 1977

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Okay, this is just a quick reply from someone who has only read what is posted here. Knowing nothing else, I would say that the victims' families, and many other people in the town, know exactly who did it and why. The repeated requests to look no further, the closed-mouth attitude of many in the community, and the pervasive fear (of retribution?) indicate that the killer(s) is (are) known and feared.

Many small towns in the 70s and even today maintain a very rigid social stratafication and no one airs the town's dirty laundry outside of the town. (Think racial violence in the south in the 50s. Wealthy, powerful men commit atrocious crimes and even admit to it. But no one saw anything, no one will press charges, and no one is willing to admit what they know for fear of being on the wrong side of the perpatrators' wrath. Even federal authorities are asked to leave and not look into the matter. Sound familiar?)

I fear that is what you may encounter here. Even if you can figure out who did it and why, you probably aren't encountering anything unknown and it is unlikely that anyone would step forward in court for justice to be done. Besides, the perps have had 30 years to cover their tracks from a physical evidence standpoint.

Don't take all of this wrong. I am not saying do not proceed. Just shining a light on the wall against which you may be banging your head. Particularly in light of the uncooperative nature of those who know what did happen. The one case you have been asked not to proceed on is probably the one with the most information and highest likelihood of being solved. Hence the request not to look any further.
 
My aunt lived in Henryville around this time. I was too young to remember but my mom remembers hearing about the murders. The best my mom could remember my aunt lived not far from where they were searching in woods. My aunt was scared because she stayed by herself at night with her baby. My mom remembers talk that they suspected a teenager.

How many powerful people could possibly live in Henryville. It's still tiny. Maybe the person wasn't powerful but maybe knew powerful people? This case is very intriguing.
 
My great grandfather had a farm in Underwood, IN and I still have a lot of relatives that have lived in the area for many, many years. In the past few years I have asked a few relatvies about this case and they always change the subject after saying "oh, yeah I remember that". All of my relatives live just north of Henryville but this is a small community and everyone does know everyone and what they are up to...that was what it was like back then and it still hasn't changed too much.

Like Stewie said a few posts above, this is a sleepy town with one blinking stop. If I'm remembering correctly there is a juvenile detetion center in Clark State Forest. I loved the stories Stewie added about this area. I have been to Pigeon Roost Cemetery more times than I can count. I have a few relatives buried there. It is suppose to be haunted and would draw a crowd there to party and scare each other. And there is also the Bridgewater Cemetery which is well known among ghost hunters. So, for this small area there are quite a few unique places.

The one thing that bothers me now is that I use to go everywhere with my cousins in the late 70's and the early 80's and no one said anything to us about it. We would go to Clark State Forest all the time, drive down all the back roads, we would go everywhere at all times of day and night. It makes me wonder what my relatives really know about this case.
 
I was recently told two names that were said to be involved. I was told this was relayed in sort of a death bed conversation. The story I was recently told involved a man that was a homosexual, and another man. Apparently, the homosexual left town after the murders and died some years ago. "He went to his grave with it," as I was told. The person on their death bed telling this stuff was supposedly also involved. He died in 2008. Neither one of these men was named Stargel.
 
Bumping this. There was so much information on this, with locals responding and (some of) the families renewing their interest in solving it... I hate to see it get pushed to the bottom of the list again. This seems like it could easily be solved if just one person who knows the answers would open up. And, unlike most cold cases, it appears that many people know the truth.
 
Hey guys...I had contact with a lady who felt her father was responsible he lived in florida and was terminally ill...Please forward me the name of those 2 people so I can see if its the same one.

She felt he was resopsible for the youngest victims murder.
i forwarded the info to ISP and have heard nothing back for almost 2 years.

The stargel guy was just a older strange guy that walked everywhere ect ..I have never found anything tying him to any of these.

Also my email has changed to mahoneys08@yahoo.com if any one would like to talk about these further
 
I wonder if there are property sale records from back then... Could we find out the names of who left town that way?
 
I was also curious about Larry Eyler... All victims were young male, in Indiana, and 2 were sexually abused.
The only thing throwing me off is the fact that it seems no one wants to come forward. Also, the fact that the family said that they are affraid what would happen if their son's case was solved. Eyler has passed away, so they wouldn't fear him now.
I also wonder if the boys weren't involved in something. And perhaps no one wants to talk about it because it wasn't appropriate conversation (especially back then). You know how small towns can be!
 
That is what I want to know-anything new? We have got to keep the heat on this case.
 
Bumping this, as I agree with scriptgirl - keeping the cases alive with open discussion is what's needed.

I'm sorry - I don't mean to be rude but I get the feeling there's too much secret squirrel going on for anything useful to happen, even in this thread. Fair enough, if people feel the perp's still lurking and they might be in danger. But there's plenty of us anonymous internet faces who aren't in danger and could do some hard yards into research if we only had enough to get our teeth into.

Secrecy is how the sods who killed these children have gotten away with it. Probably their own families lived thier lives with nothing to fear, while the victim's families live and die under a cloud of the most terrible grief, thier memories darkened forever. That both sucks --and--- blows.

Those with something to tell - could you give me something to set my pixellated bloodhounds on? The killer/s were clearly not shy about killing, nor were they inexperienced. They also had a signature killing style, which makes their victims noticeable. They had to live somewhere both before and after the murders, and I dare say there's a few victims who might've gotten away.

It's hard for --anyone-- to talk about being molested. But country men over there seem a lot like country men over here -- they'd sooner be trampled by a herd of steers than discuss homosexual rape or any event that made them feel like a victim. But then, you never know. Maybe somebody courageous will come forward, one day. Maybe they already have, in another area of the country. That's why keeping talk about the case open and flowing is so important, even if it's only speculation.

In my experience, speculation can sometimes be every bit as as useful as fact, when facts are kind of scarce. Also, talking openly defies the fear and shame that keeps crimes like this all in a fog for so many years.

If I sound kind of cranky about it, I'm not. Just frustrated on another case, where half a town knows something and nobody's fessing up and the likely perps are both dead, and lived as free men because of fear, selfishness and corruption.

I'm leaving this link to another forum here so I can find it easily. Family members of the victims are on it, and there's a little information that could be useful in tracking.

Broke my heart, reading their posts. If any are reading this, know that even half a world away there's people who care what happened to your boys. I only know a tiny portion of that kind of grief - and even that is hard to live with some days.
 
I am speculating that one reason people suspected the doctor or his sons was due to the surgical incisions on the one victim?

I think it is also important to remember that small-town mentality involves suspecting or pinning blame on people for all kinds of silly reasons (like the person is odd and walks everywhere, or the person is homosexual) without any real evidence of connection to the crimes.

Has anyone considered that the teenage boys might have been killed in retaliation for the murder of the 8-year-old? That someone believed they were responsible and since LE couldn't prove it they decided to take the law into their own hands? That would be a reason for secrecy--the murders were considered justified?

Obviously, I am just throwing out possible ideas. All purely speculation on my part.
 
Can anybody tell me about the Bluelick Auction Barn? What was auctioned there? If livestock, what kind? What kind of money was involved? Was the barn in business the day Richard Lee Sweeney was murdered, or close to that time? Did people come from out of state to attend those sales?

I apologise if all this info had been said before, I'm hoping if so that somebody will be kind enough to save me time in looking for it.

It makes a difference, whether the auctions were on that day or due to be held. The child's body being covered like that says two things to me: it was somebody he knew, and they covered him to cover their own shame, or it was a stranger who needed time to get some distance from the scene, or liked the idea of Richard Lee not being found while people moved around the barn.

Strangulation is a very personal act. It is all about a sense of power and control, as well a means of silencing the victim. It's also very cruel. It tells me a lot about the nature of the killer.

ETA: Nice post, Et. So true, about small towns and gossip. I think there's a lot of merit in your speculation regarding Jefferey and Donald. The sheer cruelty of the older boys' deaths says to me they were maybe moreso acts of anger or vengeance more than sexual thrill. Richard Lee's death, however, was plainly a sex crime.
 
To me it is weird that they are auctioneering in Indiana. I always thought that was more of a Southern thing. To me, this hinges on the doctor and his sons.
 
I think these were all sex crimes, Ausgirl. Is there anyone from the area that can tell us if there is still any gossip about these crimes?
 
I saw recently that the barn where Richard Sweeney was killed has been torn down. A few years ago, we saw his dad on the news (Louisville's Wave 3) saying that he was 99.99% sure he knew who did it and I can't remember if he said they were going to use DNA or if we just inferred it from something he said. Apparently nothing has come from it. Mr Sweeney sure is a nice man. What hell it must still be! I don't have any more information than you guys do. In fact, I read pretty much everything I know about it right here. I can say that folks sure seem to get the stories all mixed up.
 
scriptgirl said:
To me it is weird that they are auctioneering in Indiana. I always thought that was more of a Southern thing. To me, this hinges on the doctor and his sons.
Click to expand...

I think they have auctions everywhere.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Why was the barn torn down? That is suspicious to me. Would DNA have still been in there? Does Sweeney think whoever killed his son killed the others? I'm shocked that case got coverage on the news at all, seeming as how they were trying to keep it on the dl. Indiana, what is the town like now?
 
The fact that the barn has been torn down is not suspicious at all. The police looked at the case again just a few years ago and if there were any thing to find in the barn, they would have found it then. I can only imagine that the Sweeneys were ready to be rid of that barn. Bless their hearts, it was very close to their home. Honestly I'm glad it's gone too.

This is a friendly place to live. I've left my house open all day long, accidentally, and come home to find a not single blade of grass disturbed. People wave when they pass you on the road, whether they know you or not. There's nothing sinister about this town. Right now it's a lot of people who need help recovering from an F4 Tornado.
 
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