IN IN - Paula Garrett, 22, Muncie, 24 March 1979

[OkieGranny]

http://www.wthr.com/story/22304065/delaware-co-man-continues-search-for-justice-in-moms-1979-murder

Paula gave birth to Eric at 18, was married and divorced by 22, and was living with her son in a duplex on the south side of town. She was a waitress at a nearby restaurant - friendly and popular with her regulars.

She also had a boyfriend, a 36-year-old man with a wife and four children of his own, and their relationship was not always smooth. Eric remembers the man as mean-spirited and that his mother was in the process of breaking off the relationship. Although he was only four at the time, he also says he has clear memories on what happened on the night of March 24.

Eric had a nightmare and, as little boys sometimes do, he says he crawled into his mother's bed for comfort. They fell asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, he says, a man entered the room and flipped on the light.

http://www.thestarpress.com/article...ears-later-murdered-woman-s-son-wants-justice

Eric Garrett survived the nine skull fractures he suffered that night. His mother, 22-year-old Paula Garrett, was not as fortunate.

Thirty-three years later, the trauma of that night has left Eric with more than just scars. The right side of his body is impaired. When he shakes hands, his numb fingers get in the way. But Eric Garrett also carries with him another side effect of that night. He has a thirst for justice...

And he can still picture, in his mind, Richard Green entering the bedroom. "I remember him flipping on the light," he said.

No one has ever been prosecuted for Paula's murder or for the attempted murder of her 4-year-old child.

 

[OkieGranny]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/indiana-man-says-he-knows-who-killed-his-mom-wants-n323996

Larry Smith lived in the duplex next door to Paula. He told me he often heard the couple fighting. "Our bedroom shared a wall," Smith remembers today, "and they were paper thin. You could hear everything. Richard and Paula argued all the time." On the night Paula was killed, Smith — who soon after would move to Florida and have a 30-year career as a police officer — says he heard Green yell, "You think you're going to get away with this?"

The next morning, Smith said he woke up to chaos. Green barged into Smith's apartment. "He didn't even knock," said Smith, "I clearly remember him saying that Paula had killed herself." Smith rushed into Paula's apartment and found a nightmarish scene. One thing was clear to him. "I immediately realized this was no suicide. Blood was everywhere."

Paula was dead, but Smith said he was shocked to find Eric still alive. "I leaned over him, and he opened his eyes." It was clear the little boy had been lying there for hours. "His head was in a pool of blood, and it had dried. When I picked up his lifeless little body, his hair was sticking to the ground." All the while, Smith says, Green stood back and did nothing.

 

[scriptgirl]

Weird case. That poor boy.

 

[Earth]

Does anyone know where Tommy Lynn Sells was at this point? He was fifteen years old, but left home the year before.