April 29, 2025
26-year-old Phyllis Jean Bailer was reported missing by her father around noon on Saturday Jul 08, 1972.
She and her husband, Richard Bailer, had been having marital issues.
The pair lived at 501 Aira drive in Indianapolis, and shared a toddler together. At the time, Phyllis was working as a secretary for the law firm Rocap, Rocap, Resse and Young.
Phyllis had called her father, George E, Miller, the night before she went missing, telling him she would arrive at his home in Bluffton the next day. She left at 8pm the night before, with her daughter in tow.
Although some newspapers reported that she and her husband had argued on the night before Phyllis left, this was untrue. They had been separated for more than a year at the time, and the divorce was set to be officially finalised on September 6 that same year.
At around 11:40 that afternoon, Phyllis' car was found abandoned along the I-69.
The hood of the vehicle was lifted, indicating Phyllis may have had car trouble, and was pulled over at the side of the road, in need of assistance.
The victim's purse, which contained cash, was found inside the vehicle.
Not long after the car was discovered, a passing motorist contacted State Police to report a young child kneeling beside what they presumed to be the mother’s body along a gravel road less than ten miles from Fort Wayne.
The body was later identified as that of Phyllis Bailer, and the child, her two-year-old daughter, Jodi.
The child was reported as being in “satisfactory condition” with a minor injury or bump to the head.
The body was found approximately 65 -70 miles from the discovery site of the victim’s vehicle.
Bailer had two gunshot wounds to the head from a small calibre weapon fired at close range. Autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted.
An article published in the Linton Daily Citizen on Jul 13, 1972, suggested a known kidnapper in the Fort Wayne area was suspected in Phyllis Bailer's slaying. Arthur Morris Jr., 21 at the time, was suspected of being involved in Bailer's murder, after being linked to the kidnapping of three other women in Anderson.
He was apprehended when one of the girls, the daughter of a Madison County deputy prosecutor, locked herself in a service station bathroom until Morris fled. He was later caught by police.
Morris' whereabouts were unknown at the time of Phyliss Bailer's murder, and police wanted to question him.
Morris was not found to be officially linked to the murder of Mrs. Bailer, and the case subsequently went cold for several decades.
The Indiana State Police Laboratory developed a complete DNA profile for the suspect in 2024. Working together with Identifiers International, a California-based forensic genealogy company, Allen County Police were able to identify Bailer’s attacker.
The DNA samples taken from the victim’s clothing was used to make the profile.
Through this profile, investigators were able to eliminate the main suspect in the case, and were finally able to officially identify the killer as Fred Allen Lienemann.
Lienemann would have been around 25 years old at the time of the murder. The two did not know one another and had no prior connection.
A look into the suspects criminal history revealed a first-degree murder charge in May of 1985.
An article published in The Mississippi Press on Nov 12, 1973, details a car theft case, where a man by the same name and similar age was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Ocean Springs along Highway 90. A Mr. Fred Allen Lienemann, 26 at the time, was apprehended on a warrant for car theft in Dade County, Florida.
Media outlets report that the suspect himself was murdered in 1985, in Detroit.
An article published alongside the Indiana State Police press release on the case, details that Lienemann was beaten to death by two men with baseball bats in a Detroit basement.
The men were charged with putting Linneman's body into a dumpster after the beating, before setting it alight. A passerby heard someone inside the dumpster and called police.
Lienemann was found with broken limbs and his face spray painted silver. He was transported to a local hospital, however, died mid-journey.
The murder reportedly happened as the result of an argument over property. Police followed a trail of blood from the dumpster to the apartment of one of the suspects and an arrest was made.
If alive, Lienemann would have been brought to justice.
April 22, 2025
