The four victims of the Burger Chef murders were 16-year old Daniel Davis and Mark Flemmonds, 17-year-old Ruth Ellen Shelton, and 20-year-old Jayne Friedt, who was the assistant manager of the restaurant. Per Indianapolis Monthly, Shelton and Davis, were killed by shots from a .38-caliber gun to the back of the head. Friedt and Flemmonds, it seemed, tried to flee, though neither got very far. Flemmonds suffered blows to the head from a chain and was left to choke on his own blood. Friedt died of two stabs from a hunting knife. The blade was still embedded in her chest; the handle, broken off, was missing.
This detail about the knife handle wasn’t publicized at the time. So the fact that Donald Forrester, a convicted rapist, knew about it was of grave interest to investigators. Forrester mentioned the handle when he confessed to the killings in 1986 after having already been a person of interest in the case. When detectives drove him out to Speedway, he knew where in the woods the murders had taken place and correctly placed all the bodies. His ex-wife was able to lead authorities to .38-caliber shell casings Forrester had flushed down the toilet of their house.
But for all his intimate knowledge of the scene of the crime, Forrester’s confession was not an airtight accounting for the Burger Chef murders. He recanted, confessed again, and recanted once more before his death in 2006. While some remain convinced of his guilt, state trooper Jim Cramer told Business Insider that he’s sure as he can be that it was all lies.
