Plans for infamous Burger Chef building to be demolished

Indianapolis, Indiana – When the majority of the companies in the Speedway, Indiana, area were nonexistent forty-five years ago, Burger Chef was thriving. If it weren’t for this building’s history, demolition would have been considered a no-brainer.

“When we visited the site of the burger chef recently and saw it being torn down there is a certain amount of melancholy comes over you,” said Áine Cain of the Murder Sheet podcast.

The brilliant red Burger Chef sign was removed years ago, and the roof, which was once gold, has been painted green. Four workers were abducted from this building and killed on November 17, 1978. Jane Friedt was stabbed, Daniel Davis and Ruth Ellen Shelton were shot, and Mark Flemmonds was beaten. A day and a half later, their bodies were discovered in a wooded area of Johnson County. Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee have authored numerous articles regarding the Burger Chef homicides.

“The problem with Burger Chef is that every fact is like a fork in the road with limited information, so you could read into that Mark and Jane who were killed via asphyxiation on blood and stabbing respectively that they were the targets,” Cain said. “But you could also read into that the killers were very unorganized and ran out of ammo, or had a gun issue and had to made due with increasingly desperate methods because the thing about the knife is the knife broke after Jane was stabbed, so are we seeing them target specifically? Or are we seeing just a series of grisly accidents happening as they are trying to kill these kids?”

The abandoned automobile of Jane Friedt was discovered close to Burger Chef. Nothing related to the killings was discovered in the vehicle. Both the crime scene—the restaurant where their bodies were discovered—and its handling were subpar. Hours after the kidnapping, police let staff members clean the eatery, destroying any evidence. Ken York, an Indiana State Police detective at the time of the murders. Police used the testimony of witnesses to create clay models and composite sketches of two males they believed may have entered the restaurant just before it closed. York found a group of individuals who had been stealing fast food outlets thanks to a tip. York made them an offer.

“Total immunity if they would tell what they knew about the Burger Chef case and take a polygraph to back that up if either one of them could say they inflicted the killing injury on either on any of the victims, and both of them went to prison instead of taking a polygraph or talk about it,” said York in 2003.

York stated that he thinks that two men were responsible for the killings unless a confession is made or new information comes to light.

Six years ago, fresh evidence was discovered, and the Indiana State Police appointed an investigator to investigate the Burger Chef murder case. ISP representative informed that the detective is actively working on the matter.

The Burger Chef facility is privately held, and the town of Speedway’s spokeswoman stated that no future intentions have been disclosed.