Indiana officials have finally solved the cold case of a young mother who was killed more than 50 years ago.
Twenty-six-year-old Phyllis Bailer and her three-year-old daughter were heading from Indianapolis to Bluffton, about 100 miles northeast, to visit her parents on July 7, 1972.
But they never made it and police found Bailer’s car empty the following morning around 10.30am.
While driving in Allen County, Indiana, a woman came across Bailer’s body and found her daughter in a ditch on the side of the road an hour later.
Police later determined the woman had been sexually assaulted and shot to death. The child was unharmed.
It ultimately took police five decades to discover who murdered her.
This week, the Indiana State Police announced Fred Allen Lienemann, a 25-year-old in 1972 from Gross Point, Michigan, was the likely assailant. According to a news release, Lienemann was born in the Anderson, Indiana area and had no connections to Bailer but a significant criminal history.
He was murdered in Detroit in 1985. Had he been alive, the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office would have charged him with murder, police said.
When Bailer died, police could not conduct DNA testing, which only gained prominence within the law enforcement community in the 1990s. Years following the murder, police managed to develop a DNA profile from evidence recovered from her clothing, eliminating the main suspect.
As DNA testing improved, officials continued working on the case. Last year, authorities collaborated with Identifiers International to help solve the case. Officials determined Lienemann was the killer in early 2025.
“This case demonstrates the commitment the Indiana State Police Cold Case Unit, the Allen County Police Department, and the Indiana State Police Laboratory have for victims and victims’ families,” the state police said in a written statement.
“Not only does this work convict criminals, but it also answers questions that grieving families have had for decades regarding the deaths of their loved ones.”
