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October: Man Kills Wife With Frying Pan, Burns Body

Last updated on Thursday, January 1, 2015

(UNDATED) - In October, police arrested 49-year-old Jeffrey Fulton after he allegedly hit his wife Michelle in the head with a frying pan, killed her and then attempted to burn her body.

Fulton was arrested and charged with his wife's murder after police found her remains in a wooded area of the couple's home on Valeene Road. He is being held in the Orange County Jail on a $1 million bond.

Michelle Fulton had been missing since June.

Fulton told police that one of the couple's children had dropped his wife off at the Jasper Kmart on June 18 and he
hadn't heard from her since.

But Michelle's cousin, Margarita Weckman, told police she feared Fulton had harmed Michelle.

Orange County police and Indiana State Police detectives spoke with Fulton several times and he stuck to the story
that Michelle had been dropped of at the Jasper Kmart and he had not heard from her since.

But officers uncovered text messages from the couple's children who had since been placed in foster care. In one of the text messages Fulton says, "if they prove the horrible thing that happened that (the child) would not see him for a long time."

Police then obtained a search warrant for the children's cell phone and discovered other messages warning the
children not to tell authorities "anything about anything."

Then, on September 24, police received a call from one of the children's foster parents saying the child wanted to
speak to police.

The child told police that the story Fulton was telling police was a lie and that on June 18th Jeffery and Mitchell had
been fighting before the child left for school.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the child had received a call while at school and was told to go to the Orange County Courthouse later that day in regard to a custody hearing. The child rode home with Jeffrey after the hearing.

Michelle did not appear at the hearing, nor was she home after the hearing.

When the child asked where their mother was Fulton refused to answer.

When the child returned home they noticed the kitchen floor had been mopped and the house smelled like Pine Sol. The child told police this was unusual because the floor had not been cleaned since Michelle had disappeared.

Police obtained a search warrant to search the Fulton home and grounds. In a bedroom, police found a letter addressed to one of the children that had information about digging up the child's mother's body and about him being sent to prison.

While searching the grounds, officers located human bones in a burn pit in the backyard and bones in an overgrown
field behind the fire pit.

Anthropologists were called to the scene and determined the bones were a human wrist and foot.

Police also spoke to one of the couple's children, who told police that Fulton had admitted to hitting their mother in the head with a frying pan and that the child believed Fulton had burned their mother's body in a large fire he had built near their pond. Another child told also told police that after the fire they saw Fulton coming from the field carrying a shovel.

Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit In Lauren Spierer

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against two men in the case of missing Indiana University student Lauren Spierer.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled in favor of defendants Corey Rossman and Jason Rosenbaum. Lauren's parents, Robert and Charlene Spierer, brought the civil negligence lawsuit against the two men in connection with their daughter's disappearance in June 2011.

In the lawsuit, the Spierers claimed Rosenbaum invited Lauren to a party at his home; saw she was intoxicated and
supplied her with alcohol. The Spierers claim Rossman took Lauren to Kilroy's where he bought her multiple alcoholic beverages.

Multiple individuals observed Lauren "in a distressed, incoherent and non-responsive state."

The lawsuit claims Lauren spent time at Rossman's apartment, then Rosenbaum's residence before leaving on her
own. She has not been seen since.

In the lawsuit, the Spierers claimed Rossman and Rosenbaum were negligent because they gave Lauren alcohol
knowing she was already intoxicated.

WTHR reports that the judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence to move forward on the lawsuit, saying, "unfortunately, there could be any number of theories as to what happened to Lauren and what, if any, injuries she
may have sustained. Without evidence to prove these theories, it would be impossible for a jury to determine if
whatever happened to Lauren was a natural and probable consequence of her intoxication, without any other
intervening acts that would break the causal chain."

"Although the Court has great sympathy for the Spierers, they have failed to meet their burden of showing that there
is a genuine dispute of material fact with respect to the element of causation," wrote Judge Pratt.

The Spierers could appeal the judge's ruling.

Charlene Spierer posted to Twitter, "A bump in the road does not end a journey."

Lauren Spierer has been missing three years and the Bloomington Police Department is still investigating leads. The 20-year-old Indiana University student may never have left their townhouse complex alive after she arrived there,
unsteady and with bruising to her face, following a night of heavy partying.

Having been frustrated by the lack of progress by police and their own private investigators, Lauren's parents were
hoping the lawsuit would force more information from Rosenbaum and Rossman. They believe the men, who have
long since left the university town and are pursuing careers out of state, are still withholding information about their
time with Spierer in the hours leading to her disappearance.

Lawyers for Rosenbaum and Rossman maintain Spierer left the housing complex on her own and that the young men bare no responsibility.

The lack of answers has left the Spierers trapped in time. They accept that their daughter is dead but are unwilling to
move on.

The Timeline:

Friday, June 3, 2011

12:30 a.m. - Witnesses report that Lauren left her apartment with a friend named David Rohn. The pair went to Jay
Rosenbaum's apartment and she met up with Cory Rossman, Rosenbaum's neighbor.

1:46 a.m. - Spierer is seen entering Kilroy's Sports bar with Cory Rossman.

2:27 a.m. - She is seen exiting the bar with Rossman. Lauren left her cell phone and shoes at the bar. She had taken off her shoes when she walked out onto the sand-covered patio. Rossman walked with Spierer to her apartment complex.

2:30 a.m. - She is then seen entering Smallwood Plaza Apartments, where her residence is located. A passerby named Zach Oakes noticed her level of inebriation and asked if she was okay. Rossman reportedly replied: "She's
OK, I got it." Oakes stated that he told Rossman to take her back to her room. Rossman cursed at Oakes, which led
to an altercation in which Oakes punched him, knocking him to the floor. Rossman claimed that this blow caused him
to lose his memory of the evening.

2:42 a.m. - Exits apartment complex. Police reported that Spierer did not go to her fifth-floor apartment during this
short visit. Surveillance video shows Spierer stumbling and Rossman helping her to her feet and walk out of the
building. A few minutes later, she is witnessed by a bystander sitting down on a staircase and falling backwards,
hitting her head on the concrete step. The noise of the impact was loud enough for the bystander to hear it and ask
whether she was all right. According to the woman, Rossman replied, "She's OK, I'll take care of it." After they
continued up the street, she is witnessed falling again. Because of her intoxication level, she didn't raise her hands to cushion the blow and her face hit the ground unguarded. A few steps later, she fell a third time. At this point,
Rossman began carrying Spierer.

2:48 a.m. - After she left the apartments, she entered an alley that runs between College Avenue and Morton
Street. Security camera mounted on nearby apartments show her exit the alley at 2:51 a.m. and walk toward an empty lot. Spierer's keys and purse were found along this route through the alley. Spierer and Rossman arrived at
Rossman's apartment shortly after. Michael Beth, his neighbor, was in his own apartment studying. Rossman himself
was very intoxicated and stumbling. He vomited on the carpet on the way upstairs. Beth stated that he escorted
Rossman to bed. He then tried to persuade Spierer to sleep over for her own safety. He claimed Spierer said she
wanted to return to her own apartment.

3:30 a.m. - Beth said he then phoned his neighbor, Rosenbaum, wanting him to take care of her. Beth said that
Spierer was attempting to get Beth to drink with her at her own apartment. She eventually went to Rosenbaum's
apartment, where he observed bruise under her eye, presumably sustained in the falls earlier in the evening. She told him she didn't know how she got the bruise. Two calls were placed from Rosenbaum's phone shortly before she is reported to have left. Rosenbaum said Spierer placed both calls, one to Rohn and one to another male friend. Neither picked up and no messages were left.

4:30 a.m. - Rosenbaum reports that she left the apartment. This is the last reported sighting of Lauren Spierer. He reported last seeing Spierer at the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue, headed south on College. She was last seen wearing black leggins, a white shirt, and no shoes.

Several hours later that morning, Jesse Wolff sends Lauren a text. He gets a reply back from an employee at the bar. He reports her missing.

In August 2011, Police conducted a nine-day search of the Sycamore Ridge Landfill in Pimento, south of Terre Haute for clues in the disappearance. The landfill is where is where trash from Bloomington gets hauled after a stop at a transfer station. The Bloomington Police Department, Indiana University Police and the FBI took part in the search.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to contact the Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-
4477 or by e-mail at policetips@bloomington.in.gov

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