BLOOMINGTON — The case of Indiana University student Ann Harmeier who was found murdered 46 years ago is getting national attention on the anniversary of her disappearance.
Dateline spotlighted her tragic murder.
During the early morning hours of September 12, 1977, Ann was traveling back to Bloomington after a weekend at home in Cambridge City to attend a 10:30 a.m. class. It was about a two-hour drive back to school.
She was supposed to telephone that she had made it back, but the call never came.
Roughly 2 miles north of Martinsville, Ann’s 1971 Pontiac LeMans broke down on the side of State Road 37 approximately 20 minutes from Bloomington.
She never made her class and later that day, Ann, who was a theater major, missed a rehearsal at the school theatre.
Marjorie, Ann’s mother, had been calling Ann’s off-campus apartment over and over, but her daughter never picked up. Marjorie and a friend decided to drive to Bloomington to look for Ann.
It was close to midnight and they came across Ann’s car parked on the shoulder of State Road 37. The doors were locked and the hazard lights flashing. Her books and laundry were found locked inside the vehicle. It was later determined that the engine radiator was out of water and that the car had overheated.
Her body was found 36 days later, Harmeier’s body was found in a cornfield approximately 7 miles northeast of Martinsville. She had been tied up with a shoestring that was tightened with a hairbrush, gagged, raped, and strangled with a shoelace.
Marjorie went to the Indiana State Police post to report Ann missing. Ann’s disappearance sparked national attention. The case appeared on NBC Nightly News in the weeks after Harmeier disappeared.
Marjorie died a few years later of brain cancer in 1983. Now Ann’s second cousin Scott Burnham is hoping to find answers and solve Ann’s murder. He says Marjorie basically had given up on living.
Burnham believed Ann had been killed by a man named Steven Judy.
According to the Clark County, Indiana Prosecuting Attorney’s website, Judy was put to death for the April 1979 murders of Terry Chasteen and her three young children. He was executed on March 9, 1981, by electric chair.
A report published in the Indianapolis Star in September of 2022 stated that “an Indiana State Police review of jail records from Sept. 12, 1977, showed Judy was in the Marion County Jail that day.” Judy’s attorney told the IndyStar that Judy denied that he was responsible for Ann’s death, but added that Judy “did have a problem telling the truth sometimes, so you can’t necessarily believe everything that he said.”
Decades later, Burnham is hoping DNA evidence will answer questions and potentially provide justice.
He reached out to Indiana State Police and now stays in regular contact with detectives as they continue to test evidence that was found at the crime scene.
Working with colleagues, Burnham has built social media profiles dedicated to finding Harmeier’s killer.
Burnham is hoping to help raise funds to create a dedicated cold case unit to look into some of the many unsolved cases in Indiana — Ann is just one of almost 100 unsolved cold cases listed on the Indiana State Police website.
ISP Bloomington Post Sergeant Kevin Getz said the case remains under investigation, so there is little information that can be released.
Anyone with tips about Harmeier’s murder is asked to call the ISP Bloomington post at 812-332-4411.
