Legal History
Lawyer-Sleuth May Solve 100-Year-Old Forensic Murder Mystery
Posted Feb 12, 2008, 02:13 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
Thanks to an Indiana attorney who decided to go back to school to study forensic anthropology, a 100-year-old murder mystery may be on the brink of resolution.
With the help of an anthropology professor and University of Indianapolis students, attorney Andrea Simmons, 47, has exhumed what is supposed to be the body of a notorious female serial killer who reportedly may have murdered 25 to 30 people and buried at least many of them on her family's Indiana farm. With the help of DNA evidence from the envelopes of letters sent by Belle Gunness to one of the numerous bachelors she allegedly lured there and poisoned, Simmons hopes to find out whether the body really is that of Gunness, reports the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.).
A number of people, including the Gunness relation who gave permission for the body to be exhumed, believe it isn't. Although Gunness made out her will and bought five gallons of kerosene just before an April 28, 1908 home fire in which four charred bodies initially believed to be her own and those of her three children were found, it now appears that she may have staged her death. Instead of dying in the fire, many now believe, she moved to California and died there as she was awaiting trial in a poisoning case, the newspaper explains.
Immediately after the fire, townspeople in La Porte thought she was an innocent victim. But then the brother of one of the bachelors she apparently had lured to her farm and poisoned showed up and insisted on a search of the property. Body after dismembered body was found, and more still may be buried there undiscovered to this day.
Simmons plans to write her master's thesis on the case. "I can do a lot more than just tell the story yet again," she says. "No one had taken a scientific look."
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Comments
Posted by Billy Basura - 5 months, 4 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes ago
I wonder what lured the batchelors over to this witch’s house? What kind of forbidden fruit did she promise but not deliver. It is a shame this killer drew men into their deaths if only for the promise of snatch? But after 100 years, what’s the point? Can the heirs of the men collect anything from the estate at this late date? What is the point of digging up old bodies? I don’t get the point.
Posted by Anonymous - 5 months, 4 days, 2 hours, 44 minutes ago
Billy, you really don’t get it, do you? Besides being very interesting, solving a mystery like this provides us with techniques for solving the next mystery which might actually affect YOU! Not everything is about money.
Posted by sr - 5 months, 3 days, 23 hours, 41 minutes ago
Good for another lawyer who decided to go back to school....and kick the lawyering bit. I agree not everything is or should be about the almighty dollar.