INDIANA 1972 Cold Case Solved - Her Little Girl Was Found Alive

In July 1972, 26-year-old Phyllis Bailer left Indianapolis, Indiana, with her three-year-old daughter for a drive to visit family in Bluffton. They never arrived. The following morning, the borrowed Ford Phyllis had been driving was found abandoned along Interstate 69. About an hour later, her three-year-old daughter, Jodi, was found alive near a rural road in Allen County. Phyllis was found nearby. She had been murdered. For decades, investigators pursued leads and even focused on a longtime suspect, but DNA evidence eventually excluded him. The case remained unsolved as forensic technology continued to advance. Then, more than five decades after Phyllis’s murder, investigators returned to the preserved evidence. A stronger DNA profile and forensic genetic genealogy eventually led Indiana State Police to Fred Allen Lienemann. In April 2025, Indiana State Police announced that the 53-year-old murder case had been solved. This episode of Root of Crime follows the disappearance of Phyllis and Jodi Bailer, the discovery along West Road, the investigation that followed, the suspect police pursued for years, and the DNA breakthrough that finally gave Phyllis’s family an answer. Subscribe to Root of Crime for carefully researched cold cases, long-unsolved murders, DNA breakthroughs, and the stories of the people at the center of them. #ColdCase #TrueCrime #PhyllisBailer