The Indianapolis Star (Indiana) from Aug 16, 1972
On August 12, 1972 Vickie Lynn Harrell stepped into her 4-door dark blue 1965 Plymouth Valiant.
She was in the K-Mart parking lot on the east side of Bloomington, Indiana. This is the last time she was seen alive.
On August 13, 1972 when Vickie does not return home, her roommate reports her missing to the Bloomington Police.
I cannot find if police eliminated that roommate as a suspect, whether the roommate was male/female, whether the roommate was also a babysitter and if not, where was Vickie’s daughter?
There isn’t much about her online. Sometimes more is to be found but the newspaper articles are hidden behind a pay wall.
With the caseload I have and the diversity of newspaper archives needed worldwide, I refuse to pay.
Last week I received an email from a reader about Vickie’s case. They included a newspaper article that answers some questions from my post and adds some new details.
The article is here on the left but to highlight some details here they are:
- Vickie is described as a red-haired and as a divorcee
- Vickie was found completely nude. Her clothes were not found
- She was found face-down in a water filled on the east edge on Concord Road which is an access road to McCormick’s Creek State Park, about 2.5 miles east of Spencer, Owen County, Indiana
- She was most likely sexually assaulted
- The cause of death was strangulation with a rope
- There were no signs of a struggle where her body was found so this could mean that somewhere else is another crime scene
- Vickie worked at K-Mart men’s department. She had been at work all day the day she went missing
- The initials KN were carved by knife on her lower chest. If her killer used a knife to carve letters in her chest why was that knife not also used to kill her? Why then the strangulation with a rope? Both the stabbing and the strangulation are personal acts. The carving was done post-mortem so was this an after-thought to leave a signature or a message?
If you have any information about this case, please contact the Indiana State Police’s District Investigative Commander at 1-812-332-4411 or 1-800-423-1286.
Hat tip to D.
