Mom Was Found Dead in Ditch with Her 3-Year-Old Unharmed. Decades Later, Police Identify Her Killer

More than 50 years after an Indiana mother was found dead in a ditch on the side of a road, her young daughter by her side and unharmed, police have finally identified the man they believe killed her.

On April 16, Indiana State Police announced that forensic genetic genealogy led them to identify Fred Allen Lienemann, the Gross Point, Mich., man they claim killed 26-year-old Phyllis Bailer in early 1972, according to a press release.

Police said Lienemann, who was murdered in 1985, would have been 25 at the time of Bailer’s killing. His DNA was found on Bailer’s clothing, according to police.

Bailer went missing on July 7, 1972, while traveling with her 3-year-old daughter from Indianapolis to visit her family in Bluffton, more than 100 miles away, according to police. Bailer left around 8 p.m. that night, but never arrived at her mother’s house.

The next morning, around 10:30 a.m., her car was found abandoned on northbound I-69 in Grant County. An hour later, a passing driver found Bailer and her daughter in a ditch on the side of the road in Allen County. Bailer was dead but her daughter was unharmed, police said.

An autopsy showed Bailer died of a gunshot wound and determined she had been sexually assaulted, per the release.

Police noted that DNA testing was not available in 1972 and did not gain widespread use in law enforcement until the early 1990s. Years after the killing, a partial DNA profile was developed from Bailer’s clothes, which eliminated the main suspect. The case soon went cold.

As DNA testing improved, the Indiana State Police Laboratory was able to develop a “much stronger” DNA profile in 2024.

“The Indiana State Police Cold Case Team and the Allen County Police Department began working with Identifinders International, a forensic genealogy company in California, founded by Colleen Fitzpatrick,” the release states.

“Forensic genealogy was utilized in conjunction with the DNA profile and the killer was identified in early 2025.”

Police said Lienemann had no known connections to Bailer but had a criminal history, including car theft. They also said he was born in the Anderson, Ind., area, which is roughly 40 miles from Indianapolis.

During their investigation, police said they learned that Lienemann was murdered in Detroit in 1985. In the press release, police shared a May 1985 newspaper clipping from The Detroit News, which reported that two men had been charged with murder in connection with Lienemann’s beating death that April. He was 37.

According to the clipping, the two men were accused of beating Lienemann with a baseball bat and setting his body on fire in a dumpster.

Indiana State Police said if Lienemann was still alive today, the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office would have charged him with Bailer’s murder.