FT WAYNE, IN (WTVB) – The murder of 26-year-old Phyllis Bailer in Allen County, IN in 1972 has been solved.
Indiana State Police say the man who they believe killed her was Fred Lienemann, from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He himself was murdered in Detroit in 1985.
The Allen County Prosecutor’s Office says if he was still alive, he would be charged with her murder. Lienemann sexually assaulted and killed Bailer, but left her three-year-old daughter alone.
Indiana State Police say DNA testing was not widely used in law enforcement until the 1990s, it wasn’t until years later that a partial DNA was developed from Bailer’s clothing. Last year, the agency’s laboratory developed a much stronger profile, and detectives began working with California-based forensic genealogy company Identifinders International.
The company was able to identify Lienemann as the person whose DNA was on Bailer’s clothes. He was 25 at the time of the murder.
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