Indianapolis (TCD) — Cold case investigators have identified the man who kidnapped and stabbed three girls in 1975, sexually assaulted one of them and left her in a cornfield.
Late in the evening of August 19, 1975, 13-year-old Kandice Smith, 11-year-old Sheri Rottler Trick, and 14-year-old Kathie Rottler left a gas station in Indianapolis. . The three girls chose to hitchhike, and a man in a station wagon stopped and offered them a ride.
According to Indianapolis police, the girls realized something was wrong as the man drove to his destination. They tried to get out of the car, but could not get out because there was no handle on the inside of the door. It is reported that this man also threatened him with a gun.
The driver stopped in a cornfield and forced them out of the car. He tied up two of them, then sexually assaulted them and stabbed the other girl. Afterwards, the man stabbed the other two girls several times and fled the scene with injuries. The girls played dead to prevent further damage.
Two of the victims managed to get to the road and asked for help from passing motorists. They were all taken to hospital and survived the attack.
State and local police investigated the case, but the investigation ultimately fell through when detectives were unable to identify a suspect.
In 2018, survivors contacted Sgt. David Ellison will reopen the case. Ellison recovered the evidence and sent it to a lab for DNA testing. The results turned out to be an unidentified man, and the DNA of the other two pieces of evidence also reportedly matched that of the unidentified man.
Ellison contacted DNA Labs International and applied to perform genetic genealogy on the evidence to create a profile of the suspect. DNA Labs International returned results in 2023, and officials were eventually able to use the genealogy site to identify the suspect as Thomas Edward Williams.
Williams died while incarcerated at the Galveston Prison in Texas in 1983.
At a press conference on Thursday, January 18, Ellison, now retired, praised the victims' 'patience' and 'persistence' as they did not stop looking for their attackers.
“I stand here today as a survivor who learned the true meaning of perseverance,” said Kathie Rottler.
Rottler also had a message for other survivors: “Never give up. Keep fighting to keep solving cases.” “It was well worth the wait.”
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