Why The Burger Chef Murders Still Haven't Been Solved

That no one has ever been brought to justice for the murders of four Speedway teenagers, a crime that horrified local citizens and made headlines around the world, is in many ways the result of the failures of the Indiana State Police and their handling of the investigation into the missing Burger Chef employees in those crucial hours after Friedt, Shelton, Davis, and Flemmonds were reported missing.

According to Indianapolis Monthly, police were informed of the disappearance of the four Burger Chef employees from their workplace shortly after midnight on November 18, but failed to recognize that the employees' absence might indicate that they were in mortal danger. Instead, police suspected the youngsters themselves of embezzlement; that they had ditched their jobs, taken off the with money, and gone "joyriding."

As such, the Burger Chef was allowed to be cleaned and reopened with other staff the next day, ultimately destroying any vital evidence that may have given a clue to the events of November 17. "They didn't process it as a murder; they didn't know it was a murder," detective Virgil Vandagriff, who later worked on the case, told Indianapolis Monthly. "Police didn't have a clue what was going on at the restaurant. They kind of messed up the crime scene."

It was two days after their kidnapping that the bodies of the four victims were found, but by then, it was too late. Any evidence that investigators might have gleaned from the Burger Chef had already been contaminated.

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