Guilty after 17 Years

On Friday evening, a jury in South Bend found Jeff Pelley guilty in the 1989 slayings of his father, stepmother, and two stepsisters at their home in Lakeville, Indiana. After 17 years, justice was served. This case garnered some national attention and had certainly been making headlines in the South Bend area for a long time.

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.

The murders took place in April of 1989. At the time, I was living with my parents in Fountain Hills, Arizona, where my dad was pastor of a local United Brethren church. They had been there five years and had been wanting to at some point return to the Midwest. Well, such an opportunity had just presented itself.

So, in August of 1989, my parents moved back to Indiana to Lakeville, Indiana and took up residence in the parsonage where just four months earlier had been the site of one of the bloodiest murder scenes local police had ever seen. My dad was now the pastor of Olive Branch United Brethren Church.

Suspicion of the murders immediately fell on Jeff Pelley, who was 17 at the time. But he was never charged. A murder weapon was never found. There was no physical evidence inside the house because Jeff lived there. He had a seemingly airtight alibi in that he was at Great America in Illinois at the time.

Jeff came over to visit my parents once after they had moved in. He was a knife salesman. Yeah, that had to be a surreal experience. Someone suspected of mass murder showing you knives in the living room of the very house the killings took place in.

About a year after the murders, the tabloid magazine “Hard Copy” showed up and did a segment on the murders. I remember watching the show and the reporter asked my dad, “IS this a HOUSE of DEATH?” My dad responded no and that they had gone to great lengths to assure the congregation that they themselves had no fears about living there (many in the congregation thought they’d be running out of the house, Amityville Horror style, after the first night).

In August of 1991, I moved back to Indiana and for two years slept in the basement of the parsonage. Basically, I slept about 5 feet from where the bodies of the mom and two daughters were found. But, it never bothered me for an instant. I suppose if I had known the family, it would have been creepy. I guess it could have been creepy anyway, knowing such carnage took place so close to where I slept. But it never bothered me.

Years passed, and Jeff Pelley moved to Florida, then moved to California and got on with his life. He married and had a very good job. Never did he tell his new wife about that day in April of 1989. Meanwhile, my parents had retired from the church and moved to Fort Wayne.

In the summer of of 2002, my parents decided to return to Olive Branch church on a part-time basic. Ironically, shortly after returning, charges were finally brought up against Jeff Pelley and he was brought into custody. However, they held Jeff for too long without bringing him to trial, and he was released in the spring of 2003. More time passed, and it looked like that if Jeff was guilty, he would be a free man.

But, he was arrested again, and held for a while with a trial set to start in July of 2006. My parents were very skeptical about the trial even happening. By this time, they had decided to retire once again and return to Fort Wayne. They thought long and hard about it, wondering if they should stick around and be with their congregation through the trial. In another coincidence, their last day at Olive Branch church was on Sunday, July 2, and the jury selection in the Jeff Pelley murder trial began that week.

The trial moved fairly quickly. The case went to the jury on Wednesday, July 19. For almost three whole days, the jury could not come to a verdict. Finally, at 9:30 p.m. on Friday evening, the verdict was announced. Jeff Pelley was found guilty.

This was a case in which one couldn’t imagine how they could find Jeff guilty while at the same time couldn’t imagine how they couldn’t find him guilty. Everyone felt he did it, but the whole case was based on circumstantial evidence, so it was surprising in a lot of ways that he was convicted.

Thus was brought to a close a dark chapter in the history of Olive Branch United Brethren Church. They are searching for a new pastor now, and my parents are now fully enjoying their second retirement.

Meanwhile, Jeff Pelley sits in jail awaiting his sentencing hearing in September. The alleged motive for the murders? Jeff wanted to go to the prom and his dad said no. Well, Jeff did indeed get to go to the prom. I wonder now as he sits in jail, after being free for 17 years, if he thinks it was worth it.