The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin -Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome back, everyone. Yes. So a little housekeeping right at the top. This episode is going to be a two -parter. So there are a lot of details in this case. So I want to go over all of them since details are very important in cold cases. So this will be a two -parter episode. Part one
this week, part two next week. They're kind of rare when it comes to cold cases and missing person cases, so it's great that Ali brought it to cold and missing today, and I think we should just jump right in. Let's do it. So just as a bit of a content warning at the top, this case does involve young people. Today, we are talking about the cold cases of Jayne Friedt, Mark Flemmonds, Ruth Ellen Shelton, and Danny Davis.
otherwise known as the Burger Chef Murders. And this takes place in November of 1978 in Speedway, Indiana. But first, a little bit about Jayne, Mark, Ruth, and Danny. Jayne was 20 years old in 1978. She was the assistant manager of the Burger Chef in Speedway. Jayne was hardworking and reliable and took her role seriously. She was supporting herself and building her future.
She actually had recently transferred to this particular Burger Chef location about six months before the timeline picks up, after working at a different location for over three years. Mark Flemons was just 16 years old in 1978. He was a sophomore at Speedway High School, where he was known for his big smile and contagious laughter. He was the youngest of seven siblings, and him and his family lived nearby the Burger Chef in
Big Eagle Apartments. He was so close to the Burger Chef that he was able to walk to and from work. Ruth Allen was 17 years old in 1978. She was incredibly intelligent. She was an honor roll student and had even started attending some college classes to get a jump start on her college credits. She was heavily involved in her youth group and her church worship band. She loved making music and singing. She had dreams of going to college and wanted to become a computer scientist.
Danny Davis was 16 years old in 1978. Danny was helpful, energetic, and social with those that he loved. He kept a very small group of close friends, very small, but he was very loyal and committed to those friendships. Danny was the most recent hire at the Burger Chef. He was so new that he hadn't even gotten his first paycheck yet by the time the timeline picks up. He was a student at Decatur Central High School, and he had a budding interest in photography. He
had even built himself a darkroom. He also wanted to join the Air Force after graduating and would often take photos of aviation or planes. He loved taking photographs of that type of stuff. So just before we jump into the timeline, I just wanted to take a moment to talk about... kind of the location and well, I guess the locations overall. So Burger Chef. Burger Chef was a popular
Midwest fast food chain in the 70s. They actually introduced the fun meal, I believe, a few years before McDonald's introduced the happy meal. So they were a big competitor of like all of the famous fast food chains today. In the 1980s, Burger Chef was acquired and the locations were turned into Hardee's. So if you have a Hardee's near you, there could be a chance that at one point it was a Burger Chef. Speedway, Indiana
is just outside of Indianapolis. It's actually where the Indy 500 track is physically located. So that track is in Speedway, Indiana. Even though it's the Indy 500, it's in Speedway. With the track being there and the town's name, Speedway, Indiana, that town definitely is baked in racing and cars and that kind of stuff. So it's not like a small rural town by any stretch. It's a suburb of a big city and very close to Indianapolis, which is the capital of Indiana. And now a timeline
of events. Friday, November 17th, 1978. It is the closing shift at the Burger Chef on Crawfordsville Road in Speedway, Indiana. It had been a pretty typical night. It had been busy through the dinner rush, but as the night wore on, the restaurant began to empty out. By 11 p .m., it was closing time, and the four employees, Jayne, Mark, Ruth, and Danny, were scheduled to work for two more hours to close down the restaurant. Mark had come in that night as a favor, actually. He was
working a shift that wasn't his. He had covered for his co -worker Brian so he could take out their other co -worker, Ginger, on a date. Mark had had a plan to walk home with his friend Kirk after work. Remember, Mark lived very close to the burger shop. Kirk, his friend, was spending the night across the street from the burger shop at an under -21 club known as The Galaxy. Mark was not allowed to go there. His family was very
religious. But Kirk planned to spend the evening there and then at midnight walk over to the Burger Chef so him and Mark could walk home together since they both lived in the same apartment building. Also nearby the Burger Chef is a Dunkin' Donuts. That night on November 17th, A 17 -year -old girl was working at the Dunkin' Donuts and her boyfriend, whose name is George, was visiting her and spending time with her while she worked.
At some point in the night, one of the Burger Chef employees had actually gone to Dunkin' Donuts to grab a box of donuts to snack on throughout the night. So 11 p .m. rolls around, the restaurant is closed. Jayne Ruth, Mark, and Danny get to work on closing down the restaurant. At around 11 .15, George... That's the boyfriend of the Dunkin' Donuts worker. George had walked over to the Burger Chef to get a book of matches.
At first he didn't see anyone, but eventually Danny came from the back of the restaurant and gave him a book of matches. George headed back to the Dunkin' Donuts where him and his girlfriend stepped out back to have a cigarette. While they were out back smoking, two men walked down the nearby railroad tracks nearby and approached the teen couple. The men tell the couple that they should leave because there had been a lot of vandalism in the area. The men were also kind
of shabbily dressed. One of the men is around 5 '6 and around 200 pounds, very stocky build. He had reddish brownish hair with a full beard and mustache. The other man was a bit taller, around 5 '9 and 160 pounds, medium build. with dark, greasy hair that had been combed back and was mostly clean -shaven, though he did have some stubble coming through. The couple finished their cigarette and head back inside the Dunkin' Donuts. This was between 11 .15 and 11 .30. At
around 11 .45 p .m., Brian and Ginger were ending their date night. They drove past the Burger Chef, and they noticed that Jayne’s car was not in the parking lot, but all of the lights were still on inside. That was strange, as Jayne, being the assistant manager, would have been one of the last ones to leave. They don't see anyone inside or outside of the restaurant. Brian decides to drive Ginger home before swinging by the burger
chef to see what was going on. So a few minutes later, right around midnight, Kirk approaches the burger chef. Remember, Kirk and Mark were going to walk home together around midnight. And when Kirk arrived at the Burger Chef, he said that there were still cars in the parking lot, but the back door of the restaurant was wide open. Kirk didn't see or hear anyone inside of the restaurant, so he decided to walk home alone. Shortly after Kirk leaves, Brian returns
from dropping off Ginger. All of the lights are still on, and he notices the back door is slightly open, he says. Brian goes inside and sees that the register drawer was on the ground and Jayne and Ruth's purses were still inside along with several jackets. The manager's office had been ransacked. Brian calls a manager who tells him to call the police. Jayne’s car, a Chevrolet Vega, was missing from the parking lot as well. Altogether, $581 had been stolen in cash. but several hundred
dollars of coins had been left behind. Brian called the police just shortly after midnight on Saturday, November 18th. But when Speedway officers arrived, they brushed off the scene. They believed that the most likely scenario was that the four employees had taken the money and gone off and played hooky, went to a party, maybe they were even at the Galaxy nearby. The police didn't think it was strange to find the empty money bags or that there was an empty roll of
adhesive tape near them. No crime scene tape went up. No evidence was collected that night. In fact, the restaurant is cleared to open the next day. And so the morning shift comes in and they clean the entire restaurant to get it ready for opening. However, a few hours later, around 4 a .m., this is still Saturday morning. Jayne’s car was found abandoned just a block and a half from the Speedway Police Department. In fact, from where the car was parked, you could see
the back door of the police station. When Jayne’s car is found, police start to take the disappearance of the four Burger Chef employees much more seriously. However, they still clear the restaurant to open in a few hours. When police find the car, All of the doors except the driver's side door were unlocked. The driver's side door was locked. Police believe that during the abduction, Jayne was forced to drive her own car. When she got out of the car, out of habit, police think that
she locked the door behind her. Very attentive at locking her doors and would often remind people who were riding in her car to lock the doors behind them. This was before automatic locks. Police alert the families that their loved ones are missing, that their children are missing. The family is anxious as all of them are very hard workers and very responsible. None of them were known for running off or staying out all night. They were responsible. They went to work
and they came home. It was very out of character that none of them would come home and even more out of character that they would steal money to go out on a night on the town. However, that is where we're going to leave our timeline for this week. We're just going to go over those details. But if you know anything about the Burger Chef murders in November of 1978, please call the Indiana State Police District Investigative Commander at 317 - 899 -8577 or 1 -800 -582 -8440.
So that is part one of the Burger Chef murder. So this is just going through the abduction. I have heard of this very, very sad case before. And I imagine some of our listeners have as well. But you talking about Jayne. Mark, Ruth, Ellen, and Danny, you know, their personalities immediately filled in in my head. And these were children, which I appreciate that you emphasized. These were kids, you know, and they felt very familiar to me. And listening to But we were briefly able
to hear about them so far. This is the first time I've heard this case with as much detail as you provided. It's not one that I've really taken a dive into before on my own, but I feel grateful to know more about the information and just some of the details that I didn't know. Yeah, this is all what was reported at the time. And this was what was reported again and again.
I will say that in later years, there was reports that, you know, all the timeline I gave of, you know, Brian coming, Kirk walking, like all of that kind of got erased in more recent years when the story is told. And in more recent tellings, they say that a delivery driver arrived at 1015 to find the back door. Which is just very different from what was originally reported. So I did go with the original reporting just since I think
that was closer to what truly happened. Since you took us right back into the timeline, which I'm glad you did, I have so many questions. Starting with, were there any... Adults. I mean, by adults, I mean anyone over the age of, I don't know, 21, 25. Who was there closing with them or, I don't know, at least checking on them? No. So the oldest person would have been Jayne. She was 20 and the assistant manager. But no, they, you know, they were employees and they were working
the closing shift. So, yeah, it was it was just them. And, yeah, I just feel like I have to emphasize again and again that these were kids. Like, these are teenagers. And even though Jaye is 20, you know, not to take away her adulthood or anything, but she's still so young, just starting her life. So, like, very young people, kids, teenagers. It's a tragic case. Yeah, I mean, they are. They're kids. There's the 21 and under club. right near where they're working. And it pulled a memory
from my own life. I definitely went to a 21 and under dance club in my youth. But also I think a 21 and under club existing in that space, there's a lot of young people there, a lot of minors, and this thing happening right across the street. I don't know, it makes me feel very scared in that maybe that that area was being watched and was maybe chosen for its vulnerability because it was packed with young people. Yeah. I mean, you know, the Burger Chef employees, they're
young. There's the Galaxy, the 21 and under club that's right there. And then even at the Dunkin' Donuts, it seems like, you know, at least one of the employees working, she was 17. I don't know her name. She's not named in the papers, but we know her boyfriend's name is George at that time. So, you know, there's just a lot of young folks working closing shifts on a Friday night, which not a bad thing, but. Yeah, this
is definitely a vulnerable spot, I'd say. Yeah, the next thing I wrote down as I was listening to you was, normal night, normal kids. Yeah, it was an extremely normal night until it just wasn't anymore. That's why it's so shocking to me. And again, this was a detail I did know because it's spoken about so often, I think, when this case is being... brought up or reported on or on a podcast that law enforcement didn't take the clear red flags, at least surrounding the
business, seriously. It was a huge swing and a miss to not address what was clearly happening. I think it ate up a lot of time in the investigation. Yeah, I mean, just so much was lost. I mean, in 1978, They weren't necessarily looking for DNA, but they were definitely, you know, would have looked for fingerprints, palm prints, anything
like that. And, you know, for the morning crew to come through and clean, like when you clean a restaurant, like anyone who's ever worked in a kitchen, like, you know, you're using cleaners until it shines and there's not a, you know, fingerprint on it. Like it's it's cleaned in the back. So, yeah, all of those cleaners, you know, just where things were. All of that got
lost. It is reported, and we'll talk about this a little bit more next week, but the police come back and try to set up the Burger Chef to make it look like how they remembered so they could take pictures. But even then, that's just subject to one person's memory. There's so many details
that got lost, such as that. empty roll of adhesive tape that's not mentioned a lot it's in the very early reportings but to me that's very nefarious the girls um purses being left there if they were going out for a night they would have took their purses they would have took their coats it's November in Indiana it starts to get cold like so many signs pointed to something nefarious as opposed to they just played hooky for the night yeah this crime scene the burger chef unknowingly
from the exterior, still had very noticeable differences happening in its current day -to -day on that day or that evening. It's something that should have been looked at. I will say, and this is less devil's advocate and more, I think, my understanding of humanity and consumption of true crime and the psychology behind it. I think maybe there was a willingness to brush it off as something juvenile because acknowledging that it could be something different is very
scary. And it also might acknowledge that they are incapable of taking, of handling what this could be, you know, at best, like, you know, kidnapping and they're all alive. You know, I don't know. There's a part of me that understands that, I guess. But yeah, it's tough. It's really tough that that decision was made that day. Well, and what's even more interesting is that the climate in Speedway at this time is very, very tense. There had been a few weeks before this,
there had been an older woman. I believe she was murdered in her garage. And then the week leading up to these murders. the abduction and murders, there were multiple bombs that were set off around Speedway. And if I'm remembering correctly, one of the girls, it might have been Jayne, but I can't quite remember off the top of my head. She had actually called police in the weeks or in the week like leading up to this
because she had seen someone suspicious. And with all the bombings happening, she wanted to like call and report it in that she had seen like somebody kind of acting suspiciously. So there was like a lot of tension in Speedway. So I. Considering all that, I am surprised that the police didn't take it more seriously. But then on the same token or the other side of the coin, maybe they were like, I just can't deal with another thing at this moment. So this is
what it has to be. All right. Now, before you keep going, because that's a new detail to me, one that is new to our listeners as well. I have so many questions, but. Obviously, there's more for you to tell us. For now, I'm sad to leave it on this note that, you know, we are just acknowledging that there was a major flaw in the initial response and investigation. But I think it's really great that even though I do know some information about this case that You have brought it here. It's
one that I've always wanted to dive into. Again, these were kids and I know this was in the late 70s, but I believe that it's still possible that there's information out there that someone maybe knows something or there's information buried somewhere or I don't know what, but I definitely am holding out hope. Yeah, this is a case I'd seen. you know, around in other true crime areas. But it's one that I really didn't know the details of. I just kind of knew the general story. You
know, four employees were murdered. I didn't realize they had been abducted and removed from the Burger Chef, which we will talk more about in the next episode. But I really wanted to look into this one. I'm actually pretty familiar with Speedway. My dad and I, we would do these like motorcycle runs and for charity for a children's hospital in Indiana. And at the end of it, we would drive motorcycles around the Indy 500 track. So we were in and out of Speedway. The whole
weekend for a couple of summers. And it was one that I just like was very interested in knowing the area, knowing the location. And I totally agree that I think this is still solvable, even though we are 40 plus years later. I think that, you know, right now we've introduced two characters, these men who walk up on the railroad tracks. There are definitely people police want to talk to who they've never really been able to track down officially. There's at least two people
involved. That's two mouths. That's two people who could talk in their sleep. That's two people who could talk when they're drunk. That's two people that can, you know, talk when they're angry and not thinking. So I think they have told somebody. I think somebody else has been told about this crime. But again, if you know anything about the Burger Chef murders in November of 1978, please call the Indiana State Police District Investigative Commander at 317 -899
-8577 or 1 -800 -582 -8440. We will have pictures of Jayne, Ruth Ellen, Mark, and Danny on our Instagram at Cold and Missing. We'll also have pictures of the Burger Chef and we'll put the composite sketch of the two people who walked up on the
railroad tracks and talked to that. teen couple um we will put those up as well police are very interested in talking to those two men and like i've mentioned they have not been able to locate them so we will put pictures on there um and yeah please join us again next week we will go into part two If you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we have our transcripts on our website, www .coldandmissing .com, where you can find this and all our past episodes, including other
two -parters that we've done in the past. If you could leave us a review, that would mean so much to us. I saw some very generous and very kind reviews come in this past week. So thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Five stars goes a long way. So if you know this case or if you've learned some new cases, having listened to Cold and Missing, please give us five stars,
share. It really helps others find the podcast and having... A lot of five stars reviews gives us a chance of being listened to and gives these cases a chance of getting out there. So thank you. Five stars goes an extraordinarily long way. But that is all I have for you until next week when we dive into part two of The Burger Chef Murders. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali . And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good week and
stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all. Thank you.