The I-65 Killer (Update)

There has been an update in the story of the I-65 Killer (episodes #125 & #126 from 2020). Police have announced the usage of genealogical testing to identify the culprit of the crime, Harry Edward Greenwell, who died of cancer in 2013…

The story of the I-65 Killer, also known as the Days Inn Murders, begins on the morning of February 21st, 1987, in the small town of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. That morning, guests were attempting to check out of a Super 8 Motel at around 6:00 in the morning, when they discovered the lobby empty, having been left in a state of chaos and disarray.

Police were called to the scene, and the body of the motel's night auditor, Vicki Heath, was eventually located outside, near the motel's dumpster. She had been raped and then shot to death by a .38-caliber handgun.

Footprints led from the location of Vicki's body to a parking lot nearby, leading investigators to believe that a trucker had been responsible for the crime. This offender had left DNA at the scene, but because of the primitive state of forensic analysis at the time, this case would go unsolved for the foreseeable future.

Approximately two years later, two nearly-identical cases unfolded on the same night.

Mary "Peggy" Gill worked at a Days Inn in Merrillville, Indiana, and was murdered in the early morning hours of May 3rd, 1989. The crime was believed to have occured between 1:30 and 2:00 AM, between the checking in of two guests at the hotel. Peggy failed to make a necessary check-in with her manager later that morning, so the police were called, and they quickly discovered money missing from the hotel's cash register, which had been pried open.

A quick scan of the hotel revealed that Peggy's car was still in the parking lot, so a more in-depth search of the property would ensue. Peggy's body was discovered in a vacant hallway of the hotel - which had been closed for the season - and it was later learned that the young woman had been raped and shot twice in the head with a .22 handgun. This was a grotesque crime that just so happened to share similarities to another case from just up the road.

Jeanne Gilbert was the night auditor for a Days Inn in Remington, Indiana, approximately 50 miles away from Merrillville. The same morning that Peggy Gill was murdered, police in Indiana's Jasper County received calls from guests at the Days Inn, who were attempting to check out but not finding any hotel staff to check out with. The lobby was empty.

As police began investigating the night auditor's disappearance, the body of a nude woman was called in to Indiana State Police that same morning. The body, which had been discovered by a school bus driver along County Road 150W, was later identified as Jeanne Gilbert. While police would never state that Jeanne had been raped, per se, they would reveal that there was signs of a sexual assault present at the scene. And, just like Peggy Gill, Jeanne had been shot multiple times in the head with a .22-caliber handgun... later identified as the same weapon.

Over the next several years, the cases of these three women would go cold, until DNA testing evolved to the point that all three cases were successfully linked together. While the firearm used in the two Days Inn murders had been one and the same, DNA from the crime scenes of Vicki Heath and Peggy Gill were later linked, proving that one offender had committed all three crimes.

Yet, it wasn't believed that this offender - known later on as the I-65 Killer - had stopped there. These three violent murders would be loosely linked to a number of other similar crimes committed throughout the Midwest: rapes, robberies, and even murders that had taken place in the same time period, in similar hotels and motels. This also included a 1991 rape and assault from as far away as Rochester, Minnesota, which was later confirmed through DNA testing to have been carried out by the same offender.

Despite police having DNA left behind by the unsub, these crimes went unsolved and unpunished for decades, with the victims and their loved ones struggling to move on without any kind of resolution. However, just last week - in late March of 2022 - it became clear that authorities had identified the culprit, and made plans to hold a press conference to announce their findings.

In April of 2022, police in Indiana announced that they had identified the culprit of these crimes, naming Harry Edward Greenwell as the sadistic killer that they had been pursuing for approximately 35 years. Sadly, Greenwell - who had been identified through genealogical testing - was no longer able to be tried for his crimes, having died of cancer in 2013 at the age of 68. But Greenwell had been linked to the various crime scenes through forensic testing, and was believed to have had the kind of low moral character needed to carry out these crimes, proving his guilt in absentia.

Harry Edward Greenwell had a long and storied criminal record dating back to his juvenile days, having been in and out of jail and prison for a number of reasons.

According to friend of the podcast, Damion Moore, who curates his own website, American Crime Journal - and contributed most of the research for my original two episodes on this story - Greenwell was born on January 31st, 1944 in Louisville, Kentucky, and was sent to a juvenile facility at the age of 15. According to Damion, Greenwell would escape police custody three or four times throughout his life - including two escapes from holding facilities - and was arrested multiple times for B&E's or robbery.

Despite this, Greenwell would never spend a lot of time behind bars, and lived in Elizabethtown, Kentucky for most of his life. If this sounds familiar, it's because Elizabethtown was where the first crime in this saga - the murder of Vicki Heath - took place.

At the time of the two Days Inn Murders, Greenwell's marriage was deteriorating. Approximately three weeks later, on May 24th, 1989, Greenwell was arrested for assaulting his wife. That evening, he went to his mother-in-law's home, kicked in her front door, and then dragged his estranged wife out to the street, where he then attempting to strangle her. For some reason, he was let out of jail on his own recognizance, and simply told not to contact his estranged wife again.

Yet, just two days later, it seems like Greenwell found his estranged wife at a bar and attempted to choke her out yet again.

At some other time in his life, Greenwell found himself stabbed by his 15-year-old stepdaughter. I don't know more detail about that at this moment, but I can only presume the stabbing was earned.

Yet, Greenwell was able to live a long and rewarding life, despite his lengthy rap sheet being chock-full of red flags. Greenwell worked for Canadian Pacific Railroad for over 30 years, retiring in February of 2010, but having used the guise of work to travel throughout the Midwest for years. According to his obituary, he enjoyed "organic gardening, selling his organic produce at the local Farmers Market, traveling, reading, wordsmithing, avid college sports fan, and selecting winning thoroughbred horses." He was survived by his wife, son, daughter, seven siblings, and four nieces, among others.

Harry Edward Greenwell died of cancer in 2013, a process that I can only hope was extremely painful for him, knowing how much anguish he caused the victims in this story - as well as their loved ones. I only hope his own loved ones - likely unaware of his violent impulses - can reconcile the person they loved with the monster this man was.

Harry Edward Greenwell is believed to have been linked to a number of other crimes, including rapes, robberies, assaults, and murders, with him unlikely to have just faded into old age without committing other crimes - to which there is little or no evidence to prove his guilt. Yet investigators believe he undoubtedly committed other crimes between Gary, Indiana and Mobile, Alabama, the length of Interstate 65, which was his primary hunting ground.

I'll now play the audio from a press conference held on April 5th, 2022, in which members of the Indiana State Police and other agencies explain how they identified Harry Greenwell as the I-65 Killer. Afterward, if you're interested in learning more about this story, make sure to check out the American Crime Journal articles on this story, written by longtime Unresolved friend and supporter Damion Moore. He's been the biggest proponent of this case for some time now, and has done more to get this story modernized and online than anyone else I know. He will assuredly be covering this story in some more exhaustive detail than I could ever hope to, so please go and check out his work on it.

For now, though, here's the press conference.