The Burger Chef Murders in Indiana by Julie Young

Author:Julie Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

A VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE

By the fall of 1979, the one-year anniversary of the Scyphers murder and Speedway bombings had passed without anyone being formally charged for either crime, and with the one-year anniversary of the Burger Chef case looming, it was obvious that a change was in order. On October 2, the Metropolitan Board of Police Commissioners met and unanimously voted to fire Speedway police chief Robert L. Copeland for his “lack of leadership.” Copeland, who was at the helm of all three unsolved investigations, was given the opportunity to resign rather than face dismissal, but he refused, forcing the board’s hand. Board president Joseph Eke said the decision was a long time in coming.

Problems within the department had been going on for at least two years. In late 1977, more than two hundred officers petitioned the board asking for Copeland’s dismissal, and there were also reports of low morale and a high turnover rate within the agency. Couple those complaints with three unsolved mysteries, and the board felt it had no choice.

“The problems that led to this have been going on for a long, long time,” Eke said. “There’s general apathy in the department, a breakdown in the chain of command that’s prevented us from carrying out our responsibilities. He’s been aware that we were concerned.”

Captain William R. Burgan was tapped to assume Copeland’s duties until a new chief was named, but a change in leadership did not mean that there would be significant progress in the Burger Chef case. The trail was beginning to grow cold, and it had taken a toll on those who were involved in the investigation. A few weeks after the murders, Indiana State Police sergeant Richard Bumps discovered that he still had the identification of one of the victims in his coat pocket and found himself in hot water when he tried to return it.

It was an honest mistake, and when he realized he had it, he immediately contacted state police head evidence technician W. Sherrill Alspach and Detective Sergeant Ronald L. Bruce to turn in the items. The three agreed to meet at Jerry’s Restaurant in Speedway, where Alspach and Bruce were planning to meet Terry Collinsworth and Barry Turner, two troopers assigned to the Johnson County end of the case, in order to compare notes. As Alspach, Bruce, Collinsworth and Turner sat in the restaurant awaiting Bumps’s arrival, Indiana State Police captain Lloyd Monroe drove up and reprimanded the men for violating a department regulation prohibiting state police officers from taking a “coffee break” at certain times of the day. The idea was to keep as many troopers on the road during rush hour traffic as possible, and when Bumps saw Monroe’s car in the parking lot, he knew he would be in trouble if he joined the group. Instead, he left the scene.

Alspach retired not long after the incident, but Bumps stayed the course, eventually suffering from a nervous breakdown and having to take an extended leave of absence. The turnover rate of investigators involved in the case was high in the year following the crime.

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