When the Bible Teacher knew she was doomed Her Lips Spilled Prayers...Then Blood

Ruth Pelke, 78, lived most of her adult life in Indiana, The Hoosier State. Some say the well-known nickname came from the Indiana pioneers' traditional greeting to visitors, "Who's here?" Others say Hoosier came from husher, a slang word for a violent or fighting person who would "hush" others with his fists. Whatever the meaning of the word, Hoosier, Ruth Pelke made her home in Gary, Indiana, located in the far northwestern portion of the state only a few miles from Chicago, Illinois, and on the southern shores of Lake Michigan.

Although her body become withered with age and somewhat frail, Ruth was considered to be in reasonably good health. She got around well, drove her own car, and did most of the things that a woman 20 years younger could do. On nice days in the spring she worked in her yard planting flowers or weeding them, supervised a neighbor boy in the summer months while he mowed her yard, often raked her own leaves in the fall, and occasionally shoveled snow in winter. She went for walks almost daily, no matter what time of year, to help keep her in good physical condition, and she lived modestly on Social Security in a small house in Gary's Glen Park neighborhood where she'd resided peacefully for over 40 years.

Ruth appeared to have been a happy woman, and many who knew her said that what she wanted most out of life was to help others who were less fortunate than herself in any way she could. Clearly a charitable person, she often donated much of her time, particularly in her later years, helping to raise money at various church functions including baking sales, special dinners, and auctions. It was also said that she often volunteered to work for various community service organizations that are dedicated to helping the needy and homeless.

First and foremost, however, she liked to help children, particularly troubled ones, and, being a deeply religious woman, Ruth spent a good deal of her time teaching the bible to them out of her home and at her church. All good deeds and intentions, however, were cut short during an episode of greed and violent butchery, leaving behind only the memory of the wonderful and loving person that she was.

Suspicions of foul play were aroused on Tuesday afternoon, May 14,1985, when a close friend and fellow churchgoer called on Ruth at her home. There was no response to knocks at her door but, after checking around the outside of the house, the friend realized that Ruth's '76 Plymouth wasn't parked in its place and left, thinking Ruth had gone shopping. Hours later, however, after failing to reach Ruth by telephone, the worried friend notified police and asked them to check on her well-being.

When police officers arrived and received no response from inside the home, they entered through an unlocked door. One look at the inside of the house, which had obviously been ransacked, told them that something was amiss here. Moments later an officer found Ruth's body at an undisclosed location, covered with blood. From their initial observations, the cops estimated that she'd been dead for at least a few hours. Because of the extremely brutal circumstances of her death, the investigating officers reported to headquarters that she'd been murdered and requested that a homicide team be dispatched to the scene as soon as possible.

Because of the brutality of the crime, the first officers made no attempt to collect evidence. Instead, they froze the scene and permitted nothing to be disturbed by keeping unauthorized people out of the house. They noted that it would be a good idea to have the crime- lab technicians themselves process the crime scene and collect the evidence in this case, given the seriousness, messiness, and unpleasantness of the situation.

When the homicide detectives arrived they were quickly led to the victim's body. Each of the detectives grimaced when they observed the elderly woman's body lying in a fetal position on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Likewise, her clothing was covered in blood — literally soaked with crimson fluid. In some places, however, where the saturation was less, the blood was already beginning to turn brown, indicative that the crime had been committed earlier that day.

It was readily apparent that Ruth Pelke, unofficially identified from pho¬tos in the house, had died as a result of multiple stab wounds to her abdomen and upper torso. Her clothing had been cut and torn, and the stab wounds could easily be seen in her flesh. The detectives noted that blood was present in several locations, including smears along a wall and on furniture where it appeared the victim may have attempted to struggle to her knees.