Ann Harmeier was 20 when she vanished on a morning in September 1977 while driving from her home in Cambridge City to Indiana University’s Bloomington campus. Her rust-colored Plymouth LeMans was found abandoned on State Road 37 near Martinsville with a dead battery and emergency flashers running out; the car was locked and contained her books and laundry but not her purse. A faulty thermostat was later noted in the vehicle.

Five weeks after her disappearance, on October 18, 1977, a farmer found her body about four miles from where the car had been discovered, roughly 200 yards off a county road in a cornfield. Investigators determined she had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a garrote made from one shoelace tightened with a hairbrush; her hands had been bound behind her back with the other shoelace.

The case has stayed open for decades. Persons of interest over the years have included Steven Judy and Jeffrey Hand; Judy denied involvement and was reportedly incarcerated at the time of Ann’s disappearance, and Hand has been linked by posthumous DNA to an unrelated 1972 murder. No arrests have been announced. If anyone knew Ann, saw her car that day, or has information about her disappearance and murder, please come forward.