On May 15, 1974, James McClister, a 13-year-old white male and the child of American expatriates, was killed in Germany. The perpetrator was David Edward Maust, a 20-year-old U.S. Army serviceman stationed in Frankfurt. Maust claimed the boy's death resulted from an accident involving a stolen moped. However, the military court found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter and larceny, sentencing him to four years at Fort Leavenworth.
Maust's criminal behavior escalated after his release. In 1981, he murdered 15-year-old Donald Jones in Illinois. Despite being deemed mentally unfit for trial initially, Maust eventually pleaded guilty in 1994 and received a 35-year sentence. He was released in 1999 after serving 17 years. In 2003, Maust was arrested again after the bodies of three teenage boys were found encased in concrete in his basement in Hammond, Indiana. He pleaded guilty to these murders in 2005 and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole. In January 2006, Maust committed suicide in his jail cell.