Phyllis Bailer Obituary, Death; – Authorities have identified a suspect in the 1972 murder of an Indiana woman, whose body was discovered in a ditch alongside her unharmed 3-year-old daughter, as reported by police last week.
Phyllis Bailer and her daughter were en route from Indianapolis to Bluffton to visit her parents during the summer of 1972, traveling in a borrowed vehicle, according to the Indiana State Police. Their failure to arrive at their destination led Bailer’s family to file a missing persons report.
The following day, police located the abandoned vehicle on Interstate 69 in Grant County, with the hood raised. “About an hour later, at 11:37 a.m., a woman driving on West Road, just north of Schoaff Road in Allen County, discovered Phyllis Bailer and her daughter in a ditch by the roadside,” police stated. “Phyllis was found deceased, while her 3-year-old daughter was unharmed.”
An autopsy revealed that Bailer’s death was caused by a gunshot wound and indicated that she had also been sexually assaulted. At that time, DNA testing was not available.
Years later, a DNA profile was created from evidence found on Bailer’s clothing, which excluded the primary suspect from that period. In 2024, a more robust DNA profile was established, leading law enforcement to collaborate with a forensic genealogy firm in California to identify the perpetrator.
By early 2025, the DNA evidence from Bailer’s clothing was matched to Fred Allen Lienemann, a Michigan resident who was 25 years old in 1972, according to police.
“Lienemann had no known ties to Phyllis Bailer but possessed a considerable criminal record,” police noted, adding that the investigation revealed he was killed in Detroit in 1985. According to an article from “The Detroit News,” Lienemann was fatally assaulted by two men wielding a baseball bat during a dispute over property. His body was disposed of in a dumpster, which was subsequently set ablaze “while he was still alive,” as reported by the outlet.
Had he been alive, he would have faced charges for Bailer’s murder, police confirmed.
